So last week's contest with Sacred Heart proved to be a nice tune-up for the Hawks homecoming game against Albany this week. MU played it best 60 minutes of football against the Pioneers, and Kyle Frazier threw the ball better than he ever has in a Monmouth uniform. That will bode will this week against the Great Danes, who have won 17 straight league games. Some tidbits on the Monmouth-Albany series before the full-fledged preview comes out on Thursday:
- The winner of the MU-UAlbany game has won the league title six times in the last seven years, including Monmouth’s championships in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
- In the 11 all-time meetings, four have been decided by a touchdown or less, including one on the last play.
- Monmouth’s first win in the series come back on October 18, 2003, when the Blue and White’s defense led the way to a 10-7 win in West Long Branch.
- MU won the game in 2004, 25-24, after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter and trailing 21-10 midway through the third quarter.
- Then sophomore quarterback Brian Boland, who would go on to lead MU to three league titles in his four years as the signal caller, engineered a 15-play, 77-yard drive that culminated with Steve Andriola hitting a game-winning 23-yard field goal as time expired to give the Hawks a 25-24 win.
- In 2006, Boland set a Monmouth record for completion percentage, going 17-for-18 passing with 213 yards and added 32 rushing yards in the 19-0 win at Albany, which gave the Hawks the NEC Title.
- The Great Danes have won the last two meetings in the series, and consequently have also won the last two NEC Championships, including last season’s 35-17 win.
- This season’s edition features the two best running backs in the conference in Monmouth’s David Sinisi and Albany’s David McCarty. They rank 1-2 in the NEC in rushing yards and yards per game, while also tying for the league-lead with eight rushing scores.
- The two rivals have combined to win eight league championships in 13 years, and are the two most consistent teams in the league, both within conference play and out of it.
- Last season, the two clubs placed 21 players on the All-NEC First or Second teams.
- The team’s two head coaches, MU’s Kevin Callahan and UA’s Bob Ford, have a combined 320 wins in their respective tenures at the two schools.
Preview and prediction to come on Thursday....
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