FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[lumbercat]

Nothing heard recently relative to head coach status at Bates.

The Bowdoin HFC search continues with the administration in Brunswick being characteristically tight lipped while their attention shifts to the excitement on campus surrounding very good Hockey and Basketball programs.

Speculation on ex Colby Football OC Opegnorth's direction continue to circulate with the  Bowdoin HFC position open. Baffling that Opegnorth left Colby to take a plum HFC job at St Norbert's but resigns after a 6-4 year....we all know that coaches are not "fired" in D3, they "resign"......but this scenario is puzzling.

Kelton stays at Williams.

Civetti stays at Tufts but after a fine rebuilding year he actually had a senior dominated team so his challenge continues--- one position he doesn't have to worry about is QB where they are 4 deep with quality....some top caliber NESCAC QBs will be catching passes or playing in the defensive backfield in Medford next year.

Between Tufts and Colby there is a big crowd at QB with 7-8 fine QBs who may never take a varsity snap. A shame to see a fine QB get in a traffic jam as a NESCAC QB only to spend 4 years wearing a visor, holding a clipboard and signaling in plays.

Believe Wesleyan holding off on the Whales move until recruiting season is over......?

Wesleyan assistant Jack Seidlecki- ex Yale coach and one of the best assistant coaches in New England football supposedly preferred by Bowdoin but not interested.
Harvard assistant Scott Larkee also rumored contender for Bowdoin job along with Dartmouth assistant Chris Rorke, Johns Hopkins OC Greg Chimera and Joe Early OC at Middlebury.

[AmherstStudent05]

Also ran into the parent of a current Amherst player.  His take on the success of the program was Coach Mills' recruiting capabilities.  His take is he is more of a salesman than an X's and O's type of coach.   Expressed some concern that the Director of Admissions is moving on and has had a huge impact on the competitiveness of the program in recent years.

Maybe this player is on the offensive side of the ball? Or on no side at all?  Since the day he stepped on campus, Coach Mills is and has been the architect and leader of the Amherst defense (with all due respect and props to Coach Bussard who took on the "Defensive Coordinator" title a few years ago, this is still clearly Coach Mills' defense).  Not coincidentally, that defense has been the bedrock of our football program for the past 15 years (at least).  It is clearly the primary reason we went 8-0 this year. 

Sure, we have had a lot of great defensive players in the scheme over the years, but, at least on the defensive side of the ball, if Coach Mills isn't an "X's and O's type of coach" then I don't know who is.

[frank uible]

The Bates HFC who brought the pistol and the zone read to NESCAC.

[AmherstStudent05]

Signature defensive concepts.

[amh63]

Several comments on the recent posts.
First...agree fully with Amstu05's wrt to Coach Mills.  Came to Amherst as an DC when Seideick arrived as the HFC.  Presently listed as the backfield coach along with his HFC title.
Second...Seideick is home based it CT....his daughter is a coach at WES.  No reason to move to Maine...as nice as Maine can be in the Summer .
Lastly...Bowdoin has many fine Sports program...yes the women's hockey program is one and the women's field hockey program is another.  However, the MBB program is debate able .  Took a big hit last night against Babson...by 20 points..an unexpected lost!

[frank uible]

The Bates HFC by using the 3-5 as the base defense.

[gridiron]

Frank--as to the "why" for the opinion of the Williams alum, there were not a whole lot of specifics.  The impression I came away with was that it was not so much a knock on his abilities but that perhaps a point of no return had been reached.  Sometimes perception can become reality when others start giving up on someone (players, recruits, administration, alum?).   Again, trying to read between the lines of his comments--so I could be wrong...

Another explanation could simply be the wins and losses of the past several years are unacceptable to this alum and thinks a change--any change--would be called for.  I had a very similar conversation last summer with a former Tufts captain who told me he was tired of being asked for money from the school and told them to start winning some football games first.

[gridiron]

Amherststudents05--you are correct I am referring to a parent of an offensive player.  However, the player could not be farther away from being on the "no side of the ball."  The player is one of the most prominent on offense and knows HC EJ Mills very well.

His comments echoed yours in that he stated the reason Amherst won the title this year was, "defense--the offense was only adequate and not as good as some others in the league."

I happen to enjoy when defense carries a team.  Something I personally wish to see more of in the NFL for instance.

[gridiron]

Lumbercat--Love the variety of your content.  You must have good sources on the ground.
Looking forward to seeing how things shake out on all those topics.  Will also be checking sources on the former Colby OC to Bowdoin speculation.

[frank uible]

In 2014 Amherst played a careful, well disciplined, no/low error game and waited for its opposition to make mistakes of which Amherst could take advantage.

[AmherstStudent05]

For what it's worth, Frank, I have a different recollection of Amherst's season. Especially early on in the season, I don't think we were particularly well-disciplined on offense at all.  In fairness, we were trying to give playing time to our two promising underclassmen QBs and also had to adjust to life without Coach Faulstick running our offense now that Stick has been elevated to higher office.  We also had some critical special teams miscues against Bates and Trinity that easily could have come back to bite us.  For the most part, Lippe did an outstanding job reducing these mistakes when he took over midway through the season.

I tried to find out where we ranked in terms of turnovers but couldn't find that stat on the NESCAC website.  I would guess we were middle of the pack, with Wesleyan and Middlebury leading the way with their outstanding QB play. (I appreciate that turnovers aren't the only "errors" in football -- penalties and missed assignments certainly factor in -- but they are the most prominent barometer.)

But whatever mistakes we made, our defense caused plenty more in 2014 -- and was able to do so while staying true to Coach Mills's core "bend but don't break" philosophy.  We surrendered 6 points combined to Trinity and Middlebury (although inclement weather was admittedly a significant factor in both games). 

Make no mistake, outstanding defense -- both in terms of points allowed and turnovers forced -- was the engine for our football team this year.  But, we certainly did receive critical contributions from all phases.  Most notably, we don't win our toughest test of the year -- where you have to hand it to Jesse Warren for picking our defense apart -- without the outstanding efforts of Phil Nwosu, Nick Kelly, Gene Garay, Max Lippe and others.

[lumbercat]

Gridiron-
EJ Mills is as good as it gets in the NESCAC or anywhere else as a game coach, X O's guy, leader and a motivator.
In terms of athletes this year--Wesleyan, Trinity and even Middlebury had far better athletes on paper and Mills found a way to beat each of them ......hes a game day master with X's and O's and great preparation-if you don't think he out coached Whalen and Wesleyan this year who had the most talented NESCAC team in recent memory you are mistaken.
You have it backwards-- the best salesman/recruiter  in the league is Devanney at Trinity who makes a ton of promises. The best Football coach is Mills, hands down not even close. Who else would you want running the Amherst program?

[frank uible]

Student05: See Rashomon.

[gridiron]

Lumbercat--all valid points for sure.  To reiterate, I'm simply sharing the perspective shared with me by a current player parent who thus is close to the program (and feels fortunate for his son's situation by the way).  They have seen Coach Mills up close and personal recruiting, working with admissions and coaching.  For them to suggest he may be better at getting the right players at the school than some others in the league should not imply he is not a capable coach as well.  As pointed out by another, this may be especially true on the defensive side of the ball.

Recruiting is a huge part of college football (and other sports) as we all know.  If Coach Mills is as successful as he is due in large part to his efforts on the front end, great for him.  I don't consider it a knock at all on his coaching abilities.  Winning the title this year by edging out two very good teams in low scoring games is especially exciting.  Much more interesting than if a team rolls from start to finish without facing adversity.

[nescac1]

EJ Mills is a great, great defensive coach.  The Trinity teams that have dominated in recent years have done so in large part because of a huge talent advantage.  Amherst over the past three years has not been more talented, in the aggregate, than Trinity, Wesleyan, or Middlebury, and probably less talented than the first two.  Yet they've posted several 8-0 seasons ... why?  Well, the talent puts them in a position to be 5-3 or better every single year.  But they are ALWAYS one step ahead on defense and no matter who graduates, the guys who replace them are able to step right in and provide the same production, especially on defense and the offensive line.  That is a sign of a great coach who knows how to develop players, and how to scheme.  Mills smartly uses a 3-4 when few teams in the league use that system.  He is then able to have his pick of the litter for true nose tackles ... when was the last time Amherst didn't have at least one, often two in the pipeline, all-NESCAC caliber nose-tackles?  His system also allows for quick, undersized OLBs to dominate on the perimeter with their speed.  Basically, he takes the recruiting constraints he has, and finds great players that work for HIS system.  Amherst virtually NEVER loses to a team with lesser or even equal talent levels in the Mills era.  That is a sign of a great coach who prepares his team well.

Compare that to Williams in recent years ... the defensive schemes never seem to fool anyone.  Williams had some solid DL line talent this year including one guy who should have been a superstar, but teams are able to scheme because the defense is always incredibly predictable, with few stunts, blitzes, or changes in alignment.  Watching the Bates defense and how confused they had the Williams offense vs. the Bates offense which seemed one step ahead of the Williams schemes was particularly instructive.  Also, Williams has some talented recruits on the offensive line, and the entire two-deep was back from a very young unit, yet the line play did not really improve at all.  Some of that has to be attributed to lack of player development in the program. 

Folks here were surprised Kelton came back after last year and obviously he is getting an even more surprising chance to turn things around next year.  He seems like a great guy and a great member of the Williams community, and this is NESCAC, not the SEC, so I understand why there is reluctance to fire a coach over, basically, W's and L's ... it's not something that has ever, to my knowledge, occurred at Williams (at least not in the last 30 years).  But the reality is unless there are some upgrades in personnel but ALSO some schematic changes, nothing is going to improve much at Williams ... it's like the polar opposite of the EJ Mills regime, Williams finds a way to lose all the close games against equally talented teams, always falling one play short, whereas Amherst does the opposite.  I know Frank (who's forgotten more about football than I, or any of us, will ever know, but is not totally infallible ) is fond of saying it's not the X's and O's but rather the Jimmies and Joes, but that doesn't explain why some programs throughout college football overachieve versus their talent level nearly every year.  I'd like to think it's BOTH the X's and O's and Jimmies and Joes, and Williams has room to improve in both departments.  Certainly, the Eph talent level the last two years was not SO bad as to result in a 4-12 record ... yeah, Admissions is not what it was in the Farley era, no doubt, while some schools have opened the floodgates, Williams has done the opposite.  But is Amherst any different?  Yet somehow, they manage to go 7-1 or better almost every year.  I'm pretty confident that Coach Farley, even under the current admissions regime, could still put out an above .500 team pretty much every year.