AJ Jones not making the team this year is a complete joke. No one had more important explosive plays for their team in the league this year. In a season that was fairly weak at the wideout position (other than the obvious Driscoll and Hartwell ), it is insane to me that he was not recognized.

I think it's a quite different. In 1978, the New Orleans Saints had a bad record, but it wasn't because of their offense; their offense put up some of the most points in the league. Hamilton, statistically, was the worst defense in the league, and it wasn't close. They let up the most points, the second most yards, and forced the fewest turnovers. MacDonald was the leader of that defense and had a lot of tackles because they were so bad. Hamilton was 1 and 7 and it was primarily because of their defense...their offense was pretty good.  For them to have 1 defensive player does not make much sense to me, but lucky for you oldhamfan...I don't have a vote!

Following Week 8 in the NESCAC, I have revised my All-NESCAC Predictions. They are pretty similar to the predictions that I made last week, with a few changes based on how week 8 played out, as well as the feedback the board provided.

Would love to hear the boards thoughts. IMO, this is more interesting than dreaming about a 9th game, which unfortunately will never happen......

First Team Offense         
QB   McCallum Foote   Middlebury      
RB   Ben Crick Trinity      
RB   Evan Bunker   Trinity      
OL   John Ceccio   Amherst      
OL   Jacob Sheffer   Wesleyan      
OL   Ryan Moores   Middlebury      
OL Ryan Weston      Bates
OL   Mike Valenti   Trinity      
WR   Darren Hartwell   Williams      
WR   Zach Driscoll   Middlebury      
WR   AJ Jones   Trinity      
TE   Billy Chapman   Middlebury   

I think the First Team O is pretty certain. The only debatable spot on the first team O is Ben Crick at RB. I believe that he did enough in that high powered Trinity Offense to warrant a first team nod, although the argument could certainly be made for James Stannel, Pat George, or Remi Ashkar on the 1st team as well. I don't think anyone would doubt Ladarius Drew's talent, but he has been hurt for too much of the year. He wasn't even the most impactful running back on his own team this year, and I think that Panthernation's first team nod for him is aggressive. Both him and Gibson have All-NESCAC talent, but I think the nod goes to seniors Pat George and Remi Ashkar, as well as Bunker, Crick, and Stannel over them this year. Their time will come though.

At Wideout, Hartwell and Driscoll are no-brainers and AJ Jones gets the first team nod despite only 13 catches. Averaging over 28 yards per catch, no one in the league had more explosive, impactful plays for his team than Jones.
      
First Team Defense            
DL   Zach Vinci   Wesleyan      
DL   Matt Gaither   Bates      
DL   Travis Dickensen   Amherst      
DL   Nathan Cyr    Trinity      
DL   Matt Sponheimer   Amherst      
LB   Chris Cameron   Williams      
LB   Griffin Cardew   Bowdoin      
LB   Stephen Goniprow   Trinity      
LB   Matt Pieterse   Amherst      
LB   Tim Patricia   Middlebury      
DB   Jake Bussani   Wesleyan      
DB   Rae Haynes   Trinity      
DB   Julian Brown Trinity      
DB   Kyle Starr   Bates      

I am less sure about my first team defense predictions. I think Cameron, Cardew, Patricia, Bussani, Haynes, and Starr are locks, but wouldn't be surprised to see some variation at some of the other positions.

Second Team Offense            
QB   Trevor Smith   Bates      
RB   Remi Ashkar    Middlebury      
RB   Pat George   Bates      
RB   James Stannel Hamilton      
OL   Pete Christiani   Williams      
OL   Andrew Weiss    Trinity      
OL   John Gilboy   Colby      
OL   Rob Wasielewski   Amherst      
OL   Tim O'Brien   Trinity      
WR   Andrew Gromballa Trinity      
WR   Jake O'Malley   Amherst      
WR   Joe Jensen   Hamilton      
TE   Kevin Hughes   Wesleyan      

It is too bad that the NESCAC awards All-League to only two QBs, because I think Trevor Smith and Ryan Burgess are both deserving at the QB position. I think the nod will go to Smith because he is the senior. The 2nd team RB slots will go to Ashkar, George, and Stannel, although a strong case can certainly be made for Gibson and Drew. In my opinion, it has been a down year at the wide reciever position, but seniors Gromballa and O'Malley will get the nod, along with Jensen from Hamilton, who has made some explosive plays this year. Hughes is a lock at TE.

   
Second Team Defense            
DL   Nik Powers   Wesleyan      
DL   James Howe   Williams         
DL   Ryan Veillette   Colby      
LB   Henry Nelson   Colby      
LB   Tommy Meade   Tufts      
LB   John Durkin  Bates      
LB   Gilbert Brown   Bates      
LB   Tom Symanski   Trinity      
DB   Jason Buco   Colby      
DB   Donnie Cimino   Wesleyan      
DB   Dan Kenerson   Middlebury      
DB   Nick Campbell   Trinity      
DB   Andrew Kukesh   Bates      

Powers, Nelson, Buco, Campbell and Kukesh are all locks in my eyes, but wouldn't be surprised to see some variation here as well.
      
Special Teams      
Kicker: Joe Mallock (Williams)      
Punter: Kyle Pulek (Trinity)      
Returner:  Darren Hartwell (Williams)   

Notable snubs:

LB MacDonald from Hamilton had a good year statistically, but the Hamilton defense was too bad to have any players from that side of the ball make the team.    

RBs Gibson and Drew from Wesleyan, who I discussed earlier.

QB Ryan Burgess, who I discussed earlier. One more year for him to make the team.

Bates offensive line. At least one member of the Bates O-line will surely make the team. Liam O'Neil and Mark Sylvester are very deserving, but I think the nod will go to the senior Weston.

OPOY- Foote and Bunker.
DPOY- Haynes
Coach of Year- Harriman
Rookie of the Year- Patricia (Jayme Spears from Amherst a close second).

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Lumbercat- On Stannel...haven't seen him play this year, but based on what I have seen this year and the stats and team records, it is going to be hard for Stannel to beat out the 5 RBs ahead of him IMHO. He does have some impressive numbers though, and with a great final game against Bates, he could certainly propel himself onto the team.

I agree with your observation on my o-line picks. Really hard for a casual game observer to assess offensive line play....thats something that the coaches that watch hours of game film do and that's why they make the picks ultimately. Agree on Bates o-line though, their line has certainly dominated several games this year, including Tufts and Williams, and I don't doubt that O'Neil, Weston, and Sylvester are deserving. There are a lot of underclassmen O-lineman that made the team last year that I included in my predictions, and I think it is likely that some of them will not make the team last year.

Cleary is certainly deserving and Bowdoins D has played well at times, so I think that was a big miss on my part. I did include Patricia on the first team based on some of the big plays hes made for Midd this year.

Banfan- I'm simply making predictions on the team to stir some healthy debate heading into the final week of the season. As I said, there's a lot of football to be played and I'm sure my predictions won't be as accurate as Nate Silver's were. I am predicting how I believe the coaches will choose the teams, not what I think the teams should be. My predictions are based on several variables: what I have seen this year, the statistics, and how the teams have historically been chosen. Have you followed All-Nescac teams in the past? If you have, you would be aware that there is a very high correlation between the final records and how many players each team has on the all-nescac team.

Point taken on Trinity...I was likely light on Trinity players. After their last 8-0 season in 2008, the team had 13 players on the first and second team O's and D's, and they are likely to do the same this year if they can beat Wesleyan.

Long time reader, first time poster....

I really enjoyed Trin8-0's post on player/coach of year predictions and agree with him on DPOY and Coach of the year. I think co-OPY would make the most sense, as Foote and Bunker are both very deserving.

I have watched a lot of NESCAC football this year, and that post inspired me to take a crack at All-NESCAC predictions. As Trin8-0 said, there is still a lot of football to be played, but here are my offensive and defensive 1st and 2nd team all-league predictions. Would love to hear the boards thoughts on the teams, as I'm sure I'm missing some and probably included some that may not be deserving this year as well.

   First Team Offense   
QB   McCallum Foote   Middlebury
RB   Ben Crick   Trinity
RB   Evan Bunker   Trinity
OL   John Ceccio   Amherst
OL   Jacob Sheffer   Wesleyan
OL   Ryan Moores   Middlebury
OL   Rob Wasielewski   Amherst
OL   Mike Valenti   Trinity
WR   Darren Hartwell   Williams
WR   Zach Driscoll   Middlebury
WR   AJ Jones   Trinity
TE   Billy Chapman   Middlebury

First Team Defense      
DL   Zach Vinci   Wesleyan
DL   Matt Gaither   Bates
DL   Travis Dickensen   Amherst
DL   Nathan Cyr    Trinity
DL   Matt Sponheimer   Amherst
LB   Chris Cameron   Williams
LB   Griffin Cardew   Bowdoin
LB   Stephen Goniprow   Trinity
LB   Matt Pieterse   Amherst
LB   Tim Patricia   Middlebury
DB   Jake Bussani   Wesleyan
DB   Rae Haynes   Trinity
DB   Landrus Lewis   Amherst
DB   Kyle Starr   Bates

Second Team Offense      
QB   Trevor Smith   Bates
RB   Remi Ashkar    Middlebury
RB   Pat George   Bates
RB   Kyle Gibson   Wesleyan
OL   Pete Christiani   Williams
OL   Andrew Weiss    Trinity
OL   John Gilboy   Colby
OL   Harris Huguenard   Middlebury
OL   Tim O'Brien   Trinity
WR   Jay Fabien   Wesleyan
WR   Jake O'Malley   Amherst
WR   Joe Jensen   Hamilton
TE   Kevin Hughes   Wesleyan

Second Team Defense      
DL   Nik Powers   Wesleyan
DL   James Howe   Williams
DL   Zach Klein   Hamilton
DL   Ryan Veillette   Colby
LB   Henry Nelson   Colby
LB   Tommy Meade   Tufts
LB   Mike MacDonald   Hamilton
LB   Gilbert Brown   Bates
LB   Tom Symanski   Trinity
DB   Jason Buco   Colby
DB   Donnie Cimino   Wesleyan
DB   Dan Kenerson   Middlebury
DB   Dan Peters   Hamilton
DB   Andrew Kukesh   Bates

In my predictions, Trinity leads with 10 all-league players. Next are Middlebury and Wesleyan with 8, Amherst and Bates with 6, Williams and Colby with 4, Hamilton with 3, and Bowdoin and Tufts with 1. Seems reasonable given the way I expect the records to play out. Hope this post prompts some healthy debate on the All-NESCAC team this year...