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Post by hcpride on Jul 20, 2023 14:00:46 GMT -5
In line with what I said might be the real reason why the league "went Coastal". Of course political correctness is the reason. The Patriot League name is at least somewhat moored in fact as we have two service academies and AU which was chartered by Congress and HC has ROTC. Do any other PL schools offer ROTC? The same virtuous and intolerant folks who insisted “Colonials” (as in George Washington University) was streng verboten could doubtlessly point to the fact that many patriots owned (and bought and sold) slaves and many patriots mistreated Indians. Not to mention the inherent patriarchy/misogyny given the root of the word. And the outrageous ‘othering’ and xenophobia inherent in the word. I don’t doubt HC leadership would apologize for the fact their league was once called Colonial League and apologize and then change the name of our current league.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 20, 2023 9:16:36 GMT -5
/\ It's rather convoluted and more than a bit nonsensical (as these things tend to be) but there are folks who believe racism is somehow tangled up in the very word 'colonial'. Or something along those lines. For those folks (witness the George Washington University events), "colonial" or "colonials" is streng verboten relative to sports teams. So I don't see the PL reclaiming it.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 20, 2023 6:06:32 GMT -5
10.73 100M time as a junior is very impressive. His 4 x 100M relay won the HS National Championships (!!) in a sizzling 🔥🔥🔥40.97 (much faster than the HC all time track record for the event). Team speed is really picking up. (Fun Fact: Same high school as Peter Muldoon) And what’s even more interesting about his track times are the 48.8 in the 400 and the 2:02 in the 800. He’s got speed and stamina. I bet he could be taught to hurdle, too. Damill Bostic has a 6-5 230 teammate (Nyckoles Harbor) who ran a 10.20 and 20.70 on the track. Too bad we didn’t get him too!
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Post by hcpride on Jul 19, 2023 15:56:33 GMT -5
Hats off to the New England Football Journal. That kid (#51) and #50 (Thor) will be two of the better D lineman we face all year. IMO, Harvard had one of the most talented and deepest D-lines we faced last season next to only SDSU and Buffalo. They were fairly neutralized by our OL’s best performance all season. We will need a repeat performance this year. He’s very good. At the same time, Harvard squeaked by Merrimack in overtime last year and subsequently lost to HC, Princeton, Columbia, and Yale. So, the team was quite beatable last year (notwithstanding d-line talent) and I like our chances this year.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 19, 2023 15:15:55 GMT -5
Harvard is also playing The University of St. Thomas and Howard University. So their OOC is an interesting hodgepodge of Pioneer Football League, MEAC, and Patriot. I’m thinking we beat them by 3 TD’s in front of a raucous and 99.9% Holy Cross crowd.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 19, 2023 9:41:44 GMT -5
Can he sue the school on the basis that UVM having an "Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity" is now unconstitutional? It is true that race-based college admission decisions are unconstitutional (and some misreporting has equated this to the end of affirmative action and equal opportunity). His lawyer says they'll fight this. But, if there are text messages... Interestingly, his brother is the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 18, 2023 8:37:51 GMT -5
For no particular reason I always assumed that athlete's meals were provided for them during the summer. This report says otherwise. But where do the athletes prepare their meals? I agree. My assumption was they lived in a dorm and ate in kimball/lower kimball, took a class or two of summer session, and worked out up in the Luth.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 17, 2023 12:03:09 GMT -5
Commit #8 Damill Bostic Jr 6'0/165 DB from DC Had 23 other offers - 5 FBS and the rest FCS - including Richmond and W&M Big time get. 3 more signals from James to post. 10.73 100M time as a junior is very impressive. His 4 x 100M relay won the HS National Championships (!!) in a sizzling 🔥🔥🔥40.97 (much faster than the HC all time track record for the event). Team speed is really picking up. (Fun Fact: Same high school as Peter Muldoon)
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Post by hcpride on Jul 15, 2023 7:42:19 GMT -5
This being the silly season (mid-Summah with nothing really concrete to talk about) I'll chime in as well. Near impossible to compare teams (and players) ovah different eras. It's hard to believe (for me anyway) that 1987 was 36 years ago and thus it would be like comparing the '87 team with the HC 11 of 1951 as much as the 2022 or 2023 team. That being said, I think they were the best team (so far) in the 1-AA era. As SoV pointed out and I witnessed/broadcast they were nevah slightly threatened once that season and that scheduled include FBS Army, Ivy League champs Harvard, a very solid Colgate team in the then Colonial League and solid CAA squads like UMass and William&Mary etc. Relative to the 2022 team, they were just more dominant on the field. I think as far as Holy Cross diehards are concerned, the 1987 team is the best team in the "modern" era hands-down. IMO, easier to compare the late 1980's to today than it is to compare the 1980's to the 1950's. More change in those prior 30 years IMO -- in the 1950's most college football squads weren't even integrated. My grandfather played offensive line in the early 1950's...and weighed 190 pounds. In addition to what you and SOV discussed, here's another example of how dominant we were. In 1987, Lehigh beat Navy in Annapolis. The next week, we beat Lehigh 63-6. With regards to the writer describing 2022 as "arguably our best season ever", I don't find such a claim totally unreasonable for someone who hasn't followed Holy Cross football as closely as those on this board. Sticking with the current Holy Cross 1-AA/FCS Era: If we're going to go by the national FCS rankings, that 1987 undefeated team - which spent the first 2 weeks at number 2 and the rest of the regular season (8 or 9 weeks) at number 1 - is hands down the best FCS HC team. One could quibble with the strength of schedule (none of the FCS teams they played and crushed were in the Top 20 in the final regular season poll or qualified for the national FCS playoffs) but the national FCS regular season rankings take that into account. The 1983 team spent a few weeks in the number 2 and 1 positions (with nice wins over BU, Colgate, and UNH - all of whom finished the regular season in the Top 20 [with BU and Colgate selected for the playoffs] and received a 2 seed in the playoffs) while the 1984 and 1986 teams each spent several weeks at number 2. The 2022 HC team, going by the national rankings (spent several weeks at 6-7), might be 5-ish in the current Holy Cross I-AA/FCS era.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 14, 2023 12:04:18 GMT -5
It seems Pat Fitzgerald's offense was not being aware of the serious hazing going on in the football team. Apparently the long investigation into the situation did not uncover evidence he was aware of it. But, according to the school president, he should have been aware of it. He's been terminated. At the same time NONE of his assistants have been fired. In a certain sense they are even closer to the players than he is and apparently they too were unaware of the hazing. I wonder if the fact that none of the assistants were fired can be used by Fitzgerald and his attorney in any upcoming legal wrangling over firing (for cause) and his remaining pay (43M). As far a recruiting goes, Northwestern was ranked dead last in the BIG 10 for its Class of 2024 recruits and now has a lost 3 of those 14 verbal commits since the scandal. www.gmtoday.com/sports/will-northwestern-football-recruits-stay-or-decommit/article_57eb49ea-2253-11ee-a9a5-97352bd14d53.html#:~:text=Offensive%20linemen%20Payton%20Stewart%20and,decommitted%20and%20flipped%20to%20Wisconsin.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 14, 2023 11:37:31 GMT -5
Those staffs in the 80s / early 90s were also tremendous. Many of those guys went onto jobs either in the NFL or big-time college football. We know about Duffner. Bill McGovern Mike Sherman - Green Bay and Texas A&M head coach Kevin Coyle - current Fresno St DC Terry Malone - coach with the Saints and most recently OC for Bowling Green Tom Rossley - former SMU head coach Clyde Christensen - offensive coordinator for the Dolphins, current offensive analyst for UNC Dan Dorazio - long career in the CFL To think Sherman, Coyle, and Duffner were on Carter’s original HC staff - it’s no wonder the playing talent developed and/or recruited by Carter was what it was. Drafted: Kozerski, Raquet, Fenerty, Lockbaum, Kelleher, McGovern There were also several players who were undrafted but wound up playing at least one game in the NFL such as Rob Porter, Jerry McCabe, Harry Flaherty, Frank Mattiace, etc. Chesney’s had great success and is a strong recruiter but, thus far, we haven’t hit the Carter/Duff level of talent.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 14, 2023 10:08:02 GMT -5
It's not that ignorant a statement IMO. You could ARGUE that 2022 was our best team ever. The 1987 team didn't have one competitive game. When you see lists about best FCS/AA teams of all time, the '87 Crusaders are typically found in the top five. Every game decided by double digits. I think the season-opener at Army has a deceivingly close score, too. 27-3 at the half. A shame they didn't have a chance in the playoffs. That team was do dominant they were the preseason number 1 the following year…but started slow and fell out of the rankings almost immediately.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 14, 2023 8:45:28 GMT -5
/\ /\ Thinking FCS only, we might look at national FCS rank (rather than PL titles) to gauge team quality. This would control for pre-Patriot League 1-AA teams, some schollie PL differences, varying capabilities of other PL teams over time, scheduling particulars, PL playoff rules, etc. (We’ll go with a general assumption the very top FCS teams are similarly talented since 1-AA/FCS began.)
No doubt Carter, Duffner, and Chesney come to mind.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 13, 2023 15:50:45 GMT -5
Last season “arguably the best team in program history.” A huge argument. The writer did not go back far enough. Orange Bowl ? Osmanski teams ? Even if he’s thinking 1-AA/FCS era I’m not sure I agree. (It’s not a scientific measure but one indicator of very high player quality would be NFL draft/NFL game day roster. We haven’t seen any Chesney Holy Cross player/recruits drafted to the NFL. I’m straining to think of any Chesney Holy Cross player/recruits on NFL game day rosters. And it’s been five seasons. That is one very significant difference with the late Rick Carter and his top end player/recruits relative to some highly ranked (FCS) Holy Cross 80’s teams. And might be a talking point in a “Best FCS Holy Cross Team” argument.)
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Post by hcpride on Jul 11, 2023 11:34:04 GMT -5
Northwestern, unsurprisingly, is struggling in the NIL era. Over the last two years their record is 4-20. And Athlon predicted dead last (14/14) for the upcoming year before the scandal broke. Recruiting continues to be their greatest challenge.
On the upside, it is BIG 10.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 10, 2023 19:26:28 GMT -5
You are 100% correct on this. Unfortunately fanbases are meaningless when it comes to college conference expansions. It's all about TV market size. That's why schools like Vanderbilt (SEC) and Northwestern (Big 10) are not going anywhere. It's no longer about markets - the Big 10 didn't need two teams in Los Angeles 12 miles apart to own the market. It's about brands now. Which is why, not now but eventually, schools like Northwestern, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, and Missouri are vulnerable. I don’t think BIG 10 and SEC will be tossing teams. More a case of bringing in additional teams over time to those two mega-conferences. On another front - and thanks to HUGE exit fees - looks like the ACC giants (Clemson, Florida State, etc) aren’t going anywhere for now. Which is good news for BC.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 10, 2023 14:34:31 GMT -5
They did it last year, 13-3. I think the Huskies under Jim Mora might be better than BC. Certainly. And West Point beat UCONN last year (34-17) so West Point MAY also beat BC this year.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 10, 2023 5:06:13 GMT -5
BC’s schedule is VERY soft this year so it’s quite likely they double last year’s win total and finish with 6. Northern Illinois, Holy Cross, UConn, and Army are 4 LIKELY W’s. May go 2/3 v VA/VT/GT .
Sooo, BC may appear to have some sort of Renaissance in 2023 based on weaker opponents alone…but their recruiting issues mean they may actually be in for an extended stay in the FBS Dark Ages.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 9, 2023 15:26:02 GMT -5
Maybe Georgetown could help Catholic Irish Americans collect reparations from the descendants of 17th century Cromwell supporters and descendants of 19th century English landlords. Those two groups of descendants could pay these reparations from reparations they in turn collect from descendants of Roman overlords, Viking raiders, and Norman knights.
Might take a bit of time, but the Jesuits could leverage a percentage of the Cromwell/Landlord descendant reparations to pay descendants of particular Native Americans and African Americans who suffered at the hands of Jesuits two or three centuries ago in North America.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 7, 2023 4:20:18 GMT -5
Since we continue to widen the talent gap relative to the rest of the PL (IMHO) we will again be the favorite in every PL game. Looking forward to extending our PL unbeaten streak and beating each team by 3+ touchdowns.
I’m predicting we sweep the first place votes in the PL PreSeason poll in late July. (Last year Fordham picked up 2 and Colgate 1).
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Post by hcpride on Jul 5, 2023 19:06:19 GMT -5
If he's so popular, maybe he should consider leaving SCOTUS and running for POTUS? Just a thought. I mean, he's younger than either top candidate for either party. Don't know about the two older gentlemen but popular decisions such as this (ending racial discrimination within the college admissions process and halting the presidential student debt shifting scheme) are only enhancing CT’s legacy. (Not necessarily in liberal circles.)
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Post by hcpride on Jul 5, 2023 15:51:07 GMT -5
Over 1,800 comments on Riley's column on the WSJ website. I would roughly estimate about 60% supportive on CT and Riley. More than a few vitriolic comments about CT. Clarence Thomas is pretty popular (although not in liberal circles).
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Post by hcpride on Jul 5, 2023 14:18:22 GMT -5
…Finally, when there is a 6-3 decision on SCOTUS, even if CT voted the other way or wasn't on the Court, it's still a 5-4 decision. So, let's get over this and move on. Good point. But just to tie up some loose ends When President Rougeau wrote his Boston Globe op-Ed titled: Clarence Thomas was a Beneficiary of Race-based Admissions at my School, was he ‘mistaken’? And ‘mistaken’ here too? The 20 young men he [Brooks] recruited have become an illustrious group, including business leaders, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Super Bowl champion, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, class of 1971.Another ‘mistake’?: Thomas, once the beneficiary of the most overt example of race-based admissions I can imagine…That’s a lot of ‘mistakes’ (central to his thesis BTW) in just the opening paragraphs of his op-Ed. A full-throated defense of racial discrimination in the college admissions process is to be expected given President Rougeau’s political leanings, but the (still uncorrected) ‘mistakes’ are a bit concerning.
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Post by hcpride on Jul 5, 2023 5:57:28 GMT -5
Of course, the chances of HC moving to FBS are maybe 1,000 to 1 against Since the odds are somewhat better that CBC may move up to FBS what are the odds that this happens before his current contract expires after the '25 season? The upcoming year ('23) and the year after ('24) would seem to be locks for Chesney's continued presence on Mount Saint James. Definite (Covid) 5th years and possibly Sluka for both those years so we've got a realistic shot at a National Championship. I think his restructured contract runs thru Jan. 31, 2028. (Of course if we run the table (minus BC) regular season and win in Frisco this year IMHO the FBS head coach offers will materialize...)
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Post by hcpride on Jul 5, 2023 4:45:41 GMT -5
Back to the collaborative program at HC. I think the 3+2 program with WPI was in effect when I was at HC but very very few participated as I recall. There were also students who took a course here and there at a Worcester consortium school.
So I’m wondering if we’ll eventually see a good number sign up for the new collaborative program or if it’ll remain a very small initiative. (The theory that bright engineering types might consider HC thanks to the new initiative is one worth exploring.)
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