Watch Ephs vs. Lord Jeffs on TV: The 123rd edition of the Williams-Amherst football rivalry will be carried live on the New England Sports Network (NESN) starting at 12:00 PM on November 8th.

NESN:  Satellite Coordinates
Time - 11:30 - 15:00 appx 30
Satellite - AMC-16
Orbital Slot - 85 Degrees West
Transponder - 21
Band - Ku
Mhz - 36
Downlink Frequency - 12120.0
Polarity - Vertical
 
DISH NET 434 -- DIRECT TV 628
 
VERIZON FIOS please check your local channel guide

Listing of Combined Alumni Gathering Locations

RADIO - INTERNET:  The Williams College student station, WCFM (91.9 FM) will air each game live. To hear the game on the Internet on WCFM go to 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.

LISTEN to the GAME on INTERNET on your computer or on a phone: An audio play-by-play will be available on TEAMLINE.
 
The Eph access code is: 0126.

Telephone: dial 1-800-846- 4700 and follow the prompts. The Eph access code is 0126.

"The Biggest Little Game in America"
(Most Played Rivalry in NCAA Div. III)

Williams College Ephs (5-2)
vs.
Amherst College Lord Jeffs (5-2)

12:00 PM
Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008

Pratt Field
Amherst, MA 


SERIES: Began in 1884. Williams leads 69-48-5. The Ephs won last year at Weston Field in front of the ESPN College GameDay crew, 20-0.  The year before the Ephs won 37-7 in Amherst 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 (48-14) and Amherst (17-10) have defeated Wesleyan.

Williams leads Little Three play with 45 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 -- 2008
Amherst – 2004
Wesleyan -- 1970

Last shutout of Amherst by Williams: 2007, 20-0

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 11/11/89 (New England Div. III record)

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

COACHES: The Ephs' Mike Whalen (31-8) is in his fifth year as the Williams head coach, during which time his teams have never finished worse than 6-2. 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 years as offensive coordinator.

In 2007 Whalen guided the Ephs to a 6-2 record after the Ephs dropped two heartbreakers to open the season.  He also led the 2006 Ephs to the sixth perfect season in Williams history, extending the Eph win streak at the time 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. Whalen is 3-1 vs. Amherst.

Amherst's EJ Mills is in his 12th year as the head coach of the Lord Jeffs and sports an overall record of 67-28, 5-2 this fall and 3-7 vs. Williams.

STREAKS: Ephs enter today's game riding a 2-game win streak and they own a 3-game win streak over Amherst.

Eph seniors are trying to become the first class since 2000 to win all four games vs. Amherst.

For the first time since before 2002, Williams enters the game averaging less passing yards per game (219) than the Lord Jeffs (237).  It will also be the first time s ince the 2004 season that the Ephs entered today's game not leading the NESCAC in passing yards (Middlebury leads with 329 yards/game)

CLIMBING THE CHARTS:

Brian Morrissey is now 3^rd all-time in scoring for the Ephs since 1973 with 184 points.  He trails Fred Storz '01 in second (200 points) and Mark Kossick '97 in first (268 points).

With his 138-yard day last week against Hamilton, Morrissey is just 48 yards away from becoming Williams' all-time leading rusher since 1973 when Div. III  play began.  He is currently in second, trailing only Fred Storz '01.

Fred Storz ‘01 -- 2,644
Brian Morrissey '09 -- 2,596

BY THE NUMBERS ...

27.3/21.7-- Points per game for Ephs and Jeffs 

16.7/17.1-- Points allowed per game for Ephs (Best in NESCAC) and Jeffs

219/237-- Passing yards per game for Ephs and Jeffs

168/198-- Passing yards allowed per game for Ephs (Best in NESCAC) and Jeffs

161/133-- Rushing yards per game Ephs (Best in NESCAC) and Jeffs

100/56-- Rushing yards allowed per game for Ephs and Jeffs (Best in NESCAC)

+7/+2 -- Turnover margin for Ephs (Best in NESCAC) and Jeffs

67.9 -- 4th down conversion percentage for Ephs (Best in NESCAC)

103/103 -- First downs allowed for Ephs and Jeffs (tied for Best in NESCAC)

18/25 -- Sacks by Ephs (2^nd in NESCAC) and Jeffs (Best in NESCAC)

7 -- Sacks (all solo) for Eph senior Charlie Birns (Best in NESCAC)

5 -- Sacks each for Amherst juniors Eric Pender and Edwin Urey (tied 4^th in NESCAC)

130 -- Yards rushing per game for Ephs' Brian Morrissey (1st in NESCAC)  

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