Some thoughts following Columbia's 30-0 win over Georgetown Saturday:
1. Georgetown: Still Learning. The Georgetown talent gap with its schedule continues to grow, and don't confuse Columbia with one of the stronger foes this season. The Lions are a three or four win team and will struggle defensively in the Ivy League, No such struggles Saturday, where the Georgetown offense failed to score three times inside the ten. Would it have won the game? Maybe not, but it would have made it interesting.
Did the poor weather play a factor? Perhaps, but this was more a function of the execution over the elements.
Columbia did its homework on the game film and shut down the Georgetown run game in the first quarter: just five running plays, -18 yards. The Hoyas had only one rushing play of more than six yards thereafter. Even with a one-back set, the position is still vitally important because Georgetown is not strong enough in the passing game to simply pass its way down the field. With rushing accounting for 57 percent of yards gained to date this season, team that shut down the Hoyas on first and second downs leave it a narrow margin to convert on third down, where Georgetown converts on just 34 percent this season with the easier part of the schedule behind it.
Last week versus Stonehill, Fordham allowed 156 yards on the ground and it mattered not a bit--the Rams totaled 497 total yards in a 44-0 rout. Watch carefully how Fordham approaches the run in Saturday's Homecoming game: in the full scholarship era of PL football (since 2015), Fordham has allowed more than 100 yards on the ground just twice against Georgetown, and is 6-1 during that run. That's no accident.
2. The Rivalry That Isn't. Georgetown and Fordham have played 66 times since 1890, twice as much as any other opponent over those years. But is it a rivalry game? No.
A rivalry is defined by one of three intangibles:
1) The schools compete in a specific regional area where interest is highlighted and prospective students can attend either school (think Alabama-Auburn) ;
2) Absent the first, a rivalry indicates a shared tradition where the game is the most important contest on thee schedule (think Army-Navy);
3) Absent the first two, a rivalry is defined by numerous memorable performances that are part of the tradition between the schools, no matter the distance or shared values (think Notre Dame-USC).
But this isn't a regional rivalry. While there may have been a time in the post-War era when the all-male classes at Georgetown were chock-full of men from Regis, Xavier, St. Francis, and Cardinal Hayes, that's long gone. Students from Washington and New York give passing attention to each other, and neither opponent is top-of-mind in their respective areas.
This isn't a traditional opponent. While the schools a common past as former Eastern powers that died in the 1950s and returned via club football and Division III, neither school gives it the gravitas of current times, particularly with each school playing basketball in different conferences and meeting rarely, if at all, in other sports. Since 1979, the schools have met once in men's basketball and not in the past 16 years.
This isn't, to be frank, a competitive series. Notre Dame-USC is a lively series because both teams have been very good for decades and every game seems important. A rivalry without competition is a schedule filler. Texas has played Rice 47 times since 1966 and has won 46 of them.
Fordham is 28-4 in the last 32 games against Georgetown. In games where it has scored more than 14 points, Fordham is 28-1. Why is it so uneven?
Some of its it budget: Fordham outspends Georgetown by over $5 million a year in football expenses, and that's not inconsequential. Fordham spends 20 percent of its athletic budget on one sport: football: it's the #1 sport on Rose Hill, case closed. Georgetown spends 5.9 percent of its budget on football, less than any Patriot League school.
Some of it is recruiting: Fordham admits a wider range of recruits than Georgetown is allowed to do so and gets kids admitted that Georgetown can't, thanks to the arcane PL Academic Index. Fordham's top recruit from the transfer portal is a FBS quarterback from New Mexico. Georgetown's top recruit from the transfer portal is a Division III receiver from Union.
Yes, a lot of it is scholarships: a free ride to Fordham University is a powerful recruiting tool. But Fordham was leading this series before scholarships were an issue, too.
For many years, Fordham just wanted this game a little more, and they have the wins to prove it. How does this change?
It starts with a first step, and that step could be Saturday. The teams have met on 10 prior Homecoming games at Georgetown, and are 5-5 between them. The only two meetings in the Division I-AA era were settled by three points each.
You've got to have hope, right?
3. Around The PL: The first and second tiers of the PL are playing to form.
Holy Cross 47, Colgate 7: A total of 507 yards was another day at the office for the Crusaders, sending the Red Raiders to its fourth loss of 2023 and seventh straight dating to last season before 12,578 at Fitton Field. Holy Cross has given up just two turnovers all season, and look to continue the run versus Harvard at Worcester's Polar Park. By contrast, Colgate travels to Cornell, where the Big Red came back from 14 down to win at Yale, starting 2-0 for only the second time in the last 13 years.
Fordham 44, Stonehill: A week removed from their road at Georgetown, Stonehill was run over by the aerial attack of the Rams. Quarterback C.J. Montes was 14 for 21 for 220 yards and two touchdowns, while the Fordham defense held Stonehill to 3 for 16 from third down and allowed just one possession inside its red zone.
Dartmouth 34, Lehigh 17: The long rebuild continues at Lehigh, where it allowed 24 unanswered points for Dartmouth to take the win at Hanover, 34-17, before 3,641 at Memorial Stadium. The Engineers managed just 167 yards and were 1 for 10 on third downs, two numbers which must improve in a road game at Monmouth.
Pennsylvania 37, Bucknell 21: The Bison were no match in this one, outgained 515-238 and allowing the Quakers over 41 minutes of possession. The Penn defense held Bucknell to just eight yards and forced four sacks..
Lafayette 28, Monmouth 20: A solid win for the Leopards before just 1,497 at Fisher Stadium. Its sophomore QB Dean DeNobile accounted for just short of half of the Lafayette total yardage, throwing two touchdown passes and running for two more. The Hawks were held to 59 yards on the ground and trailed throughout. The Leopards host Bucknell this weekend.
