After consecutive 2-9 seasons and the loss of 14 starters from last season, pre-season hopes for the 2023 Georgetown Hoyas were dim.
At the start of the season, Georgetown was picked last in the PL pre-season poll, a common starting spot for many prior Georgetown teams. What was uncommon was a team which developed and grew every week: a first win at home versus Fordham in 12 years, a near upset at Penn, a first ever road win at Lehigh, tough but competitive losses to Lafayette and Colgate, an overtime thriller at Bucknell. For a program with fewer resources than nearly every opponent they faced, the Hoyas were no longer the easy win some might have thought.
A 5-6 record is not, on its own, a success. But the drive to 2024 begins with a word not often heard around these parts, but welcome nonetheless: hope.
No, not that Hope--that's actress Hannah Kuykendall, part of the repertory company that makes SEC Shorts must-see viewing every week of the college football season. When this Hope appears to a fan base, it's a sign of dread, because she brings a sense of unrequited expectations that a team or fan base can ever ascend the mountaintop that is the SEC. (SEC Shorts canon: Alabama never needs Hope, by the way, and Vanderbilt doesn't even bother to ask.)
What Georgetown has, or more likely could have, is something it has lacked for years, probably going back to the beginning Rob Sgarlata's tenure, when alumni and fans saw the synergies Sgarlata could provide that Kevin Kelly did not. In reality, Sgarlata deals with the same issues Kelly did, but 2024 offers different outcomes.
If it's not outright hope, it's the next best thing: possibilities.
1. Recruiting. A 5-6 season isn't the FCS playoffs but it's a movement in the right direction. Georgetown loses more than it wins against scholarship programs but it can make a statement in the early signing period that it can aim beyond the NEPSAC kids and the "all-county" entrants that have defined recent recruiting cycles.
2. Transfer Portal: As far as we know, the transfer portal is not against the ethos and culture and thus an opportunity for the Hoyas to make some rapid improvement in selected positions--this made a big difference with WR Nicholas Dunneman coming in from Division III Union, and to a lesser extent with OL Hampton Tanner from Wake Forest and Kolubah Pewee from Maine. Georgetown has targeted needs at running back, linebacker, and kicker that a graduate transfer would be of immediate benefit. The transfer portal swings open wide in the next two weeks and Georgetown has a better argument after this season than it has in the last three.
3. Coaching: New assistants for 2023 made a noticeable difference in quarterback and O-line play, thanks to up and coming coaches like Jack McDaniels and Joey Partin. The coaching game can be a transitory one but Georgetown needs to be competitive in retaining coaches while they can, while elevating those up the ladder who could take over when a Rob Spence or Kevin Doherty retire. The Hoyas have hired 10 assistants since 2018 who stayed only one season, and that's not a long term model for success. Of the ten, just four remain in coaching today.
4. NIL. Don't think this is something for men's basketball and nothing else. It's coming to the Patriot League whether the league wants it or not (look to Fordham and then Colgate) and Georgetown should at least have a strategy to address it, rather than merely ignore it.
5. Fundraising. Let's look beyond merely summer camp and nutrition - there are some opportunities out here to enlist the small donor, the mid-market donor, and the benefactors out there to take steps forward.
Look no further than Georgetown baseball, a program that has no home field of its own, had no winning seasons for 35 consecutive years and once lost 47 games in a single season. Baseball has momentum and they have support. From a March 2023 announcement:
"The Georgetown Baseball Campaign received a program-defining challenge gift of $4.8 million to support and enhance scholarship and coaching endowments. This gift will make significant progress towards the overall campaign goal to support three areas of need including coaching, scholarship and facilities.
The impact of enhanced scholarship endowments allows Georgetown to recruit the best and brightest student-athletes to continue their formation and development during their time on the Hilltop. The addition of these scholarships is a transformative shift allowing Hoya baseball to compete with the top programs in the nation...
Coaching endowments are a commitment to coaches now and in the future to provide the vital resources needed to recruit and retain the best staff in an increasingly competitive environment. Supporting and investing in the stability of coaches directly impacts the consistent development of a student-athlete."
What would $4.8 million do for football coaching, recruiting, and player development? As Lee Reed might say, why not us?
Now is the time for the football community to not just pack it in until August, but seize the opportunity to have some conversations and take new steps forward in 2024. We can argue and quibble about the little things but there is progress in FCS football if only we seek it out. "Be not afraid of moving forward," says the adage. " Be afraid of standing still."
And be hopeful.
