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East Rutherford, NJ - There seems to be a correlation between the experience of a team’s quarterback and that team’s position in the 2016 Northeast Conference Football Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

The top-two finishers in the annual preseason rankings feature quarterbacks with the two fattest resumes in the league.

With Dillon Buechel set to start under center for the fourth straight year, defending NEC champion Duquesne earned six first-place votes to finish atop the coaches’ poll as the unanimous preseason favorite.

Sacred Heart and senior quarterback RJ Noel, a three all-NEC honoree with a 25-11 career record, earned the other remaining first-place vote (a coach was not permitted to vote for his own team) to finish second in the preseason predicted order-of-finish.

The NEC’s all-time career passing mark (8,803) is within close reach for both Buechel (7,455) and Noel (7,111) heading into the season.

Saint Francis, which also returns an experienced starting signal caller, finished third in the poll after coming up one win shy of its first-ever NEC title last November.

Bryant, which boasts a returning starter that has passed for more than 4,600 yards over the past two seasons, was pegged for a fourth-place finish.

Central Connecticut took the fifth spot followed by Robert Morris in sixth and Wagner in seventh. All three teams have quarterbacks who have won collegiate games on their rosters.

Buechel enters the 2016 campaign with 31 starts under his belt. Coming off a season during which he posted a 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, Buechel was tabbed one of the top-10 FCS  quarterbacks by Athlon Sports. He was sensational in the Dukes’ FCS playoff game at William & Mary last November, throwing for 423 yards and six touchdowns.

In three seasons as SHU’s starter, RJ Noel has accounted for 83 touchdowns (65 pass, 18 rush). Noel’s 65 TD passes rank third on the NEC’s career list and his 243.5 yards per game total offense average has been the best in the league during the recent three-year stretch.

The NEC unveiled the preseason poll results, along with a 27-member Preseason All-Conference Team, on July 21 at MetLife Stadium as part of the second annual #NECFB Social Media Day.

Although it has proven to have value over the years, the preseason poll hasn’t always been the best indicator of the final NEC standings.

Only once (Sacred Heart in 2014) has the preseason favorite gone on to capture the league’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

Saint Francis was tabbed to finish fifth out of seven teams in 2015, but produced the program’s best season ever at the FCS level and was the runner-up in the final league standings.

The poll results have been turned upside more than once in recent years.

In 2012, Wagner ascended from a seventh-place preseason ranking and into the National Top 25 at the year’s end.

One year after Wagner defied preseason expectations to win a conference crown, Sacred Heart achieved the feat. The 2013 coaches’ poll pegged the Pioneers for seventh, but Mark Nofri’s bunch enjoyed a 10-win season while securing the program’s second league title.


#NECFB Preseason Report w/ Paul Dottino and John Schmeelk