Week 9 Thoughts

Some brief thoughts following Colgate's 38-0 win over Georgetown Saturday.

1. That's How It's Done: I can't imagine that too many were surprised by the outcome Saturday. Georgetown has never defeated a ranked team in Division I-AA play and the ability to travel in the rain and cold to Hamilton, NY, where it has never won, and pull off a fourth straight upset was a prohibitive task.

But Colgate showed from the start why it is the best team in a not very good Patriot League: on defense. They shut down the Hoyas from the opening series and never let up. For its part, the Georgetown defense played well at the start of each half, but eventually wore down and the Red Raiders took advantage.

Colgate has held opponents to a remarkable 3.2 points per game this season. Georgetown wasn't close to three points all game.

As noted on the front page, the total yards set a school record for the fewest in any game in the modern era. Seven of these were in the Division III years, three in I-AA. Of the three, this was not a game, like Richmond in 2008 and Holy Cross in 2007, where the Hoyas were just awful. This was just a much better opponent and the Hoyas do not have the offense to compete with teams like this. We can discuss why this is the case (each and every year), but for 2018, the better team on the field that day was Colgate without question.

2. That's How It (Can Be) Done: Think about this: Eight of 11 starters on defense return in 2019. And of the three seniors, they have some great players coming up the depth chart.

As of now 13 of the top 16 tacklers return. Ramon Lyons can pass the torch to Cameron Deen  (20 tackles, nine games). Mike Taylor has freshman Ibrahim Kamara (12 tackles, nine games) ready to make the next move. And while sophomore Dawson Hawkins (6 tackles, nine games) hasn't seen as much game time behind Blaise Brown, he had close to 250 tackles in high school. He'll be ready.

What does this mean? Colgate is where they are in 2018 with defensive might and offensive consistency--they don't make mistakes. They were ranked as high as #2 nationally in some statistical categories. Georgetown's defense in 2018 is a good one. 2019 could be really, really good.

3. Where Was Everybody? 

OK, 36 degrees and rain is not a driver for crowds, even at Colgate. And yes, 1,827 is not the actual attendance at this game, we get it. But it raises an issue that is worth discussing far beyond a cold and rainy game--what brings fans to Division I-AA games, and what gets them to come back?

There's no Million Dollar Band in the PL and no one is running around yelling the northeast equivalent of "Rammer Jammer, Yellow Hammer..." with 90,000 of his or her closest friends. But if the league in general, and Georgetown in specific, makes attending  a game a drudgery, they will vote with their feet. And they do.

Cooper Field in 2019 offers an opportunity to change this dynamic. We'll talk more about it next week.