Game 6 - @ Yale - Sat. 10/13

College Sports Madness is doing a nice job of reviewing their Top 44 FCS Teams. They have Yale @ #30 and their write-up is below:

College Sports Madness - #30 Yale Bulldogs

Yale Bulldogs
Overall Rank: #30
#1 Ivy League

Coming off their first outright Ivy League title since 1980, Yale will look to do it again 2018. The Bulldogs lost just one game last year and that was just by one point at Dartmouth in early October. This group does have some holes to fill and the traditional powers in the Ivy League will be looking to make this a dramatic race once again, but Yale has enough to win another title.

2017 Record: 9-1, 6-1
2017 Postseason: None
Coach: Tony Reno (33-27 at Yale, 33-27 overall)
Offensive Coordinator: Kevin Cahill
Defensive Coordinator: Sean McGowan

Returning Leaders:
Rushing: Zane Dudek, RB, 1,133 yards
Passing: Kurt Rawlings, QB, 2,320 yards
Receiving: JP Shohfi, WR, 427 yards
Tackles: Kyle Mullen, DE, 32
Sacks: Charles Callender, DE, 6.0
Interceptions: Deonte Henson, DB, 2

Other Key Returnees: DB Malcolm Dixon, OL Sterling Strother, P Alex Galland

Key Losses: RB Deshawn Salter, WR Christopher Williams-Lopez, TE Jaeden Graham, OL Jon Bezney, OL Karl Marback, DL John Herubin, DB Hayden Carlson, DB Foyesade Oluokun, DB Jason Alessi, LB Matthew Oplinger, DB Spencer Rymiszewski

Offense:
Quarterback Kurt Rawlings returns after a superb sophomore season in which he threw for 2,320 yards and 19 touchdowns. Rawlings completed 67.3 percent of his passes and was intercepted just six times. The passing game does need to replace wide receiver Christopher Williams-Lopez and tight end Jaeden Graham, but JP Shohfi is a good piece to rebuild around. Last season Shohfi caught 25 passes for 427 yards and four touchdowns. Yale will do most of their damage on the ground though. Last year this team ranked 17th in the FCS with 216.8 yards per game on the ground. Zane Dudek was the team’s top rusher last year, tallying 1,133 yards as a freshman. Fellow sophomore Michael Purvey could play a larger role this year too.

Defense:
The defense has a lot of reloading to do in 2018. Gone are the top five tacklers. The front four will be in decent shape with ends Kyle Mullen, Charles Callender and J. Hunter Roman providing a solid pass rush. Ryan Burke has a little experience at linebacker and there are some other more experienced options like Jarett Balter, but there are some very big holes to fill in the middle of the Yale defense and not many proven options to do it. Tosan Agbeyegbe, Deonte Henson and Malcolm Dixon are a decent group to build around in the secondary. Overall, this is a pretty young defense. There were quite a few freshmen who played a surprisingly large role last year and now they will need to use that experience and develop into consistent sophomores.

The Bottom Line:
Most expect this to be another Ivy League season that comes down to the final weekend. And that is, of course, when Yale plays Harvard. This year The Game is at Harvard, but expect that contest to have an effect on who wins the Ivy League title.

Projected Postseason: None

2017 Team Stats:
Rushing Offense: 216.8 (17th in nation, 1st in conference)
Passing Offense: 233.9 (37, 3)
Total Offense: 450.7 (11, 2)
Scoring Offense: 34.5 (13, 2)
Rushing Defense: 73.1 (2, 1)
Pass Defense: 229.7 (80, 4)
Total Defense: 302.8 (13, 1)
Scoring Defense: 15.6 (8, 1)
Turnover Margin: 0.40 (37, 2)
Sacks: 3.90 (2, 1)
Sacks Allowed: 1.20 (22, 3)

HERO Sports 2018 Recruit Rankings:
#4 Trenton Charles
#32 Tate Goodyear
#57 Nick Henkel
#79 Brian Abraham
#86 Elliott McElwain
#94 Miles Oldacre
#99 Griffin O'Connor
#106 Nicholas Sligh
#204 Oso Ifesinachukwu
#206 Josh DeStJean


Incidentally - CSM has Mercer ranked #26

In case you would like to watch Yale lose to 0-2 Holy Cross after returning the opening kickoff for a TD, scoring a TD on their 1st Offensive play from scrimmage, holding a 21-0 1st Quarter lead only 9 minutes into the game, and a 2 TD lead with about 4 minutes left to play...

TALE OF THE TAPE...based upon Mercer’s 2-deep in the VMI game notes & Yale’s 2-deep in their Maine game notes. Will update during game week as actual game notes are released.


Very evenly matched size-wise. Mercer maintains a bit of an experience advantage in most areas, but the Bulldogs are much more experienced than Mercer's 2 recent opponents. Something to consider with regard to experience is that the Ivy League does not allow their schools to Redshirt Players. So, there are not 0.5 points 'padding' their listed Players' experience ratings. Whether or not their redshirting rule causes Ivy League Coaches to play their Players earlier or not, I don't know.

Yes - Yale has a HUGE Ivy League match-up this week. They play Dartmouth on Friday night at 6:00 PM on ESPNU. Dartmouth was the only Ivy League Team to defeat Yale last year. The Big Green scored 2 TD's in the 4th quarter to overcome a 27-14 deficit. They scored their game-winning TD on a 15 yard pass with 34 seconds left in the game, capping off a 13 play, 69 yard game-winning drive. So, it's a 'revenge game' at home on a 'big stage' for Yale.

Both Teams come into this year's game 1-0 in the IL with Yale having topped Cornell 30-24 and Dartmouth having beaten Penn 37-14. Yale is 2-1, having also suffered a (somewhat) embarrassing loss to Holy Cross on the road in their opener and beaten highly ranked Maine last week. Dartmouth is 3-0 with big wins over Georgetown (41-0) and at that same Holy Cross Team by a score of 34-14, in addition to their win over Penn.

While early 'returns' in the Ivy have vaulted Princeton (3-0/1-0) into the Favorite role at this early juncture, Yale was considered the pre-season favorite with Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard being the likely challengers in the Ancient 8. So, both of these Teams will be going ALL OUT this week. The Bulldogs won't be keeping anything in their back pocket and definitely will not be looking ahead to the Mercer game. As the Ivy League has made the choice not to participate in the FCS Playoffs, the Ivy League Championship is ALL that they care about.

Some good info on Yale Football here: Yale Football Blog - Yale Football News Written By Former Bulldogs

I found this quote from the entry about the recent game with Maine at Yale to be most interesting...

“The Yale Bowl’s grass was in poor shape and several young players without much experience playing on the surface were slipping.”

With another game there on Friday night, I expect the field will be in even worse condition next Saturday. Mercer needs to be sure to bring the right cleats...and maybe squeeze in a practice or two on some bad grass on campus...if possible.

It does matter! I was playing at VMI one time and wearing turf shoes, as had become my custom, even on grass, because it forced me to keep my feet moving and, I believe, helped prevent leg injuries, which had plagued me for years...BUT...their grass...what there was of it...was awful...and I couldn’t stay on my feet long enough to block anyone...at all. Fortunately, one of my line mates, a backup, was wearing long cleated shoes in my size and I changed into those after 2 or 3 series. Much improved.

MORE...

I watched (Yale) the 4th quarter last night. T feel like we can go up there a get a win from what my untrained eyes witnessed. In my day i would take 3/4 and 1" screw ins up there. Not sure what they use these days since they need three stripes on them? The Yale QB was cleaning the mud out of his shoes often. The field at VMI gave our kicker some problems, so will this cow pasture.

Here’s what the Yale Football Blog had to say about the Bulldogs loss to Dartmouth along with some highlights from the game...in a Tweet from Dartmouth Football

Yale Football Blog

“The Bulldogs are currently sitting at 2-2 (1-1 Ivy) after a painful 41-18 loss to the Dartmouth Big Green on Friday. Yale had chances to hang around, but penalties, missed tackles and mental errors were too much to overcome against a talented squad.

Yale’s opening drive began with a nice pass from Rawlings to Klubnik, but the drive would eventually stall. Lamar and Dudek were back in action, although Dudek did not look to be 100%. He just did not have the same burst and cutback ability that we have come to know and love from him. Lamar had a few nice runs and ended up averaging 5.7 yards per carry. It’s a shame Yale was playing behind most of the day and couldn’t lean on Lamar to drive the field and burn the clock. Klubnik had a heck of an outing with 13 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown. Shohfi had a modest game with 6 catches for 57 yards, but also had a crucial drop and stepped out of bounds on a touchdown. D. Major Roman had a fantastic catch to keep a drive alive. Trenton Charles was lethal catching passes out of the backfield and could have had a touchdown if it was not for a missed pass interference penalty. Dartmouth’s Isiah Swann got away with another two pass interference penalties as he was clearly pulling on our receivers’ arms before the ball arrived. Despite missing the majority of Dartmouth’s penalties, the officials flagged Yale 8 times for 56 yards erasing two touchdown plays. The offensive line only allowed 3 sacks, but that figure is low because Rawlings was scrambling for his life. Aside from two bad throws into coverage, Rawlings had a solid game. The offensive line was the weakest position offensively with costly penalties on Strother and Warfield as well as several missed blocks by each member of the line on passing and running plays.

The defense had no answers for Dartmouth’s offense. Dartmouth decided to lean heavily on their Wildcat QB, Jared Gerbino, who absolutely torched the Bulldogs for 169 yards. Dartmouth would finish the day with 347 yards rushing and had no reason to even throw the ball as we couldn’t contain their ground assault. Dixon and Henson were back in action, but even with our full starting secondary in the lineup, we couldn’t slow the Big Green. The linebackers and defensive backs really struggled to get off blocks and make tackles. Defensive ends such as Moore kept pinching inside on Gerbino runs effectively destroying any containment. Dean and the safeties were beat on a touchdown from Hagdorn. We also did not learn how to cover the deep running back route that Maine used as Dartmouth nearly scored on that same play as well.

We’re on to Mercer!”