Stock up
Bates Bobcats
In the interest of full disclosure I just want to say that I’m a senior at Bates and I’ve been waiting to write this “stock up” for a very long time. It’s no secret that this has been a frustrating past two years – losing 16 games in a row after a coaching change definitely makes you scratch your head a little. There is also quite a bit of flukiness that comes with a losing streak that long – they were a blocked PAT away from heading to overtime with Middlebury last season, they nearly orchestrated a 19-point comeback against Tufts in Week 4 this year, a phantom holding call nullified a would-be game winning touchdown against Colby in Week 7, and the injury bug bit at the wrong time over and over again. Well, I’m very happy to say that the streak is finally over and Bobcat fans can sleep easy for the first time in 728 days.
In all honesty, Bowdoin came out on Saturday and looked like they were playing against the Max Chipouras-era Trinity Bantams. Bates absolutely steamrolled the Polar Bears, outgaining them in total offense 523-296 and shutting down Nate Richam ’20 who has really been the only reliable threat in Brunswick. Brendan Costa ’21 played another very nice game, hitting WR Jackson Hayes ’22 for two deep touchdown passes in the first half and connecting with WR Sean Bryant ’22 for a long score in the second half. Fortunately Costa only had to attempt 17 passes because freshman RB Tyler Bridge ’23 had himself a career day, rushing for 188 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. The Bobcat defense had by far their best game of the last two years, led by freshman Tony Hooks ’23 who looks to be a potential future All-NESCAC linebacker. Hopefully this is the spark that the Bobcats needed to start turning things around. It may be the end of the year, but getting your first win in a long time can start to change some attitudes. Bates will try their luck again this Saturday when they make the long drive to Hamilton.
Wesleyan’s ability to finish games
Last week I harped on Amherst’s late struggles this year, so it only feels appropriate this week to give this one to the Cardinals. We were very critical of Wesleyan early in the year when they started their schedule with the 4 (or maybe 5) worst teams in the league and then were trounced by Middlebury. They hadn’t proven much and I stand by our caution when assessing where they stood relative to the top teams. However, things are very different now. They just rattled off two overtime victories to win the Little Three Championship and have legitimately solidified themselves as the second best team in the league at this point. The Amherst game was a little fluky with both kickers hitting the upright in the first overtime, but the Cardinals have done it time and time again this year so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. Aside from these past two games, they also scored a touchdown with 6 seconds left to beat Tufts and they didn’t score the game winning touchdown against Bowdoin until there were less than 4 minutes left to play. Coach DiCenzo knows what he’s doing and this team knows how to win. They’ll head to Hartford this weekend to try and take down the Bantams for the first time since 2014.
Hamilton special teams
This is a unit we absolutely have not talked about enough this year. The Continentals easily have the best all around special teams in the league. Kick returner Sam Robinson ’20 is the most explosive return man in the NESCAC and he can flip the field position on you in a hurry. Their usage of Kenny Gray ’20 as a hybrid quarterback/punter has really paid off: Hamilton’s punt team has downed 20 kicks inside the 20-yard line this year and 7 of those kicks were inside the 5. Sam Thoreen ’22 is the only kicker in the league with more than 1 field goal attempt who is yet to miss and he’s 20-22 on extra points as well. These are the types of things that make the difference in games. Coach Murray has done an excellent job with the team this year and that is in large part due to his emphasis on special teams. If they can close out the season with a victory over Bates then they’ll be able to clinch their first winning season in a very long time.
Stock down
Trinity, Amherst, or Williams Winning the Championship
Since the year 2000 (when the NESCAC began recognizing a league champion for football) there have been 19 football seasons played. Trinity, Amherst, or Williams has won the championship outright in 16 of these 19 seasons, Amherst shared it with two other schools 2 of the years, and in 2007 Middlebury won the NESCAC Championship. That means this will be just the second time since most of the league’s freshmen and sophomores were born that one of these three schools won’t win the NESCAC title. The interesting thing is that each of these schools feels differently about this season based on the more recent past. For Amherst and Trinity (particularly Trinity) this year is a bit of a disappointment. These two have been consistently competing for the championship every year for as long as I can remember, but Williams is coming from a different place. Just 3 years ago they finished 0-8, then followed with a 6-3 and 5-4 over the next two years. If they can snag a win in their final game over the Mammoths then this will be their highest win total since they won the league in 2010. The final weekend will still bring a slate of good games, but it doesn’t feature the same crucial matchups between the teams that we are used to seeing at the top. Speaking of which…
Final weekend excitement
Unfortunately for us as fans, the final weekend of the year will not factor into deciding the league championship. Middlebury is 8-0 and Wesleyan is the only 7-1 team, but the Panthers defeated the Cardinals handily in Week 6 so they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the NESCAC decided to do away with the tiebreaker rule this season, so technically if the two teams finish tied they will be considered “co-champions.” It seems silly not to have a tiebreaker system when the league literally just moved to a 9-game schedule so that everyone now plays everyone. It’s even weirder that they waited until the 3rd year of the new schedule to remove the tiebreaker rule. Last year Trinity finished tied with Amherst at 8-1, but the Bantams were awarded the league championship because they held the head-to-head tiebreaker. I’m not sure what transpired that caused them to change this, but it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. Fortunately NbN does recognize the head-to-head tiebreaker, so we would like to congratulate the Panthers on their well-deserved NESCAC championship.
Ultimately what this does is take away most of the excitement of the final weekend. The Amherst-Williams game is always fun, but it won’t help decide a Little Three or NESCAC Championship. Wesleyan-Trinity will be intriguing too, but it just doesn’t have the same implications that it has had in the past few years. The fact that the conference gives us so much week in and week out means that we don’t know what to do with ourselves when there is suddenly less on the line. That being said, I don’t plan on doing anything else this Saturday afternoon besides watching as many NESCAC football games at once as I can.
Even at 8-0, the Middlebury Panthers can’t get a Stock Up nod from you guys. What gives? After you ‘dissed their D last week, the team went out and allowed only 7 points to Hamilton. This was crucial because QB1, Will Jernigan, went down hurt in the 2ndQ with Middlebury up by only 14-7. The Continentals smelled blood, but it was Midd who put up a wall of cannonballs to protect the home turf and take the victory.
Week in and week out, Middlebury finds a way to win. This is one of the most well-rounded and disciplined (fewest penalties in NESCAC) football teams you’ll ever see. Y’all need to own up and drink down a big mug of “We Wrong.”
You’re a bunch of very fine writers, and I sincerely applaud your passion and hard work on behalf of NESCAC football. Until you start scoring on these Stock Reports, however, you might want to stay away from Wall St.
Mr. Prakash,
I appreciate your readership of our site – it’s avid fans like yourself that keep the site running and make us want to do what we do. As for our assessment of this year’s Panther team, I do not believe that we have short-changed Middlebury at all over the course of the season. This was our 8th stock report of the year and literally every single one of the first 6 stock reports of the season featured the Panthers in the “stock up” category.
We are dedicated to providing fair coverage and it certainly is hard not to put an undefeated team in the “stock up” category every week, but to some extent we also want to avoid beating a dead horse. It was relatively early in the season when Middlebury became the frontrunner for the league championship and at the time we talked A LOT about their success and how the NESCAC was pretty much theirs to lose.
When they continued to win we knew that we couldn’t let their success go unnoticed, but we also wanted to highlight other teams that hadn’t been talked about as much this year. That is also the reason that for the first time all season, Middlebury didn’t find themselves in the “stock up” category last week. A very expected, lopsided victory over Bowdoin isn’t the type of game that lands a title contender in the “stock up” section, especially when they had beaten Wesleyan, Amherst, and Trinity in 3 of their prior 4 games.
I would also like to point out that in this particular article we made the point of declaring the Panthers this year’s NESCAC Champions, so it really doesn’t seem to me like we have provided unfair coverage of Middlebury this year. This is also the first year since NbN’s inception that we have not featured a writer from Middlebury, so perhaps you’re feeling the void left by some of the former greats – Joe McDonald, Pete Lindholm, Colby Morris, etc.
I appreciate your interest and excitement about our site and about Middlebury football – we love knowing that people read and care about what we say. At the same time, I also wouldn’t take the opinions of a bunch of non-football playing college students too seriously.
Thank you for reaching out.
Hey Cameron, aw, you guys are way cool. Perhaps my intended wink didn’t make it’s way clearly enough through my note. It can be hard sometimes to get a chuckle through a keyboard. You do an awesome job and I compliment you for all your fine work.
If you really want to set things right by me, however, be prepared to treat for the champagne when we celebrate Midd beating Tufts and setting the NESCAC gold standard at 9-0! Panthers stock going way, way up.
Thank you very much! Trust me we know how hard it is to convey emotion through a keyboard…Best of luck to the Panthers this weekend!
Panthers pray, and God delivers miracles. That’s their key to success. Their highest honor awaits in heaven.