FB: Liberty League

[Frank Rossi]

Plus he was just curious, thats all, right Frank

Yes -- I don't know if the links work or not unless you guys tells me.  Saratogamoon.com wasn't working on Saturday?

[Frank Rossi]

Tonight on "In the HuddLLe," joining us will be:

- Hobart play-by-play voice Ted Baker to discuss yesterday's wild Union/Hobart game and the first half of Hobart's season as the team heads into their bye week;

- Union Tailback Chris Coney and Kicker Ben Rapple join us in a dual interview to discuss their integrals parts of the win at Hobart yesterday;

- Susquehanna Head Coach Steve Briggs will discuss his team's surprising 2-1 Liberty League start; and

- WPI Quarterback Justin Wells will discuss his team's 5-1 overall start and 2-1 Liberty League start after a strong victory against the Merchant Marine Academy last night.

Join us online at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LLRecap -- make sure to call in during our call-in segments.  The show begins at 7:30pm (look for the link for tonight's show if you listen live on the lower left corner of the page).  Please join us!

[Reno Hightower]

Just one more thing on this game and then most of my focus will be on Bart winning out.  The catch made in the endzone before halftime was a spectacular play (they should go to him more) as he was covered on a jump ball in the back of the endzone.  I still think it should never have gotten there because giving up 15 yards on a 3rd down draw is inexcusable (at the 50 with 40 second left before half no less), but the catch was great. 

For the rest of the league, I think its significant that Susquehanna is 3 - 3 with 2 LL wins and WPI won a LL game (looking at the box score they really dominated MM more than the score indicates) and is 5 -1.  Nobody from RPI/Union/Bart really wants parity at their expense, but it really is a good thing long term.  Especially if it raises exposure in MA and PA for all of the schools. 

Play was made by Justin Gallo. Interesting story. He is the brother of Unions former All-Time leading receiver and last year at this time was the leading scorer for the #1 ranked JC in the nation....in basketball....Hudson Valley CC. He had several highlight level dunks. So ya, he can go up and get it a little bit! He was actually offered a few scholarships to play D1 ball but was interested in getting back into football and when his younger brother Connor (a Union Freshman WR also) committed to the Dutchmen he viewed it as a unique opportunity and though hasnt played football since high school he has been progressing every week and should become one of the elite players in the LL over the next few seasons. He is a sophomore eligibility wise but the age of a College Junior.

While Coney has been great, having Gourrier and Gallo (along with Concannon) at WR has helped the Dutchmen get better this year (funny to say they are better when their record is worse) in the passing game. It still needs to get a lot better but the bottom line is that there is talent there. Just not a lot of experience.....as Reno said they are playing with a guy who hasnt played football in 2 years and a guy who has never played WR. So they are inconsistent right now but hopefully the passing game will pick up because teams are sure to try to stack up the box against the running game!

[mattvsmith]

The Rev has finally cooled off a little bit.  It took a couple of days, and there will be relapses into abject anger and sheer incomprehensible rage.

With calm reflection, The Rev reckons that Hobart will end up 7-2 this year, with a loss to RPI.  Then again, as others have noted, the LL is inconsistent this year and we could be surprised by any number of events.

The worst case scenario The Rev sees for Hobart is going 5-4.  The Rev just cannot conceive of losing to Merchant Marine.  But then again, LL is full of surprises.

Here is The Rev's prediction for the end-of-season standings (not including play-offs):

RPI                      9-0
Hobart                7-2
WPI                     7-3
Union                  5-4
Susquehanna       4-6
Rochester            3-7
Merchant Marine  2-8
St. Lawrence       0-10

RPI will go to NCAA with an automatic bid.  Hobart will go to ECAC.

Is The Rev rational yet?

[pumkinattack]

I kind of keep going over it to understand what is wrong (besides really sloppy play) and I just think the rushing defense is either an outlier or something Union's coaches exploited a weakness at halftime.  Here's the evidence:

The first half the holes didn't exist (even Coney's big 1st half run, he was hit near the line, but did a good job breaking the tackle).  In the second half there were often big holes.  I think they made some adjustment and if Frank ever finds out what it was I'd be happy to hear it. 

The returning personnel is known to be experienced and talented, further, the top tacklers (3 of the top five in the league) are the two inside linebackers and a DT (which is fairly rare), not DB's or outside LB's.  Typically the DT's have been asked to create a pile and let the LB's make the tackle. 

Yardage, unto itself is a little deceiving because the results were: Dickinson slightly above their season avg. (20 yrds, 0.1/carry above), CMU well below, Susquehanna a little below in yards and well below in per carry avg. (and one of their coaches played Oline at Bart recently) and SLU near avg, but good #'s (102 yrds, 2.4/carry).  Three of the four teams were running teams (Dickinson, SU and CMU). 

Clearly Bart got outcoached on the line and they're going to have to clean up that weakness to beat WPI/RPI (although I'm not sure either has the type of run game that Union has this year).  Really, though, if their biggest problem is the defensive interior, I feel a lot better the more I think about it.  One half of one game out of five which they seriously underperformed.   

My biggest concerns are the lack of a running game, special teams (kicking specifically) and coaching.  I hope Cragg doesn't become more conservative as Bart has established itself (who else thought he would punt at 4th and less than 1 from the 50 in the fourth quarter given his taste for drama?).  Kicking is going to be a problem all year, I don't think its fixable since its a talent issue. 

The lack of a running game is a real problem.  Even though he was offensive POY in the league last year, I think people might underestimate how good Strom was.  His mobility was so good that it hid a weak run game last year and I actually think he was a better QB than Mizro.  Hard to consider, but Souzzi and Pinero were a better receiving corp than Wright and Ladrazzah (who were both very good, but Souzzi was the best receiver I've ever seen at Hobart). 

There's one person's half season (or 55%) review on Bart. 

[unionfan]

The Rev is beside himself with anger and frustration.

First, my apologies to Union fans, but this is the worst team I have ever seen come out of your school.  #10 is the most amazing athlete, and everyother kid on that field should thank him for the honor of playing with him, and maybe offer to clean his dorm room or polish his shoes.

Now, unionfan totally understands that Rev is emotional.  However, with that said, I have to say that the perception is likewise--that Hobart squad was the worst I've seen since the "Hobart High" days of the late 80s, and it doesn't look like they've anyone worthy of a shoe polish.  It was shocking to see a Hobart team get manhandled at the line of scrimmage like that.  Good to see that in the battle of the supposed "worsts", Union won.

(Now, in reality, this year's Union squad is markedly better than last year's notwithstanding the record, at nearly every position in fact...)

[theoriginalupstate]

The Rev has finally cooled off a little bit.  It took a couple of days, and there will be relapses into abject anger and sheer incomprehensible rage.

With calm reflection, The Rev reckons that Hobart will end up 7-2 this year, with a loss to RPI.  Then again, as others have noted, the LL is inconsistent this year and we could be surprised by any number of events.

The worst case scenario The Rev sees for Hobart is going 5-4.  The Rev just cannot conceive of losing to Merchant Marine.  But then again, LL is full of surprises.

Here is The Rev's prediction for the end-of-season standings (not including play-offs):

RPI                      9-0
Hobart                7-2
WPI                     7-3
Union                  5-4
Susquehanna       4-6
Rochester            3-7
Merchant Marine  2-8
St. Lawrence       0-10

RPI will go to NCAA with an automatic bid.  Hobart will go to ECAC.

Is The Rev rational yet?

Unless Hartwick loses to Springfield, Utica or Norwich (not very likely in any case), SJF is looking like they're headed to the ECAC's as well.  How about a SJF/Bart match up to spice up things in the upstate area?

[dlippiel]

The Rev is beside himself with anger and frustration.

First, my apologies to Union fans, but this is the worst team I have ever seen come out of your school.  #10 is the most amazing athlete, and everyother kid on that field should thank him for the honor of playing with him, and maybe offer to clean his dorm room or polish his shoes.

Now, unionfan totally understands that Rev is emotional.  However, with that said, I have to say that the perception is likewise--that Hobart squad was the worst I've seen since the "Hobart High" days of the late 80s, and it doesn't look like they've anyone worthy of a shoe polish.  It was shocking to see a Hobart team get manhandled at the line of scrimmage like that.  Good to see that in the battle of the supposed "worsts", Union won.

(Now, in reality, this year's Union squad is markedly better than last year's notwithstanding the record, at nearly every position in fact...)

unionfan I agree with you, I think the Dutch are better this year and will be moving towards becoming a very soild football team. I do feel there will still be some serious growing pains and I am hoping this weekend will not be one of them. SLU desperstely wants to beat the Dutch and will come in with a serious focus on winning. Union better be on point and realize to grow they must work to improve one game at a time and just because of one good win they are not out of the weeds yet. Coney is just a specimen and Gallo is very talented. Takes a lot of class and maturity for him to make the decision to drop B-Ball and play football with his bro (who I think is very talented and has a ton of potential as well). My hat goes off to both brothers and the Dutchmen as a whole. Great win on Sat U and keep it up.

[PBR...]

dang...the boy is impressive...we should invite him to be a member of the LLPP...

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The world's hot dog eating champ picked up a new
title by winning the pizza eating competition in New York's Times Square.
Joey Chestnut downed 45 slices of pizza in just 10 minutes to become the new
world pizza eating champion, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
"I might be on a liquid diet tonight," said Chestnut, 24, of San Jose. Calif.
after winning the Famiglia pizza-eating contest Sunday.
Chestnut beat 10 other contenders, including the previous record holder, with a
technique that gives new meaning to the expression "fast food," the newspaper
said.
He folded slices of pizza quickly and then shoved them into his mouth,
appearing not to chew.
Chestnut said his breakfast before Sunday's contest consisted of coffee and a
gallon of water to stretch his stomach muscles.
Chestnut consumed 11,700 calories and 450 grams of fat to win $5,000.

[superman57]

So PBR tell me how does it feel to fall to Supes IHOP Heroes.... I feel like breaking out in a Shaq rap

[PBR...]

So PBR tell me how does it feel to fall to Supes IHOP Heroes.... I feel like breaking out in a Shaq rap

it sux!!  roy williams stinks!! shoulda gone w/ my instinct and played matt jones...pbr's hope that the rumors are true of roy williams being traded to dallas before tomorrows deadline...

[Frank Rossi]

The Rev is beside himself with anger and frustration.

First, my apologies to Union fans, but this is the worst team I have ever seen come out of your school.  #10 is the most amazing athlete, and everyother kid on that field should thank him for the honor of playing with him, and maybe offer to clean his dorm room or polish his shoes.

Now, unionfan totally understands that Rev is emotional.  However, with that said, I have to say that the perception is likewise--that Hobart squad was the worst I've seen since the "Hobart High" days of the late 80s, and it doesn't look like they've anyone worthy of a shoe polish.  It was shocking to see a Hobart team get manhandled at the line of scrimmage like that.  Good to see that in the battle of the supposed "worsts", Union won.

(Now, in reality, this year's Union squad is markedly better than last year's notwithstanding the record, at nearly every position in fact...)

unionfan I agree with you, I think the Dutch are better this year and will be moving towards becoming a very soild football team. I do feel there will still be some serious growing pains and I am hoping this weekend will not be one of them. SLU desperstely wants to beat the Dutch and will come in with a serious focus on winning. Union better be on point and realize to grow they must work to improve one game at a time and just because of one good win they are not out of the weeds yet. Coney is just a specimen and Gallo is very talented. Takes a lot of class and maturity for him to make the decision to drop B-Ball and play football with his bro (who I think is very talented and has a ton of potential as well). My hat goes off to both brothers and the Dutchmen as a whole. Great win on Sat U and keep it up.

Let me say one thing, though.  I wish this weekend were the bye week for Union.  The win came at some cost related to injuries across the board.  SLU is getting the best possible scenario against the Dutchmen this weekend.  Let's be on alert for another "October Surprise" if the healing process doesn't speed up over this week.  It's going to be a good game, I fear.  :-)

[superman57]

So PBR tell me how does it feel to fall to Supes IHOP Heroes.... I feel like breaking out in a Shaq rap

it sux!!  roy williams stinks!! shoulda gone w/ my instinct and played matt jones...pbr's hope that the rumors are true of roy williams being traded to dallas before tomorrows deadline...

I got lucky by playing Berrian over Jonathon Stewart

thank you Iron Chef of Vags..

[PBR...]

btw the way supes...enjoy your win over pbr it will be your last for awhile since romo is down and out for weeks w/ a broken finger on his throwing hand...maybe jessica can kiss and make it feel better?

[Knightstalker]

This years Monkeyspankers may be the Worst Team Ever.  But could win if Eli and the Giants D have a good night.