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Post by inhocsigno on Jan 27, 2017 16:48:33 GMT -5
Another illustration of the folly of allowing PP back for a fifth year. Next season could have been Degenhardt's first season of full-time learning as the lead QB, setting us up for the tougher schedules to follow. I can't believe what an awful decision this was. Clueless. Nice try though. There are plenty of relevant matters that you can attack with respect to the progression of the program, but this is not one of them.
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Post by inhocsigno on Jan 24, 2017 12:09:45 GMT -5
He should go where his heart tells him to. Agreed. It is a very difficult process for kids and can be a very agonizing decision. From personal experience, I struggled with the decision for a long while - there are lots of factors and opposing forces pulling on these kids. I initially committed to another FCS school before decommitting and signing with HC.
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Post by inhocsigno on Jan 24, 2017 10:09:17 GMT -5
Are we "getting it done" with recruiting? I will ask again. Do we have a championship caliber incoming class? Yes or no. Why don't you slow your roll - cannot answer until after signing day, when we see what we actually have, who stayed, who got poached, who we poached, etc.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 29, 2016 14:24:26 GMT -5
Great story - any reason he is not the roster any more? I assume that means he is still enrolled, but no longer on the team.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 20, 2016 16:37:53 GMT -5
Very sad news. He has our team chaplain, my academic advisor and I "K-Oed" (as he described it), as I took every single class he thought. He will be missed at Holy Cross.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 7, 2016 16:03:17 GMT -5
Yes as to Trinity and he was a WR coach and later a RB coach on DA's staff. Happy Birthday to the great Dan Allen BTW.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 2, 2016 13:03:02 GMT -5
Sarasota and HC87 revel in the Trump post-fact world. If they write it, it must be true.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 2, 2016 10:48:08 GMT -5
Holy Cross defenses have been mostly bad to horrific since 1991...we have to recruit athletes who want to play on that side of the ball.... amongst other things. There were years in late 90's that the defense was very good, but the offense was bad.
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Post by inhocsigno on Dec 1, 2016 17:57:00 GMT -5
So bottom line is that DB recruiting in recent seasons has been poor. So I rest my case as to the phrase you were offended by--pathetic recruiting. That's the bottom line, isn't it? Performance. Your reasoning is a little off. If i follow - you believe that the commitments of new DB's is evidence of pathetic recruiting because DB's not in this recruiting class have not played to your satisfaction and they are less than 6'1". Did I get this right. Post hoc ergo propter hoc? Give it a rest. You tried to make a flippant comment, but your basis was off.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 30, 2016 19:59:00 GMT -5
I never said height should be the only thing. But you did call commitments from 3 recruits that none of us has ever seen play (probably) as evidence of pathetic recruiting simply based on their height. If even one of the 3 turns out to be a great DB for us, that would not be pathetic, but rather a recruiting win. Your dissatisfaction with the program is well documented, but moronic comments like that cheapen any valid comment you may proffer regarding the team, including any negative comment based on actual valid grounds.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 30, 2016 18:35:07 GMT -5
Sarasota - How tall were Gordie Lockbaum or Fernandez at DB.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 30, 2016 18:12:39 GMT -5
The conventional wisdom throughout the fball world, both college and pro, is that height in DB's is to be highly preferred--unlike the three DB recruits noted above. I note that the Univ of Alabama only has 4 DB's 6'1" or over (out of 19 DB's on the roster). Two of the 4 are walk-on seniors that have never seen the field. Does Saban have pathetic recruiting? I do agree that DB play has been disappointing for a few years. I don't believe it has anything to do with height. Indeed, I think the fascination with height of recruits on this board displays a certain level of ignorance with respect to the recruiting pool and football in general. Yes, all things being equal, you would rather have a taller player. However, when you look at height over football talent, you are not recruiting well. In the most basic terms: There are a limited number of HS players that are good enough to play at the FBS and FCS levels. Of that percentage, some smaller percentage are DB's If coaches want 6'1 and above DB's, obviously that is some further smaller percentage. Now you take the number of 6'1" and above DB's who don't get offered by Big Five Schools (conventional wisdom you alluded to meaning that the good tall players end up in Big Five Schools). Of those there is a very small percentage that are academically qualified to play in the PL. Player pool is very small. 5'11 and 6'0 are very good heights for DB's in FCS, provided they can play ball. I would have rather have HC sign all 5'8 DB's who can run, cover and tackle (and but for their size would be Big Five players), then 6'3" stiffs running 4.8's. The focus of our recruiting should be to get the very best players that are overlooked by FBS schools, for one reason or another, e.g. size. Would you rather a David Dugan (thin/light) or Dan Adams (short) or McBeath (small) tackling machine or some 6'2" 250 lb. linebacker that cannot play as well.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 30, 2016 17:45:59 GMT -5
breezy- pathetic recruiting How so? Explain.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 29, 2016 18:39:09 GMT -5
I think this whole thread is ridiculous, but I'll bite:
1. Work-out the lineman such as to have a leaner body mass composition by the fall. Monitor diet, weekly body fat caliper test.
Useless comment - guys need to be be large, strong and know how to block. Who cares what they look like or if their body fat percentage is X%.
2. Get us a fullback. Alternatively a nose guard with good paws and feet, even a TE who can run H-back a little.
No problem in concept. Convert a LB or TE for limited purposes - jumbo packages, etc.
3. Get us taller DBs.
Great in concept, except if a DB is 6'+ and can run, and not playing in FBS, he is probably not very good. Just need guys who are fast and can cover and at the FCS level, that means guys that don't have all the measureables that FBS scouts are looking for.
4. Get us bigger ILBs and move the current ILBs to OLB or SS.
Same as #3 above. Speed kills. Better to have a 5'10" 210 crazed dog, then a 6'3" 240 slow LB that cannot cover or run anybody down.
5. Shift offensive focus in the Spring to developing a power running game. Try putting two back in the backfield and running some off tackle plays that set up the counter. We have PP coming back so we don't need to focus on passing as much as we would if he were graduating. Get the TEs involved. Make Winter training and Spring ball like boot camp again. Learn how to inflict pain and fear when you carry the ball. Watch video on Bragalone from Lehigh and have a challenge to see who can replicate what he does best. Make our goal 3.5 yards per carry. Make our goal to have one series each game where we score a TD with no passes.
Yes we need the ability to run for short yardage when necessary, in jumbo package, but dominant passing game is present and future of football. Lombardi is no longer coaching and Jim Taylor is no longer the packer power sweep. We could use better balance, but at this point, I would not care if throw 90% of the time or we switched to the wishbone and run 90% of time, as long as we win. You install and play call based on the personnel available. I don't see our line dominating the line of scrimmage. Maybe a zone blocking scheme would be better, but I am not a coach, and I assume you are not either.
6. Hire a sports psychiatrist for the defensive so they understand their goal is to physically destroy the guy in front of them. No more 10 yard cushions.
Stupid comment. You are recruiting the wrong guys if they need to shrink to tell to play physical. I don't think that is the issue.
7. Condition, condition, condition. If we're not going to win on talent, win on physicality.
I am sure they condition sufficiently. You can only run so many sprints before you puke.
8. Practice 500,000 field goals from 40 yards and in so this becomes rote.
Agree. Kickers are a necessary evil in football. They have one job and should be able to do it.
9. Keep doing what your doing with the receivers, no problem there. Develop the tall ones.
What is your fascination with height. If we sign a 6'5" receiver, I question his football skills.
10. Make it somebody's job to manage the clock at the end of the half and the end of the game and make that person watch as many late-half/late-game situations as possible to develop clear plans for any situation.
I assume the coach would do that.
11. Start using the athletes you have; don't let them rot on the bench if someone is better than them at their position. Move people from offense to defense if you have to.
I assume the coaching staff is trying to field the best players in each position in order to give us the best chance to win. I believe that assumption is valid because coaches want to win and retain their jobs. If the coaches are not playing the best players, they should be coaching Pop Warner, not at the D I AA level.
12. Let's recruit locally, and make HC a destination school again for the Northeast's top student-athletes. Dive deeper into North Jersey Parochial Schools, particular in Bergen County.
Fine on NJ, but New England is not deep enough to provide roster strength. There are some great players in MA, but not enough and competition is weak (notwithstanding the many homers on this page). Simply, you can only make #@*&$~!aide out of #@*&$~!. Need to recruit heavier in Southeast, Texas, OH and CA. Given the finite number of qualified players (academically and athletically), it takes a nationwide search to find the best players. I would invest more budget in recruiting.
I hope this satisfies your desire to keep bumping this "list". Also, I think naming the thread the Friends of HC Football composite list is a little deceptive - I assume that was intended to give more gravitas to the futile exercise. I, of course, apologize if the list was endorsed by TD or other leaders of that group.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 18, 2016 19:19:54 GMT -5
We need some more 5'6, 165pd, 5.1 40yd dash deebees. . Recruiting is where HC/CTG is coming up short, his clock management notwithstanding. Do we have any of those? I think you are referring to the bobblehead figures they gave out.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 18, 2016 11:29:22 GMT -5
Welcome newsaderdad. Agree on all points.
As an aside, with respect to the comments re New England football on the board, you can ignore that. This has been an ongoing commentary for too long. Obviously there are great players in all areas of the country, but you need to recruit heavily in high volume - highly competitive areas, i.e. if you want to win more, you need to recruit successfully in Florida.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 18, 2016 10:40:19 GMT -5
Sarasota - I am thinking about playing the best player on our team at this time. nothing else. It is idiotic not to play him. When 2018 rolls around, you play the best player at the position, who may or may not even be on the roster in 2016 or 2017. Your chicken little prognostication is simply not based on actual football thinking.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 18, 2016 10:21:57 GMT -5
Based on the reasoning in my prior posts, we are now set up for disaster in the seasons following next season. ADNP should have let CTG go now, bring in a new head coach, not allow PP to be the lead QB next year, let the new coach settle in, develop our QB of the future. In effect, we would be "sacrificing" next season for the sake of the long term. Instead, ADNP has done the shortsighted--and easy--thing. This is ADNP's first blunder--a huge one--along with scheduling ridiculous opponents in the future. Sarasota, I can appreciate you sticking to your guns, but I really question your reasoning. Indeed, I think it is ridiculous. You play the best players available at that given time. PERIOD. Having the 5th year players back gives us a better chance to win next year. Wins lead to more wins because: (1) team attitude; (2) better recruits; and (3) fan/booster support increases. Your position also assumes that players will not get better at practice, learning from better players, etc. Playing a second string player because he is going to be on the roster longer than first string player is antithetical to the goal of rebuilding a first class FCS PROGRAM. Your references are obviously to Pujols. If Wade or any other QB can beat him out, then they deserve to play. However, based on what I saw, the present QB's on the roster are far behind him in skill. You play to win every game and he gives us the best chance to win. Under your rationale, you would just play freshman because they are going to be on the roster for the BC, Syracuse game, etc.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 14, 2016 10:41:47 GMT -5
Yes he was and a rather ironic halftime presentation of one of those large symbolic checks for the record breaking Crusader Athletics Fund with Fr. B, Nate, I believe Heather Palmer, and one other person who escapes my memory. Here the announcer is extolling what great things the CAF does for HC athletics and we were getting routed by Fordham. While it made me wonder why I have been contributing since the Gridiron Club's inception, I was watching Nate's and Fr. B's faces on the jumbotron and they looked a bit chagrined, if that is the right word. Anyone else who was there have the same thoughts, are was it just me? I would agree. Admittedly, my memory is a bit hazy as we met up with many former teammates/classmates for pregame activities, being away from the kids for the first time., thinking that 38 is 18 again, etc., but the feeling in the stadium was an interesting mix - the positive social atmosphere and the very disappointing performance. I imagine ADNP was feeling the same, i.e. great event and embarrasing performance. I loved that ADNP got this game set up - as it was great to meet up with everyone from TD128 to young guys like Dom and Brock (and everyone in between). These are the types of events that help the program and keep alumni engaged. I just wish we played well.
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Post by inhocsigno on Nov 7, 2016 9:57:36 GMT -5
I have been off the board for the weekend, but here is my take. PP, objectively, is the best QB on the roster BY FAR. It is not even close. This is college football and you play the best player. Presumably he will be the best QB next year. If he legitimately gets beat out, whoever beats him out should play. I don't see that happening with the current group of QB's. His coming back helps the program in several ways and gives him his only chance at getting a roster invite. Any one who thinks that the program is better off playing a QB in 2017 just because they will be there in 2018 is clueless.
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Post by inhocsigno on Oct 25, 2016 15:30:52 GMT -5
I can tell you that many people follow the team from afar, but may not go to the games. Some of that is mostly due to geography. I am from the Dan Allen era, including the 7-4 season in 2000 (one loss from PL championship). I follow the games weekly, usually watching the streams with my son, and speak to many former teammates weekly regarding the games and the program. There is much interest in the program and more so since TD128 ramped up his efforts. I believe that the program is moving in the right direction. Obviously, we all would like to see it move faster. Like all FCS programs outside of the few geographically isolated state schools (e.g. Montana, the Dakotas, etc.), recruiting and depth are real problems. This is amplified in the PL, especially given the academic requirements for admission. I hate to blame injuries, because 2's should be able to step in the place of 1's and perform, but we are being moronic if we don't recognize that this season would have been much different absent the injuries at various key positions at different times, i.e. QB, DB's and WR's at certain times.
Whether or not ADNP makes some move, I will support the program. Each year or two, there is one team in the league that is simply better than the rest of the PL, and Lehigh appears to be that team this year. Generally, the PL is an offense first league, and we can compete at a higher level if we focus on improving the defense in the offseason, assuming no reduction in the efficiency of a limited-injury offense. In any event, in the future, I fully expect that we will be able to compete for a PL championship each year.
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Post by inhocsigno on Oct 19, 2016 12:26:28 GMT -5
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Post by inhocsigno on Oct 13, 2016 14:56:35 GMT -5
I am still behind this team and Coach Gilmore. However, in the event that NP actually reads this board, and assuming he has already made an adverse decision re Gilmore's future, I think that a young and up and coming coach is the way to go. Assuming the foregoing, I hope that current Eagles Special Teams Coordinator and future NFL head coach David Fipp would be at the top of the list of NP's candidates. Not sure if he would entertain an interview offer, but he is the type of young coach that can energize the program.
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Post by inhocsigno on Oct 13, 2016 9:28:56 GMT -5
"Been watching these kids for awhile now and they don't seem to get bigger, stronger, or faster, or better. They just seem to get older..."
Wouldn't a lot of "big, strong, faster" be mostly on the strength and conditioning coach who I don't think is under the control of the football coach because he has that same role for all the varsity teams? Does that not fall on the AD?
Coach Oliver is a highly respected S&C Coach, and is one of the best in the business. The assumption that the kids are not getting "bigger, stronger, or faster" is just not supportable. Kids don't typically grow much taller then when they are recruited, unless they graduate HS at 17. They gain muscle weight - 10-15 lbs is probably ideal - while marginally increasing speed and maintaining flexibility and athletic ability. If you want beach workouts and bodybuilders, go to Venice Beach. You don't win football games with guys that look like Tarzan, but play like Jane.
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Post by inhocsigno on Oct 12, 2016 13:32:59 GMT -5
Better talent at Lehigh. Plain and simple.Since 1991 the talent at HC has been below average at best with some exceptions. Not true - actually pretty idiotic statement as most of the players at the PL schools have been recruited by the same programs.
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