FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[lumbercat]

Good hire for the Mules-Clement is ex Bates assistant. Respected guy who lands his first coordinator job.

Shea Dwyer's lateral OC move from Colby to Hamilton still seems puzzling. With Cosgrove at the twilight of his career would have thought Dwyer would hang in on Mayflower Hill.

[GroundandPound]

https://hopkinssports.com/documents/2024/6/13/1635_001.pdf
Two Wesleyan DB's Pre-season AA per Lindy's

[GroundandPound]

Correction, Lindy's named Wesley Abraham both First Team and Second Team pre-season AA.
Lindy's you are sloppy. There are a couple other NESCAC DB's who could be on this list.

[Scoops]

Anyone from the Wesleyan secondary being named an all-american of any type is an absolute joke. They were the 9th best pass defense in the league, behind only a Bates team that started numerous freshmen.

[GroundandPound]

Scoops it is an individual, not a unit, "pre-season" recognition. For those DBs who feel slighted, and I can think of a few, I suggest you crank up your summer training, outwork everyone this summer, and prove you are the best DB(s) in the NESCAC on the field this fall. 

[Scoops]

I understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

[The Ghost of John Wesley]

I understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

I get what you're saying and agree with it in some respects (truly great players raise the level of play for their units and teams), but with units that have a lot of starting players like the defensive backfield or offensive line, it's not all that uncommon to have a standout in an overall poor unit.

I can think of many examples with offensive linemen. Joe Thomas played on some truly abysmal teams and offensive lines in Cleveland, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's one of the best offensive tackles in the history of the game.

[The truth 101]

I understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

I would heavily agree with this point. Often times even in a bad secondary offenses will simply just throw away from the good corner or avoid him when possible. It seemed like he got targeted just as much as anyone else in the quite frankly subpar secondary and although he may have some picks his showings against some of the top receivers last year were less than admirable. Don't mean to drag the kid obviously a talented player looking forward to see how he builds on his game next year.

[GroundandPound]

Just to clarify, Lindy is sloppy because they listed the same player twice not because they selected Abrams. If they only listed him on one team there would be a spot for one of several other NESCAC DBs who could potentially have an AA season this fall. NESCAC players frequently get shafted in AA teams because they do not compete in playoffs so any NESCAC recognition on such teams at year end do not come easily.

[LochNescac]

The league composite schedule shows six night games (so far), four involving the Jumbos...

You fellas like the "Under the Lights" action?

Any Pro/Con thoughts from a team/school perspective...?

[RedAndBlack]

I understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

I get what you're saying and agree with it in some respects (truly great players raise the level of play for their units and teams), but with units that have a lot of starting players like the defensive backfield or offensive line, it's not all that uncommon to have a standout in an overall poor unit.

I can think of many examples with offensive linemen. Joe Thomas played on some truly abysmal teams and offensive lines in Cleveland, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's one of the best offensive tackles in the history of the game.

Its almost like its nearly impossible to have a legitimate way to determine the "best" players across all of D3 football and they just go off of some stats and W/L records.... Those lists are not close to being a realistic look at what players are truly the best at their positions.

[Pat Coleman]

I understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

I get what you're saying and agree with it in some respects (truly great players raise the level of play for their units and teams), but with units that have a lot of starting players like the defensive backfield or offensive line, it's not all that uncommon to have a standout in an overall poor unit.

I can think of many examples with offensive linemen. Joe Thomas played on some truly abysmal teams and offensive lines in Cleveland, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's one of the best offensive tackles in the history of the game.

Its almost like its nearly impossible to have a legitimate way to determine the "best" players across all of D3 football and they just go off of some stats and W/L records.... Those lists are not close to being a realistic look at what players are truly the best at their positions.

This is why for offensive linemen and defensive backs in particular, we reach out to all Division III coaches as part of our All-Region/All-America process to ask them who the best offensive linemen were that they coached against or saw on video this past season, and who the defensive backs are that they try to avoid in the passing game. As we all know, and has been discussed above, sometimes the best DBs actually have few picks because nobody wants to throw near them. Our survey attempts to get that info out of coaches.

Now ... do NESCAC coaches participate in this? Not as much as I'd like. And that means maybe we don't always have the best NESCAC reps on our teams either, but we sure as heck try, and I believe ours are close to realistic.

[Charlie]

What happened to last OC at Bates did he move on ?

I think it was Coach Thompson or did they just add to staff ?

[lumbercat]

Charlie- Mitch Thompson is the OC at Bates. Not sure what you are referring to.

[NescacNewbie]

Colby AD Mike Wisecup just stepped down, heading back into the National Security industry.
Huge loss for the Mules.