TCY Dynasty - The York Yeomen and the OUA

[dunkie23]

This dynasty is based on a very brief one I tried about a year ago. Computer problems and time kept me from continuing too far. Hopefully this time it will be different.

Here's the plan:

NOTE: I reserve the right to change these rules as necessary.


GAME PLAY

• Playoff to determine a national champion
• Assistants will handle minor decisions.
• I will handle all other decisions regarding the team, letting scouts make recommendations when I feel it is necessary.
• Suspensions and Hire/Fire Coaches set to YES
• Random team, conference and academic reputations set to NO.

RECRUITING

• Recruits must have an SAT of 1100, and GPA of 3.00.
• No bribing.

[dunkie23]

Quick and dirty background on this dynasty:

In 2004, some Canadian guy came up with the idea that would finally be accepted by the NCAA for a football playoff format. In return, the NCAA granted Ontario Universities Athletics, Ontario’s athletic conference, permission to participate in college football top division as a pilot project.

Since Canadian universities normally can’t grant athletic scholarships, strict regulations were put into place for any student-athlete playing north of the border. Recruits must have an SAT score of at least 1100, with a GPA of at least 3.00, to be consistent with admissions for regular students.

Now everyone is asking: Can Canadian universities compete at this level, especially with these strict regulations? One positive is, due to the playoff format, at least one Canadian university will make the post season dance each year. The biggest question is: Can a Canadian team challenge for title of National Champion? Will it be the York Yeomen? Let’s find out.

[dunkie23]

Before heading to Toronto, I made sure I had a plan going into this thing. Ultimately, the type of program I'd like to build would revolve around a strong running game using a power-I or straight I-formation. Once we get some depth in the backfield I'd maybe like to make the shift to the power-I and run mostly right up the gut. Our O-line needs to be strong in run blocking, and I'd like a QB with a strong arm and receivers with big play capabilities, as I plan to keep the D honest by throwing downfield a few times a game too.

I'd like our defense to be the cornerstone of our team with linemen that can pass rush, backers with stong run defense, and safeties with strong zone and corners that man up well. I'll play a lot of 2 deep zone, and keep blitzing to a minimum. When I do blitz, I'll bring the house.

Of course, I'm willing to be flexible, especially as I take the time to build the program the way I would like it to be. Eventually though, what I've described will be how York football will be played.

[dunkie23]

I was welcomed back to York University this morning after more than a decade (I did my undergrad there) by our SC Lee Ballou. We got to know each other over breakfast, and I like him. He's decent with both academic eligibility and donations, and fair with investigations. I don't care how bad he is with investigations because I don't plan on needing him for any of that. We'll be running this ship on the straight and narrow.

Later this morning I had a meeting with our DC, Jessie Smilanich. I think it'll be a long year working with him. He's got a terrible personality, and I'm not a fan of his defensive schemes. In fact I think his playcalling ideas are terrible. His player development skills don't get much better. His work with the D-Line and secondary are lousy and terrible, respectively. About the only thing going for him is his work with the linebackers. Being a former All-American at linebacker for Oklahoma, his development at the position is excellent. Not having had the chance to really look at our roster yet, hopefully we've got some young linebackers that can benefit from him this year because I'm not hopeful he'll be around next year.

After settling into my new office and grabbing a burger at Blueberry Hill -- the best food joint on campus -- I met with our OC Bert Martinez. Here's a guy more my style. We got along great, he's got a terrific personality. Football wise, we didn't really see eye to eye with our ideas on how to run an offense. He's a veer formation guy with, in my opinion, terrible playcalling skills. He is terrific with injury rehab, however. His player development is more in line with how I'd like to build a team. His O-line development is terrific, and his running back skills are good. He's terrible with both the quarterbacks and kickers, but decent with the wide receivers.

[dunkie23]

It was a productive day yesterday having met with all three coordinators. Today I had meetings with the two scouts I'll be relying on the most this year.


My first meeting was with James O'Conner, our home New England region scout. He's excellent assessing my two most emphasized position groups, the O-line and the secondary. I'm extremely pleased with that. Even more, he's very good with the defensive front seven. He's also terrific with the quarterbacks! Quite the package. He's decent with both the running backs and kickers, and fair with the receivers. Overall, I'll do anything to keep this guy around, but I'm sure he'll be moving on at some point.


My only other meeting of the day was with Hugh Allen, our Great Lakes region scout. I have to say, I'm very excited about our two main scouts. Hugh's either excellent or terrific with the running backs, receivers, O-line AND D-line! He's pretty good with the kickers and good with the secondary, but only fair with the quarterbacks.


I'm glad I waited to check out our roster until now, because knowing how accurate our scouts are with the players, means what's on paper will be relatively close to their actual playing ability. Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day poring over tape, assessments, and the like to get a real feel for our team. After today's meeting I'm pretty excited. Next week we'll start spring ball and I'll really begin to get an idea what our team will look like this fall.

[dunkie23]

So I'm all settled in, have had some time to go over tape and player evaluations and here's where we stand, starting with the defense:

Hanks, Terrell          97   DE   Sr*   21                21                  
Blanchard, Preston      77   DE   Sr    17                17                  
Winters, Frankie        92   DE   Jr    17                17                  
Campbell, Stephen       79   DE   So    15                45                  
Light, Howie            72   DE   Fr    15                33                  
Lyle, Horace            78   DT*  Fr    8                 20                  
Samuels, Kim            74   DT*  So*   7                 7                   
Cooley, Edwin           93   DT*  Fr    6                 23                  
Samuels, Darnell        90   DT*  Fr    6                 6

The starters here will be Winters at RE and Blanchard at LE. I'm concerned with Blanchard's endurance, so Hanks will step in when he needs a rest.

In the middle, we're both inexperienced and inadequate. Cooley will start based on their potential. I had planned to go with a 4-3, but I'm going to play to the player's abilities a little here.

Caldwell, Henry         53   ILB  So    20                38                  
Weber, Lamar            41   ILB  Sr    13                14                  
Samuels, Ted            98   ILB* Jr    12                12                  
Pallansch, Dale         45   ILB* Fr    5                 30                  
Hartland, Alan          48   OLB  Sr    29                43                  
Sutherland, Brian       91   OLB  Jr    28                47                  
Branch, Brian           54   OLB  Sr*   16                16                  
Clemons, Neil           47   OLB  Fr    8                 31                  
Brock, John             56   OLB* Jr*   5                 12

Samuels and Caldwell will be starting in the middle. They'll have to be counted on to back up the middle because of the weakness in the line. On the outside we've got our homeLAND security with HartLAND and SutherLAND on the outside. Hartland's got weak side while Sutherland will line up on the strong side.

Peterson, Marty         33   CB   Jr    34                47                  
Anderson, Hugh          35   CB   Sr    33                35                  
Alcott, Frankie         46   CB   Sr    24                24                  
Brandon, Clifton        22   CB   Jr    16                19                  
Lowe, Stanley           37   CB*  Fr    8                 15                  
Stene, Howie            23   S    Sr    41                46                  
Blanchard, James        32   S    Sr    21                26                  
Ridgway, Joey           26   S    Fr    17                25                  
Brandon, Harvey         30   S    So*   14                23 

This is by far our best position group on the team.

Stene will be our FS and Harvey Brandon will be our SS. I was going to line up Blanchard at SS, he's got great ball skills, but I went with Harvey Brandon because he plays better zone. Blanchard just might fill the gap in our nickel.

At corner, Anderson will be taking on the top receiver, while Peterson will take the other side. Peterson also has great ball skills and will see time on special teams.

[dunkie23]

Now time to have a look at the York Yeomen offensive specialists:

 
Bailey, Austin          11   QB   So    16                38                  
Banks, Joseph           19   QB   Sr    14                20                  
Logan, Brent            13   QB   Jr*   14                14                  
Parker, Malcolm         17   QB   So    13                17

There's no real standout here, and Bailey and Banks could start on any given week. I'm going to start with Bailey as his passing seems to be a little better than Banks'. Banks is better at avoiding interceptions and likes to scramble a lot, but Banks is better on third downs and gains more yards per pass. Logan is the emergency guy and I'll redshirt Parker.

Fox, Tyrone             42   RB   Jr    27                35                  
Connell, Tommie         27   RB   Fr    24                27                  
Gardner, Lionel         38   RB   Jr    21                37                  
Lindley, Dave           24   RB   Jr    11                27                  
Corbett, Phillip        28   RB*  Fr    11                26                  
Cloud, Fred             20   FB   Jr*   22                49                  
Hoover, Rodney          36   FB   So*   11                42                  
Coleman, Wade           40   FB   Fr    9                 29                  

Gardener is our best back, and Connell will get almost as much playing time. Fox will be our third. At fullback, Cloud is our best, but I'm going to start a TE, Hardaway here. Cloud will be back up, and our best natural fullback run blocker, is Coleman.

Chapman, Dave           83   TE   Sr    21                21                  
Hardaway, Frank         84   TE   So    19                26                  
Reynolds, Casey         86   TE   Fr    5                 17                  
Fields, Aaron           88   TE*  Fr    14                40                  
Moore, Rusty            1    WR   Jr    43                43                  
D'Elisa, Robbie         80   WR   Sr    20                20                  
Duval, Greg             82   WR   Sr    10                30                  
Shelton, Riddick        81   WR   Jr*   7                 7                   
Fretty, Brandon         2    WR*  Fr    10                10                  
Plummer, Cory           7    WR*  Fr    8                 24                  
Gardner, Rich           9    WR*  So*   7                 33                  
Dunaway, Wayne          6    WR*  So*   2                 32                  

As I said above, Hardaway will be in at fullback, so Chapman gets to start at TE. At WR, Moore is by far our best, with D'Elisa then Gardner in the slot as both have great ratings going over the middle. A decent group overall.

[dunkie23]

And here's the O-line and Special Teams:

 Sims, Will              57   C    Sr*   33                39                   
 Burcky, Devin           58   C    Jr*   14                52                   
 Prioleau, Howie         50   C    So*   8                 53                   
 Wallace, Sherman        63   G    Fr    16                63                   
 Gomez, Amos             76   G    So*   8                 26                   
 Stevenson, Nate         73   G    Fr    5                 30                   
 Krakowski, A.J.         75   G    Fr    3                 43                   
 Williamson, Britt       65   T    Sr*   31                49                   
 Jordan, Jimmie          70   T    Sr*   21                31                   
 Krank, Joey             64   T    Sr*   11                29                   
 Fung, J.R.              62   T    Fr    9                 55  

Sims at C, Wallace and Krakowski at LG and RG respectively, and Williamson and Jordan at LT and RT.

Hoffman, Ted            15   P    Sr    32                32                   
 Marshall, Brad          14   P    Fr    18                18                   
 Palm, J.J.              8    K    Sr    31                50                   
 Reilly, Terrance        4    K    So    25                57

Hoffman will punt and Reilly will kick.


Our punt returner will be CB Hugh Anderson and our kick returner will be CB Marty Peterson.

[dunkie23]

I'm getting excited as the season draws closer. We've run spring ball and camp, the boys are ready to roll. I decided to go with the I-Formation for our offense and we'll use a 3-4 defense to make the most of our players.

Here's our upcoming schedule and conference preseason rankings:

The College Years
2004 York Schedule
   
Rival: Toronto
Stadium Capacity: 49,900
Season Tickets Sold: 14,000
   
  Week  Opponent              
2       HAWAII                                                          
3       at Northern Illinois                                            
4       at Wake Forest                                                  
$$6     at Queen's                                                      
$$7     LAURIER                                                         
$$8     GUELPH                                                          
9       at (18) Virginia Tech                                           
$$10    at McMaster                                                     
$$11    WESTERN                                                         
$$12    at Ottawa                                                       
$$13    TORONTO 

The College Years
Overall Rankings
   
  School                Rank      
McMaster                99      
Western                 116     
Toronto                 117     
Guelph                  119     
**York                  121     
Queen's                 122     
Ottawa                  123     
Laurier                 125 

My first goal this season is to finish at least 4-3 in conference play. Next would be to beat our crosstown rival, the UofT Varsity Blues at home in the annual Red-Blue Bowl. Finally, if we can at least make games of it against our non-conference opponents, I'd be happy. Our week 9 game at VA Tech will be interesting. And hey, why can't we be scheduled to play AT Hawaii?

[dunkie23]

Thanks to bbgunn for giving me this idea with his NILL dynasty. I'll also use a 4-year recruiting rotation that will look like this based on my I-formation and 3-4 defense:

YR1: QB, RB, RB, WR, C, G, T, DE, DT, ILB, OLB, CB, S (Walk on: TE, P)
YR2: QB, RB, TE, WR, C, G, T, DE, ILB, ILB, OLB, CB, S (Walk on: FB, K)
YR3: QB, RB, RB, WR, C, G, T, DE, DT, ILB, OLB, CB, S (Walk on: TE, P)
YR4: QB, RB, TE, WR, C, G, T, DE, ILB, ILB, OLB, CB, S (Walk on: FB, K)

If anyone has any other suggestions as far as recruiting, feel free to share your ideas!

Now ladies and gentlemen, the beginning of the 2004 York Yeomen football season!

[dunkie23]

2004, Week 1

No game scheduled.

Recruiting

  Player                  Pos   HT   WT   ST   NRank 
Whiting, Lance            QB    6-2  209  NY   35      
**Winstead, Rufus         RB    5-10 179  NY   801     
Matibag, Charles          WR    5-10 174  RI   631     
**Fountain, Kim           G     6-5  274  NY   ---     
Thornton, Gus             T     6-3  262  CA   93      
Hickman, Brandon          DT    6-3  252  NY   433     
$$Farrell, Tommie         DT    6-3  274  NY   ---     
$$Newhart, Devin          ILB   6-1  207  CA   150     
Daniels, Kendrick         OLB   6-5  233  NY   225     
Nofsinger, Brock          OLB   6-2  197  NY   714  

As expected most guys on the defensive side of the ball didn't like our DC. this will hurt. I also decided to stick close to home for the most part this week in recruiting, but those two trips to California killed my weekly budget.

[Big Six]

This will be a lot of fun! Most of my family is Canadian, and I have relatives who graduated from several of the Canadian universities you're featuring, including York. I'm assuming your OUA is the Solecismic Eight. How did you manage to change the names of the colleges?

And, I'm guessing the Yeomen will be recruiting in the USA, since I don't think there are any Canadian recruits in the game.

[dunkie23]

This will be a lot of fun! Most of my family is Canadian, and I have relatives who graduated from several of the Canadian universities you're featuring, including York. I'm assuming your OUA is the Solecismic Eight. How did you manage to change the names of the colleges?

And, I'm guessing the Yeomen will be recruiting in the USA, since I don't think there are any Canadian recruits in the game.

Great! The Yeomen are actually the Lions now -- being all PC and everything, but I'm sticking to how it was when I went there.

And you're absolutely right with the solecismic eight. The way I changed the names was I edited the city information for each of the NY cities to universities from the OUA. I checked first to see which rivals matched for each college and went from there to decide which university to rename each city to.

I've messed with the latitude and longitude before, but didn't bother this time.

And yes, York will have plenty of Americans on the team! Thanks for following along.

[dunkie23]

I'm going to implement a rule where in recruiting, as long as a player has an SAT score of 1300, he can have a GPA of 2.75.

[dunkie23]

Week 2

Recruiting
We went after another big name this week, G Grant Hitchcock from Waterloo, IL, the 3^rd ranked G in the nation. We're the only school to have contacted him so far.

We also made another trip out to California and visited a RB named Wes Switzer from Sacramento. Our scout has him at a 68, but I think he's much better than that. We're in tough to get him, as a few big name schools have contacted him as well.

Game
Hawaii (0-0) at # 121 York (0-0)

We took it to them right away forcing a three and out, and turning the next drive into seven points and never looked back from there. Our defense played great and Howie Stene had 3 picks. By keeping our offense on the field we were able to play our game and keep running the ball. We ran 46 times while only passing 25 times.

Despite running the ball so much, our standout on offense was WR Gardner, with 115 yards on 8 catches. Almost half of those yards came after the catch – perfect for our style of offense.

Our offense did exactly what it needed to do controlling the ball – we had it almost 10 minutes more than Hawaii did – and our defense set us up with great field position all day long. Another help was our 3^rd down conversions as we were 8 for 15. It's not great that we were in 3^rd down situations 15 times, but at least we converted on more than half of those situations.

We were also very disciplined and only took 5 yard in penalties.

Going into the last few minutes with the game tied, we were able to count on our offense and get us a score, and our defense followed up with two interceptions after that to secure the game. All in all, as cliched as this sounds, it was a true team win.

York 20, Hawaii 13
Overall (1-0) -- Conference (0-0)

QB Austin Bailey, WR Rich Gardner, C Will Sims, and S Howie Stene were all OUA players of the week.

Despite the fact we're now ranked ahead of Northern Illinois we'll be in tough next week, but this week's game should give us some confidence heading into DeKalb.

Injuries
We lost TE Frank Hardaway for a week, but he's still isted as probable with a sprained ankle. Edwin Cooley is fighting a pulled groin and isn't expected to be 100% for another 5 weeks. He's listed as doubtful.

[dunkie23]

Week 3

Recruiting
This week we have Rufus Winstead, a RB out of Central Valley, NY, and Brock Nosfinger, an OLB from Rochester, NY visiting us. They'll both be coming to watch our game in DeKalb, so I hope we can play as well as we did last week.

Winstead has 6TDs in 6 games, with 980 yds rushing. Our scout has him pegged at a 56, but I have a feeling he'll pan out a little better than that.

Nosfinger is a pass rushing OLB with 6 sacks, 3 picks and 71 tackles in just 6 games. Our scout O'Conner's got him at a 77, but when I watched his tape, he impressed me even more. I hope we can land this guy. He's got offers from Laurier and McMaster at this point as well, but at least the competition is fair.

I went and visited Grant Hitchcock, and even with his 94 rating from our scout Hugh Allen, I think he's got even more in him. I spent most of the week contacting RBs, but nothing too significant came of anything.

Game
#60 York (1-0) at #96 Northern Illinois (0-1) (-6)

We started cloud in place of Hardaway at FB, while we kept Cooley out of the line up. We made no other changes to strategy and playcalling on offense or defense.

Our offense was less than spectacular with only 13 first downs, but adequate with 97 rush yards and 171 passing yards. We only converted on 4 of 14 third downs.

Austin Bailey was 12 of 20 for 171 yds with a TD and a pick – just about what we can expect of him. Our top rusher was Lionel Gardner with 40 yards on 19 carries with one TD. Unfortunately he was stuffed 10 times – reflective of our offensive line. Our WR Robbie D'Elisa had a pretty good game with 3 catches for 62 yards and touchdown.

Our defense was the story of the game as Howie Stene had a pick six for 51 yards with 30 seconds left on the clock to win the game for us. Marty Peterson also had a pick that went to the house. That means that our defensive scoring matched our offensive output.

York 28, Northern Illinois 21
Overall (2-0) – Conference (0-0)

Lionel Gardner and Howie Stene were OUA players of the week.

These boys are certainly putting on a show. I can't believe that we're 2-0 at this point. We head to Wake Forest next week. Hopefully our early success will encourage some recruits to come and play for us next year.

Injuries
G Sherman Wallace sprained his knee and is listed as doubful. He'll be expected back full in 4 weeks. Backup centre Devin Burcky is listed as probable with a bad cold. DT Edwin Cooley continues to heal and is now listed as questionable.

[dunkie23]

Week 4

Recruiting
QB Lance Whiting will be visiting us this week. Spent some time contacting OTs, Cs, CBs, and LBs. I'm beginning to think my expectations are a little high. I figured though I'd go after some bigger names in the early stages of recruiting, and then lower expectations if needed. I think I'm getting to that point. Another thing that doesn't help is that almost every recruit mentions they don' like Bert Martinez, our OC.

Game
#53 York (2-0) at #86 Wake Forest (0-2) (-3)
Hardaway's back in at FB while Cooley and Burcky are out this week. Meadows will back up Sims at C, and we leave the D-Line the same as last week.

We lost this one in OT. It was pretty disheartening after staying in the game for so long. We played catch up most of the game, so our run/pass ration was more pass than we would have liked. Still we were always within striking distance.

Bailey threw 3 picks and we had no takeaways on defense, that made all the difference.

Lionel Gardner had 107 yards on 20 carries, but no touchdowns. WR Moore had only 2 cathces for 14 yards, but of them were touchdowns.

Stene and Peterson were all over the field again with 11 and 8 tackles respectively. As I mentioned earlier, we had no big plays on defense, and we'll need that to be competitive with out of conference teams. Despite 24 points from our offense, they simply can't win games for us on it's own.

York , Wake Forest
Overall (2-1) – Conference (0-0)

Injuries
Frank Hardaway is out for 7 weeks with a sprained back.
G Sherman Wallace is now questionable with his knee for another 3 weeks. C Devin Burcky is listed as probable with a bad cold. DT Edwin Cooley continues to heal and is now listed as questionable.

[dunkie23]

First Quarter Grades, Miscellaneous Info, and Review

Our first semester mid-term grades came out today. I'm very impressed with our boys in the classroom. Every student athlete on our team has at least a C average except for three players – two C- and one D+. I'll give the D+ kid two blocks and the C- kids one block of extra time each. Great news for this program. I'm real proud of the kids.

***

On a more sombre note, Fred Cloud our backup fullback has committed a serious team violation. The syndicate has stated it will not pursue anything, but to set the example I want with this team, I'm going to go ahead and suspend him.

***

As far as the morale of the team, we're doing pretty well. There are a few players that are disgruntled and one that's unhappy with their playing time, but they are all underclassmen. At this point I'm not feeling too empathetic for any of them – considering our record so far as well. The only person with a legit concern is Brandon Clifton, a junior CB with decent ability. I'll try get him rotation through a little more, but with the success of our secondary to date, it's a little hard to mess with the chemistry too much. I'll keep my eye on this more closely.

***

At this point of the program, I could not be more pleased. I give lots of the credit to the heart and determination of our team, both on and off the field. I'm making it clear I won't put up with any kind of behaviour that would be detrimental to the program.

I think that our strategy as a coaching staff playing to the kids abilities – for now – has helped our success. Until we begin to recruit more kids with the skill sets we're looking for to implement the system we'd like to bring in, we'll keep it this way. It will probably take a couple of years, but I'm willing to be patient.

With conference play starting up in Week 6 after a well deserved bye week, I hope we can continue with the success we've had so far.

[dunkie23]

Week 5

Recruiting
Not much this week. I didn't make many new contacts, I spent most of my week following up with recruits we've already been in contact with. I also tied up some loose ends, making sure we had each position covered that we will need next season. In hindsight, I've contacted way too many running backs – I went heavy considering we are a running team – which has been detrimental in some cases with kids concerned I've got offers out to other guys at that position.

Game
#76 York (2-1) - Off Week

***

Week 6

Recruiting
Lance Whiting, the 5^th ranked QB in the country out of Gloversville, NY, will be in Yeomen red next year. He's the first player to sign his letter of intent with us, and hopefully a player of his calibre will inspire others to sign with us too.

We've also got five recruits here this week, including OLB Brock Nosfinger and WR Charles Matibag.

Game
#68 York (2-1) (-7) at #120 Queen's (0-3)

With Hardaway out and Cloud having been suspended, we're pretty deep into our chart at FB.

We had this one in hand from the get go. We rushed 51 times for 266 yards, and only passed 16 times (with just 5 completions) for 52 yards – just how I like it (except for the 5 completions part).

Lionel Gardner went for 115 yards on 29 carries for 2 touchdowns, while Tommie Connell rushed 13 times for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns. A great committee effort.

Harvey Brandon had a pick for 34 yards in our only turnover of the day.

York 35, Queen's 7
Overall (3-1) – Conference (1-0)

Injuries
Frank Hardaway is still out for 5 weeks with a sprained back. G Sherman Wallace is listed as probable with his knee but could still use one more week. DT Edwin Cooley has one more week to go with his groin, but is listed as probable. J.R. Fung is fighting shoulder tendonitis and is listed as probable. This injury though isn't expected healed for a full 8 weeks. Junior ILB, Ted Samuels is listed as probable with a concussion – there's no way I'll even think about putting him back out there until he's 100%.

***

Week 7

Recruiting
So here it is, Week 7 and we've only got one recruit committed. We lost Brent Nosfinger this week to Laurier, at least we beat them on the field this past week. I hope some letters start rolling in because I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. Again, I spend most of my week getting in touch with recruits we've already spoken to.

We've got 5 recruits in town this week, including RB Rufus Winstead from nearby Central Valley, NY. If we land a top running back, I'd be more than happy as without one, our program has no legs – no pun intended. A strong running game is what we're all about.

Game
#64 York (3-1) (-9) vs. #114 Laurier (1-4)
This one hurt. Although we have relatively few injuries, any injury is a big one because we just don't have that much depth. Laurier's offense took it to us, with 440 yards total – unacceptable.

Laurier is a team we should have beaten. I guess this will teach our team to not take any opponent for granted despite our great start.

Connell and Gradner both had subpar games, and our passing game wasn't much better. We really need Hardaway back to give us that extra man the defense needs to account for.

Considering we had 4 takeaways, the offense should have fared much better. On both of Laurier's first possessions we picked them off. But then we gave the ball up on downs and fumbled it right back on our first two possessions. Our offense could have put us up right from the get go, but failed to do so. We need to get this offense back on track.

We still have a long way to go, and anything can happen – good or bad.

York 14, Laurier 24
Overall (3-2) – Conference (1-1)

Injuries
Frank Hardaway has another 4 weeks to go – boy could we use him right now. Ted Samuels has one more week to go with his concussion. Other than that just some minor injuries. We're going to throw Cooley back in the mix this week. Hopefully that will help.

***

Week 8

Recruiting
RB Phil Dukart signed with us this week. That gets one running back out of the way, but we're looking for one more. I again mostly just followed up with guys already on our board, offering scholarships to those I hadn't yet that I felt could help our team.

We have two recruits visiting this week.

Game
#73 York (3-2) (-1) vs. #71 Guelph (3-2) TV4
We're now in second place in our conference – behind Guelph – so this is a big one. Our most meaningful game to date. Let's see how the boys respond.

It was a blowout. We got out in front early and never looked back. We can certainly play the game we want to much better when we get an early lead.

Tommie Connell and Lionel Gardner had 137 and 94 yards on the ground respectively, while Connell had two TD's and Gardner had one. Tyrone Fox also punched it in a couple times to help the cause.

Austin Bailey managed the game well, only turning it over once and throwing two TD's.

Our defense had 4 takeaways. That's a total of 18 for the season – good enough for 11^th in the country.

Our FS Howie Stene hasn't seen much action lately – I guess opposing offenses are learning to stay away from him.

York 51, Guelph 7
Overall (4-2) – Conference (2-1)

Injuries
Knock wood, we've only got two on the list right now. Fung is playing through his injury and Hardaway is finally listed as questionable. He's still got three weeks to go and is only a sophomore, so no sense in pushing it.

[dunkie23]

Week 9


Recruiting
No letters this week, and we lost a few recruits. They went mostly to fairly prestigious schools, so I'm not that surprised. I had hoped though, we could have landed a couple of big names. Time to reach out to some new guys, I suppose.


We need some defensive players to commit badly.


Game
#60 York (4-2) at #10 Virginia Tech (5-0) (-21)
If we can at least match the point spread here, I'll be happy. I wouldn't tell the team this, but we are way out of our league here. Give it a few seasons and I hope we can compete in a game like this, but right now, forget it. I want to just stick to our game, no matter the score. Even if we're down 21, I want to just keep running the ball.


Well, we hung in with one of the best programs in the country for two quarters and a little bit. Late in the second, we even had the lead – 14-10. The Hokies made it 17-14 shortly after that, but JJ Palm hit a 38 yd field goal with no time on the clock. We went into the locker room tied at 17. We must have awoken a sleeping giant, because when Tech came out for the second half, they didn't look back, scoring 28 unanswered points before the end of the game.


There were no real standouts on the team, but everyone played better than I could have expected. I'm just pleased we hung in there the way we did. We played our game, and showed our potential. Despite the score, it's still a win in my book.


York 17, Virginia Tech 45
Overall (4-3) – Conference (2-1)


Injuries
Hardaway and Fung are still working through their injuries. TE Aaron Fields suffered a concussion and even though he's listed as probable, is expected full in 5 weeks. WR Rich Gardner strained his quad and won't be 100% for about two weeks. He's listed as probable.


***


Week 10


Recruiting
Charles Matibag, a wide receiver from Chariho High School in Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, and Leonard Sharber, an offensive tackle from Kanab High School in Kanab, Utah, signed their intents this week. That gives us a QB, RB, WR, and OT so far, but nothing else. No defensive players really has me worried now, and our board is growing smaller by the day.


(Author's note: Having not played too much TCY, and only having one other real season of recruiting under my belt, I think I spent too much time chasing players that were too far away. It killed my budget, and I didn't get to visit everyone I probably should have. Lesson learned.)


I've decided to stick closer to home and maybe land some overlooked sleeper prospects. My focus needs to be on the defense (obviously) and the interior O-line.