Excited that Amherst got the win over Wesleyan, a program that got better while Amherst got worse.   So a good start to the year.   However, winning with so few points isn't a long-term way to win the NESCAC.   Defense is rarely a specialty that wins at the D3 level - need guys shooting and making threes.

Sort of wondering how many seasons Sears has left to get this Amherst program back to a semi-decent state.   Over his four full seasons - enough to have his recruits for a few of those seasons - the program has a winning percentage of 54% overall an 45% in the NESCAC.  Over Hixon's last 12 years, the overall winning percentage was 78% and 75% in the NESCAC.   I respect the reality of following a legend - as has been noted here many times, the only D3 coach in the basketball hall of fame - but when is enough enough?

Has to be good recruiting on the part of Tufts, right?   They don't get to transfer up unless the talent is there.

What a joke schedule for my alma mater!   I guess this fits into the "lets have a good overall record even if we stink in the NESCAC so we can keep our jobs" category.  Embarrassing.

ThumannsOwn -

It is burdensome to respond to super long strings so let me offer a few thoughts on Amherst hoops.

Yes, it is difficult watching Sears take an elite program down the tubes.  While I am sure he is a fine man, his hire never made sense ... one of those "hey look he coached at the D1 level so he will be great in D3" hires.  To this day he hasn't figured out that D3 basketball is a guard's game and not a big man's game, so his recruits continue to be mediocre (generously) big men who weren't getting recruited by the Ivies.  It is a formula for failure.

He was also part of a crew that included the since-terminated men's lacrosse coach, the squash coach, and the women's volleyball coach, all hired under the DEI umbrella that Amherst more than maybe every other school in the NESCAC lived under with the prior regime. None of these hires have worked, to say the least.   The current president is trying to reverse the remnants of the latter years of the prior administration's heavy-handed rule, but it takes time especially when the faculty is as deeply entrenched in the DEI culture as the president was.

Bottom line is that the basketball natives, the ones that matter, are VERY restless, as were the football natives. So Sears is probably safe for now but not for long.

As an Amherst fan, I am reasonably pleased with this past season.  Winning record, beating the Ephs in a close game, and the losses were not - unlike prior years - blowouts.   Four losses of inside ten points is progress considering the performance over the past 5-6 years. Quarterback should mature, offensive line played its best in a long time, always good EJ defenses.  Optimism reigns.

Does anyone know if there is a link to the Ephs game?  I would just like to see the returned two-point conversion play.   Thanks to anyone who has a link.

Yeah ... not really.  These schools have been trying to limit roster sizes forever.  Not a new phenomena based on a more challenging competitive environment, although certainly it is more challenging then before.

Having nothing to do with what happened yesterday, I applaud Williams for wanting a cap on the roster size.  I believe that Amherst has supported this as well.  It is bordering on insane for the smaller schools - all of them - to have to take up a higher percentage of their student body with football players. Even it out for everyone and go from there.  This coming from an insane sports fan, by the way.

Hard to type this but for a few minutes I actually felt bad for Williams at the end of the game yesterday.  I am no Wes fan but that comeback was special.   

Will be curious to see what the D3boards line will be for the Amherst-Williams game next week!   Both are good, not close to great teams.   Should be fun.

Having been around the block a few times (= I am older), my reasonably subjective view is that they didn't get any better than Farley.  That man was just dominant when he was at Williams.  They won in all types of different ways.   He also had one of the greatest lines ever ... when the kids were screwing around at practice, Farley said to them "you boys better pick it up cause there aint no Division 4!"  Perfect.

Thanks, Lumbercat!  I knew the Darp as I went to school during his tenure.   Hard to believe but EJ has a higher overall winning percentage than the Darp did even with the problems of the past 4-5 years.

Darp winning percentage - 66%
EJ winning percentage - 69%

Both terrific!

As a grad ... I can state fairly clearly that in the later years of the runaway last administration the football team did not get the same level of admissions support it had previously.  The former president took the school over the edge ideologically, something that the new president - an Amherst graduate - is slowly moving the school away from.  And with that, word has it, better, more consistent, more historically supportive admissions for the largest sport in the school.  As several posters on here have stated, EJ Mills is no stranger to winning via effective recruiting, preparation and game-day decision making. The best coach in Amherst history and one of the best in NESCAC history ... when people let him do his job!

Pretty happy to see my Lord Jeffs continuing to play well.  The Bowdoin game was, as noted above, still very close going into the fourth quarter by the Jeffs pulled away nicely.   After years in the wilderness, having a very good quarterback and what seems to be a decent offensive line is a good thing.

Who knows how it will play out, but it is good to season (a) a good Amherst quarterback and (b) a good Amherst offensive line.   This program couldn't block to save its life for the past 5-6 years, but this group is giving the QB some time.  Fun to see my Lord Jeff program alive again.

Wow ... Amherst might actually have a football team again!  Let's see how the rest of the year plays out, of course, but it certainly is encouraging.

"On another note, Amherst offense does seem to have a bit more juice this year.  Granted, not against the strongest competition, but 23 ppg and 318 ypg are dramatically improved from last year's 12 and 215.  Marek Hill seems to be the difference as he's been a strong dual-threat QB, a dangerous runner and very efficient in the short passing game, and he's cut down on the TO issue which plagued him as a FY.  Amherst seems much more able to sustain drives, although still not a team with many game-breaking play-makers.  The question is will that offensive improvement show up against Tufts, which so far has had a very strong defensive performance."

Yes, a glimpse of improvement.   The last time the offense was serviceable they had a really good quarterback so maybe Hill is the answer.   Not clear why anyone in the NESCAC would not go with a good dual-threat quarterback, but obviously Trinity and others have been great with guys who were solely passers.   I think dual threat works best for Amherst given the extremely weak run Amherst has had with offensive linemen over the past 5-6 years.  Just brutal blocking which makes it hard to assess running backs.

So maybe some progress ...