FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

I think the right College President can have as big of an impact on a program as the right quarterback.

[amh63]

PolarCat...hitting the " big times" with your posts it seems

Adding my two bits here...football news still with a big lid down at Amherst.
Several Amh Presidents ago...came to Amherst from Trinity's head positon....had an interesting take on college athletics' impact/place in the life on campus...to paraphrase a little.."Athletics is the sweatest of the Liberal Arts".

[middhoops]

PolarCat...hitting the " big times" with your posts it seems

Adding my two bits here...football news still with a big lid down at Amherst.
Several Amh Presidents ago...came to Amherst from Trinity's head positon....had an interesting take on college athletics' impact/place in the life on campus...to paraphrase a little.."Athletics is the sweatest of the Liberal Arts".

"Sweatest" doesn't sound very Amherst.  Did this Pres make other equally cringe-worthy puns?

[PolarCat]

Maybe he meant "sweatiest"?

[Jonny Utah]

Thanks Johnny- very true- but I beg to differ on the support of the good BU teams in the 80s and 90s- when they completed a least 4 times in the 1AA playoffs. The local support was good.

I remember some fine teams at BU and also remember the many Terriers that went on to have very good pro careers......Bruce Taylor, Pat Hughes, Butch Byrd, Reggie Rucker, Jim Jensen and Dick Farley of Williams fame. All had fine pro careers and I could go on.

Silber was a bitter, vindictive individual- beleive he also canned the baseball program. If highly endowed institutions like BU make decisions on the status of major intercollegiate sports based on the P&L of that individual sport they are doing a diservice to their students and alums. I understand title 9 and all the extenuating factors but find it dispicable to cut baseball and football at a school like BU.
Wonder how profitable their new lacrosse program will be-

Appreciate your insights Jonny as a local guy - you grew up in a great area. In the old days on any given Saturday you were a stones throw from college Football venues at BC, Harvard, Northeastern, BU and Tufts.

Yea definitely a great area for football.  BC, BU, Harvard and Northeastern were 4 programs within probably a 2 mile radius of each other.  My freshman year in college was 1993 and I went to a home playoff game where BU defeated Kurt Warners Northern Iowa team in 2OT if I remember correctly.  It was about 10 years later that I found out Warner was the Northern Iowa QB.

And no, I don't think the support was there for a team that had a stadium right on campus, especially in the early 1990s.  Only about 3,000 fans for their last game ever, and less than 1,500 I believe for the season opener when I was in HS (1991 or 1992).  I don't remember the 1980s so much in terms of crowds, but when I went to games there wans't much.

BU also cut scholorships at some point and they still did well.  Northeastern just went up and ended the program after the last game.  Gutless classless move by the AD and president there.  They left a lame duck coach in there on purpose to fail so there wouldn't be too much pushback.  BU had a little more pushback from what I recall, and their scholarship drop almost backfired on them!!

[fulbakdad]

The other thing that the overnight shutdown at Northeastern did was screw up a lot of committed players.  There was a boy on my sons team who was told by the Northeastern coaches he was all set and to hold out.  He did, all the way till they shut down the program!  He ended up going to Stonehill.

The other way it screwed up kids was there were a lot of scholarship players at Northeastern that were now looking for homes.  Some moved into programs in the area, taking scholarships away from those that were looking.

[amh63]

Middhoops.....what can I say....the Prez was a strange dude.  If my memory serves me...he never lived in the Prez house at Amherst...lived in Hartford, I Believe...his wife worked in NYC as a lawyer.  He made the Trinity alums mad with his departure.  He was smart enough to NOT interfere with athletics at Amherst...IMO.
Sorry PolarCat.....your spelling is correct!  Wow, let a Big Green alum correct me....not hard.  My family gets their jollies when I distort the American/English language.  They say that our language is a " growing" one.....example...selfie!
Actually...my error was that I put the word Sweetest first and realize it was the wrong term....made a mistake in spelling when I only changed only an "e" to an "a".   Oh well...what can an immigrant do here.

[PolarCat]

No worries amh63; your secret is safe with us, and we won't report you to Donald Trump.

[Jonny Utah]

The other thing that the overnight shutdown at Northeastern did was screw up a lot of committed players.  There was a boy on my sons team who was told by the Northeastern coaches he was all set and to hold out.  He did, all the way till they shut down the program!  He ended up going to Stonehill.

The other way it screwed up kids was there were a lot of scholarship players at Northeastern that were now looking for homes.  Some moved into programs in the area, taking scholarships away from those that were looking.

Yea Northeastern did it in the worst way possible.  After Don Brown left (and had the program at a top 25 level), they hired Rocky Hager who clearly wasn't able to compete in the Northeast the same way he had success up in North Dakota (he is now an assistant at The College of New Jersey).  Instead of firing him after his 4th or 5th year when it was clear he wouldn't and couldn't get the job done, they kept him and just told every one the program was going to end after the last game.  Real low class stuff.

[amh63]

This discussion about the sports at Northeastern......what years/time period did the events happen?
Cause....I have a Classmate that was the Prez at Notheastern.  He built up UMass-Boston first.....moved then to Northeastern.....left it in much better financial shape.  He may still be admin head of Mass state public colleges.  Married to the Prez of ECSU. 
Nice guy....but you can blame him...he is an "educational" politician...even as an undergraduate .

[fulbakdad]

2006/2007 If I remember right.

[ITH radio]

Any insight on kicker Rio Schmidt? Transferred to Hobart from Colby but I don't see any stats on him in 2014 with the Mules.

[lumbercat]

Schmidt was highly touted coming into Colby from Texas as a RB and punter or so it was reported- he has transferred to Hobart as a kicker.

On anther Colby related story I dont mean to rekindle past controversy but Justin Ciero is not playing at Fordham as perviously alleged on this board and has never been listed on their roster.

Very strange story.... Who knows...maybe the kid just didn't want to compete any more......a big loss to Colby and too bad that Cieros talent goes for not. Second team All Nescac as a soph and was a playmaker.

Harrington is the guy in Waterville but they say the 3rd stringer Saparacio is an athlete who will be moved..... Ecke will remain as backup and may get reps in the slot ala Dunklee.

Michaels will certainly have the option pass in with the slot guy, Ecke  and will also have the infamous option pass to the defensive lineman as they deployed with Villiette to squeak out a great win against Hamilton a couple of years ago.

Michaels is a very creative guy and doesn't mind averting to unconventional tactics to keep the opposition on their toes- he played a number of guys both ways early in his tenure at Colby but moved away from that when fatigue took its toll on the mules in the late stages of games.

Michaeles has got a lot to work with this year.....Lipani is a potential all league back and Hurdle Price is every bit as good. Arsenault will be a force at WR but the Mules had the best offensive force in the conference last year in Dunklee and couldnt figure how to get the darn football in his hands. With a new offensive coordinator in place they are determined to make sure that doesn't happen again....beleive HC Michaeles will be making sure of that.

O'Grady solid at LB and if they can evoke some killer instinct in Marano it will serve the Blue and Grey well.

[PolarCat]

Colby's 2015 preseason roster has got me scratching my head - they show 5 newcomers to the team (presumably competing for roster slots) only one of whom is a 2019.  Surely they have more than one incoming recruit this year?  It also appears they just filled an AC position this past week, which means the QB coach will have less time than the QB's to learn the offense.  Given the discussions we've been having here about the QB situation, this seems exceedingly odd.

And this Rio Schmidt business is strange, too.  His Hobart bio (http://www.hwsathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6616&path=football) states "Played in five games for the Mules as a first-year ... Had three carries for 21 yards on the season ... Rushed for a season-high 16 yards against Tufts."  Turns out he was a '17 who played for Colby in 2013, not 2014, so he must have taken a year off between Colby and Hobart. 

The write up in his home town paper makes Schmidt sound like Smash Williams, and says he was originally recruited by Bates, but fell in love with "Ivy League" (sic) Colby, where he was recruited as a K/P.  Maybe he wasn't content riding the bench behind Colby's Louw Scheepers, though he did get the chance to make 4 punts for the Mules, with a long of 36 and an average of 32.  Seems kind of crazy not to wait it out though, as Scheepers was a '15, and only went 1 for 7 on FG's last year.

The article claims Schmidt was close to Opgenorth, so maybe that played a part in his leaving Colby.  (After his one season as HC at St. Norbert's, Opgenorth will be an AC at Baldwin Wallace this year).

If I recall correctly, Hobart is Division 1 for football, so maybe they were able to give the kid a better financial package.

[Pat Coleman]

Nobody is Division I for football unless they are Division I for everything. Hobart is a Division III regional contender, has the highest D-III draft pick in the NFL.