FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[amh63]

Tufts has posted its roster!  Seems it has added two 6'5" FY WRs to their already tall WR squad.
Looked at the Bowdoin roster and they brought in many linemen.  However, their DL FYs tend to be small....even when you expect them to be LB's.  One DL candidate seems better suited for DB.  Wonder if  Bowdoin defensive coach's leaving to go to Hamilton impacted the schools recruiting class.
Williams has still not posted ANY 2012 roster info. nescac1 has provided more info than the Williams website.  All these Williams comments are done with a smile....digs from an Amherst admirer of the school.   We are poor cousins!

[frank uible]

If unfettered from the usual NESCAC constraints, one could conceivably put together a team comprised entirely of sub-200 pounders, which would march through a NESCAC football schedule like Obama through Cambridge.

[river]

Don't necessarily agree, but here's an advocate for the national competitiveness of some NESCAC teams:

"DoubleDomer
Re: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
« Reply #15257 on: Today at 07:12:50 pm »
    ReplyQuote
". . . the Cal Lu, Oxy, Whittier, Redlands board"? I see.

Making no predictions for Hamilton, Tufts, Middlebury,Wes, or the Maine contingent, but anybody who thinks Amherst, Williams + Trinity couldn't play successully in most any D3 conference in the country needs to get out of the barn a little more often. Trinity, in particular, has been a formidable team. Maybe not at the level of the purple juggernauts, but certainly with Bethel, Linfield, CLC, North Central.

If there's a knock on those three, it's that they only play 2 really competitive games a year. How is that different than any of the other top teams?

Members of the Cal Lu, Whittier, Oxy, and Redlands board are, I'm sure, uninterested, but comments from members of the Chapman, LaVerne, CMS, and PP board are welcome."

[lumbercat]

disagree with that one Frank

[frank uible]

Some might accuse your correspondent of living in a barn, but however one characterizes his abode, he has taken leave from it on occasion and in a number of those trips (say, very roughly 1200) has witnessed the playing of football, all in and at its various kinds and levels.

[nescac1]

I think it goes without saying that an 80 man roster of top-tier D-1 players, all under 200 pounds, would kick the heck out of any D-3 program ...

Amh63, this should whet your appetite for Eph tidbits until the full football roster and preview are posted in a few days:

http://www.thetranscript.com/sports/ci_21550533/ephs-are-learning-how-practice

One thing is for certain, after graduating many enormous, physical, very experienced players at LB, DT, OL, QB, and WR, Williams will be significantly smaller, younger, and faster this year than last. Whether that translates into better success remains to be seen ...

[frank uible]

The answer to the question of team speed is key for Williams.

[amh63]

NESCAC1.....Thanks!
Frank.....I get your point with regards to size...but at what cost!  We are talking about the present day NESCAC where everyone plays and recruits under the same limitations/rules.  My size comments are in that context.
Each year at homecoming, I get to talk with a classmate that played fullback for Amherst about changes to the game.  He was often a blocking fullback his senior year for a very talented runner "Santos" that was bigger than he was and both were under 200 pounds.  We laugh and wonder if he could play in the "modern era".  My opinion is that he could.  In the early 60's, when Amherst played Springfield, the Coast Guard, etc. the two way linemen were smaller but still very much over 200 lbs.....but not the size of today's starters.
Amherst's starting offensive line should average over 275 lbs!
Anyway.....there is a nice review of two "football" books out in today's WSJ that may interest the posters.  It talks about West Point football and the last great teams of the late 50's with the Heisman winner Pete Dawkins of the class of 1958...one of my football heroes. It also talks about the decline of the football teams brought on in part by the cheating scandal of '51....the end of an era.
Should be interesting reading for followers of today's big time football and even the followers of D3 and the "CAC"

[frank uible]

West Point football was damaged more by Vietnam than the cheating scandal - and has never recovered. And I doubt that the West Point powers-that-be want it to recover. 60s football was a different game from today's football due to rule changes, superior doctoring, superior nutrition, superior training (some of it unethical or, worse yet, illegal), superior equipment, advances in the craft of coaching and superior funding and other resources.

[banfan]

I was not going to get to this until later today because I was heading to Middletown this AM.  However, since I had not been getting steady communication from my 19 year old son, I asked the wife to text him and make sure he was playing today.  We were approaching Worcester at the time. "Oh, no."  came the reply.  He was not playing for good reasons but with this info, we headed back home so I could write this and work on my golf game.  I asked him to call me later with an appraisal of how things went but his communication skills being what they are........the level of detail may be so so.

Tufts/Bowdoin.  First, I only stayed for the first half.  Second, scores do not matter to me in these scrimmages and I don't even know what it was at the half.  Third, generally speaking, Tufts was a much better team.  Tufts had a bigger team and the whole feel was that they were a more focussed group from Head Coach on down.  At Trinity, I would never attempt to talk to my son during a practice, never mind a scrimmage.  I saw it happen several times by Bowdoin parents and players.  I was on the Bears side where the stands were.  The Tufts side had no seating so no side line observations.

Tufts O-I could not tell some of the QB's playing for Tufts because the red pinnies had no numbers, unlike Bowdoin.  They play almost exclusively from the shotgun as did Bowdoin.  Number 12 (I could make out) John Dodds did play a lot of the first half and he was mobile and quick. Accuracy was rough as you might expect.  #20, Dylan Hass is listed as a WR but seemed to run the ball well.  #87 Marty Finnegan played well at WR.  He moved well and is 6'3".  But, he impressed me with his punting.  They do have some really tall FY's at WR.  #99 Frank Barba made at least one noticeable catch in the first half.

Tufts D was OK.  Better at DB than line as you might expect.  Both teams had numerous breakups or interceptions.  Always advantage to D.  Especially with many QB's playing.

Bowdoin O-They played #10 and #6 for most of the first half.  Grant White is a tall kid who looked better than Tom Romero although Romero did get better as the half went on.  Both are JR's.  Matt Caputi, coaches son, played at the end of the half.  I think he will play a lot if he is not the starter.  Bowdoin plays from the shotgun.  Probably they need to give the QB another second to live before escaping the rush.  One o-line men that stood out to me was #70 Mike Devin.  He is a soph sited at 6'1" 273, which may be accurate.

The D was ok.  The DBs again made more of an impression with break ups or ints but the QB's had a lot to do with it. 

Bowdoin is small and will struggle this year, I think.  Tufts has made some real progress.  Civetti is doing a good job as far as I can tell.

This is only the first half gunk so the second half could have been all Bears with Caputi going wild, but I doubt it.

[amh63]

Banfan....Thanks for the effort and report. 

[quicksilver]

According to a Tufts tweet, the score in the Tufts-Bowdoin scrimmage was 7-0, Tufts, but the game was called very early in the 4th quarter (11:30 to go). No information was provided as to why the scrimmage ended early . .

[amh63]

Hope this does not get me into trouble.....interesting feature post on the Bowdoin athletic site.  A first of sorts...
Polar Bears' women RUGBY contest.  The Polar Bears beat the Purple Cows 65-0!  Not so much the score as to posting of the event.
On second thought.....the football team could use some help it seems.  Background.....Rugby contest are not normally posted....at least not at Amherst since it is a "club sport" for both women and men.

[quicksilver]

Hope this does not get me into trouble.....interesting feature post on the Bowdoin athletic site.  A first of sorts...
Polar Bears' women RUGBY contest.  The Polar Bears beat the Purple Cows 65-0!  Not so much the score as to posting of the event.
On second thought.....the football team could use some help it seems.  Background.....Rugby contest are not normally posted....at least not at Amherst since it is a "club sport" for both women and men.

Women's rugby is a varsity sport at Bowdoin so those scores will always be posted on the Bowdoin website. Conversely, men's rugby is a club sport at Bowdoin so you won't see score of the men's rugby games on the Bowdoin website.

[frank uible]

Maybe some of them Bowdoin women ruggers can shore up the offensive line of the Bowdoin football team.