FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[PolarCat]

Gorgeous fall day at Garcelon Field.  Cards did not take the field for the National Antjem.  A grand total of 33 Wes fans in the stands.  Truly weird.

[RetiredMule]

PC - the protests have hit the teams and the fans now. Time to panic.

[polbear73]

Anyone expecting a competitive Hamilton-Bowdoin games was right.  Hamilton won, 26-25 in a very entertaining game that was in doubt until the end.  Lots of sloppiness with several blocked kicks, penalties, and defensive lapses, but the two previously winless teams put on a show.  Hamilton's final winning drive was aided by two major Bowdoin penalties on their go-ahead touchdown, forcing the Polar Bears to kick off from their own 10 yard line.  Hamilton capitalized and give them credit. 

[Vandy74]

I have a social commitment in less than an hour but want to put my two cents in.  Ignore the final score.  This was a great football game for three periods.  I grew up watching the Panthers play and we had two BIG games.  Norwich and Williams.  I HATE Williams.  (Just being sarcastic here Nescacman.)   I have nothing but respect for Williams football.  They will be back sooner rather than later.

[PolarCat]

The Bates Wes game was a much closer battle than the score might suggest, with the Bobcats D playing superbly.  The keys to the Wes victory:

- A masterful performance by the Rillo twins, Picci and Cari, who put on a clinic in the second half. There were no blown coverages, but the QB sibling threw with incredible accuracy and perfect weight to get the yards when they mattered.

- Wes won the OC battle going away, with well designed packages and routes.  Meanwhile, Bates got timid, abandoning last week's creativity and retreating to the same old same old.  "Third and twelve?  Let's run the option.  The Cards will never expect that!"

-  Bates Special Teams had a rare off day, with Wes' first three scores capitalizing on Bates problems:  a partially blocked punt, a fumbled snap, and a fumbled kick off return.

The pleasant surprise of the day was the sportsmanship shown by the Wes offensive linemen:  helping the Bobcats D linemen with equipment problems, extending a hand to Bobcat LB's to help them up after tackles, etc.  Great to see.

Wes is definitely a contender.  Good luck to them in the second half of the season.

[westcoastDad]

Meanwhile, at Amherst game.....will say this:  EJ Mills has better players on his bench as ISLAND TIME HAS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY.

THE Morales kid at QB? 3rd string?  He plays like he was the preseason starter.  The running backs playing behind Hickey brings speed.  #27?  Soph that showed a lot today even tho he's 4th or 5th back.  The secondary?  Whew....I saw lots of strong plays from the 2nd unit.  We already see that John Rak is best PK and he began the season 2nd string.   He's got a lot to work with that's for sure.
But!  We still suck inside the 10 or on short yardage.  He better find a fullback and put QB under center.  Quit being stubborn.  Make adjustments.

Colby showed little today.  Score could have been worse of Amherst had converted twice from inside the 5 in the first half. 

Watched some of the Trinity/Tufts game!  Love the background crowd.  If that was Tufts traveling fans....they are exceptioNal. It lookED like a real football game with fans in the stands.  And the competition on the field was very good.  The Jumbos are getting better but Trinity is tough. 

USC game is on.  Gtg

[RetiredMule]

I was too generous #FireMichaeles

[lumbercat]

West coast dad-

That was the home stands you were looking at
on the video but no doubt the Tufts side was packed.
2 undefeated teams in Hartford---I wasn't there but I'm
sure it was a huge crowd.

PolBear73- geez- trying to figure out how that game was so close-
It Looks like Hamilton totally dominated yet they had to come from behind at the very end to pull out the victory- can't figure this one out.

Retired Mule-
No one knows more about a Nescac program and how good they are than those who are in the program or have recently graduated.
Bad loss for the Mules but you have called their plight objectively----everything you have posted has been totally correct.

[JumbosMom]

Well needless to say I'm heartbroken. But by no means can anyone say that the Jumbos did not give Trinity (not Hartford state college or whatever it was Nescacman was calling them) a run for the money and made them work hard for the win. Then caught up in the 4th with 5 mins on the clock to a score of 36-28. I am still very proud of the young men who brought everything they had to the field of battle and that's what it is all about. Our traveling fan base is certainly devoted and loud bringing as much energy to the team as we can. Nescacman say what you like about the Jumbos but they have fought an uphill battle the last four years and have tremendous talent on the team. D3 football is not the NFL it is smart driven young men who will graduate and move on to be very successful in life . They play ball for the love of the game and the sense of brotherhood and being a part of something bigger than themselves. That does not make them anything less than the talented dedicated athletes that they are despite a win or a loss.  Your comment about bringing them down to earth is unfounded because they have earned to be respected as a threat and have never been less than humble about their place in the Nescac. Off my soap box now .....

On to the next game!

[Nescacman]

The Bates Wes game was a much closer battle than the score might suggest, with the Bobcats D playing superbly.  The keys to the Wes victory:

- A masterful performance by the Rillo twins, Picci and Cari, who put on a clinic in the second half. There were no blown coverages, but the QB sibling threw with incredible accuracy and perfect weight to get the yards when they mattered.

- Wes won the OC battle going away, with well designed packages and routes.  Meanwhile, Bates got timid, abandoning last week's creativity and retreating to the same old same old.  "Third and twelve?  Let's run the option.  The Cards will never expect that!"

-  Bates Special Teams had a rare off day, with Wes' first three scores capitalizing on Bates problems:  a partially blocked punt, a fumbled snap, and a fumbled kick off return.

The pleasant surprise of the day was the sportsmanship shown by the Wes offensive linemen:  helping the Bobcats D linemen with equipment problems, extending a hand to Bobcat LB's to help them up after tackles, etc.  Great to see.

Wes is definitely a contender.  Good luck to them in the second half of the season.

Another great day of Nescac football in absolutely perfect October New England weather. We watched most of the games. Hate too gloat, but we were right on several accounts today including HC's thrashing of the Jumbo's and Amherst rolling the Mules. Apparently, Michaeles did give them off again today.

Polar....watched some of the Bates/Wes game and what we saw did not jibe with your recollection of the game. Being objective and looking at the Bates offensive production today:  5 first downs, 132 yards of total offense, 0 for 13 on 3rd down, and and 22 mins TOP along with 13 punts (1 of which was partially blocked) and 1 muffed punt snap tells me the score could have been worse, not better. As far as the Bates D is concerned they did hold Wes to "only" 367 yards of total offense. One other point, we watched Bates stud defender Mark Upton very closely when we were watching. Although he is a nice player, we have no doubt that Bates continues to be very liberal with awarding assisted tackles. He may have had 4 solo tackles, but there is no way he had 8 unassisted tackles. We think there is an inverse relationship between the quality of the program and accuracy of the tackles stat category, which of course is totally subjective.

[westcoastDad]

Thanks Lumbercat for the intel.  I wish that NSN would put the camera on our home stands just the same. Smh.

Retired Mule:  it has got to be tough for a living legend to watch the current product that Colay is putting out there.

Wesleyan, here we come baby.  The Purple Moose is on has just begun another streak.  You're #2.  Can't wait!

[IslandTime]

Traveled up from Florida to catch my first Amherst game. The weather was phenomenal and the setting for game was just beautiful. I have been to many many college games in my day and I have to say that I have never had a better game day experience. The tailgating was fun and lively and being able to walk from my car carrying my beverage of choice straight to the sidelines was amazing. The Amherst higher ups just let people do their thing and it is fantastic.

Pregame I was thinking that Colby would give us a good game as they certainly have some sizable players and some athletic players at their disposal. Now granted, the talent is better for the Purple with having what I roughly estimate to be 10-12 legit D1 sized/talent players that chose to play at Amherst rather than a lesser academic D1 school. But I can't believe that the coaching is so woeful at Colby that they couldn't muster any real drives during the game. The Amherst D is smothering.

Big recruiting weekend for Amherst as their were probably 20-25 recruits being hosted this weekend. And what a great day to have them visit. Picture perfect weather.

WestCoastDad....I spent a good part of the game speaking with Morales' dad who had flown in from Seattle to also watch his first game in person. Great guy. As Amherst was consistently driving the ball into the red zone, when it was short yardage, I mentioned to him that it would be nice to see them run a QB bootleg with a pass option in the flats. Colby was doing a great job in his Jose situations of selling out and packing the box to stop the handoff to Hickey between the tackles. Nick's dad said I was probably the 5th person to mention that to him. We both agreed, loosening the raines on him and allowing him to run a little would open up the arsenal a little.

Like I said before and maybe it was because I was watching my son in person, get his first collegiate start on kickoff and also a great deal of time at linebacker in the second half due to the score, but watching a football game at Amherst is a great experience! Totally impressed with every aspect. NESCAC football is special...

[lumbercat]

Island Time
As many have stated on this board----outside of New England most don't  understand the whole NESCAC experience- especially in the southeast and on the West Coast.
Welcome aboard.

[PolarCat]

Polar....watched some of the Bates/Wes game and what we saw did not jibe with your recollection of the game.

What part did you "not jibe" with?  My comment that the Wes OC owned the Bates OC?  My comment that the Bates D hung tough, despite being on the field for over 38 minutes?  My comment that uncommon lapses by the Bates Special Teams led to the first 3 Wes scores?

You probably should reach out to the Wes SID then, because their summary of the game also doesn't "jibe" with what you claim to have seen: http://athletics.wesleyan.edu/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20161015o2csy4  I mean, they probably watched the entire game while by your own admission you only watched "some", but you are Nescacman so by definition you must be right.

PS: Since you always refer to yourself as "we", shouldn't you properly be "Nescacmen"?

[westcoastDad]

Island Time great to see that Hurricane Matthew didn't slow your roll.  Also glad to hear that our QBs Dad made the trip!  I had mentioned to him that last year I made 3 of the 4 games my son had started (Wesleyan, Trinity and Williams).  The red-eye people got tired of seeing me.  You're right, that autumn weather on a Saturday afternoon is awesome.

To your observations.  They probably aren't running Nick Morales purposely to prevent injury.  He is our 3rd QB and the kid behind him....seems like a tough runner but not nearly the thrower that Morales is yet.

If he just held the ball a second more and just took off towards the pile on...he would have scored easily.  But, he's trying to force things that aren't there.

I still suggest just going under center and adding anew extra lineman at fullback and run Hickey or any strong back behind their best offensive line side. 

Not sure what to say about the Colby coaching.  But, clearly they didn't fool the Amherst defense today.

20-25 recruits eh?  Surprised so early in the season.  We have some big games coming up (Tufts and Williams) at home.   

Safe travels back.  Make sure to try out the tavern.  Their Sunday breakfast is very good!