FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[chessdoc]

listen, I know nothing about nescac football other than my boy leaves in a week to give it a shot, what I do know is that florida high school football is not bad, that his hs got 11 d1 scholorships and that the school down the block got 6, the orange bowl, rose bowl and fiesta bowl are lined with florida kids. Nescac schools given the way they recruit get few kids from florida, georgia, california and texas. I can definately state that given a little effort just about any of the nescac programs that struggle could not only get afew of these guys, but that the kids, parents and hs would benifit from the quality of the education of any nescac school. We just choose bates, but his education surely would be great at any of them. Why do the alums of any of the struggling programs not make some contacts and bring in a few guys and then puff a pipeline occurs. I can promise he will perform at all but surely a few florida boys would help some bottomfeeder as u call it turn around.

[chessdoc]

Typo I meant i can not promise he will perform at all but some florida kid surely would

[Trin9-0]

dirty: From what I've heard Jeff Pratt, had minor knee surgery and will likely miss a portion of the preseason, though he should be ready to play by week 1. Also, defensive lineman, Jeff Carpenter will be abroad for a year studying in China (Who says the Bants aren't in school to learn?). 

frog: You seem to be the only one making this a black and white issue. No one in any sport at any level wins or loses because of one factor. Yes, admissions helps, but so does recruiting, film study, weight training, study halls, academic mentors/advisors, great coaching, tradition etc. I'm NOT saying that other programs don't do those things, however, it is naive to think that only one aspect matters. Trinity has had slightly lower admissions standards than most NESCACs for years. Why just in the past 5 years have they been so dominant?

Also, regarding Jack Cochran, he was going to join the Trinity staff in '03 to coach outside linebackers. He convinced Priore that he was looking to break in to college coaching after winning 6 CT state titles at 2 different high schools. However, he basically used his job offer at Trin as a bargaining chip against the New Britain board of education who had to cut several music programs in order to grant him his request to be a gym teacher at New Britain High School. He won his 7th state title that year then left to coach at his alma matter New London. He had been investigated while at New Britain by the CT attorney general for misappropriating funds that were supposed to be used for the football team. After leaving New Britain he also was investigated by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference on charges that he was recruiting New Britian players to transfer to New London.

[bant551]

This dude sounds alot like Barnard!!!

Dave Barnard is actually coming out with a new thesis, entitled:

"Anybody But Me; A Deep Look Into The Cowardly Tradition Of Blaming Others For One's Own Shortcomings".

[bant551]

Plus, Bullfrog has still yet to account for the original 7-1 record, which was a PURE result of coaching and work ethic, and it was a team where all the primary talent (save 1 or 2 players) was green.

Yes, once the whole national recruiting thing and general diligence in the recruiting department was taken up a notch, Trinity became a machien... but that first year when they went 7-1 was almost entirely a result of Priore's coaching (and the defensive coaches).

One thing is for sure: everything else equal, Trinity was probably NOT a 7-1 team/co-championship caliber team, talent-wise, that year. 

Even looking at the stats, Trinity was nothing special offensively.  We did, however, run the ball 71 times for 275 yards against Middlebury one week, and then 47 times for 227 yards the next week. 

You know what that sounds like?  That sounds like 4.25 yards per carry, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN TIMES, towards the end of the season, when most teams are at their weakest.

Thats heart, thats coaching, and thats being a winner.  Take notes, Bullfrog, because those are some Bulldog stats there.  Combined with increased talent, the success of Trinity since that original first year is no surprise at all.

[Ephmen1991]

Bullfrog, do you post just to annoy people?

[chessdoc]

4.25 yd per carry, sounds impressive. im hoping my kid gets a carry..... trinity bashiing is just plain jealousy will it ever end. It makes reading this board a bore. Hope to hear another controversy in the future. now its just move to maine, hope for the best and go bobcats.

[dirtybirds30-0]

Carpenter is a BIG loss for the Trinity D-line!

You know what... I am going to play devils advocate here.

Although I hate Frogs posts, and I DO NOT agree with him.  I do have to say that if a NESCAC team was able to bring in pure talent...ie...players that run faster, jump higher, are naturally stronger (still need to lift though), and who are just tougher individuals....I think these teams beat the bottom 4 teams by default.  The argument here is...if talent is the only thing that matters, is Frog saying that Trin athletes are THAT MUCH BETTER than athletes at Amherst, Williams, Colby, Tufts, Middlebury?  I mean, it's not like we were all D-1 players that Priore convinced to go to Trin...

I will give Frog the benefit of the doubt for the bottom tier...but not  the top tier.

Bant55 made a great point with the 7-1 season...I mean, Priore was there 3 years already and we got whooped by Williams!  Then in 2003, my senior year.  We had four clasess...all recruited by Priore...and we just beat Willimas in a great game 10-0, and then we just beat Amherst...and they were beating us at half time....

Frog, basically your argument is not wrong in one way...but it is ignorant in another.

[bant551]

Dirtybirds, don't patronize him by letting him think that pointing out the fact that talent is essential to a winning team is some sort of an astute observation.

Alright, fine.  Great job pointing that out, Bullfrog.  I'll check with ESPN to see if they need another analyst for this season.  You could take the place of that extremely nerdy-looking, skinny guy on ESPN (who actually knows football really well, I just can't remember his name right now).

You can be live from the Super Bowl and you can say things like "Talent matters" and "physical training, game tape study, and meetings really aren't that important."  Back to you in the studio, this is Bullfrog checking out from Foxboro, Massachusetts.

[LinemenRathletes2]

Bullfrog aka Son of Bullfrog aka Dave Barnard aka Dennis Miller aka John Kruk aka Merril Hodge

[Pallos]

 

  Saw this at Williams College website after seeing rebroadcast of program on ESPN.



ESPN's Ivan Maisel Sings Praises of Williams vs. Amherst
August 16, 2006
Asked to provide a list of 20 reasons why college football is better than the NFL Ivan Maisel zeroed in on the passion and tradition of colelge football over the parity-minded NFL. Maisel did not wait long to bring up the big college rivalry games to solidify his claim.

Reason number three for Maisel is the great rivalries -- Army-Navy, Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma, Harvard-Yale and Williams-Amherst.

This November 11th (it's always the second Saturday in November) Williams and Amherst will meet for the 121st time on Amherst's Pratt Field at noon. The game will be telecast live on the New England Sports Network (NESN) and likely will be shown again this year on tape on College Sports TV later that night. The game will also be seen live via satellite in approximately 50 combined Williams-Amherst alumni gatherings across the nation.

Williams leads "The Biggest Little Game in America" 67-48-5, which is the fourth most played rivalry in college football and the most played in Div. 3.

You can see Ivan Maisel's 20 reasons to watch college football instead of the NFL clicking here.


Colby-Bowdoin also I big rivalry I'm told.
Anybody know of kids at Williams who took PG years and then reapplied and got in? Does this happen much at Nescac schools?

[speedy]

. . . .
Anybody know of kids at Williams who took PG years and then reapplied and got in? Does this happen much at Nescac schools?

The PG route is often recommended by NESCAC coaches an/or admission reps for HS grads who need a little more academic and/or athletic seasoning.  I'm not particularly familiar with Williams but know this practice to be  common at a number of NESCAC schools. It's really widespread in the context of hockey, often cropping up as "repeat" year in prep school rather than a PG year.

[Jonny Utah]

A little late to this discussion but..........

JV teams are different at many schools.  Ivy leagues have maybe the oldest tradition of JV teams that were actually freshman teams.  And only untill the last 20 years or so (I believe), all freshman at Ivy league schools were not allowed to play varsity sports (I think just football, not sure again)  I know that many nescac schools followed this tradition where all freshman football players would be part of this JV team and play a 3-5 game schedule while helping the varsity in scout team.

I played at Ithaca in the 1990s and we had a good JV program there as well.  Usually 5-6 games.  Cortland JV twice, Cornell Frosh once or twice, Colgate frosh, Hudson Valley CC.  Those Ithaca JV teams had about 50-60 players about 95% of them freshman.  Those that were not frosh were players that were not asked back to the varsity that fall but were given a chance to play JV ball again.

Another thing is when Ithaca was probably the best team in the country, probably only 1 or 2 freshman were on those varsity national championship teams.  All of them played JV, as would frosh at any IVY league school at that point.  Today, many Ithaca frosh start, play and dress for the varsity.  (Every frosh dresses for home games in fact.)

And regarding Central Conn.  They were a solid d-1AA team last year in a weak conference.  They actually beat one of the top 1-aa teams in the country the first week though (Colgate).  Then had a successfull season in what would probably be called a d3 conference.

And lets not forget about Ivy and Patriot leagues being non-scholorship.  Lehigh would probably have beaten any d3 team last year by 3-5 TDs.

[dirtybirds30-0]

I predict that Weslyan wins 4 games this year...anyone with me on that?

[cruiser]

if this were 2004, then yes i agree