TROY — It’s been a long and busy week at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

On Sunday, the men’s ice hockey team was chosen to participate in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995.

The school has also found someone to succeed veteran football coach Joe King, who stepped down in January.

Early Tuesday, a school spokesman confirmed that Tim Landis has been hired to lead the Engineers for the 2011 season.

The 46-year-old comes to Troy from San Jose State University, where he was the offensive coordinator and coached the tight ends.

Landis, a native of Yardley, Pa., spent one year with the Spartans.

He also has head coaching experience at Bucknell, Saint Mary’s (CA) and Davidson.

King won 152 games in 22 seasons for the Engineers and posted a winning percentage of 71.8 percent (152-59-2).

TROY - RPI coach Joe King stepped down from his position on Monday afternoon.

King, who recently finished his 22nd season coaching the Engineers, is the all-time winningest coach in school history.

RPI has a link, where you can share your thoughts about Coach King. You can get to that spot by clicking here.

Make sure to check The Record paper edition for more thoughts on King's career at Rensselaer.

All the talk coming from and about the 2010 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute football team (myself included) was that shootouts would be the name of the game this season in Troy.

One game and six points later, there's no longer talk about how many - but when will the Engineers score their first touchdown of the year.

The offense (115 rushing, 92 passing) was simply not good enough last Saturday against Endicott.

This offense was supposed to be better than last year's, now that quarterback Mike Hermann had another year under his belt.

In 2009, RPI beat Endicott 28-0. This year the score was just 6-3.

Brian Surace is back in the fold as Offensive Coordinator and his first game was not one I'm sure he'll want to remember.

If it weren't for three missed field goals from the Gulls (two blocked, one missed with 54 seconds remaining) RPI would be at 0-1 and have a lot more questions to be answered.

As many coaches say and I'm sure RPI coach Joe King will echo, it's better to learn things in a win rather than a loss.

Hopefully, the Engineers are learning something because six points won't be enough to win on Saturday against Utica.

RPI football coach Joe King will be inducted into the Watervliet Athletic Hall of Fame in October.

King coached the Cannoneers from 1973-1979 and I was able to catch up with him on the phone on Wednesday.

"Nothing but fond memories," he said.

King coached former NFL player Tim Sherwin at Watervliet. Sherwin, who played at Boston College, played big college game all over the country.

"He said it still meant more to him to play at Watervliet then in front of those bigger crowds," King said.

Looking back, it was likely King who started Watervliet off on their way to becoming a Section II football powerhouse.

"We had some great kids and we worked hard," King said. "We changed the whole atmosphere there. We made football important."

Here are the other inductees that will be enshrined Oct. 17.

Watervliet High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2010

Athletes
Mary Littlejohn Adams (1987) soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball
Tony Carroll (1991) football, track
Robert Christiansen (1963) soccer, track
Janice Crudo Teson (1976) basketball, softball
Lyle Darmetko (1986) football, basketball, baseball
Tony Fruscio (1989) football, basketball
Dominic Fruscio (1993) football, basketball, baseball
Donald Kelly (1975) basketball, track
Gene Madaio (1954) football, soccer, baseball
David Pitaniello (1971) football, baseball, bowling
Peter Strand (1987) football, basketball, baseball
Corey Wasula (1991) soccer, basketball, softball
Coaches
Joe King (1973-79) head coach, varsity football
Teams
1991 boys basketball (28-0)
Contributor
Watervliet High School Dad's Club

I stopped up at RPI football practice today to do something on wide receiver Patrick McCarthy which will run on Saturday.

While I was there, freshman quarterback Mike Hermann was in shorts and a long sleeve fleece with a baseball cap on - no pads.

Hermann has been named Liberty League Rookie of the Week three times in a row and has thrown for 559 yards and four touchdown and also rushed for 205 yards and five touchdowns for the Engineers (3-0).

Coach Joe King actually started fellow freshman Tanner Boucher in the season opener against Endicott, but Boucher hadn't played until the final series against WPI last Saturday.

I know Coach King and his staff are comfortable with Boucher playing, but missing Hermann would make Saturday's game against Rochester (0-3) even a little more interesting.

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.