The Case For The Patriot Football Conference

 

On July 21, 2021, a story was leaked to the Houston Chronicle that two schools in the Big 12 conference were secretly negotiating with the Southeastern Conference about future membership. Within six months, one out of every eight members of the Division I membership announced plans to realign in new conferences over the next four years. One in eight.

Restructure was not reserved to the big schools, however. Changes to the WAC, ASUN, Southland, Ohio Valley, Colonial, Big South, Big Sky, and MEAC will all reshuffle the deck of the Division I-AA/FCS assortment of schools.. These conferences did not see changes due to schools chasing after TV contracts or playoff berths. In many cases, it was a realization that the governing models which had held their leagues together were no longer sufficient to manage a changing landscape for their schools, particularly in football. To those schools, it was not a case of jumping for the brass ring, but a more fundamental need: innovate, or atrophy.

Such was (not) the case with the Patriot League, to whom atrophy is a clear and present danger to its football programs, Georgetown included. 

It's been two decades since the Patriot League was a significant national player in FCS football. When Georgetown arrived to the PL in 2001, flush with the promise of continued success gained from its MAC Football days, it was not uncommon for the PL to field Top 10 teams nationally--that season, Lehigh was ranked #5  nationally. Two years later, with two Top 25 teams among its roster, Colgate advanced to the championship game,  having defeated UMass, Western Illinois, and Florida Atlantic before falling to Delaware. The PL's mix of regional identity and not-quite-Ivy League recruiting was a potent mix to secure regular playoff appearances and recruit some of the top talent in the Northeast who were not headed to major college programs. 

But in 2022, many of these same guardrails have combined to run the PL off the road of competitive FCS football. In 2021, the Patriot was a combined 9-27 (.250) out of conference, compared to 20-17 (.540) a decade earlier.  The move to scholarship football in 2012 (except at Georgetown, of course) failed to address the continued decline in recruiting and results, not only against a revived Ivy League, but against the regional conferences the PL was once comparable with or superior to. Among the 14 FCS conferences, the PL is no better than ninth or tenth of the 14 today, with a continued decline in its sights. 

The league is ossified by recruiting restrictions rules which date back to the 1980's, ostensibly to curry favor with the Ivy League, a league that cares less and less about what the PL is up to in 2022. And because football rules falls under the league as a whole, many of the advantages other conferences offer in areas such as redshirting, graduate transfers, and equivalency grants run afoul of the league as a whole, which is determined to play its other sports as a decidedly lower state of competitive performance.

Further contributing to its squeeze is the lack of growth. Despite six of its schools being in the top 20 in FCS football spending, the PL has not added a new school to football since Georgetown in 2001. Its reputation in some circles as "the place where programs go to die" scare some well known suitors away; to others, the excessive rules and restrictions are simply not worth the effort.  Therein lies a risk of its own--the PL is only one school above the NCAA minimum for a conference. If two schools leave, the PL is defunct; furthermore, if as few as one of the full members (Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh) leave, the PL is defunct as well, putting Georgetown's tepid commitment to football at danger in more competitive waters. 

There is an argument to be made for Georgetown to consider other conference opportunities, but this is not the column for that. Instead, the football fortunes of the PL need a new approach, one mirrored by the most successful conference in FCS: the Missouri Valley.

Today's ten team MVC contains just seven schools which play football, and not all at the same competitive level. Valparaiso, for example, is not competitive with Northern Iowa, any more than Bucknell is competitive with Army. Just five compete at a scholarship level, which would not be enough, on its own, to be an authorized conference. 

The Missouri Valley maintains and administers a separate football conference under its auspices: the Missouri Valley Football Conference, which not only serves as a home to the five all-sport members, but has also attracted some of the region's strongest programs, among them North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, and Youngstown State, combining for 13 national championships among them. 

This arrangement gives the all-sport MVC schools a common conference experience without the need to add more schools for other sports. (Three new schools will enter the conference in 2022, but only one plays football.)

This is the future, if it chooses to look beyond its myopia, for the Patriot League. A Patriot Football Conference (PFC) would be administered from the PL office but be permitted to govern itself in football outside the league's all-sports umbrella: namely, allowing equivalency scholarships, recruiting outside an Academic Index, redshirting, allowing graduate transfers, and ending restrictive roster limits--in short, doing what every other conference in Eastern football outside the Ivy already does.

Let's cut to the chase: there are probably ten schools, namely, Villanova, Richmond, and William & Mary, but also the likes of Delaware, Monmouth, Towson, Rhode Island, Albany, Maine and New Hampshire, to whom a compact, self-governing, football-only conference in the Northeast could be a reasonable option were it not for the strings attached with Patriot League membership. 

Many of these teams are situated in the CAA for football, but that conference was reshaped by realignment, with future additions from North Carolina A&T, Hampton, Monmouth, and Stony Brook. A league that stretches from Greensboro to Orono, with enrollments ranging from 3,500 to 26,000, may not be the best future to some of these schools in football, especially as they play other sports in more compact conferences.  Does a Villanova see synergies playing Holy Cross and Lehigh, or  traveling to Elon and NC A&T? How long does Hampton want to travel to games in New Hampshire?

But for now the Patriot isn't a realistic alternative. There's a reason why Villanova or Richmond or William & Mary aren't in the PL: they have rejected the competitive limitations the PL thrusts upon its membership. A school which aspires to the FCS national championship will not find those opportunities in today's PL, which is now a one-bid conference. A new governing body for football doesn't mean the PL is abandoning academics, but it does signal that with proper governance and vision, the PL can meet the best of both worlds while providing for the kind of competitive experiences its own institutions expect out of a college football program. 

This approach raises the case for a "PFC" to a more competitive state with schools outside the Ivy League, and sends a message that it open for business to welcome other Eastern schools who see benefits in the conference, but not the PL's all-sports governance.  It also goes without saying that as more competitive programs enter the conversation, the opportunities for the conference rise to follow, and certainly the potential for renewed interest.

A PFC doesn't make things any easier competitively for Georgetown--far from it. But a new look at how FCS football is governed could help Georgetown shake off two decades of slumber in I-AA and give it the tools it needs to compete: first and foremost, the ability to recruit outside a prescriptive SAT range that makes it prohibitive to recruit talented players. If a recruit is good enough to be admitted at Navy or Villanova, he ought to be good enough to be admitted at Georgetown--but it's not allowed in the current setup.  For the other six schools, they get a fair chance to put their Top 20 spending to seek Top 20 status on the field, not merely limp to a 5-6 record to seek an autobid. 

Properly envisioned, the Patriot Football Conference could be as impactful to Eastern football as the MVFC is in the Midwest. Without it, the PL is just one realignment removed from its own demise. 

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)

Week 8 Thoughts

Photo courtesy Lafayette College

 Some thoughts following Lafayette's 24-23 win over Georgetown Saturday:

 1. Opportunities Lost: If you're new to Georgetown football, the next two analogies may be irrelevant, so apologies in advance.

The first quarter of Saturday's game harkened back to 1997, a game against Duquesne that may have been one of the greatest Georgetown home games of its era. In that game, the Hoyas opened the first quarter with a blocked punt for a touchdown, forced eight turnovers, and won the school's only recognized conference title in a 24-0 shutout of three time MAAC champion Duquesne.   It was one of two seminal games (the other being a convincing 1999 win at Holy Cross) that really got Georgetown thinking it could aspire to be something more than the MAAC, already taking on water by that time.

Fast forward to Saturday, where Georgetown pulled out all the stops--score a touchdown, run an on-sides kick. Force your opponent to a turnover on downs deep in its own territory. Outgain your opponent, at one point, by as much as 138 to 9. Fourteen minutes in Georgetown was up 17-0, the largest margin in a Patriot League game since it clobbered Lafayette 38-7 in the 2015 Cooper Field "re-naming" game.  Ten minutes later, it's 17-14. From then, it was a toss-up, because Lafayette had the kind of talent Georgetown wants to have, but which the PL admissions rules don't agree with.

The fourth quarter of Saturday's game harkened back to 2009, the dimming light of a winless season where Georgetown could simply not get anything right, none more so than in a 14-11 loss to Howard where Georgetown had a first and goal at the two yard line and settled for back to back quarterback sneaks on third and fourth down, netting a grand total of zero yards.

While not as dramatic, the finish to Saturday's game was redolent of a "just don't lose" strategy instead of making a winning decision. The Hoyas had just converted a fourth and six with a 13 yard pass to midfield. Two time outs and 3:15 to play...and yet Georgetown ran a total of six plays in the final 3:08, all to one player (Herman Moultrie). No wonder Lafayette shut it down.

To be fair, if Conor Hunt makes that field goal we'd call it a mastery of clock management. But a career long field goal on the final play of the game is no sure thing, and longer field goal attempts are, by nature, more of a lower elevation kick. Rob Spence's play calling was more favorable to a team that would run out the clock and either take a win or go into overtime.  The problem was that Georgetown wasn't going to overtime.

One more point about Lafayette. John Garrett isn't getting a statue at Fisher Stadium anytime soon and is probably a middle of the pack PL team. But he is embracing a youth movement in 2021 which will pay dividends down the road. The Leopards start a freshman quarterback, return their number 2 and 3 rushers, both its starting wide receivers, and its starting tight end. By contrast, Georgetown loses to graduation two of its top three rushers and its entire starting receiving corps. Which team will be better prepared heading into 2022?

2. When Fordham Was a Rivalry. Since 1984, Georgetown has played Fordham 25 times, winning just three. But Saturday harkens back to a day when there really was a rivalry between the schools.

On Nov. 6, 1971, Georgetown defeated Fordham 30-9 at on a beer-soaked Homecoming at Kehoe Field. "As good as the rest of the team may have looked, it was the defensive line's day as Georgetown's gridders blitzed Fordham's Rams in the Hoyas' first varsity homecoming game in 21 years last Saturday," wrote The HOYA.

 "The Fearsome Fivesome and Friends," Scotty Glacken's various defensive line combinations, did a job on the Rams that will be remembered as a major disaster to the Rose Hill mob for years to come. The Rams netted 30 ground yds. all day, but worse yet, their quarterback tandem of Desmond Lawe and Jim Hurley ended up eating the ball ten times as the overpowered Fordham offensive line couldn't stop the Hoya rush. 

Linemen Bill Brugger (voted the Homecoming Outstanding Defensive Player) and Dave McPhaden also got a rare chance to demonstrate their running ability as they ran back kicks for touchdowns. Even the fact that McPhaden's effort was called back did little to dampen the luster of the day for the Hoya line."

 The game was also known for some hijinks which would neither be anticipated by today's students nor appreciated by the University. 

Early in the fourth quarter, someone unplugged the Kehoe Field scoreboard for laughs. Later in the game, students tried to rush the field before the end of the game. 

Wrote The HOYA: "Some overeager rooters seized this occasion to dismantle the south goalpost, but possibly sparked by the threat of a forfeiture, Georgetown authorities and sundry other restored order; Scotty Glacken and his coaching, staff, stalwart Raymond "Pebbles" Medley and a covey of defensive backs including Leo McGill, Tim Graham and Jim Chesley quickly righted the posts and chased away the imbibers, preserving the day for the Hoyas."

 Expect neither this weekend.

3. D.C. Blues:  If you build it, they still aren't coming. Saturday's game drew an announced crowd of 2,437, with a healthy contingent from Lafayette and the inevitable erosion of student support. Students will stand three deep along the baseline of a soccer  game but they will walk nonchalantly past Cooper Field.

Whatever you think about how soccer is marketed versus the general local deemphasis of football as a distinctly Washington pastime, the calculus on Georgetown students is fairly linear: if you're winning, they support you. If you are not, they don't. It follows a local trend.

Football is 0-3 at home and is 5-13 over the last four full seasons. Gone are the days when students would commandeer a car on the weekend and drive up to see a road game....any road game Their entire experience of Georgetown football is five home games a year, with minimal promotion and scattered results. If GU doesn't do a better job to makes these games an event, the fans vote with their feet.

Football in DC has seen better days. Georgetown is 2-5 entering this weekend, Howard 2-6, Navy 2-6 and the Redskins are 2-6. Only Maryland (5-3) is above. 500, but must play Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan in the next three weeks.

Week 7 Thoughts

Some delayed thoughts (thanks to a computer crash) following Georgetown's 29-21 win over Bucknell Saturday.

1. Three Numbers, Revisited: Last week, we looked at three statistics which hovered over the Hoyas in midst of a four game losing streak. But against Bucknell, these numbers proved not only favorable, but pivotal for the Hoyas to earn the win.

The first figure was 33.8 is the average number of points allowed to date this season. It was unlikely Georgetown could surrender 33 points and win this game, but they held the Bison to just 21, second lowest this season and the fewest points in a PL game since these teams met in 2019.  It was also just the seventh game since 2012 that Georgetown won after an opponents scored 15 or more points.  For Georgetown to  have won, took a stronger offensive effort and a defensive stop or two, each of which was in evidence on Saturday.

The second number was 1.17, or Georgetown's yards per attempt on the ground to date in 2021, last in Division I. Instead, GU rushed for 225 yards, averaging 5.9 yards per carry.  Even of one removes Herman Moultrie's late game 34 yard run from the total, that's still a healthy number, because it opened up the offense and led GU to a 251 to 162 advantage in the air as well. Bucknell's defense isn't that good and Georgetown's next two opponents are considerably better, but a revitalized run game is good news for the Hoyas' ability to contend.

The third number was 1, as in one interception for the season to date and zero in the previous four games. The Hoyas picked off two interceptions versus the Bison, each coming at a critical time. One ended a Bucknell drive that reached the Georgetown 12 in the third quarter, while the second pick ended the Bison comeback hopes late in the game. For a defense that has had its struggles this season, Saturday was a step in the right direction.

And if you didn't catch this on the game recaps, some deserved recognition for punter Conor Hunt and the special teams: " Bucknell did not a start a single drive past its own 36, and its last four drives had an average starting position of its 18 yard line. Even with its three touchdown passes, BU did not have a single possession in the Georgetown red zone. Georgetown's last four drives had an average starting position of its 41 yard line, two of which netted the determinative scores of the game."

Well done all around.

2. Polar Power: Last week's marquee game in the PL was not at Bucknell nor at Fordham, but a minor-league baseball park in Worcester, where Holy Cross routed the Red Raiders of Colgate, 42-10 before a sellout of 9,508. The site was no accident.

(Photo credit; Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

While Holy Cross could certainly have hosted Colgate and brought in something close to 9,000, the game was a partnership with the City of Worcester and its new baseball stadium, Polar Park, home of the Red Sox' AAA franchise. For a city which once loyally supported the Crusaders in its major college days, the Worcester fan support has ebbed as Holy Cross migrated to the Patriot League. Fitton Field, seating 23,500, hasn't had a sellout since HC left for Division I-AA, when it hosted Boston College in 1986, below. 

The Eagles haven't come back, and at least until the numbers from last week, neither had the community.

The sight lines of a baseball stadium hosting football games are usually poor, whether you're in a minor league park or a Wrigley Field,  where the end zone is a tight fit against a outfield wall. But fans seemed to enjoy it and it's likely this will become an annual event in October, for a game named in honor the late Edward Bennett Williams, a 1941 Holy Cross grad and a 1944 Georgetown law grad. Perhaps  GU will figure into the rotation in future years. 

The game and the turnout also has opportunities for Georgetown as well. The University's effort in scheduling a larger venue for Harvard in 2017 was well meaning but the decrepit nature of RFK Stadium did not draw attendees. As I wrote on this site in 2017, "While traveling on the Metro to the game, a couple interrupted me and asked if I was going to the game. They were tourists from Toronto who had never seen a football game in person and were intrigued. The Blue Line car emptied out after Eastern Market and the couple asked why. Someone added that there are a lot of restaurants there. The couple politely got off at Potomac Avenue for a trip back to Eastern Market, and told me they might stop by the game after lunch. Whether they did, I cannot say, but there were people out there that Georgetown couldn't close the deal on."

The opportunity for Georgetown to take Holy Cross' lead and secure a future game at 20,000 seat Audi Field has been in speculation for years, but without an opponent that could really draw Washingtonians to go to a game.  No offense, but a Patriot League or Ivy League team isn't getting 10,000 or 15,000 people to a Georgetown game. But the amenities are there, at least in 2017, described as "31 luxury suites, 500,000 square feet of mixed use residential and commercial space, and parking for 447 bicycles for the sustainability-sensible crowd." 

"An aging RFK might have been too much for the upscale Washingtonians out there, but [Audi Field] will fit right in."

Neutral site games are not new to the PL (Fordham drew 21,000 at Yankee Stadium versus Holy Cross, for example) but they are new to Georgetown, especially in a city that hasn't supported them since the Griffith Stadium days, and maybe not even then.  Holy Cross' experiment for 2021 proved a success, and offers a healthy conversation at Georgetown for ways to grow the program.

3. Watch the CAA: When last we discussed this, there has been a lot of movement in the western half of Division I-A/FBS: Conference USA teams heading to the American Athletic Conference, others heading to the Sun Belt.  One that seems to be heading in that direction is James Madison, with potential changes to Eastern football.

"Our whole lives changed,” said Mickey Matthews, the former JMU coach who was at Coastal Carolina when that program upgraded to FBS. “And James Madison’s life will change immediately.

Matthews spoke to the Harisonburg News-Record about the secret in full view: James Madison is preparing to leave the Colonial Athletic Association and chase the dreams of big-time football.

"Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern and Georgia State already reside in the conference while Old Dominion and Marshall are expected leave Conference USA to join the Sun Belt at the same time as the Dukes," says the paper.

"So, there’s going to be some transition, there’s no doubt, because believe me, you’re not going to be playing Richmond anymore," Matthews said. "You’re going to be playing some good teams. I watched Coastal Carolina and Appalachian play the other night, and I thought, ‘Man, those programs have better players than James Madison right now.’ But as time goes along, you’re going to get your share of football players."

The most formidable conference in I-AA, the CAA hasn't had to add a team in quite a while. But do they, and if so, whom?

Monmouth is a willing suitor but they really don't fit the CAA blueprint--successful private schools to the south and a collection of state schools up north. Any changes at the seven team Patriot League or six team MEAC put those conferences in serious jeopardy of folding. But if you're Richmond, if you're Villanova, or William & Mary, you're now in the game of musical chairs. Go searching for a replacement team, or start looking yourself? Hunt, or be hunted?

As Big East basketball fans learned a decade ago, there's always collateral damage when teams move, even if it's not your team. The Patriot League may be among the slowest conferences to react, but they need to be paying attention. And so do their fans.