AlbanyFan2018

It was a pretty decent day weather wise. Late in the game the sun did seem to cause a few turnovers, especially when Drexel had a couple of clean breaks and I think one of our late turnover was due to the sun.

Adam is a guy who probably never got the recognition he should have gotten and was just a solid player. In the rain when UNC was about to complete the comeback he basically said I am going to score and stemmed the tide near the end of the game.

You nailed it with the FOGO roulette. You would think after the fall and spring that they would be willing to stick with at least one guy for a bit., Then they don't use the only long pole who actually won face off's last year. There was a whole lot of head shaking going on after the game, and this one rests right on the shoulders of the coaching staff. None of us are at practice, but the lack of development at FOGO and in the midfield is particularly upsetting.

I am going to cut Tehoka a little bit of slack. In the past he tried to do too much and today he probably should have pressed it more. It all started by letting Patterson play after little to no practice since last season. That disrupts just about all of the chemistry and all of a sudden puts guys in different roles. The offense could have scored 3-4 in the first few minutes but it was a mix of very poor shot placement and some good saves by Irelan. It was like a football game when the team squanders a few early scoring opportunities, and you know it is going to bite you in the butt. Hogg, will cut him some slack, took a lot of poor shots early, and in time he will be a very good player. The face-off wings and FOGO's were terrible except for the play when Barrow caused the turnover and scored. You can't necessarily blame the guys because every FOGO, unless he is winning it clean, does something a little different. The team defense was putrid with middies getting beat and one defender in particular who was just waving his stick at people and refused to use his body. This will probably be my last post, because there is so much more I want to say, but it isn't appropriate to do so. There is still a ton of talent, and I assumed there would be some early bumps in the road, and if they hold it together then come AE time, the team could be in a good place. I am just fed up with the coaching, accountability, and player development.

Hard to type with frozen fingers, but I am making an early call that will anger many, but it is time for a wholesale coaching change. So much I wish I could say, but have to bite my tongue. Regardless of the outcome, this program will never reach its potential.

I think the offense will be fine today, but got a whiff of the overall depth chart and some odd if not interesting decisions if they are correct. We'll see if Patterson is really good to go and how he meshes not having played in either of the scrimmages. I'm more concerned with the defense and will be interesting to see how patient they are.

I think just wishful thinking at this point. No idea what the policy is or if there is one, but Sunday looks quite a bit better.

That's a great call, and with it just being a short bus ride I'm with you on a possible delay to Sunday.

No real prognostication from me, but based upon how the team competed against West Point in the fall, and their start this season, I think the Danes have a ton of upside. I'm confident we will be able to score on Saturday, but again my key is going to be off ball defense with the guys not on Teat keeping their heads on a swivel , and not letting Teat carve the defense up on the inside.

I'm not sure who you put on Teat, but whoever it is they stay in his gloves and make him play with a hand off of his stick. They could try to shut him off with someone like Bradley or Schwab which was a common tactic against him last year. He is such a deadly passer, that the pole on the backside better not be cheating to help or the back pipe will be open all day.

That's a great question, and if I am a betting man while he will be listed as attack, I bet Jakob plays more up top. I think the main reason you put him at attack is that he is always on the field, and if he plays that 4th attack spot coming on the field he could get caught up in transition and might have to wind up playing some defense on who knows how good of a knee.

For the first time in a number of years the team starts the season at home against an opponent who doesn't have a game under their belt. Hard to extrapolate too much from the scrimmages, but the offense appears to be much more in sync. We'll see how quickly Patterson assimilates into the offense, and who winds up being the primary ball carrier. Either way will be tough to cover the 3-4 guys who see the bulk of the playing time at attack. Cornell was weak at face off last year so we should be in that 50/50 range. Team defense will be the key in my opinion. I think it is going to be a very high scoring game, and wouldn't be surprised if the combined score is in the mid thirties if the cold weather doesn't impact things too much.

I wish I had that kind of pull with the coaches! When you are winning the little issues can get swept under the rug, and it has been good to hear that while it still fun, things have tightened up a bit. The most obvious change has been Tehoka. Not that he was a problem but he just seems like a different guy, and has a chip on his shoulder. I think in the past guys who were doing it really right were not necessarily rewarded, and certain players were not held accountable and that showed last year. If doesn’t hurt to have a very solid freshmen class and more in the pipeline to keep guys on their toes. I think not having the third scrimmage was also a good thing. It is allowing them to heal up and really work on fundamentals. I understand the practices have been very demanding.

Have fun at the meet and greet. I hope there is a great turnout. Times-Union article out this morning saying Patterson practiced and is a go against Cornell, Burgmaster still not ready, and not sure on the Ron John situation. Starting attack per the article is Tehoka, Patterson, and Hogg with Yunker and McComber on deck. That is a good problem to have.

Totally agree on the rankings. You have voters who probably didn’t see a fall game, and haven’t talked with coaches or visited practices. I think Quint is right that teams 10 or so through about 35 are more or less a toss up. We’ll see, but it looks like there are 3-5 teams at a different level and then a bunch of teams. The biggest difference maker is the elite FOGO of which we used to have one. Luckily there are not any elite FOGO’s in the conference although the guy from Lowell is pretty good, and I think UVM’s FOGO transferred. I think he only AE team in the tournament will be whoever wins the conference tournament which is why I suspect Marr will hold out Patterson and Burgmaster unless they are really 100%. Altamari started out number one last year. I don’t understand what is going on with that. He got almost no reps in the fall games. I saw the first but not second scrimmage and I’m not sure there is a big separation between him and Jones. I think at some point Marr will put the best athlete out there to muck it up against the better fogo’s And he’ll roll with Altamari or Jones against the weaker teams.

I felt early on that UA was a legit 15-20 team, but maybe have tempered my expectations based upon the injury situation and no apparent improvement at the face off. That being said the amount of overall team depth is probably as good as it has ever been. When 40% of your starting lineup basically hasn’t played yet and as well as they have played is a good sign. Coach Matt has been very low key so far and I wonder if that is on purpose. I just listened to the IL podcast from last week and they were talking about Tehoka and how he is now invisible after a huge box season. Those who have seen him in the scrimmages know what I am talking about in terms of how different he is this year. The key is going to be getting Ron John and Patterson back on the field and into the flow of things, goalie play will have to be a bit better than it has been, and the face unit whether it be the FOGO or wings playing better.

Wasn't able to see any of that Maryland game, but they must have really turned it on in the 2nd half.

Hopefully any guys who are on the fence academically can pull it together. I am a bit concerned on some of the injuries at this point and that we couldn't get a few key guys healthy in the off season. I got a few more reports after the St John's game. My hunch, no inside info, is that unless Patterson and Burgmaster are a clear 100%, we are not going to see them until the UMass game, but I will be happy to eat some crow on the prediction. Players want to play, but the fact that none of them have played in either scrimmage (no inside info) is that they are not ready to go. Chemistry or lack of, was such an issue last year that if Marr felt comfortable playing them they would have been on the field. The sliver lining is that the trio of Tehoka, Hogg, and Yunker is a more than competent trio. I agree with the comment above that McComber likely gets bumped when Patterson returns, and from what I have seen, while I love Burgmaster's outside shot I haven't seen enough consistency from him to see him as one of the top 3-5 players on the team. With the maturation of Tehoka, if Patterson can play at a high level, the combination of Tehoka, Patterson, Yunker, Hogg, McComber and then throw in some middle production from Burgmaster, Schwab, Casey and a few others and you suddenly have a Dane team with a lot of offensive punch. On defense I love the physicality that Kunz and Kozar are brining. I love Hay's technical skills, but just don't see him as a close defender unless he hits the weight room. I believe that Filipowski has been nicked up but don't know what may be hurting, and it will be interesting to see if and when he is good to go what the starting trio will be down low. Face off's are going to be interesting. I imagine we will see a lot of double poling and once again if things go south a pole on the face off. One change I noticed is that we are running three LSM's so expect to see a lot more pressure on the face off and overall really trying to force the action defensively. If we can't get to 50/50 I think Marr will throw the kitchen sink at it. I am just guessing here, but I think that is one of the reasons they moved Weathersby to LSM since he was the most effective pole last year taking face offs. Piseno, Barrow, and Weathersby gives us some good options on the wings and up top. The goalies will have to steal some goals abasing the better teams since we are going to be on the short end getting the ball off the draw.

That's disappointing to hear since I think we have a trio of very competent guys who can play wing. Don't know if it is a personnel issue or how they are working together as a group and being coached. I think we have seen enough to know that unless something crazy happens we are going to be a 40% - 50% at best team at the X and how do you plan for that knowing it going into a game, and it will be even worse against the teams with strong FOGO's.

Just saw the Times-Union article with some comments from Coach Marr where he talked about face offs and wing play and said both need to get better.

Thanks for the update! I got a few updates along the way, and this is a much better team than last year. I am a bit concerned by the number of injuries and key guys who have been out for various reasons. This a much different set up than previous year where there was another scrimmage and then off to Syracuse. Two more weeks to get healthy and work out the kinks before a tough Cornell team comes to town.

Right on the polls, the other thing is that just about none of the people who vote in the media poll in particular have the time or money to go out and watch fall games and practices so there is a lot of bias. The fact that Albany was even in the 25th spot or so reflects IMO how well the team looked in the fall games against Penn and West Point, and both of those teams are ranked going into the season. I'm not suspecting any of the missing players from last week to see the field today so the chemistry thing probably isn't going to get much better facing real opponents.

It is horribly frustrating and makes it hard to be a fan of the program. There really is no excuse. I am thankful for the snippets we get from the two beat reporters, and Capital Lax from time to time.

Initially we were told in the bubble, but no new news. The one blurb I saw somewhere said Casey so I wish I could help more. I have to work tomorrow so can't make it, but if I hear anything definitive I will post it.

Scrimmage is the 30th at noon. Still don't have a confirmed location whether it will be at Casey or at the bubble.