FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

Started by admin, August 16, 2005, 04:58:09 AM

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Jonny Utah

#15600
Quote from: firstdown on March 29, 2019, 12:23:04 PM
Lumbercat

It seems pretty clear from your comments that you aren't happy about the coaching changes at Bowdoin.  While I haven't followed Bowdoin football in the past, I have enjoyed the North Coast Conference for many years.  As has been said on this board by a number of posters from the North Coast board, Coach Hammer and Coach Cochran and Coach Layer have done a quite a good job there.  Coach Cochran comes to Bowdoin as the o line and strength and conditioning coach. Allegheny went from being pusheds around to a tough bunch from the time in the weight room. Coach Layer comes as the offensive coordinator.  Coach Layer was a quarterback college and brings several years of being a quarterback coach experience to the role as offensive coordinator.  During his tenure as O coordinator at Allegheny, the Gators offensive was quite potent.  Coach Layer designs the offense around the talent that he has rather than seeking to force the talent into a preconceived mold.  He may be a younger coach, but he knows his stuff.

Coach Hammer will also serve as the defensive coordinator and he is hardly a neophyte.  At Wabash, he defenses were consistently in the top 5 of the Division 3 defensive stats and his defense led all divisions in college football in several categories.  At Allegheny, last year, his defense was in the top 10 in Division 3 in a number of statistical categories.  Coach Hammer always believes in being well prepared, so rather than hiding in foxhole, he and the entire coaching staff have no doubt be assessing the existing talent on the team, the other teams in the conference, and planning a recruiting program.  Coach Hammer also believes in strength and conditioning off season and that will be noticeable next Fall.

Yes there has been a change in the coaching staff that you may not agree with, Coach Hammer brought the team at Allegheny that had not won a game for several years before he got there, into contending for the conference championship this past season.  Coaches Cochran and Layer were an important part of that success.  They and the existing coaching staff at Bowdoin will be working hard to achieve good results for the Polar Bears.

This post made me thing about some other coaching jobs in the New England region.  Umass hires a guy (Walt Bell) with clear southern ties and really no connection the the New England/NY/NJ areas.  Bowdoin also gets a guy who has no real ties up here, but has a good coaching background (like Bell).  I'm guessing both Umass and Bowdoin are trying a different route in boosting their programs in a similar fashion. 

So I guess the point is that coaching skill is going to only take you so far.  You need to recruit the athletes to make that happen, and I think that is a large part of Bowdoin's decision here.  Now they have a guy with different HS ties to different parts of the country.  Wells is a New England guy and has to battle with all the same nescac coaches with all the same NE prep/ISL style schools. 

lumbercat

#15601
Firstdown-
Let me clarify a couple of things. I didn't call Hammer a neophyte I used that term to describe the assistants he brought to Brunswick. Im sure they are both good energetic young coaches but they aren't bringing anything new in terms of coaching experience or strength and conditioning prowess that Wells didn't have in place. Neither of these guys is close in experience to Bloom.

Check out the credentials of Bowdoin strength coach Jim St.Pierre.

At the end of the day understand I am a Bates guy and I have no love affair with Bowdoin. As a matter of fact I dislike the place immensely but I do respect good coaches who are passionate and committed to their players. Wells is a good coach who was the odd man out when Ryan felt the need to make some cosmetic changes. The end result is a new coach who was 1-9, 3-7 and 6-4, he's no Sam Timer. With him come 2 guys whose recent title was graduate assistant.

A change made for the wrong reasons by an AD hearing footsteps which resulted in some very good coaches getting stiffed.

firstdown

Lumbercat

Being from the Midwest, I really don't know Coach Wells or Coach Bloom.  Coaching transitions are never easy. Wabash replaced a long-time, well liked head coach at the end of the 2000 season.  This wasn't easy, but Coach Creighton brought some new approaches and in the fall of 2002, Wabash, primarily with players recruited by the former coach, was 12-0 and playing Mount Union in the 3rd round of the playoffs.  Sometimes a change of pace is what a team needs to ignite the spark.  Coach Hammer uses strengthen and conditioning not only to build better physicality for his players, but team spirit and makes 6 am work outs fun.  Coach Cochran brings that sort of enthusiasm to the weight room. Coach Layer sees the field through the eyes of the of a quarterback.  Allegheny had their senior, starting quarterback injured when last season started.  Coach Layer had the sophomore back up ready to start the first two games and structured the offense around his strengths,  When the senior started in game three, the offense changed to fit his strengths.  Coach Layer, as a younger coach, may not have the years of experience, but has demonstrated his ability to adjust the offense successfully.  Coach Hammer has a great ability to build his coaching staff.  By now, the new coaches he brought with him and the existing staff are no doubt working as a cohesive group.
Finally, the new coaches had nothing to do with Bowdoin's decisions about the football coaching staff.  They had everything to do with bringing Allegheny's program back from oblivion.

lumbercat

#15603
Firstdown-

I respect your opinions and there is no intent on my part to vilify the new young coaches. I understand that sometimes change is needed but I say the timing here for change was premature.
Your comments that Coach Hammer uses strength and conditioning to improve the physicality of his players and brings spirit to the weight room implies that you don't believe there was a quality strength and conditioning program in place.....you are mistaken. The new staff inherits a very strong strength program with a pretty intense offseason conditioning program. It's already there. Other than a few tweaks here and there the newbies may learn something from what Wells already had in place. No opportunity to re invent the wheel, they just need to take the wheel and finish Well's job. There is not a lot of low lying fruit for the new regime.

There are little or no simplistic steps here to be taken in the program, this program is in the ending stages of a rebuilding process with strong recruiting results and good athletes. They are ready to win.
The new staff will be the beneficiary of that. Their timing is perfect. Wells has given the new staff the ball on the 10 yard line they just need to finish the drive.

firstdown

Lumbercat

Being from the Midwest, I don't know the recent history about Bowdoin's program so I can't comment.  I have no doubt that there was a good strength and conditioning program already in place.  Coach Hammer has used this very effectively in the off season not only to build and condition his players, but as a fun and team building exercise.  When he returned to Wabash for the 2011 season, they were already a  top 20 team. He improved the defense so Wabash consistently moved into the top 10 and the playoffs for the 3 of the 5 years he was there.  Wabash was already a winning program and had been pretty consistently since making the giant leap in 2002 and not really a rebuilding effort like Allegheny, but, working with Coach Raeburn, they took the team up several notches. 

If, as you say, the key ingredients are in place at Bowdoin, (as they were at Wabash with the coaching change in 2000), then the team should improve quickly, particularly with Coach Hammer expanding recruiting efforts into Florida, Texas, Arizona, Western PA, and Ohio, along with the more traditional areas in New England. 

Certainly, this discussion is like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.  Only time will show whether the changes at Bowdoin were positive or not.

GoBlue61

Lumbercat/FirstDown --

As a Bowdoin football parent who went to every game the past four years, I have posted previously that I believe Wells should have been given one more year.  However, I like Coach Hammer's background and hope he gets a chance to succeed.

I agree that Wells had things moving in the right direction and would have fared better last year if he had not lost a some key players on offense.  Also, I believe the strength and conditioning program was fine.  The team worked out 5 days per week in the off season, including running at 6:30 am two days per week.  Plus, the team often had captain's practice on Sat am to run agility drills.  My son gained 40 lbs in four years in the strength program (including his summer program at a local training facility in the Boston area).  My two complaints about the Wells tenure -- 1) he never seemed to have a game plan to take advantage of the other team's weaknesses; we were way too predictable on both offense and defense; 2) he never seemed to make any in game adjustments; the team would typically fall apart in the second half of games (see Middlebury, Hamilton and Colby games in particular).

In my view, Coach Hammer can win 2 or 3 games next year with the talent on hand.  Bowdoin has more returning talent than Bates, Colby and Hamilton.  We will see what happens with the incoming recruiting classes.  Besides keeping his key players healthy, Coach Hammer needs to resolve the QB position.  No team is going to win with the QB averaging 2 plus interceptions a game.  (See the 5 turnovers in the Hamilton game and the 3 killer turnovers vs Colby -- two fumbles inside the 10 yard line.)


polbear73

As a football alumnus, I've tried not to weigh in on the Bowdoin football situation.  I must agree with LumberCat about Tim Ryan being over his head and I strongly believe he has been dictated to by influences outside of the Athletic Department; first by a Dean to whom he reported (and whose actions over the years were anti-sports) and now by the Development Office.  I also believe that Coach Wells deserved to finish the last year of his contract and would probably have if not for the impatience of a major donor to the Whittier Field renovation.  It's been rumored that the donation as well as an agreement to serve on the College's Board was conditioned on Bowdoin's "fixing" football. 

Rightly or wrongly, Coach Wells was dismissed despite making what many agree was satisfactory progress and being a stand up guy and well liked at Bowdoin.  I personally think that he recruited well in terms of starting talent and was closing in on having the depth necessary to compete.  In the end, however, a 3-32 record was the tipping point in evaluating his tenure.

In the past, Bowdoin was loathe to fire losing football coaches as evidenced by the long tenures of Howard Vandersea and Dave Caputi.  Bowdoin has been criticized as being anti-football and I believe it was a benign neglect. In either case, the institution has been every bit as culpable (or more) as the sitting coach for the abysmal performance and it is undeniable that Coach Wells enjoyed more resources and a friendlier Admissions Office.  While I do not think it was fair and regret that JBW lost his last year, I hope it leads to the College both acknowledging and demanding accountability for its football program. 


amh63

Ah!.....the input of the Development Office has appeared again on this board.  It is always in the background wrt to Nescac sports teams.  It has been in Amherst's past and in the present Amherst Capital Program.  I point to the Hugh Athletic Complex underway at Colby.  It is noted that Williams is near the end of its Capital Development Campaign...soon to be followed by Bates.  Amherst's is in its first year of it's call for money.  Hamilton has just recently announced its Capital Campaign.   Will not be surprised if Wesleyan and Middlebury are making plans...it's been awhile.  The Cardinal AD was a key to Wes's last one.  Remember when Midd did a refresh of it's Athletic facilities. 
Yes, there is always competition  for football student athletes, etc.  Facilitities and coaches help in recruiting as does Winning programs. 
I know...just repeating what many others have done.  Tufts' program got a big boost when its facilities were upgraded and an all new "training" Complex was finished....for all students.

PBPOP20

Lumbercat, Firstdown, GoBlue -   

Ok, I'm a current Bowdoin football parent.  My son will be a senior in the fall (Lumber, he's been medically cleared since shortly after the season, and is currently back to full strength).  He went to Bowdoin BECAUSE of JB Wells and was pretty upset when he was fired.  He was in his first recruiting class and each class has been successively more talented.  He had his choice of NESCAC schools a couple partial scholly's from 1aa schools and a couple preferred walk-ons... chose Bowdoing 100% bc of Wells.   THEY COULD RECRUIT.

Hammer and Co. will win a few games bc of the talent alone (I believe) and that is thanks to Wells, Bloom, Viall et al.  If they are better at X's and O's possibly steal one or two more.

So far, feedback from my boy at least is that Hammer and Co.  have been well received, are well liked and have a very high energy level. 

The too soon firing of Wells and therefore Bloom and Viall is what most (me anyway, and apparently most other posters) are upset/annoyed with for seemingly non-football related reasons (or that are painted as football related on the surface, but clearly not).   It has NOTHING to do with Coach Hammer and his staff's ability, nor their fault that this opportunity presented itself to them.. carpe diem.   

The only thing clear to me at this point is that Coach Hammer is walking into a situation the looks bad on the surface (3-32 record) but as LC noted is at the tail end of a rebuild.   The roster is solid, Coach Hammer will win a couple year one - and that's bc the job Well's and Co. did putting talented classes together.  Not his fault, or anything negative... just a fact IMO.



Trin9-0

I'm curious to hear what Bowdoin supporters would qualify as a successful first year for B.J. Hammer. Despite the general sentiment that Wells was let go too early, there appears to be optimism for what was left in place.

That may be true, but it still seems as though the Polar Bears are a long way off from even reaching a multi-win season. In the past three years they've played in only two games decided by a touchdown or less (a 1 point loss at Hamilton, and a 7 point loss at Bates). Over that span Bowdoin was outscored by an average of 21 points per game.

I guess my question is; what's the bar? Does Hammer need to win 3+ games to show real progress, or would a single win coupled with some closer scores be enough to show progress?
NESCAC CHAMPIONS: 1974, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023
UNDEFEATED SEASONS: 1911, 1915, 1934, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2022

nescac1

The other problem for Bowdoin is that Colby, Hamilton and Bates all are expected to be improved, too, right?  The bottom of the league should be tougher overall next season. And it's not like any of the top half are in a significant decline.

PBPOP20

Everything is relative!   Bowdoin isn't taking down Trinity any time soon.  I think 2 wins this year is improvement, 3 is yeoman's work and 4 we give Hammer a lifetime contract!

lumbercat

#15612
Thanks BPBOP and good luck to your boy this year.

Again, if I came off as a Hammer detractor that wasn't my intent. Do not know him, but just don't see any significant upside from Wells and Bloom. He deserves a chance however and he had nothing to do with Wells getting railroaded.

My point is he is not coming in to tear down a program and rebuild it. He is coming in to finish a rebuilding job.

My bet is he looked at the Bowdoin record and was prepared to overhaul the program before he took the job. My current bet is he will not make any significant changes now that he has completed his initial assessment and confirms he is in a much better situation than advertised.

I'll also say he really can't lose. If he's 1-8 or 2-7 they will say give him some time. If he's 5-4, which is quite possible, they will have a parade in Brunswick. At the end of the day there should actually be some pressure on him to win sooner rather than later considering his recent inheritance of a program on the verge of breaking out.




GoBlue61

In my view, a good start for Coach Hammer is to beat Bates and Colby next year -- which is realistic -- and go from there.  Otherwise, being competitive in the rest of the games into the 4th quarter is a good goal.  Last year, the Middlebury and Amherst games were competitive into the 2nd half, the rest were typically over early.  (Colby was a 3 to 0 game at half time, which turned on a few brutal turnovers.)

Trin9-0

Quote from: nescac1 on April 01, 2019, 04:51:17 PM
The other problem for Bowdoin is that Colby, Hamilton and Bates all are expected to be improved, too, right?  The bottom of the league should be tougher overall next season. And it's not like any of the top half are in a significant decline.

An excellent point.

In looking at the revised NESCAC schedule Bowdoin hosting Hamilton in their season opener is a huge game for that program/coaching staff. A win in any of their subsequent 6 games would be a tremendous upset, so coming away with a victory over an improving Hamilton squad is critical.

At the end of the year Bowdoin travels to Bates then ends with Colby at home. You'd hope they could pull out one of those games, so a two (perhaps even three) win season is certainly within the realm of possibility. However, if they start the season 0-7 and then fall on the road to Bates, then another winless season becomes all too much of a reality.

For a program that has struggled as badly as Bowdoin has, they will nevertheless be one of the more interesting story lines of the '19 season.
NESCAC CHAMPIONS: 1974, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023
UNDEFEATED SEASONS: 1911, 1915, 1934, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2022