FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[jumpshot]

Everyone knows that the most valuable guiding principle on football roster size is that the game is for the players. Williams always had open rosters in football enabling participation by all who want to put in the time, effort, and discipline to acquire life skills from amateur athletics, even they never played a down and simply attended four years of practices.
The demand for reduction in roster size was originated by the presidents of the NESCAC schools in Maine, not by the "General Manager", and approved by the remaining presidents as an accommodation.

[Pat Coleman]

In my era, there were freshmen teams that played each other....as well as soccer, baseball teams playing against the Ivy schools and D1 state schools, etc.  Much like the squash teams today.

Freshmen were also ineligible for varsity competition in those days as well, right?

[amh63]

Pat Coleman....recall that freshmen teams....all male schools then..only played freshmen teams.  Today, first-year players can play on varsity teams in all sports.  My class was a small class...in order to reduce Amherst's enrollment to 1000.  Still lots of talented multi sport classmates that could play varsity sports as "freshmen".   Remember a classmate from Pa. that dominated a soccer scrimmage with Harvard....a team with a number of Olympic foreign soccer players.  Harvard coach took steps to prevent my classmate from playing during the regular season.  Amherst's coach dropped Harvard from the schedule.  Just read that Amherst's enrollment has reached over 1800!

[gridiron]

The pandemic has made it extremely difficult from a recruiting standpoint for the ivy league as well as other schools. Whereas Harvard for instance typically has 80% of their incoming recruits nailed down by August 1, it may take longer this year perhaps providing opportunities for NESCAC recruiting possibilities.

[gridiron]

In thinking more about it, the situation may work against NESCAC recruiting in that more players will wait longer before committing, as they wait to see if they get Ivy offers.

[amh63]

gridiron...interesting points wrt Ivy schools and the Nescac.  Several "historic" Amherst football recruits....there are about 4-6 Amherst football players that have played in the NFL...with varying impacts.  There was a walk-on to the Amherst team that became a captain on the Detroit Lions, a starting linebacker on the Miami NFL undefeated champions that went on to become a medical doctor, etc.  Yes, then there are the Ivy level QBs that transferred to Middlebury.  However, the Nescac has an advantage over the Ivies wrt recruits.  The Nescac schools allows a student athlete to play more than one sports in his or her stay in school.  I posted awhile back that there was a student from Harvard that transferred to Amherst in order to play three sports...all which she excelled.  Amherst had a recent player...a kicker...that also was a fine baseball player.  He was from the West Coast...Bay Area.  A senior WBB starter from Ct. also was a starter on the volleyball team. So is a WBB senior guard that is a starter on the lacrosse team.

[The Mole]

Williams TEST OPTIONAL for 2020-2021 Application Cycle, knew Tufts had made a similar announcement recently. Between the college admissions scandal and now COVID-19, this may be the death knell of the College Board. We shall see.

Hope everyone is safe and healthy, strange days indeed.

[Trin9-0]

Trinity football's Instagram account indicates that they have 31 incoming first year players. Meanwhile a tweet sent earlier today from their Twitter account indicates that the new Class of Bantams will be released next week.

My recollection was that NESCAC commitments couldn't be shared by schools until May 1, but perhaps something has changed given the shifting landscape of higher-ed admissions.

[amh63]

Trin8-0....most interesting comment.  Hit the tweet button on your post.  Seems that your arch rival Cardinals has a tweet stating  that they will announce/post their new recruits on April 15.  Appears the May 1 date has been lifted.  Oh well....there is no news from Amherst on their new players.  Side issue....there is another Nescac school......posting on the twitter page that their summer football camps for prospects.

[lumbercat]

Wesleyan always recruits well in NJ. Year after year more NJ guys on their roster than any other NESCAC program.
Not sure who handles NJ for the Cards but he/they doing a great job.
Trinity always produces great recruiting results but Wes seems to own Jersey.

[nescac1]

Unsurprisingly given Raymond's ties to New York state and Williams' close proximity to the state, Raymond seems to be really killing it in the New York recruiting. 

Three of the twelve "golden dozen" Westchester scholar-athletes are headed to Williams next year (Calvin Jackson, Zach Barnes and Michael Tartaglia).  All three look like very solid D3 recruits:

https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/high-school/varsity-insider/2020/01/31/calvin-jackson-jonathan-berger-enzi-teacher-golden-dozen-honored/4597413002/

Ian Devine, Paul Harshbarger, Joel Nicholas, John Rooney, and Frank Stola are Raymond recruits from NY who have already made a big impact on the program.  I think it likely that nearly all, perhaps all, from that group are all-NESCAC players at some point in their careers.  There are plenty of other young guys from New York on the roster who will get a chance down the line, as well.  The New York state connection, as well as Raymond's stellar connections with Duxbury (in particular) and Boston College H.S., have fueled a lot of the Ephs' growth in talent level over the past few years. 

Oddly enough, the one place where Coach Kelton did seem to recruit well from was New Jersey (I assume that these were all Kelton recruits, I'm not sure, but seems like Raymond was hired too late in the cycle).  Many of the Ephs' best seniors last year hailed from Jersey (Apuzzi, Horihan, Pruss, Subjinski). 

[lumbercat]

I'm told that Frank Cosolito Middlebury TE has drawn some attention from NFL scouts but interest has not been at a level where he will be pursued or signed.
Another NESCAC guy who is generating some more serious NFL interest is WR James O'Regan from Amherst.

[SpringSt7]

Last year there were 11 DIII football players who were on active rosters as of September 3rd, 2019, including Stephen Hauschka, although he was the only player who was not signed out of his D3 school. For our sake, we're gonna count that 

Wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world, but Cosolito makes a lot more sense to me than O'Regan. Both have decent size, however.

[lumbercat]

While I don't think either guy has a legit chance it's more plausible for me to picture  O'Regan in the underneath WR role like Chris Hogan or the D3 guy with the Vikings. Cosolito a fine athlete but too small for TE in the NFL these days---assume they may project him in the same WR role as O'Regan. O'Regan a better receiver in my estimation.

[nescac1]

I have a hard time imagining O'Regan being able to get enough separation against NFL cornerbacks as a WR.  I don't recall him having blazing top-end speed (like Hogan does) or fast-twitch quickness.  He didn't absolutely dominate NESCAC competition the way some other WRs have in recent years.  I think he would have to put on about 30 pounds and transition to an H-back sort of role to have a shot ...