First Year Phenom: Get to Know Williams QB Bobby Maimeron ’21

The story of Williams’ rapid resurgence has been the stellar play of their first years. TJ Rothman ’21 and Jarrett Wesner ’21 share the team lead in tackles with 38 each, anchoring a defense that is 2nd in the NESCAC in both points allowed and yards allowed. 5 different first years have found the end zone already this season, led by Frank Stola ’21’s 5 to go along with his 632 all-purpose yards, which are 2nd in the league as well.

Bobby Maimaron
Bobby Maimeron ’21 (Courtesy of Williams Athletics)

But as is the case for almost all good teams, it starts and ends with the quarterback position, and that has been no different for the Ephs, who have had  stellar quarterback play from rookie Bobby Maimaron ’21. Off to an already impressive start, Maimaron turned in the best performance of his short college career when he exploded for 334 yards of total offense and 4 TDs in a 47-14 trouncing of Bates, a showing that earned him his first NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors. Through 4 weeks, Maimaron has thrown for 7 touchdowns and added another with his feet, but most importantly has only turned the ball over twice, a huge reason why Williams has jumped out to a 3-1 start, quickly putting last year’s winless campaign in the rearview mirror.

Maimaron, from Duxbury, MA, came into Williams with a lot of buzz. Named the 2016-17 Gatorade Massachusetts Player of the Year, Maimaron broke the state passing touchdown record, throwing for 122, 40 of which came in his senior year, in addition to winning the MIAA Division II State championship. Despite having his sights set on the Ivy League, he made the choice to commit to Coach Raymond and Williams before his senior season started. “I just wanted to make a decision and get it out of the way, so I could focus on the season. The Ivy’s, they kept putting me off, telling me ‘We’ll let you know next week’, then the week after that, the week after that. Once Harvard took another quarterback I chose Williams. They were the first school to start recruiting me, and I really liked Coach Raymond and the rest of the staff, they’re great people and it’s such a great school”. But he didn’t exactly show up on day 1 of camp as the anointed starter. “I figured I had a good chance to win the job coming in. I had played in a spread offense in high school and thought I would be able to pick up on this system pretty quickly”, Bobby said, but added that “to be honest with you, I didn’t really know what the competition was going to look like”.

An injury to his leg kept him out of camp for a week, adding another challenge to the already difficult task of transitioning to playing college football, as well as living on his own for the first time. The NESCAC’s practice rules mean that the football team, as well as the rest of the fall athletes, move in at the same time as everybody else. So once he got all settled in, it was time to jump right into football. “It was tough having to get up at 7 and have practice and meetings and other team stuff all day, and then back to my room at 11, exhausted, and have to study and try to learn more new plays on offense, and just do that for 10 days in a row basically. Being out because of my leg for a week, I just felt helpless, like there wasn’t a lot I could do except continue to learn the offense”.

But Maimaron, was able to come back in time and win the job for Week 1 at home against Bowdoin. It took the offense a little bit to get going, but early in the second quarter Maimaron and Frank Stola ’21 connected for a 93 yard touchdown pass to put the Ephs up 7-0, leading to an eventual 28-14 win in which Maimaron threw for 283 yards and 2 TDs. “When Frankie broke that tackle, and we were able to get that first [touchdown] off of our backs, it just gave us so much confidence, and kind of vindicated us starting 6 freshmen [on offense], and that’s kind of carried through so far. I feel so much more confident now than I did that first game against Bowdoin, it feels like a different game now”.

Maimeron tore Bates apart with four touchdown passes last week, and will look do the same against Middlebury.

Maimaron and his fellow stand out classmates have given Williams a lot to get excited about, not just for the next four years, but for this season as well. The Ephs are in an interesting spot. Though they are 3-1, their three wins have come against Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, who are a combined 0-12. Their game against Trinity, an ugly 17-9 loss, was their only real test of the year, one that many feel they passed, despite the outcome. But a trip to Middlebury this week to face the 4-0 Panthers is a real chance for them to prove just how good they feel they can be. “We’re excited for this week” Maimaron said, “we’ve gotten so much better over this first month and a half, and we want to show it in our remaining games against some good teams”. If the Ephs continue to improve week to week as they have so far this year, it is not unrealistic to think that they could win 7 or 8 games. None of these freshmen have looked like freshmen, and as long as Maimaron continues to set that tone, the sky is the limit for this group. It will certainly be something to keep an eye on in the Purple Valley.

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