FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[daoustian]

I am hopeful for an Amherst win tomorrow, and while it would be great to see a lopsided score, the reality is that rarely happens in the Amherst-Williams game - at least not in favor of Amherst.  Despite what seems like a ton of Amherst dominance recently, the past 15 games have only been 8-7 Amherst.  Amherst's average margin of victory in those games has been less than 8 points and never more than 13 points.  It's been 30+ years since Amherst has beaten Williams by more than 3 TDs.  Hopefully Coach Mills has everyone in the right mindset to avoid an upset.  Go Jeffs. 

[Nescacman]

It's going to be WINDY tomorrow in Clinton, Hartford, Brunswick, and Medford (20 mph winds in Clinton, Hartford, and Brunswick, and a screaming 23 mph at Ellis Oval).  In those close games, give the advantage to the offense that can pound it out on the ground.  And give the win to the team with the better kicker, particularly if a field goal is needed to win it.

So my picks based on the wind factor:

Bates over Hamilton 17-14. Bates defense can stop the run, Lyons is making a habit of pick 6's, and they have the better kicker.  (Hamilton's 2 kickers are a combined 1 of 6 on the year on FG's).

Wes over Trinity 24-21.  This one comes down to a last minute FG.  Last year's All NESCAC kicker Fuchs struggled at the start of this season, but he steps it up in this one.  The Bants go into another winter blaming it on the kicker.

Colby over Bowdoin 20-0.  Bowdoin has no running game, while the Mules have Hurdle-Price.  And Baron has a miss but it's meaningless, since the Polar Bear's fine kicker Sisti never takes the field.

Tufts over Midd 27-20.  Brady has a monster game, and fans are deprived of the chance to watch Milano and Minno reprise their aerial ballet.  And the Panthers' FY kicker has struggled with accuracy all year, while Holmquist has been steady (and at times, spectacular).

Yes, it will be windy in Willytown, too, but so what?  Unless we have a tornado, a plague of locusts, volleyball-sized hail and a tsunami, the weather can't save the Ephs.  In fact, the kindest thing that could happen would be if Dorothy, Toto and their house landed on the Wicked HCOF of The East and put the program out of its misery.  Amherst wins 42-7.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Your picks look amazingly familiar (except for your pick of the Jumbo's...we still don't think they are ready for prime time...yet).

Your assessment of the HCOF is spot on....curious on what everyone thinks the over/under is on the termination of the HCOF. I'll say 12/1 and take the under.

[Nescacman]

Get ready for the Amherst College Purple Moose...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/13/amherst_students_demand_that_president_denounce_lord_jeff.html

[PolarCat]

My sources have leaked this video of the Purple Moose Micro-aggression Relief Committee preparing for today's showdown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM#t=416

[NewtoNescac]

Amazing that this is the final game of the season. May it be a fun day of football for all, and may the players be safe.

go mules (intentionally lowercase)

[P'bearfan]

Headed out of town for a business trip so I won't be able to watch the game today. Good luck to the Polar Bears and congratulations to all the seniors!!

GoUBears!!

[RetiredMule]

A big day for the Mules (intentionally uppercase). This one is to carry them through the offseason. Bold Prediction: Mules rush for 4 times the yardage that Bowdoin does today. Mules win 21-7.

[PolarCat]

Congratulations to the Continentals.  Great game plan, superbly coached and executed, particularly by Rosenberg in engineering that time burning final possession, and Nastovsky for carrying the team on his back.  But it was a complete team effort, as Hamilton outplayed the Bobcats on both sides of the ball.

Man, that 9 hour bus ride home to Lewiston is going to absolutely suck....

[amh63]

Daoustain's stats on Amherst vs Williams games holds true.  Amherst wins 17-7 in Willytown.  Amherst's ends Williams drive in the first half with an interception....ends game with an interception.
Back to back 8-0 seasons....Team and seniors go out in glory!

[RetiredMule]

This is a sad day for Colby. They have been put down and lost for years on end. Unfortunately, I am not defeatist like NewtoNescac. I think there were positives this fall that can grow. Colby had some upside. As I noted, wait to pass judgement until later when level heads can play. But Colby needs to see upside or they can kill themselves in terms of play.

[AmherstStudent05]

Congratulations to Coach Mills & Co. for a second consecutive perfect season.  This may well have been our best one yet as we led the Conference in points scored as well as points allowed and we won every game by at least two scores.

As for today's game, the most disappointing thing was that the NESN feed kicked out with about 5 minutes to play in the game.  Otherwise, this game was actually quite similar to the last few games we played against the Ephs.  We were clearly the better team, and were seemingly in control for most of the game, yet the score was always rather tight.   Our defense remained stout, however, and our offense  made enough critical plays at critical times to secure the victory.

There were a few head scratching decisions from Williams on this one.  For instance, I don't know how you punt on 4th and 1 with the ball on the plus 43.  If one of "Kelton's Keys" was to score at least 21 points (always very ambitious given the matchup) then you absolutely have to go for it there.

Also, at the end of the third quarter, Williams had us stopped on third down (on a very fluky play that really should have been picked) and instead Williams accepted a holding call against us to give us a third and long (which we promptly converted).  Finally, maybe it was just me but I think Williams called its first timeout of the second half after we had gone out of bounds with under 5 minutes to play.

Anyway, thanks to the team for another great season.

I would personally give Brady OPOY (although hard to argue with Milano) and DPoY to Fairfield-Sonn (with apologies to Tommy Kleyn).  I would give CoY to Mills although Civetti would also be a fine choice. 

Can't wait for 2016!

[quicksilver]

It was great to see Tim Drakely put it all together for the Polar Bears with 314 years in the air, 3 TD passes, and 31 yards on the ground.

[polbear73]

Trying to be objective,  I do think that Bowdoin played much better on both sides of the ball than they have all year. However, Colby shot themselves in the foot all day through inopportune penalties, dropped balls, and failure to execute on third and fourth down opportunities.  There is talent at Colby and I can see the frustration expressed by Colby posters. As much as I love the Bowdoin win, it in no way felt like a 16 point margin, discounting the final Bowdoin touchdown. 

[PolarCat]

I can't believe we haven't had any Jumbos fans post yet.  (I think we need to all make a New Year's resolution to recruit some to this board - we could do with some fresh blood).

I watched the Tufts-Midd 4th quarter, and it was an excellent effort by both teams.  Milano (who appeared to be playing hurt) made some terrific 4th down plays when he needed to, culminating with an 80-yard drive that started with 4:12 left in the game, with 3 separate 4th down conversions, a TD and a 2 point conversion with 54 seconds left on the clock to pull the Panthers within 3, and setting up an onside kick to give Midd a chance to tie the game.

For all that Mills has accomplished, Civetti is my pick for COTY.  It's amazing how he's turned the program around.  And it's not just what he does with the X's and O's - the Nothing but NESCAC article earlier this year on what he did for the player whose dad has Alzheimer's, convinced me Civetti is one of the all-time good guys.  I bet you'll see Civetti and the Jumbos snag some really big-time recruits in coming years, despite having the ugliest uniforms in the history of the game.  (I mean, really: what kid wants to be photographed on NLI day wearing dog poop brown and teal?)

And a HUGE shout out to the Jumbos' webcast team.  FOUR (or was it five?) cameras, a play-by-play AND a color announcer, both of whom actually understood the game and could pronounce players' names, and honest-to-God Instant Replay.  They put the dreadful NSN offerings with their freezing and dropped feeds to shame.  Well played!

[AmherstStudent05]

Just a quick update to what I posted earlier.  I went and looked up the rules (which I should have done the first time).  Apparently in college football, only under two minutes to play in the fourth quarter does the clock stop on an out of bounds play (in the NFL it is 5 minutes), so the clock would have kept running (following a brief pause) had Kelton not called timeout there on our penultimate drive.