Cleaning out my notebook one last time

Jeffrey Kordenbrock kicks the winning field goal at Lehigh out of a Sean O'Malley hold.
All photos courtesy of Lafayette communications.

So, season No. 138 of Lafayette College football is in the books. The 16^th time the Leopards have finished with four wins. The last time was 2011.

Breakthrough? Coach John Garrett declared that after defeating Lehigh for the first time. I think it was too soon to tell because this year was the weakest for the Patriot League overall. But it had a look of potential. And remember, it was I who said the Leopards had a shot at running the table after not winning a nonleague game!

Now as we come to the end of another football season, I am also come down the homestretch of my direct involvement with the program at Lafayette, having been The Morning Call’s beat writer from 1968-77 and more recently during my formal retirement years, 2008-2019.

With my 80^th birthday staring me in the face, it’s time to take a seat in the stands, and having had some issues this year with bladder cancer caused me to alter the way I handled the beat. This season didn’t give me the same satisfaction of past years and I think it’s time to turn it over to someone else.

So, that makes this my final “official” report on Leopard football. It’s going to get wordy because I want to address the most recent season overall, the Leopards’ future, #155 of The Rivalry and some other thoughts from my notebook.

THE TEAM RECAP

I went into the season really conflicted about the possibility for success. After the huge turnovers in the coaching staff on each of Coach John Garrett’s first two 3-8 seasons, I was concerned about the effect all the change would have on the players.

And when losses continued to pile up during the nonleague portion of the schedule, I feared the worst. Quarterback Sean O’Malley had not been nearly as successful in 2018 as a sophomore as he was as a freshman, but I wasn’t too surprised when he was awarded a scholarship after making the coast-to-coast commitment to Lafayette as a walk-on. After all, he had two more years to improve.

I was totally stunned, however, when O’Malley slid back into the middle of the pack of quarterbacks and the battle for the starting spot came down to freshman Keegan Shoemaker and junior Cole Northrup, the latter O’Malley’s backup for two years. And when O’Malley became the holder for PATs and field goals, I actually thought that if Sean wanted to play more college ball, he should ask not to be played at all so that he could retain the year of eligibility.

I was also scratching my head when, after Shoemaker and Northrup shared playing time in the season opener and had very similar stats, Shoemaker was tabbed as The Man for Game 2 and Northrup never saw the field again. To add to his year, he suffered a knee injury in practice and is still rehabbing.

Well, chalk up a win for Coach Garrett. Shoemaker had his stumbles during the season – 14 interceptions and being sacked 40 times – but a 60 percent completion mark helped make him the most successful Leopard freshman QB ever with 216-for-340 for 2,545 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and a net 348 yards rushing, which was beaten by only one running back, Selwyn Simpson (360). He really put an exclamation point on his rookie season when he led that fourth-quarter march to the Jeffrey Kordenbrock field goal that broke a four-game losing streak against arch-rival Lehigh.

Shoemaker is easily my choice for Lafayette’s offensive MVP. And when you think that 13 of the 17 players who caught passes in 2019 will return, the possibility of continued improvement in the passing game is strong. Seven of those players – Joe Gillette, Julius Young, Jordan Hull, Jaden Sutton, John Gay, Chris Webb and Logan Whelan – will be only sophomores next year.

Lafayette had seven QBs on the roster this season. All of them will return for 2020. And, you can be assured that Coach Garrett will have QBs on his wish list of 2020 recruits. So, the time may come when Shoemaker’s job is under siege. But that’s a battle for another day. Congratulations to the Patriot League Rookie of the Year and many-time weekly rookie or offensive player of the week. It was quite a run.

Thirteen players had rushing statistics for 2019, and 10 of them return. Simpson gets my vote for most improved offensive player, even though he rushed for only 360 yards. Three of Lafayette four wins were directly impacted by Simpson, who scored both touchdowns against Lehigh and had the winning TDs against Bucknell and Fordham. The 113 yards-per-game team rushing average, featuring Simpson, Sutton and Gay, still needs to improve for Lafayette to get better control of games. But it was better than either of Garrett’s first two years.

Garrett always says the most important thing is what happens to the ball and that his goal is to have every offensive possession end with a kick – an extra point, a field goal or a punt. Jeffrey Kordenbrock earned himself a spot in the history book of Lafayette-Lehigh games with his 28-yard game-winning field goal. He also was a perfect 24-for-24 on PATs and 11-for-14 on FGs and booted three three-pointers against Holy Cross. Two of his misses were in the season opener, which is a good sign. 

He will be a senior, and I would hope Garrett could recruit a kickoff-punter specialist for 2020 to relieve the workload. Kordenbrock and Ryan O’Hara combined for a punting average of just 35 yards, with only one 50-yarder and just 8-of-64 putting the opponent inside its 20-yard line. And on kickoffs, only 5 of 46 were touchbacks.

The kick return game didn’t produce a single point this season, but Sutton’s 28-yarder got the Leopards off to a good start in the fourth quarter against Lehigh. No return all season was longer than that one, with J.J. Younger leading the way with a 19-yard average on 27 returns. Opposing teams punted 45 times to Lafayette’s 64, and Lafayette was able to return only four of them.

The Lafayette roster listed 13 offensive linemen. Eleven of them return next season – three will be seniors. Eight of the linemen were starters in at least one game, and captain Jake Marotti was the only senior in the bunch. Joe Grundhoffer, John Burk and Gavin Barclay started every game, which is a great omen for 2020. Burk and Barclay were second team all-league. Two freshmen also broke in, with Alex Barshaba starting three games before suffering a season-ending injury and Nathan Slater starting 10 of the 12 games. That’s a nice fivesome with which to begin next season, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring in a handful of the big guys in the 2020 class of recruits.

The 2019 Leopards scored 78 points more than those in 2018, but they also played one more game. They need to become more productive offensive – or more efficient defensively – in the middle periods. They were outscored by 101 points in the second and third quarters.

However, the greatest need, in my mind, is an offensive coordinator – one who actually earns his keep. If Garrett is going to continue as the head coach, it’s time for him to delegate some offensive responsibility. He has been very single-minded about this in his three seasons, finally deciding not to take on even an in-name-only guy this year. Being the head coach doesn’t mean micromanaging the whole thing. Let other guys do the work; if it’s done right, you’ll get a lot of credit. And I don’t think the offense has to look like something out of an NFL playbook, either.

As for the defense, the picture, to me, features lots of potential, but some critical needs as well.

Let’s start with Malik Hamm, league Rookie of the Year in 2018 and Defensive Player of the Year in 2019. He was a marked man every week, with offensive coordinators everywhere scheming to avoid him. He had fewer tackles (43-58) but almost as many tackles for loss (15-11.5) and sacks (8.5-8.0) as e had in 2018. He also had eight QB hurries and three pass breakups and a blocked kick, so even when he wasn’t making tackles, he was making it possible for teammates to do so.

As impressive as Hamm was, I thought the PoY honor might have gone to Lehigh linebacker Keith Woetzel with 118 tackles, 12 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss – in one less game. The difference? Hamm’s team won the BIG one!  My guess. Winning matters.

Hamm returns next year for his junior season, and he’ll be joined by the player who in my mind was Lafayette’s defensive MVP: freshman linebacker Marco Olivas. He started only three games, but he was all over the place every week. He may have benefited more than anyone from opponents’ concentration on limiting Hamm. Olivas was second on the team in tackles with 81, third in tackles for loss with 9.0 and second in sacks with six. But he also had a pass interception, two fumble recoveries, three fumbles forced and three QB hurries.

Against Lehigh alone, he recovered a fumble that led to the Leopards’ second  TD, intercepted a pass that gave the Leopards possession at the Lehigh 37 (which they squandered) and was credited with the sack on the final play of the game as Lehigh QB Alec Beesmer tried to make a desperate play.

Together, Hamm and Olivas make watching Lafayette play defense fun. And they look like they’re having fun doing it. Defensive coordinator Manny Rojas brought a 3-4 look to College Hill, but he also was willing to make adjustments when necessary to take advantage of his talent. Guys like Olivas and Bill Shaeffer benefitted greatly from that.

The defense takes a pretty good hit on graduation day, with Yasir Thomas and Eric Mitchell from the secondary and Ryan Barnett, Keith Earle and Demetrius Breedlove from the front seven departing. Thomas and Mitchell each played in 45 games, Barnett, who I think might have been the most improved defensive player (he started five times after having only one start his first three years), played in 39, Breedlove in 36, Earle in 35. Mitchell had seven career interceptions and 147 career tackles. Thomas, a team captain, had 189 tackles for his career, and in the Lehigh game this year, he intercepted a pass for the first time. His teammates converted that pick into Lafayette’s first touchdown.

The defensive front, which during preseason was being figured as the strength of the unit, was hit hard by injuries. Ian Grayson and Harrison Greenhill, both projected starters, played in only eight and three games, respectively. They will be welcomed back for sure. Breedlove came back for a medical fifth year but also was hampered and played in only seven games and had only three tackles after having 62 to go along with 11 pass breakups in previous seasons. He even saw some action at tight end this year. Freshman Damon Washington came on strong and wound up with 34 tackles and two sacks. But in the final analysis, this group needs some support personnel, too, to maintain the momentum.

Major Jordan could easily turn out to be one of the Lafayette captains next season. He was the leader in solo tackles with 70 and total tackles with 112. That gives him 181 for his career and he’s always around the football. He, Ryan Dickens and Billy Shaeffer give the Leopards a solid set of linebackers. Dickens wears the jersey number of a hard-hitter from a couple of years back, Brandon Bryant.

Caleb Burr started all but one game at corner and he returns along with Romeo Wykle, Otis Thrasher and DaRon Gilbert. Wykle made six starts, Thrasher five and Gilbert three. The secondary will be a point of emphasis for the defensive staff. The Leopards were beaten for some long plays -- 75, 65 and 37 by Sacred Heart, 48 by Albany were the longest, and had only six interceptions for the year while giving up 22 passing touchdowns.

Lafayette is just 1-15 in non-conference games since Garrett became head coach. Next year doesn’t seem to get any better. The Leopards will go to Sacred Heart, Navy and Penn and play at home against William & Mary and Harvard. They haven’t played Navy since 1994 and are 4-8 all-time against the Midshipmen. The last victory over the Mids was in 1903, when Lafayette captain Ernest, listed as a tackle in the article in the Baltimore Sun, ran 70 yards for a touchdown and Shuster kicked the PAT with a minute to play. Touchdowns were worth just five points then, so the final was 6-5.  

THE DEPTH CHART

 You won’t get this from Coach Garrett, so here’s my version of an off-season two-deep. For entertainment purposes only:

OFFENSE

QB --- KEEGAN SHOEMAKER ………. Sean O’Malley

RB --- SELWYN SIMPSON………………… Jaden Sutton-John Gay

WR --- QUINN REVERE…………………….Chris Webb

WR—JOE GILLETTE………………………….Julius Young

WR --- JORDAN HULL…………………….Logan Whelan

TE --- ZADOK SCOTT………………………..Steve Stillianos

LT --- NATHAN SLATER……………………Casey McCollum

LG --- ALEX BARSHABA……………………Matt Fiume

C --- JOE GRUNDHOFFER………………..Taron Hampton

RG --- JOHN BURK…………………………. Mike Hughes

RT --- GAVIN BARCLAY…………………… Josh Roberts

DEFENSE

DE --- MALIK HAMM……………………… Damon Washington

DT --- IAN GRAYSON……………………….

DT --- HARRISON GREENHILL…………..Colin Hurlbrink

OLB—BILLY SHAEFFER……………………..Jyaire Stevens

OLB—MARCO OLIVAS……………………..Luke Ragone

ILB—MAJOR JORDAN………………………Brian Reilly

ILB—RYAN DICKENS…………………………..Blamassie Meite

CB --- CALEB BURR………………………………Otis Thrasher

SS --- TESSEMA HASKINS…………………….

FS --- ROMEO WYKLE………………………….DaRon Gilbert

CB --- TAYJON MARTIN……………………….

And one piece of trivia: 70 players were on the field in at least one game, but only seven – Barclay, Burk, Grundhoffer, Hamm, Major Jordan, Mitchell and Thomas – started every game, according to the season participation sheet. Six played in only one game, and the only player to start his only game was QB Northrup.

LAFAYETTE-LEHIGH WINNER’S INTERVIEW

Coach John Garrett celebrates the Leopards' win in The Rivalry #155.

Some comments in the aftermath of that 17-16 thriller against the Brown and White on their Goodman Stadium turf.

Linebacker Major Jordan finished off a terrific junior season with nine solo tackles against Lehigh and was asked what the victory means to the Lafayette program going into the future.

He said: “That win was really huge. It’s something we all talk about. The seniors really love this game, and we kind of did it for them because they never beat Lehigh before. We wanted to send them out on a good note and that’s what we did here today. I was really proud that everybody was on board for it. They took it really serious. They found a reason to play. I’m just grateful for this opportunity and I’m really proud of our seniors and what we did here today.”

Coach Garrett really surprised me in his first season (2017) when he called the Lehigh game “just one game.” So, on Saturday, I mentioned that I understood he was usually a one-game-at-a-time guy but I wondered, does this game mean more to you every year than it did the year before?

He said: “Well, I think it’s a big game every year. The importance doesn’t keep mounting; it’s Lafayette-Lehigh. Next year’s going to be 156 and it’s always a big game. And, it could very well have Patriot League implications again. So, it’s always a big game.”

Given that generalization, I’m still uncertain, even after the spontaneous reaction from the usually non-responsive fans on Saturday, whether he sees this game as different than any other. He says, “It’s a big game” often.  But he was enthused enough to leap into the air when the game ended, and he felt the wet thrill of victory when he was doused with a water bucket by captain Jake Marotti. There’s still hope.

Lafayette was 6-for-17 on third-down conversions and 2-for-3 on fourth-down conversions. The two successful fourth-down plays were on the first touchdown drive, and the TD was scored on a third-and-14 play from the Lehigh 18. Garrett was asked if he had made a pregame commitment to being aggressive on fourth downs.

He said: I don’t think you go into any game saying you’re just going for it on fourth down. You always assess the situation. And those were 4^th-and-1 (actually one was 4^th-and-2) and we felt like we could run the ball to get them and we did. So, we really set the tone there with a confident attack and then put some belief in our offensive line and our runners to get it, and they did. So, it was a great show of our toughness, tenacity, aggressiveness to be able to take that ball and drive down and score. Those plays can be defining plays. The guys really executed them well.

Garrett on handling the emotions of the week:

“What we do, obviously, this has added inspirations. What we do is we try to lay out the expectations early about what it means, because of how many young players we have. There is a huge percentage of guys on the team that had never played in the game that are actually playing in games and a huge percentage that have only experienced it at home. So, we had to lay out the expectations of what it’s like, even to the point where we have to tell the guys it’s a grass field. You have to get your grass cleats and plant and cut, so just being able to educate them as well. But to your question specifically, laying out the expectations sets the urgency, sets the intensity, the expectation of how focused you have to be in practice because of how much this game means. And then you have to go to work. You can’t get them emotionally too high early because it becomes exhausting. We just went to work. Wednesday and Thursday. After Friday, after the work is done, you say, okay, the emotion should start to build, you should feel the adrenalin. I think the guys handled it well and they peaked at the right time”.

Garrett on whether he had ever seen game officials get the down wrong as they did when Lafayette punted on a third down, then had the play erased so the Leopards could finally run a third down.

“It’s the first game I’ve been involved in, but the famous game is the Colorado-Nebraska game. where they got it wrong and they kept it wrong. So, credit to the officials to get it right, and they were very cooperative and we showed them. We showed our play list, then had it sent down, great job by Phil LaBella to send it down on the phone to show them. They were tracking it. They just had to go back and look at each play; they had it wrong after the penalty after they face-masked Keegan. They didn’t recount the down. We knew we were right and that’s why we kept explaining it to them. They just kept the clock running and that’s where we got the delay. Then luckily we told them and they went to video review and got it right. So, really pleased the way the officials handled it. In Colorado-Nebraska, it decided the game. This didn’t have an impact on the game but it was good they got it right.

Garrett, asked about the closeness of the game even though Lehigh had 151 yards more total offense:

“Well, easily, the turnovers we forced, they had four of them. We intercepted two, forced a fumble on defense and forced a fumble on special teams. When you can force four (turnovers), we had two interceptions, so we were plus-two. Bigger thing is how the drives end. We had all our drives except one end with a kick … extra point, field goal or punt. One ended on downs after that fiasco. They ended drives with fumbles and interceptions. We had 14 points off turnovers. So, that’s the difference. And the big message all week was, the team that’s going to win is (dependent on) how you respond to the events of the game and we responded the right way. It really shows how mentally tough our team is that they can concentrate and take advantage of those things.”

Garrett on what was said when he hugged Selwyn Simpson after a touchdown and unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for spiking the ball:

“His first (TD) was an inside run on 3^rd-and 14-at the 18 …  on the second run, a 3-yarder in the third quarter they ruled he spiked the ball. It was determined he slammed the ball on the ground. It was an interpretation. Officials ruled it was intense enough to be a spike. It wasn’t a Gronk spike. He just was really glad that he scored. They called it on him. I said, ‘They called a penalty on you for spiking it.’ He said, ‘Sorry, coach.’ I said, ‘I love you, let’s go win.’”

Major Jordan on the defense limiting Lehigh to three consecutive field goals to take the lead:

“That’s something we take pride in every day. We talk about the goal-line defense; when it gets in the red zone, we have to make them kick or cause a turnover. That’s one of the biggest things we worked on and I felt throughout the year we did really well with that. The d-line gets a heckuva push up front … the DBs like to lock up right inside the red zone … linebackers fill the alleys and the hole. I mean, I’m proud of all the guys and what they did. Just the standard they have when people get in the red zone. How important it is and how we take care of it, I’m really proud of the guys for that.”

Lehigh had 1^st-and-goal on Lafayette 4 in third period, but Hamm and Jordan make stops and DaRon Gilbert broke up a pass, holding B&W to a Henning FG. Then Lehigh had a first down at the Lafayette 14, but it had to settle for a  33-yard FG and still later, Lehigh had first down at the Lafayette 11, where Yasir Thomas, Ian Grayson and Marco Olivas made big plays and Henning kicked a third straight FG from 22 yards to make if Lehigh 16-14 with 3:03 to go. It didn’t look good for the Leopards at that point because the offense couldn’t get the job done.

Jeffrey Kordenbrock on what he was doing while his teammates were driving down the field in the fourth quarter:

“I was watching a little bit on the scoreboard because the (kicking practice) net was facing the other way. Players were coming up and telling me, we got your back no matter what. That put more confidence in me. Having teammates like that is just insane.”

And when asked about the distance of a possible game-winning FG, he said:

“Wherever they can get me, I’m happy with. If it turned out to be a 55-yard kick, I’d be happy to just get that opportunity. But they got me a little bit closer, which was nice.”   

Shoemaker on the game-winning drive:

“I knew we had to protect the ball and just get it out on time and to the open guy. The receivers did the rest and did a good job getting open, and so did the o-line protecting me. They were great. … I was feeling good. The line did a great job throughout the game. I didn’t have to get out (and run) that much unless they called my number to run. I had fresh legs … (on the first play, an 11-yard scramble) I saw that field just open up and it was there so I took it.”

THE FUTURE FOR THE PATRIOT LEAGUE

Passing around the MVP trophy.

Patriot League champion and automatic qualifier Holy Cross got about as good a draw as possible, facing Monmouth in the opening round of the NCAA FCS playoffs, only to lose 44-27. The Crusaders were the only five-loss team in the tournament. The Hawks edged Lafayette 24-21.

The league took a bit of a hit during the FCS tournament announcement show on Nov. 24. Holy Cross was at the very bottom of the bracket, and when its game was revealed, Jay Walker, one of the three announcers on the show, said of Bob Chesney’s team, “They just survived the carnage which was the Patriot League this year. They beat up on everybody on a weekly basis. They were the only one with a record good enough to get them into the postseason.” Another of the announcers, Rene Ingoglia, chimed in by calling Holy Cross “ultimately the best Patriot League team.”

I don’t know what Walker’s definition of “beat up on” is, but he obviously disrespected Lafayette, which forced five turnovers and defeated the Crusaders 23-20. Lehigh and Bucknell both lost to the Crusaders by seven … hardly a beatdown as far as I’m concerned.

Lafayette has only one non-conference victory in John Garrett’s three years as head coach. The Leopards defeated Central Connecticut State 31-24 last year when C.J. Amill scored three touchdowns – one on a punt return and another on a 23-yard run with just 33 seconds left in the game. Garrett milked that game all season as his signature win.

Well, the Blue Devils, who were 6-5 in 2018, posted an 11-1 regular-season record, won the Northeast Conference championship and were one of three teams undefeated against FCS opponents this year. They played Albany (9-4) in the opening round of the FCS playoff tournament – and lost 42-14. Albany defeated Lafayette 36-7 this season.

 I feel compelled to ask one question at this point:

What do the Patriot League institutions want from their football league?

When the decision was made to take the league from need-based aid to merit-based scholarships, I thought the goal was to separate from the Ivy League teams and to be able to stand tall against other Eastern U.S. conferences that were giving them. That decision was made in February of 2012, and I was delighted to see it.

I wrote a piece for The Morning Call, saying: “Look out, Harvard. Beware, Penn. Move aside, Yale. Don’t look now, Villanova, Delaware and William and Mary, but the little ol’ Patriot League is coming to get you. The days of forcing the families of highly intelligent and highly talented high school football players to make college choices based solely on the bottom line – How much is it going to cost us? – are about to end.”

The move was a long time coming. Here’s a quick history lesson for newcomers to the league.

Basketball scholarships were adopted by the league in 1998 and all other sports, except for football, came on board in 2001.

Fordham decided to initiate scholarships in June 2009, playing its first game with scholarship players in 2010 and was declared ineligible for a Patriot League title while continuing to play a full schedule. In December of that year, league presidents deferred a decision on merit-based scholarships for two years.

In a statement at the time, the Council of the Presidents announced, "We had discussions about various financial aid models and recognized and evaluated the benefits as well as the potential costs associated with athletic merit aid for football. League presidents expressed their commitment to the stability and long-term positioning of the League."

Patriot League basketball made its first big noise when Bucknell, a No. 14 seed, defeated Kansas in 2005 and in March of 2012, Lehigh, a No.15, knocked out mighty Duke in the first round of the March Madness tournament. Lehigh athletic director Joe Sterrett can attest to the sudden popularity the Bethlehem university achieved after that win.

Meanwhile, football continued to operate under the need-based format, And sometimes, it was great fun. When you get to be my age – I’ll become an octogenarian next April – 10 years of life seems like last week.  But in football, 10 years is forever.

For instance, remember when Lafayette defeated Penn, Yale, Columbia and Harvard  in the space of a month? That was 10 years ago. Rob Curley, Mark Layton, Ian Dell, Mike Schmidlein and the rest won’t ever forget it.  Neither will I. The Ivies were ready to crown the Leopards as champions.

That was also the year Fordham broke ranks with the league.  The next year, the Rams began using scholarship players. In its fourth year, Fordham was 12-2. And when the Rams were readmitted to the championship race in 2014, they won the championship at 6-0 and had an 11-3 overall mark and won a first-round FCS game. It looked like a move to scholarships just might work.

Colgate went to the FCS quarterfinals in 2015, but in 2016 Lehigh, the undefeated league champion, lost 64-21 in the first round of the playoffs; and in 2017, Lehigh won a league tiebreaker with Colgate at 5-1, then lost 59-29 in the first round. And last season, Colgate was undefeated in the league, got a first-round bye in the FCS, knocked off James Madison and then was shut out by North Dakota State 35-0.

Are football scholarships having the hoped-for results for the league? This season, for example, the Patriot League was 10-29 in non-conference games. In the seventh year of scholarship players. Only one league team had a winning mark against outsiders. Georgetown, which was at the bottom of the league with a 1-5 mark (beating only Lafayette), was 4-1 in nonleague contests.

But Georgetown does NOT give merit-based scholarships.

Colgate Coach Dan Hunt told me a couple of weeks ago that he notices he’s having fewer head-to-head recruiting contests with Patriot League teams these days. He says teams are trying to get footholds in various part of the country that they may not have looked at in the need-based years.

As I mentioned earlier, Lafayette has a 1-15 record against non-conference teams in Garrett’s three seasons. But the Leopards are not alone in the nonleague-futility department. In the six seasons since Fordham returned to the league in 2014, the nonleague record for the PL is 75-149.

It has not been getting better, either. Just the opposite. In the last three years, Patriot League teams have won just 25 non-conference games while losing 85. That’s 7-28 in 2017, 8-28 in 2018 and the 10-29 this year.

Lafayette has contributed mightily to that record. Where does the blame lie? The administration has not been fully committed to scholarship football, asking Friends of Lafayette Football to cover the cost of four scholarships a year. If it is their desire to play with the big boys, the administrators have to put up.

They should not only open their own wallets, but they should take the lead in petitioning the Patriot League to increase the number of scholarships to the 63 permitted in the FCS. Redshirting? Not necessarily. But limit the use of the transfer portal.

But there’s also a possibility that the Patriot League would decide it doesn’t need to try to bang helmets with the likes of North Dakota State, Sam Houston State, Montana State or even James Madison to have a group of teams that will create interest among alumni, students and friends.

Make the addition of at least two teams a priority and then set up negotiations with the Ivy League for a yearly postseason series leading to some kind of Eastern championship.  Maybe the top two Ivies and the top two Patriot Leaguers qualify. Short and sweet. No need to take the season into January, but let’s play for something!

Just sayin’.