More on the QBs and other Lafayette stuff

So, what is Lafayette College football coach John Garrett thinking when he releases a depth chart with a three-headed starting quarterback position?

Can there be anything positive about telling the public and his season-opening opponent, William & Mary, that he will start Sean O’Malley OR Cole Northrup OR Keegan Shoemaker on Saturday night in Williamsburg, Va.?

I sat alone in the visitors’ grandstand at Fisher Stadium on Saturday to get my first in-person look at the 2019 Lafayette Leopards. Two other guys sat halfway up the home-side grandstand; as far as I could tell, no other visitors were present. I doubt very much that a W&M spy was lurking in the bushes, looking for the answer to one question: Who do we prepare for this week in practice?

Faced with the task of putting together a season preview package for The Morning Call, I figured I’d better see the team in action at least once. And, sure, I wanted to know who was emerging as the cream of the crop among the seven QBs who were in preseason camp.

In that respect, I guess the fact that freshman Shoemaker had moved in front of highly touted sophomore Fisher was the biggest revelation of the night.

Mario and I: More thoughts on Pocono

The NTT IndyCar Series likes to think of itself not only as the premier open-wheel racing series of the United States, but arguably the most competitive in the world.

But you have to wonder how those people can make such a boast when they are apparently willing to drop a bomb on their last meaningful race in the population-rich Northeastern portion of the U.S.

All because some of their super-talented drivers don’t want to be challenged?

Pocono Raceway has taken some pretty vicious criticism from some in the racing community in the past couple of days. But, consider that

·         Nothing any architect could have done would have prevented the freak series of events that resulted in the death of Indy-car driver Justin Wilson in 2015.

·         And, when multiple cars crashed on the seventh lap of last year’s ABC Supply 500 and Robert Wickens wound up with a paralyzing spinal cord injury after his car was thrown into the fence, Turn 2 was exactly where it was when the Monroe County track first hosted Indy cars in 1971.

·         And, finally, Pocono’s “tricky triangle” configuration had no role whatsoever in the first-lap disaster at the 2019 ABC Supply 500 on Sunday, either.

Lafayette FB: An overview on Day 1

Okay, here we go. Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019. Day 1 of the 138^th season of Lafayette College football.  Year 3 of the John Garrett era. Practice 1, noon-2:30 p.m., in Fisher Stadium. Eighty-six players, according to Coach Garrett.  Twenty-four freshmen.

Coach Garrett took part along with the rest of the Patriot League coaches in a media teleconference call on Wednesday.  I sat through the entire thing, so I have some decent ammo on the rest of the league.

I was hoping for something on the Lafayette Leopards, too, but what I got from Coach Garrett was pretty much everything he’s been saying since the day he was hired.

But one comment has been haunting me for three days. He said, “So, there’s really nothing wrong with the system.”

The thing is, Garrett IS the system  -- at least offensively. Ever since Rich Bartel left town before 2017 summer camp ever started, thus leaving the offensive coordinator spot vacant, it has been clear that Coach Garrett wants to do things HIS way.