The Hobart College Football 2024 Season Preview

The 130^th season of Hobart College Football is almost here!

The Statesmen are coming off an 8-3 overall 2023 campaign that had its share of ups and downs. With a number of Liberty League teams graduating a lot of key talent, an expanded 40-team NCAA playoff field and a favorable home “Boz” schedule, many Hobart fans are hopeful this is the year the Statesmen finally return to the top of the league and back into the playoffs.

The Statesmen have 38 lettermen returning along with a big (48 player) incoming recruiting class. I expect we will see a lot of familiar faces in key roles, with a few newcomers making contributions this 2024 season.

Let’s take a look at Team 130 starting off with what was the strength of the 2023 team, the:

DEFENSE

Hobart will have to replace around half of the defensive starters from last season after the graduations of DE Connor Gunn, DT Caleb Pulver, CB Abdoulaye Diallo, and SS Joe McCoy. JR CB Mekhi Rodgers opted to transfer out, moving closer to his hometown of Philadelphia and enrolling at Saint Francis University which is a NEC Division I program. We wish him the best. While not technically a transfer, Gunn decided to use his final year of eligibility as a GR player at Johns Hopkins. The defending Centennial Conference champions come into 2024 as the 8^th ranked team in the D3football.com preseason Top 25. Also opting out of his final year of eligibility was DE Alex Karpawich. He was a big contributor to the defense last year and will be missed.

Coming back will be a core group of outstanding players including SR LB Anthony Romano, SR LB Jamien Bliss, JR LB Mike McGhee, SR LB Cashon Young, SR LB Vincent Giordano and JR FS Alex Smith. The hard-hitting LB group accounted for 262 total tackles, 24 TFL, 7.5 sacks, and four INTs. Smith added 34 tackles as well as a TFL and INT in 2023.

Filling in for the Statesmen DL will likely be JR DE Dante Randle, who rotated in a good deal last year, as well as JR DL Nick Provenzano to take over at NT/DT. Three other DEs will be competing for the third and final DL starting role, so we’ll have to wait and see how preseason camp shakes out. One name to keep an eye out for is FY DL Bill Brosko.

In the secondary we should see SR DB Chris Ntumba take one of the starting CB roles. SO DB Zeshan Dixon is expected to compete for the other starting CB role with some incoming FY players. At safety, SR DB Zac Ambielli rotated in at FS last season, so he should be ready to replace McCoy as the starter here.

OFFENSE

The returning offensive starters include SR QB Johnny Colombi, SR OL Ethan Kowalski, JR OL Ashton Mejias, JR OL Ben Goodell, and JR OL Quinn Broggy. Coming back after missing 2023 due to injury is former starting SR TE Luke Hescock.

While the explosiveness and versatility of Rayshawn Boswell and Tim Denham, Jr. will be missed, Hobart is looking for “the next man” up to fill in their large shoes. SO RB E.J. Taylor (named the offensive rookie of the year by the team) was productive in a backup role last season, rushing for 333 yards and three TDs. He made three catches for 25 yards and one TD also. There could be a few others who get looks at the RB spot over the course of the season.

The RBs will benefit from an experienced OL that’s bringing back four starters. While it’s possible you could see some movement of the lineup with the graduation of former center Matt Seigel ‘24, I would expect these four players be the foundation of the team this season. Right now, it’s possible JR OL Quinn Broggy could take the center job, meaning there would be a competition for the fifth and final tackle spot on the OL.

Adding to the experience on the OL, is a strong TE corps that’s complimented not only by Hescock’s return but also strong and experienced players like JR TE Lukas Ruby, SR TE Kevin Christ and SR TE Ryan Hinman.

Going into preseason camp, the WR position is wide open. SR WR Rane Daramola opted to transfer out, so it will be SO WR Marcus Crowell and JR WR Ahmad Crowell returning with the most experience. Also in the mix will be SR WR Christian Donnelly, GR WR Benjamin Farrell, and JR WR Anthony Ruscetta looking to contribute. We could also see two to three incoming FY players step in quickly also. Overall, the WR group should be deeper and more competitive after these Statesmen get some more game experience.

I believe improving upon last season’s 1800-yard passing/receiving yards performance will be critical to Hobart’s success in 2024. Last year, the Statesmen ended up being ranked fifth in the LL (only Buffalo State and Saint Lawrence had lower yardage totals), and the Hobart’s 11 receiving TDs was sixth (second to last) in the league.

The Statesmen’s experience on the OL and a younger, and hopefully healthier RB group could pay dividends as Hobart has not broken the 2,000 yards rushing mark since the 2021 season.  

SPECIAL TEAMS

SR PK Tobias Wefering returns after a successful 2023 season where he led the LL in FG percentage (11-14 or 78.6%) and finished in second place with a 40.8 YPP net average, leading the LL with eight punts over 50 yards.

JR PK Vicente Lyons is back after missing the prior season. He was Hobart’s starting punter in 2022, averaging 37.53 YPP with a long of 73 yards and dropping 12 punts inside the opposition’s 20-yard line. 

I suspect we'll see a number of newer Statesmen audition take over the KO and PR duties now that Boswell and Denham, Jr. have graduated. GR WR Benjamin Farrell did have a team-high seven PRs and SO RB E.J. Taylor was second on the team with seven KORs in 2023. 

SCHEDULE

The Statesmen look to maintain their home field advantage at the “Boz” with a couple of critical league contests, as well as welcoming a new opponent to Geneva in 2024. Since HC Kevin DeWall ’00 took over the program, the Statesmen have had an impressive 21-2 record at home.

This year the Statesmen will open up under the lights at home against long-time Empire 8 and local rival, Alfred University on Friday night, September 6^th. Week 2 features a big matchup against the defending ODAC champions and national semifinalists, Randolph Macon. It will be one the longest road trips (425+ miles) the Statesmen have made in recent memory. Week 3 has Moravian University coming to Geneva for the first time ever, followed by another trip to Keystone College (PA) in Week 4.

Week 5 is the LL opener against Ithaca. The Bombers are enjoying a six-game winning streak over Hobart that dates back to 2017. A win against Ithaca in this game at home would go a long way for the confidence of the players and put Hobart in a great position to make it to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Week 6 is a short road trip to Buffalo State followed by a Week 7 trip up to Canton, NY to take on Saint Lawrence. In Week 8 the Statesmen will welcome former QB Coach and OC Jon Drach, who’s the newly minted HC at Union. This is another big game, as it’s Hobart’s second oldest rivalry (this will be the 103^rd game in the series), with five of the last seven games have been decided by a TD or less. The Statesmen’s last home loss to the Dutchmen, now the “Garnet Chargers,” goes back all the way to 2008.

Week 9 presents another tough challenge as Hobart will travel to Troy, NY to take on the RPI Engineers in what could be a potential LL Championship game scenario. Week 10 will be a late bye week to help Hobart gear up for their Week 11, regular season finale and Senior Day against Rochester.

With a combination of focus, determination, and a little bit of health and luck, this Statesmen football squad has a great opportunity to return Hobart back into the national conversation and playoff picture. It will require stronger overall play from the offense, which has been hampered by inexperience and injuries in prior seasons, and the defense maintaining their aggressive, turnover-causing style with some great special teams play mixed in.

 I feel very confident that this could be a special season for the Statesmen, but as the old adage goes, they will just have to do their best to go 1-0 every week and see how it stacks up by November. It would be really nice to knock off some old rivals along the way. We will see.

 Thanks for reading and go ‘Bart!