FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Trin9-0]

Hey, I'm a little late to the party on the most recent edition of the "Why doesn't the NESCAC play in the NCAA playoffs?" game. However, I thought it might be relevant to shed some light on what the four captains of Trinity's team have to say on the matter.

Here's a link to the student-run Trinity Sports Network website, and in particular, a "get to know the captains" segment in which one of the questions is should the NESCAC champion be allowed to play in the NCAA playoffs. And a follow-up question of "why"?
http://trinitysn.com/?p=208

They appear to be universal in their answer. This is not to assume that all NESCAC players or even the other players on Trinity's team would agree. I just thought it was relevant to the discussion.

For the record my stance is that NESCAC football players should be allowed the same opportunity as all of the other NESCAC athletes who compete in the NCAA playoffs. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever see it happen.

Back to the action on the field I'm excited to say I will be attending my first NESCAC football game in which Trinity is not playing. With the Bants on the road in Maine I'll be joining some friends from Wesleyan at their Homecoming festivities as the Cards face Little Three rival Amherst.

It kills me to cheer on Wes-Tech but a Jeff loss would likely improve Trin's chances of winning/sharing for the league title so I'll be rooting for the home team.

Williams should handle a Tufts squad whose offense looks anemic this year.
Hamilton's finally found it's offense last week and I think they'll outscore a White Mule team that has allowed at least 27 points in every game this year.
Middlebury will get off the snide with a home win over Bates whose win over Tufts looks increasingly unimpressive.
Trinity will roll the Polar Bears. Bowdoin can't compete with the league's top teams this year and as they proved last week they can barely compete with the lower tier teams.

Enjoy the games and GO BANTAMS!

[labart96]

We at "In the HuddLLe" (www.inthehuddLLe.com) are very excited to announce a very special guest coming onto the show this Sunday at 7:30 PM ET!!!

We will be welcoming Dr. Tony Strickland of the David Geffenn School of Medicine at UCLA and the Sports Concussion Institute (http://www.concussiontreatment.com/). 

Dr Strickland has recently appearred on both ESPN's Outside the Lines and the NFL Network to discuss concussions and the work SCI has done in the diagnosis and treatment of the same.

Dr. Strickland has requested we encourage fans, players and otherwise interested parties to please dial into the show to ask their questions.  That said we would like to solicit you to call in and drive the dialogue with Dr. Strickland given the prominence of this topic in the national headlines.   Our switchboard line is 646-200-0576.

Again the date of his appearance will be tonight Sunday, Oct 24 at 7:30 PM ET. 

Thanks in advance your assistance in making this special opportunity to get a refreshing and informed perspective on this nationally relevant topic!

[Rick Vaughn]

The board has been very quiet this year on actual football talk.  Watched most of Williams' win over Tufts Saturday and was not that impressed with what I saw from the Ephs.  Had some dumb penalties and struggled to move the ball.  Tufts spread them out and really hurt them down the field in the first half.  They made adjustments and Lupo was a monster and the difference in the game, but it was not easy to get him going. 

OPY:  1. Shea Dwyer (biggest surprise), 2. McKillop, 3. Darren Hartwell (also a big surprise), 4. Pat Moffitt, 5. Alex Vetras

I would re-rank after Week 5:

1. Vetras, 2. Dwyer, 3. Lupo, 4. McKillop, 5. Moffitt

Hope to see to 7-0 Williams vs 7-0 Amherst matchup.

[nescac1]

Agreed that Williams did not have their best effort vs. Tufts.  The penalties killed them, especially a roughing the punter penalty that gave Tufts a first down on a fourth and long and I think led to a Tufts score.  Ephs also shot themselves in the foot with lots of other mistakes, including an INT late in the half when they should have played more conservatively and a few fumbles, one of which was returned for a TD.  Also missed a very short field goal and had the usual punting woes.  I think most of the Ephs' problems against Tufts were a product of lack of concentration for a game they just assumed would be a cake-walk, but the kicking game woes have plagued them all year and could easily cost them a close game late in the year.

Looking more and more like Amherst and Williams will battle it out, Trinity is very tough all around, but seems to be a bit one-dimensional on offense with only one real receiving threat, and Amherst will surely stack and line to stop the running game. 

Lupo had his best game of the year after Scyocurka, who has generally been more explosive actually, was benched for the fumble.  Nice to see Kristian Lapointe get his first non-garbage-time offensive play.  He is basically Kevin Flynn 2.0 and would get more PT but for so many good RB's ahead of him.

Hartwell, despite a few drops, continues to be incredibly explosive on passing plays, running plays, and punt returns.  Most dangerous guy in NESCAC in open space and a really electrifying player.  If the Ephs ever get Bryce Bennett back,  their receivers will be that much more dangerous, as Stickney, Griffin, and Kearney have all been coming on as well. I think Williams-Amherst could be a shoot-out this year the way both offenses are humming right now.  Ephs have a bit more firepower on offense than the Jeffs, but Williams has definitely proven vulnerable to good passing attacks. 
L

[amh63]

Was at the Amherst-Wes game.  Amherst had a slow start.  However, once Vetras got his "grove", it was all over.  Amherst could have scored any time it wanted.  Amherst was "stopped" only by questionable penalties.  Wes. grad student runner collected 41 of his 95 yards  running in the last Wes. drive with the score 37-3. This was against a young defense that was depleted somewhat with key injuries to experienced players.  The Hartford reporter summed the game up......Wes. brought an improved football team to Andrus Field, Amherst brought a machine.   The top runner in the nation at 189 yds/game was fortunate to get his last 41 yards against primarily backups.  Amherst's last drive was primarily runs by a senior runner that dragged tacklers for a third of his yards.  Amherst's three runners each averaged over 5 yards per carry.  The senior runner who entered in the fourth quarter, averaged over 6.5 yards/carry with people hanging over him.  Whalen was quoted to state that Amherst had 3-4 good runners and 5-6 good receivers and a good defense....and Wes. at present was too one dimensional.
It will be interested to hear from Trinity 8-0 about his impressions of the game.  
The crowd was listed at 5200, the largest, I have observed at Middletown the past 4 encounter there.
I maybe a bit too positive at present...Tufts and Trinity lies ahead before the battle at Amherst.

[iamhuge]

All this stuff is merely guesses at the reasoning by NESCAC about its inter-collegiate football policies - and in many cases patently bad guesses. NESCAC remains silent on the subject. At any rate small college football was alive and healthy before there was a DIII or DIII playoffs. There is no reason NESCAC or any of its individual institutions (or for that matter any  segment of DIII football) can't be alive and healthy without its participation in football playoffs now.

The best NESCAC team would certainly look like they belong among the top 32.  Doubt that they would go far, however.  Remember some of these D3 teams in the midwest are D3 by name only.  They don't have 1AA teams out there for D1 kids to drop down to, so they end up going D3.   So, in the playoffs,  the D3 teams from the East end up playing against teams that look a lot like very good 1AA teams.

[Jonny Utah]

All this stuff is merely guesses at the reasoning by NESCAC about its inter-collegiate football policies - and in many cases patently bad guesses. NESCAC remains silent on the subject. At any rate small college football was alive and healthy before there was a DIII or DIII playoffs. There is no reason NESCAC or any of its individual institutions (or for that matter any  segment of DIII football) can't be alive and healthy without its participation in football playoffs now.

The best NESCAC team would certainly look like they belong among the top 32.  Doubt that they would go far, however.  Remember some of these D3 teams in the midwest are D3 by name only.  They don't have 1AA teams out there for D1 kids to drop down to, so they end up going D3.   So, in the playoffs,  the D3 teams from the East end up playing against teams that look a lot like very good 1AA teams.

They have some very good 1AA teams in the midwest.  The Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, and Pioneer Conference have plenty of great 1aa football teams.

[Knightstalker]

All this stuff is merely guesses at the reasoning by NESCAC about its inter-collegiate football policies - and in many cases patently bad guesses. NESCAC remains silent on the subject. At any rate small college football was alive and healthy before there was a DIII or DIII playoffs. There is no reason NESCAC or any of its individual institutions (or for that matter any  segment of DIII football) can't be alive and healthy without its participation in football playoffs now.

The best NESCAC team would certainly look like they belong among the top 32.  Doubt that they would go far, however.  Remember some of these D3 teams in the midwest are D3 by name only.  They don't have 1AA teams out there for D1 kids to drop down to, so they end up going D3.   So, in the playoffs,  the D3 teams from the East end up playing against teams that look a lot like very good 1AA teams.

They have some very good 1AA teams in the midwest.  The Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, and Pioneer Conference have plenty of great 1aa football teams.

Along with a very good DII conference in the PSAC where a lot of Midwest kids end up playing ball too.

[amh63]

The Amherst-Tufts preview is up on the Amherst website.  Game is at Amherst and it will be Family weekend.  Here's hoping that the Amherst team will not overlook Tufts and get a victory without injuries on either side.

[Zoberist]

Great Video of a great Williams team playing a great Union team back in 1968. It was a real slug-fest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Y4F3XbyOs This was the first time UNION beat Williams in 12 years. Williams had a great running back by the name of Jack Maitland. He was from Florida.

[Trin9-0]

It will be interested to hear from Trinity 8-0 about his impressions of the game.   

I was very impressed with Amherst. They're very athletic on defense and seem to be extremely disciplined and well coached on both sides of the ball. Wes is definitely a year or two away from being able to consistently compete with the big boys of the NESCAC. This was most evident in their inability to run the ball even with one of the leagues best backs.

I suppose it's true at every level but it seems to be especially evident in the NESCAC that the top teams in the league are the ones that can stop the run. Amherst, Trinity and Williams always seem to be able to force teams to throw the ball and very few NESCAC caliber QBs can consistently move the ball through the air.

With that said, my beloved Bantams face one of those QBs today in Donald McKillop. The achilles heel for Trinity this year has been giving up huge TD passes. If the secondary can stay disciplined and not give up long TD passes I think they'll be able to protect the Coop... at least for one more week.

If they can then it would set up a big-time match up next week in Hartford versus the Jeffs who should have little trouble with the Jumbos at home.

I like Wes to top the Polar Bears at home, Williams should handle Hamilton on the road and I'll pick Bates in a mild upset over Colby in the first CBB match-up at the new Garcelon Field.

Enjoy the games and GO BANTAMS!

[mariner75]

Hmmmm...Jumbos used to play great defense, if not very good at putting points on the board.......this is nonsense.

[daoustian]

If you had told me that Amherst would have allowed 49 points and 560+ yards passing and would still win, I would have loaded up on lottery tickets.  A few new additions to the Amherst records books today, including the wiping of the 1997 Williams game for most combined points in a game (though really, the record book was always wrong thanks to that embarrassing 102-0 schlacking by Harvard in 1888 that we all remember so well).  119 total points, 1250 total yards, Vetras breaks the Amherst career passing yards mark, team ties the mark for most consecutive wins (14), etc.  Pretty wild one with 35 unanswered points by Amherst.  This one may have broken a bunch of NESCAC single game records as well if we just look at NESCAC conference play. 

[amh63]

To be more specific after the last two post on the Amherst-Tufts shoot out, the final score for the game was 70-49, Amherst.  Tufts second unit beat up on Amherst reserves in the last three plus minutes to score the last seven points.   They even had the ball when time ran out.   I thought it would be an upset when.....a defensive holding in the red zone helped Tufts score first....when Vetras of Amherst fumble near the Tufts goal line on Amherst's first drive....when Tuft's OB shredded the Amherst backfield at will.  It was the Amherst special team that kept Amherst in the game when the offense sputtered early. (Punt returned for a TD by Amherst and Kick-off runs providing good field position.)  The end of the first half had Tufts leading 35-28.
Amherst got the ball starting the second half and scored within the first minute to tie the game.  By running the ball against Tufts in the second half with three runners, two of which gained over 100 yards each, Amherst controlled much of the second half clock and outscored Tufts 28-0 in the third quarter.
It was an entertaining game for the Parent's weekend crowd, but I wonder what happened to Amherst's passing defense. I must give credit to the Tuft's OB, his WRs' and their offensive line.  Tufts used a quick spread offense primarily with 5 WRs and no runners in the backfield.  Tuft's QB was in shotgun and even ran for two TD's.

[nescac1]

That is just a crazy score, I think Amherst-Tufts hoops may have a very similar outcome this year. 

Amherst and Williams have both been vulnerable a bit to the pass this year (VERY hard to run on either one, but Midd and Tufts lit up the Amherst secondary, Bowdoin and Tufts, the Williams version), and both have experienced QB's with a seemingly endless array of talented WR's at their disposal (Williams top WR heading into the season, Bryce Bennett, should be back for the last two games, Hartwell is the best WR in the league in my view, and Kearney, Stickney, and Griffin are all big WR's who are very dangerous when left one-on-one.  Meanwhile Amherst has six guys who seem to be basically interchangeable, and Gary destroyed Williams last year).  I therefore continue to think that game will be a shoot-out, although strange things happen in Williams-Amherst games. 

Scyocurka was out with an injury vs. Hamilton and hopefully he'll be back for, at least, the Amherst game, although frosh Kristian Lapointe has shown he can be a capable back-up and nice change of pace scat back.  Still, if Scyocurka can't make it back Lupo will have to carry a heavy load.   

But first things first, Trinity-Amherst should be a barnburner as well.  Teams with very different strengths.  Trinity isn't much of a passing team but will likely shut down Amherst's running attack and control the clock; meanwhile, I do think Amherst should be able to throw vs. Trinity.  I think Amherst is SLIGHTLY better due to its balance, but Trinity is at home so it's a pick 'em.  The brother show-down, Bunker vs. Bunker, two of the top four backs in the lead going head to head, is a fun story line.  I'd guess Trinity's Bunker is marginally more talented given his numbers as a frosh, but Amherst's version has the edge in maturity.  I'll say Amherst 24, Trinity 21. 

Williams-Wesleyan should be fun as well, with Matt Coyne, Dan Dicenzo, and Mike Whalen all returning to Billsville for the first (and in Coyne's case, only) time.  Somehow, I am guessing Williams will be motivated and won't be looking ahead to Amherst next Saturday ...