|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 18:49:14 GMT -5
In other news, old friend Western Carolina is back in the top 25 after knocking off Samford and Eastern Kentucky.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 18:45:48 GMT -5
I know we had a police escort to BC and I can see what looks to be a Worcester cruiser and two bikes leading the team down to New Haven. Is this a new thing for the team? I wonder if the bikes are also local or if they are CT staties? I would think it would be tough to get an escort all the way to Lewisburg! Ches should get a couple of state troopers to be his personal security. Love the look going out for the handshake, especially for out of state games!
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 17:47:18 GMT -5
What intrigues me is a possible fracture of FBS into 2 divisions. The ACC, Big 12, Big 10, and SEC in one division and everybody else in another. The American and MWC are positioned well but Sun Belt and MAC seem a bit precarious. Perhaps the top teams in FCS join with the Sun Belt and MAC in an in-between level.
Rather than the Academies dropping down, perhaps some of their opponents exist at a new level. There could be a cap on NIL or something like that in the second tier division. Say it's Division 1-A, 1-AA, and then FCS. This would keep the Academies and the MAC schools in the mix.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 16:50:16 GMT -5
Jake Dobbs has 51 TOT this year. If he keeps up this pace, he should close in on McGovern single season record of 187. High mark but plausible.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 13:00:06 GMT -5
Back to Yale on Saturday, I was disappointed that the band nor the cheerleaders made the short trip to New Haven - this demonstrates that our athletic dept did not encourage their participation which is too bad - or if they were willing but it was a budget reason, that’s even worse I know the "HC Spirit" social media account showed videos of the dance team, cheerleaders and band practicing for homecoming. My guess is there was never a plan for any of them to attend the game. IIRC, they usually don't travel with the team except for major games, FBS games, etc. Did we have anyone out at the playoff game at Monmouth/Villanova? I am assuming a bus to Monmouth would be cheaper than a flight to SDSU.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 12:44:23 GMT -5
I can get behind Sac State leapfrogging us for beating Stanford. Hope we jump up in November after beating Army.
That being said, HC beat a 30 something ranked team in Yale by a heap. Bill and Mary beat a 60 something ranked team in Charleston Southern by a TD. Come on! If Sac State is 4, we should be 5, with W&M at 6. Perhaps there is still truth to a bias against the PL and the Ivy and in favor of the CAA.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 12:41:52 GMT -5
Agreed! Jump Ball had 3 TD catches and the two honorable mention offensive players only had 2 TD's. We can have 4 Fordham players listed but heaven forbid 3 Holy Cross players.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 12:38:37 GMT -5
I understand that. My point remains the same - have to play 60 minutes of football in conference games. Yes, they tend to make great second half adjustments. I'm not saying they don't. It almost didn't happen against Lafayette. Had it not, the entire trajectory of last season would have been different. In a really strange way, losing to either Fordham or Lafayette could have been the best thing for us come playoff time. We don’t get a seed. We end up, in all likelihood, hosting a game in the first round and then going on the road in the second. Depending on where we would have fallen in the bracket, could have avoided SDSU. Maybe we would have been on the other side. On the other hand, if we blew out Lafayette or beat a ranked team in Fordham easily, we might have been a top 6 or even top 4 seed. Who knows? I am ready for Colgate!
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 8:14:09 GMT -5
There must be some new hallucinogens circulating these days. IIRC, the smallest school in FBS is the University of Tulsa, with a total enrollment that is about 25 percent higher than HC. (I'm excluding the three academies, because they are a special case.) There is no LAC that is in FBS. I was thinking this morning, do you ever think both Army and Navy would drop to FCS? They would be a fantastic add and still compete every year in the Army-Navy game. I still would rather win an FCS title than be 6-6 and go to the Bermuda Bowl or the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. It will be interesting to see what happens to some of the G5 teams with the emergence of P4 super conferences next season.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 5:18:25 GMT -5
What do Vanderbilt and LSU have in common? Or Northwestern and Ohio State? Clemson and FSU have made it clear they are not peers of Stanford and Cal. Conferences are based on multiple factors not just athletic reputation, academic reputation, or geography. I would say a mutual, shared interest in providing the best possible location to compete is at the heart of a conference. Geography is also a major contributing factor. For each of us on this board, there is a different reason for being in a conference. After working at Georgetown for 3 years, I can say there isn't much in common with Holy Cross other than our shared Jesuit values. All three Pennsylvania schools in our conference have grad programs. If we are going to be in a conference with schools with grad programs, I would prefer one with more geographic proximity. Beat Colgate.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 20:47:59 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 19:23:25 GMT -5
At the end of the day, I really only care about Stats and the Coaches Poll. The computer rankings are interesting but, heck, Massey was off by a ton this week in our game and missed a bunch of other northeast games.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 18:54:50 GMT -5
FCS Triumverate Twitter response to Holy Cross win over Yale The ranked us #10 before the game Still the Ivy League. It’s not that impressive. They dominated which was what was to be expected. Not impressed and not let down by their win. They maintained status quo on performing to expectations. There is a clear bias by voters against East coast football Same logic would apply to W&M against Charleston Southern. Although the stat sheet is well in the Tribe's favor, the score does not look too good. Furman squeaked by non-ranked Kennesaw on the road. He has UNH who beat a lower ranked Dartmouth team, one ahead of us. No way! HC should leapfrog this poster's other Eastern teams. Ultimately this is just another FCS account and does not really mean anything. We'll see these boys in Frisco.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 18:35:35 GMT -5
Didn't they also win that bowl game? They did! They beat GA Southern by 2.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 18:24:13 GMT -5
Scores of top 10 ranked FCS SD State 70, Drake 7 ND State 49, Cent. Arkansas 31 Montana St 57, Stetson 20 W&M 15, Charleston Southern 7 Sac State 30, Stanford 23 Utah 31, Weber St 7 Furman 31, Kennesaw St 28 Incarnate Word 27, Abilene Christian 20 Cal Berkeley 31, Idaho 17 Losses in top 10 in bold ------------------------------- Brown 27, Bryant 25 UCF 48, 'Nova 14 Auburn 45, Samford 13 ---------------------------- Also, Liberty 55, Buffalo 27 (Buffalo now 0-3) Fordham's win a bit more tarnished (although Liberty is a very good G5 team). At least Buffalo went bowling last year.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 18:22:16 GMT -5
Massey’s Rank of PL Teams (Sept 16) 14 HOLY CROSS (2-1)\\ 40 Fordham (2-1) 57 Lafayette (2-1) 65 Lehigh (1-2) 86 Bucknell (1-1) 95 Colgate (0-3) 103 Georgetown (2-1) Only 2 teams have losing records. Never thought I would see all but one PL team in the top 100. Georgetown is still competitive and should be "in" most games except Fordham and HC.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 17, 2023 18:16:38 GMT -5
Ooooo………hadn’t seen the W vs the Cardinal. We shall see. I can see us at 4 in the poll we were 5 and move to 5 in the other poll from 6. I think Sac State is just behind us and W&M drops to 6/7. Idaho moves down a spot after the miss at Cal (they did have an early lead). 1. SDSU 2. NDSU 3. MSU 4. HC 5. Sac St 6. W&M
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 22:22:00 GMT -5
#6/8 Sac State has upset Stanford 30-23
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 21:29:36 GMT -5
"winning culture's win." -Coker
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 21:14:10 GMT -5
Watch this space for more incredibly insightful predictions. Will we reach 50 points against Colgate? yes. Their D doesn't seem terrible and did ok against Penn's rushing attack. We are on another level. 56-12.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 19:01:07 GMT -5
Total net yards: BC 457 / FSU 340 (HC-BC was 394-403) Net yards rushing: BC 152 / FSU 128 (HC-BC was 264-202) Passing yards BC 305 / FSU 212 (HC-BC was 130-201) Penalties BC 18 for 131 yards / FSU 5 for 45 yards Turnovers one for each team Castellanos had 85 rushing yards, and was 20 for 33 for 305 yards with one TD and one interception. Against HC, HC had total net rushing and passing yardage of 270 yards,. Sluka's total net yardage was 261. The FSU QB toady had 250 total net yards. confirms what I have believed all along! We have some guys! Heck of a performance for Sluka and Co. last week. Almost feel bad for BC throwing away the win this week with penalties. Watching the Florida game and couldn't hel0 but think of their Tom Petty tradition--singing "I won't back down" at the start of the 4th quarter. That could be Sluka's anthem. Going into BC, Yale, Harvard, Fordham, and the USMA.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 18:18:50 GMT -5
I wouldn't be surprised with HM haha.
In other news I think 3-4 TD margins are not quite running it up. Colgate and Bucknell scores might get over 50 through no fault of HC running it up, just by the quality of the opponent.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 17:36:51 GMT -5
Flag used by the band at half time by the band represented which country? Mexico I believe. They also had a butterfly at one point. SDSU 70, Drake 7 that is taking care of a weak non-conference opponent. I think we matchup well with the big boys as our run D keeps improving. Credit to Ches and James for their adjustments.
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 17:24:08 GMT -5
From goholycross.com game notes: BEYOND THE BOX SCORE: With the 25-point victory, Holy Cross posted its largest margin of victory over Yale ever — besting the 24-point win in 2022 that set the previous record. Holy Cross has now defeated the Bulldogs in four of the teams' last five meetings. Prior to 2018, the Crusaders had only beaten Yale four times in 32 total meetings. Sluka is now tied for second in program history with 33 career rushing touchdowns, matching the mark set by Steve Silva from 2001-05. still not 32-0 from Yale a few years ago. Unlike many of our PL opponents, it seemed the rankings and human prognosticators respected Yale. As far as I know, all the national guys (FCS All-In with guest Sam Herder, Hero, The Analyst) all picked HC but acknowledged it might be close. Ultimately we just need to play our ame each week and win, but winning by a ton against proported week opponents helps in the eyes of seeding. In other news, I think we lost to #3 FSU by 5. Transitive property right?
|
|
|
Post by cruskater31 on Sept 16, 2023 15:46:15 GMT -5
Reviewing the pre-game summaries, it is almost as though HC played an Ivy "All Star" team today...and blew them away. This week, HC will have to stay sharp against an 0-3 team that clearly is the weakest opponent they have faced thus far this season. The unavoidable conclusion for those who have not yet caught on is that two things can be true for Yale at the same time: Yale is a terrific Ivy team loaded with all-Ivy players and likely headed to the Ivy Championship AND Holy Cross is substantially better. Colgate is among the large group of relatively weak Patriot League teams that we need to decisively defeat. Gate shockingly had more passing yards than rushing yards (196-60). Held Penn to 110 yards and only allowed 6 pts in the first half. Not sure how good Penn is this year but definitely not in the bottom of the Ancient 8. We should still steamroller Colgate but their D seems to be better. Nova had 184 yards rushing and over 300 passing. We are much closer to an FBS team than Penn. Have to stay motivated and hungry. Sluka was the man today. Scoring a TD with blood gushing out of his hand
|
|