FB: Liberty League

[Caz Bombers]

Weird af to say but Utica is the best team in the state.

[IC798891]

Weird af to say but Utica is the best team in the state.

Looks that way, but I still have memories of the 2019 Bombers, who brought in a late career transfer QB, spent 7 weeks lighting up the world, but couldn't respond to a punch in the mouth putting them behind
Union and RPI.

Washington & Jefferson has always been really good, but they just got lit up by Hampden-Sydney too. Still some tough games to go for Utica.

[Jonny Utah]

I don't think it's live internet keeping students away.

I think, increasingly, college is about internships, work experience, and extra circulars. If you're a journalism major, and all you're doing is getting a degree, you're wasting money and setting yourself up for a hard time getting a job after graduating. More and more, students are just *doing* more. The skill sets they graduate with are insane

And, the arms race of college has resulted in so many more amenities for students across the board. There's just more to do on campuses

You know one thing that impacts crowds and gatherings in general is the ability to text and call people at will.  I know cell phones and texting have been around for 25-30 years but I think way back when people and kids just knew they would go to the game (or any event) meet people and find out what was going on later.  Now you can just text a group of friends and find out exactly where they are going to be without the meet up.

I've thought about this in my job.  I've worked in law enforcement for 25 years now, and 20 years ago (in a college area of Boston) we would have 100 loud party calls a weekend.  Students, younger grads, HS students etc would have bashes and keg parties that got out of control.  This past weekend there were zero calls for this.  This has been consistent the past 10-15 years or so.  I also get the sense kids drink less alcohol than they used to. 

Anyway just my two cents on the issue.

[Jonny Utah]

And back to football, it was nice to see Ithaca get their act together.  Maybe JHU really is just that good.  Still hard to watch as Ithaca has been very competitive with them the past 3 years. 

Ithaca also has a few new faces on offense and defense.  Two freshman starters on defense and overall 16 of the 22 starters are underclassmen.

Hilbert next week should be a good chance for experience for the younger players and then on the the Finger Lakes Fiesta with Hobart.

[Bartman]

Hobart's next game is Utica and Hansen gives Hobart a 49% chance of winning, although based on the two losses so far that seems generous. Hobart DBs are good, but I'm not sure our pass rush will be good enough to limit their QB. That said, I don't think the Utica Defense is in Brockport's league, so we'll see, but it looks like the scoreboard will be active if Hobart competes well. I'm still very concerned , but our Defense has some good athletes and they do look for turnovers. I think our QB Conrath has enough experience now to provide a good counter to the Utica QB and I think EJ Taylor will have a good game. In any case, I just hope we are injury free going into Ithaca, when the season really starts.

[ICAlum16]

This feels very spot on. I was really disappointed to see the Bombers get physically dominated and outclassed in every aspect of the game and it had me worried about what was to come for the rest of the season.

Last week's result against Alfred did give me a lot of optimism for the rest of the season especially with teams like Cortland, Union and RPI seeing like they are some what "down" compared to previous years. I think it also shows the difference between the elite in D3FB and teams that are good. I do think that IC has all the talent to win the LL and obviously the showdown with Hobart will have the winner in the driver seat for the conference. There is a lot of young talent on IC right now so these next few weeks of game experience are going to be massive for the first time starters.

And back to football, it was nice to see Ithaca get their act together.  Maybe JHU really is just that good.  Still hard to watch as Ithaca has been very competitive with them the past 3 years. 

Ithaca also has a few new faces on offense and defense.  Two freshman starters on defense and overall 16 of the 22 starters are underclassmen.

Hilbert next week should be a good chance for experience for the younger players and then on the the Finger Lakes Fiesta with Hobart.

[Machiavelli]

Howdy gang! I hope everyone is doing well. I've been absent for a while, but I've done some minor lurking on the message boards, and have been paying attention to games and scores, etc. Kind of a disappointing start for the LL so far. Feels like it could be a bit of a down year, though the LL always feels pretty tough by year's end. Hope this year is no different.

I figured my easiest way to re-engage is just to just drop some Predictions for week 3, so I guess here goes:

Mach's Gorgeous Week 3 Predictions:

Brockport(25) - 24
RPI - 14
The homer in me wants to think Utica is a bigger beast than we all expected and to go with RPI at home in this one...but...I hope I'm wrong on this prediction. Watching RPI, they haven't really impressed me and seem kind of young and vanilla. I still think they will be tough to beat week in/week out, but Brockport might just be a bit more polished this early on.

Alfred - 35
St. Lawrence - 21
I think St. Lawrence might be able to stick around for a bit, but ultimately Alfred is a better team.

Utica - 42
Hobart - 17
I think Hobart/Ithaca/RPI are pretty much in the same tier at this point, but Utica might just be the real deal this year. I'm thinking Hobart's D struggles to stop the Utica firepower and they run away with it.

St. John Fisher - 17
Rochester - 24
This is probably the game I'm least excited about this week. Just seems kinda 'meh', but Rochester seems half decent again while SJF barely beat the Larries. I think Rochester does what they need to.

Morrisville St - 10
Union - 31
I really thought Union was gonna knock off Cortland, then they turned into Union in the 4th. I don't think Mooville is any good, so I'd anticipate the Doucheman get their first W of the season.

Ithaca - 63
Dilbert - 13
I kind of hate Dilbert being in the LL. Buff State was bad enough, now we have this group that would likely not win a game in the MASCAC. In any case, I hope Ithaca keeps the gas pinned.

Buffalo St. - 14
Alfred St. - 13
I take back my comment about Rochester/SJF. This one is just gross. If Buff St loses I would be onboard with signing a petition to ban them permanently to Hoboken, NJ.

It's good to be back and look forward to the banter.