FB: Liberty League

[Machiavelli]

I think that's a fair point IC.

I think the fact that they didn't wax Buffalo State just gives some people pause before going ahead and including them with the other traditionally strong teams.

Personally, I'd be absolutely shocked if they won the league, shocked.

Rochester is not winning the LL. Let's not get too cute. But right now, I can't tell if it's Ithaca, RPI or Union. None of them look like a clear favorite. Sure, maybe it is Ithaca, but I can't say that confidently.

The article states 'Ithaca stumbled in Week 1 against Johns Hopkins but has looked like the class of the league since.' I'm curious if it was the St. Lawrence and Hilbert games, or the close game with Hobart that set them apart as the 'class'. Or maybe it was just Barry Manilow(Tom Green)'s  tour of the campus that really did it for the author.

[ICGrad]

Personally, I'd be absolutely shocked if they won the league, shocked.

Shocked, yes. But in the last 3+ seasons they are 19-17, and as IC pointed out last year were a real threat against the best LL teams in numerous games. Yeah, they have yet to beat any LL team that's not Hilbert of Buffalo St or St Lawrence in years now, but they've narrowed the gap.

So shocked, absolutely. But it's a hell of a lot more probable now than it was 5 years ago.

ETA: I'm not taking today's contest for granted....

[Machiavelli]

Big stop by Hobart to seal the victory. Great game over there and a solid win for the pumpkin heads.

[Caz Bombers]

IC 36
UR 0

We can stop pretending Rochester is worth a damn now.

[Machiavelli]

IC 36
UR 0

We can stop pretending Rochester is worth a damn now.

Gracias. (Though the class of the LL did struggle a bit in the first half)

[ICGrad]

IC 36
UR 0

We can stop pretending Rochester is worth a damn now.

Ithaca was certainly the better team today.

BUT...The score was 7-0 at the half. Rochester lost their starting qb very early in the game, and had to go to his backup, a qb with almost no career game experience. A pretty tough ask of any team, especially in a critical road league game.

It took Rochester 2+ quarters to establish any sort of consistent passing game. Without that, Ithaca simply feasted on shutting down their run game.

Ithaca has played back-to-back LL games where their opponent's starting qb has been out. Sometimes it's better to be lucky...

Next up: @ Union. Huge game for both teams.

[Bartman]

Tight game at the Boz as Hobart offense struggles but defense smothers Union when it counted today. Hobart defense is maturing every game . The starting LBs are all Freshmen and 2 other starting DBs are Freshmen. We lose only 2 Senior starters  on Defense next year. I think we'll be in good shape next year but the offense needs improvement as we lose EJ Taylor.
   This year, the LL will come down to the Ithaca- RPI game and my money is on RPI despite their early season struggles. Well , Hobart now has the easy part of the schedule and can fine tune and develop the underclassmen to give them important experience for next year.

[UfanBill]

Tight game at the Boz as Hobart offense struggles but defense smothers Union when it counted today. Hobart defense is maturing every game . The starting LBs are all Freshmen and 2 other starting DBs are Freshmen. We lose only 2 Senior starters  on Defense next year. I think we'll be in good shape next year but the offense needs improvement as we lose EJ Taylor.
  This year, the LL will come down to the Ithaca- RPI game and my money is on RPI despite their early season struggles. Well , Hobart now has the easy part of the schedule and can fine tune and develop the underclassmen to give them important experience for next year.

Proud of my Garnet for hanging in there and fighting back to take the lead late in the game. Of course I'm disappointed they couldn't hold on that last drive. That 4th down pass to EJ Taylor from their own 41 was key for the Statesmen and in my opinion a coaching error by Union. How can you let the opponents best player get wide open there? Maybe have someone keying on him? Much credit to Hobart and Taylor for that conversion...Taylor was exactly what I expected and he was the difference. Union has no one that can pick up that tough 1st down like him.

As for the Hobart defense...They totally took away Union's paltry run game by crowding the line of scrimmage and forcing Union to beat them passing. Sheehan had constant pressure so he dumped it down and the Statesmen swarmed to the ball. The only two times Union could shake a guy loose deep they hit for their only scores.

Freshmen LB #22 EJ Wells was spectacular. Right from the opening series he easily read a Luke Sheehan pass, stepped in front of the receiver, and took it to the house for a quick 7-0 lead. The more I watched it was clear Well's assignment was to key on Sheehan (what a concept) and he was constantly in his face. . His stellar play will probably earn him Liberty League and National accolades for this week. 

Another factor was the weakness of Union's special teams. Union's punter was way below par and they also had 2 ExPts blocked while Hobart Punter Vincente Lyon showed repeatedly why he's an All American by flipping field position. While I thought this was a very winnable game for Union, Hobart was just better when it mattered the most. 

[Bartman]

Ufan, great summary of the game. Good luck to the Dutchmen( I can't change ) the rest of the way . I know this was a tough loss for Coach Drach against his old team but his deception on the TD pass and the couple of power sweeps were classic Drach plays.

[Machiavelli]

Ok, so after getting some snarky comments earlier from some of the IC folks(who I have zero issue with), let's look at some results of the newly anointed big 5 head to head this year.

RPI - 33
Hobart - 7

Ithaca - 27
Hobart - 20

Hobart - 18
Union - 12

Ithaca - 36
Rochester - 0

Here are my questions:

1. Should have included Rochester in my inclusion of LL contenders, or was I 'showing my bias'?

2. Do the results above indicate Ithaca is the 'class' of the LL?

3. Is it it possible I have a small clue of what I'm talking about or am I just a clueless a$$hole?

4. I can't do all the math right now, but it's still a 3 or 4 team race I think? Can someone play out all scenarios?

5. Who is everyone picking?

[IC798891]

Hey, all I was saying was, if we're saying Ithaca was getting love based on name recognition, then dismissing 2-0 in the LL Rochester because they're Rochester is kinda the other side of the same coin. And Mach and I get along just fine, mainly because we both hate Union.

LL Power Rankings-

1. RPI - The impressive win over Hobart, who beat the other LL contender and who Ithaca was, frankly, fortunate to beat, carries the weight. I still reserve the right to be wary of a team that lost to the 2nd and 3rd best E8 teams by a combined 457 points (approximately), but they're #1 until they lose

2. Ithaca - I think the Bombers have the highest ceiling of any team in the LL. When they're clicking, the offense can look unstoppable. But, much like I was critical of Union earlier in the year, the Bombers have a tendency to sleepwalk through looooong stretches of games offensively. But they're averaging 42 points and 495 yards of offense a game, and they haven't even played Buffalo State yet. I would, however, give my kingdom for the Bombers to intercept a pass more than once a month.

3. Hobart - I guess it's recency bias, or faith in E.J. Taylor, but he's probably the best player on teams 3-5.

4. Union - The defense is keeping them in every game but their offense just is not making enough plays

5. Rochester - Hey, it's hard winning games with a backup QB. But they also allowed 29 first downs, 36 points and 500 yards of offense to Ithaca, so I'm not sure it would have mattered.

6. St. Lawrence - Take the wins where you can get them, especially the ones that let your inexperienced players get reps

7. Buffalo State - Honest question that maybe Mach knows the answer to: Was their punter hurt today, or is their new strategy just "**** it, we're going for it?" Not that it would have changed anything, but it's interesting that they were routinely going for in on 4th and really long early.

8. Hilbert - What can we say about them that wouldn't sound unnecessarily mean? Just hoping for the health of the players each week.

[IC798891]

Hey, all I was saying was, if we're saying Ithaca was getting love based on name recognition, then dismissing 2-0 in the LL Rochester because they're Rochester is kinda the other side of the same coin. And Mach and I get along just fine, mainly because we both hate Union.

LL Power Rankings-

1. RPI - The impressive win over Hobart, who beat the other LL contender and who Ithaca was, frankly, fortunate to beat, carries the weight here. I still reserve the right to be wary of a team that lost to the 2nd and 3rd best E8 teams by a combined 457 points (approximately), but they're #1 until they lose

2. Ithaca - I think the Bombers have the highest ceiling of any team in the LL. When they're clicking, the offense can look unstoppable. But, much like I was critical of Union earlier in the year, the Bombers have a tendency to sleepwalk through looooong stretches of games offensively. But they're averaging 42 points and 495 yards of offense a game, and they haven't even played Buffalo State yet. I would, however, give my kingdom for the Bombers to intercept a pass more than once a month.

3. Hobart - I guess it's recency bias, or faith in E.J. Taylor, but he's probably the best player on teams 3-5.

4. Union - The defense is keeping them in every game but their offense just is not making enough plays

5. Rochester - Hey, it's hard winning games with a backup QB. But they also allowed 29 first downs, 36 points and 500 yards of offense to Ithaca, so I'm not sure it would have mattered.

6. St. Lawrence - Take the wins where you can get them, especially the ones that let your inexperienced players get reps

7. Buffalo State - Honest question that maybe Mach knows the answer to: Was their punter hurt today, or is their new strategy just "**** it, we're going for it?" Not that it would have changed anything, but it's interesting that they were routinely going for in on 4th and really long early.

8. Hilbert - What can we say about them that wouldn't sound unnecessarily mean? Just hoping for the health of the players each week.

[Machiavelli]

The very exciting Buff St crew said both the 1st and 2nd string punters were injured.

That said, I've said this in years past...Buff St has some pretty goddamn good athletes. Hilbert...I just can't slay them anymore. But some of those kids at Buff St could be studs somewhere. It's sad they can't figure out how to put it together.

[IC798891]

Playing the year-over-year score game with Ithaca. I'm excluding Hilbert because I think they're too non-competitive to be relevant (but it would increase these disparities):

Hopkins 2025: 14 points, 282 yards (4.5 YPP)
Hopkins 2026: 21 points, 395 yards (5.3 YPP)

Alfred 2025: 45 points, 494 yards (7.5 YPP)
Alfred 2026: 27 points, 407 yards (6.3 YPP)

St. Lawrence 2025: 24 points, 416 yards (5.8 YPP)
St. Lawrence 2026: 66 points, 578 yards (8.5 YPP)

Hobart 2025: 13 points, 263 yards (4.7 YPP)
Hobart 2026: 27 points, 320 yards (4.5 YPP)

Rochester 2025: 10 points, 215 yards (4.1 YPP)
Rochester 2026: 36 points, 501 yards (6.0 YPP)

Totals, averaged

2025: 21.2 points, 334 yards
2026: 35.4 points, 440 yards

There's a lot of things that can go into these numbers (Opponent quality *cough Hopkins*, short fields, penalties, etc) but overall, I think we've seen enough of the season and are seeing a big enough increase to say that Ithaca's offense is just...better than they were last year.

[Ice Bear]

Congrats to the Pumpkinheads on the big W yesterday. I wasn't able to watch as I was at West Point watching a great Tulane/Army game.

Looks like Hobart was slightly the better team and EJ well, he's just a fantastic player who from what I heard was the best player on the field for both teams yesterday. Also a great game plan by the Hobart staff, load the box, put pressure on Union's young Oline and cause problems. Sounds like that was exactly what happened.

Lots of great matchups left for Union and while disappointed in the loss I am looking forward to to remainder of the season.