FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Panthernation]

But from this correspondent's perspective only a minute degree.

For those looking for haphazard picks of minute value (not making fun here, I agree with you), here's another preseason AA list that's come out with Mac Foote as the QB1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ngEck6lluM

[river]

I like your optimism Amh63 regarding revisiting the age-old length of season issue--and you have an interesting theory as the catalyst for making it happen.  I'd personally love to see two 8 and 0 teams to put an additional spotlight on the issue. 

Unfortunately, I do agree with Frank that it is not at all likely.  Bummer for sure.  There really are only a handful of reasons why the schools have not/would not agree to a nine game schedule, and most of them are really just BS excuses. . . .

. . . .

Malcolm Gladwell has posited another reason for not only why some college presidents do not want their schools to play a ninth football game, but also why they might believe in banning football altogether on all college campuses -- to save the brains of the student-athletes.  He apparently believes in part that schools with reputations for academics -- like the Ivies (and the NESCAC?) -- need to protect the intellectual resources of the nation by keeping their budding scholars and the nation's future intelligentsia from suffering debilitating brain damage caused by the multiple and successive hits to the head resulting from playing football.  Why college football is like dog fighting and Abolish College football  Justified?  Unduly elitist?  Just plain crazy?

[frank uible]

Why is a "ban" necessary or desirable? Any educational institution can unilaterally decide, arbitrarily or for any reason, to drop intercollegiate football, and over the years many have done so. But at the same time many have found reasons to take it up so that roughly the same number of four year colleges play intercollegiate football now as did in 1940.

[frank uible]

P.S. Your correspondent does his level best to avoid taking guidance for his life's actions from the Malcolm Gladwells of this world.

[amh63]

River....interesting post for this time of the year.   My response is just a dumb writer that is earning his wages.  His points are so limited to be Called elitist.  All the future world positive contributors do not come from our colleges or just play American style football.  Might as well ban high school football and soccer, etc.
Will post another topic later during this Summer slow period....like...is college football influenced by the N FL or vice versus...in particular the Nescac.  Teaser info....Williams coach has been interning in the NFL the past few years.

[amh63]

In two days the NFL opens training camp.  Coach Kelton of Williams is scheduled to be at one training camp until Aug. 15.  He is on an "internship" and has been to training camps the past several years, I believe. 
There was a recent football article in the WSJ that suggested that the NFL cannot stop the "run option" as used by the the Washinton and San Fran offense.  Today, my barber informed me that the run option offense came out of the West Virginia Wesleyan football, a Div.3 school?
The general question here is  whether offensive innovation comes more from colleges or from professional teams.  I guess in thinking about it, most offensive systems started in colleges and morphed in the NFL.  Recently, IMO , the pocket QB has changed for three teams as the offenses went with the talent available.  I am not talking about the great Scrambling OBs' of the past in Philly, Dallas and Minn.
How does this relate to the "CAC"?   Other than Foote at Midd. there are no other great passer in the conference presently.  The most effective ones tend to be option type players...or run option ones....like the two at Amherst.
Maybe Williams coach is teaching the NFL teams rather than the other way around.

[nescac1]

(1) amh63, trends will come and go in football, but one thing you can be sure of, any gimmick offense, NFL defenses will eventually solve: the athletes are too good, and the teams are too prepared.  Whether it be the run and shoot, the read option, the pistol, the wishbone, or any other gimmick offense that a college team with superior athletes can use to dominate overmatched and underprepared opponents, it's not going to work for more than maybe a year in the NFL.  You can bet damn well that teams (especially NFC teams) are going to be completely ready this season for the run option.  NFL defenders are too smart and too fast.  Having a mobile QB is still a huge benefit, but in the NFL, you win first and foremost by having a traditionally dependable running game matched with an elite vertical passer.  Look at the QB's who win Super Bowls: Flacco, the Mannings, Brady, Rodgers, Brees, Roethlisberger ... all of them are first and foremost passers with big arms and elite accuracy in big games, and who don't need to rely on fooling defenses with dink-and-dunks and misdirection plays.  If the Skins, Niners, and Seattle overemphasize running plays by their QB's, those QB's will get beat up, and beat up bad, by NFL defenders, just like Michael Vick did and Griffin already has.  I am not a Skins fan, but if I was, I'd be begging them to deply Griffin outside the pocket more judiciously.   

(2) It is not remotely elitist to care about the consequences of football on long-term health of athletes.  There is no doubt at all at this point that repeated heavy collisions cause brain trauma, the harder and more frequent, the worst the trauma.  It would only be elitist NOT to care, to say, hey, it's only football players, who cares if many of them can't function past age 50?  Listen, I love football.  I loved playing recreationally as a kid, I have NFL season tickets, I am a huge NESCAC and D-1 college fan too.  But honestly, in light of what I've read, I'd be very, very hesitant to allow any child of mine play football beyond a very low level.  There is a ZERO percent chance that the NESCAC is going to expand the season at this point.  If anything, they will follow other trends (like the Ivies) and reduce the number of contact practices, etc., anything to protect players.  And as much as I love football, I can't find any reason to complain about that (and I'm someone who used to favor a nine game NESCAC season) in light of what recent research has uncovered. 

(3) The Weston Field project gets final approval from Williamstown: http://www.iberkshires.com/story/44412/Williamstown-Panel-Green-Lights-Weston-Field-Renovation.html

Williams will have, in my view, the finest football facility in NESCAC once this is completed.  And it's long overdue, as Williams has done very little to upgrade its athletics facilites over the past 25 years.   

[AlDavis]

If Williams loses to Bates again this year ( Bates 68 - Williams 32 the past two years) they might go 3 -5........the Tufts Seniors this year won their very first game as Freshmans and have not won since losing 23 Strait.......does Trinity still have that very long Home Game Winning Streak going ?......any information on incoming recruits or transfers as Rosters are usually not posted until early to mid September.

[Jonny Utah]

If Williams loses to Bates again this year ( Bates 68 - Williams 32 the past two years) they might go 3 -5........the Tufts Seniors this year won their very first game as Freshmans and have not won since losing 23 Strait.......does Trinity still have that very long Home Game Winning Streak going ?......any information on incoming recruits or transfers as Rosters are usually not posted until early to mid September.

Tufts,  any word on the starting QB this year?

[AlDavis]

no...the only information I have from seeing the recruiting process the past 2 years is  that Williams , Wesleyan and Amherst have strong cohesive staffs and their act together in terms of football and of course selling the Student Athlete.....how does Tufts being the largest NESCAC school and most convenient location not get it together ?

[amh63]

Tufts....welcome aboard!   Trinity, I believe, still has that home winning streak going....though the Jeff's gave them a real scare last season. 
It is hard on players that have not won many games.  When my youngest son was at Amherst in the early 90's, Amherst had several bad, losing seasons and the college let an alumnus go and hired a coach from WPI that is now an assistant at Wes.  Anyway, my son's roommate left the team.  The seniors on the Jumbo's team are to be given credit for many factors.
Oh yes, you may have annoyed EHP faithfuls with your 3-5 projection...possible if Bates come through again.  Still, wins by the panthers, bantams , cardinals, bobcats and jeffs seem possible.  The hardest will be for Amherst...to win in Williamstown again...especially if it rains hard!
News on team rosters and new players are hard to come by before early September.  FY students at Amherst do not arrive until late August.

[frank uible]

The concept of the option offense was devised and first executed by Don Faurot at the University of Missouri in 1941..

[gridiron]

Teams report in 30 days....

Any news around the recruiting front? Strong incoming recruits at some and not so at others?

Always amazed at the significant differences in the way in which NESCAC schools approach recruiting and the latitude some have while others don't.  Despite the "bands" set to keep the playing field reasonably level, an aggressive admissions officer combined with a college president committed to winning sometimes leads to surprises and can turn programs around.

[amh63]

Nothing much to add on the recruiting subject  but wanted to add an experience that illustrated how times change .
Arrived in Richmond Va. On Thursday for family gathering and to support an event that my wife attends.  It seems that our downtown hotel is also the hotel for the Washington redskins NFL team.  I remember when the teams were housed in Div.3 College dorm rooms with no AC!
Heavy security all day long.  I thought the offensive line for Amherst this season will be "big"...about 6'4" and 275 lbs average.  However,  riding up in an elevator with 3 pro offensive linemen,  I realize how big they are...huge is a better word!  They must be about 325 lbs and6' 5" at least.
That was about the size of the panthers' lineman that was looked at by some Pro teams this year.

[NCF]

Nothing much to add on the recruiting subject  but wanted to add an experience that illustrated how times change .
Arrived in Richmond Va. On Thursday for family gathering and to support an event that my wife attends.  It seems that our downtown hotel is also the hotel for the Washington redskins NFL team.  I remember when the teams were housed in Div.3 College dorm rooms with no AC!
Heavy security all day long.  I thought the offensive line for Amherst this season will be "big"...about 6'4" and 275 lbs average.  However,  riding up in an elevator with 3 pro offensive linemen,  I realize how big they are...huge is a better word!  They must be about 325 lbs and6' 5" at least.
That was about the size of the panthers' lineman that was looked at by some Pro teams this year.

i agree, 300+ lbs. and 6'5  is about right, even though 300 lbs. is not good for your joints or overall health.