FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[sigma one]

BJ is a quality coach.  If he gets some support, Bowdoin can expect to be better.  Give him a couple of years to turn the program around.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Bowdoin got a good one.  And he will not be out of his comfort zone in recruiting players who can fit academically.  The NCAC schools may not have the national profile of NESCAC schools, but they are no slouches academically (IIRC correctly, I think having a Phi Beta Kappa chapter is a membership requirement).

[Grabowski]

Spent the weekend with Dan DiCenzo and his staff at Wesleyan with my middle son who is an OL/DL.

I have visited Amherst (Older son) /Midd/Williams/Trinity and Tufts so I have seen inside of most of the the programs in the league. Very impressed with athletic facilities at Wes and the coaching staff is young and seem to very high energy guys. Now I know why DiCenzo has turned Wes into a consistent winner in the NESCAC.

Heard a neat story that there was a wealthy Wes alum that was donating a substantial enough amount of $$$ to build a new football facility to rival Williams and Amherst, but the rest of the alumni base, shot down the proposal in order to keep playing at Andrus Field in the middle of campus. Considering it's history of being the longest consistently played football field in the country, I guess that tradition won out over keeping up with the facilities arms race.

1) A couple years in, those first impressions of Coach Dice have held true.  He's an enthusiastic players' coach who genuinely cares about each kid, on and off the field.
2) IMO it's good they shot down the new field.  Love the game day feel at Wes.

[GoBlue61]

Best of luck to the new Bowdoin football coach.  I like that they went out of the region for the new coach.  There is enough talent on board to be respectable quickly.

[wally_wabash]

Interesting hire.  I would certainly count this as "out of the (NESCAC) box". Sounds like he's done some great things in short time building teams from the bottom. Taking a team from 1-9 to 6-4 in just three seasons is quite impressive. Looking forward to seeing how things go for the polar bears moving forward.

As many of us have said on here in recent weeks, the success of this hire will be based largely on how much the Bowdoin administration wants football to succeed.

Best of luck to Coach Hammer!

I think this actually undersells the job Coach Hammer did at Allegheny.  When he went to Meadville, Allegheny (a national powerhouse in 90s btw), had legitimately eroded into a bottom 25 team in the division.  He inherited a vastly undersized roster (physically undersized, not necessarily quantity) that had trouble stopping anybody on defense and getting first downs- let alone scoring points- on offense.  His impact there was immediate.  I saw a new energy and confidence there in year one.  In year two he had a full recruiting class and time to build his coaching staff the way he wanted (every coach except the HC changed from year one to year two there).  Better talent meant more wins.  Year three and he got the Gators to a winning record for the first time in eight seasons and finished 6-3 in league play losing only to the league's tri-champions (Denison, Wabash, Wittenberg).  The other loss came to national quarterfinalist RPI in the opening week.  He pretty rapidly built Allegheny back up to a team that was beating everybody but playoff level teams, and I do think that he has Allegheny in position to challenge for an NCAC title this fall. 

From where I sit, this is a very strong hire for Bowdoin.  Best of luck to Coach Hammer and best of luck to the Polar Bears!

[nescac1]

Former Eph Mike Bajakian returns to MA, will be Boston College's offensive coordinator:

https://ngscsports.com/2019/01/15/bajakian-named-oc-qb-coach-at-bc/

[polbear73]

Thanks to the posters for the information on and impressions of Coach Hammer. Hopefully this unconventional search process will lead to the support he will need.

All previous coaches remain in their jobs and it will be interesting to see how the staff shakes out.

[Trin9-0]

A few Trinity commits:

Trinity:
Rob Milhaly, OL, 6'3", 235, St. Joseph, Trumbull, CT, Named 1st team All-State
Darren Warren, DB, 5'9", 183, St. Joseph, Trumbull, CT
Kevin Clark, TE, 6'1", 220, RHAM, Hebron, CT
Wes Terzi, QB, 6', 182, Sheehan, Wallingford, CT
Luke Folan, DE, 6'2", 235, Catholic Memorial, West Roxbury, MA

A couple more future Bantams:
Jamie Chery-Valentin, CB, 6'1" 185, Dexter Southfield, Brookline, MA
Cooper Mandel, ATH, 6'3", 215, Ramsey High School, Ramsey, NJ

[lumbercat]

BJ Hammer replaces JB Wells.......maybe it makes sense for Allegheny to hire JB to replace BJ, that may work.
In all seriousness I believe it would work quite well for Allegheny.

[Fear the Poet 63]

BJ Hammer brings intensity and work ethic to wherever he goes. I think Bowdoin will be quite happy with this hire

Good Luck Coach

[quicksilver]

Here's a little video from BJ Hammer talking about his general approach to coaching football.

[Trin9-0]

This article from the Hartford Courant is about the CT Defensive Player of the Year, Union College-bound Jack Flanagan, from Daniel Hand High School in Madison. However, it also references his teammate, Julian Banjieri, who was a 3rd-team All-State selection as a DB who recently "decommitted from Bowdoin and committed to Union".

[lumbercat]

Julian Banerji (sp) was recruited by Trinity and was recruited directly by JB Wells to Bowdoin. Assume Wells departure influenced his change of heart.

[lumbercat]

Here's a little video from BJ Hammer talking about his general approach to coaching football.

BJ is very impressive- and he may not realize what he is inheriting- everybody said it was a bad situation but they were already turning the corner. It's a better situation than thought. Somebody pulled the plug there on an impulse from left field. Cub AD Ryan sold it as his decision.

BJ will benefit big time. Timing is everything.

He doesn't have to tear things apart or totally change much of anything.....just tweak it and mold it to his philosophies. What a perfect situation.

Hammer is a defensive guy so young Tim Vial and the infamous Jonathan Micheales will presumably be running the offense???

[PBPOP20]

Word is Shem Bloom, DC is definitely gone.  No surprise there.   Team's initial impression of BJ is good...  taking a wait and see approach.
Viall's situation unclear.  Viall was set to attend some events that he cancelled out of creating speculation that he is gone as well. 

Maybe we should give ColbyDad BJ's number so he can bring him up to speed on Michaels ;-)