The ultimate prize will still be a NESCAC championship. Without an OOC game, the chances the NESCAC sends multiple teams to the playoffs will be slim. Unless the AQ can go win some games in the playoffs in the first few years, the NESCAC will be sending its champion every year and maybe the runner up every so often... This talk of the NESCAC Championship or rivalry games like Amherst/Williams not mattering anymore is crazy.

How would Kenary have eligibility? I just looked up his stats and he started 9 games in 4 seasons. He doesnt have a medical redshirt year to work with. Am i missing something?

Whalen has always been more of a commentator than WesAD on the broadcast... And since day 1 has been vocal about being under center at the goal line. I dont get to watch many games. but every telecast the last 5 years there has been a comment about being under center at the goal line.

At this point, whats the difference if Trinity is ranked 1 or 2, with the H2H matchup in week 9. We can assume Trinity will be favored against Amherst to make it to the battle of I-91 with only 1 loss. Wesleyan either wins and week 9 decides who is the champion, or the Cardinals lose and Trinity is ranked #1 in NM's weekly poll (which we can all agree is the real prize)

Im obviously biased, but not having wesleyan at or near the top for fan experience is just being a hater. The oldest field in the country, being the actual center of campus, great access for tailgating, tons of access to buildings for cover as well as restrooms. It just has a classic small college football feel to it. I've brought in-law and extended family to games and they we shocked at how much they loved it, even against their many experiences at Holy Cross and BC.

As a fan, Midd and Williams have a fun gameday as well.

I think you miss the point of where smaller rosters come in. Its got nothing to do with gameday, it has to do with the ability to practice and to replace athletes when injured. with only 75, any injuries can derail the entire season. Very hard to have depth at multiple positions, and even harder to develop it with limited practices. 

1000 posts and youre out here on a soap box saying that we believe the nescac is the better brand of football when preseason is essentially 8 practices, smaller rosters, smaller coaching staffs and outside of maybe 9 other schools (out of 250+) has the toughest admissions and academic load... excluding Trinity obviously   

The entire nescac, a group of small schools with some of the most strict academic standards, incredibly high tuition costs, smaller coaching staffs, shorter preseasons and smaller rosters would get beat by the national champion?! Man, that's going to be a tough argument to get the board to agree with...

The core coaches (Fulltime) coaches staying year over year is probably a better indicator of success. They are more involved in the day to day game planning and recruiting. The younger or part time coaches that transition year to year is common across all of D3. Sometimes they are great coaches and working towards that fulltime role, so losing them is tough. But great programs find a way to replace them with another good young coach, and the good programs do a great job of mentoring and sending these guys to other good programs. Thus coaches send their recent grads to said programs to learn and advance their careers.

I would say that turning over position coaches doesn't really impact year over year success. Good programs use it to their advantage to attract great young coaches. Struggling programs use it as an excuse as to why they struggle. Culture starts in the coaches offices

Quote from: NE Football Fan on June 18, 2024, 02:58:44 PMDoes coaching continuity really help in this league. Seems like some program turn over assistants each year and it impacts different programs in different ways. It would be interesting to see the longer tenured position coaches and who continually produces all-conference players and overall good position groups...

Quote from: The Ghost of John Wesley on June 14, 2024, 02:08:30 PM

Quote from: Scoops on June 14, 2024, 12:56:13 PMI understand it's not a unit award. But clearly the kid isn't making an impact if his unit is getting shelled on a regular basis. Sure, he has a lot of interceptions, but that means offenses are throwing at him in a secondary full of fish. The numbers look good on paper, but the eye test doesn't match from the games I watched.

I get what you're saying and agree with it in some respects (truly great players raise the level of play for their units and teams), but with units that have a lot of starting players like the defensive backfield or offensive line, it's not all that uncommon to have a standout in an overall poor unit.

I can think of many examples with offensive linemen. Joe Thomas played on some truly abysmal teams and offensive lines in Cleveland, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's one of the best offensive tackles in the history of the game.

Its almost like its nearly impossible to have a legitimate way to determine the "best" players across all of D3 football and they just go off of some stats and W/L records.... Those lists are not close to being a realistic look at what players are truly the best at their positions.

Every year, it seems like more and more kids are transferring out of the NESCAC and looking for FCS and FBS offers. It seems the allure of the portal has "trickled down" to D3. Its interesting to see how some guys are using D3 like a prep school year. How long until we see players opting to transfer anywhere with scholarship money, even a local school like Bentley, as a way to offset the high costs of attending a NESCAC school?

where a kid plays from doesnt matter anymore. between the volume of film that is available and camps, the coaches can truly evaluate a player no matter where they are from. Guys seldom slip through the cracks like they used to. If you have the ability and necessary grades, any school can and will find you. just because a player doesnt dominate the competition on film (in the eyes of a d3 message board commentator) means nothing. Williams wanted the kid, and that coach knows how to evaluate talent.

Cortland state did win the championship and did it with nearly all NY athletes. saying NY isnt a great football state is probably slightly too harsh, as they consistently have loads of D2 and D3 talent in the NESCAC, CCC, NE10, MAC and CC. Your point that he doesnt "shine" against his competition without knowing that a team composed of kids he played against just won the D3 championship says a whole lot more about your evaluation skills than his talent

Quote from: The Ghost of John Wesley on December 19, 2023, 12:08:11 PM

Quote from: RedAndBlack on December 19, 2023, 09:40:11 AM
Also not sure if it was ever discussed, but the rebranding of the athletic dept and new logo is horrendous. Looks like someone blow dried a bird post-shower and its not happy about it.

I'm not a huge fan of the new cardinal either, but I can live with it. It's not as bad as the University's worst branding misstep in the last decade. That honor belongs to the attempted institution-wide rebranding a few years ago where they paid a marketing & design firm over a million bucks to come up with an avant-garde "W" and shield made of broken sticks. Looked like a community college logo or tennis ball brand. Total trash. That was so ill-advised the administration (thankfully) walked it back within a week or two. I'm still bummed they've phased out the traditional heraldic shield/coat-of-arms with the seashells.

It was all a part of the same redesign... but after they walked it back and didn't talk about it for a year, they just implemented it! Head to the website, they have the new "crest" on the top left. The school touts its history, like having the oldest field in America. So the redesign was focused on "modernizing" the image of the university... makes no sense

Quote from: The Ghost of John Wesley on December 19, 2023, 07:32:47 AM

Quote from: lumbercat on December 18, 2023, 09:42:33 PM
Gotta agree with the Mole on this one. Based on his comments and narratives the Ghost seems like a grandstander at best- kind of a second guesser who professes to know how to get it done but has never actually been in the fray himself. More of a critic.
I could be wrong and we may find he was a great one in Cards history but I  doubt that based on his comments.

I will stand by everything I've said. I don't think "back up your trash talk" or "make statements through your actions and not your words" are particularly controversial sentiments, but then again it's 2023 and maybe I'm just a dinosaur.

I get what Ghost is saying and I agree that there has been disappointment in recent years when it would appear that Wes has had equal talent to the top teams in the league but would drop games to considerably lower talent teams. Losses fall on coaching. period. They need to put the guys in a position to win. Recent losses like Colby in 2023, Bowdoin in 2022, and the drubbing at Middlebury in 2019 showed a level of either unpreparedness or schedule watching that lead to trap games. What Whales and Dice have done has been remarkable. The level of coaching is far higher than when I played in the "doomed" 2000s, but they still have a ways to go before they can consider themselves in the top tier of teams. Its been great to watch, but there is more work ahead for the cardinals.

Also not sure if it was ever discussed, but the rebranding of the athletic dept and new logo is horrendous. Looks like someone blow dried a bird post-shower and its not happy about it.