great danes football

Tuesday morning was media training with yours truly giving the presentation to the University at Albany football team. 100 players packed into the academic center, where the team generally holds training camp team meetings. The UAlbany Great Danes are preparing to take on 10th-ranked Baylor on September 3rd, so information had to be quick and to the point. Plus, one Great Danes player was about to learn that he earned something incredibly special.

The New York Giants have a deep history with Albany and the Capital Region. Check out some of the best photos from camp, featuring the Giants biggest stars.

While they no longer hold training camp at UAlbany, the New York Giants will still visit the Great Danes from time to time, and here's why that happened this past weekend.

Home cookin' will hopefully mean a lot. It hasn't been on the menu for Coach Greg Gattuso and his team very often this season. The UAlbany Great Danes will be home for back to back weekends for the first time this year, as the team hosts Maine for their annual ‘Pink Game’ to raise awareness for breast cancer and the American Cancer Society. The Great Dane fan base is also hoping that this will be the game where their team turns the corner with a victory.

The UAlbany Great Danes began their season by visiting national powerhouse No. 4 North Dakota State University last Saturday. The Danes fell 28-6, but showed some awesome signs of potential this season against a team that has won 8 of the last 10 FCS National Championships, including finishing the first half with more total yards. UAlbany Head Coach Gattuso joined The Drive with Charlie & Dan on Tuesday and pointed out a lot of positives for the Great Danes on both sides of the ball.

Monday was Media Day at UAlbany Football and I was lucky enough to be invited to broadcast The Drive with Charlie & Dan from 3p to 7p from Tom & Mary Casey Stadium, so I did. It was fun to catch up and spend some face time with old friends, even though it seems like our society is going backwards in seeing faces. Athletic Director Mark Benson and Deputy Athletic Director Vic Cegles came on and talked about the upcoming season and the excitement of having fans back in the stands. Then Head Coach Greg Gattuso hung out on the The Drive for almost an hour and reflected on the challenges the Great Danes faced last year and how they are preparing for a very tough schedule this season.

On Saturday, November 30, 2019, as the Great Danes finished defeating Central Connecticut by a score of 42-14 in the NCAA playoffs at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium, I am positive that Greg Gattuso did not think that it would be the last time for nearly two years that he would see fans in the UAlbany home stands. Well, that has all changed. Today the University at Albany announced that they will "open all of its athletic venues at full capacity this fall in line with updated guidance from the CDC and New York State."

The Colonial Athletic Conference has produced such NFL greats as Howie Long (Villanova), Joe Flacco (Delaware), Charles Haley (James Madison), Darren Sharper (William & Mary) and scores of others. 36 CAA players were on NFL rosters at the start of last football season, including former UAlbany Great Dane, Jarron Williams. Many of them, including Williams, played at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium while still in college. All the more reason to support the UAlbany Great Danes by purchasing a couple of season tickets.

The long-awaited announcement of the University of Albany Great Danes Football schedule is here! The season will be short but sweet with the Great Danes playing six conference games with the hopes of earning the Colonial Athletic Association's bid into the FCS Playoffs. UAlbany football will begin on March 6th at New Hampshire and the regular season will conclude April 10th home against Villanova.

The University of Albany Great Danes football team is predicted to come in fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association by HERO sports. The Great Danes are coming off potentially the best season in program history making it to the second round of the FCS playoffs where they fell to Montana St on the Bobcats home field in Bozman, Montana.

The University of Albany Great Danes football team just did one of my favorite things in college sports. When the decision of which players receive scholarships and which ones do not are made you know some players sadly miss the cut. One of my favorite things is when players find out in creative and fun ways they have made the cut and will get their scholarship. UAlbany found a fun way to reward four players and shared the video for us all to enjoy.

The Great Danes will try to exceed preseason expectations in 2019