FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Charlie]

Word out of the trinity camp is that Dinapoli is looking skinny. Look for drake bellisari to make a major impact this year

Spoke to disgraced Lehigh transfer offensive lineman, Robby Mandel, about the situation, said bellisari is "in the best shape of his life" and is "poised to be a bellcow" for this bantam offense

First off why is he disgraced ? As I recall he transferred from Lafayette not Lehigh. If he was that solid of a player he would've been starting which means either he has not panned out athletically, work ethic not there or injuries. No matter he cant seem to get on the field. Do not know why. In addition are you forgetting about Jack Tosone , RB from Needham Tate Hoffmeister. There are many good backs that can carry the rock for the Bantams. Trinity will be fine once the QB position is solidified.

[lumbercat]

Word out of the trinity camp is that Dinapoli is looking skinny. Look for drake bellisari to make a major impact this year

Spoke to disgraced Lehigh transfer offensive lineman, Robby Mandel, about the situation, said bellisari is "in the best shape of his life" and is "poised to be a bellcow" for this bantam offense

Why would slam a kid because he transferred and then get the school wrong to make yourself look even worse.

[lumbercat]

Word out of the trinity camp is that Dinapoli is looking skinny. Look for drake bellisari to make a major impact this year

Spoke to disgraced Lehigh transfer offensive lineman, Robby Mandel, about the situation, said bellisari is "in the best shape of his life" and is "poised to be a bellcow" for this bantam offense

Why would slam a kid because he transferred and then get the school wrong to make yourself look even worse.

Disgraced is a term of endearment, no? And I'm pretty positive he transferred from Lehigh to trinity. You should probably get your facts straight buster

I have it right- don't be a clown.

[Charlie]

Word out of the trinity camp is that Dinapoli is looking skinny. Look for drake bellisari to make a major impact this year

Spoke to disgraced Lehigh transfer offensive lineman, Robby Mandel, about the situation, said bellisari is "in the best shape of his life" and is "poised to be a bellcow" for this bantam offense

Why would slam a kid because he transferred and then get the school wrong to make yourself look even worse.

Disgraced is a term of endearment, no? And I'm pretty positive he transferred from Lehigh to trinity. You should probably get your facts straight buster

I have it right- don't be a clown.

Now we have it right

https://goleopards.com/sports/football/roster/robby-mandel/10023

Disgraced is not a phrase of endearment.

[Charlie]

IS there a reasoning behind the number of Coaches in NESCAC football. I just find it odd that Colby has the lowest number of Coaches and rather shocked that Hamilton has 10. I would have thought some of these schools would have had more of a Coaching staff. I specifically thought Bates trying to make a push up the tier ladder would have had more Coaches on hand. The Bates program seems to be an endless carousal of Coaches. I had thought once HC Coyne arrived there would have been more stability in the staff.


Colby       6
Bates       8
Bowdoin     8
Hamilton   10
Wesleyan.   9
Middlebury  8
Trinity.   10
Tufts.     11
Williams.   9

[Pat Coleman]

IS there a reasoning behind the number of Coaches in NESCAC football.

There are probably 10 reasonings, one for each school. And while the number itself does have meaning, I think it has more meaning to know the number of full-time coaches, as in number of coaches who are on campus full-time -- perhaps split jobs within the department or the college/university, but full-time at their school. That's often a differentiator.

[Jonny Utah]

IS there a reasoning behind the number of Coaches in NESCAC football.

There are probably 10 reasonings, one for each school. And while the number itself does have meaning, I think it has more meaning to know the number of full-time coaches, as in number of coaches who are on campus full-time -- perhaps split jobs within the department or the college/university, but full-time at their school. That's often a differentiator.

Teams don't always update their coaches (or rosters) on their websites until the first week of the season.  There are also a few additions/subtractions around this time as well.  I also think many schools simply don't list part time assistants on their pages but Nescac Schools should be including them when the season starts. 

[Charlie]

Does anyone know the official rules of transfer portal. Specifically if you enter the portal can you not be taken or accept offers and go back to the team you are transferring from ?

Reason asking is that the Center for Bates Pierotti entered the portal in April but looks like he is staying at Bates. This is great news for Bates as he was one of the best players on offense for them. I just don't know the rules or if the school allows you back in the team. I know Bates could use the help talent wise and this would be a plus for the football program.

[Pat Coleman]

Lots of people in the portal do not get offers and yes, some of those return to where they were previously. Some others just no longer play ball.

[lumbercat]

Joshua East Colby DB entered to portal prior to the 2024 season. Evidently there were no acceptable offers and he returned to Colby for his senior year.

[nescac1]

So I looked at the Bates roster (I think the only roster posted?) and while Pierotti is listed, Seneca Moore, the presumptive starting QB, is not.  It sounds based on public reporting that he was pretty disenchanted by his treatment by Bates last year (not the football program, the school) so if indeed he did not return, it would not be shocking. 

Clearly would be a significant blow to Bates losing one of its top athletes on offense and add yet another school starting, from one reason or another, from scratch at QB this fall: Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, Bates, and Trinity all figure to have fairly wide-open competitions at QB after graduating virtually all of the arms responsible for pass completions (well, probably not Trinity with that superstar transfer coming in, but you never know until he gets on the field as not every uber-hyped transfer immediately pans out).  My suspicion is that we will see several FY starters at QB this fall, including at Bates. 

[lumbercat]

Moore was not the starter last year though he got some significant game reps. A very talented kid with a huge amount of potential though QB competition going into camp had been declared wide open early in the post season.

Seneca is a hurdler in track, broke the Bates indoor and outdoor records in the hurdles. He seemed to devote most of his passion to track. Maybe his success there fulfilled his athletic aspirations.

A complex kid with a very broad agenda. He will do well in whatever path he chooses, the Bates community wishes him the best. He had a great opportunity in Coynes rebuild initiative but the passion and commitment didn't seem to be there. Football, especially in Coynes rebuild, involves a much greater commitment than Track. For years many athletes at Bates with football potential have opted for the lower key track experience.

There will be some different wrinkles in the Bates offense as they develop some very able younger QBs to see who will emerge as the starter. You may see the Bobcats best athlete Sergio Beltran who was a HS QB in Cal at Menlo getting some reps at QB as the new QB develops. It will be an interesting offense.

[nescac1]

Interesting insight, thanks lumbercat.  Beltran and Lynskey doing a lightning and thunder thing in the backfield could be fun. 

Some super-niche Williams commentary here - the Ephs often seem to have some of their best athletes at the H-back / TE positions, but it's crazy how loaded up they are there right now.  At least five very capable guys who saw real PT are all (presumably) back at those spots: Owen Johansen, who is likely to be the best weapon on offense and needs to be on the field whenever possible as a slash sort of player, but who primarily plays at TE / H-back, Sam Jaffe, who has five career TD receptions as a pass-catching tight end, Danny Montesano, a huge-framed red zone target who scored on two of his three receptions as a first year and who I expect will play a much bigger role as he bulks up, Riley O'Connell, a converted QB who started last year and plays more of a fullback sort of role, and Will Baker, another huge, good athlete who is also a converted H.S. quarterback.

I expect the Ephs to play a lot of sets with two tight ends and a FB, and pretty much always have at least two of those flex sort of positions on the field, as they clearly value versatility and big mobile guys who can block as opposed to spreading the field with speedy receivers (never a particular positional strength in the Raymond era).  But even still, that's a lot of capable bodies for, in base sets, two spots on the field and I wonder if any of those guys will convert to other positions. 

With all those big guys out there on the edges, a workhorse TB returning in Jon Oris, and three full-time / two part-time starters returning on the offensive line, but (as per usual it seems) big question marks at both QB and WR, I expect that the Ephs will play even more of a pound-the-ball style offense than usual.  Hopefully that will prove effective in a transition year for the DL position in the conference - all ten all-conference d-linemen, and lots of other very good ones, have departed since last season.  More generally, the top returning running backs, a loaded position that includes Oris, Ryan Lynskey, Tyler DiNapoli, Christian Shapiro, Connor McClellan, and Matt Diaz, all of whom are all-conference level backs, have to be licking their chops. 

[Charlie]

Do not know if anyone has heard by Wesleyan and Trinity palyers and parents are trying file an appeal for this years roster limits to the NESCAC. I do not know how much success they will have being late in the game but thought this was noteworthy. I beleive Tufts is also on board and some type of meeting is taking place in the near future by NESCAC to possibly revisit. Again late in the game for this appeal and do not know how much sucesss either school will have perhaps message board people can provide more in depth anlaysis if they have heard the same.

[quicksilver]

The NESCAC operates via super-majority (at least 3/4ths of the presidents voting on the proposal must vote in favor of it). I am not sure about rounding up and whether the Conn College president would cast a vote but it looks like maybe as many as 9 of the NESCAC presidents voted for the cap. Likely undoing or modifying the new policy requires a simiar consensus so it is probably not happening.