Nescac1 - I think if you reread two of my posts I took my hat off to Middlebury moving the football and scoring and then Amherst taking  it to Trinity in 2nd half. I doubt the Trinity players would guarantee they are a 6-2 team just like I doubt the Williams players would guarantee they are just a 6-1 team right now and I would venture to say Trinity would KILL to play Middlebury and Amherst again. Lets move on from this and let the players finish their seasons. Whether you played football or not our opinions are meaningless. I have been around long enough to know when one person needs to end something so figuring you are a Williams fan good luck tomorrow 7-1 will look better than 6-2. Catch you next year in Williams and may the best team win.

So in the context of "barely" what does Williams "barely" beating Colby mean and Amhesrt "barely" beating Bowdoin mean? Florida, Alabama and Texas all "barely" won games this year and two of the three will play for the National Championship. A few years ago Texas "barely" beat USC because USC "barely" beat Notre Dame. If Trinity would have gotten the "Safety" that was called and put on board then "taken away" with "NO INSTANT REPLAY" then the 1st TD pass makes it 22-21 without the on-side kick. But in all honesty there will be hundreds of on-side kicks recovered between this past August and January so a recovered on-side kick is not miraculous by any stretch of the imagination at any level of football competition. Quite simply the Trinity QB dropped back, scrambled and rolled out in the last quarter which was something he just physically could not do
the last 5 1/2 quaters that he played in against Middlebury and Amherst. Against Amhesrt there were no rollouts, bootlegs or QB draws that he ran all year. Mistakes happen in games every minute of the game. Critical injuries to 1st team QB's don't. For three years I have heard that Williams lost to Bowdoin when Pat Lucy (great QB) threw 5 or 6 interceptions because he couldn't thow off a bad leg.  If I recall Bowdoin "barely" won that one. As for Tuggle he has one year of eligibility left and my bet is he comes back along with two 6' 4/5" WR's who should be mature and ready to go opposite of Galligan, Grombala and Hunt. I wil take Amhesrt tomorrow based on their "D". They didn't break all year.

As a Trinity fan it is really Amherst's and William's show right now. 2 or 3 plays total in the Middlebury - Amherst games is all that separated them from going into Saturday unbeaten. For losing the NESCAC Offensive and Defensive Players of the year (both Captains and 3 year starters) along with a ALL NESCAC LB and D-Back not returning for this year's eligibility playing time they were in both games right thru the 4th quarter with the QB at about 50% mobility. When he threw for 200 yards in the 4th quarter against Williams with 2 td's to Galligan and then 381 and 4 td's against Bowdoin he didn't miss most of the week in practice like he did against Amherst along with playing hurt most of the 2nd half against Middlebury. With the exception of Starnes the whole Trinity offense is coming back. The defense has replacements to make on the line, an LB and 2 DB's

At 7-0 Amherst has done a great job of holding offenses when they had to and scoring the go ahead when they needed it. In addition what they got so far this year is the same luck and breaks Trinity got last year against Hamilton, Tufts and Middlebury when they went 8-0. Against Bowdoin they shut down Kell 4 or 5 times inside the 10 and against Trinity they escape without a safety in the 1st half with the Amherst QB's neck to his toes in the end zone, knees down half way in the endzone with a spot on about the 1 inch line, a Trinity fumbled punt (1st of the year) on the Trinity 8 yard line and the Trinity QB out of practice all week with a bad ankle sprain. My hats off to Amhesrt period because in the 2nd half they scored 16 points but unbeaten seasons carry equal doses of good talent, good coaching and catching luck and breaks that you need. A war on Saturday for sure.

There are 2 that matter. Williams should not look past Weleyan as they are much more improved than one would think. Trinity wins at Amherst as they have the last 2 years at Amherst and Trinity. No doubt it will be a brutually physical game. It will come down to who has been there before and who wants it really early in the fight.

From what I understand from people at the Trinity-Middlebury game the Trinity QB had throws to Tuggle that ended up at the 1/2 yard line with Starnes then taking it in, Galligan getting shoestringed at the 4 with Starnes taking it in again and a dropped TD in the end zone right before the field goal. You can't get closer to 3 more TD passes in a game than that. 2 of the interceptions were tough with one bouncing off a reciever pads and another was a pick barely off the ground as he was trying to throw it away as he was going down. Couple that with the holding penalty off the reverse TD by Tuggle on the 1st play of the game and Sherry gets stopped on a fake punt for rhe 1st time in 2 years one series later the day may not have been Trinity's from the start. Take nothing away from Middlebury though as there Offense was moving most of the day. If there was ever a game for Trinity to go into with a chip on the pads - it will be Saturday.

Trinity came back hard in the last 7 minutes of the game. In the last 7 minutes both the Offense and Defense played like they did in the 1st half. Kell is good QB who can throw off his back foot pretty well and they had receivers who never stopped running their routes. Drusbosky has won on the road at Tufts and nuetralized Kell TD for TD. 3 more to go. 1 at a time. Next week Middlebury.

I think winning on the road last week at Tufts was a good sign they can win in a tough place. 4 holding penalties take away the momentum they had on 4 drives with the last one on the Tufts 20 yd line plus Tuggle apparently was out of it after a hit put on him by the Tufts Safety. He had a pass in his hands at the 15 or so yard line and then is out the rest of the game. Kell is solid and experienced QB but if Trinity gets to him like they have with the other QB's he will know it like last year up at Bowdoin. Trinity will score 24-30 points if the rain isn't to bad. Continued mistake free play by the Trinity QB will undoubtedly help the scoring.

Then it is probably the same  Katz who was an All-State pitcher for Cheshire
in 2003. Not that it matters but at 25 or 26 years old he should be well ahead of the curve. He had 3 years of Major League Baseball before going to Lafyette. Certainly a solid catch by Amherst. His atheltic ability, size and maturity would make it easy for any of the higher level education based athletic programs (Ivy-Patriot-NESCAC) to use a support band or slot on him "if" need be. I give him credit for knowing that his baseball career is over and to come back to a good school and play football again. I believe he was a stud tight-end at Cheshire. If he is the game on punt, field goal or extra points don't be surprised to see a pass going his way in a critical spot.

Who is the D-1 Transfer from Amherst and what D-1 College did he come from?

Tufts plays hard nosed football. Two years ago Trinity was went to Tufts 3-0 and got beat in the 2nd half with a veteran defense. Winning on the road is a major step and cog in the wheel. 4 more games - 1 at a time I am sure will be the focus.

Fair enough - Time to move on.

There are players (at any level of competition) that go to schools where winning is a tradition and getting playing time early in their career is not there #1 priority. If playing time came over winning they would be playing at the 2nd tier schools 3-4 years versus 1 to 2 years at a Trinity or Williams. My point was more to Saturday's actual game scenario.  A few dropped passes. a holding call on a 10 yard completion and about 5 inches on 2 overthrows in the 1st quarter were also part of the game. As the other post says Drusbosky needs to lead Trinity to a win against Tufts on the road by continuing to not making mistakes. What he did against Williams in the 4th quarter is what he will draw on when that time comes again.

Considering the fact that Eric McGrath threw about 400 passes and Connor Wells and Mcdowell the TE caught over 100 of them and all are graduated now I would think 6 TD passes and 1 interception (by a Pre-Season All-American LB pick) in the 1st 3 games with averaging 30+ a game really isn't a bad start. A need to improve and be more consistent early in the game would be a given for any 1st year QB. Knowing that most players go to Trinity to win I am sure 8-0 is on the QB's mind more than what the stats tell.