FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Nescacman]

Al Davis extremely happy to be checking in after 3 1/2 years. I could not figure how to log into my old account or retrieve my password if admin can help me with that. I was arrested in April 2014 and was never able to bail out with over zealous charges for sports gambling. Due to my very unfortunate demise caused great strain on my wife , son and daughter. Not to make any excuses but I believe to cause my son to make some very poor decisions which have cost him dearly and so very sorry for the causes and effects to Wesleyan as I was in such despair more than any other issue I faced in prison that my son would have caused any problems and such an enormous opportunity earned and allocated from all the great people at Wesleyan. The fall of 2013 was the best days of my life being part of Wesleyan and all the great people I met. For all my hardships and losses against me in my Racketeering case my son making an uncharacteristically poor decision causing embarrassment to the team and school. He is paying dearly and I still love Wesleyan and Nescac football and will proceed to catch up with 3 1/2 years of posts.

Welcome back to our old friend, Al. The Board (and we) missed your wit and wisdom.

[ColbyFootball]

Having seen polarcat and nothingbutnescac's Colby-Trinity predictions, I understand the Mules will not be making the trip to Hartford tomorrow. No point bothering.

[ColbyFootball]

Great story about Colby DT and captain Sam Gomez, who is living the American dream (as the son of Guatemalan immigrants) but also suffered a great loss as a sophomore when his devoted father fell ill and died quickly.

Nice story. Here's the link:
http://www.centralmaine.com/2017/09/14/colby-football-captain-gomez-plays-for-his-late-father/

[lumbercat]

Hope the Mules can hang in there but this Trinity team is just stacked.

If I were a member of the Mule offensive unit I'd be ticked off and a bit embarrassed by the headline of the football season preview on the Colby website.
"Defense, Baron to lead Football Team during 2017 season."
Baron is a fine kicker, one of the best in the league, but what a slap in the face for their offensive unit. Last time I checked Touchdowns are 6 points and Field Goals are 3.

And that was a great story on the Mule DT Gómez- talk about character. Best of Luck to him.

[PolarCat]

Any definitive news on Foy's status for tomorrow?  Has he recovered from his hammy injury?

It's strange that there is no season preview or game preview on the Amherst FB website.  Maybe that's because Mills is still making cuts, or maybe it's because of the SID situation, but still.  Kind of ticky tacky to be within 24 hours of your home opener and not have a preview up for your fans.   

[lumbercat]

P'Cat

I agree, the Turk has come and gone and still radio silence in Mammoth land. No preview or roster.

Amh63- Surely tomorrows game program should have an Amherst roster. I'll send you a copy on Monday.

[amh63]

Lumbercat....thanks for the gesture.  Nothing more I can say wrt the lack of normal gameday info...other than Maybe late today!  Usually HC Mills produces  an early season preview, golf outing pics, etc and a connection to social media football accounts on the football website.  On Wednesday, the site showed some life/ info.   On other Fall sports sites, the new team members have no pics or other info.  It appears a scramble for the asst. SID...a young alum.

[ColbyFootball]

Hope the Mules can hang in there but this Trinity team is just stacked.

If I were a member of the Mule offensive unit I'd be ticked off and a bit embarrassed by the headline of the football season preview on the Colby website.
"Defense, Baron to lead Football Team during 2017 season."
Baron is a fine kicker, one of the best in the league, but what a slap in the face for their offensive unit. Last time I checked Touchdowns are 6 points and Field Goals are 3.

And that was a great story on the Mule DT Gómez- talk about character. Best of Luck to him.

Thanks for pointing this out. I hadn't seen the article. And the O players should be upset. This is an example of why Michaeles is not a good HC. This may hurt the confidence of the O, when he should be building it up. Rhe HC just doesn't get it.

[Nescacman]

2017 Preseason NESCAC Weekly Power Rankings

1 (tie). Amherst (predicted 2017 record: 8-1): Regardless of who the QB is, this Team will bounce back from a less than Mammoth 2016 campaign. Amherst was our most Mammoth "disappointment" of 2016 and almost fell below the "Mendoza line" into the CBB relegation zone. We do not think that will happen this year as they bounce back into contender territory and have a Mammoth year.
1 (tie). Hartford State (8-1): HS will once again contend for a league title this year as they try to become the first CAC champ to go 9-0. They have once again reloaded with a terrific recruiting class. We give Coach Devanney a ton of credit. He knows full well that Trinity academically is not up the level of the other schools in the CAC and to that end gets players that can not get into any other school in the league. To quote one coach that we spoke with about HS in the pre-season "We were on all of their Top 15 recruits...and a lot of them wanted to come to (name of the school)....but we couldn't get one single one of them in...not a single one". I rest my case. Back to football, we have no worries on the offensive side of the ball where they return a bevy of starters including the O-Line and all league QB Puzzo. Our hesitancy to crown HS the Crimson Tide of New England revolves around their defense. All of the upper echelon in the league can score points in bunches. Can the HS defense contain the likes of Fawn's Lil' Bro at MID and Piccarillo at WES enough to allow Sonny & Co. to outscore them. We will see.
1 (tie). Wesleyan (8-1): More returning starters than almost anyone in the league (including the core of a Top 5 Nationally Ranked defense), a stellar recruiting class, and more first and second team all-NESCAC returnees than anyone spells trouble for the rest of the league. WES will be in the mix. We will find out early what this team has as they go on the road the face MID week 1 and open at home the following week against the original elephants, tufts.
4. Middlebury (6-3): We've said it here before, balanced offense wins championships. MID will go into 2017 the same way they have over the past 10 years, with a throw first offense, no huddle, limited run offense keyed by 2017 POY candidate FLB. They will rack up yards a and points below the Mendoza Line but will be challenged against the upper echelon as those Teams will play with a nickel or dime and dare MID to try to run the ball.
5. Tufts (5-4): We think the Original Elephants will take a slight step back this year after a surprising, stellar 2016 season. Losing Brady, who was a beast, will be big and this year they won't sneak up on anyone.
6. University at Bates (Lewiston Campus) (4-5): Huge difference from the top 5 to the bottom 5. The best of the worst, Bates will have a field day against the week sisters of the CAC. Unfortunately for them, the 9th game will prevent them from going .500.
7. Colby (3-6): Not sure what is going on here. We hear about a lot of issues with the HC yet he stays and we have a bunch of new coaches and players quitting. This Team will win (barely) against lesser competition and will get smoked by the better Teams in the league.
8. Williams (2-7): Wow, where do we start? First off, if we were Eph football alums, I'm not sure Former HCOF Kelton would want to meet us in a dark ally. What he did to this once mighty program is criminal. Second, please do not misunderstand our prediction here. This Team will only be marginally better (maybe) than they were last year when they went winless. The difference here is that Hamilton and Bowdoin are just that bad and we think the Ephs will have enough to beat them. Third, Raymond will get this Team back to respectability, but we're talking about 2019 at the earliest (and respectability does not mean 9-0, it means 5-4 and competitive against Trinity and their Little 3 brethren). Expect this Team to take their lumps as they play a lot of underclassman who will learn under fire what it means to play in the CAC.
9. Hamilton (1-8): Do they still have a Program?
10. Bowdoin (0-9): When thinking about the state of the Bowdoin Football Program, we started to think about what factors are important in building a successful NESCAC football program. In no particular order, we came up with the following factors: 1). Location of the School (including weather) 2). Academic Standing/Admissions (general inverse relationship) 3). Coaching 4). Recruiting (tied into coaching but too important to be lumped in) 5). Facilities (relative to football) 6). Diversity 7). Football Tradition/Importance 8). Student Support of Athletics 9). Game Day experience 10). Teammates/Players;  11). Admissions Support 10). Intangibles (includes food, uniforms, frats, etc.). Then we looked at Bowdoin relative to these factors in an attempt to explain to those Board neophytes why the PBs will never win (next week, we will rate all of the schools in the league against these factors). Location: F; Academic Standing: A+; Coaching: C; Recruiting: F; Facilities: C (but about to become an A); Diversity: F; Football Tradition: F; Student Support: F; Game day experience: D; Teammates/Players: A; Admission Support: F; Intangibles: C. We rest our case (and btw, we think Bowdoin is possibly the best academic school in the CAC, they are just football challenged).

Final 2016 NESCAC Weekly Power Rankings

1. Hartford State (8-0, LW: 1): predicted record-6-2
2. Tufts (7-1, LW: 3): PR-5-3
3. Wesleyan (6-2, LW: 2): PR-8-0
4. Middlebury (6-2, LW: 4): PR-5-3
5. Amherst (4-4, LW: 5): PR-7-1
6. (Tie) University of Bates (Lewiston Campus)(3-5, LW: 6): PR-3-5
6. (Tie) Colby (3-5, LW: 7): PR-3-5
6. (Tie) Hamilton (3-5, LW: 8): PR-2-6
9. Bowdoin (0-8, LW: 9): PR-1-7
10 Williams (0-8, LW: 10): PR-0-8

[PolarCat]

While several of your criticisms of Bowdoin are valid, how do you give them an F for location?  Bowdoin winters are no worse than Willytown or Midd, plus the Polar Bears have the ocean and Sugarloaf nearby for the off-season.  These are rugged young men we're talking about, not snowflakes who are afraid of the cold.  I'd take Brunswick in a heartbeat over Lewiston, Waterville, Middletown, Medford, and especially the Ghettos of Hartford.  Makes me wonder if you've ever actually been there?

[nescac1]

Yeah, as a neutral observer, I love Bowdoin's location; certainly in the top half of NESCAC schools based on its surroundings.  Clearly the best of the CBB trio, for starters ... Also, F for recruiting seems pretty harsh in light of what appears to be two straight respectable (at worst!) recruiting classes for the new regime ...

[amh63]

SurpriseL  Amherst's FB website has a Preview!   However, a 2017 roster is not available at thist posting time.
Back again.....a roster is up.  Quick count shows 24 of 25 FYs on the roster.  One previous QB is now listed as a WR in his Sr. Year.  Other  bits of info based on the possible starting lineup for Amherst is that Lineup shows a 4-3 defensive set, while checking the players looks like a 3-4 defensive set.  Expect lots of rotation of players on defense.  Offensive line shows a tall big Left side. 
With a big offensive line, Big RB Hickey should improve his stats. 
Hope the defense is ready for Bates' triple option offense.

[hamgrand]

9. Hamilton (1-8): Do they still have a Program?

Wow - this one liner is probably even harsher criticism than the lengthy analysis of Bowdoin.  (Although the Bowdoin analysis was pretty cool and I will look forward to next weeks analysis of each team!)  But Obviously no respect for the Hamilton program.

Certainly a New England bias on this board.  (Ok ... Duh ... After all it is ... New England ... SCAC.)   But being from NY and living there much of my life, I am still perplexed by the whole NESCAC vs NY Football phenom.  Both my boys have played in the NESCAC, starting in 2011 through the present, so I am also biased towards the league.  Like many of the NESCAC kids, my boys were actively recruited ... and could have played at any NY D3 school they wanted.  One chose Trinity - then transferred to Hamilton, the other chose Middlebury.  I also have a nephew that plays at RPI, so I have seen them play several games in the last several years (usually the early games before the NESCAC started.  )  Over many years I have followed high school football (mostly in NY - but we also lived 3 years in Western MA) and I have watched where kids have been recruited and gone to play in college.

My observations are that the NESCAC (including Hamilton) draws a pretty high level of talent compared to the pool of kids that go to play D3 at the NY schools like St. Lawrence, Hobart, Alfred, Ithaca, St. John Fisher, RPI, etc..  And yet conventional wisdom (national D3 rankings) says that these schools play a more competitive level of D3 football than the NESCAC.

The fact that Coach Murray came from Alfred to Hamilton, bodes well for the future of Hamilton Football.  It might take some more time, but I am convinced that Hamilton will continue to get more competitive in the NESCAC.  So I think the program is alive and well!  My son has graduated from Hamilton, but I proudly kept the handle, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for Hamilton.

But today I route for Middlebury!  Glad the season is starting. Best of Luck to all the teams!  Go Midd!!!

[polbear73]

Nescacman: I will let PolarCat and nescac1 do the talking, but you couldn't be more wrong about Bowdoin's location as well as the overall quality of life at the College. As PolarCat is aware, I have a serious problem with the pervasive PC culture, but you failed miserably in this part of the analysis. I doubt that you've ever been to MidCoast Maine.

[PolarCat]

What's the actual roster cap?  I always thought it was 75, but Amherst's roster is now posted and if my math is right, I count 77.