FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[union89]

anyone else share in my disapointment that the NESCAC was snubbed on the d3football.com preseason all-american first AND second team?  I know this list amounts to next to nothing, but it would be nice to see one of our boys make it on there.

http://www.d3football.com/all-american/2007/preseason

Wah.  How about virtually all the East Region teams not getting a single rep on the squad?  Let's face it, as long as their is a MUC, the amount of space on the D3 preseason AA team will be MUC and the rest of D3. 

Although, there was one player from Coast Guard.....

Coast Guard?

ahemmmm TGP, Union has a first teamer....

[frank uible]

Hell, Springfield has the first team QB. TGP needs to put on his specs.

[Ralph Turner]

Hell, Springfield has the first team QB. TGP needs to put on his specs.

And two from SJF and the aforementioned one from Union on the first team. 

On the first team defense, there is another SJF and a Wilkes!

[nescac1]

Hard to think of anyone in NESCAC who would be deserving, in any event.  Although Lucey, last year's top offensive player, returns, he is clearly not among the top two QB's in the country.  The top skill guys in the league (Leo and a great group of WR's) all graduate, as does last year's defensive player of the year.   If you asked five people who the five top players in the league are, you'd get a lot of different answers.  Not like some past years when established superstars like Scott Farley, Fletcher Ladd, Michael Blair were returning ...

[labart96]

ahemmmm TGP, Union has a first teamer....

whoops - my bad.  should have realized union would have had at least one cleveland steamer.....

[labart96]

Hell, Springfield has the first team QB. TGP needs to put on his specs.

TGP did see the SC QB, Union OL, SJF, Wilkes - and even RPI having a player on the D3 team.  TGP believes that Pat's brief tour in CT - and experiencing the "Shoes" and other East Region games in person (not to mention better play in general from the East region) has helped in getting a few more guys from the east onto these lists.

What TGP did note though - no Rowan (and no NJAC period), no Cortland defensive guys (didn't they have one of the top rated D's last season?), no Dom Ancona from Hobart (on the Gilburg watch list and was an honorable mention AA end of last season).

Regardless, tough to compile and include everyone.  Someone's always going to feel "snubbed".

[Pat Coleman]

Steve Arguelles is probably the only player who benefited from my seeing him in person. I would've been tempted to leave him off as a freshman from the NEFC last season but I saw Coast Guard play and he impressed me.

Ancona and Harms (from Coast Guard) were the two returning All-American punters left off. We had four returning All-American punters (Mississippi College's punter from 2005 after missing last season with an injury) and just two spots.

[labart96]

Steve Arguelles is probably the only player who benefited from my seeing him in person. I would've been tempted to leave him off as a freshman from the NEFC last season but I saw Coast Guard play and he impressed me.

Ancona and Harms (from Coast Guard) were the two returning All-American punters left off. We had four returning All-American punters (Mississippi College's punter from 2005 after missing last season with an injury) and just two spots.

Fair enough.  MC's punter must have been really good in 2005 to merit the exception of not playing last season and being awarded a spot over 2 guys who did play in 2006.

[Pat Coleman]

Well, it's not a 2006 team, it's a 2007 team.

[labart96]

Dabbnabbit!

TGP is outsmarted by the Guru again!

[lineback]

I would like to inquire perchance the possibility that another individual associated with this message board is equally entwined in a love for the daring bates bobcats??

-Dave Anixter

[BobcatsDad]

Dave- Don't know about "entwined in a love" for the Bobcats, but I do have a son who plays for them, and I certainly would like to see them reach their potential - which is much better than a 1-7 or 2-8 season (the usual) would suggest.
Bates has had two excellent recruiting seasons, and has a number of juniors and seniors who are as good as any in NESCAC. This season, for the first time in I don't know how long (ever?) they will have to make cuts - about 6 or 7 - to get down to the NESCAC 75-max. Which should help with motivation during pre-season. Last season, the Bobcats were highly competitive in the majority of their games, and even was ahead of Williams at the half. They seem to have a habit of starting strong and finishing weak, with the exception last season of the incredibly competitive Colby game - played in a mud bowl/downpour, which the 'Cats lost in the 4th OT (and ended up in a beautiful photo in SI - RB Jamie Walker enveloped by 4 or 5 Mules).
I will go out on a limb and predict that the mighty Bobcats will finish in the middle of the NESCAC this season, and go 4-4. They'll beat Bowdoin, Wes, Hamilton, and, yes - Colby, to capture the CBB. 

[nescac1]

Speaking of predictions, almost time to start making predictions for this season.   I'd say Trinity is the clear favorite, returning their entire offensive and defensive lines, a veteran QB who played better as last season went on, a stacked defense, and most importantly, they get Williams at home.  Williams is right behind ... losing their star receivers, tight end and deep ball QB specialist will definitely cut down on offensive explosiveness (they will have to focus more on the ground game / ball control), but the defensive front seven is incredibly big and deep, they have a veteran offensive line and tons of depth at RB, and the best offensive player in the conference in Pat Lucey.  After that, I'd say Amherst, which has a great tailback duo and most of a strong defense returning, but has a lot of big holes to fill on offense including QB and WR.   After that, seems like the league is wide open ... Middlebury I expect to fall back as they lose a lot of key guys.  Who are the dark horses to give Williams and Trinity a run?

[Col. Partridge]

I don't think they will be giving Trinity or Williams a run in 2007, but I saw something encouraging for the future when I got the latest Wesleyan football alumni newsletter.  They listed the incoming freshmen recruits, and I'd say about 1/3 of them were from California, with more than that from New Jersey.  I'm hoping they will have more of an impact than the players from the usual recruiting grounds of New England, where there is more competition for a pool who played (arguably) less competitive HS football.

[Trin9-0]

I can't figure out why Wesleyan doesn't have a better program. They're one of the top academic schools in the league, their football program has probably the most national name recognition of any school in the league (thanks to Belichick and Mangini) they play 3 big rivals every year (which also happen to be the top three programs in the league). Why aren't they more competitive?

Frank Hauser is 60-60 since taking over at Wesleyan in 1992 and has had 6 winning seasons in those 15 years. He had two strong seasons back to back in '97 & '98 going 7-1 and 6-2 respectively. Other than that they've won 6 games in a season only once during his tenure ('93). The Cardinals haven't had a winning record since 2002, haven't won more than 5 games in a season since '98, and are 6-18 the past three years.

The only answer I can come up with is that the University is completley apathetic towards it's football team. Any other thoughts?

Hauser seems to be obsessed with throwing the football.