FB: Liberty League

[Ice Bear]

IC hit the nail on the head. The Union offense is really struggling. The Oline is young and developing while our RB's, so far, are just not explosive and/or able to create much, they just aren't.

I like what Union's Junior QB showed today with his arm. I see potential and with a year to develop under Drach, he could be a pretty dangerous pocket passer IMHO. With that said, he is not as strong of a runner as Bisson is, not really close (at least from what I saw today against a decent Red Dragon defense. Bisson runs pretty well and runs hard, but his passing last week was just not enough. Drach has a decision to make and I don't think it's an easy one. I'm sure these are two great young men who are excellent student athletes. I'm rooting for both of them.

I think Union's defense played another strong game. They are pretty darn good. I absolutely love the play of senior defensive back Alex Carucci. Kid is physical and all over the place. He's a spark plug out there. Union had some excellent pressure today at some key times as well.

The penalty both IC and I mentioned was just brutal and IMHO was the biggest turning point of the game, right before half.

Union has potential and I do like a lot of what I see.

Cortland's QB is an excellent runner. He didn't impress me much through the air but when running the ball, he is shifty, see's the field so well, and is very strong. I really enjoyed watching him play.

[XREDDRAGON77]

Was over at Union. The Dutchmen (struggle to call them the new name) came out every series with grit. Thought this game could have gone the other way. Glad it didn't! Lots of football let to play! Union will hit their stride! 2 tough games to start with!

[IC798891]

LL thoughts:

RPI got waxed by Utica, and Union shutout by Cortland. Hobart was roughly +548 in the turnover department against Brockport, but much like their game against Alfred last week, they find themselves in a tight battle with two minutes to go.

Three of the four Big 3 have largely underwhelmed me this season, despite a combined record of 3-3. They could really use a strong showing from Ithaca against Alfred, but this just doesn't feel like an easy game for Ithaca.

27-20, but if they lost by the same score, I would not be surprised

[Bartman]

Hobart plays one of their best games in awhile and beats Brockport 27-14. Brockport played poorly on Offense but Hobart took advantage with 5 interceptions. Brockport was bigger on the lines but Hobart held its own. I think Brockport is very talented and Hobart is better than anticipated. Well coached game by Dewall as Hobart fixes its week one dumb self inflicted penalties this week.
  I'm very interested in the Alfred-Ithaca game for comparison purposes.
  As far as other E8- LL action, it looks like Utica and Cortland handled RPI and Union . I'm a bit encouraged as Hobart D played the Cortland O pretty well in the scrimmage.Still early but at least Hobart is 2-0 and leading the E8, and have another tough one against Utica next week.

[IC798891]

Everything I'm about to say is as couched as follows. I know these are 18-21 year old students who work hard and are giving 100% effort.

I've never seen an offense as DOA as Alfred's.

Matthew Parker is solid, but the guy has zero chance. The Division III athletes on Alfred's offensive line simply cannot pass block the Division III athletes lining up against them. He was sacked 7 times again Hobart, and 7 more against Ithaca.

And the only reason it wasn't worse is because he either threw it away to avoid getting sacked, or Alfred's OC called a quick screen or out pass. On any play with a drop back required, he was going to be under fire.

Ithaca played well, but not sharp. Two touchdowns were called back via penalty. They also threw a pick in the end zone.

Power Rankings:

Ithaca - Sorry, Bartman. But I have zero idea how Hobart almost lost to this Alfred team. Ithaca should have won by 40 points. By the performance against a common opponent theorem, the Bombers take the top spot

Hobart - The win over Brockport is nice, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they're the third place team in the E8 at best.

RPI - Utica's probably gonna be pretty good, but that was not an encouraging performance

Union - Solely because they played two good teams. But 10 offensive points in two home games ain't it fellas

St. Lawrence - Looking like another lost season

Rochester - Could flip them with St. Lawrence. Both teams seem equally tepid.

Buffalo State - It's all already been said but I cannot rank them behind a team that is 0-37 all time

Hilbert - See the Buffalo State blurb

[ICGrad]

Buffalo State is gonna be able to move the ball on Hartwick (no surprise), so this game isn't going to be 69-0.

But allowing TDs on three of the first four offensive plays has them in a 21-0 hole early

Down 31-0 to Hartwick and it's not even halftime.  LL has two of the absolute worse teams in the country in Buff State and Hilbert, and neither makes any sense at all as a member of the league.

Agreed.

As I argued last season, I have no issue with associate members in football, but to have not one but two who are among the worst teams in the country is brutal. As long as this remains the case, there is little chance of the LL ever securing an at-large bid.

[Caz Bombers]

at least Buffalo State has 94 guys on their roster (website). They lack linemen though. Too many WR and DB, not enough big bubbas.

Hilbert only has 51 if completely healthy, anything short of the NFL 53 spells trouble.

[unionpalooza]

at least Buffalo State has 94 guys on their roster (website). They lack linemen though. Too many WR and DB, not enough big bubbas.

Hilbert only has 51 if completely healthy, anything short of the NFL 53 spells trouble.

Yeah, the Buff St. thing is hard for me to understand.  They have a full roster, full coaching staff, real coaches.

[IC798891]

at least Buffalo State has 94 guys on their roster (website). They lack linemen though. Too many WR and DB, not enough big bubbas.

Hilbert only has 51 if completely healthy, anything short of the NFL 53 spells trouble.

The red flag there to me is that they had 63 last year, and just six seniors. So, in a vacuum, they could have returned 57.

They brought in 23 first year students in 2026, which would bring it to 80. So to have just 51, means they lost 29 of their 57 potential returning players to attrition. That's staggering

[Bartman]

at least Buffalo State has 94 guys on their roster (website). They lack linemen though. Too many WR and DB, not enough big bubbas.

Hilbert only has 51 if completely healthy, anything short of the NFL 53 spells trouble.

The red flag there to me is that they had 63 last year, and just six seniors. So, in a vacuum, they could have returned 57.

They brought in 23 first year students in 2026, which would bring it to 80. So to have just 51, means they lost 29 of their 57 potential returning players to attrition. That's staggering

I'm amazed anyone would want to play on a team that bad. They can't point to any improvement , football really hurts more when you're not having fun and you have nothing to motivate you as you get beat up week after week.

[unionpalooza]

The top 25 is so dumb this time of year.  Hopkins is 13, the team that just beat them (Randolph Macon) is 25, and the team that beat Randolph Macon and otherwise has a close loss to a non-school FCS (Dickinson) received no votes.

[IC798891]

1) It's simply not possible to rank 25 teams so that no one is ahead of a team they lost to and or behind a team they beat.

2) But even if you could, doing that takes it away from being a national rankings and turns it into a national standings.

To illustrate this using your specific example:

Dickinson, has not posted a winning record in the CC since 2006, and has one winning season overall since then. Hopkins ass been to the national semifinals two straight years, won 10+ games in 12 of their last 14 seasons, and beat Dickinson 55-10 last season. If you think they're *better* than Hopkins, well...

Besides, they're fun and they give us something to talk about.

[Ice Bear]

I thought Utica would break into the top 25 this week...they just missed.

[unionpalooza]

1) It's simply not possible to rank 25 teams so that no one is ahead of a team they lost to and or behind a team they beat.

2) But even if you could, doing that takes it away from being a national rankings and turns it into a national standings.

To illustrate this using your specific example:

Dickinson, has not posted a winning record in the CC since 2006, and has one winning season overall since then. Hopkins ass been to the national semifinals two straight years, won 10+ games in 12 of their last 14 seasons, and beat Dickinson 55-10 last season. If you think they're *better* than Hopkins, well...

Besides, they're fun and they give us something to talk about.

Sure, but it still makes no f*cking sense.  A reasonable person can think Hopkins is the #13 team, or that Dickinson is not a top 25 team, but the only way you can think both at the same time is if you ignore what's happened on the field in favor of pre-history and personal bias. That said I agree it's fun and gives us something to talk about.  I just think one of the most fun things to talk about is how Week 2 polls are goofy exercises in radically uninformed and logically indefensible decision-making.  I'm a weirdo and think it was cool how back in the day you'd make the playoffs and by the second round draw a team you only vaguely knew, and if you made the quarters, you'd play a school you never heard of.  A littler mystery in life is under-rated.

[Patrick Coleman]

1) It's simply not possible to rank 25 teams so that no one is ahead of a team they lost to and or behind a team they beat.

2) But even if you could, doing that takes it away from being a national rankings and turns it into a national standings.

To illustrate this using your specific example:

Dickinson, has not posted a winning record in the CC since 2006, and has one winning season overall since then. Hopkins ass been to the national semifinals two straight years, won 10+ games in 12 of their last 14 seasons, and beat Dickinson 55-10 last season. If you think they're *better* than Hopkins, well...

Besides, they're fun and they give us something to talk about.

Sure, but it still makes no f*cking sense.  A reasonable person can think Hopkins is the #13 team, or that Dickinson is not a top 25 team, but the only way you can think both at the same time is if you ignore what's happened on the field in favor of pre-history and personal bias. That said I agree it's fun and gives us something to talk about.  I just think one of the most fun things to talk about is how Week 2 polls are goofy exercises in radically uninformed and logically indefensible decision-making.  I'm a weirdo and think it was cool how back in the day you'd make the playoffs and by the second round draw a team you only vaguely knew, and if you made the quarters, you'd play a school you never heard of.  A littler mystery in life is under-rated.

Do you think the Top 25 is just a reflection of what a team has done this season? That still makes it way more like standings rather than rankings. The subjectivity allows us to share what we think will happen the rest of the season. We will see how those three schools end up compared to each other.