Albany Football....at a crossroad

[Ruler]

Sometimes its painful to be brilliant but its both a gift and a curse. Because I am , as all of you are, more than a passing fan of our beloved Great Danes I began thinking about the game vs Columbia this weekend and the crossroads for the season and for the next 3 seasons.

 

I fear that waiting this long for a new facility has really slowed down our progress as an FCS program for a couple of years and I worry it will be reflected in 6-5, 7-4 type seasons. If Fordie wasnt a world class recruiter we would be similar to Sacred Heart or Wagner athlete wise and record wise. This is not something we cant overcome with promises of a playoff bid and a brand new facility but looking back it was a mistake IMHO to not have gone to The Big South with SBU. We will recover but we are going to be behind SBU for a few years. The fact is it will be wasted effort building this new stadium if we do not ramp up to the full allotment of schollies(63 or 57 or some new figure the NCAA is rumored to lowering them to). Our AD should be jockying RIGHT NOW to move out of the NEC. Even if we went 11-0 this year we would be done after round 1 of the playoffs. Cost containment football is really beginning to bother me. A win over a Delaware or an AppY State will be chalked up to nothing more than a fluke until we ramp up.

 

2011 Season: COLUMBIA IS A MUST WIN!!!! 2-2 going forward will be a big boost(assumiing we beat St. Francis) I can hear you out there scoffing by saying we can still win the NEC. It will take nothing short of a miracle to mentally recover from 0-3. I knew that loss to Colgate was a bad one. Not because of the loss itself but because Colgate is not the great team we thought they were. We played poorly against Maine until the second half. So we played well for a half against Colgate and the second half against Maine. I fear Maine is not as good as advertised either. The game against Pitt was close and they scored late to make it competitive. I am not saying Maine isint the best team on our schedule, because they are. If they beat Delaware next week then I will retract my comment about Maine who will probably finish 8-3 or 7-4 in The CAA. I hope they win it personally.

 

We have a new problem this year that we didnt have the last few, our Defense isint that great. The secondary is suspect as they always been but now we cant stop the run either. That must stop this weekend. Offensive line I feared coming into the season has not impressed. Yes, they are bigger but need dramatic improvements. The Offensive scheme? I am not ready to throw the towel in on it yet because we do not have the firepower up front to open holes. The skill players with the exception of qb are probably the best collection weve had. i agree run Romain and #10 into the ground!!! Keep the ball in their hands. Throw to the TE once in a while fellas. he is a big athletic TE...use him. Please Oline prove me wrong.

 

Columbia is better than we think. they played a full scholarship Fordham team down to the wire. Their QB is outsatnding and runs a bunch. Think Colgate qb with experience.

 

ITS GUTCHECK TIME FOR both OUR TEAM AND OUR ADMINSTRATION.

[danefan]

Timely article

 

http://www.pressherald.com/sports/if-america-east-thinks-ahead-it-might-not-get-left-behind_2011-09-23.html

 

He understands that Maine and America East should be proactive rather than reacting to movement that is out of their control. Adjust quickly or become irrelevant.

 

"This is a chance to shape the future and that's good, said Abbott. "The goal is to establish a stable conference."

 

It's time for America East to bring football inside its house. Only four of its nine schools play football and those four are in three different conferences: Maine and New Hampshire in the Colonial, Albany in the Northeast and Stony Brook in the Big South with schools like Coastal Carolina, Gardner-Webb and Charleston South.

 

Bryant University and Central Connecticut State, already in the Northeast Conference, could be targets for America East. So could Fordham, now an associate member of the Patriot League after it switched from a non-football scholarship program to granting scholarships. Merrimack, already a Hockey East opponent, might upgrade its football program to Division I-AA status.

 

America East has not yet named a successor to Patrick Nero, its commissioner who left to become athletic director at George Washington University. That doesn't mean the realignment of other conferences hasn't been discussed along with this: How can America East strengthen its own house.

 

"We're always thinking three or four dominoes ahead," said America East associate commissioner Matt Bourque.

 

When people are introduced to Bourque, a Bath native, they comment on the conference's success in football and hockey. Bourque has to correct them. New Hampshire and Boston University are America East schools and football and hockey contenders, but in two leagues America East does not control.

 

"We do subscribe to (the idea) that football drives college sports," said Bourque.

 

He gets it. Instead of hand-wringing and simply trying to survive, now is the time to think out of the box and grow.

[uofalbany]

Nice article.. let's hope others feel the same way.

 

With our 36 schollies, I think we've been seeing our topping off...

good but with very little potential to make significant gains in strengthening our program.

 

And with Fordie getting up there in years, our time is running out to utilize all that he brings.

He makes the most with what he has to work with... but to be completely realistic and honest,

he can't change water to wine.

 

Nothing will jolt the program forward and move us farther without bringing the schollies up, and

playing in a strong conference.

[Ruler]

Nice article.. let's hope others feel the same way.

 

With our 36 schollies, I think we've been seeing our topping off...

good but with very little potential to make significant gains in strengthening our program.

 

And with Fordie getting up there in years, our time is running out to utilize all that he brings.

He makes the most with what he has to work with... but to be completely realistic and honest,

he can't change water to wine.

 

Nothing will jolt the program forward and move us farther without bringing the schollies up, and

playing in a strong conference.

 

 

 

Could not agree more. We max out at 40 rides next season I believe. It is obvious we have superior athletes but we def need to bring the total higher to 57. Not just for FBS counter status but to grow the program.

 

My fear is that they build a nice new 6000 seat facility that is appropriate for NEC play and leave it as that. That is not what we need to graduate to play with the FCS big boys, we need 10,000. I doubt that Delaware, James Madison, Appy State or Montana will give us a home and home because we have a nice little NEC stadium. New Hampshire, Colgate, Maine etc will but not the upper echelon. These teams bring 5,000-10,000 people with them when they travel for big games or playoffs.

 

I do worry we are in the NEC for the long haul. The new facility will be great for recruiting and will be the envy of the NEC but i really worry thats were we will stop. The fact that it will be a one sided facility scares me. If they were enclosing it like a real stadium should I would feel a little better.

[uofalbany]

Seems to me that all of the university centers should have been in fbs football for a long time by now.

The Pillars of the great ny state university system? Some representation huh.

 

We've all been BIG visionaries, coming up with excellent scenerios and solutions for our football program

and our football conference affiliation.

 

Unfortunately, we've been giving certain key individuals the benefit of the doubt... and that was a blunder on

our part. Seems to me we have small timers running the show, ones content with mediocrity.

 

If we're lucky enough, we'll get the mini facility... and once we do, it may light some fires in the bellies

of the people in charge. Or, maybe they'll be content for another 2 decades?

[danefan]

Nice article.. let's hope others feel the same way.

 

With our 36 schollies, I think we've been seeing our topping off...

good but with very little potential to make significant gains in strengthening our program.

 

And with Fordie getting up there in years, our time is running out to utilize all that he brings.

He makes the most with what he has to work with... but to be completely realistic and honest,

he can't change water to wine.

 

Nothing will jolt the program forward and move us farther without bringing the schollies up, and

playing in a strong conference.

 

 

 

Could not agree more. We max out at 40 rides next season I believe. It is obvious we have superior athletes but we def need to bring the total higher to 57. Not just for FBS counter status but to grow the program.

 

My fear is that they build a nice new 6000 seat facility that is appropriate for NEC play and leave it as that. That is not what we need to graduate to play with the FCS big boys, we need 10,000. I doubt that Delaware, James Madison, Appy State or Montana will give us a home and home because we have a nice little NEC stadium. New Hampshire, Colgate, Maine etc will but not the upper echelon. These teams bring 5,000-10,000 people with them when they travel for big games or playoffs.

 

I do worry we are in the NEC for the long haul. The new facility will be great for recruiting and will be the envy of the NEC but i really worry thats were we will stop. The fact that it will be a one sided facility scares me. If they were enclosing it like a real stadium should I would feel a little better.

 

Couldn't agree more.

[Dane96]

Makes the many of us.

 

Spot on...

[Clickclack]

Maybe I'm crazy...but I doubt they are doing all of this work on the new football stadium as well as making it expendable only to sit in the NEC.

 

If I'm wrong...well that's just scary. Meanwhile, I don't trust the current athletic dept, leadership. I believe this is McElroy's final year on his contract.

[Dane Pound]

I agree with the concerns about the NEC but I'm still not sold that Stony Brook's move to the Big South was the right one either. I guess when I look at the other northeast FCS schools that have gone the southern conference route I see:

 

Hofstra joining the CAA and then dropping football.

Northeastern - ditto

Maine - seems to want out of the CAA

URI - already getting out of the CAA

UNH - maybe they're happy there. I'm not sure.

 

Maybe SB and the BS are a different story.

[Dane96]

DP...of course you have a valid argument, but I counter:

 

1. Hofstra- would have lost football no matter what; that was an anti-Football President who lied as to why he wanted to dump football.

 

2. Northeastern- I am very familiar with what happened here. Let's say, I was in the Northeastern "high-rollers" room often as a guest of NU Hoopfan. There situation is a mix of 1) Mayor Menino screwing them politically; and 2)A want to push money into other programs. If they had gotten their stadium, they likely would be playing today.

 

3. Maine- they are far too unique because of location.

 

4. UNH- is doing just fine

 

5. URI- should just give it up...and go play hockey which would be massive there.

[Michigan_Dane]

I agree. It's time to move the program up to fully scholly. Its a must. If the NEC or AE doesn't step up, we should join SBU in the Big South. We should also pursue phase two of the stadium asap. I would like to get from 6k to at least 9k within two years of completion of phase 1 (2014).

[danefan]

SBU had 8,287 at homecoming today.

[Michigan_Dane]

At first I was a bit jealous to hear SBU had 8,000 at their homecoming but then I felt it can only make our arguement for growth stronger. The common arguement from haters is that SUNY football will never be popular but that's just not true. Buffalo and SBU have had growing success. Even Albany has had over 6,000 desite TERRIBLE facilities.

 

Also nothing drives people more than jealously. A successful Buffalo and SBU can only drive UAlbany forward. Albany administration really doesn't want to play second fiddle to the other SUNY Centers.