FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[frank uible]

Look for Bowdoin to be a factor in 2011, filling the air with footballs and thus producing upset wins. Returning it has 2 physically large, experienced QBs (setting up a competition which ought to make both of them better) plus a very high quality WR.

[nescac1]

Bowdoin also, I believe, gets back a talented WR (Gren) who missed all last year (due to injury I presume?), and should have a much-improved running game (last year the top two backs were frosh).  Bowdoin, Wesleyan, and in particular Colby (top returning QB) are the best bets for breaking up the Williams-Trinity-Amherst troika that has dominated the conference the last few years. 

Still, I think those three still have to the favorites, although all have big question marks.  I think Trinity is in the driver's seat since they get a Williams team with an untested QB at home early in the season, and Trinity's defense and running game is loaded, the only question for Trinity is who will be the receiving threats.  Williams has the most talent returning overall, but losing the conference player of the year at the QB spot leaves a huge hole, and as defending champs they have a big bullseye on their back.  And it seems like forever since Williams won at Trinity. 

I do think the Ephs' defense will be better this year though, with eight starters returning including five first-team all NESCAC players, and the Ephs have fantastic skill guys on offense.  Amherst also has a huge hole at QB, plus the Jeffs lose some very good receivers, but the Jeffs' defense should be very strong next year as well with most of the key guys back. 

Nice article on Williams' senior Mirkovic.  He is stuck behind two 3-4 year starters at DT, but is a strong contributor.  And one advantage of the much-maligned short NESCAC season is that it does allow for a ton of dual sport athletes, especially hoops/football and wrestling/football, throughout the conference.  A good chunk of the Williams wrestling team, for example, is composed of football guys.

http://ridgewood.patch.com/articles/mirkovic-doubles-his-pleasure-at-williams-college

On another note, this has nothing to to with football, but I thought I'd note one of the more interesting NESCAC coaching hires in recent years, Midd poaching UC Santa Cruz's tennis coach.  For a life-long Californian to leave a dominant program that he built to move to rural Vermont, in what is essentially a lateral move, there must be an interesting story behind that ....

http://www.middlebury.edu/athletics/sports/menstennis/archive/2010-2011/news/node/284802

[amh63]

The recent hires at Bowdoin point to the defensive side.  One of the new assistant is a person who has built his reputation on the defensive side.  One can put up alot of points but if you cannot stop the other team, it can often lead to a lost...refer to last year's shoot-out in the Tufts vs Amherst game.  Trinity beat Amherst last year with defense and Williams shut out Amherst last year in the second half.  Checking the scores from last year, the Polar Bears had a hard time keeping teams from scoring.  The head coach was the offensive coord. at Williams when he left for Maine.
nescac 1.....wrt to the tennis story....one must remember that Midd. won the Div 3 national title in 2010 (UCSC won it in 2009) and was strong in 2011.  On the other hand, UCSC is not a hot bed of sport activity outside of Tennis....the mascot is the Sea Slug.  Given the bleak financial situation in California in general and the cutting of funds to the colleges in the state....UC Cal as a prime example....the move to Midd. maybe due to a more secure place to maintain his rep.
Another side issue.  Tufts just finished their capital campaign and the president plans to retire/leave.  However, they are building a 24,000 sq.ft. fitness center in Melford (last year they renovated the BB gym).  The 13 million dollar effort is funded by a former Tufts football player who is also the owner of the NY Giants.  The center will carry his name.

[frank uible]

Some successful coaches believe in putting a clear majority of their resources on one side of the ball or the other.

[met_fan]

And one advantage of the much-maligned short NESCAC season is that it does allow for a ton of dual sport athletes, especially hoops/football and wrestling/football, throughout the conference.  A good chunk of the Williams wrestling team, for example, is composed of football guys.

How many NESCAC schools have wrestling? 2 or 3?

[nescac1]

met_fan, Williams, Trinity, and Wesleyan have varsity wrestling, Amherst has club (and I think there was some talk of Amherst becoming varsity as well, although I'm not sure), that is all I believe.  But there is also basketball -- for example two of Bates' top football players also play varsity hoops. 

I'm not saying it is necessarily worth giving up a chance at the playoffs for, but given that NESCAC schools often beat out Ivy or other low-level D-1 programs for talented athletes by providing players an opportunity to play two sports at a varsity level, having a short eight game season with no playoffs does make that goal more viable for football players. 

Turning back to NESCAC football, are any of the Trinity posters who used to give detailed predictions still around?  Here are my picks for players of the year on offense and defense.  Pretty easy on defense this year, much tougher on offense given the conference-wide talent drain at skill positions:

Defense, 1. Walter Fallas, 2. Kevin Ferber, 3. Dylan Schultz, 4. Cyprian Oyomba, 5. Colin Curzi / Dan Canina

Offense, 1. Patrick Noone (should benefit from better QB play), 2. Darren Hartwell, 3. Nick Kmetz (best of a weak group of QB's in the league), 4. Evan Bunker (assuming he emerges as a work horse again -- Trinity has a lot of options at RB), 5. Eric Bunker / Alex Scyocurka (will have a break-out year as a Soph)

[met_fan]

met_fan, Williams, Trinity, and Wesleyan have varsity wrestling, Amherst has club (and I think there was some talk of Amherst becoming varsity as well, although I'm not sure), that is all I believe.  But there is also basketball -- for example two of Bates' top football players also play varsity hoops. 

I'm not saying it is necessarily worth giving up a chance at the playoffs for, but given that NESCAC schools often beat out Ivy or other low-level D-1 programs for talented athletes by providing players an opportunity to play two sports at a varsity level, having a short eight game season with no playoffs does make that goal more viable for football players. 

Not challenging your assessment...was just curious

[frank uible]

Re NESCAC having a "short" eight game football season, the NESCAC football season ends no earlier than the regularly scheduled football season for the rest of DIII.

[Pat Coleman]

But the NESCAC basketball practice season starts later than the Oct. 15 date in the rest of Division III, Frank.

[bleedpurple]

ANYONE INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF THE 2011 TOP 25 FAN POLL, PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE WITH YOUR CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS. Now that Kickoff is out, I'd like to get our first poll out by the middle of next week.

[banfan]

First post.

Is this where most NESCAC athletics are discussed?

I am used to forums with topics and threads.  Any help for the new kid would be appreciated.

Son '15 playing football at Trinity.

[In The HuddLLe]

First post.

Is this where most NESCAC athletics are discussed?

I am used to forums with topics and threads.  Any help for the new kid would be appreciated.

Son '15 playing football at Trinity.

This is where NESCAC football is discussed.  Welcome to the boards.  I am originally from Hartford so Trinity was too close to home for me, but it's a great school.  Best of luck to your son and the Bants this fall.

[amh63]

In The Huddllie.....welcome aboard.  If you haven't done so already, you may wish to go back a few pages/months on this board to get the flavor and the "personality" of a number of the posters here......especially now that the season is ready to start in about a month....and the posting will increase and the intensity of comments.  Many of the conference schools will open up to FY players this weekend and start by the first week of Sept.  School websites will now list full rosters soon.....showing the FY players that many posters awaiting.  Then the educated "BS" will proceed. 

[In The HuddLLe]

In The Huddllie.....welcome aboard.  If you haven't done so already, you may wish to go back a few pages/months on this board to get the flavor and the "personality" of a number of the posters here......especially now that the season is ready to start in about a month....and the posting will increase and the intensity of comments.  Many of the conference schools will open up to FY players this weekend and start by the first week of Sept.  School websites will now list full rosters soon.....showing the FY players that many posters awaiting.  Then the educated "BS" will proceed.

I've been posting on these boards since before 2004 so I get the deal.  Just have a different moniker and lost my "All-American" status (by choice). 

[drisclaw]

NESCAC football always presents an interesting debate. Playoffs or no playoffs? I tend to side on the opinion that is just Ivy League wanna bee syndrome and that if Ivy League decided to join the playoff subdivision dance, NESCAC would cave as well.  I have always argued that there is a happy medium that NESCAC should explore as an alternative:

Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Tufts and Middlebury in one Division

Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Trinity and Hamilton in the other.

Championship game the Friday Night after the last week at Harvard Stadium.

I also think a nice expansion for NESCAC would be to ask MIT and Coast Guard Academy to join.   

I think you could easily schedule so that you play each team in division once and cross division rivals within the current eight game schedule.

That way only two teams need to extend their season by one week.