https://www.goerie.com/news/20200207/ex-allegheny-football-player-files-sexual-harassment-suit?template=ampart&__twitter_impression=true
Interesting article to say the least.....

https://www.goerie.com/news/20200207/ex-allegheny-football-player-files-sexual-harassment-suit?template=ampart&__twitter_impression=true
An interesting article not about the spread of the virus...

I agree with lumbercat. Wabash and Allegheny have acceptance rates over 60% as compared to Bowdoin at roughly 9%. The ability to search out recruits is much easier when over 50% will be admitted versus less than 10%. Additionally once you enter that level of academic excellence your pool is extremely low even if you could contact every high school in America. Plus every other NESCAC and IVY knows the best players with those academic credentials. At Wabash and Allegheny you can easily expand your recruiting areas and find kids from obscure areas that your competition might not know about and get them admitted. Unfortunately this will not happen at Bowdoin. Hammer has to be able sell the reasons why to attend Bowdoin over schools like Amherst, Williams, Middlebury and the rest of the NESCAC with the understanding that they will have great options. Additionally as I mentioned earlier, both Wabash and Allegheny have been traditionally winning programs. Definitely a big decision making point to legitimate football players.

Firstdown...
I'm glad you are such a fervent fan of Coach Hammer and hopefully he is the Messiah you tout him to be. In terms of his past institutions it is probably better to look at his tenure at Whittier rather than Wabash or Allegheny. Wabash is, has and will always be a great football program. Why? History...you have to go back to 1990 to find a losing season. Allegheny won a d3 National Championship in 1990 and has 23 winning seasons out of the last 30. Hammer's time at these traditionally strong programs were successful, but any decent Coach would probably fair well there as well. At Whittier however as head coach of a program that has struggled for the last 30 years he had zero winning seasons and a wsub .300 winning percentage. I'm just saying that regardless of the abilities of the head coach, without institutional support a consistent winning program is impossible, even for the great BJ Hammer. Time will tell, but unfortunately for Hammer and the Bears history would say keep your resume hot.

Well said lumbercat. I am trying to figure out what Bowdoin's plan for football actually is. If I remember correctly Caputi was let go after winning two straight games and a 2-2 record after four games. This was the last time Bowdoin fielded a competitive football team. It seems like they are holding their football coaches to a much higher level then they are willing to support. Whether anyone wants to admit it, football and for that matter any helmeted male sport has to be supported differently in order to be successful. If the institution does not change in its support of those programs, then simply changing the Coach does nothing. Again, look at the historical evidence and you will see that Bowdoin's football program has a 30-40 year run of futility. True change will have to come from the top down and without it not matter who coaches the program it is destined to be a continual non contending loser.

Quote from: firstdown on January 21, 2020, 08:51:52 AM

Quote from: FredWilliamson on January 20, 2020, 05:38:54 PM
Westerfield was the DL Coach. Coach Hammer served as his own DC and unfortunately the defense was the worst statistically that it has been in years. Westerfield is probably happy not to be in Hammer's system. Additionally recruits attend Bowdoin because of the education, not the football.

At Wabash, Coach Hammer's system had the defense in the top 5 in a number of statistical categories regularly and had the best stats in all of college football in a couple of categories one year.  At Allegheny, by his third year, their defense was in the top 10 of several of the defense stats.  Ask the current D3 National Champion - North Central how they liked Coach Hammer's defense in 2011.
The NESCAC rules make a quick turn around difficult with limits on recruiting and no spring practice unlike Allegheny where Coach could bring in 70 recruits a year and had spring practice to work on skills and teaching his system.    Bowdoin is a great school and Coach Hammer is a top notch recruiter.  As the right players are added and become comfortable with the defensive system, you will see quite a difference.
[/quote
Respectfully Wabash and Allegheny are definitely not NESCAC caliber schools in terms of the type of players being recruited. That being said hopefully Hammer can do what no other Coach has been able to do in the last forty years. In terms of financial aid when you are talking Amherst, Williams, Middlebury and Bowdoin cost is a wash because all can and do meet full need.

I'm not 100% sure, but based on the endowments of the four schools in question aren't they all able to meet the full need of their students applying for financial aid. Thus the cost of attendance should be equal at all four and make cost a non factor.

The beauty of a kid being recruited by NESCAC schools is that there are no bad decisions. I am just looking at the history of football in the league and see that while Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin and Middlebury are generally regarded as the "best" academic schools, only Bowdoin has a consistent history of under performing in the sport of football. It seems like over the past decade or so there has been a turnstile of coaches in Brunswick who prior to Bowdoin were deemed to be pretty damn good before their arrival and magically pretty damn good upon their departure. Hopefully, BJ is different, but based on the top recruits choosing the other three it will be tough sledding.

BTW, glad to see you pick up on the Fred Williamson connect.

Clearly any recruit looking at NESCAC institutions is focused on academics. However, the sad truth is that given the opportunity to attend Bowdoin vs Amherst, Williams, Middlebury football recruits choose Amherst, Williams or Middlebury. Check out the recruiting classes for the last ten years and see given legitimate offers by those four schools and see how many recruits choose Bowdoin. Excellent school, but it terms of football only wins recruiting battles when there is no equal academic competition.

Westerfield was the DL Coach. Coach Hammer served as his own DC and unfortunately the defense was the worst statistically that it has been in years. Westerfield is probably happy not to be in Hammer's system. Additionally recruits attend Bowdoin because of the education, not the football.

I have it from a very good source that Hammer got rid of him. Just wanted to see if anyone else could confirm.

Yes, Eric Westerfield. I believe he's been there with Caputi, Wells and Hammer. If he is the DL Coach I heard he was let go.

Heard Bowdoin let their DL Coach go last week. Any confirmation?