Another Year, Another Schedule Scramble for the Statesmen

According to one of my D3FB coach sources (not associated with Hobart), the Thiel Tomcats of the PAC and the Allegheny Gators of the NCAC have both backed out of contracts with Alfred University and Hobart College for each teams' respective 2020 season openers.

The Statesmen were bit by these Gators with some bad news....

Allegheny played RPI in 2018 and 2019, losing 40-19 and 52-14 to the Engineers. Apparently that was enough LL for the Gators who will now take on the hapless Tomcats, who have gone 0-27 since their last win on 9/16/17 over Bethany (a program that's won nine games in the last three seasons). The Gators had a rough start to 2019, but won four of their last five to finish 4-6 on the season. The previous year former HC BJ Hammer leveraged a 6-4 year into the head job at Bowdoin in the NESCAC. The 2019 season for the Polar Bears (0-9) was not unlike what Thiel has experienced of late.

The Week 1 opening creates the possibility of a number of different opponents, given HC Kevin DeWall 00's canvasing of the East Region for a new match-up. While the Brockport 4-year (2016-19) contact has expired, it's possible it could be renewed (even just for a "one and done") given the Golden Eagles, who finished 2019 with a 9-3 overall record, are actively looking for a Week 1 game. I suppose Alfred is now as well and Hobart has scrimmaged against the Saxons for the past couple of preseasons. Alfred finished 2019 with a bit of a disappointing 5-5 finish.

Playing Brockport has a decent amount of risk and reward, from a playoff-making perspective. The main risk in my opinion isn't so much of the possibility of a loss is the fact that the LL schedule - assuming it's flipped - creates such tough gauntlet for Hobart an easier four game OOC schedule leading into LL play could be helpful:

10/3/20 vs. Union
10/10/20 @ RPI
10/17/20 vs. Ithaca
10/24/20 Bye week 
10/31/20 @ St. Lawrence
11/7/20 @ Buffalo State
11/14/20 vs. Rochester

Although the Statesmen should have the home field advantage against Union and Ithaca, playing them in Weeks 5 & 7 with no bye could be trouble if Hobart gets hit with the injury bug after another tough OOC schedule / extended grind.

While Hobart isn't expected to make any formal announcements on their schedule for at least another month or two, this is now the second year in a row an opponent has broken a game contract, to the frustration of the Statesmen program.

Maybe newly minted HWS AD Deb Stewart has some connections she can call for a ball game? In all seriousness, I know the coaching and Athletics staff is all over this and a resolution of some kind (see 2019 which turned out pretty well) is in the works.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

(Boo Gators)

The QB Question?

The Statesmen's biggest question mark going into this off-season is pretty obvious.

The graduation of SR QB Ryan Hofmann and the appearance of reticence in grooming his successor via live game action during the 2019 season makes the 2020 QB battle one of the more interesting one's Hobart has had in several seasons.

Hofmann finished his career as one of the best QBs in Hobart history

Hofmann had a fine season - passing for 2,241 yards and 21 TDs (the fourth best Hobart single season mark) compared to 10 INTs. His 2019 performance ranked third in pass attempts (323), fifth in yards and in completions (173) in the single season record book. All time he ranks as follows:

Passing TDs: 4th (41)
Passing yards/game: 4th (163.2)
Total offense/game: 4th (163.2)
Pass attempts: 5th (563)
Pass completions: 5th (317)
Passing yards: 5th (4080)
Pass completion pct: 5th (56.3)
Pass efficiency: 5th (134.5)
Total offense/play: 5th (6.81)
Average yards/pass: 6th (7.2)
Total offense yards: 8th (4079)
TDs responsible for: 9th (41)
Passes had intercepted: 14th (19)
Average yards/completion: 15th (12.9)

Certainly a solid career, by any stretch. However, this past season, Hofmann ended up as the fifth/sixth rated passer in the LL. The LL has evolved into a pass heavy conference and Hobart will need to find a way to either counter with a FY RBs Tim Denham, Jr. and Rayshawn Boswell two-headed rushing attack and/or find a QB who has the ability to hit over 60-65% completions, pass for over 2,500-3,000 yards and 25-30+ TDs per year.

The nation's top rated QBs passed for 4,500-5,000 yards by comparison. Ithaca SR QB Joe Germiniero, who didn't win the LL OPOTY but did win the D3football.com East Region OPOTY award, finished sixth in the nation with 3,388 passing yards. His 33 passing TDs was 10th best in the nation.

Needless to say, the bar has been raised and so it'll be interesting to see what Hobart can do to keep pace. Honestly the issue may be the fact that they may not have the personnel, yet. Time will tell. That said HC Kevin DeWall '00 does have a couple of recruiting classes under his belt, plus the Class of 2024 which will be announced over the next few months.

So far, of the current  underclassmen, only FY QB Joe Pelletier saw time other than backup SO QB David Krewson. The latter seemed to be used sparingly and didn't appear to have as much confidence or efficiency as he did as a FY, completing under 42% of his passes and throwing 3 INTs (he did rush for 70 yards and 1 TD).

FY QB Sean Robles and Peyton Roberts are enigmas at this point, and given both are far from home, there's no guarantee they'll stick with the program (I hope they do). The Statesmen have had some retention issues over the years - and it's very common in college for 40+ student athlete recruiting classes to whittle down over time. The Class of 2020, for example, began with 36 players on the 2016 roster. Last season only 12 remained. The Class of 2021 has been better, going from 47 players in 2016 to 25 in 2019. I believe this will stabilize over time, but it's certainly worth noting. Ultimately the Statesmen need to get to the point where ~30+ players graduating per class is the standard.

Hofmann's predecessor, and most successful QB in Hobart history (statistically speaking, given players like Pat Conlan '15 and Nick Strang '13 had better W/L and playoff records), Shane Sweeney '17, came in via transfer. So did both QBs who played for the Stagg Bowl last December. It's become more common and programs like Brockport, Ithaca, Cortland and others have followed this approach with varying levels of success. Could the Statesmen try and find a FCS or D2 level player who could plug into the offense? Hard to say at the moment, but certainly something to wonder about during these off-season months.

Whether or not Hofmann's successor is on the roster now or will be joining it soon remains to be seen. I have confidence in the coaching staff to put a competitive off-season camp in place to test and evaluate the potential candidates. However it goes will be a big key to the Statesmen's success in 2020.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

2019 Season Recap & Review

Happy New Year Statesmen fans, friends and families!

I hope everyone enjoyed a very healthy and happy holiday season. Now that all the Christmas decorations are all packed up, I finally have some time to reflect back on what was a successful 126th season for Hobart Football.

I'll do my best to provide some perspective, providing a little constructive criticism here and there, as we look back on Hobart's 9-2 overall campaign. My initial take away is that this was a young team with a lot of defensive talent that came into it's own after struggling to find an identity in 2018. While there are certainly a few positions that need to be bolstered via spring camp and recruiting, overall the Statesmen punctuated the decade a postseason berth and win.

The 2010's saw Hobart elevate from a strong, mid-tier regional program to an elite, national one. Even national sportswriters such as Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner on Twitter) noticed, and he "gave" Hobart the "New York State Championship" primarily due to winning five conference titles. While it wasn't part of his "formula", the Statesmen finished the last 10 seasons with an impressive 81-23 mark (77.88%).

Later this month I'll do an All-Decade team type of look back, like I did in 2011. I'll also see what I can find out about the Statesmen's 2020 schedule and post recruiting updates as they come up. Early Decision applicants have already come in and there was at least one Hobart commit I saw during the break. More on that later.

So what can we say about the 2019 season? A lot, actually.

Award Winners

First off, let's recognize a few Hobart players who earned All-Region and All-American awards after the 2019 season concluded.

JR OLB Emmett Forde earned first team All-Region and All-American awards from D3football.com. He also earned a first team All-American nod from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). The Associated Press (AP) awarded Forde a second team All-American spot as well.

Forde was joined on the All-Region teams by JR OL Dillon Carey (second team), JR CB Jared Leake (second team) and FY RB Rayshawn Boswell (third team as a RET specialist).

The 2019 season had it's ups and downs, 

but it was great to get a postseason win, the first since 2014!

2019 Year-In-Review

There was optimism, but also uncertainty, going into 2019 after a disappointing 5-4 record in 2018. Hobart had one of the most difficult schedules in the nation (when all was said and done, the Statesmen had the 15th most difficult SOS in the nation per D3football.com, but it didn't factor in the Cortland game), and I think in the long run that long grind, including injuries, finally caught up to them in mid-October.

Still, to open September with wins over nationally ranked Brockport and a couple of NJAC teams was impressive. Certainly one of the overall highlights from 2019 was Hobart going 3-0 against the Top 3 teams from the Empire 8. Don't get me started on Brockport finishing 9-3 overall and being ranked 25th while the Statesmen received zero votes....

After a difficult gauntlet of non-conference games, the Statesmen had the disadvantage of having to travel to Union and Ithaca - and both were times where the Dutchmen and Bombers had an extra week of preparation over Hobart. While I was surprised at the time by the loss to Union, the Dutchmen ended up having one of their best seasons (11-1 overall, ending up ranked 12th in the final D3football.com Top 25) in over a decade. Their offense was ultimately better than Hobart's and a couple of ill-timed turnovers ended the Statesmen's chance of a win in Schenectady.

The Ithaca game was another tough one to watch as an ill-fated tackle / decision by JR OLB Emmett Forde got him disqualified from the game and the Statesmen pretty much lost their composure shortly afterwards. I can't say I blame them, given the officials and some extracurricular things going on from the stands thanks to some Bombers parents / fans. Needless to say I complained to the IC's Athletic Director later in the season about this and another incident which occurred after the Union-Ithaca game.

Regardless, a big reason for the loss was simply SR QB Joe Germiniero, Jr. just seeming to have Hobart's number these past three seasons. Statesmen fans should be happy to never have to play against "Joey G" again. Germiniero's career line vs. Hobart? It's 75-99 (75.7%) passing for 1,040 yards, 7 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD and zero INTs. He was a true Statesmen Assassin in every sense.

Aside from Germiniero, the loss also had to do with some bad officiating and the Statesmen making a few big mistakes - like a missed FG and an unsportsmanlike / late hit penalty which basically gave Ithaca a scoring drive at the end of the first half. That became the difference between a 7-3 and 14-0 halftime score. The latter was especially frustrating.

In spite of the loss, the Statesmen would never look back after their bye week, going 4-0 to end the season. During that final run, Hobart won by an average of 25 PPG and held their opposition to 14 PPG. In the LL, Hobart would finish the season ranked fourth in scoring (28.3 PPG), sixth in total yards (345.6 YPG), fourth in rushing (121.1 YPG), sixth in passing (224.5 YPG) and offensive efficiency (119.6). Defensively the Statesmen were stronger, ranking second in scoring (17.4 PPG allowed), second in total yards (328.5 YPG - including a league best 23 TDs allowed), third in rushing (107.3 YPG), second in passing (221.2 YPG) and basically tied for first in defensive efficiency with Union (110.6).

Special teams had a record setting year with FY RB Rayshawn Boswell's two KO return TDs and the second most KOR yardage in program history. SR WR/PK John DelliSanti would finish second in the LL in net punting with an average of 36.7. JR PK Kyle Hackett didn't meet his preseason All-American expectations, unfortunately. He went 12-17 overall on FGs (ranked fifth in the LL for FG %) and 35-39 on PATs after nearly perfect 2017 and 2018 seasons. That said I'm sure Kyle will rebound for his SR year.

The Statesmen OL gradually improved over the course of the season and all the starters from that unit should be back in the fall. QB and a couple WR roles will be up for grabs during spring practice given graduation of a handful of SR players at those positions. Boswell and FY RB Tim Denham, Jr. finished strong and look like future stars. JR WR Mike Giacobbe really cemented himself as a go to and possession receiver as well, finishing second on the team with 548 receiving yards and tying SR WR Ray Conley for a team high 6 receiving TDs. The defense will need to replace the production of SR OLB David McCarthy, SR CB Jayson Prince, SR FS Andrew Koonz and SR DE Colin Hudgins, but overall the Statesmen return several other top defenders across the board.

Looking Ahead

Given graduations at other schools, Hobart will be a preseason favorite in the LL going into 2020. Union will likely get picked to win the conference as most of their top ranked offensive players return. The question marks for the Dutchmen will be on defense. I'll be curious to see where that game falls on the calendar, especially if it's the conference opener like last season.

Overall there's a lot to look forward to during the off-season. I'll do my best to keep you up to date on recruiting and any other HFB news I can find.

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!