What are your thoughts on the Hoyas?

[3706R]

As we head in to the 2005 season, what are your thoughts on the Hoyas?

1) What's our biggest strength?
2) What's our biggest weakness?
3) What do you think will be the biggest improvement from last year?
4) What do you think the conference and season records will be?

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

1) Biggest weakness (annually): Special Teams

3) Biggest improvement: stadium

I don't claim to be an expert on the other things (I just drink and go to the games or vice versa), so I leave those for others to answer.

[LBPop]

Here's my $.02. I will not suggest weaknesses, I will only mention strengths and question marks:

Strengths:

1) Returning OC--no new offense to learn (See QBs below)
2) Depth at RB--Sarin needs a break and will get it
3) Depth at LB--All starters return and some new faces are in the mix
4) Two outstanding D Ends--pressure on the QB can make heroes of DBs
5) Depth at DB--some new faces and speed there too (a couple of freshman DBs made some of the top plays last year)
6) I guess I should simply cite the entire defense as a strength.

Questions:

1) Who will be QB and how will he play? All candidates (except for a possible surprising freshman) have a year of experience with this offense.
2) O Line--lost a lot of starters
3) Will this new offense work? No excuses this season.
4) Can these kids win? Gotta break the losing habit--being good enough isn't enough.

As I have said earlier, this season opens with tremendous opportunities for the Hoyas. Bucknell is re-building, Holy Cross is beatable (still shudder at the memory of last year's fourth quarter), Brown will be opening their season while the Hoyas will have played two, Stony Brook can certainly be had. If they can go 2-2, that will be OK...3-1? Wow, that would be something. Can't wait for September 3rd--already booked my room in Lewisburg. ;D

[njhoya]

wow, a lot of info. as a newcomer, i hope you're right w/ the defensive strength. i've been told that the former unc kid is pretty good (jersey kid of course!). hopefully the o-line will be good--that's always the key to the o.
one thing, i thought that one of the lb's was a senior last yr (another jersey kid), was i wrong?

[LBPop]

Actually, the two top candidates for QB (Keith Allan & Nick Cangelosi) are both from Jersey. Looks like you will have a special reason to root for the QB regardless. Last season Allan was the OC's choice for the opening game, but he played hurt almost all season. Nick got on the field very little last season, but he looked much more comfortable this spring. Could be an interesting summer for these two and for the coaches who make the decisions.

My comment about the linebackers really refers to the two inside positions. The lone outside backer is kind of a hybrid. At the end of the season the starters were Chris Paulus (Jr. this season) and Mehdi Hassan (Sr. this season). They will both be back, but there is also a lot of depth. Jackson Dismukes who played as a senior last season, got hurt early and is back. There are others plus a sophomore or two who should provide a lot of depth.

One other observation. LBs are traditionally very good on specials...especially kick coverages. Depth at LB should help there. As an earlier post correctly observed, kick coverage killed that team last year.

[GUHoya07]

njhoya said:

wow, a lot of info. as a newcomer, i hope you're right w/ the defensive strength. i've been told that the former unc kid is pretty good (jersey kid of course!). hopefully the o-line will be good--that's always the key to the o.
one thing, i thought that one of the lb's was a senior last yr (another jersey kid), was i wrong?

He's definitely right about the defense. Our defense looked amazing last year and our offense looked absolutely horrible. I remember more defensive touchdowns for us last year than offensive ones. I don't know the actual numbers but I attend every home game and our defense looked like one of the top teams in the Patriot league and our offense looked like the worst.