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Post by longsuffering on Jul 28, 2023 16:05:16 GMT -5
34,325 is the attendance for BC vs Maine last season. Crusader nation should be able to beat that. I have heard anecdotally that students from Northeastern, BU, Babson, PC etc., who don't have football will get together with friends from BC to enjoy a P-5 level football experience with them to check that box. Maybe that happens on a smaller scale at HC with the potential to increase as HC football continues to improve. The HC Good Time Marching Band and other game day fan amenities should improve in lockstep with the improvements the Coaches and players are providing. The Holy Cross Band situation is an enigma to me. Covid was disruptive but three factors may work in favor of a robust pep band: 1) The new performing arts center should attract more musicians and dancers/performers. 2) Coach Chesney has revitalized HC Football. 3) Coach Paulsen will revitalize and Coach Magarity has revitalized Holy Cross basketball. I don't remember if there was an HC band presence at the WBB NCAA game in March. Logistically it's doubtful as it was hard enough to get the team there. Well UVM band had no issues getting from Columbus Ohio on a Friday afternoon game to Storrs CT for a Saturday game. They got into Burlington at 1am or so and then started the trek to Storrs in the early morning hours on Saturday. Not flying directly to Bradley or Providence: nutty. Maybe connecting flights wouldn't have arrived until Sunday. That must be a good six hour drive from Burlington to Storrs.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 28, 2023 16:21:36 GMT -5
BC charges $10 more for FCS Holy Cross than FBS Northern Illinois? I blame one group of people and you know who you are. It's the HC faithful who go to games wearing Kelly Green slacks and yellow sweaters sporting Nantucket dump stickers on their Tesla, giving schools the idea they can gouge the rest of us.🙂
Actually BC grads might fit this description more than HC grads.
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Post by HCFC45 on Jul 28, 2023 17:57:51 GMT -5
We have aisle in PP by QQ as well @$25 each I. Parking cost me almost as much. I am sure! Last time we took a freeshuttle from Brighton. Apparently they are not offering this anymore so the plan will be to park at Riverside and ride the green /sline in. On another note, anyone know when HC will release a block of tickets for West Point? Parking in Brighton at the New Balance parking garage is available for $20 with shuttle bus service BC. Confirmed with the BC ticket office....
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Post by bfoley82 on Jul 28, 2023 18:01:19 GMT -5
Well UVM band had no issues getting from Columbus Ohio on a Friday afternoon game to Storrs CT for a Saturday game. They got into Burlington at 1am or so and then started the trek to Storrs in the early morning hours on Saturday. Not flying directly to Bradley or Providence: nutty. Maybe connecting flights wouldn't have arrived until Sunday. That must be a good six hour drive from Burlington to Storrs. NCAA only charters from the campus to the site for the band. Thus the reason to fly back to Burlington and bus the next day to Storrs. Those band kids were tired as anyone could tell in Storrs.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jul 28, 2023 18:01:52 GMT -5
I am sure! Last time we took a freeshuttle from Brighton. Apparently they are not offering this anymore so the plan will be to park at Riverside and ride the green /sline in. On another note, anyone know when HC will release a block of tickets for West Point? Parking in Brighton at the New Banlance parking garage is available for $20 with shuttle bus service BC. Confirmed with the BC ticket office.... Do they still do the free shuttle from Needham?
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Post by timholycross on Jul 28, 2023 18:50:39 GMT -5
What about the Newton campus? That's where we ended up in 2018. Shuttle bus from there.
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Post by sader1970 on Jul 29, 2023 5:17:20 GMT -5
That’s where I have my reserved spot.
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Post by HCFC45 on Jul 29, 2023 7:47:22 GMT -5
Parking in Brighton at the New Balance parking garage is available for $20 with shuttle bus service BC. Confirmed with the BC ticket office.... Do they still do the free shuttle from Needham? Have no info on that... only asked about Brighton because that's where we parked last time we played BC.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 29, 2023 9:25:50 GMT -5
Game starts at noon on September 9th of the the hottest year evah. Bring sun screen.
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necfbfan
Climbing Mt. St. James
Posts: 78
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Post by necfbfan on Jul 29, 2023 12:28:49 GMT -5
Game starts at noon on September 9th of the the hottest year evah. Bring sun screen. Several BC fans have complained that BC ran out of bottled water during their home opener against Rutgers last year. Might be worth getting extra hydrated before this one
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jul 29, 2023 14:05:54 GMT -5
Game starts at noon on September 9th of the the hottest year evah. Bring sun screen. Several BC fans have complained that BC ran out of bottled water during their home opener against Rutgers last year. Might be worth getting extra hydrated before this one Let's see--you have a captive audience and a monopoly on a highly-demanded shelf-stable product with maybe a 90% gross profit margin. Sure--cut back on inventory so you won't have to tie up $1,000 or $2,000 in inventory for another week or two until the next home gain. Imbeciles
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Post by HC92 on Jul 29, 2023 14:14:06 GMT -5
Several BC fans have complained that BC ran out of bottled water during their home opener against Rutgers last year. Might be worth getting extra hydrated before this one Let's see--you have a captive audience and a monopoly on a highly-demanded shelf-stable product with maybe a 90% gross profit margin. Sure--cut back on inventory so you won't have to tie up $1,000 or $2,000 in inventory for another week or two until the next home gain. Imbeciles You make this common sense stuff sound soooo easy.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 29, 2023 14:34:59 GMT -5
$2000 in inventory is $20,000 in sales. Imbeciles.😂 Or geniuses if the BC crowd converts to Craft beer when the water runs out.🤣
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jul 29, 2023 15:34:46 GMT -5
There was an LSU-Vnderbilt game a couple years ago in Nashville that ran out of beer at halftime.
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Post by efg72 on Jul 30, 2023 7:45:12 GMT -5
FILED UNDER: FCS FOOTBALL FCS Football: Six Burning Questions for the Upcoming Season Another exciting season is just four Saturdays away. By JaredMiller Jul 29, 2023, 10:00am EDT 0 Comments / 0 New
College football is so close we can practically taste it. While much of the world has its attention on the big boys, however, a very exciting (and intriguing) FCS season is hanging in the balance as well. 2022 will of course go down as historic in its own right for several reasons, the biggest being that someone new finally took the crown away from mighty NDSU.
The excitement of last fall set the stage for what could be an extremely pivotal 2023 campaign. Several questions loom large with less than a month to go before the first games. They will all be answered in due time.
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Can anyone dethrone South Dakota State? It’s a pretty clear consensus that South Dakota State is the team to beat this year. By nearly every metric, the Jacks are heavy favorites to hoist the trophy again this winter in Frisco. For a team that didn’t lose hardly anyone from their dominant championship run last fall, it’s not really a surprise, even with the retirement of legendary head coach John Stiegelmeier. Jimmy Rogers is taking the reigns now and he’s inherited quite a unit. Who out there can realistically take down the Jackrabbits? Or can anyone at all?
Fortunately for fans who don’t want to a see repeat this year, the other top two teams who are poised to give the Jacks their best challenge each, coincidentally, have to make a trip to Brookings this season, so we may get this question answered sooner rather than later.
On September 9, Montana State will come in and if that matchup sounds familiar, it’s because it seems to happen a lot these days. The Bobcats and the Jacks have met in each of the last two national semifinals since 2021 with both teams winning once. It was, of course, South Dakota State who took last year’s matchup rather convincingly to punch their ticket to Texas.
MSU still needs to prove it can hang with the Jackrabbits in the trenches because last season the ‘Cats got ran over by Isaiah Davis and company. On the other side, their own vaunted run game was rendered almost completely ineffective. If Montana State’s offensive line has improved then this contest becomes really interesting. Remember, quarterback Sean Chambers got hurt early in that meeting last winter and it undoubtedly made a difference in the outcome. Both teams should be healthy with this clash coming in Week 2 and this should be a good litmus test for both programs. It may also very well be a preview of yet another playoff matchup.
Then there’s the rivals from the North and last year’s victims of SDSU’s title game onslaught. North Dakota State will take on Rogers’ team in the annual Dakota Marker game on November 4 and they’re desperately hoping for some sort of footing in this rivalry series that’s been one-sided as of late. NDSU lost both meetings last year and dropped the two games before that as well.
If the Bison want to snap the losing streak they’ll need to shore some things up starting with quarterback play. Cam Miller is a solid signal-caller but it’s becoming increasingly clear that to beat the Jacks, exceptional play is required at that position. In the championship, Miller threw two interceptions and got sacked once. While he did throw for over 200 yards in each of the two meetings last year, solid numbers like that aren’t enough.
Time will tell but as of right now, betting against the Jacks seems like a good way to lose money.
Is this finally the year NDSU can’t rebound?
North Dakota State’s 2023 offseason has been anything but the normal ho hum. Usually this time of year we’re talking about the Bison gearing up for another almost surefire run at a title but pump the brakes. This time it’s not that cut and dried. Matt Entz and the boys in Fargo have lost a lot over the last eight months and not in the typical way. Several guys opted to hit the transfer portal for greener pastures; an uncommon sight to say the least for the team that’s the gold standard in FCS football, but just how concerning is it?
There’s no question that getting beat down by their rivals in Frisco last winter had some adverse side effects. It was, after all, the first time the Bison had suffered a loss in the championship game and it was a resounding one at that. Shortly after the lopsided defeat, several star players entered the portal. Kobe Johnson... 2022’s leading rusher... found a new home with Colorado State. Safety Marques Sigle is now a Wildcat with Kansas State and Courtney Eubanks is also gone. These are just a few of the names that are no longer at NDSU.
At the very least this feels unlike any summer the Bison and their fans have experienced in quite sometime. They are not the preseason favorites to win it all for the first time in what feels like forever and Entz’s staff appears to have a mighty challenge of regrouping the collective team mentality moving into the fall.
It’s not, however, necessarily time to hit the panic button... yet.
If there’s any team out there that deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to offseason uncertainty like this, it’s North Dakota State. The Bison have an uncanny way of doing their best when the chips are down and, despite what some may think, they still have the tools to contend for a title.
You can’t ignore the best homefield advantage in the country. With only two losses in the Fargodome since 2017, they still have that in their back pocket. Doing enough in the regular season to get home games in the playoffs has proven to be a foolproof formula for getting to Texas and with contests against many of the weaker MVFC foes on their slate, the Bison should again see at least some December ball at home.
There is also a fair amount of senior talent sticking around including All-American defensive tackle Eli Mostaert along with running backs T.K. Marshall and TaMerik Williams. So no, not everyone is gone despite what it may feel like.
All hope is not lost for NDSU, however, it’s becoming apparent that this season shapes up to be a fork in the road of sorts for the Bison. Failing to at least get back to the big game this year will have the alarms sounding in the state of North Dakota.
Gut check time as arrived in Fargo.
Are the Vandals really back?
Perhaps no team in college football has had a more tortured run of it over the last three decades than Idaho. After a rough showing in the FBS the Vandals opted to make an unprecedented move back down to the FCS ranks in 2017 but even that change in scenery didn’t seem to help for a while. Last year, though, it appeared the sun finally rose on a new era in Moscow. Jason Eck took over as head coach and the results were all but instant. The Vandals won seven games in Eck’s first season and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since their first run in the FCS (then I-AA) going all the way back to the 1990s.
A phenom quarterback in Gevani McCoy came onto the scene and lit it up in his freshman campaign last fall, winning the coveted Jerry Rice Award along the way. His top target, Hayden Hatten, is also returning which is big news for the Vandals. The tandem was responsible for 1,209 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2022.
Anticipation is high for much of the same as we move into late summer and everyone wants a piece of the action. Earlier this offseason the Big Sky Conference announced that Idaho and its famed Kibbie Dome would play host to a game under the ESPN lights in October when Montana comes to town. That’s a big deal for a program that just two seasons ago went 4-7.
The love has been rolling in for the Vandals and not just on part of the television networks. Picked to finish second and fifth in Big Sky play by the media and coaches respectively, Idaho saw six of its players land on the conference’s preseason all-conference team with Hatten being named preseason offensive player of the year. McCoy was also chosen as the league’s top quarterback.
If Idaho is indeed the real deal, though, they’re going to have prove every ounce of it. Their schedule is no joke as the Vandals will face the other four Big Sky teams that reached the playoffs alongside them last year. On top of that they’ll also see two FBS opponents (Nevada and California) both on the road. It’s hard to envision them running that table.
Still, hope is running rampant in the streets of Moscow and the once-lowly Vandals are an afterthought no more.
Are there any legitimate contenders out East?
It seems like much of the preseason media praise is being given to the aforementioned teams out West. While the Montana and Dakota schools are soaking up most of the attention, however, there are some intriguing things brewing on the other side of the country.
Let’s start with the team that came the closest to knocking South Dakota State out of the playoffs last year. Holy Cross is the real deal despite what some will tell you about the conference they play in. While it is true that the Crusaders blew through the Patriot League with ease last fall and likely will again this year, it shouldn’t be misconstrued as them being nothing more than a big fish in a small pond.
Head coach Bob Chesney has himself some ballers in Worcester. Quarterback Matthew Sluka is one of the best in the country and can hurt defenses in a variety of ways. All-American linebacker Jacob Dobbs is back after suffering an injury that kept him out most of last year. This was a team that went toe to toe with SDSU for a little more than three quarters not even eight months ago.
You also can’t ignore what’s been going on in the SoCon, at least at the top. Both Samford and Furman are really, really good and should be vying for national seeds come December. The Paladins were oh so close to taking out a lethal Incarnate Word team in the second round last year while the Bulldogs reached the quarterfinals.
Both of these groups return several key pieces and are positioned nicely to make another run. Samford is bringing back arguably the best signal-caller in the FCS with Michael Hiers along with one of his favorite pass catching targets Chandler Smith. Furman, meanwhile, will again have the talents of stud running back Dominic Roberto who ran for over 1,100 yards in 2022.
It’s going to take a lot, of course, to upend the top of the subdivision and even in spite of reloaded rosters, it will be a tall order for someone outside the preseason Top 3 to make national noise. Don’t be shocked, though, if one of these teams ends up throwing a wrench into the whole damn thing.
Will the ever-growing CAA step up to the plate?
The Colonial Athletic Association ... or as it is now officially known... the Coastal Athletic Association... is the biggest FCS league with a whopping 15 teams but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best. The conference added Campbell and North Carolina A&T this year after bringing in Hampton and Monmouth a season ago but the league still feels like it’s struggling to find the program that will propel it back into national relevance since James Madison left.
William & Mary is the current favorite but it’s hard to look past that ugly blowout defeat to Montana State in last year’s playoffs. The Tribe return big names on both sides of the ball but they still need to prove they can hang with the bluebloods. One thing that’ll be working in their favor is a slate that doesn’t feature Delaware, New Hampshire, Villanova or Rhode Island; all playoff hopefuls.
If it isn’t W&M, though, then who takes the torch? The Blue Hens, despite the reinvigoration of adding Ryan Carty as the new head coach last season, had a lackluster end to 2022 going out with a whimper against the champs. Elon didn’t fare any better once they hit the playoffs and Richmond was essentially in the same boat although the Spiders did give Sacramento State a scare in the second round.
With all that in mind, it’s difficult to nail down what the CAA will look like this year at the top and where it sits in the national picture. There’s no question that the Missouri Valley and Big Sky are the most competitive leagues out there and currently it’s not a forgone conclusion that the CAA is even third in that discussion like it used to be.
The baton that JMU left behind is still rolling around for anyone to take.
What will the post-Deion Sanders era look like at Jackson State?
The last three years were a whirlwind for Jackson State and its fans with the Deion Sanders show. Sanders propelled the Tigers and HBCU football as a whole back into the national spotlight in a way that hadn’t been done before. JSU went on an absolute tear during that span, winning 27 games and reaching the Celebration Bowl twice in a row. Those days, however, have come to an end with Sanders departing for Colorado and taking a large portion of the Tigers roster with him. But just because Coach Prime is gone, does that necessarily mean the success is too?
Former wide receivers coach T.C. Taylor has been appointed to carry the torch and lead the program. Taylor, like his predecessor, is a Jackson State alum and has NFL experience. He’s been with the program as a coach since 2019 but will get his first taste of being the head man this year.
He and his staff will have their work cut out for them as they inherit a roster that will not feature last year’s top three rushers, top four pass-catchers, starting quarterback or top eight tacklers. Whether it be through the transfer portal, graduation or the NFL calling, most of JSU’s top talent from a season ago is out the door.
Starting fresh isn’t always a bad thing, however, and so far Taylor has had a productive offseason in terms of filling the gaps. Jackson State has brought in 30 transfers (17 of them coming from the FBS) including former Virginia Tech QB Jason Brown and LSU linebacker Phillip Webb amongst several others. Despite losing a lot, this will not be a gutted team come August 26 when they take the field against SC State.
The biggest hurdle in JSU’s way still looks to be SWAC-rival Florida A&M. While the Tigers have gotten the best of the Rattlers lately, the preseason polls have FAMU finishing first in the league this year with Jackson State coming in second.
A new age of Tiger football is underway in Mississippi.
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Post by purplehaze on Aug 8, 2023 11:11:45 GMT -5
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Post by bfoley82 on Aug 8, 2023 11:23:05 GMT -5
Columbia got a first place vote...
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Post by thecrossisback on Aug 8, 2023 11:23:28 GMT -5
What is up with the Ivy League football players playing a team in Japan? They do that but can't play in the FCS playoffs Maybe this is why "The group is joined by two professors from Ivy League institutions to further the educational experience of the travel party." ivyleague.com/news/2023/1/16/football-ivy-league-dream-bowl.aspx
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 8, 2023 11:30:42 GMT -5
You might rub shoulders with more big money that could end up at Yale in Japan than Frisco and all the whistle stops on the way there.
The road to an FCS national championship might be similar to Harry Truman's 1948 "Whistle Stop" Campaign Train Tour (I know "Cross is back" likes history🙂) but I'm glad HC has punched their ticket four years in a row and is getting closer each season.
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Post by hcpride on Aug 8, 2023 11:40:27 GMT -5
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 8, 2023 11:47:19 GMT -5
HC is Yale's competitive Super Bowl like it is for all nine of our FCS opponents. What a gauntlet. Thank God we get two breathers from that peaking of intense competitive spirit with BC and Army.
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Post by midwestsader05 on Aug 17, 2023 11:09:35 GMT -5
Per my due diligence thus far, I would rank the following 2023 opponents the following based on just the pure talent alone: 1) BC - I think there’s a lack of respect on this board currently on P5 talent. We shall see. 2) Army 3) Yale 4) Tie Harvard or Fordham - whichever gets more consistent Play from their new QB, but both have plenty of returning pieces to be in contention for conference titles 5) Merrimack - IMO they would be preseason 3rd in the PL 6) Laffy and Colgate - I tend to lean Laffy if their QB #14 can stay healthy all year. QB Brescia at Colgate needs to show he can move the ball vertically downfield instead of just being the primary power RB. 7) Lehigh 8) Bucknell and G’Town
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Post by Chu Chu on Aug 17, 2023 11:18:38 GMT -5
I think that midwestsader05 has it just right.
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Post by hchoops on Aug 17, 2023 11:20:17 GMT -5
Thanks, MW How about Bucknell ?
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Post by bfoley82 on Aug 17, 2023 11:23:15 GMT -5
What is up with the Ivy League football players playing a team in Japan? They do that but can't play in the FCS playoffs Maybe this is why "The group is joined by two professors from Ivy League institutions to further the educational experience of the travel party." ivyleague.com/news/2023/1/16/football-ivy-league-dream-bowl.aspxThis was the last game coached by Ivy League legendary coach Al Bagnoli
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