Top 25 Ranking For UAlbany Flips The Preseason Script In CAA

The UAlbany football team wasn't supposed to be very good this season. In fact, some 'experts' thought they would be pretty bad. Coming off of a 3-8 season in 2022, where the Great Danes didn't win a single game on the road, 2023 expectations were light, at best, by many but not all.

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The CAA preseason coaches' poll released this summer ranked UA #11 out of 13 Colonial Athletic Conference teams. It didn't seem like many in the conference had high hopes for the Great Danes. However, as head coach Greg Gattuso emphatically told 'The Drive with Charlie & Dan' prior to the season, "polls don't mean a thing to us." Monday's midseason poll might add a little support to ignoring early predictions...

UAlbany was ranked #24 in this week's 'Stats Perform FCS Top 25.' The Great Danes had not been ranked in the Top 25 in nearly two years. Some are surprised Coach Gattuso's team is performing so well on both sides of the ball. The veteran head coach is not. Gattuso knew UAlbany had a nucleus of very talented players. The coach and his staff felt that they just needed a "normal" spring and preseason to put it all together. They got that and good things appear to be happening in 2023.

As Gattuso is quick to point out, sophomore quarterback Reese Poffenbarger came into the season on the Walter Payton Award Preseason Watch List, for the very best FCS football player in the country. So far in 2023, Poffenbarger has thrown 12 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. Glens Falls High School product Griffin Woodell is tearing it up in the Great Danes' backfield, averaging almost 5 yards per carry this season, with 4 receiving TD's. On the other side of the ball this week, sophomore linebacker Dylan Kelly was named Fed Ex Ground FCS National Defensive Player of the Week. Kelly terrorized the Towson offense with 23 tackles, 9 of them solo on Saturday afternoon. Defensive end Anton Juncaj received CAA Defensive Player of the Week honors in September and leads the team with 9 sacks.

The Great Danes' football team is very good. They have several players being scouted by NFL teams on a weekly basis. UAlbany's only two losses this season came to FBS schools with 22 more scholarship players on each of their rosters. UAlbany was in a position to win each of those games. This week it's #24. It's nice but the Great Danes expect to be much closer to the top by mid-November. UAlbany takes on New Hampshire this Saturday in Durham, NH. Rodger Wyland wiLL have the play-by-play call with color-commentator Michael Johnson, Jr. on 104.5 The Team. The Great Danes' Pre-game show starts at 12:45 PM with a kick-off scheduled for 1:00 PM.