FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[harlequinfarm]

Beautiful evening in Willytown last night.  They had a fine bbq dinner for the young men and their families, out on the lawn behind the stands.  What a wonderful welcome to the entire football family, and a family it is. 

We are blessed to be in the local area (by Nescac standards).  A couple of families were in from afar, and returning there shortly.  If they are like us, they have been at their son's every game his whole life.  Now, he's 1000 miles away and some of the games, they just aren't going to be there. That's a gut punch to be sure.

Our extended family, unfortunately, will be following along from a distance, too. 

What are the best options for remote people to stay on top of games? 

[footballluv]

All Mules report this Saturday for intense conditioning  evaluations.

Bowdoin night game option still in limbo

There are a lot of good FYs at Colby's Camp.

[amh63]

harlequinfarm....nice info wrt Williams' football program.
Expect new family members of the football family will find their way to keep in touch with their sons.  Watch the games online and start posting here and attend a few live games.
Many years ago, I posted here about parents from New Orleans that rented a house in Amherst during the season.  Even brought their Chef up to have a big cook out before games.  Their son was the QB.

[NBC93]

With the upperclassmen reporting over the last few days, I was wondering if anyone has noticed any unexpected transfers showing up to any of the NESCAC camps. I was especially wondering about Amherst. I haven't heard much.

[monjmafb]

Beautiful evening in Willytown last night.  They had a fine bbq dinner for the young men and their families, out on the lawn behind the stands.  What a wonderful welcome to the entire football family, and a family it is. 

We are blessed to be in the local area (by Nescac standards).  A couple of families were in from afar, and returning there shortly.  If they are like us, they have been at their son's every game his whole life.  Now, he's 1000 miles away and some of the games, they just aren't going to be there. That's a gut punch to be sure.

Our extended family, unfortunately, will be following along from a distance, too. 

What are the best options for remote people to stay on top of games?

Agree, it was a delightful night in Williytown on Saturday.   The BBQ was great, but too short - so many people to see. 

The new Williams Inn, BTW, is fantastic.

Re staying in touch, get the NSN (Northeast Sports Network) app for streaming.   If you do not have it readily available, you can get it with an Amazon Fire stick.  All NESCAC FB games are broadcast via NSN

[Trin9-0]

Earlier posts (Amher?) asked what brand uniforms each school uses. As I previously indicated, Colby is, in fact, using Adidas.

Here are those new Colby Adidas uni's:


New white jerseys for Hamilton:


A new helmet stripe for the Bobcats:


New black matte lids for Bowdoin:


A little tough to see but new home uni's for the Bants as well:

[lumbercat]

Very surprising to see the Mules changing the uniform. It's been the best looking uniform in the league for many years. The medium Blue jerseys with the silver pants was a first class pro style look.
Also surprised to see them move to what appears be a darker blue....almost navy blue but maybe it's the photo.
Overall, more of a high school look IMHO.

I guess everything is subject to change and I'm sure this is part of Cosgrove's influence on the program. At least they kept the helmets but maybe they will take the horse head off and replace it with the classic Colt style horseshoe from years past.

At the end of the day if the players like the uniforms that's what is most important.

Bowdoin has gone full circle back to the flat black finish that Wells had just replaced with the white helmets couple of years ago. I guess I'm in the minority on this one but I thought the white Bowdoin helmets were their best ever. Not a fan of the flat black but I guess it's the tough look.

Some light discussion while we wait for the season to start- no one will be thinking much about uni's when things get going.

[polbear73]

Very surprising to see the Mules changing the uniform. It's been the best looking uniform in the league for many years. The medium Blue jerseys with the silver pants was a first class pro style look.
Also surprised to see them move to what appears be a darker blue....almost navy blue but maybe it's the photo.
Overall, more of a high school look IMHO.

I guess everything is subject to change and I'm sure this is part of Cosgrove's influence on the program. At least they kept the helmets but maybe they will take the horse head off and replace it with the classic Colt style horseshoe from years past.

At the end of the day if the players like the uniforms that's what is most important.

Bowdoin has gone full circle back to the flat black finish that Wells had just replaced with the white helmets couple of years ago. I guess I'm in the minority on this one but I thought the white Bowdoin helmets were their best ever. Not a fan of the flat black but I guess it's the tough look.

Some light discussion while we wait for the season to start- no one will be thinking much about uni's when things get going.

I preferred the white helmets too-they embraced the unique official color-white and, frankly, I thought they looked better.  It's been explained as the new staff putting its own stamp on the program although, ironically, it's kind of a step backward. 

Having said that, a former roommate and teammate of mine was on campus when the team returned and spoke to a few of the players.  To a man, there is optimism in Brunswick and that the players love Coach Hammer, saying he is tough but fair and showed his dedication by being in the weight room every day working with players in the off season.  Time will tell of course, but it seems like a good first step has been taken. 

[nescac1]

Article on first day of Williams practice:

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/williams-college-football-team-hits-the-field-for-first-time-in-2019,583128#top-carousel

Just getting to close to a full roster is a big difference from the last few years ... Williams had fewer than 60 healthy guys last season.  Hopefully this season can start with more than 70.  By next season, with four years of Raymond recruits, the roster should be very deep everywhere. 

Surprised to see Dan Vaughn switching to TB after he looked good at WR late last season.  TB should be really stacked for the Ephs this season, but one of the big question marks (certainly the big one on offense) is who will emerge as the consistent number 2 / 3 threats at WR to help out Stola and TE Burke.  Michael DeGasperis is the only returning receiver, other than Stolla, who had more than 10 receptions last year, and a lot of different guys rotated in and out of those number 2/3 slots. 

[ITH radio]

When I spoke to Coach Ray last month he called this his most experienced roster since he took over.

[amh63]

FYs' today have time to meet their sport coaches.  More time allotted....in the morning...as orientation continues.  Rosters to follow soon...maybe we will see if there are new uniforms for the football team.

[gridiron]

Good article on Colby football beginning the 2019 season.  Culture changes under Coach Cosgrove.

https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/08/27/colby-football-begins-work-for-2019-season/

[Trin9-0]

Devanney provides a pretty thorough season preview for the Bantams in this video.

The biggest takeaways for me:

• While the returning talent at WR has been previously noted here, Trinity also has incredible depth at that position.

• Devanney notes both QBs when discussing strength of offense. Perhaps they are considering playing both...?

• Spencer Lockwood is likely to be the new workhorse at RB and it sounds as though he's ready for the role as Devanney expects a "breakout year" from him.

• He mentions Austin Biardi as one of the top 3, if not the best, Trin OL in the past 20 years. That's extremely high praise considering the talent along the offensive line in recent history.

• Kicking game is the biggest question mark following graduation of Eric Sachse. He mentions a couple of freshmen who will likely compete for the job.

• Closes with remarks on the difficulty of opening the season on the road against a quality program (Tufts). Despite the importance of the the first game of the season being cliché, the opener really is huge for Trinity this year.

[Hawk196]

any news on Tufts?

[gridiron]

As the preseason begins, I'm reminded how fantastic it is all teams in the conference play each other with the 9 game format.

Mixing the schedule up is a another great Improvement and overtime will provide more level playing conditions.  Kudos again to those administrators, presidents, coaches, ADs, etc. for getting it right.