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#1
Emory is not a college with football, but has strong teams with other sports.
Atlanta sits at the crossroads of the SEC and the ACC.  Amherst's new President has lived in the South
Where the 3 great religions are Baptist, Methodist and football. 

#2
I am a bit bewildered by the recent discussion of Bowdoin recruiting.  Coach Hammer arrived in 2019 after recruiting was essentially complete for the players coming in the Fall of 2019.  The impact of the incoming recruits, which is the first group under Coach Hammer won't be seen on the field until the Spring of 2021 at the earliest. Nonetheless, the players in the 2020 fall recruiting class look to be a pretty strong group.  Why would the coaching staff change their recruiting approach without knowing the impact and results for the current years group?  There has been no fruit to bear as Quicksilver suggests.

Recruiting now seems to be well underway for the players who will be incoming in the Fall of 2021.  As Wally Wabash noted above, Coach Hammer is once heck of a recruiter as was demonstrated at both Wabash and Allegheny.  At Allegheny, the coaching was rebuilding the program from the ground up, and Allegheny made great strides.  The initial goal was to rebuild Allegheny (who was the National Champion in the 1990's) to a winning program so why wouldn't you emulate such a model?  At Wabash, the goal was recruit for depth for a 15 game season (including the playoffs) and to reload each year.  With a 9 game season in the NESCAC, no playoffs, a roster limit of 75 players, and no spring practices, in order to having a winning program, the coaching staff has to recruit players that will fit their offensive and defensive schemes, and have a skill level that can be developed with the limited time available for position coaching. 

With the unusual situation created by the COVID 19 pandemic,  the NESCAC may allow some additional time for coaching and larger roster limits to accommodate players who may not be on campus this Fall.  The coaching staff would be foolish not to adjust recruiting their recruiting to benefit from the changes.  Any recruit who receives an offer still has to meet Bowdoin's standards for admission. 
#3
Quote from: lumbercat on January 22, 2020, 09:12:50 AM
I agree Fred.
An earlier post cited Coach Hammer as a fantastic recruiter. This may well be so but I know a rigid administration and a tough admissions staff with an anti Football bias will make an ordinary recruiter out of any Coach.
Lumbercat - Coach Hammer has always been an effective recruiter for a number of reasons. Among these is because Wabash cross trained coaches to work closely with the admissions staff.  Compared to peer institutions in the Midwest, Wabash's admission standards are more rigorous (though not necessarily as high as those at Bowdoin).  Coaches learned pretty quickly what those standards are and to focus their attention on recruits who will meet them and not waste time on those that might not.  They also learned  to get an early read on recruits on the borderline.  Wabash is one of two D3 football colleges, with Hampton Sydney being the other, that are all male.  Most football recruits are not interested in entering a monastery, so coaches recruiting for Wabash have to make clear early on that they won't be monks (because coaches for rival schools will be saying the opposite.)   
Coaches from Wabash learned to recruit from a much wider pool of candidates.  During his tenures at Wabash and Allegheny, Coach Hammer reached out to recruits from both the Midwest and the high school football programs across the Sunbelt.  Coach Hammer has a strong network with high school coaches and will continue to use that network to find top notch players that meet the admission requirements for Bowdoin.  Given the timing of recruiting by NESCAC institutions, the upcoming freshman class for this Fall will be his first recruiting class at Bowdoin.  However, given his background at Wabash, no doubt one of his first stops upon arriving at Bowdoin was to meet with the admissions office to learn their criteria and to establish a process for some preliminary reads on gray area candidates.
#4
Quote from: FredWilliamson on January 20, 2020, 05:38:54 PM
Westerfield was the DL Coach. Coach Hammer served as his own DC and unfortunately the defense was the worst statistically that it has been in years. Westerfield is probably happy not to be in Hammer's system. Additionally recruits attend Bowdoin because of the education, not the football.
At Wabash, Coach Hammer's system had the defense in the top 5 in a number of statistical categories regularly and had the best stats in all of college football in a couple of categories one year.  At Allegheny, by his third year, their defense was in the top 10 of several of the defense stats.  Ask the current D3 National Champion - North Central how they liked Coach Hammer's defense in 2011.
The NESCAC rules make a quick turn around difficult with limits on recruiting and no spring practice unlike Allegheny where Coach could bring in 70 recruits a year and had spring practice to work on skills and teaching his system.    Bowdoin is a great school and Coach Hammer is a top notch recruiter.  As the right players are added and become comfortable with the defensive system, you will see quite a difference.
#6
Wally I don't disagree, the 2011 version of the LG's was a very good team.  There was some looking ahead to Mount in 2011 by NCC. This year the NCC faithful are totally focused on Alliance. If the Cardinals are doing likewise, the LG's could give them a surprise.  CJ was indeed a beast, but the latest Buresh upholds the family tradition quite well.
#7
NCC was looking ahead to Mount Union 2011 and they got bushwacked in C'ville.  While the likelihood of history repeating itself aren't high,  if their eyes and heads are on Alliance next weekend, stranger things have happened.
#8
The Bell Game has greatly diminished in its cache and it is hard to motivate the many young Wabash players for it when their eyes are on the playoffs starting next weekend.

The Bell Game is a victim of 2 perverse acts:  the omission  of the undefeated Wabash team from the playoffs  in 1981 (may the members of that committee rot in the lowest level of Dante's Inferno for their dastardly acts.)
The other was the great signal cheating scandal in 1998.

The great Wabash team of 2002 began to set these things right.  It is unfortunate that Creighton would not let that team hang more than 35 points on DePaw.

#9
It is hard to watch football with the officials making bad calls.
First, the Colts go screwed on idiotic roughing call on the punt in Pittsburgh and the no touchdown call with Dolphins last week.  Then the refs missing the call on the TD in the end zone in  the Bell Game.

It is getting impossible to watch any football with such bad calls every week
#10
I am glad to see Denison and OWU playing well.  Having a stronger NCAC is very good and will ultimately help the conference with a Pool C teams in the future.  I was responding to the notion that if Wabash finishes 8 - 2, its regional ranking and playoff seeding wouldn't be very good.  All of that may well be true.  I wasn't picking on Denison by referring to last year with Mount Union, but that is a very hard (impossible) way to start the playoffs.  Wabash has had playoff experience, albeit not with the current group of players as L'il Giant points out, but in the coaching staff.  Hence, while the LG's may not have the best seeding, but games in the playoffs are a different animal, and the pool of experience will help.  The playoffs are take no prisoners time and you can't just ease off.
#11
Denison was undrafted last year and drew Mount Union.  At 8-2 Wabash may not have a great seed, but they bring playoff experience and will be fine as the NCAC AQ as  opposed  to a team with little playoff experience.
#12
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.
#13
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.
#14
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.
#15
Quote from: NBC93 on February 21, 2019, 08:49:03 AM
Regarding recruiting at this level,  I think it's tough for fans to get a good handle on the incoming first year players. Actual skill and talent is hard to gauge from stats and limited video. As a parent going through this process I noticed a lot of ways that small colleges miss out on talent because of limited resources and time to put in to the search. On the flip side, some quality HS players get lost in the shuffle coming from small, non-traditional powerhouses.
Stats don't tell the whole story for a HS player. What was the conference like? Did they play nobodies? Were they the biggest school in the league? We have a small, rural school near us in Michigan that won something like 5 or 6 of the last 8 state championships and won 56 straight games but have only sent 2 or 3 players to play D1 ball. Jake Smith, the Harvard QB is one of them. My point is those players are beneficiaries of an excellent program and phenomenal coaching. Physically, the team is rarely the biggest, fastest, or the most naturally talented so they don't translate that success as individual players to the next level.
It's hard to scout most of these d3 level players and figure out which ones can and will transition well. Let alone be able to do that at a NESCAC school. So, IMO, for a program to receive higher numbers of commits increases their chances of finding those players that will perform well.
During my son's process in HS he was never the star since we had a first team All-State RB that was breaking records and a very capable and athletic QB that was producing big numbers, which was great. My son was on a quality team that had success and he was recognized as All-State WR even though most of the time he would line up at FB and block for the stud RB. No complaints, but most schools wanted him to play DB which wasn't his best position.
When we visited a school in the Chicago area which has played in a national championship game recently they must have had 200 players on the sideline, some of whom looked like they had never played football before! But when you are a school that has the resources to put a uniform on everybody that shows up, why not? You never know what you might find.
I'm rambling, so, long story short, more is better at this level, and exciting for supporters.

Coaches will say that you can't coach size or speed.  In order for a school to support a team with 200 players, there would be a significant investment just in providing equipment for that number of players and the football program would need a huge coaching staff which is not inexpensive either.  Your son needs to find a program and a school that fits him.  It is not unusual for someone to have played behind a "big stud" in high school, and then blossom at the college level.  Size, speed, skill and hard work in the weight room and conditioning can bring about amazing changes in a year or two.  Finally, don't ignore those schools that might see him as a DB.  I have seen a number of players who started as DB's and later went both ways or moved to WR.  If he wants to play, some times it is worth trying what the schools see as his potential role rather than holding out for something else.