FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Trin9-0]

Ephs: That sounds about right to me... A rivalry is always stronger when the games mean something. That's probably the reason why the Trin-Wes rivalry hasn't been big in a very long time and why the Wlms-Amst rivalry has fluctuated.

Saul or BigToe or BobbyJ: You're truly pathetic. I'm not the least bit suprised that you dodged the fact that you were exposed as a morally questionable degenerate who created multiple fake identities in an attempt to repeat the same unsubstantiated claims. It appears to me, and apparently the vast majority of those who have read your posts, that the only person or person(s) who should be embarrassed is you. You're actions and elitist point of view lead me to believe that you are a very sheltered person. I sincerely hope you learn something at Amherst besides how to tell others that you're better than they are, otherwise it will be YOU and not Trinity graduates who will bring down the reputation of the NESCAC and it's member schools.

[Ephs]

Ephs: That sounds about right to me... A rivalry is always stronger when the games mean something. That's probably the reason why the Trin-Wes rivalry hasn't been big in a very long time and why the Wlms-Amst rivalry has fluctuated.

Saul or BigToe or BobbyJ: You're truly pathetic. I'm not the least bit suprised that you dodged the fact that you were exposed as a morally questionable degenerate who created multiple fake identities in an attempt to repeat the same unsubstantiated claims. It appears to me, and apparently the vast majority of those who have read your posts, that the only person or person(s) who should be embarrassed is you. You're actions and elitist point of view lead me to believe that you are a very sheltered person. I sincerely hope you learn something at Amherst besides how to tell others that you're better than they are, otherwise it will be YOU and not Trinity graduates who will bring down the reputation of the NESCAC and it's member schools.

the interesting thing about williams/trinity is that it's early and can dictate the rest of the season for both teams - its a physically and emotionally exhausting game. and the losing team has an uphill battle. that's what impresses me most about Williams this year (and trinity in 2002). a scrimmage at amherst, and two away games vs. colby and trinty...that's a killer, but they've hung tough and won 3 in a row. Hopefully they can keep it rolling...

[bantman]

The notion that Trinity is the only team in the NESCAC that lowers its standards for athletes and especially football players is ridiculous.  I hope we are all smart enough to realize that.  When I played at Trinity there were tons of guys on the team that were aided in admissions because they were football players.  The problem was that these guys weren't good enough and didn't work hard enough to bring Trinity to the top of the league.  I also played for 3 head coaches in 4 years and that always makes things difficult.  There was no discipline on the team Sunday through Thursday and it showed on Saturday.  Priore brought a confidence and an attitude that Trinity was going to be the best team in the league and they were going to do it his way.  What Priore lacked in tact and personality, he more than made up for in confidence, determination, and hard work.  He went out and brought in players that had the same tenacity that he did, that came from winning programs and that expected to play well and win.  I didn't hear Williams complaining about transfer rules when Scott Farley came to Williams from Villanova.  I can't imagine how Williams would accept a transfer from an inferior school...oh wait, his dad was the coach!!!  He did everything for those Williams teams (DB, WR, KR, PK, P).  Nor did I hear anyone complaining at Amherst about admissions standards when they allowed the likes of Daoust, McGee, Landolphi, and Lalli (all from the same high school and not dumb kids, but also not elite students with academics first mentalities) into their school to create arguably the most dominant NESCAC defense in history until the current bantams started their run.  What NESCAC record setting running back Brian Sanchez at Middlebury?  Check up on him and figure out why he lost a track scholarship as a high school senior.  Every program in the country uses the advantages they can to improve their program and they'd be stupid not to.  Can Trinity recruit kids that Williams or Bowdoin cannot?  Yes, they can, but what about the kids that the Ivies don't want that only consider Williams and Amherst as secondary options?  That's a disticnt advantage for those schools.  Ever since the Bob Davie era, Notre Dame has been claiming its at a competitive disadvantage because of their admission standards.  Now that they have a new coach, new attitude, but same guys that weren't good enough the last few years, you don't hear the complaints anymore about not having any players  

Sorry about the really long first post.  I've been reading this stuff for the past few weeks and finally decided to chime in.  I enjoy the discussion, but the petty personal jabs get a little old.      

[nescac1]

Yeah, let's return to football.  I don't know of any legitimate Williams student or alums who views Trinity in the way that the imposter (or if it is a real Williams alum, they are hardly representative) stated.  But don't, in response to one idiot poster, make stupid statements generalizing about Williams or Williamstown.  If I were to judge Trinity by the ten drunken idiots who make asses of themselves at certain basketball games or who malign Williams women as unattractive, it wouldn't reflect well on the general Trinity student body either.  There is a reason that Williams has the highest graduation rates and alumni giving rates in the country, and it's not because students there are miserable and have no social life or the town sucks.   So why can't we all get along and enjoy the fact that we are all part of the best joint academic / athletic league in the country, and even the students who get admissions breaks would be the top academic students in the general population at the vast majority of college campuses. 

So, as I was saying, back to football.  It's too bad Williams didn't put it all together until recently because I think the way the offense is flowing now, they would beat Colby and give Trinity a much better game.  I usually hate qb rotating, but it does in this case make game-planning much tougher on opponents, as Lucey excels as running and is very accurate with short passes, while Gleeson has a big arm and throw bombs down-field, and it is hard to adjust schemes and personnel on the fly.  Williams still needs to find one RB to emerge, I think Weeks has the best shot of being a feature back but they have to call the right kind of plays to take advantage of his skills. 

Williams needs to get out of the gate a little faster as they have struggled early the last few years for some reason ... hopefully next year they can figure it out.  It seems like Amherst is also peaking right now and their running offense is just awesome, given the similarity of their style to Trinity's and given that Amherst is home, I think that game will go down to the wire.  Trinity's defense is almost impenetrable, but without Finkleday they don't seem to have the same offensive explosiveness as the last two years and could lose in a low-scoring field position type of game, which Amherst excels at. 

This week's games are awful, all should be blow-outs. 

[formerbant10]

Nescac1...got a bone to pick real quick, but I agree with you...we can pick it back up after I get this off my chest.

Saul, I'm backing up Knightstalker here, I was just in Newark today....you wouldn't dare show up in a gym there and lecture those guys about how they are the scum of the earth would you???  And if Trinity ranks last in the comprehensive ratings, I really doubt that social life is included.  It's pretty funny to me when I would play against a kid from another NESCAC school and then see him out at a party at guess where, TRINITY....this happened one more than one occasion with players from more than one school.  I even had some Amherst alums (classes of 01 & 02) ask me about what they thought were myths about Trinity's campus life which turned out to be a regular Saturday night for the disgusting turd of a campus.  Yeah it's a little small, yeah it's not in the best neighborhood....but it's real life!  So we can't leave our doors open or unlocked like the guys at Williams do, guess what....we don't live in a bubble like you academic nobles at Amherst and Williams.  You can ask a few of the hoops players at your school what they thought about Trinity when they came down.  As the ephs1991 said, stop whining and work your way back up to the top.  Not everything gets handed to you on a silver platter, I'm sorry to break the news to you.  I'm sure your parents worked hard to make it possible for you to be such an @$$.  I'm proud to be a Trinity alum, b/c it has prepared me for the real world.  I can deal with people from Hartford and from Newark and I can deal with POS's like you who think they are god's gift to the world.  So what if you get the job you want when you graduate, I hope you get robbed when your walking home from the bar one night and mouth off to the wrong guy....see if he cares that you graduated from the 'Herst.
Bantman, couldn't agree with you more on the Notre Dame comparison.  from now on, I feel we fellow Bants should just ignore the kid from Amherst whether it be Saul or whatever alias he chooses.  Always nice to see that Trinity isn't the only one who lets athletes who may not be up to the academic standard.  Maybe some people will realize it happens at every school.  I hope the Bants beat everyone for the rest of my life.

[Knightstalker]

Some of those guys on the street corners in places like Hartford, Jersey City, Newark etc are just as smart or smarter than any of us could ever think of being.  I know a couple of 14 year old kids I would let balance my books anytime, they could probably do it in their heads.  Saul you have one really big lesson to learn in life.  There is always going to be someone that is smarter, stronger, faster, better looking, etc than you, remember this and it will humble you and is a much better way to be humbled than by getting your ass beat, or robbed or embarassed or hustled etc.

[Roonyhufsfarts]

I am rather curious about what saul and his imaginary friends have invested in writing loooong drawn out tyrades against trinity.

What is in it for you saul?  are you even an ex football player?  i assume not.

Seriously though, whats the deal?  And whats up with not defending your point logically?  You just spew the same garbage every week or two in such a ridiculous manner that i assumed you were just trying to get a good rise out of everyone (congrats, it seems you have succeeded) until i realized it must have taken you about an hour to put together your last smear piece. 

so whats at stake?  dare you respond?  or are you just going to say, "sure i can respond....trinity is just pissed because it is last in league, its students and professors are total morons and hartfrod is a dump etc....etc.....etc...........and..............etc

also, are you going to be at the amherst vs. trinity game?

[ktroutvon]

I know they don't have football, but Connecticut College's (NESCAC in other sports) campus isn't great and New London is no better than Hartford.  I don't think the academic standards are any better ther either.  The academic argument doesn't make sense.  I didn't go to a nescac or ivy (was accepted to a couple), but I have worked for a bulge bracket investment bank and had 4th yr. associates from white shoe law firms doing what I demanded after midnight.  I also received an equal or bigger bonus.  The point being that while Williams or Amherst may land you a slightly better gig out of college, you still have to prove yourself in the real world.  By the time you are on your second or third job no one cares (Harvard being the one possbile exception for various reasons not worth getting into). 

[speedy]

I know they don't have football, but Connecticut College's (NESCAC in other sports) campus isn't great and New London is no better than Hartford.  I don't think the academic standards are any better ther either.   . . 

I think that Conn College actually rates below Trinity in the objective criteria (per-student endowment, USNWR rating, etc.). It's not a part of this discussion because there is no evidence that it has made any effort to become an athletic powerhouse by admitting out-of-band athletes.  In fact, I am hard pressed to think of any sport that Conn College is actually good at.

[formerbant10]

Speedy, in the late 90's Conn's men's basketball team was one of the best in the country.  They had a kid Kareem Tatum who was the best player in the conference.  I'm not sure where he was from, but I believe it was similar to Hartford or Newark...I'm sure Saul would like to have Conn's season forfeited for having such a player on that team.

[Trin9-0]

bantman: You made some excellent points, especially regarding Scott Farley.

nescac1: Can't argue with you either, especially about this weeks games. I don't think any of them will be closer than 2 TDs with the exception of maybe Amherst @ Tufts (and that's only if the Jumbos show up).

There are really only 3 important games left in the season. Trinity at Amherst, Colby at Bowdoin and Amherst at Williams. All could be close and will more than likely decide 1st through 5th in the NESCAC.

[dirtybirds8-0]

If you want to argue lowered academic standards for sports teams..look into the lacrosse program at Conn College in the 2000-2001 seasons.  They had some transfers who could shoot the lights out, but apparently had very few lights on upstairs...

[dirtybirds8-0]

READ IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY:

History runs deep for Trinity and Williams


This feature is compiled by D3football.com staff.
Previous columns
Oct. 05 History runs deep for Trinity and Williams
Originally posted Oct. 5, 2005

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This piece was written prior to the Trinity (Conn.)/Williams game, won by Trinity 34-6. It originally appeared in the Oct. 1, 2005, edition of the Hartford Courant.

By MIKE ANTHONY, Courant Staff Writer

Trinity quarterback James Lane, seeing that running back Julian Craig had been stopped 5 yards short of the goal line, screamed for a timeout.

Still, the clock expired on what appeared to be Williams' 24th consecutive victory and chaos ensued at Weston Field in Williamstown, Mass. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans dressed in purple poured onto the field.

But the referee had spotted Lane's desperate call and ruled there was 1 second left. He cleared the field and gave Trinity a final play from the 5. Trailing 27-24, Trinity never considered a field goal. With fans now lining the sidelines, Lane rolled out and threw a touchdown pass to John Mullaney for a 30-27 victory.

"So many emotions," Lane said Friday. "Unbelievable."

That was 1991, the height of Williams' NESCAC dominance. Trinity had ended the streak, a New England Division III record. A little more than a decade later, the Bantams would start their own. And today at Jessee/Miller Field in Hartford, everything comes to a head in the 64th meeting between Trinity and Williams. Trinity, which defeated Bates in last week's opener, has won 23 in a row to tie Williams' record set in 1988-91.

The Bantams' rise to NESCAC prominence has come under sixth-year coach Chuck Priore, a steely man with little use for historical perspective, streaks and records. Still, he understands why so many with ties to both programs this week are reliving the final moments of the 1991 game. He understands why so many are pausing to consider one of the great New England rivalries and some of the great games that formed it. He understands this is a game fueled by memories and he understands what a unique twist this game presents.

"It's certainly crazy that it's happened this way - with the same number [of victories], the same team," Priore said. "I'm not sure you could write the script any better. This happened 14, 15 years ago, exactly the opposite way."

The importance of today's game depends on perspective. For alumni from both schools, many of whom will drive hundreds of miles to attend, the history is not to be overlooked. It also is a window to their youth. Conversely, the current players and students were in grade school in 1991 and might not grasp what this means to many.

In Williamstown, the quaint town of about 7,000, the Williams football team is the team, and this, right now, is the event. While Trinity has displaced Williams as the NESCAC pacesetter, this is Williams' chance to preserve their share of the record. The Ephs lost their season opener to Colby, 35-9. NESCAC teams play eight games and do not have playoffs. Williams also is trying to exact revenge for losses to Trinity the last two years.

A proud tradition accompanies any athlete at Williams, which for the last three years has been ranked the top liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report and has won the NCAA directors cup as the nation's top college athletic program the last seven years. Williams, playing its 120th football season, is the first school to receive such recognition in the same year. But the pride is as much about the small town feel. When coach Mike Whalen walks up Spring Street, he is greeted by many. The Williams College Sideline Quarterback Club and many of its 80 members convene every Wednesday at The Log, a cozy downtown building. If the Ephs win their homecoming game, Spring Street traffic is halted so players can walk the quarter-mile or so to St. Pierre's barber shop, where they celebrate with cold drinks and shaved heads.

Dick Farley, who coached 17 years and retired before last season, molded the program that Whalen, his assistant for eight years, inherited. And while Whalen has tried to sustain a level of excellence, Priore's program has become the one many Division III schools now look up to.

"I don't envy his situation," Priore said of Whalen, his good friend. "Dick Farley was tremendously successful. Now you walk in and everybody thinks it's just going to continue. But what happens in the past and what happens tomorrow is different. Other teams have gotten better. Other programs are doing things as well as Williams, and not just Trinity. Recruiting is more competitive."

Trinity's athletic prowess never has been stronger and the Bantams are experiencing a football rebirth. But the landscape is different. While Priore said the emergence of UConn has helped drum up interest in his team, Trinity isn't the focal point of a town as Williams is. Still, the team is chugging along as perhaps the most talented in NESCAC history.

"Certainly when I got here, their program was the model we tried to emulate," Priore said. "Trinity-Williams has always been very close, but certainly they were visualized as the best team. We wanted to be that. We wanted to be able to compete with them on a week-to-week basis and dominate the league like they have done. It's one thing beating them. It's another to dominate everybody. We might have beaten them, but they were dominating everybody."

With one more victory, Trinity will tie Allegheny (Pa.), which won 24 in a row in 1990-91. Mount Union (Ohio) holds the Division III record with 55 victories in a row in 2000-03.

"Chuck obviously is a very bright coach," Whalen said. "It's very easy to say, `Yeah, I have a system.' It's another to make it work. He's got an amazing work ethic. Football is his life. I know that he's been involved at a higher level [assistant at Penn]. In my opinion, people have made a big mistake not hiring him. People look at him and say he's a Division III coach. The guy is not. The guy is a great football coach. I know he could win in the Ivy League. I know he could win in the Patriot League. I know he could win at an even higher level."

In Hartford, some Trinity students have been slow to understand the significance of the Bantams' run.

"They don't know exactly what's going on," defensive lineman Mike Blair said. "They just know we win."

Blair said it's just another game, although he knows it's not to many people. Williams wide receiver Jonathan Drenckhahn said the same. Williams, Drenckhahn said, is more concerned with payback for losses to Trinity each of the last two seasons than it is with the streak - no matter how much the Ephs have been reminded of it lately.

Alumni are eating it up. Trinity is expecting more than 8,000 fans. Lane will be there. So will Dan Dwyer of Glastonbury, the Williams quarterback who threw for 286 yards and three touchdowns in that 1991 game.

It was difficult to top the two previous games. In 1989 and 1990, Williams overcame late deficits, converting fourth-down plays in the final two minutes of each.

"So then in 1991, it was actually a pretty uneventful game until the last two minutes," said Trinity assistant coach Jeff Devanney, a safety on the 1991 team. "Then it got crazy."

With 2:47 left, Dwyer scored from 2 yards to give Williams a 20-17 lead. With 51 seconds left, Lane threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace. Assuming it was the winning score, Trinity went overboard with its celebration and was assessed a penalty. The Bantams kicked off from their 20 and Williams returned it past midfield. On the next play, Dwyer threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Andre Burrell to give Williams back the lead with 40 seconds left. But then Lane hit Craig, called timeout with a second left and found Mullaney in the end zone.

"That referee had guts," Dwyer said.

[Ephs]

dirty: the '91 game has become famous in some circles. i know williams alums who say it was the best game they've ever seen and/or been a part of, including williams/amherst '97.

interestingly enough, williams' 23 game streak was flanked by losses to trinity. maybe williams can take 'em next year...

[Roonyhufsfarts]

when the streak ends after 879 consecutive victories...........honestly i hope it is to williams