What a difference a year makes!
After suffering through a number of scheduling challenges and snafus in 2011, the Statesmen will enjoy an extra home game this fall in a sudden, but welcome, change of plans.
This sixth home game is primarily due to the pending expansion of the President's Athletic Conference (PAC) in 2013. The aforementioned change (and how appropriate considering its almost President's Day!) necessitated that the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes renege on a previously agreed upon two year series with Hobart in order to add a new conference game next year.
Fortunately Geneva (College) quickly notified the Statesmen of this change and added the gracious offer (since they canceled the series) to travel to north to Geneva (NY) for the only time the Statesmen will play them (at least in the near future). This luck of the draw benefits Hobart with not only the home field advantage in the contest against the Tornadoes, but also enables the Statesmen to play three of their first four games of the season at home (after hosting only three home games overall in 2011). In fact, given the add of local Empire 8 conference foe Utica College (just outside of Syracuse), Hobart really doesn't have a significant road trip (mileage wise anyway) until the fifth game of the season, a 300+ mile trip to Worcester, MA to play the WPI Engineers.
The Statesmen's revised schedule can be found on the football website:
http://www.hwsathletics.com/schedule.aspx?path=football&schedule=956
Plans to schedule a new opponent for the 9/14/13 open date is apparently confirmed but hasn't been announced just yet. Stay tuned and go 'Bart!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Mamaroneck QB Parker Thelander to Attend Hobart
Section1Recruiting.com reports that Mamaroneck SR QB / S Parker Thelander will head upstate and play for the Statesmen this fall. The 6 foot, 185 pounder lead the Tigers to a 4-5 record last season, completing 62.1% of his passes for 1251 yards including 11 passing TDs. Thelander also added three rushing TDs in his senior campaign. Section1Recruiting.com rates Thelander the #4 overall best QB prospect in AA, the largest school section in the region.
Parker's highlight reel is listed below and demonstrates his strong arm and ability to move around in the pocket and escape would-be tacklers:
http://www.ncsasports.org/college-recruiting-videos-highlights/parker-thelander
I'd like to be the first to welcome Parker to Hobart. Welcome Parker!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Caban "signs" with Hobart
Christian Caban, a slot receiver out of Wilcox Tech of Meriden, CT has committed to attending Hobart this fall. Caban is wrapping up a post-graduate year at Tabor Academy in Marion, MA. Caban is 5' 9" and 185 lbs according to the recruiting website Maxpreps.com. Although he suffered a knee injury in his senior season at Wilcox, it appears as though he has recuperated and will be looking to compete for playing time this fall in Geneva.
Christian's highlight reel can be found below:
and a link to the story from his hometown paper is here:
Welcome to Hobart Christian!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
RPI Head Coach Resigns After One Season
Happy New Year.
Although this first post of 2012 isn't Hobart Football related, it is newsworthy in that for the second straight year a Liberty League football program is making headlines in the off season (and not for reasons the school's administration, alumni and fan base are happy about).
Yesterday RPI Head Football Coach Tim Landis resigned citing "personal reasons" according to RPI Athletic Director Jim Knowlton. That said local news and other sources indicated Landis was fired for "alcohol-related issues" and/or incidents on campus.
The RPI Engineers finished 4-5 overall, 3-3 in the LL; their biggest win of 2011 being the dramatic come from behind victory over our Statesmen, 29-28 at Boswell Field.
With Landis stepping down, RPI will conduct a national search for a new Head Coach. In the interim, Offensive Coordinator Guido Falbo will assuming the Head Coaching duties for the 2012 season. This is obviously a blow to the Engineers team and family at a crucial time given the recruiting season. While it's difficult to gauge whether or not this will impact the incoming RPI freshman football class, the timing is obviously not great and will require a good deal of damage control by Knowlton, Falbo and the remaining RPI football staff.
On a personal note, I hope Coach Landis overcomes these personal issues and gets his life back on track. I had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of times on "In The HuddLLe" (www.inthehuddlle.com), my weekly Division III radio and highlight show, and always found him to be an upstanding guy. His prior track record showed he was dedicated to coaching at top academic schools (prior to RPI he lead the Davidson, Bucknell and other D1AA or FCS programs). Hopefully with help from his family and loved ones he'll be back on the sidelines again sometime soon.
More information on Hobart recruits and other Statesmen news will be posted in future.
Related links:
RPI's official release:
http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2012/2/3/FB_0203125106.aspx?path=football
Fox News story:
http://www.fox23news.com/sports/custom/localsports/story/UPDATE-RPI-Football-Coach-Tim-Landis-Resigns/cAzArPRhvkyPN7hZIw05SA.cspx
Although this first post of 2012 isn't Hobart Football related, it is newsworthy in that for the second straight year a Liberty League football program is making headlines in the off season (and not for reasons the school's administration, alumni and fan base are happy about).
Yesterday RPI Head Football Coach Tim Landis resigned citing "personal reasons" according to RPI Athletic Director Jim Knowlton. That said local news and other sources indicated Landis was fired for "alcohol-related issues" and/or incidents on campus.
The RPI Engineers finished 4-5 overall, 3-3 in the LL; their biggest win of 2011 being the dramatic come from behind victory over our Statesmen, 29-28 at Boswell Field.
With Landis stepping down, RPI will conduct a national search for a new Head Coach. In the interim, Offensive Coordinator Guido Falbo will assuming the Head Coaching duties for the 2012 season. This is obviously a blow to the Engineers team and family at a crucial time given the recruiting season. While it's difficult to gauge whether or not this will impact the incoming RPI freshman football class, the timing is obviously not great and will require a good deal of damage control by Knowlton, Falbo and the remaining RPI football staff.
On a personal note, I hope Coach Landis overcomes these personal issues and gets his life back on track. I had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of times on "In The HuddLLe" (www.inthehuddlle.com), my weekly Division III radio and highlight show, and always found him to be an upstanding guy. His prior track record showed he was dedicated to coaching at top academic schools (prior to RPI he lead the Davidson, Bucknell and other D1AA or FCS programs). Hopefully with help from his family and loved ones he'll be back on the sidelines again sometime soon.
More information on Hobart recruits and other Statesmen news will be posted in future.
Related links:
RPI's official release:
http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2012/2/3/FB_0203125106.aspx?path=football
Fox News story:
http://www.fox23news.com/sports/custom/localsports/story/UPDATE-RPI-Football-Coach-Tim-Landis-Resigns/cAzArPRhvkyPN7hZIw05SA.cspx
Monday, December 19, 2011
Final D3football.com Poll Smacks Statesmen
The 2011 Liberty League co-champion Hobart Statesmen (7-2) gave #3 Wesley (12-2, losers by a touchdown to national runners up # 2 Mount Union, 14-1) one of their closest games of the NCAA playoffs, but was left out of the final Top 25 poll by the "panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country."
Saint John Fisher (10-3), who benefited from a better seeding from the NCAA Playoff Committee (in spite of a 36 point loss to Hobart back in September) finished the year with a #11 ranking. That said the final placement of Johns Hopkins (#18, 10-1), Delaware Valley (#13, 11-1) and Baldwin-Wallace (#24, 8-2) really calls this group of pollsters into question.
Although Hobart didn't do itself any favors with voters given their eight game schedule and the one point RPI loss; the Statesmen acquitted themselves very well taking the Wolverines to the brink with several key offensive players out of the line up. Hobart proved with out a doubt they not only belonged in the tournament, but had they had Fisher or another team's (better) draw, they would have likely advanced a couple of rounds given how well they played against Wesley.
Still, the voters apparently took the view that Hobart was a two-loss team that exited the playoffs in the first round (even though they challenged the #3 team in the country as well, if not better than other higher ranked teams). That said all the evidence shows they overlooked the fact that the Statesmen were clearly a Top 25 team.
Hopefully the returning Hobart players will take this oversight by the D3football.com community as added fuel to push for another LL title and a better / longer playoff run in 2012.
Saint John Fisher (10-3), who benefited from a better seeding from the NCAA Playoff Committee (in spite of a 36 point loss to Hobart back in September) finished the year with a #11 ranking. That said the final placement of Johns Hopkins (#18, 10-1), Delaware Valley (#13, 11-1) and Baldwin-Wallace (#24, 8-2) really calls this group of pollsters into question.
Although Hobart didn't do itself any favors with voters given their eight game schedule and the one point RPI loss; the Statesmen acquitted themselves very well taking the Wolverines to the brink with several key offensive players out of the line up. Hobart proved with out a doubt they not only belonged in the tournament, but had they had Fisher or another team's (better) draw, they would have likely advanced a couple of rounds given how well they played against Wesley.
Still, the voters apparently took the view that Hobart was a two-loss team that exited the playoffs in the first round (even though they challenged the #3 team in the country as well, if not better than other higher ranked teams). That said all the evidence shows they overlooked the fact that the Statesmen were clearly a Top 25 team.
Hopefully the returning Hobart players will take this oversight by the D3football.com community as added fuel to push for another LL title and a better / longer playoff run in 2012.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Comin' Atcha hits 10,000!!!
Thanks to all the readers out there who helped get this blog to 10,000 views since going live back in August of 2009. I appreciate the visits and interest in Division III and specifically Hobart football from all the fans, alumni and others out there!
See you in 2012 when I am sure to have a few updates on incoming recruits.
Happy holidays!
JB
See you in 2012 when I am sure to have a few updates on incoming recruits.
Happy holidays!
JB
Monday, December 5, 2011
Hobart lands four players on the D3football.com All-East Region Team
Hobart SR CB Drake Woodard was named to the D3football.com All-East Region first team today.
Statesmen SR OL Brendan Hatlee, SO OLB Devin Worthington and FY DE Tyre Coleman each received second team recognition as well.
A copy of the press release is below:
http://static.psbin.com/f/3/f3e93d39hkcp7q/d3football-all-east-region-2011.pdf
While the Woodard selection isn't a surprise, Coleman's not making the first team can be thought of as an "upset" given his stats (e.g., second in DIII in sacks). Still it's extremely rare for a freshman to break through to a first team award, which tend to go to upperclassmen.
Still, it's quite an accomplishment for all the Hobart players selected. Congratulations to Drake, Brendan, Devin and Tyre!
Statesmen SR OL Brendan Hatlee, SO OLB Devin Worthington and FY DE Tyre Coleman each received second team recognition as well.
A copy of the press release is below:
http://static.psbin.com/f/3/f3e93d39hkcp7q/d3football-all-east-region-2011.pdf
While the Woodard selection isn't a surprise, Coleman's not making the first team can be thought of as an "upset" given his stats (e.g., second in DIII in sacks). Still it's extremely rare for a freshman to break through to a first team award, which tend to go to upperclassmen.
Still, it's quite an accomplishment for all the Hobart players selected. Congratulations to Drake, Brendan, Devin and Tyre!
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