The Top 10 Eastern Region teams of the D3football.com Era

[pg04]

Thanks Superman, +K!

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Oh and I like the Cake next to my age in my profile signifying my birthday, It's a nice touch that I hadn't noticed before.

Happy belated birthday pg

[pg04]

# 4:  2003 RPI Engineers

The Basics:

Overall Record:  11-2
End Result: Eliminated by St. John's in National Semifinals
Key Regular Season Win:  vs. Union 33-7, @ St. John Fisher 24-17
Key Regular Season Losses: vs. Hobart 25-43
Points For: 33.5
Points Against: 19

Key Strength:

This team was an offensive juggernaut, relying heavily on the passing attack.  The team racked up over 3800 yards of passing, most of them coming from quarterback Dan Cole.  The rushing attack wasn't bad either,  compiling over 1800 yards rushing.

Key Players:

Offense:

Dan Cole, QB:  303-514 for 3679 yards and 40 touchdowns.  Also ran for over 250 yards. 

Flynn Cochran, WR: 109 receptions for 1274 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Otis Williams, RB: 174 rushes for 1104 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Defense: 

Ramses Jimenez: 59 tackles (33 solo) and 9.5 sacks.

Mike Defilippi:  7 interceptions, 78 tackles (48 solo) and 1 sack

Eventual cause of demise (because let's face it, the Eastern teams always have a demise) :

A 38-10 loss to eventual National Champion St. John's.  The engineers had a Cinderella type run in the playoffs, beating Curry 34-20, then winning at Springfield 40-34, and finally winning the East Region Title by beating Ithaca in the famous snow game 21-16.  They certainly had a nice run , and challenged the Johnnies until halftime, even leading 10-7 at one point, but the St. John's defense was able to stay strong, and the Johnnies offense would explode to make the game a blow out.


Why did they make the list?:

They won the East Region and hung with St. John's for a half in their first ever appearance in the National Semifinals.  That combined with the fact that the offense was extremely potent made this team a shoe-in to be in the top 5 of this list.  The snow game with Ithaca could quite possibly be one of the best in quite a while.   

Thoughts???

Next up, the #3 team

[lewdogg11]

They won the East Region and hung with St. John's for a half in their first ever appearance in the playoffs.  That combined with the fact that the offense was extremely potent made this team a shoe-in to be in the top 5 of this list.  The snow game with Ithaca could quite possibly be one of the best in quite a while.   

Wasn't RPI's first ever appearance in the playoffs.  Maybe I misread as first ever appearance vs. St. John's.  But RPI was also in the playoffs in 1999 and 2001.

[pg04]

OOps that was meant to read First appearance in National Semifinals, I will edit it.  Thanks.

[superman57]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

[pg04]

I will let any and all RPI posters respond to this one...lol. 

[theoriginalupstate]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

That young fisher squad was loaded with seniors (myself included), that game was extremely boring untill the 4th qtr.  Our DE picked off a shuffle pass and took it the distance and w/ less than 2 minutes to play one of our DB's fell and left their WR wide open in the endzone.  then with 5 seconds to go, RPI has the ball on 4th down.  they take the ball and toss it downfield where no one was around resulting in a intentional grounding.  SJF gets the ball back in RPI territory (couldnt do anything with it even with a Pass Interference penalty on RPI), wierdest ending ive seen.

['gro]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

[superman57]

04 fisher was also an impressive but lucky team....

[Pat Coleman]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

Not going to judge whether they were lucky or not, but they needed a TD with 1:22 left to beat Fisher in '03.

http://www.d3football.com/story.php?story=1418

[superman57]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

Not going to judge whether they were lucky or not, but they needed a TD with 1:22 left to beat Fisher in '03.

http://www.d3football.com/story.php?story=1418

wooo Pat to the rescue

[Jonny Utah]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

Speaking of the 2003 RPI team, did you see how they set up the visitors sideline during the Ithaca game?

[union89]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

Speaking of the 2003 RPI team, did you see how they set up the visitors sideline during the Ithaca game?

Utah, I love your persistance in ball busting on this one!!!  Sort of like the RPI guys busting the Union boys with the wine and cheese thing.....only difference is, yours NEVER gets old.

[theoriginalupstate]

I must say that the 03 RPI team was impressive but lucky....they had quite a scare from the young Fisher squad....but they ysure could pass the ball

The '03 team wasn't lucky, that was the '05 team that beat SJF in the ECAC game.

Not going to judge whether they were lucky or not, but they needed a TD with 1:22 left to beat Fisher in '03.

http://www.d3football.com/story.php?story=1418

Not trying to make excuses but Senior starting RB Jason Meyers was hindered by a high ankle sprain, FR Mark Robinson was out with a concussion, SO Craig Fitzpatrick suffered a knee sprain.  Our first, second and third string RB's were either out or injured.