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Post by sader1970 on Aug 29, 2021 13:20:37 GMT -5
Storrs might be but the game will be in East Hartford. Not sure how far that radius reaches.
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 29, 2021 13:24:07 GMT -5
Storrs might be but the game will be in East Hartford. Not sure how far that radius reaches. They only pay milage to the shorter distance, either the campus or the stadium. The last few miles are on Jen.🙂
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Post by alum on Aug 29, 2021 15:28:32 GMT -5
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 29, 2021 16:58:37 GMT -5
Edsall makes $1.6 million and still throws out S-bombs at his official press conference. Who does he think he is, Jim Calhoun?🙂. I don't expect football coaches to sound like Nuns but I can only remember Coach Chesney sounding very professional and being a credit to his employer in any video clip or tweet I have seen or read.
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Post by midwestsader05 on Aug 29, 2021 17:10:42 GMT -5
I was able to watch most of the games yesterday and have the following thoughts: 1) I cannot think of a worse scheduled game to start a season for UCONN after two years off. If you are going to travel 3k miles and play in 7th circle of hell heat, then go pick up a nice check in Los Angeles. Let your players experience the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum. Obviously, I don’t know all the intricacies of this 2021 schedule for UCONN but it was a terrible decision. At the very worst, why would the agree to play anything but a night game to help with heat and jet lag? It was asymmetric risk v reward to the downside IMO. 2) UCONN is one of the worst 10 teams in FBS right now but they would still be a Top 10-15 FCS team. Fresno St was unquestionably better in all facets of the game but this game looked to my like the odds makers had it right (Fresno -28 points) until the sack/fumble, scoop and score late in the 1st. They could have easily been down only 14 at half if not for that and the two other big plays enabled by awful missed tackles in the secondary. You can count on one hand how many FCS players could have made those type of athletic plays by both those Fresno WR’s. 3) I actually stayed up and watched some of the Southern Utah v San Jose State game (also on CBSSN) and the talent differential looked similar to UCONN v Fresno. Southern Utah has been on the upswing (with the exception of this spring) in the very deep Big Sky conference and there was still a meaningful difference in talent and depth. San Jose St and Fresno St should challenge Nevada for that side of the Mountain West Conference. I’ll have more to say in my game week outlook and prediction but as others have pointed out, I don’t think UCONN getting embarrassed yesterday is really a net positive or negative for us. UCONN came into the season with an O/U at winning 2.5 games so odds makers think they will beat HC and Yale and their game with UMASS is a toss-up. Nothing has changed.
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Post by efg72 on Aug 29, 2021 17:15:55 GMT -5
Had a drink with him at the Bridgewater, NJ Marriott years ago before they played Rutgers
He and his staff acted as if UCONN hoops and the staff were non existent- i suggested he take a deep breath and understand he was not close to that level with his program- a mild screaming match followed and much to my surprise the Mgr -Terry asked he and his staff to leave the bar
I guess staying there 140 plus days a year has its advantages.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Aug 29, 2021 17:24:31 GMT -5
Had a drink with him at the Bridgewater, NJ Marriott years ago before they played Rutgers He and his staff acted as if UCONN hoops and the staff were non existent- i suggested he take a deep breath and understand he was not close to that level with his program- a mild screaming match followed and much to my surprise the Mgr -Terry asked he and his staff to leave the bar I guess staying there 140 plus days a year has its advantages. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger prick than Edsall -- ACTP
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Post by hchoops on Aug 29, 2021 17:24:42 GMT -5
Congrats on challenging him
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Aug 29, 2021 17:33:05 GMT -5
I was able to watch most of the games yesterday and have the following thoughts: 1) I cannot think of a worse scheduled game to start a season for UCONN after two years off. If you are going to travel 3k miles and play in 7th circle of hell heat, then go pick up a nice check in Los Angeles. Let your players experience the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum. Obviously, I don’t know all the intricacies of this 2021 schedule for UCONN but it was a terrible decision. It was asymmetric risk v reward to the downside IMO. 2) UCONN is one of the worst 10 teams in FBS right now but they would still be a Top 10-15 FCS team. Fresno St was unquestionably better in all facets of the game but this game looked to my like the odds makers had it right (Fresno -28 points) until the sack/fumble, scoop and score late in the 1st. They could have easily been down only 14 at half if not for that and the two other big plays enabled by awful missed tackles in the secondary. You can count on one hand how many FCS players could have made those type of athletic plays by both those Fresno WR’s. 3) I actually stayed up and watched some of the Southern Utah v San Jose State game and the talent differential looked similar to UCONN v Fresno. Southern Utah has been on the upswing (with the exception of this spring) in the very deep Big Sky conference and there was still a meaningful difference in talent and depth. San Jose St and Fresno St should challenge Nevada for that side of the Mountain West Conference. I’ll have more to say in my game week outlook and prediction but as others have pointed out, I don’t think UCONN getting embarrassed yesterday is really a net positive or negative for us. UCONN came into the season with an O/U at winning 2.5 games so odds makers think they will beat HC and Yale and their game with UMASS is a toss-up. Nothing has changed. The bottom 10 teams in FBS would not sniff the jockstrap of the FCS Top 25. So you're a little off base there. Objectively, I would guess UCONN would rank somewhere between 40 and 50 in FCS. In E Hartford, probably still slight favorites against us -- possible line in the range of -3.5 to -5.5. Assuming the Bulldogs are similar to where they've been at since 2014 or so, Yale will likely be favored over UConn. You also make it sound like the game was closer score dictated, which was not the case at all. The Huskies got absolutely boat-raced. If those open field tackles had been made on the long pass plays, Fresno still scores 3 or 4 plays later on those drives. 65 yards of total offense also = totally overmatched. With regards to #1, remember UCONN is an independent. They have to take what they can get schedule-wise. Certainly a tough trip to start the year for sure. Not sure why this game couldn't have been aired by CBS Sports at 8pm PT to avoid the dangerous heat -- not like there was much competition in that time slot.
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 29, 2021 17:38:06 GMT -5
Interesting and accurate but pretty sure the announcers, particularly the color guy, emphasizing over and over how Edsall (he's been as successful as his namesake car*) of football used the year off from games to build the players' strength and work on the basics of his players, like tackling. In fairness, I was pretty impressed during the first quarter by the UConn defense making pretty sure tackles. The strip of their QB (which I think should have been reviewed as it was pretty close as to whether his arm was moving forward and an incomplete pass rather than a fumble/TD) seemed to send the entire team into a funk that they never got out of on both sides of the ball. Maybe it was just the superior competition but their QB was not impressive at all overthrowing wide open receivers which Edsall blamed for the most part on his O-line.
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Aug 29, 2021 17:49:48 GMT -5
UConn isn’t a top 10-15 FCS team, IMO.
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Post by DFW HOYA on Aug 29, 2021 17:56:51 GMT -5
I think Storrs is within the radius of travel the T&G will pay for a reporter to cover a game live, which adds one more plus to this game in addition to the check and the opportunity to snare an FBS pelt. Kudos to whoever scheduled it, which I assume was NP and TG. Does the paper cover any PL road games as a result? If so, it may be the last newspaper in the conference with a dedicated beat reporter, since the longtime beat reporter for Lafayette passed away and the Lehigh reporter has retired. With regards to #1, remember UCONN is an independent. They have to take what they can get schedule-wise. Certainly a tough trip to start the year for sure. Not sure why this game couldn't have been aired by CBS Sports at 8pm PT to avoid the dangerous heat -- not like there was much competition in that time slot. CBS Sports isn't selling ad time for a game starting at 11 pm on the East coast.
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 29, 2021 19:17:11 GMT -5
I think Storrs is within the radius of travel the T&G will pay for a reporter to cover a game live, which adds one more plus to this game in addition to the check and the opportunity to snare an FBS pelt. Kudos to whoever scheduled it, which I assume was NP and TG. Does the paper cover any PL road games as a result? If so, it may be the last newspaper in the conference with a dedicated beat reporter, since the longtime beat reporter for Lafayette passed away and the Lehigh reporter has retired. With regards to #1, remember UCONN is an independent. They have to take what they can get schedule-wise. Certainly a tough trip to start the year for sure. Not sure why this game couldn't have been aired by CBS Sports at 8pm PT to avoid the dangerous heat -- not like there was much competition in that time slot. CBS Sports isn't selling ad time for a game starting at 11 pm on the East coast. I recall the T&G sending their HC beat writer to BU to cover HC games. They probably would go to Brown or UMass. UNH or URI maybe not.
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 29, 2021 19:42:12 GMT -5
Interesting and accurate but pretty sure the announcers, particularly the color guy, emphasizing over and over how Edsall (he's been as successful as his namesake car*) of football used the year off from games to build the players' strength and work on the basics of his players, like tackling. In fairness, I was pretty impressed during the first quarter by the UConn defense making pretty sure tackles. The strip of their QB (which I think should have been reviewed as it was pretty close as to whether his arm was moving forward and an incomplete pass rather than a fumble/TD) seemed to send the entire team into a funk that they never got out of on both sides of the ball. Maybe it was just the superior competition but their QB was not impressive at all overthrowing wide open receivers which Edsall blamed for the most part on his O-line. You forgot "my" auto company. In 1966 I sold my paper route for $135 to a kid up the street as I would be going to a Catholic HS two towns away and wouldn't be home in time to deliver the afternoon paper. My mother took me to a stock broker who had a one man office one flight up one town away. He asked me if I liked cars. Sure, I said. He proposed an up and coming small company that was ready to take on the big boys: American Motors. Ten shares for 12 7/8 plus commission came out to $135. Well AMC merged with Chrysler and I got one share and lost track of it. A few years ago I noticed my name was on the State Treasurer's abandoned asset list. I filled out the paperwork and ended up with $47. I just wished the guy had asked me "Do you like computers?"
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 29, 2021 20:06:28 GMT -5
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 29, 2021 20:13:09 GMT -5
Sharp car. I bought a '63 Plymouth Valiant for $375 to drive to school senior year. With six under the hood and three on the column that car was a rocket.
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Post by midwestsader05 on Aug 30, 2021 9:04:06 GMT -5
I was able to watch most of the games yesterday and have the following thoughts: 1) I cannot think of a worse scheduled game to start a season for UCONN after two years off. If you are going to travel 3k miles and play in 7th circle of hell heat, then go pick up a nice check in Los Angeles. Let your players experience the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum. Obviously, I don’t know all the intricacies of this 2021 schedule for UCONN but it was a terrible decision. It was asymmetric risk v reward to the downside IMO. 2) UCONN is one of the worst 10 teams in FBS right now but they would still be a Top 10-15 FCS team. Fresno St was unquestionably better in all facets of the game but this game looked to my like the odds makers had it right (Fresno -28 points) until the sack/fumble, scoop and score late in the 1st. They could have easily been down only 14 at half if not for that and the two other big plays enabled by awful missed tackles in the secondary. You can count on one hand how many FCS players could have made those type of athletic plays by both those Fresno WR’s. 3) I actually stayed up and watched some of the Southern Utah v San Jose State game and the talent differential looked similar to UCONN v Fresno. Southern Utah has been on the upswing (with the exception of this spring) in the very deep Big Sky conference and there was still a meaningful difference in talent and depth. San Jose St and Fresno St should challenge Nevada for that side of the Mountain West Conference. I’ll have more to say in my game week outlook and prediction but as others have pointed out, I don’t think UCONN getting embarrassed yesterday is really a net positive or negative for us. UCONN came into the season with an O/U at winning 2.5 games so odds makers think they will beat HC and Yale and their game with UMASS is a toss-up. Nothing has changed. The bottom 10 teams in FBS would not sniff the jockstrap of the FCS Top 25. So you're a little off base there. Objectively, I would guess UCONN would rank somewhere between 40 and 50 in FCS. In E Hartford, probably still slight favorites against us -- possible line in the range of -3.5 to -5.5. Assuming the Bulldogs are similar to where they've been at since 2014 or so, Yale will likely be favored over UConn. You also make it sound like the game was closer score dictated, which was not the case at all. The Huskies got absolutely boat-raced. If those open field tackles had been made on the long pass plays, Fresno still scores 3 or 4 plays later on those drives. 65 yards of total offense also = totally overmatched. With regards to #1, remember UCONN is an independent. They have to take what they can get schedule-wise. Certainly a tough trip to start the year for sure. Not sure why this game couldn't have been aired by CBS Sports at 8pm PT to avoid the dangerous heat -- not like there was much competition in that time slot. NYcrusader (and SOV) I have to disagree with your subjective view regarding the Top 15 FCS programs vs the bottom 15 FBS programs. NYcrusader, to say the FBS schools “would not sniff the jockstrap” of the FCS Top 25 is really excessive. My personal opinion is that if you had an objective contest where say, the top and bottom of each division had a “challenge”, the results would be really close to equal (8-7 either way) The only games where we get to test this in Week 1 are Eastern Washington (Top 15 FCS) v UNLV (near bottom 15 in FBS) and to a lesser extent South Dakota (near Top 25 in FCS) v Kansas (probably bottom 15 FBS.) By your logic, EW should be favored by 14 or 21? My opinion is coming from someone who’s watched too much FCS football over the past 20 years (the guy who stays up late to fall asleep to the Southern Utah v San Jose St game) and group of 5 FBS football my entire life. (my dad played in the WAC in the early 1970’s so we would stay up watching games like Hawaii at BYU) My reasoning mostly has to do with the 30+ full athletic scholarship advantage in FBS. Can you imagine what Chesney and Co could do with an extra 30 full scholarships? Most people underestimate the depth and drop-off in talent between 1st and 2nd string in FCS as a result of this dispersion in $$. We have maybe 5-8 guys that could start for bottom 30 FCS programs but that’s it. Brian Foley was an FCS All-American and is working hard to at best crack the 2-deep at Duke (an FBS ~60-70 Program..?) What would it say if one of HC’s best O-lineman in the past decade is 3rd string in the bottom of the ACC? So my question to you, if HC loses to UCONN (and UCONN is in the 40’s in FCS) is HC likely to be a sub 50 program in FCS this year? I’M VERY OPEN TO BE PROVEN WRONG but I suspect if we pull out a victory, it’s more indicative that UCONN would be in the 20’s in FCS and HC has a chance to finish a top 15-20 program at the end of the season. The only other top 15 FCS programs we will face this year are definitely Monmouth and maybe Yale or Fordham (who knows with Harvard) I will be sure to ask the players I’m connected with about the comparisons in talent but I can almost guarantee you they will say UCONN is closer to Monmouth than they are to whoever finishes 2nd or 3rd in the PL.
I guess the only thing that would make me post next Sunday (hat in hand) is if HC just straight up beats UCONN in all facets of the game (our win over Army in 2002 was solely because we dominated the turnover and special teams battles (which led to a massive advantage in starting field position). We would have to beat UCONN in most team stats for me to drift to your way of thinking. Less than a week and we will know a lot more. Looking forward to it!
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Post by timholycross on Aug 30, 2021 10:17:56 GMT -5
I think Storrs is within the radius of travel the T&G will pay for a reporter to cover a game live, which adds one more plus to this game in addition to the check and the opportunity to snare an FBS pelt. Kudos to whoever scheduled it, which I assume was NP and TG. Does the paper cover any PL road games as a result? If so, it may be the last newspaper in the conference with a dedicated beat reporter, since the longtime beat reporter for Lafayette passed away and the Lehigh reporter has retired. With regards to #1, remember UCONN is an independent. They have to take what they can get schedule-wise. Certainly a tough trip to start the year for sure. Not sure why this game couldn't have been aired by CBS Sports at 8pm PT to avoid the dangerous heat -- not like there was much competition in that time slot. CBS Sports isn't selling ad time for a game starting at 11 pm on the East coast. 11am helps an Eastern team, doesn't it? Same as 2pm here. Heat of course makes it an insane decision.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Aug 30, 2021 10:57:14 GMT -5
Re: Top FCS versus Bottom FBS I looked at 15 teams for each using the 2019 season instead of the truncated 2020 season. I used Sagarin's rankings
Top 15 FCS Ranged from #31 to # 130 among all D-1 teams Median was # 107
Bottom 15 FBS Ranged from #133 to #232 among all D-1 teams Median was # 158
A #107 versus # 158 game would have the FCS team favored by 10 points.
If you believe Sagarin's rankings have any validity, I think you'd conclude that the best FCS teams would pummel the worst FBS teams.
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Post by midwestsader05 on Aug 30, 2021 11:25:44 GMT -5
Re: Top FCS versus Bottom FBS I looked at 15 teams for each using the 2019 season instead of the truncated 2020 season. I used Sagarin's rankings Top 15 FCS Ranged from #31 to # 130 among all D-1 teams Median was # 107 Bottom 15 FBS Ranged from #133 to #232 among all D-1 teams Median was # 158 A #107 versus # 158 game would have the FCS team favored by 10 points. If you believe Sagarin's rankings have any validity, I think you'd conclude that the best FCS teams would pummel the worst FBS teams. KY, I don’t know enough about Sagarin’s methodology to give an educated assessment. So I will just rely on my eyes and past results. Until I see more FCS teams consistently win these types of games against the bottom quartile of the FBS, I will tend to think the teams/games would be more evenly split, no one is “pummeling” each other up and down either way. So the Week 1 games where we get to somewhat test this hypothesis are: HC (Top 25-30 FCS?) v UCONN (bottom 5-10 FBS) SDSU (Top 3 FCS) v Colorado State (~90-100 FBS) Eastern Wash (Top 10-15 FCS) v UNLV (bottom 10-15 FBS) U South Dakota (Top 30 FCS) v Kansas (bottom 10-15 FBS) And to a lesser extent: Monmouth (Top 15 FCS) v Middle Tennessee (bottom quartile FBS) Jacksonville State (Top 10 FCS) v UAB (80-90 FBS) Montana State (Top 15 FCS) v Wyoming (80-90 FBS but supposedly upside potential this year) By you and other’s comments, these games should go 6-1 to the FCS..at absolute worst 5-2? (with most FCS schools winning comfortably by 2-3 touchdowns?) Per my comments, I’ll bet the FCS goes 3-4 in these games with most being competitive. Side bet haha?
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Aug 30, 2021 11:30:01 GMT -5
Please don't pin me to a 6-1 record for these specific games based on my recap of 2019 standings for a different set of teams..
I will check these games and give you a forecast.
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Post by hcpride on Aug 30, 2021 11:41:23 GMT -5
Re: Top FCS versus Bottom FBS I looked at 15 teams for each using the 2019 season instead of the truncated 2020 season. I used Sagarin's rankings Top 15 FCS Ranged from #31 to # 130 among all D-1 teams Median was # 107 Bottom 15 FBS Ranged from #133 to #232 among all D-1 teams Median was # 158 A #107 versus # 158 game would have the FCS team favored by 10 points. If you believe Sagarin's rankings have any validity, I think you'd conclude that the best FCS teams would pummel the worst FBS teams. While a team like JMU can take on and beat the bottom of the FBS, I am not sure I would extend that generality to more than a small handful of FCS teams. JMU tends to have speed and depth as part of their team profile. They are not going to get smoked by the lower FBS. (I do have concerns regarding our speed v UConn which why I'm picking them but that is another story. I'm not sure I like a running HC QB in this particular matchup).
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Post by midwestsader05 on Aug 30, 2021 12:15:30 GMT -5
Please don't pin me to a 6-1 record for these specific games based on my recap of 2019 standings for a different set of teams.. I will check these games and give you a forecast. I’m not, All in good fun. It’s just when I see people conclude with words like “pummel” or “destroy”, that sounds like an awful lot of certainty and conviction. A couple more games that should be on the radar this weekend: Central Arkansas (Top 15 FCS) v Arkansas State (bottom quartile FBS) Not quite there but pay attention: both competitive FCS programs in good conferences Portland State v Hawaii UT Martin v Western Kentucky That makes it an even 10 FCS v FBS game to watch where the FCS team has a reasonable to very good chance to win. Any other FCS wins in Week 1 will be big upsets!
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Aug 30, 2021 15:33:55 GMT -5
Please don't pin me to a 6-1 record for these specific games based on my recap of 2019 standings for a different set of teams.. I will check these games and give you a forecast. Looking at those 7 games HC = 45% to beat UConn So Dak State= 50% to beat Colo State East Wash= 40% to beat UNLV U So Dak= 10% to beat Kansas Monmouth= 30% to beat MTSU Jax State= 10% to beat UAB Mont State= 5% to beat Wyoming This adds up to 1.9 wins, so I'll go with 2. It could be 3 in both HC and SoDak State win
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Aug 30, 2021 17:38:23 GMT -5
Re: Top FCS versus Bottom FBS I looked at 15 teams for each using the 2019 season instead of the truncated 2020 season. I used Sagarin's rankings Top 15 FCS Ranged from #31 to # 130 among all D-1 teams Median was # 107 Bottom 15 FBS Ranged from #133 to #232 among all D-1 teams Median was # 158 A #107 versus # 158 game would have the FCS team favored by 10 points. If you believe Sagarin's rankings have any validity, I think you'd conclude that the best FCS teams would pummel the worst FBS teams. While a team like JMU can take on and beat the bottom of the FBS, I am not sure I would extend that generality to more than a small handful of FCS teams. JMU tends to have speed and depth as part of their team profile. They are not going to get smoked by the lower FBS. (I do have concerns regarding our speed v UConn which why I'm picking them but that is another story. I'm not sure I like a running HC QB in this particular matchup). The bottom feeder teams in FBS wouldn't even dare schedule JMU. Because they'd get their doors blown off. North Dakota State won five in a row against the Big Ten (not bottom quartile FBS teams by any stretch). There's a reason that they no longer get any FBS games, and instead will now open the season against someone like San Diego, Albany or Butler.
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