Taft School's Bennett is Heading to Hobart

Another big New England prep school student athlete, PG OL Ruston Bennett (via Louisiana of all places) recently announced that:

"I am proud to announce my commitment to play football [at Hobart College]! I would like to thank all of my coaches, teammates, friends, and family for helping me get to this point!!"

Standing 6' 4" and 290 lbs., Ruston certainly has the size and athleticism to make an impact early on. Bennett played at Acadiana HS which is one of the top programs in LA, winning a state championship and going 15-0 in the 2019 season. He earned Class 4A & 5A All-Metro honors as an OL his senior season of high school. Based on his twitter feed it appears as though he had offers to several D3 (Louisiana and Knox) and FCS (Assumption) schools as well.

Please join me in welcoming Ruston and the extended Bennett family to the Hobart College Football one. 

Thanks for reading and geaux 'Bart!

Canterbury's Taylor Commits to Hobart

This morning we're back on the recruiting trail as it would appear the next member of the Hobart College Statesmen Football Class of 2027 will be Canterbury School SR OL/DL Tyrese Taylor out of my home state of Connecticut.

Taylor is a big (6'5" 310 lbs.) OL/DL who brings impressive size and smarts (3.5 GPA) to Geneva. In a brief post that included the photo below, Taylor said he's "100% committed" to Hobart. Based on his timeline it looks like Tyrese had some FCS-level interest (offer from Stony Brook), so this is a great addition to the trenches for the Statesmen. 

Based on his highlight reel it appears like RT is his natural position, but he can play center if needed. On the defensive side he made a logical NG based on his size and ability to plug gaps up the middle.

Please join me in welcoming Tyrese and the extended Taylor family to the Hobart College Football one!

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Wagner High's Imafidon is Heading to Hobart

Another Hobart College Football commit is heading up from the island, this time, it's from Staten Island. Wagner HS (NY) SR QB/ATH Desmond Imafidon recently posted the following announcement on his twitter feed:

Desmond is a fast an elusive runner with a noticeable ability to put would be tacklers in the rear-view mirror, as you can see from his highlight reel. He appears to have played in a triple option system but will likely convert to RB or WR in college (but it also wouldn't surprise me to see him tried out on defense, given we know the coaching staff likes having taller, fast guys in the secondary). He certainly could be an interesting addition to the punt or KO return team to start his career at Hobart.

What he lacks in size (6' 165-170 lbs.) he more than makes up for with speed, strength and field vision. I know I'm excited to see what a playmaker like Desmond can do for the Statesmen when given the opportunity. 

Please join me in welcoming Desmond the extended Imafidon family into the Hobart College Football one!

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Chaminade's Aquilina Commits to Hobart

As we said in a previous post, the DL/TE positions are key areas of need for the Statesmen going into 2023. Not surprisingly the next Hobart College Football commit - SR DE/TE Dean Aquilina - fits perfectly into those rebuilding plans.

Back on February 2nd, Dean tweeted out that he was "Very excited to announce my commitment to play football [at Hobart College]! I would like to thank all my coaches, friends, family, and teammates for helping me get to this point!"

Aquilina will head up to Geneva from "Strong Island", as CHS is based in Mineola, NY. Standing 6' 3" and weighing in at 250 lbs., Aquilina has good size that S&C coaches can build from. You can check out his highlights - mostly in a three technique with some good bull pass rush and pursuit work - here.

Please join me in welcoming Dean and the extended Aquilina family to the Hobart College Football one. 

Should have at least one more recruiting update before the end of the week.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

From 'Bama to 'Bart - Briarwood Christian's Punch a Recruiting Hit for Statesmen

Briarwood Christian SR PK Aidan Punch is heading up from Birmingham, AL to sign with the Statesmen as their kicker of the future. Aidan announced his intention last week which included this statement:

Punch appears to have a strong leg, good size (6', 185 lbs.) and skills he can continue to develop under ST Coach Ripp. You can check out Aidan's highlights here.  

I honestly can't recall many, if any, Statesmen called AL home, but Hobart has had some success with PKs from the South (Rio Schmidt '18 comes to mind) in prior seasons.

Please join me in welcoming Aidan the extended Punch family to the Hobart College Football one!

More recruiting news will be "comin' atcha" this week so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart! 

Summit's McKeever Selects Statesmen

Summit HS (NJ) SR DE/TE Tim McKeever announced on Twitter last night that he'd "like to announce my commitment to [Hobart]. I’d like to thank all of my coach’s, friends, and parents for their guidance and help along the way."

This 6' 2" 220 lbs. student athlete was a team captain and maintained a 3.6 GPA at SHS. He earned second team all-conference honors his senior year. It will be interesting to see where the Statesmen coaching staff decides to line Tim up as Hobart has needs at both the TE and DE positions.

Please join me in the welcoming Tim and the extended McKeever family to the Hobart College Football one. I imagine more recruiting updates will be coming this month, so "stay tuned."

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!

Looking Ahead to the 2023 Regular Season

I hope everyone enjoyed a happy and safe holiday season and New Year's.

The offseason is usually pretty quiet, but with Early Action notices going out this Tuesday we should start seeing some of the latest commitments to the Class of 2027. Based on a recent tweet by HC Kevin DeWall '00, it's pretty obvious what the Statesmen's recruiting, and player development, needs are going into the fall:

Hobart had 3 SR QBs finish their careers, leaving SO QB Johnny Columbi as the only one on the Statesmen's roster with game experience. He contributed 386 total yards of offense, with 1 passing and 1 rushing TD on the season. 

FY QBs Tabor Engle (from my hometown of Avon, CT) and Jack Smalley (from Long Island) are in the wings and will compete for time in spring practice. 

The Statesmen OL may be of bigger concern, as what was expected to be an anchor for the 2022 season didn't always perform as expected. Injuries, penalties and related challenges saw a drop off in performance from the offense in the run game. To be fair, this OL unit was excellent at pass blocking, ranked as one of the Top 10 best in the nation with respect to sacks allowed. 

The good news is the roster has 12 returning players (which is really an assumption at this point given there are always some FY players who transfer out, realize D3FB is more of a commitment / challenge than they realized, etc.) in the OL group so Coach DeWall's plan to build depth at this critical position is taking shape. JR OL Devon Adamo will be the most seasoned in this group, going into his third season as a starter.

SO TE Luke Hescock is the only returning member of this group with game experience. It's been well chronicled on the Parents and Fans of Hobart Football Facebook group that he lost his older brother Jake to a sudden illness two weeks before Christmas. Such a tragic loss makes articles like this very irrelevant in the big picture. Hopefully, the Hescock family are healing and being supported by friends and family alike during this difficult time. 

Moving on, the WR unit did lose talent to graduation also, but the future is bright here given the emergence of players like SO WRs Rane Daramola, Marcus Lenz, Peyton Cayea and JR WR Chris Bartosic. 

Defensively, Hobart will need to replace a couple of starters on the DL (DE and NG, specifically), but bring back a lot of talent in the LB corps and secondary. SO DE Alex Karpawich had a breakout season, earning 1st Team All-LL honors. I'd expect JR DL Caleb Pulver to play a larger role this fall also. 

The LB group is the most talented on the squad going into the 2023 season. SO LB Anthony Romano (see prior post) had a breakout season, as did SO LB Peterson Monexant (2nd team All-LL). JR LB Jamien Bliss and JR LB Drew Walsh (who converted from RB) also had a nice year. FY LB Mike McGhee performed very well when given the opportunity. 

The Statesmen will need to replace two starters in the secondary, but the future is bright with guys like JR DB James Mahoney coming back and the emergence of players like SO DB Chris Ntumba. 

Special teams are in good hands with FY PK Vicente Lyon and SO PK Tobias Wefering coming back, but the Statesmen will need to find a replacement for SR LS Jordan O'Connor who's graduating.  

Given the Landmark / Empire 8 alliance, I wouldn't be surprised to see more LL and New England team pairings - we've already seen RPI will play Dean College this fall. The LL is definitely an "odd man out" when it comes to scheduling due to this and other alliances (e.g., NJAC and CC) / changes (PAC have a full 10-game conference schedule). 

Over the coming weeks and months, I'll try to provide updates regarding new recruits as they announce their commitments via social media and keep you posted regarding the 2023 regular season schedule. Last year, the new schedule dropped in early March and the official announcements on the incoming recruiting class started in late April and went thru the first week of May.

That's it for now. Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!