FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Charlie]

We should also have Nescacman do a power rankings on football recruitment. Which schools had the best recruitment and which ones missed the Mark at the half way point in season. Interesting to see how teams fared for recruiment during COVID. We can see that certain schools like Middlebury could not fill voids in their lineups and which ones may have moved up a notch like Bates.

[PolarCat]

For the record, Civetti CAN recruit kickers.  Willie Holmquist was one of the best K's in recent memory - so good that he went on to use his remaining year of eligibility to kick at D1 Duke, while attending grad school, and doing double duty as both K and P in the 2017 Quicklane Bowl.  Imagine that? A D3 kicker and Civetti recruit helping to win a D1 bowl game?  Also one of the finest young men you will ever meet, so highly regarded by his NESCAC opponents that Willie and opposing K's would hang together pre-game and at halftime, text and email each other encouragement through the season, and remain buds long after graduation. 

[lumbercat]

Hats off to Bates they played a tough game.

BUT

with under a minute to play the Bates coach calls for a pass to the endzone for a TD, what a clown. Real coaches take a knee and leave with a good win. What he did was wrong, but hey it's their "superbowl moment" so why not run up the score....SMH.

Now the last score....good for them. Tufts has no business running a hook & ladder, because they couldn't execute ANY plays all game, let alone the hook & ladder.

Freshman QB did as well as expected, but there were a couple of 3rd downs (4 & 5 yds) that I wished he would've tucked and ran. Pretty fast and had some moves, but not his fault....

I have zero problem with them scoring to take it from 19-10 to 26-10. That and kneeling it out are both pretty acceptable in my mind. It's not like it was a 40-point game.

It was 19-10 with 36 seconds left. It was 4th and 2 with the ball around the Tufts 30. If you take a knee you hand the ball to
Tufts with 36 seconds left.

Rather than run ball or turn it over to Tufts right there the decision was made to take a shot to the end zone. If the Bates WR is covered the play is to throw the ball out of the end zone- or put it in a place where only the Bates WR has a play on it. The Bates WR was wide open so they put it away right there.

No one padding stats- that was clearly the best call. Before you hand Tufts the ball on the 30 why not take a shot at the end zone- stranger things have happened. What if they gave the ball to Tufts there and the hook and lateral works?

That call had nothing to do with stats.

I never said padding the stats.....where did you get that.....

19-10.....it could've been 11-10. If you watched the game, you would know there is no chance in hell Tufts scores. They are terrible! Kicking game....punts yes....field goals/extra points, NO!! Go for 2 or go for the 1st down. I don't want to see another field goal/extra point for the rest of the season.....it was unbelievable. Maybe recruit a soccer player to kick next year.

They could go 0-9
[/quote


Hawk196 said "If you watched the game you would know there was no way in hell Tufts scores".........


Lumbercat said  you're kidding, right?    I was at the game---
No way in hell?.....when you are coaching you eliminate all possibilities. You can never assume anything until the games is over- Bates was up 9 with with 36 seconds left. Maybe they just should have walked off because there is no way in hell Tufts could score. Cmon, don't embarrass the Jumbos with this. It's a fine program over in Medford, they are down right now but they will be back. Stop it.

[nescac1]

I think the bashing of Tufts' recruiting is ridiculous.  Tufts routinely gets highly acclaimed players to join the program, including the only pre-season all-American in NESCAC this year.  There are always a lot of guys on the roster who were heavily recruited by many NESCAC schools.  Civetti took a program that was the absolute bottom feeder in NESCAC for an entire decade, and made it competitive year in and year out.  You don't do that without being able to recruit. 

As for this year, Tufts has certainly struggled but it has also had a lot of bad luck.  Tufts has played a very hard schedule, losing to the two best teams in the league, plus 3-1 Amherst, plus a Bates team that has been playing better and better.  Two of its losses were by three points in games it well could have won -- the Williams game was an absolute toss-up (Tufts certainly gave the Ephs their toughest battle by far this year), and Tufts outgained Amherst by nearly 130 yards. 

And you can't simply discount the impact of injuries.  How many NESCAC teams could survive losing TWO very talented QBs to injury, both of them right in the middle of games, so they are forced to play a first-year (and adjust their entire plan on the fly in two different games)?  That's incredibly bad luck at by far the most important position.  I don't think any other NESCAC teams have even suffered ONE injury to a QB this year, other than Midd.  Yes, the kicking game has been a huge issue, but I mean, LOTS of NESCAC teams including some very good programs have had years where they struggled to make field goals or even extra points.  There aren't that many great kickers to go around who slip out of the D1 orbit and recruiting is not an exact science. 

On another note, HOW has Amherst STILL not fixed its stats page?  It's utterly ridiculous ...

[amh63]

My take on Nescac1's recent comment.....Amherst's coaches are trying to improve the team's stats.....real tough games ahead....Williams, Trinity, Wes and now an improving Bowdoin in Maine.  There has been a lot of big games in other sports...soccer, field hockey, golf, etc. being played.
Last comment....was on the Nescac site checking out the sports' schedule....last week, the errors like opponents and location of games  are still there.

[Hawk196]

[/quote]


Hawk196 said "If you watched the game you would know there was no way in hell Tufts scores".........


Lumbercat said  you're kidding, right?    I was at the game---
No way in hell?.....when you are coaching you eliminate all possibilities. You can never assume anything until the games is over- Bates was up 9 with with 36 seconds left. Maybe they just should have walked off because there is no way in hell Tufts could score. Cmon, don't embarrass the Jumbos with this. It's a fine program over in Medford, they are down right now but they will be back. Stop it.
[/quote]

You're right it was 36 seconds......and for 59 minutes they basically scored 3 points

The kicker can barely kick it over the line, the outside blockers collapse....this is coaching. The most basic thing is extra points....

I'm glad you were at the game....I was at all 4

It's good to see some talk about actual football on this board, some people are fired up....or we can rank NESCAC uniforms 

Stop it? I have my opinion, you have yours.....So you stop it

[lumbercat]

I get it- maybe you're a frustrated Jumbo parent. I wouldn't expect Tufts to be 0-4 or to have fundamental kicking issues either but why rip everybody. I hope your son's experience will be good at Tufts when he looks back on his college career. I think it will. Civetti will right the ship- don't sell out all together.

I saw the Tufts kid nail a 35 yarder that would have been good from 45 earlier in the day so there is some ability there.

[Trin9-0]

Your Week 4 NESCAC Football Uniform Report:

Colby at Williams
Grade D
The only thing that could have made this worse is if Colby wore their blue pants. The whites aren't terrible, but a return to the grey pants for the Mules would be such an upgrade. As for the Ephs, they really need to ditch the black trim on their home jerseys and find a way to match the different shades of purple.


Bowdoin @ Wesleyan
Grade B
That's A LOT of black but for some reason it looked ok. Maybe it's the pop of Wes red? Either way, I think the more traditional Bowdoin uniform looked sharp when compared to the unnecessary piping on the Cards' jerseys. There's also something to be said about a game played on grass that just feels right.


Bates @ Tufts
Grade B+
While I love the Jumbos powder blue jerseys, I'm a firm believer that Tufts should wear brown at home. If only they could get the whole team wearing the powder blue socks! Bates is limited with their options but their away uniform is easily their best look.


Trinity @ Hamilton
Grade A-
This is the first time we've seen gold pants for Trin this year and I couldn't help wonder how good those would look on the Continentals. Still I like Hamilton's home set and the match-up offered just enough contrast. Overall a very sharp looking game.


Amherst at Middlebury
Grade A-
A big thank you to Amherst for finally giving us a break from the dingy grey pants. They looked great in the all white look which provided an excellent contrast to Midd's all navy set. While I would have preferred purple pants for the Mammoths and white britches for the Panthers I'll take what I can get!

[Trin9-0]

Wesleyan holds on to retain its share of the top spot in the NESCACMAN Power Rankings. You know what they say---it's hard to win at home against Bowdoin.

This post had me roaring. +K for you SpringSt

[polbear73]

Hysterical. Hopefully it will be getting harder to beat Bowdoin anywhere!

[Trin9-0]

In case you missed it, Jeff Devanney won his 100th game as head coach at Trinity on Saturday. He's the fastest coach to 100 wins in Trin football history. I'll have to look into whether or not it's the fastest in NESCAC history as well. Devanney has only lost 19 games in 15.5 seasons.


Also, can we take a minute to acknowledge how absurd Spencer Fetter has been? He's averaging 320 yards passing per game. That nearly 100 yards more per game than the next highest QB in the league (Joe Cairns, Hamilton with 229). He also has thrown for 13 TDs in just four games, which is nearly double the next highest (Bobby Maimaron, Williams with 7).
He also has one of the sweetest 'staches in the NESCAC!


Records aside, Trinity and Williams have clearly separated themselves from Wes at this point and the league seems destined to be determined on October 30 in Williamstown. That should be an advantage for the Ephs and Williams leads the league in passing defense, so if there's anyone who can slow down the Bantam passing attack it's Williams.

Wes on the other hand is last in the league in passing defense. This doesn't bode well for the Cardinals when the need to face both Maimaron and Fetter.

[Trin9-0]

Hysterical. Hopefully it will be getting harder to beat Bowdoin anywhere!

I guess I need to clarify that this was not intended as a shot at Bowdoin (who put up an admirable fight this past Saturday) but rather at Nescacman and his absurd claim from earlier in the week:

never easy to win in Maine...

[polbear73]

Trin 8-0, I never took it as a shot and, quite frankly, Bowdoin's recent performances over the years, deserve every shot coming at them. I haven't forgotten that, as improved as they seem, they still haven't won. A funny post,  no harm, no foul.

[Nescacman]

Hysterical. Hopefully it will be getting harder to beat Bowdoin anywhere!

I guess I need to clarify that this was not intended as a shot at Bowdoin (who put up an admirable fight this past Saturday) but rather at Nescacman and his absurd claim from earlier in the week:

never easy to win in Maine...

Says the man who takes a paycheck from Wesleyan and claims NESCAC titles for Hartford State before NESCAC even existed as a football conference...

[Trin9-0]

Says the man who takes a paycheck from Wesleyan and claims NESCAC titles for Hartford State before NESCAC even existed as a football conference...

I'm not sure what Wes being my employer has to do with your absurd claims. For what it's worth, I root for the Cardinals football team 8 times a year.

As for Trinity's NESCAC championships, they had the best record among NESCAC schools for every year listed in the signature below. Sorry if that rubs you the wrong way but it's 100% true. If you're fixated on the official beginning of NESCAC football starting in 2000, then maybe I'll update it to say that I've personally won more NESCAC football titles than Wesleyan... which would also be 100% true.