Hobart Picked First in the Liberty League Coaches' Poll

The seventh ranked Hobart College Statesmen were unanimously chosen to retain the Liberty League (LL) Championship in the 2013 Preseason Coaches' Poll. Hobart received seven first place votes and it appears as though Statesmen Head Coach Mike Cragg voted for Springfield (coaches may not vote for their own team). A link to the LL press release can be found here.

I was not surprised with how the teams were ranked as the poll pretty much mirrored the final 2012 LL standings.  What I thought was interesting was Cragg's vote going to Springfield over Union, but the Dutchmen graduated a lot on defense, so that could be the reason.

Overall I think the LL will be improved in comparison to 2012.  For example, last season only four LL teams had winning records, but I think this year we may see as many as six LL teams that finish above .500.

A few other thoughts / observations:

First - SO OL Brendan Casey got some nice recognition by the Boston Globe a few days ago. He starred at Boston Latin and is likely in the hunt for one of the two open starting jobs on the Statesmen OL this fall. A link to the article can be found here.

Second - I am already noticing a few folks from last year's team no longer on the Statesmen roster, especially SR DB Kevin Hearon.  Hearon contributed over 20 tackles and one interception (against Wittenberg) in 12 games for the Statesmen and was second on the team with six pass break ups.  I also noticed that both of Hobart's kickers SO James Hull and Josh Neuss no longer appear on the roster.  This means kicking duties will fall on FY PK Ethan Miller and/or Sean Kirshe, pending preseason camp.

Third - Although he didn't appear on the FY class roster announcement, likely due to being a transfer, FY WR Chase Stewart has also joined the Statesmen's fairly large WR corps. What Stewart lacks in size (coming in at 5'7" 150 lbs), he makes up for in speed. Junior Woodard '13 wasn't a particularly big guy either and his career at Hobart was a good one. Time will tell if Stewart can become a receiving and/or special teams threat.  His HS highlight reel can be found here.

Finally, thanks to all the readers who pushed the "View Tracker" over 40,000 visits to this blog around 4:30 PM today.

I'll have a report out on the Aug 23rd scrimmage and more Statesmen news soon.  18 days until kickoff:

Thanks again for reading and go 'Bart!