TOP 5 NESCAC Kickers from 2000-2024  (based on # of All-NESCAC Teams Made)

1. Sachse (Trin) 2016, 2017, 2018
Jumes (Trin) 2022, 2023,
2. Hauschka (Midd) 2005 (2nd), 2006
3. Cox (Trin) 2007, 2008
4. Rawson (Amh) 2010, 2011
5. Nwosu (Amh) 2013, 2014

I will say, this has to be the best year for kickers in NESCAC we've seen. Are there just more good high school kickers out there?  Shuran, Jumes, Hoey and Maiuolo are all on pace for all-American type years at kicker or punter. 

Look at extra points compared to a few years back.  Six teams are perfect on the season and three have missed only one.  I just picked two random years, five years back and ten years.  Five years ago, the league combined to miss 33 extra points and no punter in the league averaged over 40 yards per punt.  Ten years ago, the league combined to miss 26 extra points and no punter averaged over 40.4 yards per punt.  Seven extra points missed league-wide through six weeks is pretty remarkable by historical standards.  And the field goal percentages are also much improved.  It does seem like to some extent punting, and especially place-kicking, is improved across the league. 

With that, we will probably see six teams miss extra points on Saturday . 

Quote from: GroundandPound on October 22, 2024, 08:44:54 AMTOP 5 NESCAC Kickers from 2000-2024  (based on # of All-NESCAC Teams Made)

1. Sachse (Trin) 2016, 2017, 2018
Jumes (Trin) 2022, 2023,
2. Hauschka (Midd) 2005 (2nd), 2006
3. Cox (Trin) 2007, 2008
4. Rawson (Amh) 2010, 2011
5. Nwosu (Amh) 2013, 2014

I know this is not the ranking but Hauschka is the only one on the list with a Super Bowl.     

This was my list of top NESCAC WRs from this blog in July of this year based mostly on All Conference Honors .
(My recollection when I did these lists for each position group, I would indicate "2nd" next to the year if the player earned Second Team All-NESCAC in a given year – but I am not 100% sure I did that with every position group).  I did not have #82 on this list but should have based on his dominance in 2023 alone.  The lower stats this year, as discussed recently on this board, are most likely due to the different strengths of the Trinity QBs from year to year, and the play calling to maximize the strengths of the offense.  I do not know him, or any Trinity players for that matter, but I suspect the only thing they care about is winning championships.   Thankfully, Midd's corners and safeties did an outstanding job defending several deep balls thrown to #82.  Absent several amazing defensive plays on deep balls thrown to #82, we are not having this discussion.    


#82  2022 2nd,  2023:
2022 5th in yds per game 49 receptions; 720 yards; 4TDs; 80yds per game 
2023 1st in yds per game (128) (over 25 yds more than next WR); 1st in receptions (73) (nearly 20 more receptions per game than next WR); 1st total yards 1,159 yards (over 200 yds more than next WR); 1st in TDs (14) 
2024 Ongoing

Top 5 NESCAC Receivers 2000-2024
Minno Midd 2013, 2014, 2015
Tomlinson Wesleyan 2021, 2022
Banky Midd 2016, 2017, 2018 2nd
Lutz Tufts 2021, 2022
Richardson Tufts 2023

Noyes Colby 2000, 2001
Smith Midd 2001, 2002
Moffeit Wesleyan 2002, 2003
Wagstaff Amherst 2003, 2004
Drenkhahn Williams 2005, 2006
Fulmer Williams 2005, 2006
Hannon Amherst 2005, 2006
Matson Midd 2007, 2008
Noone Bowdoin 2009, 2010
Hartwell Williams 2010, 2011
O'Malley Amherst 2012, 2013
Viera Trinity 2015, 2016
Breuler Wesleyan 2016, 2017
Stola Williams 2018, 2019

Quote from: Nescacman on October 21, 2024, 10:56:03 PM

Quote from: VoodooDoc on October 21, 2024, 10:19:58 PMThe quality of the officials in the NESCAC is somewhat better this year. The glaring exceptions were the blatant missed calls in the Wesleyan Bowdoin game.  The video shows that Poy's return of the fumble was called a incomplete pass when the throw in question was clearly a lateral.  The SEC has the best refs in the country and the number 1 squad missed the interference call in the Texas Georgia game. Thank goodness the call was reversed.  Unfortunately, the NFL refs who had the experience to make calls have retired and the idiots in strips are so reliant on replays and calls from NFL headquarters, they can't make a call 5 feet in front of their faces.  The NESCAC refs on Saturday don't have replay or common sense, and the blew the fumble call by a mile.  These refs need to be better trained.  All the players in the NESCAC deserve to have their games called fairly and professionally.  That clearly did not happen on Saturday.

We were at the game in Brunswick on Saturday. Voodoo, you mentioned "missed calls" in your Post using the plural form of the word "call", yet you only mentioned one "call" that you thought the officials missed. What were the other "calls"?

As far as the "call" in question, we were standing right on the line where the play happened and it looked like a forward pass to us. Yes, we root for the Cards, but we call it like it is. Similar play when Wes played at Hamilton this year. The refs called that a backward pass (plus the Wes defender was down by contact) and that ended up being the deciding TD for the Cards. Now that was a bad call.

We give the Polars credit for playing hard. Their defense gave the Wes offense all they could handle including 8 sacks. But blaming the loss on the officials is just plain wrong. The officiating on Saturday in Brunswick was actually pretty good considering it's Maine which is renowned for home cooking. We have definitely seen worse this year. Sounds a bit like sour grapes to us. Maybe if the Polars were better on 3rd down (3 for 12) or 4th down (0 for 2) and could pass the ball better (9 for 25 with a pick), we wouldn't be having this conversation. 

Nesecacman,

I wasn't able to catch the Wesleyan/Bowdoin game in real time, but right after I woke up on Monday, I went to Golden Corral at around 2:00pm to conduct my film study. For my film study the Wesleyan/Bowdoin game was 2nd in the queue, only after the 2010 Boise St/Nevada game. Unfortunately, I agree with your take. Officiating was fair by my standards, and blaming the officials on a lost is never a good look, but hard to expect much more from a Bowdoin football fan. From my experience, Wesleyan is typically successful at infiltrating and coercing referees, so it was pleasant to not see that take place on Saturday. I commend the strength of the Maine referees.

Still finishing up my film review from some other teams in the league. I expect to finish up my review of every game this past weekend soon. I don't plan on reviewing the Amherst/Colby game, however. I would rather be sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in the gulag than have to watch that pitiful Amherst offense anymore.

- Honcho, NESCAC Legend

ROY Candidates (just some ideas so far)
Jack Nye Colby WR: 18 catch 310 yds 1 TD
Connor McClellan Midd RB: 44 att 220 yds 5yd av 4TDs; 3 catches 25 yds (also a very good blocker)
Ferric Collins Bowd Safety 3 int; 1 TD; 8 pbu

Any others?

Angus Leary: 5 Tfls; 4 sacks; 1 safety

Williams has two candidates on defense:

Will Gale - 15 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and more impactful than stats suggest as an interior lineman.

Luke Mangini has been the Ephs' leading tackler (on a D that rotates a ton of players so modest stats across the board) so far, but in my view Gale is the more impactful player and is probably the Ephs' runner-up for defensive MVP after obvious choice Ethan Scott.

McClellan I think is the best offensive rookie in the conference. Nye impressive as well.   

Quote from: muleshoe on October 21, 2024, 08:11:49 PM

Quote from: Ephsfan1 on October 21, 2024, 05:16:09 PMHas anyone every witnessed a better kicker in the NESCAC than Ephs kicker Ivan Shuran? Certainly the best currently. Dude nailed a 47 yard field goal this week, which would've been good from 50+.

Stephen Hauschka??

fair point lol

Speaking of Leary and Collins, I have no idea how to evaluate individual Bowdoin defenders.  Bowdoin is 2-4 as a team and has given up huge point totals to Midd and Williams plus allowed an anemic (to put it kindly) Hamilton offense to put up 21.  I expect that Trinity (Nolan O'Brien in particular) will absolutely shred their defense as well. 

Yet you would think the Bowdoin defense is all-world based on individual stats: number 1, 2, 13, 16, and 21 in the conference in TFLs; 2, 3, 8, 13, and 16 in sacks.  But of course, when you sell out on virtually every play you are going to get a lot of sacks and TFLs with even merely good players in your top seven, but that is more than made up for by all the huge plays the defense allows once you get past the initial swarm of defenders. I certainly believe Koy Price is for real and probably Fiore and Reidy too.  But some of the other guys putting up eye-popping stats who seem like first-team all league players based on stats alone are surely the beneficiaries of the defensive system. 

I can't decide if the Bowdoin style is a great matchup or a terrible one for Bates' triple option.  That will be a really interesting game.  Linsky is a dude who can both break tackles at the point of attack and has the speed to get big yardage down the field and I suspect he is licking his chops for that game, but at the same time Bowdoin will get a ton of tackles 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage in that game in particular.

Speaking of Bowdoin, what happens next year with this style once Price, Fiore, Reidy, Young and Gozdeck graduate? Hard to see the defense matching this year's level without that group around ...

The same can be said for the powerhouse teams. What is going to happen next year when Trinity QB graduates who is next and will he be a one and done QB. Middlebury seems to be the team returning QB next year. Tufts , Trinity , Bowdoin , Wesleyan all seem to be graduating QB. We are going to have to start to analyze the recruiting classes now and who had good years in recruitment and bad ones.

On side note could Bates pull off an upset at home against Middlebury this will be game of weekend or a blow out ?

Quote from: GroundandPound on October 22, 2024, 10:07:55 AMThis was my list of top NESCAC WRs from this blog in July of this year based mostly on All Conference Honors .
(My recollection when I did these lists for each position group, I would indicate "2nd" next to the year if the player earned Second Team All-NESCAC in a given year – but I am not 100% sure I did that with every position group).  I did not have #82 on this list but should have based on his dominance in 2023 alone.  The lower stats this year, as discussed recently on this board, are most likely due to the different strengths of the Trinity QBs from year to year, and the play calling to maximize the strengths of the offense.  I do not know him, or any Trinity players for that matter, but I suspect the only thing they care about is winning championships.  Thankfully, Midd's corners and safeties did an outstanding job defending several deep balls thrown to #82.  Absent several amazing defensive plays on deep balls thrown to #82, we are not having this discussion.   


#82  2022 2nd,  2023:
2022 5th in yds per game 49 receptions; 720 yards; 4TDs; 80yds per game 
2023 1st in yds per game (128) (over 25 yds more than next WR); 1st in receptions (73) (nearly 20 more receptions per game than next WR); 1st total yards 1,159 yards (over 200 yds more than next WR); 1st in TDs (14) 
2024 Ongoing

Top 5 NESCAC Receivers 2000-2024
Minno Midd 2013, 2014, 2015
Tomlinson Wesleyan 2021, 2022
Banky Midd 2016, 2017, 2018 2nd
Lutz Tufts 2021, 2022
Richardson Tufts 2023

Noyes Colby 2000, 2001
Smith Midd 2001, 2002
Moffeit Wesleyan 2002, 2003
Wagstaff Amherst 2003, 2004
Drenkhahn Williams 2005, 2006
Fulmer Williams 2005, 2006
Hannon Amherst 2005, 2006
Matson Midd 2007, 2008
Noone Bowdoin 2009, 2010
Hartwell Williams 2010, 2011
O'Malley Amherst 2012, 2013
Viera Trinity 2015, 2016
Breuler Wesleyan 2016, 2017
Stola Williams 2018, 2019

Great work here G&P. I notice one glaring omission however; Jon Girard was a 3x All NESCAC 1st team WR selection. His 2,659 career receiving yards and 25 career receiving TDs both rank #1 all time in Trinity history.

Girard would also rank 1st on your list of Top 5 NESCAC WRs in both career receiving yards and career yards/per reception. He would rank 2nd in career TDs (two behind Minno) and career receptions (12 behind Lutz). Statistically he's pretty clearly ahead of Tomlinson, Richardson, and Banky and I think an argument could be made that he's actually on top of the list of NESCAC WRs since 2000.

Quote from: GroundandPound on October 22, 2024, 08:44:54 AMTOP 5 NESCAC Kickers from 2000-2024  (based on # of All-NESCAC Teams Made)

1. Sachse (Trin) 2016, 2017, 2018
Jumes (Trin) 2022, 2023,
2. Hauschka (Midd) 2005 (2nd), 2006
3. Cox (Trin) 2007, 2008
4. Rawson (Amh) 2010, 2011
5. Nwosu (Amh) 2013, 2014

As for the placekicker discussion; nescac1 is spot on that the talent level has gone up across the league, and at all levels of football. It is worth noting that, 2x reigning All NESCAC First Team kicker, Matthew Jumes has made 173 of 184 kicks (94%!). I have to imagine his attempts, makes, and percentage made are all league records. The last two years Jumes is a perfect 17 of 17 on field goals with a long of 44 yards.

Sache was nearly as prolific making 148 kicks (89.7%) for Trinity over four seasons including 29 field goals. He also did have a bigger leg (his long was 50 yards) which is probably why he ended up kicking at Boise State after he left Trin.

Hauschka clearly had the most impressive post-NESCAC kicking career, but he missed 13 attempts as a Panther and made only 68 total kicks (80.8% on both PATs & FGs). Neither of those numbers stack up to Adam Cox who made 86.3% of his kicks (63 total) or even Kevin Swiniarski (82.1%) who made a 128 total kicks from 2003-'06).

As for Williams' Ivan Shuran, he's been excellent for a long time as well making 89.4% of his career kicks and is, like a few others, perfect on the year so far.

Thanks Trinity 9-0.  My apologies re: Jon Girard.  I missed him completely. Since he was a 3x ALL-NESCAC player, the failure to see him makes me want to double check all my lists.  I will do so at the end of this season since there are a few current players who may make the top five portion of the lists. I suspect he may be number 1.  I do not know how Minnow's career stats compare.

Lets also not forget WR Devante Reid from Trinity

Oh, Bowdoin is definitely not alone in suffering major losses after this year.  It's going to be a huge transition year and a very unpredictable league next year.

Wesleyan loses Candido, Chase Wilson, I believe four starting offensive linemen, and most of its starting defense including a slew of long-time defensive stars.  Middlebury loses a massive amount of talent on both the offensive and defensive lines, guys who have been starting 3-4 years and in some cases playing at an all-American level, plus its top two receivers and other key defensive players.  Colby loses a lot of star players on both sides of the ball.  Bowdoin's defense will be hollowed out.  Tufts loses Berlutti and a lot of other talent on both sides of the ball.  Those teams seem likely to be hit the hardest.
 
Trinity and Williams are more of a middle tier.  Williams loses some big time players in Fischetti (a huge loss), Forth, Scott, Cam Smith (currently injured) and Shuran, but will bring back something like eight defensive starters and seven offensive starters and a lot of other guys who have started games as injury replacements as well, and the defense will be far more experienced as a unit. As for Trinity, replacing a star QB is never easy but the defense returns largely intact and the offense returns a lot at the skill positions, and Trinity always seems to have stars sitting and waiting on the QB depth chart (see this year!).   

Amherst, Hamilton and Bates seem to lose the least to graduation, but they also have the furthest to climb as teams.  Next year is a prime opportunity for them to catch up a bit with the rest of the league.