FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[nescac1]

Just to shift to football, anyone want to share thoughts on the outlook for next year's teams?  I'll start with Williams.

Most significant losses to graduation (ooof): QB Bobby Maimaron, WR Frank Stola, TE Justin Burke, LBs T.J. Rothmann, Ed Manzella, and Jarrett Wesner, OL Pat Watson and John Rooney, P Andrew Schreibstein.  Just brutal. 

All-league returnees: TB Joel Nicholas, T John Freeman, LB Coleston Smith, CB Rocco Giandomenico, DE Ian Devine, K Ivan Shuran.  Not bad at all!

Other returnees with all-league potential:  TBs Mario Fischetti and Dan Vaughn, DBs Chaz Cotton and Drew Michalek, CB Josh Wax, C Tallon Gareli, NT C.J. Vilfort, WR Mike Degasperis, maybe one of the young DEs. 

Potential break-out young players who played a smaller role this year: OL Tim Forth and Mike Tartaglia, WR Cam Lee, DE Ryan Carney, LBs Zach Barnes and Ethan Scott

Biggest strengths: DL ... two-deep with talented guys at each spot led by DPOY candidate Ian Devine, plus five other returning rotation guys all of whom played their first year of football last season, they could really dominate up front on D this year.  DB ... with Josh Wax (presumably) back from a season-ending injury, they return the entire unit (effectively, five starters) from the best pass defense in the league last year.   TB: three of the top TBs in the league in one unit.  Nicholas was a monster in the second half of the season especially, and Fischetti is electric.  K: Shuran is the best kicker the Ephs have had in many years. 

Biggest question marks:

I mean, obviously, QB.  Maimaron was a transformational player for the program both with his talent and leadership.  The entire offensive system will likely have to change without him, and the belief he instilled among teammates, alone, was worth a lot.  Jack Dickinson and Colin Schofield are two talented guys in the pipeline, but neither has gotten a chance to do much besides hand off in garbage time.  Both look like they have big arms (especially Dickinson), and both are good athletes, but neither is (obviously) a runner like Maimaron. My guess is that Dickinson's the guy but Schofield got a ton of hype in H.S. ... it's really ANYONE's guess and I assume both guys will get plenty of chances early in the season. 

Beyond that, Williams needs to replace a senior class that was as transformational as any we've ever seen in NESCAC. Stola, Burke, Wesner, Rothmann, Watson, and Rooney were all among the best at their position in the league for nearly every year during the last four years. 

With Stola and Burke finally gone, and especially with a presumed more balanced offense, Williams will need to find someone besides Degasperis to catch the ball this year.  I expect a trio of speedy frosh all of whom suffered season-ending injuries (Lee, Ledden, and Morrison) to all get opportunities in the passing game.  Could be a spot for a recruit to step in right away too.  But a huge question mark on next year's squad for sure.  I assume Williams leans heavily on its TBs early until they figure out who is going to be reliable catching the ball.

Losing three all-league level linebackers (including the best LB in the league) is also an issue but I worry less about that because, with so many injuries at LB last year, lots of guys earned significant experience (Hemmer, Landolfi, O'Mahoney and Scott, any of whom could start alongside Coleston Smith, all played a lot, certainly Hemmer should start) and some other guys could move to the unit.  Barnes made a lot of big plays on specials and perhaps Carney moves to OLB to ease up the log-jam on the DL a bit.  Raymond always puts together a great LB core. 

Losing Watson and Rooney together is also just massive, but both of them missed time due to injury so hopefully the experience their back-ups earned pays off next year.  The Ephs do return six linemen who started at least one game last year.

The final question is how to get enough touches for Nicholas, Fischetti and Vaughn, a good problem to have.  I imagine we may see more two-back sets, maybe use Vaughn at FB or Fischetti in the slot, and also utilize them in the return game.  If those are, as appears likely, the Ephs' three best skill guys, they need to find ways (and I expect they will) to get the ball in all of their hands ... Fischetti in particular is a guy who could end up being used in a versatile slash role while Nicholas and Vaughn do a lot of the heavy lifting running inside.  But he definitely needs around double the touches that he got this year (going from 6 to around 12 per game). 

In sum, I think the Ephs return enough talent, especially on defense, that they will still be right there with Wesleyan and Trinity next year, but there are too many question marks to make them the presumptive favorite heading into the season.  Of the three teams, Wesleyan brings back the most, Trinity has several big losses but certainly fewer than Williams, and Williams loses the most.  Since they were 3, 2, 1 respectively in the league, I see next year as a toss-up among those three. 

[Charlie]

What I am saying is that if the NESCAC wanted to they could create some type of playoff where one meets two or play champion from another league. There is no reason NSCAC should not be playing 10+ games when every High school and other Colleges do even Ivy League plays ten games

   Most of the NESCAC regulars have tried to explain it as politely as they could, but this is the key point. They. Don't. Want. To. The conference and its member schools are happy with what they have. You need to deal with it.

Wow direct and to the point ! 

Like you said maybe an out of conference game is a hope.

What about a Spring Game between schools that would be interesting ?

[amh63]

Gosh...never logged out. 
Charlie...I have been around before there was a NESCAC...when Amherst played baseball with UCONN, soccer against Harvard.  No Playoffs, etc....period.  If one wants a topic for conversation here....how about a new member to Nescac?  How about MIT joining.  MIT has a football team and has been playing more Nescac schools in other D3 sports of late.  Remember, Conn College...who won the soccer title recently does not have a football team. 
Logging out now .

[Charlie]

Gosh...never logged out. 
Charlie...I have been around before there was a NESCAC...when Amherst played baseball with UCONN, soccer against Harvard.  No Playoffs, etc....period.  If one wants a topic for conversation here....how about a new member to Nescac?  How about MIT joining.  MIT has a football team and has been playing more Nescac schools in other D3 sports of late.  Remember, Conn College...who won the soccer title recently does not have a football team. 
Logging out now .

I get all of that but dont you think that there comes a time for change. Williams built new football complex not long ago, Trinity built new stands ,Tufts a new facelift. I would think that so much is wrapped around football for Homecomings and Alumni fund raising then why not try to tweek a product just a little. I know because they dont want to.

[Nescacman]

Gosh...never logged out. 
Charlie...I have been around before there was a NESCAC...when Amherst played baseball with UCONN, soccer against Harvard.  No Playoffs, etc....period.  If one wants a topic for conversation here....how about a new member to Nescac?  How about MIT joining.  MIT has a football team and has been playing more Nescac schools in other D3 sports of late.  Remember, Conn College...who won the soccer title recently does not have a football team. 
Logging out now .

Always thought MIT (or Hopkins) would be great adds...MIT would be easier given their current league affiliation and the fact that you don't have to deal with the dynamic of D1 lax...

[SpringSt7]

MIT reputation wise is obviously nice to have but they would be a major research university joining the country's predominant liberal arts conference. I think the best fits would either be Union or Vassar, obviously Union would make the most sense from a football standpoint. Adding either would make basketball travel a whole lot easier too!

[amh63]

SpringSt7....you must check out the courses for some of the present Nescac schools like Tufts and Midd.  Remember one of my professors at Amherst left to join the MIT staff to help add more liberal arts courses...to give the " engineers" in training the ability to express their thoughts clearer

[nescac1]

I really think if NESCAC ever expands Vassar makes PERFECT sense.  No football but I think they don't want an eleventh football school anyway.  Union has the issue of being D1 in hockey which doesn't really fit with NESCAC.  It's also another looonnnggg trip for 9/11 schools in NESCAC and Vassar is very accessible to many NESCAC schools (who also want an excuse to play fairly close to NYC where many recruits hail from). Plus, Vassar is a perfect fit institutionally in terms of academics, history, etc. 

Also, with Vassar you could have two divisions really easily divided either north/south (Williams, Midd, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Colby, Bates in the north) or east/west (Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Tufts, Conn College and Amherst being in the east).  Either way it's a pretty equitable division with the only downside being splitting up the little three.  If you wanted to keep traditional rivals together, you could do Williams/Amherst/Wesleyan/Midd/Hamilton/Vassar as one division and Trinity/Conn/Tufts/Bates/Bowdoin/Colby as the other.   If Vassar is ever interested NESCAC should recruit them hard.  I would love a basketball schedule for Williams with a double round robin with Amherst, Wes, Midd, Hamilton and Vassar and single games vs. everyone else. 

[polbear73]

Vassar ticks all of the boxes for NESCAC membership and would be a great way to smooth out scheduling.  They seem to be a perfect fit.

[Caz Bombers]

I have heard Skidmore bandied about as their geography bridges the Midd-Hamilton gap and is also close to Williams; Vassar is slightly longer trips for all involved but I agree it is certainly an institutional fit if the situation ever arises.

[SpringSt7]

It's kind of hard to argue with travel being a deal breaker when it's already 7 hours from Hamilton to Colby. Vassar to Colby is actually only 6. Once you open that box it's a hard one to close if there aren't any other great reasons for a school not to join the conference.

[lumbercat]

Seems Babson might be a good fit if there is a desire to expand.

[Charlie]

Seems Babson might be a good fit if there is a desire to expand.

I would think if they do expand it would be wise for football so we could add another game so they would play ten instead of 9

[nescac1]

It took a massive effort to get to nine games.  I doubt there is any appetite for more. 

I don't think Nescac would ever be interested in Babson. Too much of a professional undergraduate
focus.  Other than Vassar, Skidmore or Union, I guess Wheaton might be a fit.  But really, Vassar is by far the best match.  It's all theoretical as I've never heard that Nescac is looking to expand ....

[Doid23]

Vassar? Really?
Is this a sports board?