FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[nescac1]

All conference teams are out:

http://www.nescac.com/2007-08/sports/football/allconference.htm

Not to toot my own horn (OK I will) but I got all the Williams guys right (I would have included Flynn in the locks as well, just forgot about return specialists ...) as well as OPY, DPY, ROY.  Then again, all of those choices were incredibly obvious. 

Midd, Trinity, and Amherst as you would expect dominated the defensive side of the ball, each with 4-5 honorees.  Trinity loses five first team guys, Midd four, so they will both be in rebuilding mode on defense.  Midd's offense should be stronger, however, with lots of good skill guys returning.  Surprised Berry from Trinity didn't get honored but I guess you can take only so many guys from a second place team.  The biggest surprise, though, is probably Librizzi over Russo for second team QB ...

Congrats to Lucey for second straight POY honors on offense, can't be very many NESCAC guys who have accomplished that.   (Who was the last?  Maybe Reardon from Williams?). 

Nice to see two fullbacks getting love on the all-conference teams.  Then again, not many stand out feature backs this year, and NeSmith and Rauh sort of cancel each other out from Amherst. 

Williams returns the most all conference guys next season, with six juniors honored, but then again they lose the best player in the conference.  Amherst close behind with five returning honorees, they figure to be much improved next season. 

Pre-season favorites for next season's poy: 1) Morrissey  2) E. McGrath  3) McKillop, 4) Rauh on offense, 1) Matisis, 2) Powers, 3) Soobitsky, 4) Berry  on defense. 

[cruiser]

even with a 2-6 record, surprising to me that colby only has 1 all conference selection, despite having the league leader in sacks, and a team like bates, who barely won one game all year gets three... otherwise, no problems with selections.

[NESCACAlumn]

Congratulations to all the players that made all-conference. I have to say though 9 players from a 4-4 Amherst team? Really? Same number as the 7-1 league champs. The past couple of years Amherst's teams have been stronger and got less representation. Maybe this can be attributed to a down year in the league as a whole? I don't know, maybe I didn't see enough games around the league....what do I know, I'm only an Alumn

[bant551]

I gotta say Lucey's final stats are extremely impressive.  At first, I couldn't imagine he could win offensive POY because the hole that was dug (statistically) after the first two games was very deep.

Somehow, he ended up with very good numbers (sans the 12 INTs).  Give a mulligan for a few of them (someone here said a few "bounced off receivers' hands), and the stats look even better: approx 240 passing ypg; 16 TDs (factoring in that they were probably winning a bunch of games early, and the team probably "called off the dogs").

Congrats.

[BTEXPRESS]

Bowdoin's field hockey team beat Lebanon Valley 1-0 today to advance to the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP game on Saturday.

[BTEXPRESS]

Middlebury women join the female Polar Bears for the  Field Hockey National Championship on Saturday by defeating Salisbury 2-1 on overtime making it an all NESCAC final. And the football teams can't play a 9th game why???

[Pat Coleman]

Make sure the presidents know how much class time they missed yesterday and today for this.

[lewdogg11]

Make sure the presidents know how much class time they missed yesterday and today for this.

Niiiiiiiice!!!

[Knightstalker]

Middlebury women join the female Polar Bears for the  Field Hockey National Championship on Saturday by defeating Salisbury 2-1 on overtime making it an all NESCAC final. And the football teams can't play a 9th game why???

Because football players are mouth-breathing Neanderthals who need all the class time they can get.

[BTEXPRESS]

We have another winner. Congratulations to the MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE men's soccer team for winning the Division III NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP over the weekend. They join the Bowdoin woman's field hockey team who also won the National Championship. Do we see a pattern here?? and the Football teams get to play EIGHT games!!! Oh well ,enough of this topic. Everyone on this board knows it is not fair to the Football players and for some reason, the NESCAC Presidents will not change their stance on this issue.

[Col. Partridge]

I believe the Amherst womens' X-Country team also won the NCAA D-III title this fall.  There will be more NESCAC national champs in the winter and spring seasons.

There was an interesting thread about NESCAC football and the playoffs under General Football->Division III Football Rivalries. 

[nescac1]

Article discussing future Eph Connor Ryan:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19089554&BRD=1653&PAG=461&dept_id=12721&rfi=6

Hopefully Connor will be as good as his brother, who set the NESCAC record for sacks in a season as a senior at Middlebury.  If he is, he may get an opportunity for playing time as a frosh or sophomore, as the Ephs graduate three guys who started at LB (one who was moved to D.E. as a senior).

Next year should be another fun year in NESCAC.  Middlebury brings back a ton of talent, including the star frosh QB, but loses the top defensive player in the conference and has to face the pressure of being the hunted.  Same idea for Williams, whose enormous loss comes at QB (and as we saw at Amherst this year, going from a three year starter to a guy with essentially no experience can be a rough transition, who knows how Williams will adapt) but otherwise returns tons of talent on both sides of the ball.  Trinity loses most of its offensive / defensive lines but should be very hungry after a down year (by its lofty standards) and still has as much talent as anyone.  Amherst should be the most improved team in the conference with many key guys back on D and a lot more experience at QB, WR and OL.  Bowdoin and Tufts (who also suffers a big loss at QB) could also contend.   Going into a season, the league hasn't looked this wide open since before Trinity began its run of dominance.   

[frank uible]

A lot of mediocrity returning and nothing more leads to parity?

[Knightstalker]

Today let us remember our Soldiers and Sailors who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor and those who survived the attack in our prayers and thoughts.

[frank uible]

Amen.