Week 10 Thoughts

 

Some thoughts in the wake of Lehigh's 24-9 win over Georgetown this past week and the 2021 season finale upon us:

Sputtering. If one word can encapsulate the 2021 season, this may be it. While no one at Georgetown entered 2021 with plans for the FCS playoffs, an expectation was that the season would show progress. Outside of the football office, it's been difficult to see it.

Georgetown started its first drive of the second half Saturday driving 57 yards in nine plays, the longest drive of the first half. Next four possessions: punt, punt, stopped on 4th down, fumble. Second half: 69 yards in 13 plays, followed by punt, punt, punt, an 4th down. The last four drives consumed 12 plays and eight yards. And the weather was improving in the second half. Saturday's game marked the sixth game this season where Georgetown could not muster 100 yards and the fifth where it could not gain 60.

The offensive line looks beaten up, the rushers look a step slow on every play. Its only returning underclassman  in the backfield has rushed the ball once in the last seven games. The Hoyas eschewed the youth movement this and went all-in on a lineup heavy on seniors, grad students, and fifth years. The results have been underwhelming.

Even head coach Rob Sgarlata dispensed with the usual optimism in last week's letter.

"I was proud of our overall effort and ability to adapt to the challenging conditions," he said. "That being said, our execution was inconsistent."

Execution should not be an issue in week 10. And it is. It's only a tribute to the historic ebb that the Patriot League is in that Georgetown was not swept by the entire league this year. Instead, with five PL teams in the bottom 30 nationally, the Hoyas can do no worse than a tiebreaker over 1-9 Bucknell for last place. Given Bucknell's assignment versus PL titleist Holy Cross this Saturday, that is highly unlikely. But if all Georgetown can do is hang its collective hats on a fifth place finish, it speaks to a season that never led anywhere.

It also speaks to a schedule that was very linear--GU beat two teams even further below them in the ratings (Delaware State, Bucknell) and lost to everyone above them. If the Hoyas play to form, they are slight favorites against a  Morgan State team that has one win all season--Delaware State, by six--the same outcome as Georgetown.

No upsets, no surprises. No momentum.

National Rankings: Georgetown's ranking out of 123 schools entering the final week of play:

Points Scored: 104th

Points Allowed: 88th

Rushing Offense: 122nd

Passing Offense: 27th

Total Offense: 91st

Rushing Defense: 108th

Passing Defense: 31st

Total Defense: 74th

Sacks Made: 110th

Sacks Allowed: 104th

This Week In The Patriot League: Three league games finish the season, with only Holy Cross advancing to the playoffs. If you're old enough to remember when a second place finish was a likely at-large bid for the PL, well, you're getting older.

Lafayette (3-7) at Lehigh (2-8), 12:30 pm. The 157th meeting of this rivalry is certainly at a low point, probably not since 1966 when both teams were this low in the win-loss column. Head coaches John Garrett and Tom Gilmore are a combined 24-48 over the past three seasons and there are probably more than a handful of fans in maroon and/or brown hoping for a "loser leaves town" match, which isn't happening. As to the outcome, it's a coin flip.

Fordham (6-4) at Colgate (4-6), 1:00 pm. The what-if game: what if Fordham hadn't built a ridiculous non-conference schedule with Nebraska and Florida Atlantic?  What if they hadn't allowed a 100 yard kickoff return at home versus Monmouth, a game they lost by three? Is this an eight or nine win team entering the last week of 2021? The Rams aren't Holy Cross this season; otherwise, they were very good and a better team than a 6-4 record. All four of Colgate's wins are inside the PL, but the defense can't stay with Fordham.

 Holy Cross (8-2) at Bucknell (1-9), 1:00 pm: Holy Cross rolls into Lewisburg with five consecutive PL wins by an average margin of 27 points. Bucknell has lost its last three games by a combined 134-26, and Georgetown was the only opponent the Bison were even within three touchdowns in PL play.  With the loss, Bucknell will post its first winless season in PL play since 2005.

A Georgetown Football Milestone

This week's game against Lehigh marked a milestone in Georgetown: the 1000th varsity game.

Football was founded on the Hilltop in 1874 and played its first games against outside competition in 1881 and 1883, but these games are not recognized by the University, as it has set 1887 as the first season of varsity football. So why no recognition from the University for the impending 1000th game? It may be a typo. 

The game notes from Saturday's game with Holy Cross lists the win-loss records of all coaches since 1887, which totals to 521-448-32 (.539), which adds up to 1,001 games. However, the totals (as seen below) count a 2-1 record each for co-coaches John Murray and Bill Nash in 1964 and 1965 when only three games were played between them; thus, the total is overstated by three and the total number of games played entering the Fordham game was 998. 

In recognition of this 1000th game, here are some other milestones along the way:

Game #1: Nov. 2, 1887

Georgetown Field, Washington DC

Georgetown 46, Emerson Institute 6

Game #100: Oct. 24, 1903

League Park, Norfolk, VA

Georgetown 33, North Carolina 0

Game #200: Nov. 20, 1915

Georgetown Field, Washington DC

Georgetown 61, South Carolina 0

Game #300: Nov. 27, 1926

University of Detroit Stadium, Detroit, MI

Georgetown 19, Detroit 0

Game #400: Oct. 8, 1938

Griffith Stadium, Washington DC

Georgetown 33, Roanoke 6

Game #500: Nov. 9, 1968

Brookland Stadium, Washington, DC

Catholic 7, Georgetown 6

Game #600: Oct. 10, 1981

Kehoe Field, Washington, DC

Fordham 24, Georgetown 0

Game #700: Oct. 31, 1992

Cardinal Stadium, Washington, DC

Georgetown 19, Catholic 16

Game #800: Oct. 19, 2002

Fisher Field, Easton, PA

Lafayette 35, Georgetown 17

Game #900: Oct. 22, 2011

Multi-Sport Field, Washington, DC

Georgetown 40, Colgate 17

Week 9 Thoughts

 Two brief thoughts following Fordham's 41-20 win over Georgetown on Saturday:

 1. Progress? Not This Week. As a writer, I'm probably best known for basketball but when it comes for football, the emotions of watching game are much more visceral. When there's a win, it's a great feeling. When it's not, it hurts more with each passing year because it's yet another opportunity lost to establish this program where it needs to be. And something Georgetown has missed time and again.

 Did I expect Georgetown to win this game. No. Having seen Fordham games online this season, the Rams a superior team for a variety of reasons.  In the end, unless you're Lafayette or Bucknell, 63 scholarships always trumps no scholarships. But Georgetown had a series of plays which would not have changed the final outcome of the game, but would have been the kind of statements that, in week 10, players, coaches and fans should be seeing from a team, and didn't.

 -- With 5:46 to play in the first quarter, down 13-6, the Georgetown defense had one of its best stops of the season, holding the Rams at the one line of a 12 play drive. One play later, Georgetown fumbles the ball. One more play later, it's 20-7. Ballgame.

 -- With 1:04 to halftime, Fordham takes over after a particularly ineffective GU drive which consumed just 23 seconds of the quarter. The defense held as Fordham misses a field goal, but coming out of halftime, it allows a 45 yard pass to set up a score.  After the Hoyas respond with a six yard, 1:24 drive, a pair of defensive penalties sets up a 33 yard run for the score.

 -- Georgetown had two drives that entered the Fordham red zone in the third quarter. Total number of points? Zero.

 The team racked up 100 yards in penalties. This, more than anything, is inexcusable for the most veteran team Georgetown has ever put in a starting lineup in the modern era.  Coach Sgarlata avoided claiming that the team was "improving 1%" every game. Unfortunately, this team needs to improve much more than 1% every week because a 10% change doesn't win games in November.

 There are deep structural reasons why Georgetown doesn't make plans for football in December. But a team that does not win at home isn't going to be successful in any month. A winless home slate in 2021 matches three of the worst seasons in modern Hoya football: 2007 (1-10), 2009 (0-11) and 2017 (1-10). How does this change?

 2. The Future? Not Next Week. Neither the Washington Nationals  nor the Baltimore Orioles were making it to the playoffs this year; in fact, both finished in last place. But September wasn't merely playing out the spring, but making some call-ups and giving young players something that no practice schedule can provide: experience.

 This is the call-up time of the year in football. The season ends in two weeks and a full third of the lineup, including 17 of 22 starters, is gone next year. If you think 2021 was touch, how does 2022 look without Tomas, Saffold, Moultrie, Crayton, Portobanco, four of five starters on the O-line,  two of four starters on the D-line, the entire linebacking corps, Ahmad Wilson, Jonathan Honore, etc.?

 This is the time the staff should give consideration to sitting the seniors and getting as much time as possible for underclassmen to learn game-time experience. Instead, the same 17 seniors are on the starting lineup in this week's game notes. I get it--coaches and players want to win, but this team has some real holes to fill for 2022. Georgetown needs that elusive commodity of experience and since it is not a program that welcomes the junior college or the transfer portal, it's going to be very tough in 2022 for those that remain.

 The last two games are, at best, a coin-flip, and yes, 4-6 always beats 2-8. But the preparation for 2022 cannot start soon enough.

Fordham: When It Was A Rivalry

The 66th meeting Saturday between Georgetown and Fordham harkens back to the days of an old-fashioned football rivalry.

In its heyday in the 1920's, the two teams played before crowds of 30,000 at New York's Polo Grounds. Georgetown's 1965 home game with the Rams remains its on-campus attendance record (9,002 at Kehoe Field) while the 13,568 in attendance for Fordham's 1970 Homecoming game versus the Hoyas remains its modern attendance record as well.

Saturday is the 50th anniversary of one of the more entertaining games between the schools. 

"Georgetown's headhunting defense and booming offensive line exhausted and bowled over Fordham Saturday in a 30-9 homecoming victory before an exuberant crowd of 6,000," wrote the Washington Post following the game on November 6, 1971

A 25 year old Post reporter, Shelby Coffey III (later the editor of the Los Angeles Times and an executive at ABC News) called it as follows: "Like demolition experts  setting dynamite charges under a silo, the Hoyas took a while to crack their objective, but then they brought it all tumbling down."

Georgetown led 10-0 at halftime before second half touchdowns by RB Ralph Edwards and WR Vince Bogdanski turned the tide. Bogdanski's 18 yard reception also saw him collide with spectators who got a little too close to the end zone at Kehoe Field. 

The two teams have played as far back as 1890 and regularly since the mid-1990's. However, Fordham has won 22 of the last 25 in the series, with Georgetown's last home victory coming in 2011. Why?

Fordham spends more on football than any Patriot League school at $7.3 million per year - over $5 million more than GU. That's an advantage on the margin in coaching salaries and player development, but also in recruiting, where Fordham has advantages with admitting recruits Georgetown does not have. There's a plus with scheduling as well, allowing Fordham to play stronger non-conference opponents (including Nebraska to open this season) and use this as a building block for PL play. The Rams have won five straight heading into Saturday's game, averaging 49 points per game in that stretch.

The absence of regular basketball competition has also dampened this rivalry. Fordham and Georgetown played annually in basketball from 1950 through 1979 but since have played just one game since, in the 2007-08 season.

Fordham leads the overall football series 38-23-3. Here are the results between the teams since each school revived football in 1964:

1965: Fordham 34-28 (H)

1966: Georgetown, 27-13 (A)

1967: Fordham, 20-18 (H)

1968: Fordham, 31-6 (A)

1969: Georgetown, 14-7 (H)

1970: Fordham, 39-17 (A)

1971: Georgetown, 30-9 (H)

1972: Fordham, 14-8 (A)

1973: Fordham, 13-0 (H)

1974: Georgetown, 35-7 (A)

1975: Georgetown, 35-0 (H)

1977: Fordham, 40-0 (A)

1981: Fordham, 24-0 (H)

1982: Fordham, 23-9 (A)

1983: Georgetown, 12-6 (H)

1984: Fordham, 28-6 (A)

1985: Fordham, 56-0 (H)

1996: Fordham, 46-6 (A)

1997: Fordham, 42-0 (H)

1998: Fordham, 49-40 (A)

2000: Fordham, 17-10 (H)

2001: Fordham, 48-13 (A)

2002: Fordham, 41-10 (H)

2003: Fordham, 34-10 (A)

2004: Fordham, 36-6 (A)

2005: Georgetown, 24-21 (H)

2006: Fordham, 38-30 (A)

2007: Fordham, 38-31 (H)

2008: Fordham, 17-0 (A)

2009: Fordham, 41-14 (H)

2010: Fordham, 24-19 (A)

2011: Georgetown, 30-13 (H)

2012: Fordham, 38-31 (A)

2013: Fordham, 34-12 (H)

2014: Fordham, 52-7 (A)

2015: Fordham, 38-31 (H)

2016: Fordham, 17-14 (A)

2017: Fordham, 17-9 (H)

2018: Georgetown, 23-11 (A)

2019: Fordham, 30-27 (H)