FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[gridiron]

Agree with many of the views here on the Cosgrove hiring. 

Cosgrove will bring passion, energy and perhaps most importantly, instant credibility to a program in dire need of same.  From someone who met all those being considered, "He had the highest energy of any of the candidates we saw."

He is exactly what the school needed to have a chance to finally break away from the pack.  His charisma and enthusiasm will serve him well. Given the opportunity to interact directly, recruits will want to play for him. 

Colby is suddenly relevant again, and with a little more help from admissions, who knows?

[ColbyFootball]

there are a TON of guys from NJ, NY, and PA, areas rich in potential NESCAC recruits that are typically dominated by other NESCAC schools.  If Colby can make real headway in those regions thansk to Cosgrove's reputation and connections, that would be a very big deal.  And with the ridiculous athletics facilities Colby is building, he certainly has something to sell. 

I also wouldn't fixate on his W-L record.  Maine is a state with virtually no homegrown high-level D1 football talent, so the coach there will always be starting at a disadvantage.  And it's not like Maine is an athletics powerhouse as a University, generally.  Also, he started 6-27 in his first three years (with other guys' recruits) so that makes his record look worse than it was.  From that point forward, he was comfortably above .500 in the aggregate.  He posted some really good seasons in a tough football situation, including three three-loss campaigns and five total post-season appearances.  IF he could merely duplicate those sort of records at Colby, going 5-4 or 6-3 in a typical season, I'm sure Colby fans would be delighted relative to recent precedent.   

Excellent breakdown of his overall record. Shame on me for not looking more closely. If he can deliver 5-4 and 6-3, and play competitive football in loses, Colby's made a nice hire. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[ColbyFootball]

Agree with many of the views here on the Cosgrove hiring. 

Cosgrove will bring passion, energy and perhaps most importantly, instant credibility to a program in dire need of same.  From someone who met all those being considered, "He had the highest energy of any of the candidates we saw."

He is exactly what the school needed to have a chance to finally break away from the pack.  His charisma and enthusiasm will serve him well. Given the opportunity to interact directly, recruits will want to play for him. 

Colby is suddenly relevant again, and with a little more help from admissions, who knows?

I am excited to hear your comments based on personal knowledge. I wish the season were starting next month.

[Nescacman]

A hire is only as good as the support that coach is going to be given.

One can assume that a guy who "retired" from coaching a few years back, wasn't going to get back in the game without some assurances from the administration that he'd be getting the help he needs to make it work.

I don't think there can be any correlation made between his recruiting successes (or failures) at Maine when projecting his future at Colby. Recruiting for a scholarship CAA program and recruiting for an early decision based NESCAC program are night and day. No matter what connections he has, or where he got kids from, and how much respect he has in state, it is so much different that comparing the two schools and, recruiting to each school, is not worth doing.

Where I think most people in the CAA would tip their hats to Cosgrove (and what should be most appealing to Colby fans) is his ability to develop the players. Maine wasn't winning too many recruiting battles with UNH, UMASS (while they were 1aa / FCS) or many of the other teams in that league (Probably just URI)...but he and his staff did a very good job in taking guys who UNH and the others passed on, and turning them into guys who UNH wished they had by the time they were juniors.

That will be his biggest strength in building up the Colby football program. He won't get the kids that Amherst or Trinity wants, but can he coach up the kids he does get and make them studs like he did with so many Blackbears over the years?

Some sanity...great post and we agree 100%.

BTW, not only is D1 FCS recruiting night and day different than D3 NESCAC recruiting, it's important to note that the HCOF at an FCS program is not that involved in recruiting other than supervising his assistants. Much different in the 'CAC. Just ask Devanney, Mills, DiCenzo, Raymond, et al. Time will tell....we hate to be naysayers but we're cautiously skeptical...all we can say is that we recruited several high level kids in the NY area this year and when they told us they were contacted by C-B-B schools (in addition to the Ivy's/Patriots/upper level NESCACs), they literally laughed. Reputations take a long time to change....he has his work cut out for him. Good luck. Looks like the bullseye shifts to Harriman, Wells, and Murray.

And no +k's for once again breaking the news (accurately, of course) this time way up North...we are equal opportunity after all...hahaha.

[gridiron]

No question about it Cosgrove will have his work cut out for him.  You are 100% accurate when stating reputations take time to change.  It is exactly the reason Colby decided to break the mold by hiring a coach from "outside of the box."

Also agree Colby may not target all the same recruits that Amherst and Trinity do.  Won't have the luxury of telling some recruits to wait a year for their tip and go to prep school (like Amherst).  However, there are enough other players out there for which to compete.  May take time to get the NY/NJ/PA recruits interested, but as others have pointed out, that's where the Black Bears found many of their players, so Cosgrove has established relationships in those areas.

Agree the key to his success will likely be developing and getting the most out of the recruits he gets.  Despite competing with UNH, UMass, URI, etc. for players (with fewer scholarships too, by the way), Maine was able to send ten or so players to the NFL during Cosgrove's tenure there.  Hopefully, he and his staff will be able to get the most out of the Colby student-athletes as well, even if employment in the NFL is not realistic for NESCAC players.

Wish I did have a dog in this fight, as it will be fun to see how this plays out.  No guarantees. but at a minimum I would think life just became more challenging for the Polar Bear and Bobcat football programs.  Of course there is no time to impact this year's batch of recruits, so he'll be playing with the cards he's been dealt for the foreseeable future.

[nescac1]

Solid recruit for the Ephs, turned down a few lower-level D1 scholarships. The Ephs continue to add badly-needed bulk on both sides of the line:

Steve Kletscher, 6'4 235 lb DE

https://twitter.com/stovekletscher/status/947218985912848384

[frank uible]

Load up on your season tickets to the Ephs!. Raymond knows what he is doing. Shades of Farley?

[JEFFFAN]

Very nice for Foy from Amherst

http://www.gazettenet.com/Amherst-Football-quarterback-Reece-Foy-Sugar-Bowl-14624753

[PolarCat]

Watching the Rose Bowl, I am reminded of WestCoastDad's mantra: KICKERS AREN'T FOOTBALL PLAYERS.

Yeah, right.

[nescac1]

Wonderful story on Reece Foy, and kudos to him for stepping up in a major way ... the situation in Chad, which receives scandalously little attention, is probably the most dire of anywhere in the world right now.  Obviously an incredibly impressive, well-rounded young man. 

[ColbyFootball]

Washington & Lee's HC left to take the Davidson HC job. Colby OC Dunn previously coached Catholic University. Although Catholic is not in the same conference as W & L, they did play each other quite a bit.

So, I'm thinking Dunn would be a great fit at W & L. He's familiar with the team, familiar with recruiting Virginia, and he has a year under his belt coaching at a very high academic program in Colby. So, he's in a better position than ever to recruit for W & L, an elite academic school, and he arrives with HC experience.

I hope if he wants it, I hope he applies and gets it. He's a smart offensive coach, and seems like a good guy.

[Pat Coleman]

I suspect W&L is going to want to stay with the triple option, which is not what Dunn ran at Catholic. Recruiting Virginia will also be less of a priority than you expect, because only 19 of the 72 players on last year's roster were from Virginia. (And that's par for the course for the program and the school as a whole.)

Catholic was in the same conference as W&L during Dunn's entire tenure.

He might well be a good fit at W&L, but it wouldn't be for the reasons you laid out, at least.

[ColbyFootball]

I suspect W&L is going to want to stay with the triple option, which is not what Dunn ran at Catholic. Recruiting Virginia will also be less of a priority than you expect, because only 19 of the 72 players on last year's roster were from Virginia. (And that's par for the course for the program and the school as a whole.)

Catholic was in the same conference as W&L during Dunn's entire tenure.

He might well be a good fit at W&L, but it wouldn't be for the reasons you laid out, at least.

Fair enough. But, I sure wish they'd go from the triple option to the spread. With the spread you can run multiple option plays, as with Tebow, and some with power. But, you can also pass.

[Pat Coleman]

Perhaps. Lots of teams run the spread, and W&L hasn't had a lot of success with other offenses. But with the triple option, they've contended more years than not in the ODAC, and that's pretty much the high water mark for that program.

[jknezek]

Yes. Since W&L starting running the option, and at this point I hesitate to call it a triple option since they run pretty much every option formation and style you can think of, the Generals have won 5 ODAC titles in 12 or 13 seasons. Coach Abell won 3 of the last 6. PrIor to that, W&L had not won an ODAC title since the 2 in the early/mid 80s. I love watching our option. It has allowed us to compete and provides a contrasting style of play to almost everyone else. I really hope our next coach is well versed in it and continues the system. Dave Dunn would not thrill me at all. Catholic was a hot mess for most of their ODAC tenure and Dave Dunn was the coach for the bulk of it.