Week 8 Thoughts

 

Some thoughts following Colgate's 28-18 win over Georgetown Saturday:

1. Post-Haste: A day late on the blog, but the mistakes Georgetown made in this game didn't change in the last 24 hours.

When teams are closely matched, three or four plays can turn a game. It certainly was the case in the Alabama-Tennessee game last weekend, or even Lafayette-Holy Cross. And for the first or second time in a decade, 60-scholarship Colgate and Georgetown were actually evenly matched, only to see Georgetown fail on certain key moments of the game which Colgate, to its credit, did not. They were:

1. 11:09, 1st quarter: Tyler Knoop's interception at midfield was, on its own, not a game changer, but the players were well out of position to prevent a runback. One of the reasons a "pick six" is especially effective at midfield is what a returned has ahead of him at that spot of the field: linemen, big and slow. Georgetown's play cal didn't have anyone who could catch up with Goss and thus the Red Raiders cashed in seven before its offense could see their first snap.

2. 4:12, first quarter: Georgetown's second possession brought them to the Colgate 14, but penalties and a breakup in the end forced a field goal, not a touchdown. The Red Raiders made quick work of the GU defense for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead when 7-7 was eminently possible.

3. 2:01 , 2nd quarter: At 21-12 going into halftime, the game was still in range, but two critical defensive fouls and breakdowns in the secondary allowed Colgate to extend the lead to 28-12 in a one minute, 16 second drive.

Yes, three total interceptions by Knoop didn't help. But for Georgetown to have led in nearly every statistic in this game and still lose by double figures was a huge opportunity lost if a six win season is doable for this team, mindful that their odds of a win in the season finale against Holy Cross continue to be prohibitive. Comebacks are nice, but to give up 28 points to a team which mustered just 213 yards at halftime was visible evidence that, in coach Sgarlata's own words, Georgetown did not control the controllables. 

2. Injuries: The ability of Georgetown to finish 6-5 this season begins (and may end) with a depleted offensive line. There's a lot of missing pieces to the line as October draws to a close and with two freshmen and two sophomores starting last week, that's a problem. 

To its credit, the line has done a solid job keeping  Knoop reasonably safe: the nine sacks allowed by the O-line is best in the PL and 18th best nationally. The challenge in facing a Lafayette defense that is holding opponents to 129 yards per game on the ground bears watching. Georgetown got only 93 yards versus Colgate, and that won't be enough Saturday.

3. FCS Realignment? If you think realignment talk is reserved to conferences with a "Big" in their first name, Tuesday's news of a shakeup in the Northeast Conference was newsworthy.

With only eight football-playing schools, the NEC lost Merrimack and Sacred Heart to the MAAC Tuesday, having also lost Robert Morris and Bryant in the past three seasons. While these changes are not driven by football (the MAAC is not reviving football), it does introduce instability to the NEC, which will play at the NCAA minimum for the 2024 season. The football membership of Central Connecticut, Duquesne, LIU, St. Francis, Stonehill, and Wagner have to collectively decide if they will hang together or head for the lifeboats, while Merrimack and Sacred Heart have similar questions to answer , of which there are limited  options: 

1) The far flung OVC-Big South patchwork, offering schools the opportunity to travel to decidedly non-Eastern locations such as Lindenwood (MO),  Eastern Illinois, or Tennessee-Martin with which to fill a schedule; 

2)  An invite to the CAA, all but unlikely;

3) An invite to the Patriot League, even less so;

4) Garner interest with the MEAC, which has been historically reluctant to pursue any non-HBCU's to its association;

5) Drop scholarships and join the Pioneer League; or 

6) Soldier on as an independent until the next turn on the realignment wheel.

At least one school has football (somewhat) in mind, however. 

"Football is an important sport on this campus," said Merrimack athletic director Jeremy Gibson to the Mack Report blog. "For anyone who was at Homecoming weekend and saw that we had over 13,000 people back, it's not hard to see why football will continue to matter at Merrimack."

"[The MAAC] are the schools, at the presidential level, deciding who are their peer institutions and who they want to be associated with. This is a validation from the schools in the MAAC that this is what Merrimack is now. We're not a small school anymore, and these affiliations made sense for us."

3. And the Wheels Keep Turning:  Per various reports, the U.S. Military Academy will return to a conference in 2024, joining the American Athletic Conference, itself a hodge-podge of programs from UT-San Antonio to Temple. The rivalry with Navy continues (as Navy is in the AAC) but Army must settle millions of dollars in game contracts for a schedule that go out through at least 2034, including road games at Syracuse, Wake Forest,  Boston College,  UConn, and Missouri.

Army will continue to park its other sports in the Patriot league, giving rise to speculation that the AAC will add Virginia Commonwealth of the A-10 for non-football sports.

With watchful A-10 schools seeing no current path to the Big East (commissioner Val Ackerman said as much at yesterday's Media Day), will schools start looking at offers like this, or does the A-10 start adding more far-flung schools once again? Six of the 15 A-10 schools live in states that do not border the Atlantic Ocean, and one A-10 blog suggested earlier this summer adding Murray State (??) and Monmouth.

This is not over, folks.

4. Around the PL: The game of the year in PL football has, for one week, anyway, placed a new team on top of the leaderboard. 

Lafayette 38, Holy Cross 35: Despite a career high 330 yards rushing from Holy Cross QB Matthew Sluka (a record for a QB that may not soon be broken), the Lafayette Leopards were the better team in this one, winning on the road behind 229 yards from RB Jamar Curtis and never trailing in the game, establishing LC as the team to beat in Patriot play., It's the first loss in the league for the Crusaders in four years, and begins a run of three consecutive road games where HC does not control its path to a league title.  Holy Cross now must travel to Fordham for an de factor at-large elimination game for one of the two schools, while Lafayette travels to Georgetown.

Lehigh 27, Bucknell 18: The Engineers ended a five game losing streak with a solid 27-18 before an embarrassing total of 966 at Christy Mathewson Stadium in Lewisburg, MA. Lehigh led 20-3 at the half and successfully withstood an 88 yard kickoff return for touchdown and a late Bucknell touchdown that made the game close, but no further.  Lehigh is idle this week while Bucknell must play at Colgate, where it has won once since 2013.

Week 7 Thoughts

 

Some thoughts from Georgetown's 17-7 win over Lehigh this past Saturday:

1. Past Or Prologue? This isn't a team Georgetown is supposed to beat, even in some decidedly down years at Lehigh. It's sufficiently rare (just one prior win since 2001) that it's worth asking the question: is this a moment in time, or the start of something big?

Maybe a little bit of both.

The past three games have sent echoes of the 2011 season, one where the Hoyas surprised everyone with a five game win streak en route to its only winning season since 1999. It was also a period of retrenchment by some PL programs that allowed Georgetown to sneak up on them (Colgate, for one; maybe Lafayette as well). This season's Hoyas haven't sneaked up on its recent opponents but played 60 minutes of consistent football, one that gives it an opportunity to control time of possession (we'll get to that later) and play to its strengths. 

Or is this a harbinger of things to come? The financial imbalance of football at Georgetown University has always been a quick and deserved response to why the program has struggled, but it has also been a deficit of impact talent. This season's team has some important contributions with underclassmen on offense (Dunneman, Kibble, Grimes) and defense (Daniel, Dugger, Mose, Cadet, Rufo) that have overachieved based on what was popularly expected out of their classes in 2022 and 2023. That's something to build upon for a program that is often rebuilding every year.

In one sense, 2023 is neither 2011 redux nor a window into dominance: it is what it is, and it's been fun to watch thus far. Georgetown has been competitive in every game but one this season, and when was the last time you could say that? The Massey Ratings service had GU as underdogs in each of the last eight games of the season and a 1.189% chance of making it as far as four wins. And yet, here we are.  

2. Raiders Up:  A 3:00 pm start time at home is rare for Georgetown, and if this was major college football, it would be the afternoon version of prime time. It's not, of course, but the Hoyas will be the late game Saturday versus Colgate.

Georgetown is 1-18 all time versus Colgate dating to 2002--the Red Raiders opted not to fit GU in its 2001 schedule. The games have been routinely noncompetitive as Colgate owned the rushing game as is their tradition, with the only Georgetown win coming in the aforementioned 2011 season. A look at its statistics to date offers some clues about what may be the biggest game of the season relative to Georgetown fighting for six wins this season.

Did I say rushing? Colgate is last in the PL in offense and fifth in rushing at 110 yards a game. That's not enough to dominate this game, and Colgate is allowing 185 yards in return, which if GU rushed for 185 in this game , it would be a very, very good sign.   

Averages can be deceiving, however. Unlike Georgetown, Colgate traditionally schedules up to begin a season and as such they were overmatched in losses to Syracuse, Villanova, Penn, and Holy Cross. Since then, versus Cornell and Dartmouth, it has averaged 185 yards gained and 130 allowed. 

Colgate's passing game also bears watching. Ranked near the bottom of the league overall, the Red Raiders  passed for 221 yards pre game but allowed 316.5 in return. Georgetown enters the game ranked 1st in pass defense, so watch this closely.  Also worth watching? Time of possession. Georgetown won't be close to the 40 minute time of possession it held at Lehigh, but a 33 -35 minute total would be a sign GU is controlling the ball and limiting Colgate possessions. In a series like this , this could be the numbers that can turn to an upset.

3. Looking Back: This marks the 20th anniversary of a memorable game in the Colgate-Georgetown series, a 20-19 Colgate win to open the season at the pre-MSF configuration known as Harbin Field. 

"[Trailing] Colgate, 14-0, Coach Benson substituted freshman Alondzo Turner in at QB, who led an exciting 15 play, 80 yard drive," wrote the game recap at HoyaSaxa.com. "Turner was shaken up towards the end of the drive and Crawford returned, and when Georgetown faced a 4th down at the 2 yard line, Crawford found William Huisking in the end zone for the score, 14-7."

It continues:

"After a Colgate punt, Crawford returned to quarterback the team the rest of the game. Following the punt, he answered with a 35 yard TD pass to Luke McArdle for a touchdown. Rob Smith, making his first start at kicker in the wake of Michael Gillman's injury, had the PAT blocked, 14-13.

"In the fourth, Colgate responded with an 11 play drive that stalled at the Georgetown 32. With 8:44 to play, the Hoyas went three and out and punted to Colgate at its 21, but the Raiders fumbled at the Georgetown 47 with 6:44 to play. Georgetown responded with a seven play drive highlighted by a 29 yard pass to TE Jordan Jarry to the Colgate 1, where Kim Sarin gave Georgetown the go-ahead score, 19-14. A try for two points failed thereafter."

"In the race for the end, Colgate drove to the Georgetown 46, but a long pass was intercepted at the 25 with 1:28 to play. A penalty for excessive celebration hurt the Hoyas, sending them back to its 10 The team needed just one first down to put away the game, but instead combined for four yards in three plays. Opting to punt and not take a safety for field position, Colgate got the ball and returned it to the Georgetown 35 with 20 seconds to play. 

"Narrowly averting another interception in the series, Colgate's Brown completed passes of 10 and 22 yards took the Raiders to the Georgetown 2 with under 10 seconds to play, where a direct snap to WR J.B Gerald found receiver DeWayne Long to seal the win, 20-19."

This was as close as any opponent would get to the Red Raiders for the next three months. Despite opening with five of its first six on the road, Colgate won 15 consecutive games that season until falling to Delaware in the FCS national championship game. No Patriot League opponent has been as close since.

4. Around the PL: A productive week for league teams last weekend:

Colgate 27, Dartmouth 24 (OT): Special teams heroics were the order of the day before 2,732 rain-soaked fans at Andy Kerr Stadium last week. With Dartmouth trailing 17-3 at the half, the Indians came back from 14 down in the fourth quarter to force overtime, where Colgate connected on a short field goal and blocked Dartmouth's response to carry the win. Colgate was 4 for 4 inside the red zone, Dartmouth just 4 for 7.

Bucknell 21, Colgate 13: In a  series that dates to 1888, Bucknell earned a third consecutive win over the Big Red for the first time ever, holding Cornell scoreless for the final 27 minutes of the game and holding the homestanding Big Red to 3 for 13 on third down in the win before 2,142 at Schoellkopf Field. Running back Coleman Bennett led the Bison with 157 rushing yards.

Fordham 26, Stony Brook 7: A long season continues for the Seawolves as  Fordham pulled ahead late for a 26-7 win over winless Stony Brook before 4,165 at LaValle Stadium. Stony Brook was held to a season low 27 yards on the ground. 

Lehigh travels to Bucknell this weekend, with Lafayette and Holy Cross, both idle last week, meeting for what may be the early PL title game.

Week 6 Thoughts

 Some thoughts following Penn's 42-39 overtime win over Georgetown Saturday:

1.  A Sixty Minute Game, And Then Some:  There are more than a share of college football games to which a loss is utterly deflating or completely expected, or both. Saturday's game was neither.  Georgetown and Penn played as complete a game for sixty minutes that any coach (or fan) could have asked for. 

Yes, there were mistakes made. Opportunities were given, others were lost. Giving up a safety and two interceptions at midfield was no way to open a second half, granted. But any Georgetown fan in the stands Saturday or those following along online could not have been more impressed by a  team which scored three consecutive touchdowns over the final 18 minutes of play to put themselves in a position to win. Had the coin flip gone the other way, I think they would have.

Overtime games are rare for Georgetown, and rarer still are games where the Hoyas score as many as 36 and still lose. last we week, we noted how unusual it was for Georgetown to allow 22 or more points and still win. Well, how about this one: this is only the fourth time in school history where Georgetown scored more than 35 points and lost a game. Of the four, none were as close and none came down to the end as this one did.

Over a quarter century of following these games, Saturday's game harkens back to a 2002 game between Georgetown and Bucknell at Harbin Field.  The Hoyas trailed 17-0 at halftime, 24-7 midway in the third, and 31-20 with 8:00 remaining, yet rallied to take the lead with 19 seconds remaining in a 32-31 win.  That it took 21 years to match that kind of performance probably says something about the recent state of the Hoyas, but it is a sign for this team, and those that will follow, that it can be done.

2. Ivy Woes: With the loss, Georgetown falls to 3-3 on the 2023 season, but continues a run of futility against the Ivy League.

Since scheduling Ivy opponents in 2003, Georgetown is 7-33 (.175) versus the Ancient Eight and a fitful 1-20 (.047) versus Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth.  Many, many reasons why, but Georgetown just hasn't been competitive, and such are not the ingredients of rivalries.

3. Empty Seats: One more thing that can be said about Saturday's opponent: it was no rivalry game, either.

A generously counted crowd of just 2,250 found its way into Franklin Field for the game, which appears to have been the second smallest home crowd for the Quakers in as least 80 years at Franklin Field., per annual statistics posted online. Yes, gone are the days when 82,000 showed up when Notre Dame played the Quakers in the pre-Ivy League days of the early 1950s, or even the 35,810 who filled the lower deck thirty years ago when Princeton came to town.

The reasons for this decades-long decline are varied numerous. Some of it is the sophistry of Penn undergrads, some of it the continuing erosion of college football among local fans who are predisposed to watch the SEC Game of the Week than sit through the elements at a Temple, Penn, or Villanova game. (For what it's worth, Temple drew a season high 18,388 Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field versus another non-rival, Texas-San Antonio.)

Maybe it's just the students; or, more appropriately, you need to start with them.  This is not a generation of college students that does anything in large groups, including attendance. They do not march for football teams or to espouse political rights, they merely watch it on their Instagram account and nod accordingly.

In a  recent Georgetown Voice article, a similar theme was echoed.

"I think the first thing is, it’s a school full of students, more so than a school full of  sports fans," said women's soccer coach Dave Nolan, "I feel that probably there’s not enough students at Georgetown who are genuinely interested in sports to begin with." 

"[For] kids today, social media is the easiest way to reach them, but it’s only the easiest way to reach them if they’re already aware of you and they’re already following you. If you have a student at Georgetown who doesn’t follow women’s soccer on Instagram or Twitter, they’re not going to be any wiser. And I sometimes feel that we forget that,” he said.

"If our students get involved, we build this culture … that’s going [to] go a long way for the experience of everyone,” said John Corwin, assistant athletic director of  athletics marketing. “One thing we can all circle back to is we’re all Hoyas, we’re all a part of this family."

But for a lot of sports, football included, it's a family that doesn't pay much attention to each other.

4. Around the PL: Holy Cross may have a legitimate challenger this season that's not from the Bronx.

Lafayette 12, Princeton 9: The Leopards made some history in a 12-9 road win before 4,059 at Princeton Stadium. Scoring a field goal, touchdown, and a final safety with 1:57 to play,  Lafayette moved to 5-1 and secured its first win over Princeton in 13 tries since the  2003 season. All-time, Princeton leads the series 45-5-3, but this was Lafayette's day, moving to 5-1 for the first time since 2009 and with a week off to meet Holy Cross on Oct. 21.

Holy Cross 55, Bucknell 27: Also approaching the bye week, the Crusaders were not challenged  on the road before a turnout of just 925 at Lewisburg. Holy Cross combined for 574 total yards, led 34-14 at the half, and coasted to the win. 

Fordham 38, Lehigh 35: The Rams narrowly averted a second consecutive upset after spotting the Engineers a 21-7 lead in the second quarter and trailed 35-24 early in the fourth quarter.  A five play , 85 yard drive by Fordham QB C.J. Montes rallied the Rams to within three, while two Lehigh punts led to eventual Fordham field goals to close out the game. The Rams go out of conference to face winless Stony Brook while Lehigh will take a 1-5 record into Saturday's game versus Georgetown, which has never won at Goodman Stadium.

Homecoming Attendance: 4,367

 

Saturday's Homecoming Game drew an official attendance of 4,367, the largest in the history of Cooper Field and Georgetown's largest home crowd since 1979. 

Since its opening on September 17, 2005 as Multi-Sport Field, no home game had drawn more than 3,500, the turnout that day versus Brown with temporary bleachers across both sides of the field. Without temporary bleachers in use Saturday, some questions have been raised as to how Georgetown could accommodate over 4,000 when the stated capacity of Cooper Field is 3,750, inclusive of a 750 standing-room area behind the  north goal posts, which was unused Saturday. 

The answer may well be the nature of Homecoming itself. As various Homecoming guests wandered around campus Saturday, students and recent alumni attended some of the game, but ultimately left and others filled their seats. Thus, the attendance count exceeded those that seated throughout the game.

The turnout was the largest since 1979, when Georgetown defeated St. John's 20-14 before 4,927 atop Kehoe Field. According to The HOYA, "The response was tremendous; as an overflow crowd of almost five thousand thronged to Kehoe Field for the St. John's game. Unfortunately, the University's response to the huge turnout left a lot to be desired. Many people who arrived before kickoff found themselves waiting in line well after play had begun....Thousands of the seatless milled around at ground level, obscuring the view of those who came to watch football and turning the muddy area into a veritable quagmire," it wrote.

Saturday's game was the 12th largest on-campus crowd since 1964, surpassing other Homecoming weekend events for women's soccer (643), men's soccer (509), and volleyball (321).

Date	W/L	Opponent	Site	Att.
11/20/1965	L	Fordham	Kehoe Field	9,002
11/21/1964	W	NYU	Kehoe Field	8,004
11/2/1968	W	Seton Hall	Kehoe Field	7,000
11/1/1975	W	Fordham	Kehoe Field	7,000
11/12/1966	W	NYU	Kehoe Field	6,970
11/4/1978	W	St. Francis	GU Baseball Field	6,300
10/14/1972	W	Manhattan	Kehoe Field	6,000
11/5/1977	W	John Carroll	GU Baseball Field	5,641
10/27/1979	W	St. John's	Kehoe Field II	4,927
10/24/1970	W	Manhattan	Kehoe Field	4,500
11/6/1971	W	Fordham	Kehoe Field	4,500
9/30/2023	W	Fordham	Cooper Field	4,367

Week 5 Thoughts

 

Some thoughts following Georgetown's 28-24 win over Fordham Saturday:

1. Threading The Needle: The win was as unique as it was celebratory--this doesn't happen very often in Georgetown football annals. And at least two head coaches have to be asking what lessons can be found from one of the Patriot League's largest upsets of the past decade.

If you're Fordham coach Joe Conlin, the clues are in plain sight. For much of the last three seasons, Fordham has been a high reward, high risk team,  dependent on big offensive outputs to cover what have been visible gaps in its defensive sets. The 2022 Fordham team which reached the NCAA FCS playoffs scored a phenomenal 49.5 points a game, but also gave up 36.1. Fordham had lost eight consecutive games since the 2019 season when scoring 24 or fewer more points and the offensive output in its last there games, totaling 43.3 points a game, was neither past nor prologue.

In that sense, the halftime statistics were a four alarm fire for the Fordham coaching staff: 83 total yards, 0 for 5 on third downs, and seven points against a Georgetown defense that had not faced significant competition in its first four games of the season. The Fordham coaches were fortunate, if once can call it that, that Georgetown had not taken full advantage of that first half, with two interceptions and a fourth down stall at the Fordham 15 which could have extended  the deficit even further. In that sense, 14-7 was a margin that could be overcome...until it wasn't.

Naieem Kearney's 70 yard run changed this game in a big way, but the Rams still scored on three of its first four second half drives and nearly pulled off a catch at the end. This takes nothing away from Tyler Knoop's game winning drive, which was as good as any single Georgetown drive since Stephen Skon led the Hoyas to  upset Princeton in the final minute a decade ago. (In one sense, this was the biggest program win since that Princeton game in that it got attention beyond the campus and web sites like this, but it little remembered otherwise.)

If you're Rob Sgarlata, this was a game where Georgetown successfully threaded a needle between staying in a game early , throwing a curve ball to its opponents (sorry to mix the sports metaphors there) with its offensive game plan, and being able to dictate time of possession in ways Georgetown is usually unable to do. 

Compare the first quarter of Fordham versus Columbia a week ago: the Lions outgained Georgetown 122 to minus-18. In this game, the Hoyas outgained the Rams 110 to 40.

One of the textbook traits of great upsets is the power of controlling the flow of a game.  An upstart team doesn't come back down 21 or 28 to Alabama or Georgia because they do not control the game. Georgetown got up early in this game and put themselves in a position to win at the end. This they did, and congratulations go to the players, the staff, and the coaches for making it happen.

2. Rule of 22: Saturday's win is even more extraordinary given a longstanding statistical anomaly among Georgetown teams, which I call the Rule of 22.

In the Patriot League era (2001-present), Georgetown played 232 games entering Saturday's meeting with Fordham, averaging just 17.6 points per game. Just as there is a statistical floor by which Georgetown cannot lose (e.g., GU is 4-0 when holding opponents to no points in a game), there is a statistical point of no return where Georgetown does not win games. Averaging 17 points doesn't help, but even when it scores more, the law of diminishing returns sets in.

Is it 40 points? Or 50 Actually, it's a mere 22. Saturday's game was the 142nd game since 2001 where Georgetown allowed more than 22 points to an opponent. Following Saturday's final, the Hoyas are 5-137 (0.035) when allowing 22 or more points, its first win since a 52-28 win over Marist in 2011.

3. Lessons For Penn: Georgetown's task entering Saturday's gamer at begins with addressing Penn's strength on defense.

The  Quakers enter the game ranked fourth nationally in defense - a far cry from Fordham at 63rd. Defense has been the calling card of Penn defensive coordinator and former Georgetown head coach Bob Benson since his days at Johns Hopkins in the early 1990s, and it begins on the ground, where Penn leads the nation allowing just 34 yards a game. Kearney's 114 yards against Fordham notwithstanding, Georgetown stays in this game Saturday in the air, something Tyler Knoop has been inconsistent with this season. Knoop's 221 yards versus Fordham was a career high, but the Quakers allowed just 118 to Dartmouth last week. 

Defensively, the Hoyas need to control Penn's passing game. Quarterback Aidan Sayin was 37 for 57 for 383 yards last week against Dartmouth but managed only two touchdowns in a 23-20 overtime loss. The Hoyas were able to contain Fordham's passing game but not before it could generate offense of its own, and that is the recipe for this game: GU cannot afford to play from behind and let Penn dictate the course of the game,  For all its yardage last week against Dartmouth, Penn never led in the game.

4. Franklin Field: Saturday's game is the last of an announced two game series with Pennsylvania, and it makes too much sense that these teams should play regularly, but don't. This is only the eighth meeting all time between the schools, and the fourth since 1937 .

Saturday is the fourth meeting for Georgetown at Franklin Field, and I can't say enough about how it is one of the great stadiums in the panoply of college football. 

Sofi Stadium, it is not, and that's OK. It's old, but is it majestic and harkens back to better days for Ivy League football. Gone, perhaps, are the sellout crowds (Penn averaged just 12 percent capacity last season, or 6,853 a game) but it's a fun place to watch a game, and has seen its share of great finishes. This YouTube clip from 1982 is one example--listen to the crowd of over 34,000 for this game:

Nonetheless,  Franklin Field is a shrine to over 100 years of college football, and if you've never been to a game there and can visit it this Saturday, you are well advised to do so. And yes, I hope the Hoyas can get back there soon.

5. Around The PL:  Entering week six, there are some definite story lines building.

Colgate 35, Cornell 25: The Red Raiders ended a seven game losing streak with a flourish, coming back to score 21 points in the fourth quarter for the win before a hearty Homecoming crowd of 12,525 at Cornell's Schoellkopf Field. Colgate converted 10 third downs and held Cornell to 4 for 16 on third down conversions. A tough test awaits Colgate in two weeks at its Homecoming game versus Dartmouth, but they look ready to compete in PL play.

Monmouth 49, Lehigh 7: No such news at South Mountain, where the Engineers dropped to 1-4 giving up 42 unanswered points in the rain before 3,266 at Monmouth's Kessler Stadium.  The Hawks put up 619 yards of total offense  and held Lehigh to 2 for 13 on third down conversions. Averaging just 13 points a game to date, Lehigh faces a tall order against a Fordham team looking to resteady its offensive throughput following its loss to Georgetown.

Lafayette 56, Bucknell 22; Down the road, better times at Lafayette, where a 56-22 thumping of Bucknell before an announced crowd of 4,283 at Fisher Stadium has the Leopards on a  three game win streak heading into a game at Princeton, where lots of bad luck has followed the Leopards over the years. In this game, Lafayette scored six consecutive touchdowns in the first half, and never looked back. Bucknell gets a touch assignment at Holy Cross this week.

Harvard 38, Holy Cross 28: This was no upset--Harvard took the Crusaders' best shot and emerged victorious before 7,906 at Worcester's Polar Park. Five HC turnovers, including three interceptions by Matthew Sluka, proved the difference. Only one home game remains for the Crusaders before the season finale with Georgetown, but they remain favored in every game remaining except a November 11 nationally televised game at Army.