Trinity Game Notes

66th Meeting
Williams College Ephs (0-1)
vs.
Trinity College Bantams (1-0)
1:30 pm
Saturday, September 29th
Jessee/Miller Field
Hartford, CT

SERIES: Began in 1884. Williams leads the series 35-28-2. Williams won last year's match-up, 41-16 in Williamstown, snapping the Bantams' 3-game win streak over the Ephs and Trinity's 31-game win streak that was leading the nation.

Since the late 1980s this has been one of the nation's best-played rivalries. In 1988 Williams lost at Trinity 24-20 (in the first of five consecutive games between the Ephs and Bantams that were decided by a TD or less). The Ephs then posted consecutive remarkable comeback wins over the Bantams in 1989, 26-21, and 24-21 in 1990 on their way to 23 wins in a row. That streak ended in 1991 on Weston Field when Trinity won 30-27 on the last play of the game. The 1991 game featured four lead changes in the final 2:47. Current Trinity head coach Jeff Devanney played for the Bantams in that game on defense.

In 1993, Trinity beat Williams 21-7 in Hartford, which would be the Ephs' last loss until 1996. In that span, the Ephs went on a 23-game unbeaten streak (22 wins, one tie), which Trinity snapped on Weston Field, taking a 14-13 victory.

Williams was the last team to defeat Trinity, winning 30-13, in the September 28, 2002 match-up played on Weston Field, before the Bantams ran off the skein of 31 straight wins that came to a halt on Weston Field last September.

COACHES: The Ephs' Mike Whalen (20-5) 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 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.

Jeff Devanney (8-1) begins his second season as head coach at Trinity. A 1993 Trinity graduate and star player in football and baseball for the Bantams, Devanney was voted the NESCAC Football Defensive Player of the Year in 1992. Devanney was Trinity's defensive line coach in 2001 and the secondary coach from 2002 to 2004, before taking on duties as the defensive coordinator in 2005 and then becoming the head coach in 2006.

FAMILY TIES: Trinity offensive coordinator Chris Rorke is the son of former Eph running back Danny Rorke '59 and the brother of former Eph running back/wrestler Sean Rorke '93.
Eph secondary coach Dan DiCenzo '01 began his coaching career at Trinity as a graduate assistant under Chuck Priore at Trinity.

Trinity assistant coach Mike Blair is a 2006 graduate of Trinity and he served as an assistant under Mike Whalen last year and also assisted with the Eph wrestling team before returning to the Trinity staff this summer.

TEAMLINE: To listen to the game via telephone just dial TEAMLINE at 1-800-846-4700 and enter the Eph team code: 0126. Charge the call to your credit card and listen to every play as it’s broadcast. Listen as long as you like, and pay only for the time you listen. The longer you listen, the less you pay – as low as 15 cents per minute. For more information on special rate plans, call TEAMLINE at 1-800-846-4700.

You can also listen to TEAMLINE on your computer by accessing the Williams Sports Information web site at www.williams.edu/athletics. Click on the TEAMLINE logo on the bottom of the front page.
Trinity is offering the game as a free video webcast through TEAMLINE. The Trinity access code is 2055. Trinity TEAMLINE page.
 

RADIO: The Williams College student station, WCFM (91.9 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.

WRTC-FM at Trinity College will also air today's game and you can access that broadcast by going to their website http://www.wrtcfm.com/

STREAKS: Trinity enters the contest riding a 7-game win streak.

HONORS: Trinity QB Eric McGrath was named NESCAC Player of the Week for hitting on 20 of 40 passes for three TDs and 338 yards in the Bantams' 20-0 win at Colby last week.

BY THE NUMBERS …

2001 --  Ephs' last win in Hartford, 31-10

346/288 -- Passing offense Bantams/Ephs

126/288 – Passing defense Bantams/Ephs

117/105 – Rushing offense Bantams/Ephs

0/84 – Rushing defense Bantams/Ephs

107/80 – Receiving yards Bants' Joe Clark (2)/Ephs' Ryan Powell (10)

80 – Rushing yards for Ephs' Brian Morrissey last week

23 -- Consecutive wins for the Bantams at home (Bantams have not lost on Jessee/Miller Field since artificial turf was installed in 2002)

14-1 -- Ephs record with Pat Lucey as starting QB

8 -- Turnovers by the Ephs last week in loss at Bowdoin

7 – Eph wins vs. Trinity in last 10 meetings

4 – Years in a row Trinity has led the nation in total defense

3 – Consecutive shutouts posted by the Bantams

3 -- Points allowed by Trinity in their last 7 games

2 – Losses by Trinity in last five years – both to Williams

Starting Lineups