reeder

On 9/1/2018 at 3:40 PM, Dane96 said:

Looks like the game notes were wrong. Niko Culnan is tarting at center.  Hunter Verdi isn't with the team.

But WHAT A PASS AND CATCH.

Dane96 - Hunter Verdi isn’t with the team at all or wasn’t with the team in Pittsburgh?  He was a good re rust - hope he’s still with the team.

No team in the CAA has anywhere near the size, speed and athleticism as Pitt. 

We have a very light schedule - we don’t play any of the top ranked CAA teams - no JMU,  Villanova or Elon.  Our out of conference is also light - Morgan State won 1 game last year, St. Francis was under .500 in the NEC last year...

This should be a very good season. 

They’ll do fine in conference.  The tackling is a big concern but Pitt is bigger and faster than CAA teams.

Offense looks very good.  Defense is outmatched and is struggling with tackling.  I think Pitt scored on every possession.

Looked at the game notes and was surprised that the offensive line starters are the same as last year.  They strugggled last year so hopefully they improved a lot in the off season.

Also, didnt see Juwan Green on the two deep at WR.  I thought he’d be a big time contributor from Lackawanna.  We also don’t seem to have much depth at WR.

6 hours ago, Clickclack said:

Honestly that Maine result is shocking...wow...

I’d agree that the score is shocking but I don’t see how UNH could have been a top 3 team nationally.  I posted this previously - they have a very difficult schedule and wouldn’t be surprised if they lost at least 5 games.  

A few thoughts as we get closer to the first game

1. This will be the most talent the schools ever had

2. IMO, the biggest unknown is the offensive line.  They struggled last year so I’m optimistic that some of the new players will be able to contribute right away - Benson, Desir, Culnan...   I think there’s enough talent everywhere else to have a very good season - just a lot of uncertainty here

3. Excited about Coach Joe Davis.  I don’t know much about him except that he’s had success as an OC at two precious stops but he has a lot of talent and I’m optimistic that he can get the offense moving in the right direction

4. This team has the talent and schedule to win at least 7 games.  Not sure if that’s enough for the playoffs but we’ll see

5.  On a different note, I don’t get all the excitement around UNH.  They’ve had an excellent run but they have a very difficult schedule - I can see them losing at least 5 games.

5 hours ago, UAalum72 said:

Singelais has a story online that Testaverde will wear his father's #14, instead of 17. Murad Hussein, out for the year with an ACL, gave it up, but said they'd decided before his injury.

Gattuso hasn't named a starting QB, but says he'll "have an idea" by Monday or Tuesday.

Wow - really two stories there.  Another season ending injury - Gray, Burton and now Hussein.  Any others?  

IMO, this will be a very good team and they have a favorable schedule.  This is also the most talent and depth the program has had.  There are certainly question marks and we’ll see how camp goes but with their talent and schedule, winning just 3 or 4 games would be a huge disappointment.

Several interesting items in the two deep.

1. Lists the o line starters the same as last year.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the only returning starters were Micah Royster and possibly Luke Ritter.

2. Not sure how Sussman can be listed as a starting OLB - has he ever played defense ?  Even in HS?  There probably weren’t any returning OLB’s but seems like a stretch to me.  Not that he can’t do it but has he ever done it.

3.  This team has some talent and depth.

2 hours ago, HOF2013 said:

He is quick - probably to help that.  They like the smaller quick guys as we all know.

I don’t know that the athletic department keeps up with the weights.  I remember when Kevin Malloy was around 280 and he was listed as  240 or 250.  There were announcers wondering how he could play st this level at that weight - the athletic department corrected it much later.  

Big loss with Mason Gray.  In my opinion, when he wasn’t getting personal fouls, he was one of the best safeties in the conference.

Also, kudos to Sussman for staying with the program - I believe he graduated in three years.  He didn’t transfer when he lost the starting position but instead punted and will now be a linebacker.  

I think Mencer deserves to be on the pre season all conference team.  

I'd be surprised if UNH finishes second in the conference - they have a tough schedule and i don't know if they even get to 7 wins. 

I do think this will be a very good UAlbany team with a relatively easy schedule.  

I believe that the incoming freshmen all go to summer classes and camp starts right after that.  There was one player a couple of years ago who signed but ended up going to prep school so that might explain some of the players not on campus. But that’s just a guess.

I don’t want to be too optimistic but this will be the best team that we’ve had and I think the schedule is extremely favorable.  

This team should win 7 games.

1. Depth and experience at running back

2. More experience and depth at QB.  Could end up with two newcomers at the top of the depth chart in Testaverde and Nyc Burns

3. More experience on the offensive line.  Even if Solt isn’t back, Desir will be back and I think Verdi will be good.

4.  Defensive line will be solid - loses Hoskins but there’s enough depth to have a very good two deep.  Looking forward to seeing if Ibn Foster will get more reps.  Also, looking forward to seeing Mazon Walker play

5.  Linebackers might be a question mark.  If Justin Walker is gone, Julian Cox is definitely gone so you’ve lost two of the top three OLB’s. Will also have a new MLB.  Good news is Eli Mencer is back

6. Secondary - everyone’s back except Jamal Robinson

7.  New OC 

40 minutes ago, HOF2013 said:

I forgot Solt - I went back to look at the 2017 roster and he is not listed?? 

I think that when they remove you from the current roster, you also get removed from the previous ones.

Ryan Solt not on the roster.  Let’s hope it’ll be updated - he was one of the highest rated recruits...   was hopeful he’d be able to give the offensive line a boost this year.

Thanks for the game info.  Any changes on the OL?  Who were the starters at LB?

I’m sure it’ll be a great opportunity for both players.  For Nichols, I don’t know that he handles the ball well enough to be a point guard at that level and not sure he shoots consistently enough to be an off guard (he didn’t this year anyway).

For Cremo, his outside game was good this year but his strength has been his low post play (in my opinion), it’ll be tough playing in the low post at P5 school. 

I do hope they have each have a good year.  While it’s tough to see them leave, they're getting a chance to chase their dreams.

Good news for the program. Interesting as Nick Sanchez was just named co-Defensive Coordinator / Corners Coach a few months ago. So, either he left and that created a position for Barnard or he was let go to create a position.

Not sure any of us really knows what happens in practice but it's not always rainbows and butterflies.

 

To me, Nichols sat his freshman year without playing and didn't complain. His sophmore year, he came back from a difficult family time to set a program point record and lead his team to the championship game. In terms of academics and off the court community activity you couldn't ask for much more from a kid. Right or wrong, I'll be giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Agreed, we don't know what happened. That said, in general, i think this team is better when Cremo and Charles are the primary scorers and Nichols stays in "the box" and plays under control. i think that puts Nichols in a tough situation because he was a primary scorer last year.

 

There have been threads on this in the past, but I can't seem to find them from the mobile browser. With attendance seemingly down this season (I don't know of that's true as I haven't seen the numbers, and this is just from being at the games) I think it's time to start this discussion again.

 

I just got back into the country from a cruise (I was on the pier in Playa Del Carmen when the ferry exploded) and I won't be back in the 518 until after the game tomorrow, but I'm curious on everyone's thoughts on where to go from here...

 

I bring up the cruise, because I wore one of my great Danes t shirts on the boat one day, and while sitting in the sports bar watching a college game (Wisconsin vs. Northwestern) a guy started a conversation with me who's son will be a freshman next year from the Newburgh area. He was a college basketball fan, but his son isn't into sports, and will be a finance major. He didn't know that UA was D1, nor that they were any good. He had no idea that the LAX team was ranked #2, nor that the football team was FCS and has a guy named Vinny Testaverde on the roster next season.

 

How can we grow the fanbase, put butts in the seats, when a sports fan, with a kid attending next season, just over an hour away from Albany didn't even know the program was growing and having success?

 

This starts as a failure of marketing, and also speaks to the relatively new upgrade to D1.

 

Suggestions?

 

I think people need to recognize that butts in seats is the culmination of engaging students in the right way while they're still on campus. It's a cultural thing that has been done so poorly for years, and by most accounts, students still think the school is doing a crappy job. This I put on the student affairs staff. They just have the wrong people in leadership positions who then hire people that are equally as weak.

 

The stories that I've heard make my skin crawl. Students are pretty shrewd and they sense when you're feeding them a line of *h*t There isn't a marketing budget big enough to fix that kind of grass roots problem. Obviously I have specific examples. Fixing something after the fact is hard. The culture has to be changed to the point where students are seen as the priority rather than a something that staff has to deal with to get ahead.

 

A better question maybe would be "How do you change an on campus culture?"

 

I think the issue is so much bigger than us. I haven't lived in the Northeast in over 20 years but i'm not aware of any college football programs that draw well in the Northeast - Syracuse, BC, Temple, Rutgers, UNH, Maine, Stony Brook, even Maryland struggle. i guess Penn State would be the exception. I do know that, for the most part, college sports is very different in the south and other parts of the country. I don't think changing marketing is going to work - we had these same conversations when i was a student over 30 years ago.

I'm optimistic that he'll help the offense. He really didn't say anything in the interview - just a lot of coach speak. But he's new, still getting to know the players and hasn't had a practice yet so i'm sure that he's still feeling things out a bit. Will be interesting to see if things are any different in a few weeks when they start spring practice.

My sense is that Benson made a commitment to Coach Gattuso and kept that commitment. Yesterday, at either the NLI press conference or on the radio show, Benson said that he spoke to Gattuso before last season and agreed to revisit his contract after the season. So this was after the 7 win season where we should have made the playoffs. Benson said that they agreed to wait so it didn’t become a distraction. IMO, Benson just kept his commitment. I can’t think of any other reason to justify the timing.

I do think the team is headed in the right direction and they should be very good this year especially with a relatively weak schedule.

 

Ridiculous. ESPNU came out with their TV schedule and UA is not in any game. I would have thought either the Cuse, Maryland, or Yale game would be covered. But Hopkins, whom they love, is on 10 games.

That's some serious bull$iena. We're the number 2 or 3 team in the country in every poll.

During the UNC game, Quint Kessenich called us a mid major about a dozen times. He toned it down a bit in the week afterwards but my guess is that’s the perception regardless of what the polls say.