reeder

A few would have been 5th year seniors (Harris, Morton, Baylor and Dyer) and may have decided against coming back.. Maybe they graduated and didn't get a scholarship for the 5th year? Especially if they're paying out of state tuition - just a guess.

Re: Bleachers

Looks like the RFP responses were due in May and they should be complete by August 1.

https://www.nyscr.ny.gov/iframes/openAdDetail.cfm?id=3C7CAF0D-5819-42CF-9B8B-23537D026F8F

http://sportsontherecord.blogspot.com/search/label/Bob%20Ford%20Field

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

UAlbany to Install Permanent Visitor Bleachers at Bob Ford Field

If you've been driving past Bob Ford Field at the University at Albany recently, you may have noticed something. Or, more importantly, you may have not noticed something.

There are currently no bleachers sitting along the visitors' sideline of the Great Danes $19 million football complex, which was officially completed in September 2013.

UAlbany had previously rented the visitor bleachers from an outside company for the inaugural season of the facility but this season the program is looking for something a little more permanent. The program is currently putting out requests for proposals (RFPs) to purchase the permanent set of bleachers.

According to UAlbany's athletic website, Bob Ford Field can seat up to 8,500 and is the home field for the Great Danes' Division I programs in both football and men's and women's soccer.

UAlbany deputy athletics director Rick Coe said that the plan, currently, is for the program to make a decision on a contractor within the next few weeks and for bleacher installation to begin in late June or early July.

There would be no need for an extra construction once the bleachers are installed either, with a gravel base already in place. In other words, the bleachers essentially just need to be placed down and there they will stay.

Posted by Laura Amato at 3:42 PM

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Thanks for the updates. A few questions

1. Thoughts on Madaras? - the transfer from Maryland. I know it's tough to watch linemen but curious as to how he looked.

2. Thoughts on Harding ?

3. What's going on with the visiting stands? Pictures show that they're gone.

4. How was the kicking game?

How do you configure 24k seats given what is there now.

I think there are about 4k seats on the home side now and 2k on the visitor side.

1. The article mentioned that the elevator can go up a level but you can't really add a third level of seating on the home side so that doesn't help (I can't think of any college stadiums that have three levels)

2. Don't know that you can add more seats to the home side without a major renovation.

3. You can't add seats in the end zone by the scoreboard as the scoreboard is in the way - I guess you can move the scoreboard.

4. The berm already has seating for 2k, you can certainly add more seats bit that doesn't get you near 24k

maybe a 2 level horsheshoe set up?

I know this was discussed a year ago but I can't find those posts anymore (not sure if there was ever an answer).

I do check the board from time to time but I don't have as much time as I used to have - family, work...

It was good to be back and see all the changes

Made it to the game - first time i've had a chance to walk around the campus in many years.

1. I think #1 was the best player on the field (think he is a safety). He flew to the ball and made plays. He had a personal foul called on him in overtime but I think it was a clean hit.

2. On the first field goal attempt, our kicker just wasn't prepared. He was just standing on the sideline when the team was lining up for the field goal - it wasn't like anyone had to tell him anything - he appeared to just realize what was happening and ran out there at the last second...

3. There were several times in the first half where Fiacchi just refused to run the ball. He had a lot of space and just wouldn't run. He did run a few times in the second half but he needs to run for the first down when he has space.

4. When the Rhode Island kicker hit the scoreboard and I saw the ball bounce off, my first thought was that the net needs to be up permanently. You can't risk something that expensive - too easy to forget to raise the net. (I didn't notice any kicks hitting it at halftime, just once during the game).

5. The fumbled punt was bad (I think it was #86). Gave Rhode Island good field position and they scored a TD.

6. Tried to buy a sweatshirt before the game - stood on line for a long time and when i got to the counter, they spent 10 minutes sorting through boxes trying to find the right size (large), but couldn't find it in the style that I wanted. Also, tried to get a drink at halftime but the lines were too long. They will improve those things.

7.There is a concession stand on the berm but they only sold a combo for $8. Couldn't just buy a drink.

8. Missed the marching band. I was in the concession line and saw them walking onto the field. I looked back less than 10 minutes later and they were gone. They couldn't have played more than one or two songs.

9. Good tribute to Coach Ford on the video board before the game.

Anyway, it was a good weekend in Albany. Let's hope the team continues to improve and the stadium stays filled.

This was posted on the AE board by NYR:

Here's UA's OOC schedule and CHN rankings.

UConn (33)

Bucknell (58)

Bracketbuster (approx. 80-110)

Utah (96)

Siena (129)

VCU (165)

Brown (181)

Delaware (238)

Sacred Heart (248)

Cornell (255)

Utah Valley State (270)

Harvard (278)

St. Bonaventure (280)

If for arguments sake, you say that the CHN rankings are comparable to their RPI, UA would be predicted to win all but 2 or 3 of these games.

1. The whole stadium thing is getting frustrating. I heard McElroy interviewed and he talked about some environmental study that they are planning - it has been about 2 years and they are just now doing environmental impact studies?

2. Having plans doesn't mean much - still not clear where the $ are coming from. I donate to the athletics department every year and I don't recall seeing a recent reequest to support a stadium.

Jonathan

1. Nobody wants to be considered a low major - even if it's true.

2. If you do want to have a low major category, I am not sure if your definition is consistent - I quickly found one conference that is a one bid conference that was not represented (I assume they will be in the mid major category).

If your intent was to differentiate your rankings, I might suggest mid major regional rankings - that would create a lot of positive buzz as regional mid majors typically play each other throughout the season. While you and the other contributors may feel like you've done a good thing, I disagree - especially in an area where there are two competitive "mid major" teams.

Unfortunately, I think the low major idea is not the right way to do rankings. There were a couple of things in the write up that weren't as accurate as they could be - but IMO, the entire concept is flawed.

If Albany wins the last two games, the worst case scenario is a tie for the conference championship, however Stony Brook has the tiebreaker so they would play the PFL champion if they win out.

I think they will get through the OOC game with a winning record (8-4 is possible).

I am much more concerned that Gifford, Yocum, Covington and Connelly develop as post players and that the team understand their rotation and their roles. That is what will get the team back to the tournament. I think some of the OOC opponents have very skilled post players – Siena and Bucknell come to mine – our kids need a chance to grow and improve.

When people look back at last year, they’ll remember the sellouts, the conference championship and playing UConn well.

They generally don’t remember some of the OOC struggles:

• Being beat soundly by Siena until a furious second half comeback

• A horrible game against SDSU

• Losing to Sacred Heart at home and being booed by the home crowd

• Losing to Harvard who played without their best player.

IMO, the OOC games just get the kids ready for the conference game – helping them to peak for the tournament in Boston.

From the Fox23 web site

UAlbany Gets 2008 Verbal Commitment

 

 

   Will Brown is looking ahead.  The UAlbany head coach received a verbal commitment for 2008 this week from 16 year old Chauncey Gilliam.  Gilliam is a 6-5, 205 pound shooting guard from New Jersey.  He is a senior this year at LEAP Academy in New Jersey, the same school Danes walk on Lance James came from.

    Gilliam does not turn 17 until May so there's a good chance he'll go to a prep school next year before enrolling at UAlbany in 2008.

    Gilliam scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds a game last season as his stock continues to rise.  He has a strong three point shot and a vertical leap that has garnered Atlantic-10 kind of attention.

     The Danes are planning on having five available scholarships for the 2008 recruiting class.

I would guess that it is the same guy - what are the odds of 2 guys named Chauncey Gilliam from the same town.

6'2" and 6'4" is all the same in the world of recruiting.

I think there were three scholarships available for 2007-2008.

Jason Siggers and Jamar are seniors and someone posted that David Bauman is graduating early - that leaves three scholarships - Ambrose, Billy Allen and Gilliam.

Same school as Lance James - LEAP Academy.

From the same article re: Bucknell:

22) Despite losing Kevin Bettencourt and two-time conference Player of the Year Charles Lee to graduation, many believe that coach Pat Flannery might have his best Bucknell team yet. With proven leaders Bettencourt and Lee gone, it's up to the three returning starters -- senior point guard Abe Badmus, junior forward Darren Mastropaolo and senior center Chris McNaughton -- to lead a group of heretofore role players through perilous out-of-conference schedule. The Bison host Wake Forest (Nov. 14) and UNI (Dec. 2) while paying visits to Saint Joseph's (Nov. 19), George Mason (Dec. 3), Xavier (Dec. 20) and Texas Tech (Dec. 23).

 

OK - the season is about 5 weeks away, team practice starts in about 2 weeks and I wanted to get some thoughts on which big men might step up.

To some extent, Jordan, Zoellner and Levi may have been underappreciated (by me anyway), I think they all worked hard on the boards and even though Levi and Jordan were undersized they both had decent post games.

This (post play) may be the biggest area of opportunity this year.

1. Brent is a perimeter player.

2. Covington might evolve into a top notch post player but I think he struggled offensively in the post and fouled a lot trying to defend in the low post last year.

3. The freshmen - all unknown. Maybe Gifford or Yocum can step up as freshmen. Maybe we have 15 fouls to give at that position trying to defend Klimes and the big kid from BU - I forget his name, the one that gave Covington such a hard time at BU last year. Maybe the freshmen become good at just taking up space, getting easy put backs and standing their ground - I think that was pretty much what Yocum did in HS with his 2 ACC teammates

In addition to post play by the big men, there may be a drop off in rebounding by the guards as well. Not sure if any of the returning guards are going to be big rebounders. Jamar and Lillis will get some boards, but Siggers and Iati are perimeter players for the most part. Maybe Ross and Knight help out in that arena.

Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

I watched the game ofrom the Cornell site.

1. The O line couldn't create any holes at all, except the one drive in the second half. Allen didn't seem like he could create anything on his own, when Simmons came in, I was quite impressed -I wouldn't be surprised if he started to get more time.

2. In the first half, the D just couldn't figure out how to handle the Cornell shotgun, especially with the wingback in motion and the inside handoffs.

3. I didn't think Blasinsky played poorly- the team just couldn't get going.

That said, the task at hand is winning the conference. Stony Brook beat a good Monmouth team last week and they will be tough at home.

FYI

I saw that Cornell will have streaming video of the game on Saturday. Also saw that Stony Brook has streaming video. I think you have to buy a month subscription to each of their sites for about $7.

I don't know what you mean about concrete bleachers being a drawback, unless there are no benches bolted to them.

There are no benches bolted to them - most of the fans use a cushion or bring a stadium seat. Some of the newer schools have benches bolted to them - but there are many that have been renovated with the emphasis on the field, press box, locker rooms... and the stands remain concrete.

"The missing link is a stadium," Ford said. "We bring high school kids in from Georgia and Florida and they say, 'Coach, I played in a better high school stadium than this.' "

My son plays on a middle school team in the Atlanta area that is affiliated with a HS. They have played 3 games so far and we have gone to 3 varsity games. After seeing the different facilities - every one of them is nicer than University Field. The only drawback was that most of them have concrete bleachers. The seating capacity is between 5k and 10k for the facilities - and for the varsity games that we attended, the games were about 80% to 90% sold out. In terms of other facilities at the affiliated HS - they have a building primarily dedicated to football - weight room, film rooms, class rooms, locker room, coaches offices. I initially thought this was unique to this one HS, but I took a tour of another facility (we have a friend with a kid on a 9th grade team), and his school had similar facilities.

There are also a lot of community teams that play in facilities built in community parks - not much seating as it isn't necessary but the field itself, concession stand, press box area... are as nice as University Field.

I can certainly see how a kid from Georgia would look at University Field and think that their HS facility was better.

1. Makes you realize the importance of the kicking game - I think it was three years ago when Albany lost to an undefeated Monmouth team because of a missed extra point.

2. Fordham is an important game - a loss and some might consider the Lehigh win a fluke

3. Definitely the biggest win since the Duquesne win a few years back.

My guess would be a CSTV site.

godanes.com has a nice ring to it.

Summer Thoughts:

1.Great that Jamar is playing in France with Athletes in Action. I understand that he is very religious and that AIA is a religious organization, but a part of me wishes that he was with his teammates in Belgium. Also, there is a blog for his AIA team that has pictures if you follow the links. http://aia.com/teamblogs/blogs/basketball_...en/default.aspx

2.Why isn’t Iati going to Belgium?

3.I wish that Covington was going on the Belgium trip. IMO, he needs to develop pretty quickly or Gifford / Yocum might be forced to step up sooner.

4.I think Coachwillbrown.com is great. I think that the athletics department needs to communicate better and this website seems to be updated every couple of weeks with meaningful information. Still not sure why the Athletics Department can’t hire an intern and post notes on football summer practices, pictures from games…They are missing a chance to connect with alumni and with the community.

5.The online ticketing may not be ideal, but I think it’s good. Someone mentioned that it will be updated periodically. It’s a great first step

6.The benefit to making the tournament is obviously much more than the check – apparently there are some pretty big time recruits that pay attention now. I just hope that all these kids make it to the school next year (I still don’t understand how there are three kids that are qualified and not enrolling – I know one is going to prep in California, what about the other 2).

7.President Hall will be a huge loss to the University and to the Athletics program – he had a vision. A lot of leaders aren’t crisp with their vision, I believe that he was and that he was executing on it.

8.I read the Siena board and find it entertaining. IMO, the loss of Kojo is huge because he gets to the line a lot – a lot like Jamar. I don’t have the stats, but both Kojo and Jamar were among the leaders in free throw attempts in their conferences. I don’t think that many of the Siena posters understand that. If you look at the results over the last couple of years, UA is not nearly as good when Jamar doesn’t get to the line. I don’t know that Siena will be as good without that aspect of the game – but they are still talented and did bring in some good recruits.

9.November 11th will be a very big day for the Athletics program. With the football game in the afternoon and the Bucknell basketball game that night. I think that was a great job at scheduling. Might be worth the trip up to see those two games.

10.Wish I knew what was going on with Knotts. Levi and Jordan. I hope they all graduated and have jobs or are playing somewhere.

11.While I don’t want to put much weight on the Siena game, it will be a big game for the capital district.

12.The football team is getting a lot of preseason respect. I hope they can step up and win the conference. They have new recruits from Florida, Texas, Georgia and Ohio - all football hotbeds. I would guess that these are some of the scholarship players. Let's see what kind of impact they have.

IMO, I think the site is fine - very similar to the Binghamton site (although done by a different company).

The other sites that I have seen - Tickets.com, Ticketmaster are both nicer but I don't think either allows you the ability to specifically select your seats. I would also guess that those are much more expensive to develop and integrate.

In the last couple of years, I have ordered tickets for several ACC and SEC basketball and football games and the order process is very similar - the biggest difference is that Albany allows you to manually select your seats.

What's probably making people feel that it's not very nice is the graphic of the football stands. Maybe that's an unnecessary step but I don't think it's a big deal.

I'm just happy that when I want to get tickets for the one or two games that I might be able to attend that I won't have to play voicemail tag with the ticket agents.