Carlisle, PA – The #15 Hobart Statesmen (0-1) stumbled out of the gate and lost their 2009 season opener against Centennial Conference rival Dickinson College, 26-3. The Red Devils’ (2-0) offense amassed 383 total yards – including an impressive 298 on the ground - against the Statesmen who were held to their lowest offensive scoring output since being on the losing end of a 26-3 decision to Union College in 1993.
Hobart entered the game with a lot of questions on offense and unfortunately the Statesmen left Carlisle with no answers. Although the Hobart OL did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage early on (Hobart racked up 113 of their 195 rushing yards in the first half), the starting tandem of SO RBs Kyle Tritten (10 carries for 53 yards) and Pat Julian (six carries for 15 yards and one fumble which ruined Hobart’s best scoring chance in the 1st quarter) were mostly ineffective against the Dickinson defense. JR RB Andrew Marlier (two carries for 21 yards) did actually appear in the second half and word is he apparently dropped to third in the depth chart during training camp. This is a big disappointment considering how strong he was running the ball late in 2008 (especially given his 24 carries for 96 yards and 1 touchdown performance against Lycoming in the NCAAs).
SO QB Doug Vella got the start but clearly missed having SR WR Zach Schultz (out for the season with an injury) in the game. Vella rarely looked to test the Dickinson secondary like past Statesmen signal callers, going 11 for 22 for only 65 yards. Although Vella is certainly more mobile than his predecessor, Hobart clearly needs him to develop into a pocket passer like Rich Doyle ’09 to be successful. In fact WEOS announcer Ted Baker opined that Vella appeared to have “happy feet” scrambling out of the shotgun formation and did not even attempt to look downfield on most plays. That said neither team had a good passing day – Hobart and Dickinson were held to 80 and 85 yards, respectively; nor were star receivers Tyler Vincent for Hobart (eight catches for 45 yards) and WR Pat O’Connor (two catches for only 17 yards) for Dickinson a factor. Going forward Hobart simply cannot rely on their QB to be their leading rusher. In the event neither Tritten nor Julian improves, I’d advocate converting Vella to RB and hand over the QB duties to JR transfer Preston Earl (who also appeared in the game briefly going three for five passing for 15 yards). To say it was concerning that the Statesmen had virtually had no passing game given Dickinson’s weakness vs. the pass (having allowed 291 passing yards against Grove City last week) is an understatement.
Dickinson JR RB Greg Lord (117 yards and one TD) had his second 100 yard rushing day against the Statesmen (he gained 106 yards in last season’s game), especially in the second half, when the Red Devils controlled the clock by a 17:26 to 12:34 advantage. With their offense faltering, the Statesmen defense eventually wore down after holding Dickinson to seven points and 67 yards rushing in the first half. Behind Lord, the Devils tired out the Hobart D behind the legs of FB Tim Wells (53 yards on 10 carries), RB Tim Smith (59 yards on 10 carries) and QB Ian Mitchell (66 yards on 12 carries including two rushing touchdowns).
Mitchell’s first rushing touchdown on the day capped off on a 12 play 88 yard drive after the Julian fumble to make it 7-0 with 4:37 to play in the first half. The Statesmen defense almost kept Dickinson out of the end zone but finally acquiesced on a fourth and goal. Although they had two extra points blocked, Dickinson was three for three scoring inside the Hobart red zone (compared to Hobart’s one for three).
Although Hobart responded with a 25 yard chip shot field goal for JR PK Conor Callahan to trail 7-3 at the half, Lord (39 yard run) and Mitchell (19 yard run and a three yard pass) found the end zone three more times before the day was done. Hobart never truly threatened again other than a Callahan 39 yard FG attempt at 12:04 in the 4th quarter that went wide left.
Needless to say, this performance was quite a diversion from the Hobart teams Statesmen fans have become accustomed to seeing this decade. Hobart lost key battles in the turnover and time of possession front. The Statesmen had two 15 yard personal foul penalties set them back during two otherwise good drives early in the first quarter. Hobart also failed to come up with any big plays on offense or defense which has been a hallmark of Cragg and DeWall-coached teams. In fact WEOS’ Baker indicated that the defense was generally pushed around in the second-half by a comparatively smaller Dickinson OL. I don’t want to say that the Statesmen quit, but it was evident the team was clearly deflated by the fourth quarter.
Given Union’s big 24-21 upset of #8 Ithaca College today, it would appear that Hobart, the defending Liberty League (LL) champions, are literally (being one of two in the eight team LL with no wins at this stage in the season) and figuratively looking up at the Dutchmen and the rest of the LL.
Next week doesn’t get any easier with an unbeaten (2-0) Carnegie Mellon Tartan team (winners this weekend by a 45-40 shoot out over Grove City who were losers to Dickinson by a score of 52-47 the week prior) coming to Geneva to avenge a 21-16 loss to Hobart in Pittsburgh from last season.
Although today was a bad start on all counts, Hobart’s season is far from over. The Statesmen will need to take the lessons learned from today’s outing and look to improve prior to the CMU game and, more importantly, when the Statesmen’s LL slate begins. It was only 2007 when the Statesmen started the season 1-2 prior to rattling off seven consecutive victories en route to a share of the LL title and another NCAA berth. So let’s not lose hope yet Statesmen fans! There’s a lot of football to be played.
Please tune into Sunday’s “In the Huddle” broadcast to hear more analysis on the Hobart game as well as other games around the LL. Broadcast is on at 7:30 PM ET and accessible online via www.inthehuddle.com
Thanks for reading and Go ‘Bart!
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