FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Rick Vaughn]

per·i·pa·tet·ic

[per-uh-puh-tet-ik]

–adjective
1. walking or traveling about; itinerant.
2. of or pertaining to Aristotle, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.
3. of or pertaining to the Aristotelian school of philosophy.

–noun
4. a person who walks or travels about.
5. (initial capital letter) a member of the Aristotelian school.

I learn something new every time Frank posts.

[amh63]

The season is over, and I had time to recover from the lost at Homecoming.  Thus this will be my last football post of the season.
First, Congrads to the Williams team!
There is a column by John Feinstein in the Nov. 16 2010 Washington Post that mentions the Amherst-Williams game. I will relate the parts that puts the football game in perspective and NESCAC football in perspective:  "Williams finished 8-0 by beating Amherst in the 125th meeting of the two schools.  Like the Ivies, the teams in the NESCAC do not play in the postseason so Williams-Amherst like Harvard-Yale....is always the climax of the season.  Saturday was the best of times for The Ephs, undoubtedly the worst of times for The Lord Jeffs".  I believe for the 10,000 plus at the game, such feelings were held....briefly.
The way John Feinstein relates to the game as Williams-Amherst, leads me to believe he must have a Williams connection.  Any comment on this?
Some more trival.  Amherst has a senior WR with the name Murphy, a starter.  He is the son of the president of the NFL Green Bay Packers.
On Sunday morning after the game, I spent some time at the "Gym" on campus.  It is a busy time for the football coaches since there are a number of future students to meet/converse with.  As a sort of "camp follower", I had  a 15 min discussion with one of the coaches on the defensive side about the game/players, etc.  Add that info, with my son-in-law "football eyes" evaluation of the game, I will make the following comments on the game:
The Williams offensive line was too strong/big for the depleted/smaller defense. Like in the Trinity game, the defensive line was worn down in the 4th quarter. (I was told by several knowledgeable football parents that Trinity's offensive line had worn down the Amherst team in the last quarter).  It was most evident in the success of the running game during the last quarter.
Amherst defense spent too much time on the field.  Amherst could not put enough pressure on Williams' QB.  He is too good to be allowed time to survey the field.  On the other hand, Amherst's QB was under pressure too often and made several bad decisions at critical moments of the game.  
I could go into more specifics but it will be boring for many.  It comes down to the fact that football remains a game of position and inches.  Last Saturday, the best team won the game.   I look forward to next year's game when both teams will have inexperience QBs.

[jumpshot]

Surprising how long it takes some alums to get over a loss in which they did not play. The game is for the players, and would be a great experience even if no one else attended. Some said Amherst was out-coached and Ephs were more poised and cohesive.

[frank uible]

Next year Amherst returns an experienced runningback and Williams superior size among the "bigs" plus a host of good or better WRs. My crystal ball says the Amherst-Williams game will hinge on the relative development of a QB.

[nescac1]

Virtually all of the top offenses have huge shoes to fill.  Next year will be very difficult to predict.  Williams loses its star QB and TB (although I am confident Scyocurka, Lapointe, and Gonzales will form a fairly potent RB trio as sophomores, QB is anyone's guess, although the receivers are so good that they needn't be a superstar), Amherst its star QB plus two of its top four WR's, Trinity the WR and TE responsible for virtually all of its (already modest) receiving totals, Wesleyan its superstar RB who dominated his position like no other player in the league, Middlebury and Tufts their record setting QB's plus lots of other good skills guys.  Colby's Nick Kmetz is the only returning QB who has been consistently good in NESCAC play.  Bowdoin's offense could also be very good after playing a lot of young players this year. 

After a year filled with offensive records and crazy high scoring games, I think the defenses will get a  bit of payback next season.  Trinity, Amherst, and Williams, to begin with, each return the bulk of their starters from very stout defenses, and a few teams have nowhere to go but up on defense. 

[maxpower]

Next year Amherst returns an experienced runningback and Williams superior size among the "bigs" plus a host of good or better WRs. My crystal ball says the Amherst-Williams game will hinge on the relative development of a QB.

Why?? They didn't like how he went with their furniture?




maxpower enjoying himself on the NESCAC board.

[nescac1]

Tomas Kearney's incredible catch is D3Football's play of the week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTM7pngEOeY

[Pat Coleman]

Here for the full Play of the Week treatment:

http://www.d3football.com/awards/playoftheweek/

[frank uible]

In my view Kearney's catch in the Hamilton end zone, in which while in the air from behind the Hamilton defender Kearney reached over and in front of the defender and took the ball out of his secure grasp, was better - but that is why Ben and Jerry's has all them flavors.

[Pat Coleman]

And if that play had been nominated for Play of the Week, or had it occurred in Week 11, it might have won, Frank.

[frank uible]

Timing in life is everything.

[nescac1]

Boston Globe article on Coach Kelton:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/brookline/articles/2010/11/18/wellesley_high_grad_kelton_perfect_in_first_season_as_williams_football_coach/

The article otes that star defensive end Dan Canina is returning next fall after missing a year due to injury (Dylan Schultz is doing the same thing).  The Ephs' defense could be scary good next year.  They return 7/8 defensive linemen who saw time this year, and Dan Vasczy should be ready to step in as a solid starter, giving them four senior starters (plus one top-notch senior back-up) on the d-line, with two juniors in reserve.  They return all-conference LB's Schultz and Chris Cameron plus rising senior Noah Goldberg, who played well in flashes and could step in for Pat Barren.  And the secondary, which was very inexperienced this year with three new starters and a first year nickleback, now becomes a strength, with all but one player from the unit returning.  The Ephs will likely start nine seniors on defense (two of them in their fifth year), or possible eight, but either way, that is the most senior starters than I can recall.  This year, the Ephs won with offense early in the year while a young secondary got acclimated.  Next year, the Ephs defense may have to carry the load until the new QB gets comfortable. 

A few other nice articles post Williams-Amherst:

Interesting tidbit on Tomas Kearney, he is primarily a track athlete who was cut from the football team his frosh year. Outstanding perseverance to become a major contributor:

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/mens_basketball/articles/2010/11/18/bc_grad_captains_his_team_at_conn_college/

Also, fun Boston Globe column about the game:

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/bob_ryan_blog/2010/11/two-way_play.html

[frank uible]

Whenever a team has no experienced, high quality runningback and also no experienced, high quality QB reurning, then it is a rebuilding (and not a reloading) year, irrespective of the rest of the roster. My crystal ball says Williams goes 5-3 in 2011, give or take a game.

[nescac1]

Frank, I'd gladly take that bet and I'll say 7-1, give or take a game.  Hard to take anyone over Trinity at Trinity, considering they haven't lost at home in something like a decade, but otherwise, Williams should be heavily favored in just about every game.  Remember, Middlebury, Tufts, and Amherst all will have huge questions at QB next year as well, and Wesleyan loses the RB who accounted for the vast majority of its offensive production.  When was the last time Williams won less than 6 games?  It has been many years, I believe, and they've had to replace equally prominent players at RB / QB, guys like Put Lucey and Brian Morrissey. 

RB, I'm not worried about.  Remember, Lupo had less carries entering last year than Scyocurka has entering next year, and he ended up being first-team all NESCAC.  Scyocurka showed that he can get it done as a frosh, and I think he is the most talented back Williams has recruited in some time. The other frosh backs looked good as well when given opportunities, and all should be much stronger with a year in the weight program and a some varsity experience.  And four of the six olinemen who saw time vs. Amherst (one guy got hurt during the game) return, so there will be plenty of holes to run through. 

QB is a bigger concern (but again, every NESCAC contender, including Trinity which only got two starts from its returning QB, had big question marks there), I agree, but it helps that Williams has arguably the best group of WR's it has ever had returning in Hartwell, Griffin, Stickney, Kearney, plus some talented frosh who would have started at many NESCAC schools. 

All they need is solid play from a QB to have a great shot at 7-1, especially with how difficult they figure to be to score on (the Ephs gave up 13 ppg this year facing some of the best QB's NESCAC has seen, and now many of those QB's are gone, while the Ephs return nearly everyone on D, so that number figures to go down).  I'll agree they will need more than solid to beat Trinity at Trinity however.  And of course, Kelton is back as well, and he has proven he knows what he is doing. 

[ephfan1]

Amh63, further to your NESCAC trivia, Mark Murphy was at the game in Amherst last Saturday.