FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[mariner75]

Former Wes HC, Frank Hauser, announced today as the new OC at Tufts....thoughts?

[met_fan]

Hamilton HC search gets crazier with time. Still no announcement. The 4 finalists were leaked a few weeks ago. All are head coaches with other programs. At this late date the departure of any of these coaches from their respective program would be highly disruptive and unfair to those schools who will be starting preseason workouts in a few weeks.
This leads to the conclusion that the rumored finalists must be off the table at this late date.  At this point the Continentals may have to turn to exisiting staff with an "interim" hiring or call Stetson back in from the links.
Not good for a struggling program trying to move forward.

I heard this weekend from a staff member at Hamilton that they were going to be announcing the new coach this week (he believed).  He didn't know who it was though.

[met_fan]

From an email from the Hamilton AD this morning:

"Later today we will announce the appointment of Andrew Cohen, defensive coordinator at Bowdoin College, as the new Mary Jayne Comey and Mac Bristol '43 Head Football Coach at Hamilton."

[frank uible]

Apparently the NESCAC connection won the day over other factors - for better or worse.

[lumbercat]

The door was essentially closed at this late date for a head coach to make the move to this job with  the season ready to start..... not sure what took so long here. An assistant's departure from a program like Bowdoin which has more than a month to find a replacement does not carry the same political consequence as hiring a head coach in mid July. It appears that the Buff n Blue dropped down to take the best avilable assistant in filling the job.
Cohen presumably did a good job with the Bowdoin defense last year in trying circumstances- he was not blessed with talent or size especially on the defensive line where the Cubs were very small. They were dominated at Williams, Bates and Trinity but held their own defensively thoughout the year and compensated for a struggling Black and White offense. Nonetheless it appears Cohen got the most out of a lean squad and one can see where his results in Brunswick may have been pivotal in his consideration at Hamilton.
Cohen seems to have a good resume but expectations were for a candidate with HC experience to emerge. If they were destined to hire someone from the assistant coach level assumptions were that current assistant Bill Spicer or current Defensive Coordinator Mike Tracy would get the nod.
Tracy has been the Def Coordinator for an undersized, overachieving defense at Hamilton in recent years. Evidently the Continental administration felt the need to go outside the losing Hamilton culture. Hope it turns out well for the Buff and Blue (despite the fact that they have now changed to Blue and Gold) as they strive to bring back the days of the mid 1980's when they made a run for the NESCAC crown.

[frank uible]

Assistant coaches with no prior head coaching experience are given head coaching jobs frequently - especially at colleges with recently weak programs. And a fair number of them turn out to be successes in those jobs.

[iamhuge]

Former Wes HC, Frank Hauser, announced today as the new OC at Tufts....thoughts?

All that experience will be most helpful.  Looking forward to seeing the Jumbos rock this fall.

[quicksilver]

Here's a link to a good article in the Bowdoin student newspaper on Andrew Cohen and his coaching style. He looks to have been effective in his one year at Bowdoin as defensive coordinator in improving the Polar Bears' defense.

[banfan]

Here's a link to a good article in the Bowdoin student newspaper on Andrew Cohen and his coaching style. He looks to have been effective in his one year at Bowdoin as defensive coordinator in improving the Polar Bears' defense.

Well, there is nothing here that says Hamilton did a funny hire.  It is too bad for Bowdoin but the guy is qualified.  At first I thought an incestuous NESCAC hire but don't think that is right.  Good football coach with good character.  Good for Hamilton.

[lumbercat]

Looks like a good hire for the Buff and Blue- when you look at what Cohen did in Brunswick with a D line that averaged less than 220 you have to take note of the fine performance of the Bowdoin defense last year. Not sure how Polar Bear HC coach Caputi ended up with that severe lack of quality on the D line but Cohen saved the day for the ex Panther. The Bears went 4-4 primarily due to their great defense. In the Maine Championship Series they lost soundly at Bates but followed with a win over a suspension racked Colby squad that had Polar Bear faithful singing the esteemed Bowdoin alma mater song in unison at picturesque Whittier field last year. The ghost of Adam Walsh seemed to prevail over that CBB encounter when several key Colby starters were suspended a day before the game.

While Hamilton was looking for a candidate with HC experience they may have done very well at the eleventh hour by giving the nod to Cohen. Good Luck to him----maybe he will scrap the Blue and Gold and bring back the traditional Hamilton look which was characteristic of some fine Continental teams of the distant past. Go Buff n' Blue!

[frank uible]

In football as in hot dog eating absence of bulky personnel does not necessarily equate to absence of quality personnel.

[banfan]

A little heavy on the mustard there Frank.  lol

[frank uible]

With a pickle in the middle.

[lumbercat]

Great response Frank- LOL-- been on the cape for a couple of weeks, just catching up... you are right, poor choice of words on my part. My point was that P Bear D line was severly undersized. Should have said lack of "size and depth" not lack of "quality". I'm a Pine Tree stater at heart and a follower of the Bears so my apologies to those in Brunswick. The Bowdoin D was was a credit to the coaching expertise of Coach Cohen and surely one of the reasons he landed the Hamilton job.

If anyone is interested here are the NESCAC palyers on the MSB preseason D3 All American team:

1st team:

McCallum Foote Sr QB Middlebury
Billy Chapman Sr WR Middlebury

2nd team:

Kyle Starr Sr DB Bates
Rae Haynes Sr DB Trinity
Mike Valenti Sr OL Trinity
La Darius Drew So RB Wesleyan

Honorable Mention:

Matt Sponheimer Sr DL Amherst
Landrus Lewis Sr LB Amherst
John Ceccio Sr OL Amherst
Rob Wasielewski Jr OL Amherst

In scouting circles far and wide the Middlebury QB Foote (despite injury last year) and his WR Chapman are considered a most  formidable combination in D3, the NESCAC and beyond. They are possibly one for the ages in the conference. I saw them twice last year and was most impressed. The Middlebury D was poor and could not stop anyone but the Panther passing game was superb when Mccallum was in the lineup.

At the risk of ruffling some feathers of the Ephs and Jeffs that dominate this board I will say that the Panther offense will need to be reckoned with in western Ma this year. It remains to be seen if the Panthers can stop the defensive hemmorage of last year but they will score points in bunches. Look forward to their matchups with the western ma Purple/Blue teams and the Bantams.

Looking forward to a great NESCAC season.

Good night Rick Murphy wherever you are.

[frank uible]

Mrs. Calabash of course, but Rick Murphy?