1. What Happened? Many years ago, I worked at a firm whose director turned to me and remarked, matter of factly, the following about the company. "Communication," he said, "is a one way street."
Georgetown's August 31 press release cancelling the season opener versus Marist checks a lot of boxes down that street.
The release was sent at 6:00 pm, after the close of business. It lists no media contact for follow-up questions. It has no quote from the head coach. But most frustrating, as a fan, supporter, and someone who has spent too much time on this to analyze, is that it never fully answers the question. Why did you wait to cancel a game three days before the opener?
Like many things at GU, I have no doubt that this decision was made for the right reasons. If players were sufficiently incapable or at risk of playing a game to the detriment of their health, not playing is entirely reasonable and appropriate. They certainly weren't trying to "dodge" an opponent. But why can't the circumstances have been clarified? The words "positive test" are never cited. What is presented is "a COVID-related pause during training camp which affected preseason preparations and conditioning."
"It did catch me off guard because we’ve had no COVID issues here," Marist coach Jim Parady told the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record. “It was a surprise and not on my radar at all."
According to public data on the District of Columbia web site, there were four COVID outbreaks within DC universities (which we can define as American, Catholic, George Washington, Georgetown, Gallaudet, Howard or UDC) on the week of August 6. An outbreak is defined by the District as " as two or more cases of COVID-19 reported at a location which have a plausible epidemiological link." During that week, Georgetown reported zero positive tests among residents on the Main Campus, per its published numbers.
A week later, the DC public data reported one outbreak reported
at a "sports facility". Georgetown
reported 13 positive cases that week, but was not specific to a sports
facility nor who they were. In its most recent release, Georgetown's overall positivity rate is just 0.55% among
over 10,000 tests a week. In advertising lore, 99.44% was once considered the gold
standard to sell Ivory Soap, but that's not 2021.
COVID data is anonymized so as not to be diffuse. We also heard of no issues in other GU sports practicing on or near Cooper Field during this time, and none have been postponed or cancelled. I'm neither prepared nor presume to know enough about epidemiology to assume anything, but to bring it back to this question: why was this communicated with such opacity?
Maybe that's all they had. Maybe the narrative got sent "up the hill", so to speak, where sensitive press releases land in the deep bureaucracy of Georgetown PR and legal scrutiny. Or, as much as anything, they didn't have to say anything more to get the message out, and didn't.
As such, it came and went with little fanfare. The Washington Post, The HOYA, and Georgetown Voice did not even report it. The only media to cover it were two newspapers in and around the Poughkeepsie, NY area, where Marist football gets more coverage than does Georgetown in Washington, DC. So, like a lot of things at GU, it's been forgotten.
Despite a positivity rate of 9.6% nationally among among over 1.4 million tests last week, the Georgetown-Marist game was was one of only two games featuring two NCAA Division I teams to be cancelled nationwide.
2. Your (New) Home Opener: Even before the cancellation, there was next to no promotion of the Marist game as a home opener to the fan base outside friends and family, which remains a sore spot with me given the numerous missed opportunities to build a better rapport between football and a student body that, well, half of whom have never seen a college game because they've just arrived on the campus.
OK, the home opener shifts to Harvard on Sep. 18. Will there be any effort to promote the game? Will tailgates fall afoul of "an abundance of caution"? Will Cooper Field, a subject all its own, hold enough people (or too many) given Harvard's healthy turnouts in prior years?
No sporting event at GU thus far has drawn over 655 fans, with low turnouts for games in men's and women's soccer and volleyball. Field hockey and football won't see a home opener until the weekend of Sep. 17-18. Is 3,000 at the Harvard game a goal, or a concern?
3. Around The League: The PL was 1-5 in opening round non-conference games. That's an improvement over a winless 0-7 in Week 1 of 2019, the most recent season with non-conference play. Stronger competition notwithstanding, it does not recast the narrative that these continue to be lean times for the league.
First, the good news for the PL. Holy Cross earned its first win over a major college opponent since 2002, 38-28, at Connecticut. A day later, UConn head coach Randy Edsall (he of a recent two year contract extension) suddenly announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season. Edsall took note to say it was his decision. (In college coaching changes, very, very little is the head coach's decision.) A decade ago, Edsall took the Huskies to the Fiesta Bowl. In his last 26 games at Storrs, he is 3-23.
A loss to Purdue or Central Florida probably wasn't sending Edsall to an early retirement. A loss to a Patriot League team did, however.
"I don’t think there was one person in that locker room that didn’t think we had a really good chance to win this game,” Holy Cross linebacker Liam Anderson told the Worcester Telegram-Gazette, one of the dwindling few newspapers covering PL football. The Huskies were flat in their opener with Fresno State and it continued Saturday, UConn managed 88 yards on the ground and gave up a four play, 98 yard drive that put away the game for the Crusaders midway through the fourth quarter after neither team led by more than seven for the first 50 minutes of play. Each of UConn's final two drives of the game ended in interceptions.
HC is the runaway favorite to en route to a third consecutive PL title. The only apparent roadblock, Fordham, exceeded expectations in a 52-7 loss at Nebraska. For one thing, the Cornhuskers was a 55 point favorite, but this was a 7-7 game early and the Rams had 221 yards by halftime, trailing 24-7. Nebraska put on the heat in the second half for a Big Red crowd that was not in the mood for anything less.
"I think our kids did a great job," said Fordham coach Joe Conlin. "Everyone was very nice, it's a heck of a venue, so the atmosphere I don't think affected us in any way, shape or form." The Rams and their $500,000 appearance fee landed safely to New York.
Lafayette played better than expected in a 35-14 loss at Air Force. Trailing 28-7 at the half, the Leopards kept it respectable in the second half but had no ground game versus the Falcons, having been outrushed 375 to 43. In the PL's other game versus I-A opponents, Colgate was routed at Boston College, 52-0. The Red Raiders were outgained 525 to 189 in total offense and a 30-0 score after three quarters was padded by three late touchdowns by the Eagles, picked for third in the ACC Atlantic Division.
The PL's two games versus I-AA competition might be more troubling, however. Lehigh was stomped on by Villanova in the Engineers' home opener, 47-3. Lehigh gave up six turnovers and were outgained 506 to 139. Villanova transfer Dez Boykin, late of Lehigh, scored two touchdowns on the afternoon.
Bucknell was lifeless in a 21-0 loss to Sacred Heart. Two Bucknell quarterbacks combined for 55 yards on eight completions in 22 attempts. As the Sacred Heart announcers put it, there was a time when a win over Bucknell was a major upset for their program. Not anymore. The Bison have lost 11 consecutive non-conference games dating to the 2017 season. Next up, Villanova.
Scholarships have opened the door to guarantee games for six Patriot League schools . A 45 point loss before 85,938 fans in Lincoln, Nebraska may not fit the ethos and culture of Georgetown, but every other PL school is loading up on them in years to come. For now, they're losses. By season's end, they may be something more valuable: experience.
