Two Words. Chuck Burton's columns at Lehigh Football Nation often sum up the prior week in one word titles. For Georgetown, I'll go with two: well done. The outcome of the game was just one of a series of events around Homecoming Weekend worth commendation, from the Alumni Association hosting over 400 students in a career services reception at Alumni House, to the numerous lectures, social events, and class parties held. The staffs in Athletics, Alumni Relations, and Advancement don't get paid by the hour, but they certainly put in some overtime to ensure the success of the weekend. And at least this year, you weren't hearing any snide comments about trying to move Homecoming to a weekend in February.
Or maybe the weekend could be summarized by an old 1950's jazz song written by Steve Allen: "This Could Be The Start of Something Big". There were as many positive feelings coming out of unnamed Multi-Sport Field after this one as any Georgetown game in two decades. Students were upbeat. Faculty were upbeat. Even frequent Georgetown foil John Feinstein complimented the Hoyas in his Washington Post column:
"Serious kudos to Georgetown, which has owned the Patriot League cellar in recent years the way Duke controls the same spot in the ACC. The Hoyas are now 2-0 in conference play after Saturday's 17-7 victory over 2009 champion Holy Cross. Imagine: Georgetown off a fast start and no sign of St. Leo's on the schedule."He wasn't the only one with compliemnts, however. Here's a note from University president and former GU cornerback Jack DeGioia (C'79) on Facebook Monday:
"After a great Homecoming Weekend, I wanted to reach out to our Facebook community and congratulate the Hoyas on a fantastic win against Holy Cross! Thanks to all who supported our team and who joined us for Homecoming on the Hilltop."Assuming someone archived the TV broadcast from Verizon FiOS, let's make sure someone gets the highlights on a DVD to the top scholarship and MSF donors and remind them of the work to be done.
Defensive Turnaround: After giving up more than 500 yards in each of its last two games, the Hoya defense held Holy Cross to just 262 yards in the game. In the prior three games with the Crusaders, Holy Cross posted total offense numbers of 519, 473, and 614 yards, respectively. So are the 2010 Hoyas that good on defense or the Crusaders that average this season?
Georgetown is better but owing to its efforts agaisnt Lafayette and Yale, I'll side with the latter. The missing element in 2010 is the graduation of all-PL quarterback Dominic Randolph, and his successor, Ryan Taggart, doesn't have the passing attack that can put up those numbers. Worse yet, the HC running game has been in neutral all season. The Crusaders haven't rushed for more than 91 yards in a game all season--against GU, they rushed 25 times for 86 yards.
The defense must regroup for a run-dominant Colgate team. The Red Raiders haven't rushed for less than 200 yards all season, and that includes last Saturday's day-trip to Syracuse.
Play Of The Game: Any of the three fourth down conversions might qualify. The Hoyas trailed into the fourth quarter and must have sensed that if they could just get ahead on the scoreboard they could close this game out, but a two yard run from RB Philip Oladeji on 4th and 1 at the Crusader 31 might have been the turning point. Six plays later, Oladeji took it into the end zone and the Hoyas had the lead for good.
It's Been So Long... So how long ago was it since Georgetown defeated Holy Cross? 1999 might not seem a long time ago to some, but it was. Back then...
- Kevin Kelly was a defensive line coach at Syracuse.
- John Thompson III was an assistant coach at Princeton.
- Barack Obama was a first term state senator in Illinois.
- Sarah Palin was a first term mayor of Wasilla, AK.
- A start-up tech firm called Google was put up for sale for $1 million, but the offer was turned down.
- Joe Paterno celebrated his 50th year reunion at Brown University.
- The Simpsons celebrated its 10th anniversary on television.
- The price of gold fell to $251 an ounce.
- The price of gasoline was $1.13 a gallon.
- The Apple iPod did not exist.
- The Southwest Quad did not exist.
- None of this year's players were older than the 5th grade.
- The Multi-Sport Facility was in the initial planning stages.
