FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Trin9-0]

Confience is merely a by-product of talent, good coaching and preparation. To say that being confident is as important as talent is absurd. Hamilton can be the most confident team in the league, and they'll still win at most 2 or 3 games.

The reason that Trinity beat Amherst in '02 and Williams in '03 ending lengthy losing streaks to each school is because Trinity was a better team. There may have been a feeling that we deserved to win because of all the hard work we had done, but I thought we were going to beat Williams in '02 when we lost 30-13!

If Trinity loses this year it will not be due to the confidence levels of Colby, Williams or Amherst. It will be because one of those schools recruited more talented players, who worked harder in the off season and who executed their game plan better than the Bants.

[bant551]

Trin 8-0, you are absolutely right that talent, coaching and preparation leads to confidence.

I just think that there is an additional element of confidence involved when a team finally takes down one of its long-time tormentors. 

I don't think you are wrong that some people are over-emphasizing confidence, but until the system starts clicking, there is some sort of cloud over it ("is this EVER going to start working?"). 

I think thats particularly true of the offense, which had REALLY been letting the defense down for a LOOONG time before it started to click.  Granted, we didn't light up the scoreboard in '02, but Trinity started to finally (1) put up ENOUGH points; and (2) we had the ability to grind the ball enough to eat up clock and execute the system enough to chew up yards and time of possession.

I didn't play defense, but I'd imagine that its easier to execute what you have to do when you aren't thinking you need to get an interception and return it for a touchdown in order to score enough points to beat the opponent (or to get a 2-minute break while the offense pulls a 3-and-out).

I think confidence matters more executing an offensive system.  You can be as prepared as you want, but until you are really confident and just completely put your trust in the system, you start to kind of resort to techniques that make more sense to you.  Granted, that is also DIRECTLY related to having the system in place for a few years (which is "preparation"), but its also related to trusting that if you do what you are supposed to do -- and everyone else does -- things will work out.  Just do your job.  I feel that confidence plays a fairly large role in that.

Very circular arguments by me!  I guess they just feed off eachother.

[Nescacfan05]

If you have talent, then confidence helps a great deal, but if you do not have talent it helps until that one play comes along where a team goes 'here we go again'....Confidence is a product of a good training program- knowing you are physically ready, or believing you are in better condition, as well as a product of actually winning, winning helps boost it more than anything, Trinity is run like a major program, the kids have a great training program, great coaching, and they have 30 wins in a row, they have confidence, Williams has tradition as well as Amherst, Colby has developed it through work and perserverence and winning 33 games over six years and beating Williams twice...but they need to get the monkey of their back vs. Amherst...haven't won since 95'....Amherst may have lost to Bowdoin, but they have Colby's number, and that single game will have confidence as a factor for Them...Trinity will be interesting just by the fact they have not faced each other in 2 years, and confidence will be high on both parts, but may be determined by who lands the big blow first....If Colby can get anything going from the start they will have confidence throughout....not saying they  will win, but they will feel and play that way.....

Lots of parody in the league this year may seem some interesting upsets across the board.......

[dirtybirds8-0]

Trin8-0:

Again, I am not disagreeing with you that the other aspects of the game are extremly important.  However, you say "confidence is merely a by-product of talent, good coaching, and preparation", further strengthening my argument that you still need that last 1/4 of the equation to be undefeated....Confidence!  If you think you can go 8-0....and you have all the other parts to go along with it...you win.

If you lack confidence in anything you do you will always be second best.

As for the rest of the league that bad mouths Trinity...I pose this question:

Are you really upset with Trinity? Or are you upset with yourselves?

[mariner75]

 Nope.  Never been upset with Jumbos preparation or desire.  Am upset that we got beat on one pass play and couldn't score against Bants last year however.

[Nescacfan05]

One game....what about the other 5 losses? Tufts should be like Trinity, they have the resources to recruit and the school size allows the school to take in more kids below the margin (not that they do, we are taking 1150+) for the nescac because they have an undergrad base of 4000. They have good facilities and a great rep. they are in Boston, Why do they not go 6-2, 7-1 every year....And you are statisfied? You played Trinity after the 3 previous games ripped up your field..It was a quagmire, and sloppy mud mess that equalized the playing field, you lost on one pass, but the Tufts offense did do much...and on a turf field or normal conditions, even in the rain on field that wasn;t used for off-road mud runs, the game would have been quite different......

[mariner75]

You're right...I'm not "statisfied" with other losses either.  Tufts should be able to recruit a couple of better skill-position players cause that would make all the difference, especially on the offensive-side.  I was commenting on their preparation and guts.

[bant551]

They were tough enough as I remember.

[Ephmen1991]

Nice to see some new coaches at Williams.

Speaking of streaks, the last time the Jumbos beat Williams was in 1986, when Tufts was running the wishbone.

[LinemenRathletes2]

I'm a little late on this, but Chessdoc just got ripped for being enthusiastic about the new Bates assistants... I wouldn't have been so quick to criticize... does anyone know if Dence will be running Yale's offense (which I love)?? If so, he could be very successful.... its pretty similar to Bates traditional two-back formation except that its mostly twins and a lot more passing. This means their kids wouldn't have to totally revamp the way that things have been done but also potentially make improvements on an offense that I think everyone knows is stagnant at this point. Also, if you read the press release, did anyone notice that Harriman is coordinating the defense... Isn't that a huge upgrade for them.... he won defensive coach of the year while at Harvard. Furthermore, they have some pretty good players so maybe some new young coaches with a good attitude will help them win a few more games. I'm not saying they are going to crack the top 3, I was just disappointed at how quickly Chessdoc got wrote off.
About Dence (who is "nothing to write home about') from Yale's website (via google name: Matt Dence):

Dence, 30, begins his fifth season at Yale and his third as coach of the wide receivers. He also serves as special teams coordinator. Dence, who coached the tight ends for two years, mentored All-American Nate Lawrie '04, who was drafted in the sixth round by Tampa Bay. Prior to his arrival in New Haven, he was a linebacker coach and video coordinator for Amherst College in 2001, coached the offensive line and tight ends at Springfield College during the 1999 and 2000 campaigns, and worked with the 1998 King's College secondary. Dence earned his undergraduate degree from King's in 1998 and completed his Master of Physical Education from Springfield in 2002. The Philadelphia native is a 1994 graduate of Father Judge High School. Dence is single and resides in New Haven.

So he was a coordinator at a successful Ivy League school (special teams), and mentored an All-American who is now in the NFL??  but still, the guys nothing to write home about.... personally I think that this is a great pickup for Bates.... so the guy hasn't coordinated an offense yet? well he has five years of experience in a very good one and if anything, his resume shows me that he certainly is ready to coordinate one. Lets see what he can do before we write him off.

[Trin9-0]

I don't think any of the comments made regarding Dence were too harsh. I'm sure he'll be a good fit for Bates, my point was that his resume isn't exactly on par with that of Trinity's new OC, or some other coordinators in the leauge.

eph91: thought I'd look into the last time Trinity lost to their respective NESCAC opponents:

Amherst       2001
Bates           1979 (only play every 2 years)
Bowdoin      1998
Colby           1995 (only play every 2 years)
Hamilton      1994
Middlebury   2001
Tufts            2001
Wesleyan    2000
Williams       2002

Any idea what the longest winning streak is for one team over another?

[Nescacfan05]

And I believe his contract was not renewed at Yale......so what does that tell you.....

[LinemenRathletes2]

so youre saying that he would have preferred to coach wide receivers than try his hand at coordinating an offense but they wouldn't let him renew his contract and let him return? that doesn't really make too much sense...  are you implying that Coach Siedlecki had this guy on his staff for five years before he realized that he wasn't doing a very good job at his position.... he coached a kid to the nfl plus two other all-conference players, I guess thats just unacceptable these days. It seems like if he had wanted to return, he probably could have.... I dont know what Nescacfan05 has against Dence, maybe he stole your lunch money, but I would be willing to give him a chance at a college that needed fresh faces.

[bant551]

They seem to have fine credentials.  The NESCAC is a good place to see if they have what it takes and they have a challenge to turn the program around.  Granted, someone like Priore was more firmly established as a coordinator when he came here... but I kind of view someone coming over with his experience as being an exception to the rule.

Seems like there is a lot of back-and-forth between the NESCAC and the Ivy's (coordinators coming here, and head coaches leaping to Ivy's from NESCAC).

[tmerton]

And I believe his contract was not renewed at Yale......so what does that tell you.....

That Siedlecki is in trouble?  If you read the Ivy Board over on Voy Forums, things have been pretty warm for Siedlecki for a while.  So he changed an assistant coach.  Happens all the time and could be due to a lot of reasons other than the competence of the assistant coach.  I listened to the Yale-Cornell game last year and Cornell certainly couldn't stop them that day (37 points).