FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[polbear73]

PolarCat, I've been m saying this about Bates football since the early 70's and they were putting together long losing streaks but Bowdoin legend Phil Soule called Bates Week Boiled Owl Week.  What's the toughest thing in the world? A boiled Owl. Since this week in Brunswick is known as Boiled Owl Week in homage to the physical licking that Bates would put on you.  We'd win the game but most until the end and we paid for it.

[Charlie]

In a very commendable show of total class following the handshake line most of the Colby players walked over to QB Costa who was immobilized on the sidelines and individually shook hands and offered their respect. They knew if the kid was around the second half the result may very well have been different.

Good luck to the Mules against the Black and White but they've got a problem to deal with in between in the person of a re emergent Tufts team.

That's a classy post lumber.  +K

As classy as the Mules were, I have boundless respect for the Cats this year.  They were handed the ultimate sh*t sandwich in 2021.  Lost their HCOF right before the start of the season, small roster, horribly lackluster recruiting class.  Yet they fought hard in every game, punched above their weight, and never, ever gave in.

Perhaps their biggest obstacle is the sheer indifference of the Bates Administration and student body, past and present.

Saturday was Senior Day, and the Bob Cub went to the game to pay his respects to the members of the Class of 2021, who were FY's his senior year.  He did not see a single other teammate from the classes of 2015 through 2020 at Garcellon.  And he estimates the total student attendance at the game as +/- 75.

Under the circumstances, it would be easy for the boys to give up on the season, their new coach, and their teammates.  But they didn't.  20 seconds left and they were still fighting for the win, with their star player knocked out of the game and a FY at the helm.

I have respect for the Devanneys, Raymonds and EJ's of this world who can build a winning program. But I have more respect for the scrappy underdogs who keep fighting despite adversity on all sides.

Too bad Clayton Spencer doesn't realize she has something remarkable there.  Those kids may not win the CBB, but they are winners in my book.

The bottom line it starts with President and filters down. If the administration offers its full support it would get the Coach  , recruits have admissions work with program and turn that ship around. However the school clearly does not care about the football program and is evident in how it handles Coaches & recruits etc. We also have to remember that sports is not a money maker in NESCAC.

The weekend just shows you the determination of the kids and there desire to play the game. Sadly this NESCAC institution is not alone and I defy you or anyone to tell me every schools focus is to field a team to win a championship. I have to give Bowdoin credit at least on the outset Hammer seems to be trying to correct the path but Bowdoin administration still could care less if they win one or 7 games. I think if maybe some of these Presidents played the game of football then they would realize. Tufts unveiling there new field instead of the mud bowl and less then 100 people at the game is disgraceful. There were ,ore Williams fans at that game then the home team. The fact that they built the field with private money when they are one of the richest NESCAC schools tells you something.

There is no other feeling then going to a Saturday game tailgating hearing the band play , packed stands and watching a competitive football game. Not only do the students and school benefit but the surrounding community as well. People will travel stay over  , eat out etc. You are entirely correct sadly these Preidents do not get this. I beleive the NESCAC could be bigger than it is , more competitive , playoffs etc. However these President are living in 1970 as long as tuition check clears and endowment comes in they are happy.

[polbear73]

Charlie, that is not what NESCAC is as the league presidents continue to guard against football emphasis, the main reason NESCAC was founded. If you want more emphasis, find a new league to follow.

[Charlie]

Charlie, that is not what NESCAC is as the league presidents continue to guard against football emphasis, the main reason NESCAC was founded. If you want more emphasis, find a new league to follow.

Again this is what the statement about Bates and some of the other schools. I recognize that NESCAC is not a football emphasis league.

[lumbercat]

Sounds trite and overworked but you will see significant changes at Bates in the offseason. Look for major scale housecleaning initiative within the Football program after the season is over.
There will be significant changes and upgrades to the program.

Bates and Colby very even teams despite 3 years of the Cosgrove factor and huge leaps in the area of administrative support on Mayflower Hill.

The feeling in Lewiston is despite the program being in complete turmoil with depleted roster and coaching staff they would beat Colby if Costa doesn't get hurt. They played very competitively in other games as well.

A lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda but when you are at a low point with your program but are playing competitively with some very good programs the planned changes will have very profound influence moving forward.

Already 15 "commits" and 11 class of '22 guys staying for another year and this number could grow.

Despite a very tough year there is an immense amount of optimism despite having to start over from scratch on the failed rebuilding project that began in 2018.

[Nescacman]

Great win for Amherst!

Honestly, I can't recall a game with such a big disparity in penalties called (12-104 for Wesleyan against just 1-5 for Amherst).

I have to say that the Wesleyan webcast was really enjoyable. Nice use of replays, professional sounding play-by-play guy, and Whalen of course provides outstanding color commentary. Others can disagree, but my take on the broadcasters was that while they were critical of the officiating, they were even more critical of Wesleyan's undisciplined play. The offensive holding penalties (and there were several) were driving Whalen (a former OL coach, of course) particularly crazy. He didn't identify a single hold as a bad call — in fact, at least twice during the broadcast the play-by-play guy identified "holds" by Wesleyan offensive lineman that the officials did not end up calling.

Obviously, I wasn't keeping notes or anything, but based on my memory the following were the biggest specific gripes the announcers had with the officials (I could well be forgetting a play or two).

1. In the first quarter, on what would be Amherst's first "sustained" drive of the game, Breckenridge threw a quick seven yard pass to his tight end who took a step and promptly "fumbled" the ball, recovering his own fumble, setting up third and short which Amherst converted. The drive immediately stalled out afterwards and Amherst punted. Whalen was convinced that this should have been ruled an incomplete pass. Based on replays I thought it was a little closer than Whalen suggested — the TE did seem to take a step and a half — but I also tended to think this was an incomplete pass.

2. In the fourth quarter, Amherst faced a fourth and 1 at around midfield. The officials called Wesleyan for offsides. Whalen acknowledged that (multiple) Wes defenders jumped, he simply argued that no flag should have been thrown because no Amherst lineman moved in response and all the offending Wesleyan players returned onside before the flag was thrown. This was an interesting point he made and it was close but I do think the Amherst right tackle moved in response to the interior jump by Wes which is what prompted the flag. In any event, Amherst turned the ball over shortly thereafter.

3. This, I think was the "big" one. Late in the fourth quarter as Wes was attempting a four-minutes drive to put the game away, there was a scrum after the play and a big ref conference. The announcers were convinced that Swope was going to be called for a personal foul. Instead it was called on a Wesleyan player. Whalen and his colleague were quite upset by this, arguing that it should at least be offsetting. To be perfectly honest, even from the replay I couldn't really make what happened on either side. This was certainly a consequential penalty though as it ultimately ended any hopes Wes had of icing what would have been a 14-7 victory without having to give the ball back to Amherst.

Again, obviously a great win for Amherst and a fun game to watch (at least for me) even if the conditions at Andrus were incredibly sloppy. In a way, Amherst's game winning play summed up the day for us. Low shotgun snap that Breckenridge couldn't handle. He bends over to pick up the ball and promptly puts it back on the turf. Then he picks it up again and seemingly blindly shotputs into the end zone into the waiting arms of Ochsenhirt for the winning score. Gotta love it! 

For Wesleyan, Estevez was very impressive.  He punted several times (too many times, which I will get to shortly), returned kick offs and is obviously a handful to deal with on the ground.  McPhee was actually Wesleyan's most impressive runner. I don't know if it was the conditions or something else, but Wes was very conservative on offense.  I recall one drive where Estevez was consistently looking downfield for Tomlinson — that drive ended in a Wes touchdown — otherwise Wes had no downfield passing game to speak of.  I'm not going to run the numbers but there can't have been too many times this year where Amherst outgained an opponent in the air. Again, that does not speak super well of Wesleyan, I am afraid.

I am a huge Amherst homer, but, in all honesty, it would be hard for me to conclude from this game that Amherst is the better team. We certainly deserve the win, but Wesleyan just completely shot themselves in the foot. I will say though, unequivocally, Wesleyan got completely out Coached yesterday. Mills called a masterful game throughout. "Dice" on the other hand seemed totally lost.

1. Penalties. While a lot of these can be blamed on individual miscues, there were simply so many of them that the coaching staff has to bear some responsibility here.

2. Lack of downfield passing game. I discussed this above and maybe the weather had something to do with it but Amherst was able to throw the ball downfield with success in the second half. Wes seemingly never tried it. Tomlinson is supposed to be this great weapon but he was largely kept under wraps.

3. Conservative decisions. Wes punted at least twice from inside the Amherst 30! Even the announcers were puzzled by that one. I know the conditions were tough but if you have a top flight offense (which is what NESCACman had been leading me to believe) than go for it! Or, if you really have an all world kicker, go for a field goal. Punting accomplishes nothing.

4. Punting on third down. Wes did this twice during the game. One time was arguably justifiable. The last one seemed like a massive mistake. Up 14-7 at their own 12 with under 3 minutes to play Wes face a third and 24 (following the personal foul referenced above as well as a delay of game), Wes had Estevez punt! I have never seen this before and I think this was a rare miss by the announcers who were otherwise fair in criticizing Wes. I know getting a first down in that spot is really hard, I know they had a snap-punter exchange problem earlier in the first quarter, but you have to burn clock there! You simply cannot throw a down away giving Amherst 40 seconds or an extra time out.

5. After Amherst converted a Fourth and 1 in the red zone on what would be its game tying drive at the end of the game, Amherst moved to spike the ball. However, Wes inexplicably attempted to change personnel (despite no personnel change for Amherst) and so had to burn a time out and thus saved Amherst a down and a second or two of clock.

Anyway, it was a fun game and would be great to win the Little III this year!

We think AmherstStudent05 did a pretty good job of summing up some of the details of the Cards/Lord Jeffery game on Saturday, however, we wanted to add our two cents:

1. Very entertaining 4 OT affair played in the slop in Middletown...we're sure it was more entertaining if you are a fan of Lord Jeffrey as opposed to the Mysterious Ministers of Middletown but we digress.
2. Saying HCOF EJ "out-coached" Dice is, in our opinion, completely false...there were legit reasons for every decision made during the game including punting on 3rd down (with Estevez in the gun...the LJs had no one back in punt coverage to guard against Estevez running the ball) which led to 3 downed punts inside the LJ 20...the weather was so bad it became a game of field possession...other than a few plays after half-time, the Amhurst offense had a hard time getting anything going against the Wes defense all-day...Wes out-gained the Lord Jeffs by almost 100 yards and had nearly 10 minutes more in time of possession...of course the disparity in penalties (104 for Wes; 5 for LJ) was the great equalizer in the game.
3. Hats -off to the Wes defense which limited Amhurst to 263 yards of total offense (including only 42 yards rushing on 28 attempts), held the LJs to 2 of 13 on 3rd down conversions, recorded 5 sacks, had 8 tackles for loss and recorded 2 interceptions....Exceptional play for the second straight week....they'll need to step-up again this Saturday to have a shot against the Purple Cows.
4. The weather conditions should be discussed a bit more....we think it had a HUGE impact on the game...much of the game was played in a wind driven rain (other than parts of the 2nd quarter)...when the rain let up, the Wes offense was able to move the ball well just before half...the weather situation was exasperated by playing on grass...in the 4th quarter and OT, the field conditions were essentially unplayable...obviously, both teams were playing in the same conditions, however, we think that it had much more of an impact on Wes because of their style of play than it did on Lord Jeffrey.
5. In our opinion, you play the game on a dry field on a dry day, Wes wins by 2 TDs....just our opinion....conjecture and it doesn't matter because the Lord Jeff's won the game. End of story.
6. We've been asked why Wes didn't move the game to their turf practice facility at Citrin Field as they did against Bowdoin in 2018....first off, that was a game against Bowdoin, not Lord Jeffrey....nothing against the Polars, but a game against them (and UBates, Colby, Hamilton et al) is not the same as playing the Lord Jeffs, the Purple Cows or Hartford State at home...this was a homecoming game with a big crowd (even in the awful weather) that Citrin would not be able to handle (along with the tailgating which was admirable despite the weather and NESCAC's dumb tailgating rules).
7. Speaking of the crowd, hats off to those that braved the wind and rain on Saturday...another big crowd of 5,500 comprised of students, alums, parents, and the greater Middletown community....wonder how big the crowd would have been on a gorgeous day?
8. As noted, the officiating was really bad and very one-sided. Item 3) on AmherstStudent05's list of bad calls was the worst...If you watch the tape, clearly LB Swope should have been flagged...at worst, it should have been off-setting penalties but certainly not a penalty solely against Wes...this occurred at a crucial time in the game when a few Wes first downs would have iced it for the Cards (like at Tufts)...in a game of this magnitude, the refs should not have an impact on the game and unfortunately, they did in a major way...bad job by them big time.
9. We agree that both teams were very conservative in their play calling...probably helped the Lord Jeffs more since their offense is more one-dimensional and less dynamic than Wes's.
10. Lord Jeff's HCOF seems to have settled on Breckenridge as their QB of the future...our assessment is he is another QB in the mold of Ollie...a game manager who isn't going to win a game for you but also isn't going to lose it for you either...he isn't really spectacular but will do what needs to be done to keep the LJ's in the game and allow their defense and other players on offense to win it for them....we'll say this about him, he is a tough SOB who took shot after shot from the Wes DL and continued to bounce back for more.
11. We were disappointed in the EJ coached LJ's...usually very classy...they were seen at the end of the game dancing on the Cardinal logo in the center of the field....keep it classy Jeffrey...remember, what comes around goes around.
12. Had the Cards won, no doubt LB Isiah Miller would have been NESCAC DPOTW....8 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks...great effort by him. DE Jackson Eighmy also had a helluva game recording 2 sacks and 2 TFL. LB Swope and DB Goodson (NESCAC DPOTW) had great games for Lord Jeffrey. 
13. Congratulations to the Cards All-Decade Team from the 1970's and former AD and HCOF Don Russell both of whom were honored Friday night at a dinner  and at half-time.
14. Cards still have a shot at a part of the league title by winning out over the Purple Cows and Hartford State.....not an easy task mind you, but definitely on the table.   

[jumpshot]

Nescacman: too much of your monologue cites excuses and what-ifs, comments more likely made by young fans, rather than experienced competitors who have experienced and accept the volatility of athletics. Keep in mind NESCAC games have always been for the players ... perhaps keeping that viewpoint in mind will add value to your reporting.

[Charlie]

Sounds trite and overworked but you will see significant changes at Bates in the offseason. Look for major scale housecleaning initiative within the Football program after the season is over.
There will be significant changes and upgrades to the program.

Bates and Colby very even teams despite 3 years of the Cosgrove factor and huge leaps in the area of administrative support on Mayflower Hill.

The feeling in Lewiston is despite the program being in complete turmoil with depleted roster and coaching staff they would beat Colby if Costa doesn't get hurt. They played very competitively in other games as well.

A lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda but when you are at a low point with your program but are playing competitively with some very good programs the planned changes will have very profound influence moving forward.

Already 15 "commits" and 11 class of '22 guys staying for another year and this number could grow.

Despite a very tough year there is an immense amount of optimism despite having to start over from scratch on the failed rebuilding project that began in 2018.

Do not know how old he is but Coach Caputi from Middlebury would be a great choice for that program. He would have flexibility to hire and the academic admissions are not as stringent as it is at Middlebury. Again he would have to deal with administration. The timing could be right since Middlebury seems to be on a decline  , administration toughening academic requirements and several top recruits offered have gone elsewhere. Timing may be right.

[polbear73]

Totally agree. These players are varsity athletes and have every right to play on the main venue as any other team regardless of record. This was seen as very disrespectful

[polbear73]

Charlie, I doubt very seriously that Dave Caputi would rather not take such an undertaking at this point in his life. But keep those cards and letters rolling in.

[JEFFFAN]

I watched most of the Amherst-Wesleyan game and as a Lord Jeff fan I believe that the summary NESCACMAN put out there is spot on.   The weather did impact the game, slowing down the better offense in Wesleyan and giving Amherst a fighter's chance to win the game.   Hard to argue that the officiating wasn't a little bit in our favor although for the life of me I cannot understand why a home game for Wesleyan would have ended up with such a disparity.   Anyway, kudos to NESCACMAN for a good write-up!

[nescac1]

With two games left, a shot at POY candidates:

OPOY: 1. David Estevez / Bobby Maimaron (if one of them wins while outperforming the other on Saturday, that's the winner), 3. Spencer Fetter (the three contenders) 4. Andre Eden, 5. Joel Nicholas

DPOY: 1. TJ Rothmann, 2. Tony Hooks, 3. Ian Devine (the three contenders) 4. Tim Swope, 5. Jackson Eighmy / Noah Glantz

ROY: (assuming 2024 guys are not eligible so no Fetter, Eden, Swope, Boel, etc)
1. Michael Berlutti (nearly a lock at this point) 2. Mario Fischetti, 3. Ivan Shuran (really, slim pickings ...)

[AmherstStudent05]

Nescacman, you seem to be conflating a few different things in your defense of Dice. When I wrote that Wes got "outcoached" on Saturday I did at least take the time to provide very specific examples to bolster my argument — and I even tried to give Dice the benefit of the doubt on a few situations where I could (although I have a hard time finding any "legit reasons" for the substitution error Wes seemed to commit at the end of the game).

As for punting in particular I raised two very specific criticisms: Punting on third down with less than four minutes to play (something I honestly can never recall seeing before) and punting (twice) from inside the opposition's 30!  Perhaps there are "legit reasons" for each of these decisions but your post surely fails to elucidate any of them.

Are you honestly telling me that your entire consortium endorses these decisions? Even if you told me that the Wes punter had a broken leg and the long snapper had a broken wrist, I still wouldn't want to give the ball back to my opponent when nursing a 7 point lead with just under three minutes to play. Make the opposition burn a time out!

[The Mole]

05, what is the "substitution error" you are referencing?

Nescacman, you seem to be conflating a few different things in your defense of Dice. When I wrote that Wes got "outcoached" on Saturday I did at least take the time to provide very specific examples to bolster my argument — and I even tried to give Dice the benefit of the doubt on a few situations where I could (although I have a hard time finding any "legit reasons" for the substitution error Wes seemed to commit at the end of the game).

As for punting in particular I raised two very specific criticisms: Punting on third down with less than four minutes to play (something I honestly can never recall seeing before) and punting (twice) from inside the opposition's 30!  Perhaps there are "legit reasons" for each of these decisions but your post surely fails to elucidate any of them.

Are you honestly telling me that your entire consortium endorses these decisions? Even if you told me that the Wes punter had a broken leg and the long snapper had a broken wrist, I still wouldn't want to give the ball back to my opponent when nursing a 7 point lead with just under three minutes to play. Make the opposition burn a time out!

[AmherstStudent05]

On the final drive of regulation, Amherst converted a fourth and 1 in the tight red zone with their heavy personnel package. After the first down was granted, Amherst moved to the line quickly to spike the ball to preserve their last remaining timeout (this is the timeout Wes could have made us burn by running an actual play on third down rather than punt). For some reason (I would say inexplicable but NESCACman assures me there is logic in everything) Wes was in the middle of a personnel change (Amherst kept the heavy personnel on the field) and so Dice had to burn a timeout just as Amherst was about to spike the ball.

Seemed needlessly sloppy to me although in the end it didn't factor into the outcome as Amherst scored on the very next play anyway. Still saved us a down though.