FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

sigma one · January 14, 2019, 07:03:55 PM

BJ Hammer has been announced as the new head football coach at Bowdoin College in Maine. Bowdoin is a member school in NESCAC. They are 1-25 over the last three years. Could it be that ER might apply for the Allegheny position? Just asking.

Bishopleftiesdad · January 14, 2019, 08:42:13 PM

Wow

Pat Coleman · January 14, 2019, 11:26:47 PM

In my view, Raeburn has earned a higher-level position, but stranger things have happened.

Dr. Acula · January 15, 2019, 12:09:01 PM

Quote from: sigma one on January 14, 2019, 07:03:55 PM
BJ Hammer has been announced as the new head football coach at Bowdoin College in Maine. Bowdoin is a member school in NESCAC. They are 1-25 over the last three years. Could it be that ER might apply for the Allegheny position? Just asking.

That's an interesting move. Bowdoin is very nice and of course an excellent school, but Hammer always struck me as a competitive guy. At Bowdoin winning the NESCAC is it. Can't even coach a playoff game now. Maybe he wants to settle in somewhere long-term.

CollegeGolf18 · January 15, 2019, 12:39:22 PM

Quote from: sigma one on January 14, 2019, 07:03:55 PM
BJ Hammer has been announced as the new head football coach at Bowdoin College in Maine. Bowdoin is a member school in NESCAC. They are 1-25 over the last three years. Could it be that ER might apply for the Allegheny position? Just asking.

This really surprises me, especially since he was just getting 'Gheny turned around.

sigma one · January 15, 2019, 03:10:39 PM

Why BJ decided to leave Allegheny now will perhaps always be an open question. They lose a couple of key players but have plenty returning to build upon the 2018 6-4 season. Portia Hoeg as AD there was good for all sports. She left last spring to go to Rhodes as, I think, Executive Director of Athletics (an interesting title). Allegheny is functioning with a long-time athletics department person as Interim Director of Athletics. Some uncertainty there? It has been about nine months since Hoeg's departure without Allegheny announcing a search for a new AD. Maybe they will choose to keep the current Acting in the position. I believe that BJ's wife is from New England. Given the choice between Meadville and Maine maybe BJ saw the opportunity to make a move closer to home for her. Two thoughts that may have helped him make the jump.

wally_wabash · January 15, 2019, 04:12:31 PM

Quote from: sigma one on January 15, 2019, 03:10:39 PM
Why BJ decided to leave Allegheny now will perhaps always be an open question. They lose a couple of key players but have plenty returning to build upon the 2018 6-4 season. Portia Hoeg as AD there was good for all sports. She left last spring to go to Rhodes as, I think, Executive Director of Athletics (an interesting title). Allegheny is functioning with a long-time athletics department person as Interim Director of Athletics. Some uncertainty there? It has been about nine months since Hoeg's departure without Allegheny announcing a search for a new AD. Maybe they will choose to keep the current Acting in the position. I believe that BJ's wife is from New England. Given the choice between Meadville and Maine maybe BJ saw the opportunity to make a move closer to home for her. Two thoughts that may have helped him make the jump.

The thing about Allegheny's 6-4 that stands out to me is that they lost games to the NCAC co-champions and LL (and national quarterfinalist) RPI. They beat everybody that a contending team is supposed to beat. This is more or less where Allegheny was in the last couple of years of the TJ Salopek era ('09, '10), which is not coincidentally the last time Allegheny had a winning record prior to 2018. I think it's safe to say that in three years, Coach Hammer pulled Allegheny up out of the ditch and put them back in a position to contend in the league. What happens in Meadville going forward will be interesting to track, but I believed before yesterday and still believe today that Allegheny is in the mix for an NCAC title this fall. There is definitely ground to make up (they lost their four games last season by just over 30 points per), but the foundation for winning is there and there are a lot of talented- and now experienced- players there. We can question why this move at this time, but what isn't up for debate is whether or not Coach Hammer left Allegheny better than he found it. He did, by light years.

smedindy · January 23, 2019, 01:59:32 PM

He's had quite the trip as a head coach. From Whittier to Allegheny and now Bowdoin.

Also, Bowdoin was the last stop in Tony and Meadow Soprano's college tour. At Colby is where he strangled Febby Petrulio

wally_wabash · January 23, 2019, 02:06:29 PM

The Bowdoin Polar Bears play on *checks notes* Whittier Field. You can't make this stuff up.

wally_wabash · February 05, 2019, 11:50:53 AM

Wabash's 2019 football schedule has been announced. My knee jerk thoughts:

- This is very front loaded.
- No Week 1 game. Wabash avoided this last year when Wabash and Hiram agreed to move their NCAC game into Week 1. Apparently no such partner this year (I haven't seen what everybody else's non-league games look like for 2019, so this may not have been an option). This probably affects when Wabash can begin fall practice as well.
- Opening with consecutive road trips to Stevens Point and then all the way out to Allegheny (who will have a new look entirely) is going to be a tricky two-step. You've got a 6-7 hour trip followed immediately by a 8-9 hour trip to play a pair of teams that are good enough to beat you.
- Once you get through those two tough travel weeks, then you've got Denison for Homecoming and all of the extra stuff that goes along with that. I know Denison will have a lot of new faces this year, but this is a massive game for Wabash.
- No breaks! After Denison, Wabash is going to host OWU and OWU has been problematic for Wabash in the last two seasons. The Bishops beat Wabash at the Hollett during their last visit and nearly knocked them off again last year in Delaware.
- Road trip to Wooster, looks like a game Wabash should be favored to win. But how improved will Rentaria be (he's a good player)? And how much of Wabash's attention will be on the following week against...
- Wittenberg. Wabash hosts Wittenberg to end a pretty rough six week stretch to open the season. No need to point out the importance of this game and what the outcome probably means for each side.
- Now, Wabash gets three weeks of games where they will be heavily favored and should be able to rest and heal with games at Oberlin, and home dates with Kenyon and Hiram.
- And then the regular season wrap up at DePauw, which you just never know. DePauw feels to me like a 5-5 ish team in 2019, but you just never know with that group. I thought they'd win 8 or 9 last year and it never came together them.

Overall, Wabash gets what I think their biggest tests are at home, but this schedule is logistically hard. There's tough travel from the start and zero layups in the first six weeks of the season.

wally_wabash · February 14, 2019, 01:13:39 PM

Allegheny has announced a 1:30 PM presser tomorrow to announce their new HC.

sigma one · February 15, 2019, 12:42:39 PM

Getting very close to Allegheny's announcement, they have been very quiet. I've seen no release of top candidates. Any late speculations here on who might be the new coach? How surprised will we be--or not? Press conference in less than one hour.

sigma one · February 15, 2019, 01:36:43 PM

Allegheny names Rich Nagy as their 35th football coach. He was an assistant twice before at Allegheny back in the 1980s. He has served as an assistant at numerous DI and DIII programs, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Anybody know more about him?

wally_wabash · February 15, 2019, 01:52:05 PM

Quote from: sigma one on February 15, 2019, 01:36:43 PM
Allegheny names Rich Nagy as their 35th football coach. He was an assistant twice before at Allegheny back in the 1980s. He has served as an assistant at numerous DI and DIII programs, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Anybody know more about him?

Not much more than what is in the press release. He's a longtime football coach, but this is his first crack at the HC job. He is directly linked with Allegheny's golden era in the 90s under Ken O'Keefe which I'm sure was attractive.

It's interesting to me to have a new face at the head of a program in the league. The two most recent head coaching hires (Don Morel and BJ Hammer) both came from within the league. Coach Nagy is going to give the rest of the league something new to study this fall. That could be advantageous for Allegheny in the short term.

formerd3db · February 15, 2019, 05:42:27 PM

Quote from: wally_wabash on February 15, 2019, 01:52:05 PM
Quote from: sigma one on February 15, 2019, 01:36:43 PM
Allegheny names Rich Nagy as their 35th football coach. He was an assistant twice before at Allegheny back in the 1980s. He has served as an assistant at numerous DI and DIII programs, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Anybody know more about him?

Not much more than what is in the press release. He's a longtime football coach, but this is his first crack at the HC job. He is directly linked with Allegheny's golden era in the 90s under Ken O'Keefe which I'm sure was attractive.

It's interesting to me to have a new face at the head of a program in the league. The two most recent head coaching hires (Don Morel and BJ Hammer) both came from within the league. Coach Nagy is going to give the rest of the league something new to study this fall. That could be advantageous for Allegheny in the short term.

Per his bio, he seems to have been a very good defensive coordinator at all the programs he has been at. However, he sure has moved around a lot-tough on one's family, although that goes with the job. Nonetheless, as you mentioned, with his previous Allegheny ties, this could be a good move for them.