Something I'll be doing the rest of this season: at the road games, pick up a t-shirt of the opposing program.  Good way to support this great league of ours while making my T drawer more awesome—wish I thought of it when my son was younger...

Don Shula John Carroll

Bill Belichick?

Quote from: Hawk196 on February 05, 2019, 12:12:45 PM

Quote from: Grabowski on February 05, 2019, 11:59:54 AM

Quote from: Hawk196 on February 05, 2019, 10:30:21 AM

In the meantime, lets get me, "Let's go" and others up to speed on NESCAC football 

Trinity

Mamhoths

Tufts Wes Williams middlebury


Hamilton


CBB


I think that covers everything

OK, why are they in that order?

I know my son liked Tufts because of the size (5K students vs other NESCACs 1800 - 2400) and the fact that they were replacing 6 senior Olineman, so he can compete right away to earn a spot

Coach Civetti seems like a good guy

3.5 hours away is about as far away as we wanted (I'm spoiled, my other son's school is about 1hr+ away). The schools in Maine were tough coming from NJ, but I guess for a kid in the boston area those schools would be fine (distance wise)

Trinity: Big, fast, strong, skilled.  If you've back-read any of the board you understand that much of the league believes their student athletes can be less MENSA than the rest.  The Trinity folks see that as sour grapes--probably some truth on both sides.  But it's pretty clear that graduation losses don't matter to this program, because their backups would probably be top tier in the league too.

Mamhoths: Seems like they can pick off middle caliber Ivy guys here and there because of the school's reputation.  They no longer use small-pox laden blankets on their opponents, but the tusks have proven at least as formidable.  Talent level close to Trinity.

Tufts Wes Williams middlebury:  In good years, with senior-dominated squads, these guys can compete with the two above, but most years they beat up on the bottom four and split with each other to finish between 5-4 and 7-2.  Five (?) years ago Tufts and Williams were bottom tier.  I think it had been a long bottom stay for the Jumbos, but (again, back-read if you're really interested) only a 5-7 year drought for Williams on the heels of a bad coaching hire.  In the case of the Ephs, they had traditionally been in the current Mamhoth role only moreso (I think?) until that point.  They appear to be headed back up as the relatively new coach gets settled in.  Middlebury is the Air Coryell of the league, usually fantastic QB though last year seemed unusual in that regard.  I'll leave it to others to assess Wes.   


Hamilton:  They seem to show flashes of being ready to move up a tier but it's a big task to break out of those ruts.


CBB:  I think you're right that the Maine schools are basically fishing in the Mass. pond, while most of the other schools can get NY Metro or even PA athletes.  And I'm sure you have seen scuttlebutt here on the board that Colby hired the dumbest football mind in human history as their coach for a while and are still recovering.  I'm not so sure myself.  I think your remote location theory is the big factor for these guys--maybe some institutional commitment that comes and goes as well. 


I guess it was three years ago that I was asking this type of question, and wondered why I didn't get much of an answer.  And I think the reason is that the program level matters way more than things like graduation losses in this league.  Movement between the tiers is a plodding process, but it can be done with the right coach and the right admissions office and of course the right talent on the field.  Good luck to your son.

Quote from: Hawk196 on February 05, 2019, 10:30:21 AM

In the meantime, lets get me, "Let's go" and others up to speed on NESCAC football 

Trinity

Mamhoths

Tufts Wes Williams middlebury


Hamilton


CBB


I think that covers everything

Quote from: IslandTime on January 14, 2019, 03:43:47 PM
Spent the weekend with Dan DiCenzo and his staff at Wesleyan with my middle son who is an OL/DL.

I have visited Amherst (Older son) /Midd/Williams/Trinity and Tufts so I have seen inside of most of the the programs in the league. Very impressed with athletic facilities at Wes and the coaching staff is young and seem to very high energy guys. Now I know why DiCenzo has turned Wes into a consistent winner in the NESCAC.

Heard a neat story that there was a wealthy Wes alum that was donating a substantial enough amount of $$$ to build a new football facility to rival Williams and Amherst, but the rest of the alumni base, shot down the proposal in order to keep playing at Andrus Field in the middle of campus. Considering it's history of being the longest consistently played football field in the country, I guess that tradition won out over keeping up with the facilities arms race.

1) A couple years in, those first impressions of Coach Dice have held true.  He's an enthusiastic players' coach who genuinely cares about each kid, on and off the field.
2) IMO it's good they shot down the new field.  Love the game day feel at Wes.

CAC is cleaner in part because their 2-3 bands (educated guess) are easier to digest than the 5 bands the Ivies juggle.  Re: the Stanford point, I had a HS teammate with a full football scholarship offer to become a Michigan Wolverine contingent upon raising his GPA to 2.0!  Granted, this was another century...still, when I hear that a pro player went to Stanford, I don't assume he is a Stanford level intellect.

To finish the story on my old friend, he did it, played, graduated, and now seems to have done pretty well for himself.

63:  I only saw Yamin (sp?) one game, but that was plenty to see why he got accolades.  Not sure what else to say about Morris except that he's fast and he hits!  Turned the tide of the Tufts game in particular last year with a big thump.  He is a high motor, all over the field type player.

Back on the subject of other Wes commenters, don't forget NESCAC Man! He (they?) does (do?) a lot to keep info flowing here, at least once the season gets going.

FWIW it feels like an important year for the Cards if they want to maintain/build upon top half status in the league.  One bright spot, IMO, is that LB Morris is one of the best players I've seen in NESCAC.

Quote from: PolarCat on August 24, 2018, 09:29:58 AM

If you want to see more posts about Wes, you need to get Wes fans more involved on the board.  Grabowski is about the only card fan I can recall who posts here regularly (though I may be forgetting someone).

Brings to mind the legendary Al Davis.  I've got my head on a swivel, hoping for his return...

That Slate author struck me as all over the place...looking for things to be unhappy about.  It's like he walked the campus asking people if they had a gripe with campus culture and then quoted almost everyone he quoted in the most negative way he could.  Talked out of both sides of his mouth a bit, too, railing against a lack of diversity amongst athletes on campus and ignoring the healthy diversity on the football team.  Apparently in his eyes the school hasn't found enough counter-culture football players?  He seems to be unhappy with something, but I'm not exactly sure what...trying to reverse decades of getting your brains beat in by your chief rivals?  Spending on sports?  Raising money through sports?  Smoking cigars?  The horrors...

Some bad ass quote function usage right there.  Went back to 2013!  Finding stuff on this board? That would have taken me close to an entire work week. 

THAT was the Wes squad we expected to see all year.  Easily the best game they played this season, ran the ball effectively and what a difference to have the whole DL rotation back.  I suspect that Eph injuries recorded on these pages also played a role?

Quote from: Trin8-0 on October 25, 2017, 03:57:56 PM
What is it with you guys and your inability to master the quote function?

I'm sure that you are aware, as master of the quote function, that ALL 53 SCORES need not be posted every time anyone references the original quote.   

Far more subtle than a 51-0 scoreboard pic, I'll give you credit for that.

It was definitely more fun debating the status of kickers