Week Eight Thoughts

 

Back from the bye week: some thoughts following Georgetown's 21-17 win over Colgate:

1. Threading The Needle: A competitive college football game often comes down to two or three plays which are determinative to the outcome of the game. Saturday's Alabama-Tennessee game was an example of this: Zabien Brown's interception and touchdown to end the first half turned a potential 16-14 halftime score to 23-7 and Tennessee never recovered. While determinative plays aren't generally that stunning, they made a difference.

That said, my nominees for the three impact plays from Saturday's game:

Jimmy Kibble's 43 yard first quarter reception  (13:20):  Following the season ending injury to Colgate's Treyvohn Saunders, Kibble may be the most dangerous receiver in the PL right now. He's not the quickest or the tallest, but he makes plays, and this catch in Georgetown's opening drive was one of them.  The Hoyas are not a comeback team by nature owing to its lack of depth, so getting an early score sets the tone for the game and this is exactly what Georgetown needed against a very capable Colgate defense. 

Brian Allen's third quarter interception (13:02):  Conversely, the Hoyas have struggled against possessions to open the second half. Lafayette, Brown, and Morgan State each scored on one of its two opening drives of the third quarter. This defensive stop ended a points drive that, in a  defensive minded game, would turned the tide to the Red Raiders. 

Brian Lloyd's fourth quarter stop  (3:20): Lloyd's late interception to seal the win may be more memorable, but ending this drive was even more important. The Red Raiders had completed three consecutive passes to the Georgetown 31 and, at the very least, an extension to the drive runs down the clock and puts Colgate in a position to win the game.  The pass defense in this set of downs was superb and forced three consecutive incompletions for the first time all afternoon. The Hoyas didn't seal the win on the following drive but left only 50 seconds from which Colgate could work with. 

It's an unfortunate fact that Georgetown does not have the firepower of its fellow PL schools, a subject that has been discussed here to some detail. There are no games on the league schedule to which Georgetown can expect to win on sheer talent or overwhelming strength, and thus plays like those above provide the opportunity on the margin to get a win that, on any given Saturday, Georgetown would likely not get. More than most teams, to play for Georgetown means every play counts, because it must count for Georgetown to win at this level. The sheer imbalance of this series, with Saturday's game being only the second win by a Georgetown team over Colgate since joining the PL, is  testament to the need to win plays on the margin.

2. Let's Play Two: Saturday's game was an unusual confluence of seasons for Georgetown, in that the afternoon game with Colgate preceded a exhibition men's basketball game  at George Washington. Were I in the area, I definitely would have attended both games.

That said, there are occasional scheduling issues where football is up against men's and women's soccer, or adjacent to them on the schedule that day. Not much can be done about that, of course, given that football is almost exclusively a Saturday sport and soccer needs weekend games for travel purposes, particularly in the Big East. 

It raises this idea: can Georgetown consider selling "all-day" passes to allow those who come to the football game to attend the soccer game that evening, or vice versa? The school is not making much money on these games, and yet, parents and alumni have little reason to stay around if it involves an extra ticket.  Students can go back and forth with ease between games; though, to be fair, they seem as disinterested in ever. Men's soccer attendance over the last five games averages just 6943, women's soccer for the season averages only 415. Adding a few extra fans of either sport to Cooper Field is a win-win.

It also opens some strategic opportunity for next year, as yet undisclosed, football schedule. In addition to a opening week game against an opponent to be named later, a return game with Columbia follows--, yes, apparently the Lou Little Cup lives again. With the move to nine PL games next year, home games await with Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lehigh and either Villanova or William & Mary. As opportunities warrant, offering the ability for one's football ticket to serve as admittance to the soccer game and vice versa raises the opportunity for better attendance for everyone, and if a basketball exhibition is scheduled one of those weekends, even better.

Georgetown does a poor job at promoting games across all sports, largely as a combination of a lack of staff and a lack of institutional commitment.  For many years, the University's culture was that men's basketball was the only sport worth its collective attention, but a decade of poor performance and a soulless customer experience  has hollowed out that value proposition. Why not devote some initiative to making a weekend game on the Hilltop, regardless of sport, a destination and maybe, just maybe, some fun?

To paraphrase an old proverb, the best time to build a culture was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.

3. Know Your G: This week's Georgetown Football social media reference. Who knew the Scotty Glacken-era football logo is still remembered?

Worth a shot. 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/7XJh7Xm4N9

— Nebraska Men's Basketball (@HuskerMBB) October 21, 2025

4. Around The PL:

Oregon State 45, Lafayette 13: For one half, the Leopards were the toast of the late night CW network , giving the Beavers all they could handle and taking a 13-10 lead into the break before depth took over and Oregon State earned its first win of the season before 27,735 at Reser Stadium. Lafayette managed just 50 yards after halftime in what was otherwise a solid effort against a Pac-12 school.  Lafayette received $500,000 and 300 complimentary tickets for the game. 

(Did you know that all but one PL school plays games such as this? Of course you did.)

Holy Cross 28, Richmond 22: The Crusaders won its first game of the 2025 season with a hard fought win before 5,419 at Robins Stadium. A 43 yard run by RB Justin Clerveaux put the Crusaders up for good midway in the third quarter and a fourth quarter stop late in the game proved the difference.

Dartmouth 30, Fordham 13: From a 6-6 tie, the Rams could not contend in a second half where Dartmouth pulled away before 3,418 at Moglia Stadium. Fordham QB Gunnar Smith threw for 238 yards but was sacked three times. 

Cornell 30, Bucknell 20: The Big Red earned its first win of the season at Lewisburg, with a pair of third quarter touchdowns to steer past Bucknell before 4,205  at Schoellkopf Field. Bucknell's running game was held to 67 yards, although the official scorer waived 20 yards in sacks and TFL's and gave Bucknell 87 instead. Backup QB Chris Dietrich passed for 220 yards but the defense was not up to par, allowing Cornell 27 unanswered points following an early 7-3 Bucknell lead.

This week's games:

Georgetown at Bucknell, 12 noon

Lehigh at Fordham, 1:00

Colgate at Holy Cross, 1:00

Week Six Thoughts

 

I've written stories about Georgetown football for 31 years and been an active supporter since 1994, and still have that "Pay the Toll: MAAC Football 1994" sweatshirt sitting in a box somewhere.

Saturday's game, and particularly its finish, was an all-timer.

The coverage of Jimmy Kibble's touchdown is as much coverage as Georgetown football has received in that time, maybe going as far back as when Georgetown dropped major college football in 1951. How big is it, and is part of it (or soon, was) an opportunity lost?

First some thoughts on the game itself.

For 59 minutes or so, this had the trajectory of one of the more discouraging  Homecoming games in recent memory, played before an alleged crowd number that was the smallest at that event since 1987. (More on that next week.)  Georgetown scored on its first two drives and had one red zone appearance for the rest of the game, missing two field goal attempts and losing the ball at midfield with 1:25 after three consecutive sacks.  

Defensively, despite allowing scoring plays on four consecutive full possessions ending the first half and entering into the second, the Hoyas held Morgan State without a first down for the final 9:55 of the game. But with all that, the Bears could have all but run off the clock had they not concocted one of the all-time head-scratchers with 35 seconds to play, opting for a pass on fourth down which saw the Hoyas gain 15 seconds on the clock and 15 to 20 yards. 

Fifteen seconds in college football is not more than two plays: one to Brock Biestek to the Morgan 49, and one to Kibble to close the game. It's unlikely either of those takes place if the Bears had played the percentages: simply run the play clock down to 20 seconds, take a five yard penalty, position a pooch kick that rolled around inside the 20, and left the Hoyas with 85 yards and no time outs with nine or 10 seconds remaining. 

For what its worth, Dez Thomas threw two incompletions to open the series. Were he to have done that starting at 15, third down was an 85 yard ask with four seconds left, and that wasn't going to happen.

In a post game interview with HBCU Sports.com, MSU coach Damon Wilson did not assign blame on either QB Kobe Muasau or Apollo Wright, his offensive coordinator. 

"We had a situation where we were trying to melt the clock down and [punt] on fourth down,” Wilson said. " We didn’t handle situational football well at all at the end."

Fortunately for Morgan State, the fan base won't run Wilson out of town. Losing to Georgetown isn't a big deal in the HBCU world, and the less said within the MEAC, the better. They've already reset expectations to a big Homecoming win this Saturday against the vagabond team known as Virginia University of Lynchburg, a private, non-NCAA HBCU of 128 full time students that plays teams like Morgan State for guarantee money.  

A full page announcement on the MSU web site announces general admission tickets begin at $40 for the game, with reserved tickets for $50 against a Lynchburg team who is 0-46 all time versus Division I teams, with a 67-10 loss to Valparaiso as its only Division I opponent to date this season.  

And while we're not quite sure how many saw this game in person, we do know how many saw the last play. A lot.

Jeremy Huber's call of the play reached 72,000 views on Twitter and a reported 4.4 million viewers between the NBC halftime report and ESPN's coverage during SportsCenter, per industry metrics. Granted, most of those were during halftime of the Ohio State-Minnesota game and there were some viewers who use halftime as a bathroom or snack break, but it's evident that more people heard the name "Georgetown football" this weekend than in any time in the last 60 years or more. Better still, none of the announcers remarked that they didn't know Georgetown played football.

A ten second ad for Georgetown on Saturday's NBC prime time football would have cost the University about $30,000. Instead, that 10 seconds of coverage could do a lot more for the program.

Will it?

Yes, it earned coverage in FCS circles, include a nice NIL placement for Thomas and Kibble as the Cheez-It Players of the Week. It also received, as Thomas attested, a lot of texts from family and friends. All that aside, the play was a great promotional opportunity for Georgetown University and Hoya football, though its long term effects will fade. What was done to take advantage of this publicity?

Georgetown Athletics has an increasingly difficult time promoting anything these days, a confluence of indecision for non-basketball promotions, institutional gridlock over the vacant seat at 2nd Healy, the belief in some development circles that promotion is a waste of money, or simply that people in McDonough are just too busy to give it too much time and effort.  It's less than a month to the opening game for men's and women's basketball, and single game tickets haven't even gone up for sale. If your focus is trying to get more than 4,000 people to show up at Capital One Arena to see Morgan State basketball in three weeks time, what happened to Morgan State last week pales in comparison.

Sports promotion is not a zero-sum game. Promotion of Georgetown basketball has been an uphill slog for over a decade because it has not been a fun experience for the players, the coaches, or the fans in a long, long time. There's no Midnight Madness anymore (presumably, it costs too much) and Ed Cooley has gone radio-silent about his plan for thousands of students along the baselines downtown. Consistent promotion of Georgetown football is moribund, as is every other sport.

But when there is something worth celebrating that's not about basketball, whether it's a touchdown catch on Homecoming or a record breaking miler or even momentum on that elusive boathouse, let's not keep it locked away on GUHoyas.com. It's appropriate to celebrate these accomplishments and use them to reengage and build new relationships with recruits, players, parents, alumni and donors going forward. If someone wanted to be Georgetown's version of Stanford's Brad Freeman, let's not have someone tell him he needs to give to the Humanities Quad instead. 

Georgetown won't have many moments like this for the remaining six weeks of the football season. Let's enjoy it, and better yet, remember it.

Around The PL:

Lehigh 31, Yale 13: The #8-ranked Engineers continue to dominate in the first half of the season, pulling away in the third quarter for a 31-13 win before 4,364 at Goodman Stadium. Luke Yoder (108 yards) outrushed the entire Yale backfield while Lehigh's defense forced two second half turnovers that kept the game out of reach for its first 6-0 start in 13 seasons.

Bucknell 33, Richmond 28: Ralph Rucker threw for 284 yards as the Bison won its first game ever versus the Spiders, 33-288.  Despite gaining 494 yards on the afternoon, three Richmond turnovers, including consecutive interceptions within the final five minutes of the fourth quarter, preserved the Bucknell win.

Colgate 41, Cornell 21: The Red Raiders' annual climb up the standings is underway, gaining its second straight win before 12,142 at Schoellkopf Field. Colgate forced four Cornell interceptions, including two in the first four minutes of play, and held the Big Red in check despite allowing 458 total yards.

Harvard 59, Holy Cross 24: Dreams of the Crusaders clinching an eighth consecutive PL title November 22 at Fenway Park continue to dim, falling to 0-6 for the first time since 1994 in its loss before 15,549 at Fitton Field. The Crimson led 38-3 at the half and put up 528 yards against the Crusaders, who gave up points on eight consecutive Harvard drives. 

Lafayette 24, Fordham 10: The Leopards built a first half lead and maintained it in the win at Fisher Stadium. The quarterbacks enjoyed a busy day in the air, with Fordham's Gunnar Smith throwing for 354 yards and Lafayette QB Dean DeNobile for 314.  The Rams were just 3 of 16 on third down thanks to a confident Lafayette defense.

This week's games are below--three teams are on an open week (Fordham, Georgetown, and Holy Cross):

Lehigh at Columbia, 12 noon

Bucknell at Lafayette, 12:30

Richmond at Colgate, 1:00

Week Five Thoughts

 

Some thoughts following Columbia's 19-10 win over Georgetown Saturday:

1. Driving On Ice: It's just the first week of October and already there are some signs this season is starting to get away from the coaches and players. Some of it is beyond their control, but so is any accident. A setback at Homecoming sets this team on the skids heading into Patriot League play

The last two weeks have been both disappointing and concerning for an offense to whom Brown and Columbia will be the least of its comparison set entering the conference race. Danny Lauter is not Ralph Rucker or even Dean DeNobile, but Lauter was able to put Georgetown into contention when the ground game was sluggish. Yes, Lauter made his mistakes, but he elevated the game.

After avoiding it in the Brown pre-game, Georgetown finally admitted Lauter was out of action in the Columbia media notes, and the reported diagnosis of a shoulder injury puts a lot of question marks on the season going forward.

Georgetown being Georgetown, they won't speak as to the severity of Lauter's injury, whether a simple sprain or something as serious as a rotator cuff. In Thursday's media call with Jeremy Huber, head coach Rob Sgarlata, not one to look too far down a depth chart when it comes to quarterbacks, alluded to all five quarterbacks on the roster as needing to play at a high level to execute the offense. This is a team which rarely discusses below the second string, but the strings may be played out if things continue to wither with offensive execution.

Dez Thomas' last two games have been rough: 16 for 48, 161 yards passing,  five INT's. His running talent surprised Davidson and Wagner, absent game film to the contrary, but teams have now adjusted and they have put pressure on him to settle for the run or make bad decisions in the pocket. It doesn't help that options like Savion Hart, Bryce Cox, and Nick Dunneman are banged up, but in the end, it's up to the quarterback to make good decisions. 

Thomas needs a good game Saturday or the coaching staff may be forced to do something that GU has avoided since the awkward quarterback rotations of the 2008 and 2009 seasons; namely, use the bye week to open the door to elevate one of three untested players (Jacob Holtschlag, Jack Johnson, and Aiden Krause) to take over the reigns, especially if Lauter's downtime remains an issue. With both Lauter and Thomas as seniors, it could be a season-defining decision.

Depth is an issue all over the offense and it won't end well if people don't get healthy. Jayden Sumpter was another player with limited game film for Columbia to study but expect Morgan State and especially Columbia to adjust. If Georgetown gets further down the two-deep at running back, there's nothing in the passing game that can compensate for it.  

2. A Name From The Past: Earlier this year, we discussed the return of former Georgetown coach Kevin Kelly to the college coaching ranks, taking over a new program debuting this season at New England College in Henniker, NH. A recent article in the Concord Monitor introduced its readers to the 65 year old coach, who was head coach at Georgetown from 2005 through 2013.

Since leaving Georgetown for a job with Pete Lembo at Ball State in 2014 that lasted only two seasons, Kelly returned to the wandering life of an assistant coach: a brief stay at Wyoming Seminary (PA), then Bryant, then a assistant coach's role with the New York Guardians XFL franchise before COVID folded the league for two seasons. An assistant's job at Division III Salve Regina (RI) in 2022 appeared to be his last stop until he read about the new program an hour north and applied for the head coach at NEC. It's the 20th stop on a career which began in 1981.

After four weeks, the results are what Kelly probably expected: the Pilgrims are 0-4, and one statistical service ranked NEC 767th out of 768 NCAA schools across all three divisions. A 55-0 loss to MIT was a low point, and last week's 34-21 loss to Nichols College (coached by former Kelly assistant Vinny Marino) proved an example of the hill any first time program must climb, even in Division III.

"I talk to them ahead of time, tell them that we’re going to have adversity, and then look at the positives, not always the negatives,” he said.

"We’re playing older teams, so it will be a challenge every week. The positive is that they’re going to be juniors and seniors in three or four years, and that will be the barometer of the program at that time.”

Some of Kelly's nomenclature follows that of Georgetown. What Rob Sgarlata calls the "Four for 40" mantra, Kelly calls the "Four for 44". He's built a leadership council among the players to build team unity. He lists four outcomes for his program: academic success, professional development, football experience and an investment in education. And, like his old Hilltop home, he is recruiting on the promise of a better facility.

"Kelly wants his fans, players and his staff invested in the program’s roots that will only continue to grow," writes the Monitor. " The team, which currently plays on a converted rugby field, will have a new multi-sports turf field with a stadium by next season. A new addition to the athletic center will include football locker rooms, new office spaces, classroom facilities and a modernized weight room."

Kevin Kelly famously did not get his Multi-Sport Facility at Georgetown, and here's hoping that New England College can give him the tools there to succeed.

3. Around The PL: 

Lehigh 44, Penn 30: Since its opening week win over Richmond, Lehigh is cooking, and its win over Penn before 8,430 at Goodman Stadium puts the Engineers at the top of the PL race heading into October. Despite a wild 31 point fourth quarter between the teams, Lehigh's 539 yards of total offense allowed it to address very Penn drive and maintain its distance on the scoreboard.  Luke Yoder led all rushers with 173 yards, as the Engineers held the Quakers to just 29 yards on the ground for the afternoon. 

Bucknell 30, St. Francis 23: The farewell tour of Division I football at St. Francis moves on from the PL, as the Bison needed a late touchdown and an interception at the goal line at the conclusion of the game to win before an astonishing low 887 at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium. Ralph Rucker passed for only 168 yards as the Bison won the game on the ground, led by a 10 carry, 95 yard effort from RB Tariq Thomas. The Bucknell defense gave up 377 yards in the air and that will be a point of emphasis as league play dawns. 

Richmond 13, Howard 12: Despite the Bison holding over 42 minutes in time of possession, a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns carried the Spiders to the win before 6,293 at Robins Stadium. A pair of interceptions late in the third and early in the fourth quarter opened the door to Richmond to fight back for the win.

Fordham 26, Holy Cross 21: The Crusaders dropped to 0-5 for the first time since the 2004 season despite a 21-20 halftime lead. A pair of Fordham field goals were the only points scored after halftime as the Rams won its first game versus HC since 2016 before 2,039 at Moglia Stadium in New York. Fordham was just 1 for 10 on third down conversions in the game.

Princeton 38, Lafayette 28: The Leopards fell behind early and never caught back up in the loss at Fisher Stadium, its 46th loss in 54 meetings versus the Tigers dating to 1883. Princeton scored touchdowns on each of its first three possessions and never trailed.

This week's games:

Richmond at Bucknell, 12 noon

Yale at Lehigh, 12:00

Fordham at Lafayette, 12:30 pm

Morgan St. at Georgetown, 1:00

Colgate at Cornell, 2:00

Harvard at Holy Cross, 2:00