Coming off last year’s respectable 5-3 season, the Lord Jeff football squad hopes to make the 2009 campaign even more successful despite losing a number of key players to graduation.
Among those not returning are running back Eric NeSmith ’09, who ran for 1,576 rushing yards with 10 touchdowns during his career, and outside linebacker Guy Matisis ’09, whose credentials include a berth on last year’s All-NESCAC First Team.
While these and other departed seniors will certainly be missed this fall, Head Coach E.J. Mills and his staff welcome back a talented nucleus of returning players, including quarterback Alex Vetras ’11, who finished third in NESCAC for passing yards per game in 2008 and defensive lineman Eric Pender ’10, also named to last year’s All-NESCAC First Team.
Indeed, the Amherst team landed a conference-high four defensive players on the 2008 All-NESCAC First Team and two on the offensive side of the ball. But the past is merely prologue, and hope springs eternal.
The Jeffs open their season Sept. 26 at Hamilton College on the Continentals’ field in a matchup won handily by Amherst last year, 30-6 — an encounter to be followed by a visit from the scrappy Bowdoin College Polar Bears Oct. 3 at Pratt Field.
Last year, the Polar Bears offered stiff resistance at home before Amherst finally managed to slug out a seven-point win, 31-24. Middlebury College also comes calling at Amherst Oct. 10 in a contest that shapes up as something of a grudge match, inasmuch as the purple and white suffered their first defeat last season in the Panthers’ Vermont lair, 31-14.
On Oct. 17, the Lord Jeffs hit the road north to play against Colby College, a squad easily vanquished last season in the friendly confines of Pratt Field by a count of 23-2 but certain to be more competitive at home. Returning to Pratt for Homecoming on Oct. 24, Amherst lines up against Wesleyan University with fond hopes of repeating their 17-10 victory over the Pioneers in 2008.
Slated for Halloween, Oct. 31, the goblin is Tufts University, another opponent Amherst comfortably handled last season. After Tufts, the going gets even tougher, as Amherst confronts back-to-back nemeses, Trinity College and Williams College, both perennial NESCAC powerhouses and both victors over the Lord Jeffs in 2008.
Trinity makes its way to Pratt Field on Nov. 7 for Family Weekend. Last year, Trinity walloped Amherst 30-13 at home in Connecticut, so the Amherst faithful will hope for a similar result on our own gridiron.
Doubtless even greater school spirit will carry over against Williams, as the Amherst eleven hopefully carry the day in what many regard as football’s greatest small college rivalry. Suffering a heartbreaking loss by one point last season at home, this year’s edition of the Lord Jeffs look to break their series of losses against the highly competitive purple cows.
The 2009 season promises to be another storied chapter of Amherst football and one not to be missed.