It escaped our notice for a little bit, but the NESCAC announced the Fall All-Academic team a few weeks back meaning it is time for us to put our own little spin on it. Just as we did back in the spring for baseball, we are going to make two hypothetical teams. One team is made up solely of players who made the All-Academic team and also happen to be pretty good at football as well. The other team is filled with players who, while they are surely great people and students in their own right, did not make the All-Academic team but still are very good at football.
What is the point you ask? Well it is fun first of all. More importantly, it reminds us that NESCAC athletes are really students and not athletes masquerading as students. The guys who dominate on Saturday also often dominate the classroom and library every day of the week.
Reminder that freshmen are not eligible for the All-Academic team.
Offense
| All-Academic | Everyone Else | ||||
| POS | Player | School | POS | Player | School |
| QB | Jack Doll ’15 | Tufts | QB | Matt Milano ’16 | Middlebury |
| RB | Tyler Grant ’17 | Bowdoin | RB | Chudi Iregbulem ’15 | Trinity |
| FB | Jack Donovan ’15 | Bowdoin | FB | Michael Budness ’15 | Trinity |
| WR | Grant Luna ’17 | Middlebury | WR | Mark Riley ’16 | Bates |
| WR | Brendan Rankowitz ’15 | Middlebury | WR | Gene Garay ’15 | Amherst |
| WR | Steven Kiesel ’15 | Williams | WR | Matthew Minno ’16 | Middlebury |
| OL | Scott Mergner ’15 | Amherst | OL | Pat Dimase ’15 | Wesleyan |
| OL | Lyle Seebeck ’15 | Bates | OL | Dan Finta ’15 | Middlebury |
| OL | Connor Clancy ’15 | Colby | OL | Joe Magardino ’15 | Trinity |
| OL | Blake Shapskinsky ’15 | Middlebury | OL | Nick Noonan ’15 | Hamilton |
| OL | Sam Hart ’16 | Amherst | OL | Alan Felix ’15 | Williams |
Three quick observations before moving onto the defense.
1. One would expect quarterbacks, a position so often associated with intelligence in the media, to be all over the All-Academic team. However, Jack Doll ’15 is the only QB who saw any significant playing time make it. Fortunately for the hypothetical coach of the All-Academic team, Doll is a good one who is more than capable of leading the offense.
2. The All-Academic team includes five players who were also All-NESCAC. Three of those five are on the offensive line with Blake Shapshinsky ’15 and Connor Clancy ’15 on the second team and Scott Mergner ’15 the lone representative from the first team. In fact, the offensive line is the strongest unit considering Sam Hart ’16 started at left tackle for Amherst while Lyle Seebeck ’15 started multiple years for Bates.
3. So yes, the talent level on the All-Academic team is a notch below the Everyone Else team, but it is only a notch really. In our opinion, Tyler Grant ’17 was snubbed first team All-NESCAC honors, and the receiving trio sets up nicely with Doll’s skill set of short crossing routes.
Defense
All-Academic Everyone Else
| POS | Player | School | POS | Player | School |
| DE | Nik Powers ’15 | Wesleyan | DE | Jimmy Brao ’15 | Tufts |
| DE | Max Lehrman ’15 | Amherst | DE | Gil Araujo ’16 | Middlebury |
| DT | Paul Johnson ’17 | Amherst | DT | Lyle Baker ’16 | Trinity |
| DT | CT Harris ’15 | Colby | DT | Michael De Percin ’15 | Hamilton |
| OLB | Alex Daversa-Russo ’16 | Wesleyan | OLB | Tom Szymanski ’15 | Trinity |
| OLB | Chris Tamasi ’15 | Amherst | OLB | Mark Upton ’17 | Bates |
| MLB | Tim Patricia ’16 | Middlebury | MLB | Ned Deane ’15 | Amherst |
| CB | Tom Cabarle ’15 | Williams | CB | Jake Bussani ’14 | Wesleyan |
| CB | Dan Pierce ’16 | Middlebury | CB | Jaymie Spears ’16 | Amherst |
| SS | Matt Benedict ’15 | Middlebury | SS | Donnie Cimino ’15 | Wesleyan |
| FS | Mike Mancini ’15 | Trinity | FS | Jason Buco ’15 |
Three thoughts on the defense
1. The difference between these two teams is miniscule. 10 of the 11 All-Academic team were also All-NESCAC, including five on the first team All-NESCAC. Dan Pierce ’16, the only player who didn’t make All-NESCAC, still enjoyed an incredible year and had a strong argument for making it.
2. Safety was the deepest position for the All-Academic team while corner was the weakest. So we cheated a little bit and decided that we are simply going to have four safeties in the secondary. While the all safety secondary might give up a little in the passing game, try running outside against it, I dare you.
3. The defensive line for the All-Academic team is slightly stronger. Nik Powers ’15 and Max Lehrman ’15 were first team while CT Harris ’15 and Paul Johnson ’17 were second team. Harris also made first team last season and Johnson might have been first team if not for NESCAC coaches preferring to honor seniors on the first team.
Special Teams
All-Academic All-NESCAC
| POS | Player | School | POS | Player | School |
| KR | Chris Gow ’16 | Amherst | KR | Zack Trause ’15 | Tufts |
| P | David Kurey ’15 | Bates | P | Kyle Pulek ’16 | Trinity |
| K | Joe Mallock ’15 | Williams | K | Phillip Nwosu ’15 | Amherst |
Looking down the rosters of both teams, the All-Academic team certainly would give the Everyone Else team a run for their money on most days. If we were setting the line for the game, it would settle in around -6 in favor of the Everyone Else team. The key to the game would likely be how Matt Milano ’16 was able to throw against the secondary made up completely of safeties. One would guess that the All-Academic team would be able to get good pressure on Milano because of their strength on the defensive line and the presence of Chris Tamasi ’15 coming off of the edge.
Another note of importance is that Amherst, the NESCAC champions, also tied for the most players on the All-Academic team with their rivals Williams. Both placed 20 football players on the team.
Finally, what we wrote back in the spring still holds.
“One last note is that many of the athletes who did not make the All-Academic team still work incredibly hard in the classroom. Keep in mind that the difficulty of achieving the requisite 3.35 GPA fluctuates between departments, majors and professors. This isn’t to disparage anyone who did make the All-Academic team because a 3.35 isn’t easy no matter what classes you take. I want to make clear that I’m not putting down The Everyone Else roster for their performance in the classroom. A lot of factors besides a student’s intelligence and work ethic go into what a final GPA looks like. With that being said, a huge congratulations to all of the students for their great work both on the field and in the classroom.”