FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[warriorcat]

Polarcat has said enough about yesterday's heartstopping Bates/Colby game.  There is no need for me to add but one item.  After the game, the Colby Defensive Coordinator sought out Matt Cannone to congratulate him.  In a moment of what had to be a crushing loss for Colby, to have the class and humanity to ask how he was feeling and to speak to him speaks volumes about the reasons why we can continue to feel good about D3 sports in general and NESCAC in particular. 

[gridiron]

Agree with the Bates/Colby game recap from the various poster-"Cats" on the board.  Need to add the loss was crushing to the Mule team and fans.  Bates deserves tons of credit for grit and determination. 

Was not the finest hour for the Colby first year OC who needs to step things up significantly, if serious about the career he's chosen.  Stubbornly uses only certain parts of the field, predictable, and way too many low percentage shots down the field.  OT was particularly disappointing--starting on the 25 three and out passes to "set up" the 42 yard field goal attempt...

Defense stellar at times taking the ball away twice in the end zone, but left receivers wide open for many big plays/TDs including the game winner in OT. 

First year QB a couple of very nice throws but many, many more poor ones.  While one receiver dropped a ball and another had alligator arms (doesn't anyone lay out for balls anymore???), the QB missed receivers all day long and did not see/target open receivers, at least one time that could have sealed the game.  A couple of wounded duck throws were tracked down by receivers for big TDs inflating stats a bit.  Add an interception and participation in the fumble that caused the game to go to OT, and I am certain the soph is dreading watching the game film this week.

Despite it all, the Mules were ahead the entire game and could have/should have put Bates away multiple times but did not--it was a team effort.

Again, Bates coaches and players should feel great about the hard fought/earned win.

[banfan]

AMH 63 and Trin8-0.  We need not wait until we get some new turf in order to start a new run of wins in Hartford. I think we squeezed all the good out of that rug. Time for a new one.

As I have posted, the pressure is off the kids and coaches. Kinda like last year when we pummeled Wes and kept them from winning the conference. (a three way tie is not winning). I think that Amherst's chances have darkened a bit. What say yee amh63?

[banfan]

Did anybody see the injury to Trinity's Oiiver that was away from the play?  The description on the play by play was that it was a cheap shot by Nate Leedy.  Can anyone describe what happened?

I did not see the hit but was near it. I walked off the field after the game next to Oliver and thought about saying/asking him about it, but  figured he and the rest of the team might want to take a shower before saying anything. He was not limping or favoring anything that I could see.

[amh63]

Banfan......will wait till later in the week to discuss the battle in. Hartford.  Hope your wife does not read this board.
There is a freshman player on the Tufts' roster with the same last name as the Associate football coach at WES.  The player is from Arlington, Ma.  Also noticed the coach at WES is a 2001 grad of Williams.  Did you play against him Trin8-0?
Last comment here......pics of the Amherst game are available.  Saw it was indeed Senior day for the players.  Also started to notice the hands and shoes in the pics more...strange.  Looked at the cleats and the gloved hands.  Defensive and offensive players wear them.  Not so for QBs and OL....interesting.  Many of the players were wearing pink tape, towels, etc.   Not all.

[Nescacman]

Mr. Baker (aka Banfan)...nice game by your son #72 for Hartford State...I am sure he was  deservedly under consideration for 'CAC DPOTW. Unfortunately for him, football is a team sport and the rest of the Roosters just didn't show up yesterday as Middlebury pounded Hartford State and "pooped all over the Coop". As we have said repeatedly on this Board and elsewhere, and with all due respect to their opponents the previous 5 weeks, the Roosters had not played anyone of note in 2014. Not their fault, but in week 6, they finally played a real opponent, Middlebury, who lost close games to the best two teams in the conference, Amherst and Wesleyan, at home. Middlebury then goes on to crush the Roosters on the road in the Coop. We continue to believe that the Trinity signal caller situation is their Achilles heal. Junior starter Henry Foye is mediocre at best. We like the freshman who we recruited and saw play a ton of prep football in Jersey but he is undersized and not yet ready for prime time. One would think that HC Devanney could recruit a stud QB with Hartford State's admissions policies far and away the most forgiving in the league other than down the river at Conn College (and the Camels don't play on Saturday...too bad for Hamilton and Williams). Oh, I almost forgot, they did have a stud QB, frosh and 2013 starter Sonny Puzzo, also from NJ, who had to stay home this season because he was "academically ineligible" (aka "flunking out" back in my day). I did not know that was even possible at Hartford State. Although we will be rooting for the Roosters this week against Amherst, we think there is a strong likelihood this team ends up a disappointing 5-3 with their two toughest games on the schedule the last two weeks. Good luck to your son Banfan, Lyle Baker, the rest of the way!

[banfan]

amh63, surprised that you have not made the connection between Ned Dean and my son. They were teammates at Andover High.

[AmherstStudent05]

Nescacman,

While I appreciate your passion for Wesleyan, I really wish that you would not post about the academic profiles of  individual NESCAC student athletes.  Just something I hope you consider for the future.

Best of luck against the Ephs next week.

[banfan]

AmSt05 thank you for that gentle nudge sent nescacman's way. I am not sure why you think he is a Wes man. I don't think that any school, including Wes, has avoided what he considers humor. I appreciate his comments about my son but his rather callus comments about Trinity and individual students like Sonny make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I do not believe he has it correct when he calls it "flunking out". But I don't want to get into it, because it has no business being discussed here.

By the way, if Conn College has such low admission standards for athletes, as nescacman intimates, I would expect its football team to kick Hamilton and Williams collective butts all over the field. They should be happy CC is leaving them alone. 

[middhoops]

Nescacman, you have a lot of good posts.  I look forward to many more.
Please consider the advice offered above. 
We try not to disparage (openly anyway) any D3 college programs.  This is a well received board in large part due to that self imposed discipline.

[Pat Coleman]

I will say this, though -- the fact that someone is missing time because of academic ineligibility is perfectly fine for this board. I definitely would not approve of a discussion of the specific academic characteristics of a student-athlete or prospect, so let's not speculate on a person's GPA or standardized test scores.

Thanks.

[NothingButNESCAC]

Just checking to make sure, but there are no tiebreakers if two teams finished tied in the standings? No head to head or something like that? My understanding is that the teams are both declared conference champions.

[Nescacman]

Fellow boardies....sorry if our humor is biting and a bit of color at times, but we only speak the truth and nothing but the truth. We think some of you need to not get your panties all bunched up...you've been tailgating with your wives way too long...

[Nescacman]

Just checking to make sure, but there are no tiebreakers if two teams finished tied in the standings? No head to head or something like that? My understanding is that the teams are both declared conference champions.

100% correct.

[PolarCat]

I think it's fine that the Board acknowledge players who have had to leave because of academic ineligibility.  If I recall correctly, there are other NESCAC's who didn't see key players return for exactly that reason; Trinity isn't alone in that regard, so I'm not sure why the other poster singled them out.

(By the way, I think there is a HUGE difference between "academic ineligibility" and "flunking out".  That comment was a cheap shot.  Not sure what the standards are around the league, but at one of my kids' schools, you need to maintain a B- average to play varsity sports.  That's a lot higher hurdle than "flunking out".  And I'm not aware of any "Rocks for Jocks" or Basket Weaving 101 "guts" available to help academically-challenged players stay on the roster).

Similarly, I think the ongoing discussion about the academic standards for recruiting is fair game.  Coaches, AD's, Admissions folks and recruits are all aware of these matters, so it's fine for us harmless old farts to speculate about them.  (After Bates OT victory, I was standing on the path to the locker rooms, waiting for my son.  A Bates coach walked by with a HS recruit and his father, and I overheard him telling the kid "we really like your play, but I'm afraid we can't support you academically."  Poor kid looked like he was going to break down and cry, while his father - alum? - looked like his head was going to explode).

Both of these topics help add flavor to the ongoing discussions here: Do recruiting practices give Devanney and the Whale an unfair advantage over the Dave Caputi's of the 'CAC?  Does a school that wants to turn a program around lower those standards?  (Will I see that heart-broken HS player in a different NESCAC uniform next year?)  What's the impact on a program when they recruit a kid who becomes academically-ineligible just when they start to contribute?

Given some of the issues male NESCAC athletes face (academic pressure, the Title IX consent issues I discussed last week, small crowds at some schools' home games, paying to play, teams which may be noncompetitive due to recruiting / Admissions standards, mind-numbingly-long bus trips to or from Clinton) I'm frankly surprised more of them don't transfer.