122nd Williams - Amherst Game Notes & TV Info: ESPN, NESN and Satellite

"The Biggest Little Game in America"
(Most Played Rivalry in NCAA Div. III)
Williams College Ephs (5-2)
vs.
Amherst College Lord Jeffs (4-3)
12:00 PM
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007
Weston Field
Williamstown, MA  

TELEVISION COVERAGE:

L-I-V-E  Pre-Game Coverage

ESPN's College GameDay

New England Sports Network (NESN)

S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E  C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-E-S for game:

COMBINED WILLIAMS - AMHERST ALUMNI/AE SATELLITE TV GATHERINGS: Once again combined gatherings of Williams and Amherst alumni/ae will be held across the nation from Boston to Hawaii, and this year Japan to view "The Biggest Little Game in America." First televised game was in 1985.

RADIO - INTERNET: The Williams College student station, WCFM (91.9 FM) and the Amherst College student station, WAMH (89.3 FM) will air the game live. To hear the game on the Internet on WCFM go to www.shoutcast.com and type in WCFM. Choose one of the streams based on the quality you want (56kbps for a dial up modem, 128kbps recommended overall for stability/fidelity), which will be opened in a music player like Winamp (recommended) or iTunes.

SERIES: Began in 1884. Williams leads 68-48-5. The Ephs won last year in Amherst 37-7 to record their 6th perfect season (8-0) and first under Mike Whalen.

Amherst's last win came in 2004 in Amherst, 13-10.

Amherst's last win in Williamstown was in 1985 in the first televised game in the series, 35-20.
Williams and Amherst played to a 0-0 tie on Weston Field in 1995.

THE RIVALRY: Began in 1818 when some members of the Williams Board of Trustees decided to move the college east into the Pioneer Valley. When the Massachusetts State legislature turned down the request to re-locate the college further east, then Eph president, Zepheniah Swift Moore resigned and headed east with some Williams faculty members, students and library books to found Amherst Academy which later became Amherst College.

As a result of the Moore defection the first college alumni society in the world was launched at Williams in 1821 to save the college. At Williams, Amherst teams are known as The Defectors and not the Lord Jeffs.

What other rivalry in this great nation had to have its News Directors decide the outcome of games played 80 years earlier? For many years the Ephs and Lord Jeffs reported different won-loss totals until 1964 when John English of Williams and Horace Hewlett of Amherst finally resolved the scores of the games in 1884, 1886, 1887, 1890, 1891, 1896, 1897, 1918 and 1925.

LITTLE THREE: The oldest continuous football championship in the nation without a membership change began in 1910. Today's game will decide the 2007 Little Three championship as both Williams (33-13) and Amherst (28-9) have defeated Wesleyan.

Williams leads Little Three play with 44 titles, Amherst is second with 28 and Wesleyan has won 12. There have been nine ties in the series and twice there was no title, and twice during World War II no games were played.

Last outright Little Three title:
Williams -- 2006
Amherst – 2004
Wesleyan -- 1970

Last shutout of Amherst by Williams: 1995, 0-0

Last shutout of Williams by Amherst: 1995, 0-0

Most points by Williams vs. Amherst: 48 -- 48-14 in 1994; 48-46 in 1998

Most points by Amherst vs. Williams: 56 -- 56-25 in 1969

Largest crowd: 13,671 -- Amherst @ Williams 11/11/93 (New England Div. III record)

2nd largest crowd: 12,449 -- Williams @ Amherst 11/9/96

"The Walk" -- when the Ephs walk in uniform up Spring street singing "Yard by Yard (the college fight song that includes a verse that says -- yard by yard we'll fight our way through the Amherst line..... and stop at St. Pierre's Barber Shop for more celebrating and sometimes a few players elect to have their heads shaved -- was dubbed The Best Post-game Tradition in American college football in 1992 by Sports Illustrated.

COACHES: The Ephs' Mike Whalen (25-6) is in his fourth year as the Williams head coach. Whalen was previously the Ephs' head wrestling coach from 1996 to 2003, and the offensive line coach for the same span, including the last three with years as offensive coordinator. Whalen is 2-1 vs. Amherst.

Whalen guided the 2006 Ephs to the sixth perfect season in Williams history, extending the Eph win streak to 14 and earning NESCAC Coach of the Year honors. He was also the only New England coach to finish in the top 25 in Liberty Mutual's Coach of the Year program among coaches in all divisions of college football.

Whalen, a 1983 graduate of Wesleyan University, captained both the football and wrestling teams while earning All-New England and All-American honors three times. Whalen's football coaching resume also includes stops at Springfield, Penn, Lafayette, and Colgate.

Amherst's EJ Mills is in his 11th year as the head coach of the Lord Jeffs and sports an overall record of 62-25 up to Trinity, 4-3 this fall and 3-7 vs. Williams.

STREAKS: Ephs enter today's game riding a 5-game win streak and they own a 2-game win streak over Amherst.

Ephs are looking to duplicate the 2005 season when they dropped their first two games and finished 6-2.

ATOP THE CHARTS:
Eph QB Pat Lucey needs one more completed pass to tie the Ephs single season mark of 149 set by Joe Reardon '04 in 2002.

Lucey needs three TD passes to eclipse Reardon's career mark of 38.

Eph junior TB Brian Morrissey needs 161 yards rushing to reach 1,000 yards in a season. He would be the 5th Eph to reach 1,000 since 1973.

BY THE NUMBERS …

990 - Games played by Williams in football

602 - All-time wins by Williams (602-341-47, .638), 5th best all time in Div. III

441.4/282.9 - Total Offense per game Ephs/Amherst

327.4/241.9 - Total Defense per game Ephs/Amherst

246.3/113.9 - Passing yards per game Ephs’ Pat Lucey/Amherst’s Lucas Loeffler

160.1/228.9 - Passing yards allowed per game Amherst/Ephs

142.1/73.9 - All purpose yards per game Ephs’ Kevin Flynn/Amherst’s Brandon Bullock

185.6/154.3 - Rushing yards per game Ephs/Amherst

98.6/81.7 - Rushing Defense per game Ephs/Amherst

119.9/137.5 - Rushing yds/game for Ephs Brian Morrissey/Amherst’s Eric NeSmith and Aaron Rauh combined

64/52 - Tackles by Ephs Trevor Powers/Amherst’s Nick Boehm

22.4/12.7 - Scoring Defense per game Ephs/Amherst

15/11 – Interceptions by Ephs/Lord Jeffs

14/12 - Sacks by Amherst/sacks by Williams

7.5/7.0 – Tackles for a loss by Ephs' Trevor Powers/Jeffs' Guy Matisis

7.1/3.3 - Catches per game Ephs Ryan Powell/Amherst’s Brandon Bullock

Starting Lineups