The Unkindest Season

Imagine, if you will, studying to become an attorney, only to find out that every year, just around Christmas, 20 percent of the partner-level workforce nationwide is fired; and with it, the partners fire all their associates. Imagine going to work for a brokerage industry where the bottom 20 percent of firms are flushed every December, and where aspiring managers have one month or so to find a new job, moving families to Oregon or North Dakota or Alabama, because that’s where the job takes you.

And if you’re young and don’t get a new job in a month or two, however underpaid or in the middle of nowhere, you might be out of the business for good.

Welcome to the career prospects of a coach in college football. And welcome to the un-happ-happiest time of the year.

Over the past three weeks, the pink slips fly in college football. Schools are great about preaching loyalty, but few practice it. Twenty-four head coaching positions within Division I-AA have changed hands in the last month, only two by retirement:

Alabama A&M
Albany
Central Arkansas
Central Connecticut
The Citadel
Colgate
Drake
Eastern Illinois
Elon
Grambling State
Hampton
Jackson State
James Madison
Mississippi Valley State
Morgan State
North Carolina Central
North Dakota
North Dakota State
Robert Morris
Rhode Island
Southeast Missouri State
Stephen F. Austin State
Valparaiso
Weber State

Eternal vigilance – and a willingness to resettle on short notice – is the price to become a successful college football coach.. Kevin Kelly’s resume can attest, and he’s one of the luckier ones.

Here is Coach Kelly’s “change of address” forms in the first 20 or so years since he graduated from college:

Springfield, MA
New York, NY
New Haven, CT
Syracuse, NY
Boston, MA
Hanover, NH
New Orleans, LA
Huntington, WV
Brunswick, ME
Syracuse, NY
Huntington, WV
Annapolis, MD

Kelly’s eight years in the Washington area are probably the longest he’s stayed in one place since grad school, which is great for raising a family. The results, less so. In coaching, as in life, you’re as good as your last job.

When Kelly interviewed for the job at Yale in 2011, it was not because of any ill will for Georgetown or an overarching desire to move back to scenic New Haven. Instead, it’s the business. He was coming off an 8-3 season and Yale was interested. If he was 3-8 that year, Yale would not be.

Head coaches in football, as a rule, don’t get the gold watch and don’t set the rules for their retirement. Bobby Bowden didn’t go out his way, nor did or Woody Hayes or Darrell Royal or a thousand others. Joe Paterno once said that he didn’t want to get forced out like Bear Bryant did and die within a month as Bryant did. He was, of course, and he died a month later as well. Mack Brown, of all people, has a .770 winning percentage at Texas, a national title, and only one season with fewer than eight wins. Not good enough in Austin. That’s business. (That, and failing to recruit each of the last three Heisman Trophy winners, all of which wanted to play for you.)

The 2011 season is history. At the conclusion of the 2013 season, Kevin Kelly has the lowest winning percentage of any Division I-AA head coach with more than four years experience. Of 25 coaches below .500, eight were let go in the last month (in gray):

Division I-AA Coaches At Or Below .500:
Name		Years	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct
Tom Gilmore	Holy Cross	10	56	56	0	0.500
Frank Tavani	Lafayette	14	76	77	0	0.497
Pete Adrian	Norfolk St.	9	50	52	0	0.490
Chris Mussman	N. Dakota	6	31	34	0	0.477
Watson Brown	Tennessee Tech	10	52	60	0	0.464
Monte Coleman	AR-Pine Bluff	6	31	36	0	0.463
Donovan Rose	Hampton	5	25	30	0	0.455
J.C. Harper	S.F. Austin	7	37	45	0	0.451
Mike Kramer	Idaho St.	16	83	103	0	0.446
Marshall Sperbeck	Sacramento St.	7	35	44	0	0.443
Donald Hill-Eley	Morgan St.	12	59	76	0	0.437
Paul Gorham	Sacred Heart	10	46	62	0	0.426
Sparky Woods	VMI	11	52	71	2	0.416
Buddy Teevens	Dartmouth	14	57	81	2	0.407
Nigel Burton	Portland St.	4	18	27	0	0.400
Ray Woodard	Lamar	4	18	28	0	0.391
Tony Samuel	SE Missouri	8	31	60	0	0.341
Chris Villarrial	St. Francis	4	13	31	0	0.295
Kevin Kelly	Georgetown	8	24	63	0	0.276
Charlie Stubbs	Nicholls St.	4	10	35	0	0.222
Joe Trainer	Rhode Island	5	12	44	0	0.214
Harold Nichols	Presbyterian	5	11	44	0	0.200
Karl A. Morgan	Miss. Valley St.	4	8	35	0	0.186
Dale Carlson	Valparaiso	4	3	41	0	0.068

Coach Kelly is fortunate that few if any I-AA  schools would have the patience to absorb the depth of losses that the Georgetown program has experienced over the past eight years. VMI? Maybe. Dartmouth? Only if your coach is Buddy Teevens, a former star quarterback for the Indians who won a pair of Ivy titles way back when. Even Columbia, that textbook case of a losing program, has had only one coach make it past six seasons since 1968.

Even in the low-wattage Patriot League, ask yourself: would Andy Coen still be at Lehigh with these kind of records? How about Tom Gilmore at Holy Cross? Will Dick Biddle’ successor at Colgate get the time to build a winner?

A lot of schools won’t want to hear about it. “Did you win?”, they ask. They rarely ask why you didn't.

That’s the business. And for those that don’t understand it, or who underestimate it, it’s a difficult realization. It’s the part of coaching that fans, and even some coaches, don’t understand.

Part of the enmity that former basketball coach Craig Esherick still feels for Georgetown firing him in 2004 was that he thought he deserved better. He had been with the program for 40 years as an undergrad, law student, assistant coach, and head coach, and went so far as to brag he’d be around another 30. He didn’t understand that, to quote the son of a Georgetown football All-American, “you are what your record says you are”. In a revenue sport like basketball, it wasn't enough.

Georgetown has been a bit more patient to more of its coaches. Pete Wilk has been the baseball coach for 14 seasons and has never posted a winning record. Arlisa Williams has been the volleyball coach for eight seasons and Georgetown is 77-124.

Of course, no one is writing a column in the Washington Post of the baseball team doesn’t get to the post-season. Students are not planning a march on Healy if volleyball finishes under .500.  Football web sites don’t use the phrase “hot seat” around Georgetown football. If Frank Tavani or Tom Gilmore was 24-63 after eight seasons, chances are pretty good they would have never see a ninth season…much less a sixth, seventh, or eighth.

But this isn't Lafayette or Holy Cross. What coaches like Wilk, Williams, Kelly, and others at McDonough do share is a sport where the expectations on the field take a back seat to the expectations in the classroom, and these are sports where the kids have been admitted, competed, and have graduated. That’s reassuring to coaches, but it’s not a blank check. Pat Knapp was that kind of academics-first coach for 15 years for women’s basketball, but he didn’t retire at Georgetown either. And while Dave Urick did retire in men’s lacrosse, he did not go out the way he deserved.

In the end, Georgetown does right by its coaches, and for those like Kelly who must fight from behind, without the amenities or admission breaks his colleagues enjoy, it’s very much an uphill climb. That the University is able to recruit (and retain) good people who do their jobs honorably despite the disparity of support functions that fans of other schools could hardly imagine, speaks highly of the place. It doesn’t excuse losing but it does place things in perspective, which is all coaches can ask out of the process.

“I thought we made progress while we were here,” said Army coach Rich Ellerson after the Black Knights dropped yet another loss to Navy, with hours to go before his imminent dismissal. “But I wasn’t hired to make progress.”

Every coach can relate.

Day 3,000: The More Things Change

Someday next year, a crowd will gather.

Blue and gray bunting will surround a pile of dirt where once there was a tennis court. Coaches, players, dignitaries all, the group will all applaud at a shovel in the ground for a long delayed project and congratulate everyone on having come this far. After nearly seven years of hopes and dreams, the really big gift didn’t come in, but enough of the six figure ones did so that the generically named "Intercollegiate Athletics Center" can oneday say it will be underway. Once a project starts, it gets built.

Just don’t look too far over your shoulder.

A stone’s throw from the future site of the IAC stands Georgetown’s ongoing exercise in inertia, which today passes 3,000 days since construction was halted upon it. On September 17, 2005, with temporary seats left in place for the remainder of the 2005 season, the site once called “the most significant project in the history of Georgetown athletics” was inaugurated in a 34-3 loss to Brown.

And when the Bruins returned this fall, almost nothing had changed.

Because nothing has changed.

“Rumors abound that Harbin Field will eventually be turned into a real stadium, to be used by such teams as soccer, football and lacrosse. If this is the case, it will be a major boost for campus ... The university should do all that it can to provide better accommodations; after all, having sports on campus for all to enjoy follows the Jesuit ideal of educating the whole person - mind and body. We already have the teams ... now let's live up to our reputation and give them the facilities they deserve."

If this HOYA editorial sounds familiar, well, you’ve been reading this site too long.  It was authored on November 17, 1999, 14 years ago. This is a project that has spanned three U.S. presidents, three Popes, three full time athletic directors, not to mention some 30,000 Georgetown graduates across its various schools. While not the longest delayed project at the University (the legal wrangling on the boathouse enters its 27th year in 2014), it is certainly among the more visible ones. Hundreds of prospective students pass by it each day, with more than its share of nonplussed comments by tour guides or the off-putting response, “but we’re no good at football anyway.”

There was a time when comments were uniformly more positive.

“In the first phase, a new playing surface, visitor’s stands on the east side and other game-day facility needs will be installed. This portion of the project is slated to begin following the end of this fall’s competition schedule with completion by September 2005,” wrote a  Hoyas Unlimited newsletter in August 2004.

More follows:

“In the second phase, slated for completion in the fall of 2006, additional amenities will be added, and the focus will be on the home (west) side. New home stands will be constructed. Underneath the stands will be locker rooms, a training room and storage space. A new press box will be added and lights will be installed. This phasing is being done to accommodate a road realignment taking place on the west side of the facility around the same time. To date, over $12.7 million in cash and pledges has been raised for the new Multi-Sport Facility.“

To say this project has had its share of turns is an understatement. At least five different designs have come and gone. And where once Georgetown would comment that the project was just around the corner, perhaps they have learned the lesson of the U.S. government bureaucracy that no starting date means you’re never behind. The last public statement on the progress of this project at GUHoyas.com was over four years ago.

“In the year to come, we are focusing on developing a strategic plan for two major projects, the completion of which would benefit all of our teams and the University community as a whole,” wrote GU vice president Dan Porterfield (C’83) in September 2009, serving as an interim athletic director between the tenures of Bernard Muir and Lee Reed. Wrote Porterfield:

“First, it is crucial that we complete the Multi-Sport Field, which hosts not only our football and lacrosse games, but also intramurals, club sports, and events such as the annual all-night Relay for Life, a major fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Though improvements have been made to the field in the last few years, the project remains unfinished and still requires significant investment to complete. 

"For that reason, I have asked colleagues in Athletics and the University to see if we can develop a cost-effective approach to completing the field. Our goals will stay the same: to improve our teams' game-day experience, to make the venue more fan-friendly, and to construct an aesthetically pleasing facility. As we develop new options for this important project in the coming months, we look forward to sharing its details with our friends and donors.“

And that’s part of the problem. Muir wanted little to do with a project that was assembled before his watch. Reed inherited the project amidst the growing heat that John Thompson III didn’t have a practice facility. Reed won’t be judged on what happens to the MSF, because priority 1 is the IAC. Kevin Kelly doesn’t talk about it publicly, but why would he? It’s been just another roadblock in his recruiting efforts.

Georgetown even went to the unusual step of washing its hands of the MSF in advance of the current capital campaign, noting in its campaign literature that “The Multi–Sport Field was one of the later priorities of the last campaign. Although substantial funds were raised, they were insufficient to complete the project in its ultimate, very expansive scope. The funds raised to date, together with university investment, were used to build the core of the facility, including a new playing field, lighting, scoreboards and stands. We are working to complete the second and final phase of the work outside the context of this campaign. ‘

(In its most recent iteration, the comments on the MSF no longer appear in the online FAQ.)

All of this inaction over this project is not some of struggle against football or athletics. Far from it. It merely plays to an academic bent where little, if anything can be done in a timely manner. What’s a few years in the life of a 225 year old University? After all, it took 23 years to get McDonough Gymnasium built, and stately Gaston Hall sat as an unfinished shell inside the Healy Building for the better part of two decades.

Georgetown has “conversations” on the MSF. It maintains “dialogue”. It seeks “opportunities” to see progress. These are words better suited to a discussion on ethics, not construction projects, and certainly not projects where money was raised and accepted. And according to that story cited above, $12.7 million is not an insignificant number.

Full disclosure: I made a gift of $1,000 to the Multi-Sport Facility when the project was still in active fundraising. In the interim, I’ve not received any correspondence from Georgetown University informing me of the status of my gift (technically, a seat at the new field), what became of the gift, if they want any more money from me, or if they simply reallocated the amount for something else.

Because a the bottom of all this, this project is all about commitment, one which unfortunately speaks loud and clear to recruits, to parents, and to fellow coaches. It’s hurt football recruiting, even if people won’t say it, and it has hurt lacrosse recruiting, even if people won’t say that, either. How can Georgetown be committed to sports like football if it doesn’t even finish what it started?

The University doesn’t need a replica of AT&T Stadium for a facility, even if Jerry Jones himself is the parent of an football alum. It doesn’t need another Byrd Stadium,  named after a former Georgetown quarterback, no less. Porterfield’s goals in that 2009 letter were simple and direct: “To improve our teams' game-day experience, to make the venue more fan-friendly, and to construct an aesthetically pleasing facility.”

This project needs ownership and a frank discussion with its donors about what it is prepared to do…and what it expects its donors to do in return. And those in McDonough Gym that are used to my squawking about this subject understand it’s not personal, that despite talk that things are getting closer, some of us have heard that offer for too many years now.

In the meantime, day 3,000 will be day 3,001 before we know it.

By The Numbers

There's been some lively debate on the HoyaTalk board in recent weeks about Georgetown's commitments to football, of which a special column later this season will discuss this in detail. But how does Georgetown fare against other schools?

For FY 2012, here were the football budgets per school in Division I-AA:

1	Montana State University	MT	$8,777,441
2	Liberty University	VA	$8,424,492
3	James Madison University	VA	$6,608,363
4	Old Dominion University	VA	$5,936,486
5	Fordham University	NY	$5,742,437
6	The University of Montana	MT	$5,656,889
7	University of Delaware	DE	$5,637,071
8	University of Richmond	VA	$5,563,301
9	Coastal Carolina University	SC	$5,420,560
10	Furman University	SC	$5,414,705
11	Villanova University	PA	$5,331,113
12	The University of Texas at San Antonio	TX	$5,140,135
13	Samford University	AL	$5,065,979
14	Colgate University	NY	$4,655,304
15	College of William and Mary	VA	$4,502,955
16	Lehigh University	PA	$4,486,823
17	Texas State University-San Marcos	TX	$4,400,906
18	Lafayette College	PA	$4,307,856
19	Presbyterian College	SC	$4,267,420
20	University of New Hampshire	NH	$4,064,025
21	Elon University	NC	$4,059,394
22	Bethune-Cookman University	FL	$3,950,538
23	Military College of S.C. (The Citadel)	SC	$3,915,023
24	Stony Brook University	NY	$3,909,564
25	College of the Holy Cross	MA	$3,900,385
26	University of Maine	ME	$3,864,144
27	Appalachian State University	NC	$3,769,377
28	Towson University	MD	$3,758,847
29	University of Rhode Island	RI	$3,736,644
30	Tennessee State University	TN	$3,698,630
31	North Dakota State University	ND	$3,663,103
32	Portland State University	OR	$3,639,220
33	Wofford College	SC	$3,629,852
34	Jacksonville State University	AL	$3,496,695
35	Youngstown State University	OH	$3,434,264
36	Eastern Kentucky University	KY	$3,386,349
37	Western Carolina University	NC	$3,372,801
38	University of Northern Iowa	IA	$3,329,150
39	Illinois State University	IL	$3,320,123
40	Virginia Military Institute	VA	$3,277,337
41	University of California-Davis	CA	$3,273,095
42	Yale University	CT	$3,269,637
43	Stephen F Austin State University	TX	$3,269,083
44	Georgia Southern University	GA	$3,204,295
45	Eastern Washington University	WA	$3,189,869
46	Indiana State University	IN	$3,166,886
47	Bucknell University	PA	$3,143,317
48	California State University-Sacramento	CA	$3,135,833
49	Lamar University	TX	$3,110,092
50	The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga	TN	$3,026,805
51	Southern Illinois University Carbondale	IL	$3,026,509
52	Cornell University	NY	$3,015,349
53	South Carolina State University	SC	$2,976,432
54	Gardner-Webb University	NC	$2,915,011
55	University of North Dakota	ND	$2,882,246
56	California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo	CA	$2,877,772
57	Florida A&M University	FL	$2,839,529
58	Northern Arizona University	AZ	$2,838,620
59	Monmouth University	NJ	$2,830,733
60	Alabama State University	AL	$2,822,717
61	Idaho State University	ID	$2,816,722
62	Delaware State University	DE	$2,780,689
63	Tennessee Technological University	TN	$2,770,566
64	University of Northern Colorado	CO	$2,758,235
65	Eastern Illinois University	IL	$2,741,908
66	Columbia University	NY	$2,724,416
67	Sam Houston State University	TX	$2,702,057
68	University of South Dakota	SD	$2,687,140
69	Western Illinois University	IL	$2,681,347
70	Texas Southern University	TX	$2,625,065
71	Weber State University	UT	$2,613,189
72	The University of Tennessee-Martin	TN	$2,599,061
73	Northwestern State University of Louisiana	LA	$2,597,012
74	Murray State University	KY	$2,585,918
75	North Carolina Central University	NC	$2,585,474
76	Dartmouth College	NH	$2,533,590
77	Southeastern Louisiana University	LA	$2,455,666
78	South Dakota State University	SD	$2,435,000
79	Alabama A & M University	AL	$2,406,862
80	Charleston Southern University	SC	$2,397,756
81	Morgan State University	MD	$2,386,808
82	Missouri State University-Springfield	MO	$2,364,352
83	University of Central Arkansas	AR	$2,354,686
84	Norfolk State University	VA	$2,332,815
85	Harvard University	MA	$2,327,799
86	Southern Utah University	UT	$2,280,246
87	Princeton University	NJ	$2,234,537
88	Bryant University	RI	$2,232,225
89	North Carolina A & T State University	NC	$2,223,483
90	Duquesne University	PA	$2,197,308
91	Howard University	DC	$2,146,987
92	Southeast Missouri State University	MO	$2,107,096
93	University of Pennsylvania	PA	$2,104,207
94	Alcorn State University	MS	$2,046,026
95	Grambling State University	LA	$1,985,964
96	Robert Morris University	PA	$1,976,296
97	Austin Peay State University	TN	$1,894,229
98	Central Connecticut State University	CT	$1,890,549
99	Sacred Heart University	CT	$1,887,505
100	SUNY at Albany	NY	$1,863,369
101	Prairie View A & M University	TX	$1,824,275
102	Nicholls State University	LA	$1,808,339
103	Savannah State University	GA	$1,775,645
104	Saint Francis University	PA	$1,773,629
105	Brown University	RI	$1,729,613
106	University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff	AR	$1,712,726
107	Georgetown University	DC	$1,686,269
108	Southern University and A&M College	LA	$1,554,532
109	Jackson State University	MS	$1,504,899
110	University of San Diego	CA	$1,269,465
111	Campbell University	NC	$1,143,155
112	Jacksonville University	FL	$1,126,146
113	Mississippi Valley State University	MS	$1,088,097
114	University of Dayton	OH	$975,237
115	Morehead State University	KY	$928,306
116	Valparaiso University	IN	$879,762
117	Drake University	IA	$876,039
118	Marist College	NY	$870,416
119	Davidson College	NC	$790,295
120	Butler University	IN	$648,837

That's a low number by any measurement, but let's do some comparison. How does Georgetown rank among Patriot League schools, where five schools rank among the top 25 programs by budget?

5	Fordham University	NY	$5,742,437
14	Colgate University	NY	$4,655,304
16	Lehigh University	PA	$4,486,823
18	Lafayette College	PA	$4,307,856
25	College of the Holy Cross	MA	$3,900,385
47	Bucknell University	PA	$3,143,317
107	Georgetown University	DC	$1,686,269

Next, how would Georgetown rank among spending in the Ivy League? Better, but still on the bottom looking up:

42	Yale University	CT	$3,269,637
52	Cornell University	NY	$3,015,349
66	Columbia University	NY	$2,724,416
76	Dartmouth College	NH	$2,533,590
85	Harvard University	MA	$2,327,799
87	Princeton University	NJ	$2,234,537
93	University of Pennsylvania	PA	$2,104,207
105	Brown University	RI	$1,729,613
107	Georgetown University	DC	$1,686,269

And who are Georgetown's peers, financially speaking? A collection of historically black colleges and Pioneer schools.

106	University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff	AR	$1,712,726
107	Georgetown University	DC	$1,686,269
108	Southern University and A & M College	LA	$1,554,532
109	Jackson State University	MS	$1,504,899
110	University of San Diego	CA	$1,269,465
111	Campbell University	NC	$1,143,155
112	Jacksonville University	FL	$1,126,146
113	Mississippi Valley State University	MS	$1,088,097
114	University of Dayton	OH	$975,237
115	Morehead State University	KY	$928,306
116	Valparaiso University	IN	$879,762
117	Drake University	IA	$876,039
118	Marist College	NY	$870,416
119	Davidson College	NC	$790,295
120	Butler University	IN	$648,837

But let's take this same group and add their records to date this season. The numbers shouldn't surprise anyone.

106	University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff	SWAC	2-7
107	Georgetown University	Patriot	1-8
108	Southern University and A&M College	SWAC	6-4
109	Jackson State University	SWAC	7-2
110	University of San Diego	Pioneer	7-3
111	Campbell University	Pioneer	2-8
112	Jacksonville University	Pioneer	4-6
113	Mississippi Valley State University	SWAC	2-8
114	University of Dayton	Pioneer	6-4
115	Morehead State University	Pioneer	3-7
116	Valparaiso University	Pioneer	1-9
117	Drake University	Pioneer	6-4
118	Marist College	Pioneer	7-3
119	Davidson College	Pioneer	0-10
120	Butler University	Pioneer	8-3

If you've come to the conclusion that Georgetown should simply focus on playing black college opponents and underfunded midwestern colleges, you're missing the point. Money doesn't buy championships-- but there is causality between spending and success. It's no guarantee, of course: Columbia is slogging through its worst season in a generation and it outspends Brown by 45 percent. But it's hard to miss the names at the top with what they accomplish, versus those on the bottom. You are what your budget says you are.

For Georgetown, it needs to stop pleading poverty and chart a sustainable course for budget growth in football. The good news is that it's reasonable and realistic. The bad news is it needs to get some more people behind it.

Week 9 Thoughts

Some thoughts following Lafayette’s 45-27 win over Georgetown Saturday.

Saturday’s game in one word? Deflating.

Watching the end of the game was, to me, a feeling not unlike the end of the 2005 season, a 34-7 loss to Colgate that marked Georgetown’s third straight loss and, unknown to everyone at the time, Bob Benson’s final game as Georgetown coach. The 2005 season was known for some big losses (Holy Cross, 48-6, Brown, 34-3, Cornell 57-7), but maybe more importantly, close losses. The Hoyas lost three games by a total of 11 points—a 4-7 record could just as easily been 7-4.What might have been.

Such is not the case in 2013. Since the first week of the season, the Hoyas have not lost a game by less than 18 points, and too many games have been out of reach by halftime, with unseemly margins closed only by late quarter scores. Georgetown trailed Lafayette 35-7 when the reserves went in. Whatever “momentum” was gained with a well planned drive was flushed when Lafayette took the return kickoff largely untouched, up the middle, for 99 yards.

So where’s the outrage? Where’s the voices demanding responsibility? Well, they were probably at home. Saturday’s crowd at unfinished Multi-Sport Field was generously billed at 1,789 but it seems a lot of folks attended as unadorned aluminum bleachers. The losing streak and the lack of any public direction on where this square peg of a Patriot League program is headed has too many fans simply not interested. "Is it November yet?" they ask, and that's not a query about football.

Others ask, if Georgetown is getting thumped by 15-scholarship Patriot teams, what happens when it’s 30 scholarships next year? Then 45? Then 60?

Last week, coach Kevin Kelly spoke up about the elephant in the room, Georgetown’s lack of football scholarships. That no one from The HOYA or the Washington Post or WRC-TV has raised this all season is one thing, but other than The HOYA, who else is asking? Kelly’s comments follow below:

“It’s not my choice, but I am seeing this, it is affecting our recruiting. People, the first question they ask is, Are you giving scholarships? And I have to be honest and say that we’re not. And you’re starting to see in the league this year that some of these scholarship athletes are starting to make an impact on the league right away. In fact, just look at the two quarterbacks from Holy Cross and Lafayette last week. There are two great examples right there. Actually, we’re going to have to make a decision what we’re doing here.”

A follow-up from this weekend from veteran PL writer Paul Reinhard:

“Georgetown lost for the seventh straight week. The administration at the university declined to go along with the rest of the league in instituting merit-based scholarships beginning with the [2013] recruiting class. Things are not going to get any better for the Hoyas [if] there is no change of mind from above. I will not be at all surprised if this is the last season at Georgetown for Coach Kelly. He told us [earlier] in the week that the university had to make a decision about scholarships for the future. I’m afraid that decision has already been made.”

The University is not a place that supports out of turn quotes, especially from coaches. A generation of track coaches never publicly complained when their facilities went away, when coaches were left borrowing vans for a nationally ranked program to train off-hours at Washington & lee HS because that was as good as they could get. In fact, for some number of years there was no public comment about track facilities, save for a frank discussion by Ron Helmer at an athletic awards dinner one year. Helmer was later hired away by Indiana, which could offer him full-sized facilities for both indoor and outdoor track which would dwarf anything imaginable at Georgetown.

John Thompson or Craig Esherick didn’t choose to complain about how bad McDonough Gymnasium was for recruiting, though they well could have, and even now JT III is very measured in what he will say about the ongoing delays with the IAC. Georgetown has a field hockey team that practices at American and plays at College Park because Georgetown never fixed Kehoe Field. As a result, the team is 2-16 and struggles to be of interest to any serious recruit in the sport. Even Kevin Kelly has steered clear of any substantive thoughts on the MSF dilemma, even as Benson made no secret about the mess in his last months as coach—and that was after a delay of 30 or 40 days, not 2,972.

Scholarships are different, however. Parents ask. Recruits ask. Reporters north of the Mason-Dixon line ask. But Georgetown seems to have no good answer on what to say. Yes, there are discussions, I’m convinced of that. But institutionally, it’s not the priority to the University as it is for the coaches, because the University isn’t losing credibility over a 1-8 season. But coaches are.

And consider this: Of the 24 seniors graduating next year, 21 were on the two-deep at some point this season. That’s a lot of gaps to fill, and if the results of the last recruiting class is any trend, the talent gap is going to widen even more in 2014. Kelly and his staff are facing a two pronged problem—the opponents are getting stronger and the replacements are getting weaker.

The last sustained statement from Georgetown on this issue? February 2012.

“Georgetown will continue its membership in the Patriot League in the sport of football and explore all of its options, including our ability to compete as a need-based aid program.  We remain committed to our goal of providing our student athletes with an unparalleled academic experience and an athletically competitive football program.”

Meanwhile, the coaches have to go out and recruit, perhaps with a 1-10 season under its belt, four years removed from 0-11 but more importantly, two years removed from an 8-3 season. They have to tell a parent why Lehigh can offer a $60,000 check but Georgetown can’t. Or tell another parent why Lafayette shows lots of pictures of their stadium and field house but Georgetown can't. Or, just as likely, they have to concede that five, 10, or 20 good prospects who were so interested at Georgetown a year ago will end up going somewhere else and there’s nothing they can do about it.

That’s deflating.

Week 8 Thoughts

Some thoughts following Colgate’s 34-14 win over Georgetown Saturday:

Not much that needs to be said after this game that wasn’t said after the Lehigh game.

Or The Fordham game. Or the Princeton game. Or the Brown game. Maybe even the Marist game.

A beaten up defense, little depth, and some bad luck. Sometimes there is a fine line between a five win team and a one-win team, but not this season. Many of the five points discussed each week could apply to this one as well

This isn’t a team losing games on last second field goals or turnovers. Georgetown has been outscored 103-33 in the first quarter this season. In its seven losses, the average margin at the half is more than two touchdowns. When it gets to the red zone, the Hoyas are pretty good. Problem is, they’ve been there 24 times this season. Its opponents? 44 times.

There will be plenty of times to discuss the state of the program entering 2014, and with an unusually early Senior Day this Saturday versus Lafayette, this question: is it time to honor—and then sit—much the senior class in the remaining three weeks of the season?

With few exceptions, it’s a credit to this class – and a cautionary tale for 2014 – that the Class of 2014 has some of the best players by position on this team. From quarterback to the offensive line, receivers linebackers, secondary, special teams, and more, the seniors are the backbone of this team. The names are familiar to Hoya fans: Kempf, Campanella, Durham, Campbell, Wharton, Caldwell-Meeks. Saturday, the class will be honored for a remarkable four years where they arrived from a 0-11 team, rose to an 8-3 season, then saw it sink under .500 once again.

That having been said, and every senior knows this, the end is in sight. Every one of these young men wants to play every remaining down of football, which may be among the last competitive games they will play going forward. But it’s also a nod to the schedule that it may be time to at least consider a changing of the guard after the Lafayette game, and here’s why.

Senior Day versus Lafayette introduces a late bye week on Nov. 9, followed by two road games which the Hoyas will again be significant underdogs. Yes, Georgetown could go one a roll and finish 4-7, but it could just as easily finish 1-10. Regardless of the record, replacing 26 seniors will be no small task. Is it worth a two week head start on 2014?

The torch has been passed at quarterback, where Kyle Nolan is getting starts that, in any competitive season, might have still gone to Isaiah Kempf. And while many other positions have seen the loss of seniors by injury, the staff has to learn which of the upperclassmen are going to take the mantle of leadership and responsibility. Who is the next Duston Wharton? The next Stephen Atwater? The next Matt MacZura?

That doesn’t mean benching the entire class, far from it. They deserve better. As time allows, they need ton contribute. But as opportunities arise, it may now be time to get some more reps from a Leo Loughery, a Myles Braxton-Johnson, a Ben Priddy. The impact of game experience isn’t reached in spring practice or August two-a-days, but many teams can’t afford the loss of talent to give freshmen enhanced playing time down the stretch of a season. As it stands right now, Georgetown can and whether it’s 3-8 or 2-9 or 1-10, the need doesn’t go away when the sting of the season does.

So what is being lost heading into next season? A lot.

After 2013, Georgetown loses one of the top five or six quarterbacks of the modern era, who fought back from a potentially career-ending injury for one more season for his school. It graduates three of its top four running backs, its starting wide receiver, its starting tight end, and much of its offensive line.

Defensively, Senior Day salutes the transition of its top two linebackers, three of its top four in the secondary, its punter, place kicker, and leading kick returner. And that’s no comfort for what follows.  Next year’s rising senior class is almost exclusively defensive players (16 of 21), putting added pressure on the  freshmen and sophomores on the offense to get up to speed in a big way to prepare for 2014.

Playing a young lineup isn’t “tanking” games or “mailing it in.” Rome wasn’t built in a  day and neither was this season. The Davidson win was nice, but face facts: Davidson is arguably the weakest team in the subdivision this year, having not scored more than 14 points against any Division I team and giving up 98 in its last two games to Marist and Jacksonville. Georgetown’s loss to Marist was far more telling, and it’s been one long first half every week since.

Day by day, practice by practice, game by game, injuries helped expose a team too lean in some positions, too small in others, and ill-prepared to mount the level of defensive intensity to facilitate comebacks. So what now?

Senior Day ought to be the opportunity for Georgetown to put together its best 60 minutes of the season, and extend an unusual three game win streak against Lafayette, where the three games were decided by late game Leopard mistakes in each. Despite its meager non-conference slate, Lafayette is still a contender in a year where the PL race looks a lot like the NFC East. A fourth loss to Georgetown would (almost) be as upsetting as a sixth straight loss to Lehigh. OK, maybe not quite that upsetting, but a deflating setback nonetheless.

After that, it’s time to figure out what November holds for this team and who needs to step up—if not now, then next season. For this year’s senior class, they’ve done their part.