A Couple of Things

Alright, It's been a while since I posted about Army, but I haven't abandoned the site .

Sal Interdonato has a great article up that rates Army's position changes from last year to this year.

The players highlighted are Alejandro Villanueva (OT-WR), Jameson Carter(WR-HB), Seth Reed(DT-G), Kyler Martin (WR-LB) and Victor Ugenyi (DE-DT).

Victor Ugenyi

The move: Ugenyi, who played his first three seasons at defensive end, moved inside to defensive tackle.

Why change was made: Army's double-eagle flex defense is built on midline penetration. Ugenyi, a 6-3, 262-pound senior, had the quickness and size to pull it off.

The verdict: The defense rests. Ugenyi and junior defensive tackle Mike Gann have teamed to blow up opponents' backfields on a constant basis. Ugenyi, who was offered scholarships at Georgia, Georgia Tech, Baylor and UConn, was having a good season before he sustained an ankle injury last Saturday against Rutgers. He is questionable for Army's game at Air Force.

Villanueva and Ugenyi are seniors, Carter and Reed are juniors and Martin is the lone freshman on the list. The thing I notice about that list is that they are all impact players. Ugenyi has made his mark on the defense; Villanueva, in catching the team's 4 TDs- is the team's only real presence out wide - they will graduate this year. The other three Reed, Carter and Martin will reprise their roles on the team next year. Obviously, losing the seniors from any team will be tough, but I for one look forward to what the returning players will do with a year's experience in Ellerson's system. With experience, those close losses will turn into wins that the team can feed off of as they begin looking to take out some legit teams.

On that note, the 2010 Army football schedule has been released.
Everyone loves a good puzzle... good luck finding those legit teams to take out.

2010 ARMY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sept. 4 at Eastern Michigan
Sept. 11 HAWAI'I
Sept. 18 NORTH TEXAS
Sept. 25 at Duke
Oct. 2 TEMPLE
Oct. 9 at Tulane
Oct. 16 at Rutgers
Oct. 30 VMI
Nov. 6 AIR FORCE
Nov. 13 at Kent State
Nov. 20 Notre Dame (Yankee Stadium)
Dec. 11 Navy (Lincoln Financial Field)

Uh.... still thinking.

Outside of the Notre Dame game, all of Army's opponents are at or about Army's level. And that's not bad news... with one year of Ellerson's system under the belt - could 2010 be the year Army goes bowling?

Yearbook: Penn

It's a bye week for Army, which gives me the chance to catch up on some other projects and stuff around the house.

First thing's first... a yearbook.
This one's really cool, and historically relevant:

Penn's yearbook the Record has documented life at the school since 1863... that predates their participation in intercollegiate football by 14 years. Penn football has been around forever - and it shows... this weekend University of Pennsylvania football will be honored for being the first school to play 1300 games.

It's always nice to see that kind of honor for the old school teams. They've been around a long time, and with these yearbooks, their memory will remain intact for years to come.








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Yearbook: Marshall

A decent effort put forth by Mashall. Their yearbook is presented in HTML, so it's searchable, but not as complete as scanned yearbooks.
They've got a few years from 1996-2000 - interestingly, those were their best football years.

Not enough schools do even this much, and it qualifies as a yearbook, so it makes the list.

Library vol. 6

Walter Camp published another book in 1920: Football Without a Coach. This is another great look at what it must have been like to play football during the game's early years.

Camp's advice for the young collegian:

Now, let us suppose that you want to make
a football player out of yourself. Let us
suppose that I am your coach. I say to you :

First — Cut out smoking.

Second — Eat what you like of good food,
but have very little to do with pastries. Res
are not good for the person who wants to
become an athlete. Get at least eight hours
sleep a night — get nine hours if you can.
Don't drink a lot with your meals, but drink
in the morning before breakfast, and in the
evening, and after you have cooled off from
your exercise. Drink at least eight or nine
glasses of water a day. Do not do your
football playing directly after eating. Wait
two or three hours, if possible. If not, eat
lightly before playing. I know a big, husky,
190-pound college player who developed
what he thought was heart trouble. He gave
up football, but soon discovered that his heart
was all right Playing the game a half-
hour after eating was what had sickened
him.

You must do all these things because foot-
ball is no joke. If a man means to play the
game in earnest, he should get himself in the
best of shape.

Solid advice. Still other parts of this book illustrate the great expanse of time that's passed between the early 20th century football of Walter Camp's and the modern game.

The beauty of the sport is that there seems to
be a place on a football team for a player of
any physique, provided, of course, that he is in
normal health. The fat boy, who has been
the joke of his comrades, suddenly finds that
he is excellent material for a football center,
provided — another of course — that he works
hard and masters the position. The active
little fellow, who has not been able to hold
his own with the bigger boys in wrestling and
other rough sports, finds himself a quarter-
back through his ability to use his hands and
his head. The big slow boy gets a place as
guard, and the fast quick tackier goes out
on the end. And the boy who can kick and
forward pass finds a place for himself be-
hind the line. There Is room for all. 

From general first aid to game day strategy, Walter Camp's Football Without a Coach is a great look at colege football's grass roots.