Bridgewater-Raritan's Johnson Commits to Statesmen

 The Bridgewater-Raritan HS (NJ) twitter handle recently announced:

"Congratulations to Jordan Johnson for his commitment to play college football at Hobart College. We are very proud of you and know you will be very successful in everything you do!"

Johnson is a lanky WR/CB who could play either side of the ball. Based on his highlight reel, Jordan presents himself as an able "Z" receiver who would line up on the short side of the field with the tight end. He seems to have good route running ability and hands to go up and make plays on the football.

Please join me in welcoming Jordan and the extended Johnson family to the Hobart Football one!

Thanks, as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Lancaster's Minsterman Calls Hobart Home

Earlier this week on Twitter/X, SR OL Ethan Kowalski '25 proudly announced that he "couldn't be more excited for another [Lancaster HS] alum to wear the orange and purple. Roll Bart."

Ethan was referring to the commitment of Lancaster HS (NY) SR WR/SS Blake Minsterman who said that "After a great conversation with [Coach DeWall] and [Coach Green], I am thrilled to announce my commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Hobart College. Thank you to the Hobart coaching staff for this opportunity and always showing belief in me! Go Statesmen!"

Minsterman was a sought-after recruit, and the Statesmen beat out Brockport, Buff State, and Baldwin Wallace (from the OAC). Standing 6' 1" and 190 lbs., Blake is a rangy defender and able receiver. I am curious to see what side of the ball he ends up on at Hobart. 

You can check out his highlights here.

Please join me in welcoming Blake and the extended Minsterman family to the Hobart College Football one!

Thanks, as always for reading (and nice job yesterday on the ADOD - I still say the HFB videos were the best) and go 'Bart! 

2025 Regular Season Schedule Released!

Yesterday the Hobart College Statesmen released their 2025 regular season schedule. Team 131 will have to be road warriors this fall as the Statesmen, the defending Liberty League Champions, will be on the road for six of their 10 games.

A strange decision by the LL to act as though the 2020 season happened to keep the in-conference schedule "on track", has effectively come back to bite Hobart in 2025. That combined with the return of the Empire 8 - LL OOC scheduling agreement (which took a two-year hiatus as the E8 made a deal with the Landmark) has Hobart playing Alfred, Brockport and Utica in Weeks 1-3. New LL associate member Hilbert College will host the Statesmen in Week 10. This addition has moved the traditional Week 11 finale against Centennial Cup foe Rochester to Week 9. The Statesmen have squared off against their oldest rivals in Week 11 every year dating back to the 2004 season, until this one.

The Statesmen will open the 2025 campaign under the Friday Night lights of Yunevich Stadium at Alfred University. Hobart then travels to Brockport in Week 2. The Statesmen will have their home opener against Utica University in Week 3. Hobart will look for its first ever win at Butterfield Stadium in Week 4, then returning to the Boz for a big Week 5 game against RPI.

Week 6 has the Statesmen on the road to Union and then getting a bye in Week 7. The regular season will resume in Week 8 at home against Saint Lawrence. Week 9 is the aforementioned Centennial Cup game in Rochester. Weeks 10 and 11 are away at Hilbert and the Senior Day season finale at the Boz against Buffalo State. 

This is a front-loaded schedule that takes away Hobart's traditional home field advantage. The Statesmen are 29-3 at the Boz under HC Kevin DeWall '00 but have gone 18-14 on the road over the same time period.

This schedule will test Hobart's mettle early on. If the Statesmen can make it to Week 7 with minimal injuries and no or maybe one loss, they will be in the thick of the playoff hunt. 

I'll have more recruiting news soon plus a few new post-season episodes of In the D3FB Huddle will be coming out also. 

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

CBA's Butler Choses Statesmen

Christian Brothers Academy (NY) SR LB Amir Butler took to twitter/X to post that he's "beyond BLESSED and excited to announce that I will be committing to Hobart football to continue my academic and athletic career!"

A talented "Mike" linebacker for a two-time state championship program out of Syracuse, Butler will look to continue the long line of success the Statesmen have had in the LB corps. 

He sees the field well and has impressive closing speed. You can check out his highlight reel here.

He joins JR DB Alex Smith and FY DB Jay Brunson, Jr. as the latest CBA grad on the Hobart roster. 

Please join me in welcoming Amir and the extended Butler family to the Hobart Football one!

Thanks, as always for reading, and go 'Bart!

The Hun School's Gottschall Has Got Hobart in His Future

It's that time of year when graduating high school seniors begin committing to the colleges of their choice. The first commit to the Hobart Statesmen, based on this twitter post from yesterday, has come from New Jersey. SR OL J.P. Gottschall of the Hun School said he's "100% Committed" to being a Hobart Football Statesman. 

Standing 6' 3" and weighing in at 290 lbs., J.P. played center for the Raiders, and you can see his highlight reel here. 

Please join me in welcoming J.P. and the extended Gottschall family to the Hobart Statesmen football one!

I will post more recruiting updates as I track them down. Thanks for reading the blog, and go 'Bart!

2024 Season Retrospective

The Hobart College Football team had its best regular season and latest NCAA playoffs appearance in 8 years. The Statesmen (9-2, 6-0) won the Liberty League conference title outright for the first time in a decade. Hobart took #4 ranked Susquehanna (12-2, 6-0), which advanced to the National Semifinals with victories over #7 (then #3) Saint Johns (on the road in MN) and #8 (then #21) Bethel (in PA), to the limit. The River Hawks would outlast the Statesmen, 42-35, but Hobart outgained them by a 438-377-yards margin.

In spite of these results, national voters didn't believe that the Statesmen merited a spot in the final Top 25. Hobart effectively ended up a victim to regional basis and landed in a receiving votes (effectively #28) category in the D3football.com final Top 25 and in the AFCA Top 25 (effectively #26 in this poll). 

I hope this "slight" is something Hobart takes into the off-season and helps motivate the team to be even better in 2025.

Looking Back

I was optimistic on the Statesmen's chances this 2024 season when I reviewed the D3football.com preseason Top 25 voters' information on who each team was returning (and lost to graduation) in the Liberty League and otherwise.

With a strong roster and SR leadership at OL, QB and LB I initially thought that Hobart could earn an 8-2 or 9-1 record if they stayed healthy. The one loss actually should have been a win as the Hobart special team's unit missed a makeable 34-yard FG on the road at then #7/8 Randolph-Macon (who finished 10-2 overall and ranked #18 in the AFCA and #20 in the D3football.com final 2024 polls).

That missed FG is the one thing I will look back on this 2024 season with some regret. Hobart ending up 10-0 was that close and would have helped their playoff seeding and national reputation/ranking. That said, there was nothing wrong with how the Statesmen's year went. 

Especially when you consider the auspicious beginning of the season, a lightening delayed, 10-7, close call over Alfred in Week 1. The Statesmen offense took some time to get its legs underneath it, with a brand new, basically all FY receiving corps. Week 2 the Statesmen only managed to score 7 points at RMC and went into the half down 6-0 to Moravian in Week 3.

One of the initial turning points of the season would be a 20-point 4th quarter that saw JR WR Ahmad Crowell score on 77-and-25-yard TD passes from SR QB Johnny Columbi. Hobart would put up 52 points in Week 4 heading into the big Week 5 and league opener against Ithaca College.

That game will go down in Hobart history for the 83-yard JR PK Vincente Lyon punt in the first half. Lyon would go on to be one of the Statesmen few All-Americans this fall. The Hobart defense would come up with two goal line stands and the Statesmen would defeat the Bombers for only the sixth time in this tough series. 

Hobart would go on to easily defeat the rest of their LL foes, with only one close game, a Week 9 road trip to RPI. Perhaps it was nine weeks with no bye, but the Statesmen squandered a 27-6 lead and let the Engineers creep back into the game. Once again, the Hobart defense would save the day, as JR LB Mike McGee had a QB hurry and a game ending sack on the final third and fourth down of RPI's last offensive possession. The offense would take the field and burn the final 2:05 for the victory.

The Statesmen would wrap the regular season with a convincing 37-7 win over Rochester to retain the Centennial Cup and effectively lock up a bye going into the expanded, NPI-driven, NCAA playoffs. Since we've covered the rest earlier, I want to call out a few specific players and imagine they'll earn commiserate awards at the upcoming Block H dinner in the spring.

SR QB Johnny Columbi would finish the season passing for 1,934 yards with 16 TDs compared to only 7 INTs. He got steadily better as the season progressed. He would add 205 rushing yards and 3 rush TDs.

SO RB E.J. Taylor had an amazing season, leading the team with 1,196 rushing yards and scoring 12 rush TDs (he added 15 catches and 109 receiving yards and 2 TDs also). He will be the center piece of the offense in 2025.

FY WR Johnny Harding had one of the best rookie seasons in Hobart recent history. He led the team with 43 receptions and finished second on the team in receiving yards with 584. He and JR WR Ahmad Crowell tied for a team leading 8 receiving TDs. Crowell led the team with 702 receiving yards.

While the defense struggled in the postseason, the Statesmen leaned on them the entire year and at one point, this group was ranked #1 in scoring defense in the nation (Hobart ended up in 4th - allowing only 11.36 PPG). 

The defense was led by Hobart's amazing LB corps. SR OLB and Co-Captain Jamien Bliss would earn All-Region and All-American D3football.com honors after he led the Statesmen with 104 total tackles. Bliss added 13.5 TFL, 2.5 sacks and an INT. Not far behind him was SR LB Anthony Romano with 92 tackles, 8 TFL and 1.5 sacks. For his Hobart career Romano has 281 total tackles, ranking him third all-time in 130 seasons of Statesmen football. JR LB Mike McGhee and SR LB Cashon Young would round out to top four with 61 and 55 tackles each. McGhee added 9 TFL, 3 sacks and 3 INTs, one which he returned for a TD against Buffalo State. SR LB Vicent Giordano bears mentioning also, as he rotated in and contributed 38 tackles, 6.5 TFL, 3.5 sacks, 2 FF and 1 FR.

The future is bright for the Hobart secondary as FY DBs Ryan Van Tassel and Corey Rock combined for 7 INTs this season. Speaking of the secondary, SO DB Zeshan Dixon also had an excellent year. He tallied 46 tackles, 1 FF and FR and 2 PBUs this season. He added a key INT in the Randolph-Macon game also. 

I mentioned JR PK Vicente Lyon above, but you also have to give SR PK Tobias Wefering credit for an excellent season as the Statesmen's FG and KO specialist. He kicked 15 FGs (with a long of 49 yards) with nearly 2,700 KO yards this season. He was nearly perfect, 32-34, on PATs also. He ends his Hobart career as the all-time record holder for FGs made (34) and attempted (50) in Statesmen history. 

While the Statesmen will lose 18 seniors / graduate students to graduation, one key player, SR TE Luke Hescock, will return due to a medical red shirt year taken in 2023. He finished this season with 8 catches for 135 yards and 1 TD (3 of those catches and the TD coming in the Susquehanna game). Luke, as are all TEs in Hobart's system, was also a key part of the running game. 

Overall, 2024 was great year to be a Statesmen Football player, fan and family. Defeating Union and Ithaca in the same season, winning the LL title outright and getting back to the playoffs is the kind of stuff Hobart friends and family love to see.

I will be curious to see how the new recruiting class adds depth to the roster and how some of the new names we saw contribute this season continue to do so this fall. 

Thanks, as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Statesmen Comeback Falls Short at #6 Ranked Susquehanna, 42-35

The 2024 Hobart College Statesmen season came to an end Saturday, in a NCAA Playoff Round 2 shootout against the Landmark Conference Champions and #6 ranked Susquehanna River Hawks. Hobart (9-2, 6-0) matches the 2016 season with a Liberty League Championship (first outright title since 2014), nine-win regular season and playoff berth.  

Susquehanna (10-1, 6-0) jumped out to a quick lead, scoring on four first half possessions, and held what could have seemed like an unsurmountable 28-7 halftime advantage. Credit the Statesmen however, who scored four of their own second half TDs and held the River Hawks to 14 points after the break.

The Hobart offense actually outgained Susquehanna by a 438-379-yard margin, but ultimately River Hawk JR QB Josh Ehrlich looked much the part of a D1-transfer, passing for three and running for two TDs in the game.

SO RB E.J. Taylor and the Statesmen OL would keep Hobart in the game, rushing for 217 total yards. Taylor had TD runs of 74, 82 and 1-yards in the game. He ended the day with 12 carries for 194 yards, one of the best postseason performances in Statesmen football history. 

You can read the HWSAthletics.com recap of the game here. The Finger Lakes Times wrote a recap you can also review here.

I'll be back later this week or next with a season retrospective, but after a busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend, need to attend to a few other things first. Hard to believe this is the end of year 15 of the blog, but I feel like I've got a few more left in me, for now.

Thanks as always for reading - hard to believe the view counter is north of 460K. Maybe we'll get to 500,000 before the fall of 2025. Time will tell.

As always, go 'Bart!