New Haven at Marist: Game Notes
The 77 Classic
The first game in New Haven Division I Football history is the 77 Classic.
Well, that’s the branding, and with rivalries being the lifeblood of college sports… you’d really like to see it develop into something special.
Per the Marist athletics website, the two teams have never actually met previously. But there’s no time like the present. As the name implies, they’re only separated by 77 miles, with Poughkeepsie, NY tapped for the site of the inaugural bash.
The good news is that “inaugural” likely doesn’t mean “only.” Fans who love short road trips should know that there’s a lot of work being put in behind the scenes to make New Haven vs. Marist an annual thing to open up the year. Familiarity breeds rivalry, after all, and these days it’s hard to make familiarity work in non-conference play. Let’s hope this is a rare exception to that problem.
AJ Duffy Named Starting QB
Florida State transfer AJ Duffy has been named the New Haven starting quarterback. He’s a former four star that will have a lot of expectations as New Haven begins its season just from the pedigree that ranking has. The first spot of the season on NEC On the Run didn’t hurt that perception.
Of Duffy, Coach Mark Powell said, “He’s always even keeled, always operating the right way. We’re excited to see what he does.” He’s excited about his dual threat ability and calls him the “commanding officer” of the team. Not bad praise from a coach from a naval family.
Blue Collar in Blue and Gold
The New Haven Chargers had a lot of rebuilding to do prior to this season.
When the news about the transition to Division I hit- and the subsequent need to quickly rebuild a schedule- many of the players from New Haven hit the transfer portal. When Coach Powell took over, he was able to recruit many of those players back (we’ve written about this before), but not all of them. In response, this is a team that had to build significantly through the transfer portal. But heading into week one, there’s some good things that have come from it.
For one thing, the identity of the team is strong. “Just really blue collar toughnes. They go to work every day. The team slogan is FAST- family always stays together- and they’re just a resilient group.”
That’s exciting, but how are all of the new guys gelling? According to Coach Powell, that’s not a concern either. “In pre-season camp, you wouldn’t know we had as many transfers as we had,” he said, noting that the team is close. The Chargers staff is preaching family, and it’s helping what could have been a disparate group be perfectly cohesive.
A Perfect Circle
For Coach Powell, this is a culmination of a lot of hard work, but it’s also a trip that has taken him back to the beginning. “I went to high school across the street from campus,” he told us. Of course, Coach Powell’s grandfather coached at Yale for 32 years. He’s no stranger to New Haven. But how many head coaches get to live the dream of bringing your hometown to Division I?
And as the 77 Classic kicks off the season, he’ll be in the history books forever as the first Head Coach of the program as they make their long-overdue transition to the NEC.
