There were
23 East Region teams that earned post-season games and
Hobart, who finished 7-3 overall and 3-2 in the Liberty League, wasn't one of them. That is disappointing considering the Statesmen came into 2017 as the 14th-ranked team in the
D3football.com Preseason poll and were ranked similarly in the preseason by other publications as well.
These
high expectations were due to a large group of returning SR players and outstanding talent on the offensive side of the ball. While that talent did shine at times,
breaking several school records, the team made some
key mistakes in big games that ultimately cost Hobart a chance at what is the best Eastern NCAA playoff bracket (as far as a true regional set up and basically guaranteeing a trip to the Final Four for whomever makes it through) in years.
So what happened?
I'm an avid follower of this team, but I wasn't able to attend any games in person this season. I did watch several online and reviewed a LOT of statistics. Here's my take, for what it's worth...
The Good:
The Statesmen offense finished the season 1st in the LL in scoring (34.9 PPG), 2nd in rushing (169.1 YPG), 2nd in passing (254.5 YPG), had the #1 ranked QB and 2nd leading RB and WR in
SR QB Shane Sweeney, FY RB Dakota Harvey and SR WR Brandon Shed.
Defensively, SO LB Jedh Downey had another great season, finishing 3rd in the LL and 1st on the team with 85 total tackles.
SO OLB Jayson Prince and SR DE Brandon Ball had solid seasons as well with Prince leading the league in FRs and Ball tied for 1st with three FF.
FY PK Kyle Hackett was literally
the best PK in all of CFB, going a perfect 10-10 on FGs (long of 40), which is unmatched across the nation at any level.
Hackett also added 43 points via PATs to barely edge
Harvey as the scoring leader with 73 points on the year.
SR PK Rio Schmidt was also outstanding, averaging nearly 42 YPP and landing 28 of his 32 punts either inside the opponent's 20 yard line, fair caught or go over 50 yards.
Both kickers deserve All-American recognition.
A special s/o goes to
SR OL Stephen VanHousen who played RT, LG and RG during different parts of the season. His versatility helped the offense battle through injuries.
Needs Improvement:
Although the Hobart offense led the league in scoring, they ended up being slow starters which I mentioned in
my Union game preview. Leading up to that critical game,
the Statesmen offense scored 64% of their points in the second half. It should also be noted that
107 of the 349 points scored came against two teams, Shenandoah and Rochester. The former ended up briefly looked like a contender in the ODAC race, until they faded, losing three of their four final games and finishing 6-4, 3-3. Rochester is still reeling from the 2015 off-season and their future of a program could be in question, depending on what their administration decides to do.
In the Union game, Hobart's offense had this performance in
three quarters (against a defense that allowed 322 YPG, but to be fair, only allowed a respectable 16.4 PPG):
Punt
Punt
Punt
Turnover on downs
Punt
FG
Half
Fumble (led to a Union TD)
Punt
Punt
Loss on downs
Not exactly what you'd expect from the best scoring offense in the league in a must win game. Especially against a Union team that lost to Husson of the ECFC (one of the weakest leagues in the nation) and barely survived 17-14 against Curry from the CCC (not that much better).
I think the main issues with the offense this season were a combination of factors, namely injuries affecting OL make up and, in some cases, just bad luck. Hobart had two new starters in for the critical IC game on the OL and the 2.8 yards per carry showed it.
The Statesmen also had
horrible field position in the first half of the Ithaca game, starting within their five yard line twice. On what was effectively the final few plays of the IC game,
SR PK Rio Schmidt had a rare, bad punt which set up Ithaca with great field position, which helped them score and take the lead with under a minute to go. On the ensuing KO,
FY RB Dakota Harvey made the rookie mistake of fielding a ball that probably would have gone out of bounds at the five yard line, giving Hobart better field position, and a chance to win it.
Defensively,
Statesmen secondary took a big step back this season, showing a lot of soft coverage with DBs 8-10 yards off the LOS all season. Even though that is supposed to prevent the offense from getting behind them, the secondary and LB corps were beat several times on long pass and run (sometimes referred to as "explosive") plays in key games such as these:
Brockport - 68 yard TD run and 67 yard TD pass
Ithaca - 37 yard run early 4th quarter that helped IC take a 17-14 lead
Union - 33 and 64 yard TD passes in the 3rd quarter to push Union's lead to 21-3
The
Statesmen pass defense ended up dead last in the LL allowing 251.9 YPG. The loss of
JR DE AJ MacFarlane to injury in Week 3 was a big blow to the Statesmen's pass rush and rush defense but the DL did improve after the Brockport game. Still Hobart ended up with the second to last Total Defense in the LL, allowing over 350 YPG. Not surprisingly, the Defensive Efficiency was fifth in the conference, with a 125.4 for allowing opposing QB's to complete 56.9% of their passes for 2,519 yards and 16 TDs.
On the bright side, the Statesmen defense ended up third in the LL with 22 sacks on the season and finished 2nd in the LL with a solid 98.3 YPG rushing and only seven rushing TDs allowed all season. Hobart also improved their interceptions to 10, finishing third in the LL in that category.
What's next?
Hobart will likely enter the 2018 season as a bit of an underdog, something that hasn't happened much in the last seven seasons or so. The Statesmen will
need to find new starters at QB, WR, OL and TE on offense, while filling a few positions, like NT, CB and LB on defense. Special teams remains in good shape with
Hackett having three more years, but the coaches
will need to find a replacement for Schmidt.
While
Harvey lost out on LL ROTY honors to Ithaca's FY QB Wahib Nabi, he showed flashes of bringing Statesmen Football
back to the "glory days" when Hobart just beat opposing teams down with a hard-nosed rushing attack. I do think the defense has to stiffen up, and with around 5 new starters this season, the growing pains we saw should hopefully be improved upon in 2018.
The WR corps, other than
Shed of course, were fairly inexperienced coming into this year and now have had valuable playing time. While Brandon's skills will certainly be missed, the cupboard is far from bare at WR, including at TE, given
JR TE Matt Woods coming back in 2018.
I'm hoping that seeing a team they beat 30-0 in the NCAA playoffs motivates this Statesmen squad to have a better 2018. Most pieces are in place, but another demanding schedule and teams like Brockport, Ithaca and Union likely reloading, there's a lot of work to be done to get Hobart back on top of the LL and considered a top Eastern contender again.
Thanks again to all the readers who've visited the site this season. I'll likely go on a bit of a hiatus over the holidays, but will hopefully have some recruiting and other information to post on as it trickles in over the off-season. Thanks again to the Class of 2018 and good luck in your post-Hobart careers.
As always, go 'Bart!
