My rants and insight into Colgate athletics and Patriot League sports

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Football Reports Sunday!

Yes dear readers, the time is almost upon us. This Sunday, the Raiders begin their quest for 10 straight winning seasons, a Patriot League title and a I-AA National Championship.

Let the fun begin!

4 Comments:

  • Re the incoming class - at which
    postions do they exceed talent wise
    that of the other three classes ?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:16 PM  

  • Exceed? Well, that will of course wait to be seen as they've yet to play a down of college ball.

    That said, here are some thoughts:

    Eric Tupta is supposedly the real deal at inside linebacker - but yet we've had some great ILBs in Lukabu, Nepa and upcoming Wesley so I don't know if he exceeds them just yet.

    Rich Rosabella decided on Colgate over Georgia Southern - the same team that has won six I-AA National Championships. He's an offensive lineman that could be a real difference maker.

    We brought in some potential great running backs in JJ Bennett -transfer from Kentucky and Jordan Scott - choose us over William and Mary.

    We brought in three QBs who could all make a run for serious playtime sooner rather than latter. Fucillo particularly has some good press and Pitcher seems to be a gamer as well.

    Finally, besides Rosabella we brought in some great bread and butter lineman on both sides of the ball. Five offensive lineman are coming in at 275 or more. These are 18/19 year old kids!

    So to summarize, I think if we did anything, we exceeded some previous classes by bringing in a well balanced class with a lot of great skill positions too. It really is as good of a class as anyone could hope for. Of course, they all have to prove it on the field still, so we'll know in 2-4 years just how good some of these kids actually are.

    By Blogger colgate13, at 8:48 PM  

  • Thanks to Colgate 13 for the thougthful
    comments and analysis .

    A follow up question:

    While discussion as to offense commonly
    focuses , appropriately so , on the QB ,
    speed positions and o-line , a tremendous
    amount of offensive power can be generated by utilizing two positions which are sometimes seen as " throwbacks" to an earlier time : full back and tight end . Yet each in their way help open up the field directly, or indirectly by com-
    pelling the defense to play tighter and
    close to the line . They are thus key to
    both power football as well as to a wide
    open offense and make defending against
    the " speed " players more difficult .

    Thus , at last , the question ;

    How does Colgate look at the fullback
    and tight end positions in terms of the incoming frosh? I sense that there is
    real potential there . Fullback
    could be a real force with a strong
    line in front . Together , they could
    make life pretty difficult for an opposing defense .

    Thanks

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:09 PM  

  • How right you are Mr. Anonymous: football teams like the ones that Colgate puts together benefit greatly from a strong, blocking fullback who can also be a threat all in himself once or twice a game AND a multi-dimensional tight end to cause matchup problems for the defense.

    You only have to look to 2003 to see just how important Frieser was to the Championship run, as well as the fullback tandem of Ben Evans and Eric (spelling is bound to be wrong) Gugliemotti. They certainly contributed to our success.

    Those two positions are just another reason why many are very excited about this incoming freshman class. Mike Beatty at fullback could be a standout and Brent Dillingham at tight end sounds like a great catch for our program. We shall see how they ultimately pan out, but Raider fans should be very happy to have four years of those two all important "throwbacks" on our roster.

    By Blogger colgate13, at 8:50 AM  

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