Archive For The “Rob Sgarlata” Category
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As a guy who is pretty passionate about his Lehigh football history, it was great to see a national champion on the set of Lehigh Sports Central this week.
QB Mike Rieker, quarterback of the 1977 Division II National Champions, showed up to talk to Steve Degler about his role on that team and share some stories (and some video highlights) about that magical season.
One thing he didn’t do is talk about funny locker room stories about head coach John Whitehead.
“It was strictly business with coach Whitehead,” he said. “There was no footing around in the locker room until you left. He was all business, and it reflected on us, a lot of guys took to heart they didn’t want to make mistakes, because you’d have to face him. He was a tough taskmaster and a great teacher, and he ended up being a really good friend.
We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Georgetown is a football school, of course. But you may have heard that they also play basketball at Georgetown, and this Friday is a huge deal on campus: Hoya Madness.
“The Georgetown University men’s and women’s basketball programs will hold their annual Hoya Madness celebration, the official on-campus kickoff party of the 2016-17 basketball season, on Friday, October 14 at 8 p.m. in McDonough Arena,” the release states. “This is a free event open to all Georgetown students. Doors are scheduled to open at 7:30 p.m., with the show kicking off at 8 p.m. and running until 9:30 p.m. The first 1,000 students in attendance will receive a custom ‘Hoya Madness’ Jordan Brand t-shirt.”
As fun as this sounds, would be even better if the football team were somehow more wrapped up in this event as the basketball team. One place Georgetown might look is Villanova, where the football team doesn’t have as high a profile as the basketball team, but they have been doing more specials for the football team in recent years.
Although you see big, bright smiles on the faces of senior CB Brandon Leaks and senior WR Trevor Soccaras when talking about the performance over the last four football games, their focus has understandably been on Georgetown and guarding against a possible letdown.
Such thought is undeniably warranted, especially if they caught the college football scores from yesterday.
There was only one college football game being contested Thursday night, which was Monmouth vs. Presbyterian.
The Hawks, who already beat Lehigh on opening weekend and also beat Fordham last weekend, had a short week to prepare for their Thursday game. But few people thought they would struggle against 1-4 Big South leaguemate Presbyterian, who had already lost to a Division II school (Florida Tech).
Instead, the classic letdown game happened – a 17-13 loss that almost certainly doomed any chance Monmouth has to not only win the Big South, but also to qualify for any sort of at-large postseason berth.
It’s finally time for the “Know Your 2016 Opponents” series!
In parallel with College Sports Journal, I am doing a full Patriot League preview (among others). Today we cover No. 7: Georgetown, whom Lehigh plays on October 15th.
This preview will encompass what is written there, but also will have extra content that Lehigh fans in particular need to know about the matchup for the upcoming season.
Let’s put it this way, in terms of Lehigh: Though Georgetown is picked to finish 7th, there is plenty to be scared of about this team that finished within a touchdown of Lehigh, Fordham, and Colgate last year, while knocking off Bucknell as well.
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“What are you doing?” a Committee member said.
Another Committee member was crying in front of the TV.
“Take out that tape and get yourself together,” she said, directing the member to eject the final Syracuse/Georgetown Big East semifinal game played in 2014.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “Requiem for the Big East does it to me every time. Dave Gavitt. John Thompson.”
“You know you have a job to do, right?”, the irritated Committee member reminded him. “There’s that, oh, I don’t know, matter of the current state of Georgetown’s Patsy Point recruiting class? A real, live team in a real, live conference? That exists in the present?”
The Committee member blew his nose. “Oh, that’s already done. Check the file next to the fax machine. It’s ready.
He pops the tape into the machine again, and presses play. The tears well up once again.
We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Head coach Rob Sgarlata should be a trendy pick for coach of the year in the Patriot League.
In a year when Georgetown was picked last in the preseason poll, Georgetown instead is playing meaningful football games at Halloween, and have a golden opportunity to finish above .500.
And they have to be looking at the game versus Lehigh as a critical one to achieve that goal.
First, there’s the matter of Fordham. While beating the preseason favorite Rams are high on the list of all Patriot League fans, the odds of them beating the other teams on their schedule, Holy Cross and Lehigh, are much greater.
There’s also that tiny matter that Georgetown hasn’t beaten Lehigh since 1925.
Lehigh also happens to hold the second-longest active winning streak of consecutive wins against the same opponent (14). The longest current streak is Penn over Columbia (18). It’s no wonder that the Georgetown faithful might think that, with Lehigh having a down season last year, that this is the year that the streak is broken.
We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Head coach Rob Sgarlata should be a trendy pick for coach of the year in the Patriot League.
In a year when Georgetown was picked last in the preseason poll, Georgetown instead is playing meaningful football games at Halloween, and have a golden opportunity to finish above .500.
And they have to be looking at the game versus Lehigh as a critical one to achieve that goal.
First, there’s the matter of Fordham. While beating the preseason favorite Rams are high on the list of all Patriot League fans, the odds of them beating the other teams on their schedule, Holy Cross and Lehigh, are much greater.
There’s also that tiny matter that Georgetown hasn’t beaten Lehigh since 1925.
Lehigh also happens to hold the second-longest active winning streak of consecutive wins against the same opponent (14). The longest current streak is Penn over Columbia (18). It’s no wonder that the Georgetown faithful might think that, with Lehigh having a down season last year, that this is the year that the streak is broken.
No teams can beat Georgetown in one area: timezones.
While head coach Rob Sgarlata might prefer you focus on how many games where Georgetown had a chance going into the 4th quarter, or how they have a sneaky good defense, the truth is nobody can touch Georgetown when it comes to getting players all over the world.
Take senior DB Ettian Scott, whose hometown is listed as Okinawa, Japan. Or senior RB Jo’el Kimpala, who hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Or sophomore WR Luke Morris, who comes from Honolulu, Hawai’i.
If Georgetown’s policy of not offering football scholarships might be seen as a hindrance in some circles, it’s clearly not much of a setback when it comes to getting players that hail from, well, all over the world.
In Year 2 of the Sgarlata era, the Hoyas are hoping to make the jump from 3-8 squad to an over .500 team, and challenging for the Patriot League title. Impossible? Some might think so. At media day, the Hoyas were picked 7th out of 7 teams.
Yet senior LB Matthew Satchell said at Patriot League Media day that this Georgetown team would be a “down and dirty fighting team,” showing that this squad may be a tougher out than people imagine, especially with their tough defense.
When Georgetown’s envelope appeared at the Committee’s relatively empty offices, the businesswoman who looked suspiciously like Nicki Minaj was shocked.
That’s because the envelope looked like someone had stuffed a copy of War and Peace inside of it.
“There’s no question that this is unusual,” Art told her. “I remember the days when the Battleship Grey’s entire recruiting class was released late on a Friday afternoon in May, with all the corroborating information on the class contained on a 3×5 index card. This is…. different.”
The businesswoman nodded. “I honestly wasn’t counting on needing to do this much work with Georgetown’s class,” she said. “Looks like we’re going to have to put on another cup of nasty coffee. And don’t cross me.”
“Huh?” Art said.
“You know,” the businesswoman said. “I was thinking that I was just going to put Georgetown last in the rankings before I even did them. I’m thinking now that they’re going to be one of the best classes in this year’s Patsy Ratings.”
“I agree,” Art said. “Do we have to do the breakfast defector thing again, or can we charge a new round of pulled pork sandwiches to the Committee’s account again?”
We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Whenever I need to get caught up on Georgetown, I always check the Hoya game notes and athletic site, of course, but I also, always, check out DFW Hoya’s site on Georgetown football for his in-depth analysis and breakdown of the Hoyas.
His site was one of the few sites talking about FCS football at all when I started doing this Lehigh Football Nation thing at the very beginning, and his site has always been an inspiration – and I don’t toss that word around lightly – to what I’ve wanted LFN to become. As a fellow website-master, I know how much work it takes to do previews and games, and I appreciate it.
In his preview could be the stat of the season for Lehigh. As a Hoya fan, he looks at this season as Georgetown’s best chance to beat Lehigh since the Hoyas joined the Patriot League. He also said this, which is true:
“The Engineers are a woeful 4-22 in two PL games converting on third down. Lehigh should do somewhat better in this one, but their gains on second down figure to be just as, if not more, important, when short yardage options become more plentiful. Defensively, Lehigh allows 55% of third downs, something Georgetown must take advantage of.”
