FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[frank uible]

In the late 80s and early 90s Amherst football had a very frustrating run of seasons (1988, 4-4; 1989, 4-4; 1990, 1-7, 1991, 0-7-1; 1992, 0-8) while wearing the Princeton stripe jerseys. When Jack Siedlicki arrived as Amherst's new HFC in 1993, those jerseys were abandoned as part of a fresh start in Amherst football.

[amh63]

Frank U. ,,,,,thanks for the memories.  After the 92 winless season, Amherst removed the coach, an Amherst grad.  It is interesting to note here that the coach removal was not due to the win-lost record as much as that the players on the team did not want to play for the HFC.  This viewpoint is supported a bit by my oldest son's close friend who finally quite the team his junior year, I believe.  The football player was a star player in HS and a son of an Amherst football player.
Indeed a bad time period for Amherst football.  The change in uniform style was, IMHO, a collateral damage item....a bit like the present Penn State uniform change.
New student orientation starts at Amherst on the 26th of this month.  Football players will arrive soon afterwards for the start of conf. practices.  As reported here, there is a talented QB from the area arriving on campus.

[nescac1]

amh63, interesting that the Amherst kicker with the booming leg is no longer on the roster.  K/P will then be a big question mark for Amherst this year, I imagine.  Speaking of K/P, after a season and a half of, to put it kindly, misadventures at the place-kicking position, Joe Mallock emerged as a badly-needed reliable option for the Ephs.  He received some pre-season recognition, accordingly:

http://williams.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2012-13/releases/201208088gv71c

I recall that the incoming frosh QB at Amherst did sound impressive.  I would guess that he will have a chance to compete for a starting job right away, given how little game experience the Jeffs have at that position, although Petropolous if I recall was also a highly regarded recruit and now has two years in the system. 

[frank uible]

The typical NESCAC athlete is motivated just a little bit differently than the typical DIII athlete. Consequently from time to time new NESCAC coaches turn out to be surprisingly (for the coach and the college) poor fits for NESCAC  from a motivational standpoint, not necessarily from a W/L standpoint. Nonetheless such poor fits very frequently go hand-in-hand with poor W/L records, a condition which is often indicative of, and can compound, the poor fit.

[82slice]

All 3 Amherst QBs on current roster, while inexperienced, were highly regarded coming out of high school. They've got a lot of talent back there, they just need to get them some experience. whoever wins the job is going to be good.

[82slice]

Excuse me. Make that 4 QBs. One junior and three sophomores.

[amh63]

82slice....welcome aboard!  Would one of the OB's be yourself?  Just kidding.
Max Lippe, from CA., is a 6'6" candidate QB.  He is fast and athletic and was on the BB team.  I would think that the coaches maybe tempted to move him to WR if it does not work out for him at QB.  Heller, who was drafted by the Red Sox this year was a WR for Amherst, but was moved to DB his last two years, I believe......even though he made some key catches in the win over Williams in '09.

[82slice]

Nope, not a member of the squad, but do have a son who plays.

[frank uible]

Specifically - among those four Amherst QBs only one pass was thrown in anger last year.

[amh63]

Gosh Frank.....QB throws passes in anger?....more for the JOY of competition, me thinks.
In any case, it seems the SID at Amherst is starting the Fall seasons press releases.  Some words about the football team and the conference games ahead can be found on the Amherst website.   After reading them, I am looking forward to the posts of other schools to start.  Actually, I looked at the websites of the conference schools for early write-ups, etc. and was left with feeling that this season, the race to the top is wide open.
It is also interesting that the conference schools have dates for students to get into their rooms that vary by almost a week.  Maybe the posters that have sons playing can post the start of football practices.....to see if there is a common start of practices among the schools.  The first contests of varsity teams in other sports start all over the place...leading me to think that Fall team practices for "CAC" may vary quite a bit and maybe significantly for football....though the start of the football season remain the same.
Just some rambling thoughts before heading for the ocean for a family vacation. 
Just to stir things up.....was going through some OLD records about my class and came upon a interesting fact.  My freshmen football team went undefeated and finished the "season" by beating Williams 24-0!  The members went on to have good success in later years on the varsity against Williams.  Of course the "CAC" as we know it did not exist then.

[frank uible]

amh63: If, as I suspect, that you are Amherst '63, then you attended Amherst when Ostendarp was roughly at the height of his not inconsiderable powers.

[frank uible]

I know that Ostendarp arrived at Amherst in 1959 (I remember that I helped him move into his newly purchased house on a street next to Pratt Field in May of that year), and Wikipedia says that Amherst football was 7-1 in both 1961 and 1962.

[amh63]

Frank U......your deductive powers are very good.  The house was a big one with a Dutch style roof....next to a frat house, affectionately referred to as the Zoo..that had the highest frat grade-point average over the years.  It was also near the Amherst building with the "big" telescope in which I spent hours doing research.  In my senior(?) year, I went up to the Williams game and even wandered into the "Log", where some profs were taking bets on the outcome of the game.....which Amherst LOST.  Our excuse for the lost was that our fine "pony" backfield was missing its best scat back.  Williams had a great game against a very good Amherst team.
Oh yes, most of the football players were members of the Beta house as you might expect....and even had fine grades to boot. To this day, I thought that house was a college supplied one.  It indeed was big enough for all his kids to happily grow up.

[frank uible]

For some reason, the details of which have been lost in the passage of time, my now vague impression remains that Jim had purchased that house. As I recall, it was impressive (to an impoverished middle class 24 year old school teacher originating from the inner-city midwest)  - white, clapboard in a colonial style with a staircase leading from the front hall to the second floor. It is presumed the house still stands - hopefully in good condition.

[frank uible]

If the fall of 1962 was your senior year, the Amherst-Williams game was played at Amherst. In modern times even yeared games have occurred at Amherst.