FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[amh63]

Off to see family and see Ivy football in Ithaca.  For those interested, the Amherst vs Hamilton will be webcasted.  Go to the Amherst website or the NESCAC site under live video.
As posted earlier, the expected starters for the game for both schools are listed in the game preview.  Amherst is not starting any freshmen....yet.  New feature this year....Game interview with the HFC.  Amherst's coach makes some comments of hurt players and the scrimmage with Williams.   There is a feature article about senior player Aldo on the website.  One point I learned from the article is that he was hurt in two of the scrimmages and that Amherst does have a JV squad.
It looks to be a fine football weekend for all the games.  Enjoy.

[banfan]

nescac 1 I like your pre season picks.  The only area where I might quibble is in the lower half and frankly it is where there are more unknowns.  Maybe it's because I went to the Tufts Bowdoin scrimmage, (actually I am sure it is) but I expect a little more from Tufts and a little less from Bowdoin.  Of course, part of the reason I worry about Bowdoin is their D coach is now at Hamilton.  Which leads me to the even greater unknown of how the Cons will respond.  I am one of those who is excited by the overall improvement in the second tier of the nescac.  I expect a lot of really tightly contested games this season.  And probably a fare number of big surprises.  New coaches and new presidents are having an affect.  By the way, I look forward to next year when Trin travels to Bates and we play on their new field.  That is another thing, a lot of new fields.  Trinity's was the cat's meow but now we are looking more like another cat product.....I love the fields in the middle of campus like Bates and Hamilton.

The Trinity Roster is up now but, it aint perfect as there are two #40's and one player with no # and I think he is going to play a lot.

[frank uible]

With respect to the Amherst JVs, they are scheduled to play the Williams JVs at Williams on Sunday 1pm.

[82slice]

The way the sub-varsity game is treated at Amherst, at least how they did it last year, is that any players on the roster that received limited or no action in the Varsity game the day before suits up and plays in the sub-varsity game the next day.  It's primarily your freshman and sophomores who have not made it into the two deep.

[lumbercat]

I think Frank is right, I don't think the Williams Colby game is on NESCAC thought I would love to see it as a quality broadcast.

Banfan- agree with your comments on the lower tier- it will be good for the league if Bates can make a respectable showing against the Bantams. Likewise Colby at Williams and Bowdoin at Middlebury.
Have not been to Hamilton in years but the Bates stadium has a great feel.

Still no rosters for Amherst and Williams though I believe they will be up today. The rumor that was ciculating was that these 2 venerable institutions were doing throwback jerseys without numbers going back to the days when players were not numbered. Just plain Purple jerseys with the old shoulder yokes---in doing so they could have as extra week to finalize their cuts.

[lumbercat]

Williams roster and team picture now posted.
The jerseys in their new team picture do look like throwbacks- remind me of my Pop Warner uniform. Though after looking at their roster they will be strong and deep as always so I guess the jerseys don't matter much when you are crossing the goaline.

Trinity roster shows no Freshmen- mistake?

[banfan]

No frosh?  I hope it is a mistake.

By the way Hamilton has 64 on the roster with at lease a third being freshman?!  Here's to the brave men of Hamilton!

[PistachioX]

No frosh?  I hope it is a mistake. 

That was my observation and concern, earlier.  Whether it was an oversight or they simply aren't done updating at this point in the day - the FY's will eventually populate the roster; hopefully before kickoff tomorrow.

[nescac1]

Wow, 2-6 may have been optimistic hearing about Hamilton's extremely thin group of upperclassmen (only FIVE juniors on the roster, although having a good RB and a talented four-year starter at QB is a good foundation).  Look at their projected starting interior oline (based on the Amherst game preview) -- they go 235, 216 and 237.  Those are like high school interior linemen.  They will likely have a very tough time controlling Amherst's all-NESCAC nose Sponheimer, who is a physical beast inside. 

Can't say I am a fan of the new Eph uniforms, but hey, it's football, not a fashion show. 

I've already given some thoughts on the new Ephs, but looking at the roster, a few observations:  With one QB leaving the program and only one incoming QB (more played QB in high school but I imagine were recruited as athletes), the Ephs are extremely thin there, with only three guys, and only one who has ever taken a varsity snap.  Hopefully they will stay healthy.  In terms of incoming frosh, there are several very large bodies coming in at WR (6'5, 6'5, 6'2) and OL (6'5, 6'5, 6'5, 6'4, 6'3).  No incoming TBs which is not a surprise given the depth at that position right now, especially with Scyocurka having three years of eligibility left. 

In terms of veterans, only one guy who contributed but did not graduate is missing, FB Qadir Forbes, who played a lot as a first year last year and looked like a future key guy.  Marcus Gonzalez is a very big DE at 6'4, 235 who has grown a lot since he was a frosh (he was 6'3, 210).  I remember that he looked fast at that time, ended up taking a year away from football and was not mentioned in the season preview, but I'm curious to see if he ends up as a contributor, I figured that he would be a key guy on the revamped DL this year.  Mike Lomio, a junior, was not on the roster last year, only 5'8 playing defensive tackle but must be very strong at 220.  They need to figure out the DL contributors fast given that Trinity's offensive line awaits in week two.  Encouraging that 2/3 guys Coach Kelton mentioned as having great training camps are on the Dline.  Thinnest position on roster is tight end, only three guys including a frosh and a sophomore. 

[frank uible]

Eleven midgets dressed in tutus would be able to dominate NESCAC so long as they were the right eleven.

[nescac1]

I was with you on the sub-200 pounders Frank, but that is a bridge too far .  And in any events, I'm pretty confident that Hamilton isn't putting undersized D-1 level athletes out there, but rather, undersized D-3 level athletes.  We'll see what happens tomorrow ...

[banfan]

22 FY's have been added to the Trin roster.  Apparently they just walked in and on.

[banfan]

Eleven midgets dressed in tutus would be able to dominate NESCAC so long as they were the right eleven.

Do you mean if the tutus are purple?

[frank uible]

Even if the tutus are purple! Nonetheless my granddaughter prefers pink tutus over any other color. And pink would work too.

[nescac1]

And with Trinity's full roster now posted, Amherst, much to Amh63's chagrin and despite his continuous refreshing of the web page, wins the award for "last NESCAC roster posted in 2012."