FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[amh63]

At my daughter's house and have a few minutes before going to dinner.
Banfan.....can't be first in everything.  See that there is a big TE FY from the same HS that Tebow played for...even when he was home schooled.
Frank....my grand daughter had a pink tutu.  Couldn't get her to wear purple.  Sure little girls will wear purple when they become bigger and wiser.
nescac1....see that there is a Jack Ryan on the team.  Isn't Tom Clancy's character a little old for football?

[lumbercat]

Banfan- thanks for the heads up on the Trinity roster. The earlier posting I saw was obviously in error.
I get a kick out of looking at these rosters especially the Freshman which give some insight on recruiting within the conference.
I've always noticed that Amherst and Williams given their great national acclaim usually have pretty diverse rosters with kids form the midwest and especially the west coast. In looking at the Trinity roster I think it's evidence of the great recruiting job they do which along with their winning tradition and admissions flexibility produces winning results. They seem to consistently land quality kids form all over the country.
My take on Trinity recruiting is that they are playing chess while most of the rest of the conference plays checkers.

Another interesting note for me on their roster is an incoming Frosh QB named Mchael Foye. I assume he is the son of Mike Foye who was an extremely good QB at Trinity in the late 70's. Makes one feel old.
Tell them to go easy on Bates, OK Banfan?

Good Luck to the Colby White Mules and Bowdoin Polar Bears who will also be big underdogs tomorrow.

[fulbakdad]

If anyone is at the Wes game tomorrow, could you keep an eye on Ibraheem Kadar?  He played with my son at Prep School and I really like they guy.  Great story.....

[amh63]

The Amherst roster has arrived...on Friday. The race is finished.....it is not where you come in, but that you make the effort and how you finish.   Sound a bit like kungfu panda here.
There are about 20 plus new players....RBs, DBs, LBs, OLs, DLs and of course WRs......from everywhere.   

[frank uible]

The games are the Johnstown flood, and the rosters are the leaky toilet in Altoona.

[nescac1]

Looks like the big dogs are taking care of business in early NESCAC action.  Ephs up 17-7 in first half on Colby. 

A few notes from Williams-Colby ... tough start for the Colby coach as the first three plays were fumble recovered by Ephs, running play for no gain, TD to Hartwell (who for some reason has been single-covered for much of the game, and has already torched Colby for two TD's and several other big gains).  On the plus side for the new Colby coach, he is a dead ringer for Jon Hamm. 

Williams' Charlie Grossnickle, who I mentioned here before, is starting at left tackle as a frosh.  I can't recall the last time the Ephs started a frosh at left tackle, but I'm guessing it's been awhile.  Not sure if an injury or if he just beat out the projected starter. 

Ephs' passing game looks very good.  Marske has had all day to throw and has mostly been on target.  Colby has been tough vs. the run and the Ephs have not opened many holes, but they have also generated no pass rush.  Hartwell is clearly the key guy still for Williams (his second TD catch was an incredible grab, but he was wide open on several other plays) but the Ephs have a nice, deep group of receivers, Richie Beaton looks particularly promising.  The number two WR, Greg Payton, seems not to be playing, I imagine he is injured.  Tom Wohlwender is also out for Williams with an ankle injury, contributing to the Ephs' early running woes. 

Ephs' D looks solid so far other than a trick play where they got totally fooled, and the new Dline looks pretty stout.  Colby has been able to dink and dunk but few big plays.  Hard to say how good Williams is on defense because Colby looks to have very few playmakers on offense.  Dunklee (who scored the Colby TD and looks dangerous generally) is very good but seems to be the only guy to really fear.   

Ephs have made a lot of mental errors.  Several 15 yard personal foul penalties (at least three already by my count) and of course the trick-play TD.  If they don't clean those up before next week they will be in big trouble. 

[nescac1]

Headed to garbage time in Billsville with Williams up 31-7, with Colby's only real offense coming on a trick WR pass.  Hard to tell if Williams is really good or Colby is really bad, probably a bit of both.  Colby did a good job of stuffing the run and Luke Dunklee (who got injured in the second half, hopefully he is OK) is a great offensive weapon (reminds me of Noone the WR from Bowdoin who graduated, all over the field and his best reception was called back due a penalty), but otherwise, didn't seem to have a lot of talent on either side.

For Williams, Marske looks improved over last year, made one very bad decision but otherwise, a great game.  Hartwell is the best offensive weapon in NESCAC and was dominant all day.  Richie Beaton looked like the next big Eph WR to emerge, really flashed some talent, and Williams has some good depth there in Brewington, Sime, and Reimann, when Payton comes back they will be very tough to match up with on the outside.  Williams definitely needs to improve both run blocking and running.  Scyocurka had a few good plays but also showed some rust.  Fumbled a hand-off at end of the first half and did not return, I hope it is not another injury.

I was very impressed with the Eph defense.  The LB core looks like the strength of the D, with Cameron, White, and in particularly the big surprise, frosh converted QB Jack Ryan, all over the field. John McKenna provides good depth.  Dline also played well as they generated a lot more pass rush than the Ephs did from the front four last season.  Tom Foote looked particularly impressive, really quick for a DT, and HIgginbotham is also tough.  Defensive backs were not tested much, but Tom Cabarle had a few nice plays.  Of course, Colby does not have much at all on offense, so next week will present a very different challenge, especially vs. the far more talented Trinity running game. 

Finally, Joe Mallock looked GREAT at kicker, both on XPs, FGs, and kickoffs.  After a few years of frequently disastrous kicking, nice to see that Williams looks to have found the answer there. 

Hopefully Williams will be a full strength on O vs. Trinity, if Payton and Wohlwender can return.  But either way, should be a tremendously competitive game next week.  Nothing in week one in NESCAC suggests that the usual suspects -- Amherst, Williams, Trinity -- will not continue to dominate this year. 

[Upstate]

So how has the JV doing this weekend?

[frank uible]

The chalk easily won each of the five NESCAC games - no surprises - consequently not much useful or interesting information excepting at least with respect to the game your correspondent saw there was lots of room for improvement on both sides.

[lumbercat]

The favorites won in all games today, very predictable day. In the Willliams-Colby game both teams made mistakes and need to strive for improvement.

[Panthernation]

Hey, been reading d3boards for about a year, just made an account, have a Middlebury sports blog going and wanted to share the post I wrote on the Middlebury-Bowdoin game.

Middlebury's defense was the story of the first half, and their offense was the story of the second half. The defense forced three turnovers (all interceptions), got consistent penetration at the line of scrimmage, and kept the ball on Bowdoin's half of the field for most of the first two quarters of play. Nick Burdeau, Joel Blockowicz, and Jared Onouye made the picks. Burdeau's and Blockowitz's picks were heads-up athletic plays. Onouye's was a gift. Until the last drive, Middlebury's defense only made one mistake, allowing Polar Bear quarterback Grant White to scramble for 29 yards on a third and nine in the beginning of the second quarter. Other than that, the unit looked far better than last year's. Linebacker John Wiet was all over the field, piling up 10 tackles and a sack. The biggest defensive lapse for the Panthers came with under two minutes remaining in the half, when they allowed a huge 40 yard pass down the seam to Nick Goldin on another 3rd down, soon followed by a 28 yard touchdown pass on a crossing route to David Black.

The defense's success, however, should be taken with a grain of salt. The Bowdoin offense, which only scored 13.1 points per game last season, went into the game short-handed on offense and it only got worse. We heard that top wide receiver and senior co-captain Sean O'Malley tore his ACL in an intrasquad scrimmage last weekend. But that was just the start. Running back Zach Donnarumma, their top offensive player from last season, was listed as the starter but never saw the field, for unclear reasons. Instead, carries were split early on between converted defensive back Greg Pierce, and freshman Trey Brown. That was, until Brown went down with an injury in the middle of the second quarter. Then, later that same quarter, Bowdoin's starting quarterback, White, was taken out and replaced by Thomas Romero after being hit on a rollout. Though White was not down on the field after the play, he never returned to the game. So, from halfway through the second quarter onward, Bowdoin's already mediocre offense was playing without its QB1 (White), WR1 (O'Malley), RB1 (Donnarumma), and RB3 (Brown). Panther fans should be cautious about what they take away from this performance.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Panthers started slow, but found their groove before the end of the first half and rode that for the rest of the game. Foote threw five touchdown passes, including two each to seniors Zach Driscoll (5-74) and Billy Chapman (7-76). The Foote-to-Driscoll connection was out of sync early, as Foote threw three early incompletions to Driscoll on mistimed passes, but Driscoll played huge in the second half, pulling down everything thrown his way and gaining tough yards after the catch. On his second half touchdown, he crossed the goal-line dragging two Bowdoin defenders at his feet. Chapman, the pre-season All-American, seemed to get a lot of attention from the Bowdoin defense, and was quieted early on, but found his game soon enough, working the defense with little hooks and out-routes. The Middlebury offensive line looked extremely solid against the inexperienced Bowdoin defensive line, giving Foote tons of time to throw and creating holes for Remi Ashkar and Matt Rea, who both ran the ball well. Ryan Moores played on the right side of the line.

Perhaps the most exciting development from the Middlebury offense, however, was the play of sophomore wide receiver Brendan Rankowitz. Rankowitz, who is filling much of the whole left behind by the departure of Nick Resor and Matt Wassel, only had three receptions and 40 yards all of last season. It took him until midway through the second quarter to surpass those numbers today, as he was the first of the Panther pass-catchers to establish himself against the Polar Bears. He continued to impress throughout the game, finishing with seven receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown, including an athletic over-the-head catch on the sidelines at the start of the second half. He was also solid in the kick return game. It looks like Rankowitz is the next big thing in the well-oiled machine that is the Panthers passing offense.

One thing to takeaway for Bowdoin: freshman defensive back Jibrail Coy looks like a great football player. He was the starting kick returner for Bowdoin (alongside fellow freshman Greg Thompson), and he had a 42 yard return in the third quarter, and a 53 yard return in the fourth. He showed great burst and elusiveness. He also made a very athletic play on defense on a deep pass intended for Zach Driscoll, ranging backward and skying up high to tip the pass, which would have been a touchdown. Looks like a future star for the Bowdoin defense.

http://blogs.middlebury.edu/panthernation/

[banfan]

Good morning.

Panthernation, thanks for the blog. (might include the score).  Not that I thought Bowdoin would win many games this year, but Colby will be happy you kicked so many of their stars to the curb.  Sorry Bears but this is going to be a long season.

I hope the Hamiltons, Colbys, Tufts, Bowdoins (notice I do not include Bates) stay somewhat healthy.  They do not have the quality or quantity and their seasons could be all about ice and tape and ibuprofen.

Trinity could have won 50-3 but they made a lot of errors.  Please, don't think woulda, coulda, shoulda.  The frosh punter dropped a snap on the ten yard line to give Bates an early xmas present.  We fumbled another time, threw two interceptions, one of which was returned 40+ yards inside the five.  We also had killer penalties, not the least of which was a pass interference call from the 2 yard line on fourth down which gave Bates first and goal at the 2.  It took that penalty and 6 tries for Bates to score from inside the 5.  I won't go into the stats but will say that other than the first drive by Bates which included all their reverses and what have you, they could do nothing against our D.

Our offense did a lot of good and made a lot of mistakes.  We have a good QB but I hope he had first game kinks to work out cause his performance was barely average.

I did not see any injuries on either side of the field which was great for both teams.

Williams will be interesting.

[oldhamfan]

Speaking of injuries, anyone know why fifth year senior QB Jordan Eck didn't play for Hamilton? If he's gone before the season even starts, ouch, some long bus rides ahead. 

[FourMoreYears]

Excellent post and summary by PantherNation.  Also of note: Polar bear defensive standout Joey Cleary was sidelined with an injury.  A team like Bowdoin must avoid injuries in order to be successful so in that respect 2012 is off to a tough start.

[lumbercat]

Echoing some recent posts and some other observations from yesterday-

Donnarumma of Bowdoin, their best back last year was dressed and didn't play.
Eck of Hamilton one of the most dangerous QB's in the league didn't play.
Velette-  Colby all conference DE did not play.

I guess we can assume injuries but each of these guys was listed in the starting lineups posted Saturday on their respective websites.

Another item of interest was the fact that the D1 transfer QB from UMaine is not the starter at Wesleyan. He also rode the pine yesterday. When this kid was heralded as the second coming of Joe Montana on this board in late summer I think it was Frank U who pointed out that he had not thrown collegiate pass or done much of anything. Pretty accurate call Frank.

I tried to follow the CBB teams on my computer. Based on what I could see from a rough Trinity webcast was that Banfans account of the Trinity-Bates game seems pretty accurate though I think Bates has some talent and may compete well in the "second division" despite defensive weakness. They faced the iron yesterday.

Banfan- having seen the game would you agree with that???

In contrast the Williams-Colby game webcast was a direct feed of the cable TV broadcast. What a pleasure to watch. The quality of the broadcast really enhanced the whole experienced and made the overall quality of the football look more impressive despite Colby's performance. The mules have a great one in Luke Duncklee. Freshman Justin Ciero will be the starter at QB sooner or later.

At Middlebury the Bowdoin injury curse continues. Looks like Romero was a positive at QB after starter White left the game with apparent injury. Foote lit it up again for Middlebury. The best QB in the league continued where he left of last year.

I hope the league is not as predictable as it was yesterday as the season progresses--at the end of the day that would be pretty boring overall.