FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Littlethree]

Frank U.    With your knowledge of Williams how would you rate their returning positions?   Strong    Need Improvement    Potential Weakness       

                     O Line
                     D Line
                     Linebackers
                     D Backs
                     Receivers
                     Running Backs

    We know how you feel about the QB position with the MVP gone.
                     

[frank uible]

Come to the first 2008 weekly luncheon of the Williams Sideline Quarterback Club (est. 1947) on Wednesday of 9/17 (noon) at The Log located on Spring Street in Williamstown. All the position coaches will be there to speak about the prospects of their players. You can pay the one luncheon guest fee of $12 (if you forget to bring your wallet, I'll pick up your luncheon check) or the annual dues of $119, which covers all 8 weekly Club luncheons, the before-the-game Club tailgate on 9/20 (Colby game) and the end-of-season Club banquet on 11/16. Each dues payment covers the cost of the banquet for one player. You can pay at the door. Also I believe that for a modest fee arrangements can be made for you to partake in each of the pre-game tailgates of the Purple People Feeders (players' parents group) occurring at each game, home and away. Yes - someone hauls the Purple People Feeders' tailgate trailer all the way to such places this year as Lewiston, Maine and Clinton, New York.

[nescac1]

I'm not Frank, but considering Williams returns senior all league players at both offensive tackle spots, RB, and WR (the Szawlowski brothers, Morrissey and Powell) and has several other likely future all-league players on offense (TE Carroll, WR Caro, OL Kloeckner and Rose), so long as that group remains fairly healthy, they should be close to the best in NESCAC in every offensive unit outside of the big unknown at QB.

Defense is a bigger question mark as the Ephs lose a ton of talent from the front seven in particular (four guys who were all league at some point in their careers, and a fifth who was a three year starter). 

[Trin9-0]

2008 NESCAC Football Preseason Predictions:

Amherst 6-2 Hamilton at Bowdoin at Middlebury Colby at Wesleyan Tufts Trinity Williams

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Bates 0-8 at Trinity at Tufts Williams Wesleyan at Middlebury Colby at Bowdoin Hamilton

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Bowdoin 3-5 at Middlebury Amherst Tufts at Hamilton Trinity at Wesleyan Bates at Colby

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Colby 2-6 at Williams Middlebury Wesleyan at Amherst Hamilton at Bates at Tufts Bowdoin

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Hamilton 2-6 at Amherst at Wesleyan Trinity Bowdoin at Colby Williams Middlebury at Bates

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Middlebury 6-2 Bowdoin at Colby Amherst at Williams Bates at Trinity at Hamilton Tufts

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Trinity 6-2 Bates at Williams at Hamilton Tufts at Bowdoin Middlebury Amherst at Wesleyan

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Tufts 5-3 Wesleyan Bates at Bowdoin at Trinity Williams at Amherst Colby at Middlebury

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Wesleyan 4-4 at Tufts Hamilton at Colby at Bates Amherst Bowdoin at Williams Trinity

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Williams 6-2 Colby Trinity at Bates Middlebury at Tufts at Hamilton Wesleyan at Amherst

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Final Standings: 1. Amherst 6-2     Middlebury 6-2     Trinity 6-2     Williams 6-2 5.  Tufts 5-3 6.  Wesleyan 4-4 7.  Bowdoin 3-5 8.  Colby 2-6      Hamilton 2-6 10. Bates 0-8

Games of the Week:   
Week 1   Wesleyan at Tufts
Week 2   Trinity at Williams
Week 3   Amherst at Middlebury
Week 4   Middlebury at Williams
Week 5   Williams at Tufts
Week 6   Middlebury at Trinity
Week 7   Amherst at Trinity
Week 8   Williams at Amherst

Offensive POY -  Eric McGrath QB, Trinity
Deffensive POY - Trevor Powers LB, Williams
Coach of the Year – E.J. Mills, Amherst

Hopefully this will get some chatter going. 

[AUPepBand]

Did Hamilton drop out of the NESCAC?

[Trin9-0]

Did Hamilton drop out of the NESCAC?

Sorry AUPep, in my overzealous attempt at color coding I used beige for Hamilton which did not show up well on the background. I've since edit the post and the Continentals can be seen in blue.

[Pat Coleman]

Fancy.

[frank uible]

Them NESCACers are a fancy bunch!

[Littlethree]

Preseason Predictions:

   1. Middlebury : Until beaten the champs
   2. Williams: Strong cast of returning players, QB a question mark
   3a. Trinity :  Never count the Bants out, always have stars in waiting
   3b. Amherst: Senior class not only wants Williams,  but could surprise
   4. Tufts: Solid team, too many tough away games
   5. Wesleyan: Building the program, still behind Lord Jeffs and Ephs
   6. Colby: don't take lightly, will upset someone favored
   7. Bowdoin: Solid QB with surrounding talent will surprise
   8. Bates: need another year or two to move up.
   9.Hamilton: Won't stay in this possision long, getting better each year

    Little Three Champ    Williams     
    BBC Champ                Colby
   Team that could really surprise:    Amherst
   Team that has the talent to take it all      Tufts
   Team where the tradition of success will  win games   Trinity

[eclinchy]

I'm sorry, Tufts loses at Bowdoin?  What?

[Lamartinelax]

Just dropped a son off at Tufts.  I look forward to the banter going forward as I am new to this conference.

[Trin9-0]

I'm sorry, Tufts loses at Bowdoin?  What?

I don't think it's that far-fetched. The two schools have played close games the past few years.

Tufts won by 8 in Medford last year (an 87 yard int return and a missed extra point being the difference).  Then the Jumbos won a 10 point game in '06 and Bowdoin won 10-8 in '05. 

Caputi has done a great job in his tenure at Bowdoin and I think they can pull the small upset at home. When the Polar Bears play well they can hang with anybody in the league... as seen in their upset over Williams last year. They also return their starting QB Oliver Kell (who was 6th in the NESCAC in total offense as a sophomore) and I believe 7 or 8 starters on defense (including LB Kevin Zikaris who was 2nd in the NESCAC in tackles as a sophomore).

It's not that I'm hating on Tufts, but you can't pick the favorite in every game.  Take note that I also picked the Jumbos to win against Williams AND at Amherst in back-to-back weeks. That's probably more of a stretch than losing at Bowdoin.

[nescac1]

Considering Tufts has not beaten Williams since 1986, definitely a bold pick ... but there have been a lot of close games during that time period, Williams is sort of the monkey on Tufts' back and they are bound to break through at some point. 

Anyone at Williams hear any scoop now that pre-season is getting going about the likely QB candidates?  From what I understand they have two rising sophs, one who is a running QB (maybe a candidate to convert to another position?), one who was the back-up and is a Lucey run/pass combo type, and then two big frosh QB's coming in (6'4 and 6'5) one from Jersey one from California.  Curious to hear who is emerging as the possible starter ... especially because there should be very few position battles elsewhere on the team (several young guys who did not start but received a of PT last year -- Caro, Carroll, Kiely, D. Johnson, Cronin, K. Rose -- are pretty obvious candidates to fill holes this fall). 

[mariner75]

ahhh..2005...Tufts drives the length of the field & decides to throw a corner route from the 2 to win....game over.....ouch!  Welcome L-Lax....have fun......

[nescac1]

Should be an interesting year at the QB position for NESCAC teams.  Three very strong returning stars (McGrath, McKillop, O. Kell) and pretty much wide open for every other team.

According to the Amherst football season preview, the battle for the QB job is between two sophmores, Dan Pozner and Alex Vetras.  Pozner got a few snaps last year, Vetras none.  Last year's starter is injured and out for the year.  Considering Amherst got very little production out of that spot last year, they are nevertheless bound to improve. 

At Williams, of course, it is a huge question mark with a bunch of untested (although I imagine talented) frosh and sophomores fighting for the job.   Here is an article on one of them:

http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=20059151&BRD=1643&PAG=461&dept_id=10486&rfi=8

Tufts apparently has an experienced D-1 transfer coming in, who actually got a few starts at that level last year.  I was discounting Tufts as a contender primarily due to the loss of their star QB, but this news puts them right there with Amherst, Williams, Midd, and Trinity in a five way battle for Nescac supremacy. 

Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Wesleyan all have QB situations that are likewise in flux ...