Archive For The “Travis Friend” Category
We break down the Bucknell game – and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip.
When most people think of Bucknell, they tend to think of basketballs, not footballs.
Part of that comes from their upset of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, the, um, SECOND most talked-about Patriot League upset over a legendary hoops program in the NCAA tournament.
But that’s not to say that the folks down Lewisburg way don’t care at all about football.
If there is an underrated stadium in the Patriot League it’s Christy Matthewson Stadium, named after the hall-of-fame pitcher. Built in 1924, it was originally named Memorial Stadium to honor all the Bucknellians who had “fought in war”, either the Civil War or World War I, and had a “Christy Matthewson Memorial Gateway” in the front to honor the late pitcher, who had recently died from tuberculoisis complications stemming from his time in war.
While Lewisburg isn’t, shall we say, a metropolis, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the stadium, which seats 13,100, could approach sellouts once again if Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell could both be in the title hunt at the same time. The Bison have proved this with Sojka Pavillion, as their establishment of a perennial mid-major powerhouse in hoops have provided lots of sellout crowds.
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If there’s one word that describes Bucknell head coach Joe Susan, it’s “stoic”.
It’s not that he doesn’t have a sense of humor; he flashes it, at times, at media days and other interviews. But when it comes to talk of his football team, a stoicism takes over, a reflection of how he wants his team to be, how he wants his players to approach the game.
Going into the 2012 season, many media members saw Bucknell as a team that still needed a lot of work to compete for the Patriot League title, though I did not; I saw some real potential in Susan’s stoic leadership, a defense that was best in the league, a potential breakout year after a 6-5 season.
But the Bison struggled to a 3-8 record, reversing on offense, struggling to score despite their strong “D”. And while Susan has remained stoic, some of the frustration has started to peek through.
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