Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson was named Liberty League Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week.

The senior has won 29 games as a starter in four seasons with the Engineers, who play in an ECAC matchup against Alfred on Saturday at '86 Field at noon.

He also became the first player ever to throw for over 9,000 yards and holds the record for career completions.

(RPI Athletics)

Saturday will be an emotional day for the RPI football program.

It will be the last regular season game played at '86 Field - a gift to the school from the class of 1886.

The program is welcoming back any former players before Saturday's game.

I had a chance to speak with some alumni in doing a story for Thursday's (11/6) paper.

Here's what some of the guys had to say.

"It’s meant a lot, but I’m not going to think about it until it’s done," RPI coach Joe King said.

"It’s a special place," senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson said.

"I felt we had a tremendous advantage playing there," said former player and coach and current President of RPI Football Alumni Association Mark Clark ('89).

Here's a picture of one of the most memorable games - 2003's East Regional Final vs. Ithaca.

(Photo courtesy Eric Ren)

You may think that's a really hard picture to see anything, but that's how it actually looked on that December day.

I was a student at Ithaca and doing sidelines on the radio. It was unlike anything I've ever seen.

Here's former quarterback Dan Cole's ('04) answer when I asked him what sticks out in his mind from playing on '86 Field.

"One thing that sticks out is beating Union twice on our home field in my career," Cole said. "The most significant one that sticks out in my head is the Snow Bowl, when we played in two feet of snow against Ithaca."

If the Engineers can win their final two games, they will likely get a home playoff game, but this could be the last time anyone laces it up on '86 Field.

It wasn't pretty, but RPI made it three in a row on Saturday, defeating Union 25-12 and retaining the Dutchman Shoes Trophy.

“There’s nothing better than the feeling of winning the Shoes,” sophomore receiver Patrick McCarthy said.

The Engineers are now 7-0 and have only two games remaining.

McCarthy's big return is what set up RPI's comeback after they feel behind 12-7 on a 65-yard touchdown run by Chris Coney.

“We needed something,” RPI coach Joe King said. “We needed a jumpstart, now we’re trailing, they just had a 70-yard run and we hadn’t done too much offensively.”

Who would have thought that 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior defensive lineman James McLaughlin would have a catch before senior wide receiver Eren Savasli.

McLaughlin and Savasli both caught touchdown passes from senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson to put the Engineers up for good.

“I’m happy for (McLaughlin) because he’s been working hard all year and wanting coach to call his number,” Robertson said.

Savasli averages more than seven catches a game, but his one on Saturday was deadly; a 55-yard touchdown strike.

“You know he’s going to get one of those,” McCarthy said. “He’s a big playmaker and you give him an opportunity, he’s going to take it.”

“(Savasli) didn’t have a lot of opportunities today,” King said. “They really did a good job taking him out and we went to some other kids a little bit.”

While RPI's offense didn't play their best, their defense was up to the challenge.

I was also impressed Union's defense played as well as they did.

“I don’t know if we came out flat,” McCarthy said. “They played really well on defense.”

Coney finished with 128 yards, but was limited except for the big touchdown run.

“I wish we could have given it to him more,” Union coach John Audino said. “We got behind a little bit in the second half and obviously, with seven minutes to go in the game, it’s difficult to give your bread-and-butter guy the rock.”

Here's what some of the particpants had to say after the game....

“Between the misplays and the turnovers, it gives a good team an opportunity to get some easy scores and that’s what happened,” Audino said.

“I played all right, but not to the best of my ability,” Coney said. “There are no moral victories.”

“They made some plays on defense in the first half,” Robertson said. “They were really stopping us, shutting us down and taking away those big plays we’ve had all year. In the second half, Coach made a couple good calls and we just executed.”

“That’s what this team is all about,” Savasli said. “We have playmakers and we expect everyone to go out there and make plays.”

RPI has taken it one game at a time and next week is huge when they take on Hobart in what almost becomes a Liberty League championship game.

“We kept everything exactly the same as far as meetings and times, there was nothing special (this week) and it’ll be the same thing next week,” King said.

“We treated this game just like a playoff game and that’s what we have to do next week,” Robertson said.

“All week we’re going to come focused and prepare for that," Savasli said. "We know we have two more steps to attain our preseason goal of going undefeated. Being the last game on ’86 (Field) there is going to be a lot of emotion and everybody is going to have to bring their ‘A’ game to come out with the victory against Hobart.”

RPI coach Joe King and Union coach John Audino stand with The Dutchman Shoes Trophy on Wednesday on the RPI campus.

(Amie Canfield - RPI Athletics)

It's that time of the year and even though the RPI/Union football game isn't the final game of the year, it still means everything to these programs and their schools alike.

The media luncheon was today and here were some of the highlights....

Union's had two weeks to prepare for this game so I asked senior linebacker Joe Catalano if these last couple of days should be a breeze preparing.

"A breeze, but a very intense breeze," Catalano said. "You can't have enough preparation for this type of offense. It's tricky."

Here's how RPI senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson described the atmosphere.

"Fun is the only word I can use to explain it," Robertson said. "We're out in practice every day, having fun, excited."

I then tried to get Robertson to say that since this Union teamed seemed down coming in to the season, this game would be a little easier than normal - no luck.

"They started out a little slow, but in the past weeks they've beaten Hobart and had some good wins. They are still in the hunt for the Liberty League title, just like us. It's win or go home for them in terms of the (league) title. We're expecting their 'A' game, we have to bring ours, so it should be a fun game on Saturday."

I asked both RPI coach Joe King and Union coach John Audino about their most distinct memory of the rivalry for them.

"Anytime we win and there haven't been that many of them, they certainly stand out," King said. "Probably the one that stands out the most was in 1987. We were not a very good football team. We were 1-4 and I think they were 4-1 or 5-0 and we played at our place and we just got on a roll that day. Did we have any business beating them? Probably not, but we did a lot of things right, ended up winning that game and that turned our season around."

"There's two," Audino said. "In 1993, when we were undefeated at 9-0. We had a very good defensive team and a good offensive team, but we were able to win the game. Two years ago, when we beat them 49-42 to clinch an undefeated season again, in a track meet, which was a very exciting game. I think those two games were the most exciting games, probably for me, and stand out in my mind at this point."

To finish, Coach King gave me his best Bill Belichick impersonation when I asked about sophomore running back Nick Costa, who left the Susquehanna game early with a knee injury and didn't play last week against St. Lawrence.

"We're not sure," King said. "Even if I knew, which I don't, I probably wouldn't tell you."

Costa rushed for 160 yards last year in a 20-14 RPI win.

Then I asked what was wrong with him and King answered.

"He's got an injury."

Touché.

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute football team received some national love when they entered d3football.com's Top 25 this week after advancing to 5-0 with a 35-14 victory over Susquehanna.

Now, the Engineers and notably senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson and fellow senior and roommate wide receiver Eren Savasli, lead Adam Samrov's Around the East column on d3football.com.

Here's the link.

http://www.d3football.com/columns/around-the-region/east/2008/Quarterback-receiver+chemistry+fuels+Engineers

One other note. Samrov used to work for our sister paper, The Saratogian, and now works for the Bennington Banner.

The RPI football team is finally ranked in the top 25 according to d3football.com.

I used the word finally, but that doesn't mean I think they should have been there before this point - it's more of the fact that they're still undefeated (5-0) and it's getting colder out (meaning the end of the season is getting near).

I've seen RPI play only once, but they looked good against WPI. They looked good this week against Susquehanna. They didn't play great against Utica and overall, I'm not sure how good they are, but we'll find out coming up.

10/25 @ St. Lawrence (I was at the Union/St. Lawrence game this week and the Saints, who are 0-6, looked like world beaters in the first quarter when they jumped out to a 14-0 lead; and this game is on the road)

11/1 vs. Union (The Dutchmen are down, but throw the records out the window during when the Dutchmen Shoes are up for grabs)

11/8 vs. Hobart (This team is dangerous and four points from being 5-0 themselves. This also will be the last game ever at '86 Field barring playoff home games)

Senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson earned Liberty League honors for the second time this season. After throwing for 354 yards and two touchdown, Robertson earned co-Offensive Player of the Week honors with Union's sophomore running back Chris Coney.

Robertson is on course to replace Dan Cole '04 in a number of spots in the RPI record books.

If my math is correct, Robertson needs 13 completions, 120 attempts, 598 yards, 19 touchdowns and 840 total yards after this weekend's results.

Frank Rossi, the voice of Union College football and Eric Ren, a former RPI student-athlete, have put together a new internet radio show.

"In the HuddLLe" obviously a play on Liberty League will air at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ normally on Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

The show will run 90 minutes and the first show happened last night (Wednesday 9/24) because the league kicks off conference play this weekend with these matchups.

WPI (3-0) at RPI (2-0)
Susquehanna (1-2) at Hobart (2-0)
Rochester (0-2) at Union (1-1)
St. Lawrence (0-3) at Merchant Marine (1-2)

You can listen to the first show here.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LLRecap/2008/09/25/In-the-HuddLLe-Inaugural-Show-1

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the guests from the last night's show were

Rochester Head Coach Scott Greene
RPI Quarterback Jimmy Robertson
WPI Linebacker Matt Boudreau (Rensselaer native and La Salle graduate)
Merchant Marine Academy radio voice Seth Cantor (a fellow Ithaca alumnus)

Ninety minutes seems lengthy, especially when just focusing on one league, but the two seem to also want to make the show interactive and take calls from listeners, which would make for an interesting segment.

I'm in the process of trying to contact Frank and get more information, but for now I'll leave you with Robertson's take on the show (since he was already on it).

"It's something pretty cool," Robertson said. "I know a lot of guys were listening to it from around the league. It's just going to give all these teams exposure, not just within Upstate New York and the Liberty League, but throughout the whole nation.

Here's what Robertson thought about being one of the very first guests on the show.

"It feels good to be on the inaugural show," Robertson said. "I feel pretty honored that they wanted me to be part of it."