Biggest Needs for Hobart Going into 2017 - Part I

The offseason is a slow time of year, football wise. Although the Super Bowl and NFL Draft keeps pro and major college football fans busy for the next couple of months, there's really not much, if any, news on the D3FB front until late August.

With that in mind the next couple of posts will be on areas I think the Statesmen need to shore up on heading into the 2017 season. Kickoff against Brockport is still many months away, but the Hobart coaching staff (and the returning players themselves) haven't stopped working.

Looking ahead, what seems to be the biggest need for the Statesmen in my opinion is replacing a pair of long-time starters at OLB. Marcus Jemison and Michael Harper '17 had excellent careers as the strong and weak side OLBs of the Hobart 4x4 defense. Matt Cragg '17 also had a long and successful career as the Statesmen's last line of defense at FS.

Replacing these players will be a key aspect of this fall's preseason camp. According to the playoff depth chart and stats it would appear that SO LB Kai Brandford and JR LB Will Hoffer could be the leading candidates. Brandford appeared in 10 games making 13 total tackles with two QB hits. Hoffer tallied 12 stops on the season, playing in 10 games. FY LB Josh Walker was listed on the playoff two deep but didn't add any tackles in varsity games but likely gained valuable experience in the three JV games played against Alfred, St. John Fisher and Utica.

Another possibility at OLB could be JR CB Tommy D'Antonio who filled in when Jemison went down with an shoulder injury. While it's possible based on what we saw in 2016, I'd think DC Kory David would prefer to keep D'Antonio in the secondary along with JR CB Daryl Scales. If D'Antonio moves to OLB, SO CB Ryan Conschafter could be a potential replacement, as he saw action in six games, making eight tackles. SO DB Sam Wheeler (nine tackles in 10 games) should be in the mix as well.

SO DB CJ Boleware is listed as a CB but it appears he backed up Cragg at FS for most, if not all, of last season according to the depth charts. Boleware appeared in eight games and contributed seven tackles on the season. His season high of three stops came against the Mariners.

Otherwise the only other FS's on the roster are FY FS Jack O'Shea and FY FS Jayson Prince. Prince made three tackles over the course of the final three games, but I'm assuming those probably came on special teams.

While the production of James Hedger '17 will need to be replaced, 2016 saw players such as JR DE Brandon Ball, SO DT Sean Moore and SO DE/DT AJ McFarlane emerge as significant contributors complimenting long-time starters like JR DT Zackary Robak (who in theory could be back in 2017 if he uses his redshirt option) and should give this unit a good deal of experience and depth coming back in 2017.

The only other possibility that we can't really know at the moment is whether or not there's someone in the Class of 2021 that'll come into camp and earn a starting job. We saw that last year when FY LB Jedh Downey earned one of the open starting inside LB roles and had an excellent rookie campaign, tallying 86 total tackles (finishing second overall on the team), including a team high 53 solo stops. Downey added seven TFLs and one sack good for a combined -31 yards.

While I thought that performance would earn Downey the Liberty League ROTY award, that honor went (not surprisingly) to an offensive player - WPI's FY RB Sean McAllen who rushed for 701 yards and five TDs for the Engineers last season.

As previously "reported" here, WPI, USMMA and Springfield have left the LL to join the NEWMAC - a long standing New England conference, but one that is now adding football. Although Ithaca College joining the LL helps, Hobart and the LL remains in some future playoff jeopardy without a seventh member of the conference.

The good news is we know the Statesmen have secured three non-conference games to ensure that there's at least nine total games on the 2017 schedule. Hobart fans have enjoyed 10 game regular seasons for a while now, the last time the Statesmen had a nine game regular season came back in 2013.

I'll have more on the offense and special teams' needs in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

2016 Hobart Football Highlight Video is Online

Happy New Year!

I hope 2017 is off to a great start for everyone.

If you're a student athlete who's applied to attend Hobart, good luck! I know Early Decision I Admission notices were available as of 12/15/16 and the second round of admission decisions will be ready by 1/15/17.

If you haven't applied early, regular admission deadline is 2/1/17.

While I'm looking forward to seeing who ends up in the Class of 2021, let's look back on the action and highlights from the 2016 season:

https://vimeo.com/197196778

I hope you enjoy the video and I'll post news (and any analysis) as I find it out.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!