The 127th season of Hobart College Football has come and gone. No surprise here, but the coaching staff is already on the road and aggressively recruiting the next class of Statesmen. In some ways the 2023 season played out as expected - Hobart was picked to finish third in the Liberty League and that's exactly what they did. While many Statesmen fans and families hoped for something bigger and better, an 8-3 season is a very good one. The ECAC Bowl game result was disappointing, but at least Hobart qualified and was able to host one last game for the senior class.
The past fall had a lot of memorable moments and I'll chronicle a few below.
Looking Back
Hobart opened the season with three consecutive wins by an impressive 101-29 margin. The Ithaca game saw the Statesmen have a chance to knock off the Bombers, but a couple of mistakes led to 10 Ithaca points that ended up being the difference.
Hobart would go on to win five of its next six games, giving themselves a strong resume which the ECAC rewarded with hosting the ECAC Clayton Chapman Bowl. We know the rest. For their efforts, the Statesmen would earn 14 spots on the All-Conference team.
Starting with the offense, JR QB Johnny Columbi had a good first year as the starter. He finished the season going 136-246 passing for 1,737 yards with 11 passing TDs compared to nine INTs. He added 75 rushes for 351 yards and 4 TDs on the ground, good for third best on the team. Once the stat sheets are refreshed in the off-season, it should show that Columbi had the 13th most passing yards and completion percentage (55.7%) in a season for a Statesmen QB.
SR RBs Tim Denham, Jr and Rayshawn Boswell closed out their impressive careers with 516 and 643 rushing yards this season, scoring six and 12 rushing TDs, respectively. Boswell added 296 receiving yards and Denham, Jr. had 72 to go with one receiving TD.
For their careers, Boswell appeared in 42 games, gaining 2,320 rushing and 925 receiving yards. He scored 37 rushing and four receiving TDs. He is the all-time leader in KOR yards and scores with 1,339 return yards and three TDs.
Denham, Jr. appeared in 40 games, gaining 2,692 yards and scoring 40 rushing TDs. He added 50 receptions for 320 yards and four TDs. He also gained 613 return yards and scored two TDs.
You can do the math, but that's over 8,200 yards of total offense and 90 TDs between these two amazing student athletes.
JR WR Rane Daramola would once again lead the Hobart receiving corps this season, with 405 receiving yards and four TDs. I think it's safe to say the biggest play of the season was probably his TD catch, just before halftime in Week 10, against RPI. SO WR Ahmad Crowell developed into a strong receiver this season, catching 19 passes for 319 yards and three TDs.
The defense was led once again by JR LB Anthony Romano with 80 tackles, seven TFL (tied with two other Statesmen defenders for best on the team), three sacks and one INT. SR DE Connor Gunn led the team with five sacks, seven TFL and eight QBHs. In the secondary, SR DB Joe McCoy led the team with three INTs. SO OLB Mike McGhee led the team with four FRs, scoring two TDs on the season.
On special teams, JR PK Tobias Wefering had a fantastic year, averaging nearly 41 yards per punt, 58.4 yards per KO and making 11-14 FG attempts with a long of 42 yards. He was perfect in every game this season on PATs except for Keystone, when he went 4-6, for an outstanding 39-41 run.
Looking Ahead
The Statesmen are at a bit of an inflection point, now a full five seasons into the DeWall era. In many cases, the results have been very good with an overall 38-15 mark. The saying "your record is what you are" does have some merit here, as the Statesmen have basically averaged a 7.5-3 record over this time period. That's a lot of wins, but no conference titles and NCAA playoff appearances to go with two consecutive bowl losses have been a bit of a disappointment.
There have been some big wins, however, namely the 2019 New York State and 2021 ECAC Bowl victories over Cortland and Westminster, respectively. The Statesmen have gone unbeaten against LL foes Saint Lawrence, Rochester, Buffalo State and have a winning mark (3-2) over RPI during that same time period. The Statesmen are also 16-4 in out-of-conference games and have only lost two OOC games since 2019.
Unfortunately, Hobart has struggled to be a good road team, going 14-12 away from the "Boz" and is 0-5 vs. Ithaca and 2-3 vs. Union (both wins against the Dutchmen were in Geneva, DeWall and Hobart is 0-3 in Schenectady).
The positives in 2024 will be both of those troublesome teams will have to come back to Geneva. Hobart should also benefit from a strong rising senior and junior class. Still, there is work to be done and I hope HWS will try and lend a stronger hand also.
The COVID year was really tough for DeWall and the Statesmen. Their best senior class since the 2014 season (coming off the 9-2 NYS Bowl win and 2019 season) was mostly lost and the college forced the team to say goodbye to a couple of key coaches (who were also excellent recruiters). HWS tried but wasn't in the same position as some of their other competitors to take advantage of the extra year of NCAA eligibility like Ithaca, RPI and Union were able to leverage. There was and has been a noticeable roster disparity between Hobart and these other teams, but that should move back to normal with 2024 being the final year of extra eligibility.
I would argue that the Statesmen need to have more full-time staff to help Coach DeWall continue to grow and build the program in the ever increasingly competitive and difficult market that is private, D3 college athletics. I saw the disparity in coaching resources the Statesmen have compared to other top D3 programs firsthand when I travelled to Berry College (GA) earlier this season to see the Vikings host Trinity University (TX). Given the football team accounts for nearly 12.5% of the male student population (based on 22 data I could find) at HWS, I really think the administration needs to step in an assist more than they may have already, but this is just my opinion. There very well could be things already underway that I am not aware of as I have very limited contact with the college anymore given my home base.
The best way we as alums, fans and families can help is obviously through continued financial support via the SAA and other fund-raising initiatives. In the meantime, we can look forward to the 2024 schedule release and the next incoming class of Statesmen recruits.
I appreciate everyone following the blog this season. Hard to believe it's been 14-15 seasons, almost 900 posts and 415K+ views.
Until next time, wishing you all a very happy and healthy holiday season. Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!
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