The pads are on and the hitting begins on Day 5

I took a couple of baby steps on Wednesday morning when I quietly arrived at Fisher Stadium for the first day of full-pads practice for John Garrett's Lafayette football team.

I took a seat at the top of the home grandstand (in the shade), sitting with a couple of guys who played football for the Leopards during my first go-around as the team beat writer -- in the late 1960s-early 1970s under Harry Gamble and Neil Putnam. Jack Bourger and Phil Noto are now two of the most interested alums.

I just wanted to see for myself what was taking place. No Morning Call story to be written, so I didn't look to interview anyone when the session was over. I just wanted to look.

Here are a couple of quick observations.

Patriot League preseason football report: Fordham

It was three days before Christmas, and during a 7:15 a.m. telephone call, Joe Conlin had just accepted the job as head football coach at Fordham University.

He hurried into the kitchen to share the news with his wife Karen, but to his surprise, she “was crying,” Conlin said. “Did you not want me to take the job?” the stunned Conlin asked.  “No, they’re tears of joy,” Karen responded.

The 38-year-old Conlin, who was the offensive coordinator last season at Yale, which compiled a 9-1 record and won the Ivy League championship. He said giving the news of his decision to go to Fordham to the coaches and players at Yale was tough for him. He spent six years building that relationship.

Conlin also went to the NCAA FCS playoffs seven years in a row (2004-10) as an assistant at New Hampshire, is now charged with reversing the fortunes of a team that was 4-7 last year despite having running back Chase Edmonds and quarterback Kevin Anderson among its offensive weapons.

Edmonds, the league’s all-time leading career rusher even though he missed five games last season, is now in the NFL; and Anderson, who threw for 73 TDs in his career, is also gone. So, Conlin was asked during the league’s preseason teleconference call, how is the Fordham team going to look different in 2018?

“Offensively, we won’t be that different,” Conlin said … “a little more spread out … we’ll utilize more formations than they did. We’re still going to be a zone team, utilizing tempo, take shots down the field with play action … still do some of RPO (run-pass option) and things like that … we’ll end up with balance, but the offense will strive to be more ground based, kind of open up the pass game with a ground attack, try to establish ourselves on the ground each and every game.

“Defensively, I think we’ll be markedly different … a little more agressive in terms of blitz packages and things like that … more man coverage. But hopefully, you’ll just see the guys playing hard, running to the football and having fun playing the game. That’s very much a hallmark of our program, to see our kids generally enjoy playing together and for Fordham.”

But because 15 spring practices were the only exposure the Rams’ players have had to the thinking and working of Conlin’s plan, the coach, asked about expectations for 2018, said, “To think about the season at this point would be kind of a wasted exercise. Now is just about 25 practices before we play a game and making the most of every day we have to work together before we open with Charlotte. In terms of the players, we’ll keep it very simple. This is as close as these guys are to NFL players. No classes. No distractions. Excited to attack each day and get a little better.”

Fordham, you’ll remember, went four seasons (2010-13) in which its league games didn’t count in the standings because it adopted merit-based scholarships while the rest of the league was operating on need-based aid.  The Rams struggled for three years, but went 12-2 in the fourth. And in 2014-16, they compiled a 16-2 league mark, winning the title in ’14 and finishing second the other two seasons.

The big shocker for the Rams in 2017 may have come against Lafayette. The Leopards came in off a 10-7 win over Holy Cross on a last-second field goal but had allowed 166 points in four losses. Fordham had an identical 1-4 record and had allowed 211 points in its four defeats. Still, the Rams figured to be the favorite.

Fordham led 10-0 after three quarters, but Leopard freshman quarterback Sean O’Malley had what might have been his best effort of the season in the fourth period, hitting 10 of 11 passes on one drive and four more on another, teaming up with Rocco Palumbo for s pair of touchdowns that produced a 14-10 victory that put Lafayette at the top of the league standings.

PRE-SEASON ALL-LEAGUE PICKS – WR Austin Longi, TE Isaiah Searight, OL Dominic Lombard, LB Glenn Cunningham, DB Dylan Mabin.

PRESEASON LEAGUE FINISH PREDICTION – 3rd.

2018 LAFAYETTE GAME: at Fordham, Oct. 27, 1 p.m.

Football camp heads the grapevine chatter -- or does it?

I didn’t attend either of Lafayette’s first two preseason football camp practices, but I took a look at photos on the college website and a one-minute video featuring a miced-up head coach John Garrett. I found both interesting.

I was hoping to get some first-hand stuff from someone on the Lafayette Sports Fan Forum, but they were off doing other things, I guess. I did, however, pick up some disturbing non-football grapevine information from the LSFF guys. And eventually, I did get some unofficial gossip about the football practices.

And finally, I took a long look at the roster to see what I could come up with. Anyone can do this kind of digging if they’ve got nothing better to occupy them for part of an afternoon.

From perusing the roster on the website, and comparing it with the roster in last season’s media guide and with news releases about 2018 recruits, I came up with the following:

Patriot League preseason football report: Colgate

The last time Colgate University opened a football season with a Patriot League game, the Raiders blew a 14-point lead and trailed Georgetown 19-14 in the final minutes and, with 5.6 seconds left, won the game on a trick play – a 2-yard pass from wideout J.B. Gerald to DeWayne Long.

“We should have lost,” Colgate head coach Dan Hunt, said, remembering that game during the Patriot League’s media teleconference last week. “They were in a take-a-knee period and fumbled and we went on to run our two-point conversion play from two-yard line and won; but if you had said after week 1, ‘you’re about to go undefeated and play for the national title,’ I’d have said, ‘You’re crazy.’ Then the next week we go out and beat Buffalo.”

Colgate did go to the championship game, where it was routed 40-0 by K.C. Keeler’s Delaware Blue Hens. 

Patriot League preseason football report: Bucknell

I listened in on the entire Patriot League teleconference call last week. While I was most interested in the Lafayette segment, I thought perhaps I could do some short preseason camp blogs about the other as well. Since the call went alphabetically, I will, too.

BUCKNELL

Jake Wilson threw two touchdown passes in Bucknell’s 2018 spring football game. John Chiarolanzio, who played in nine games last season for the Bison and finished with the most passing yards in the 2017 stats, was also competing for the starting job for 2018.

But it was Logan Bitikofer, a rising sophomore, who impressed the Bison staff the most, prompting head coach Joe Susan to name him as the starter going into preseason camp.

Speaking on the Patriot League’s teleconference call last week, Susan said Bitikofer “has the quarterback job, but there are a couple of other quarterbacks who think they have the job, too, which is exciting.”

Leopard report from league media teleconference

Well, the 2018 college football season kicked off officially today with a teleconference featuring the seven coaches of the Patriot League.

The league used to have a nice luncheon and interview time, followed by a round of golf for the media who chose to play, at the Green Pond Country but apparently because the schedule has a different look this year, the league decided on the teleconference.

I liked being able to talk to the coaches and face-to-face and to pick up lots of good media-guide type information to get me through the year. I think the league got a pretty good bang for its buck, too, with newspaper writers and bloggers coming in and television and radio people also showing up. It was a great convenience for all.

But, there I sat, in front of my computer and with telephone and recorder at the ready anyway. Ryan Sakamoto from the league office did a great job of coordinating the thing, but it did lack the personal touch of other years.

Freeman: 'need to do a lot with a little ...' and other observations

I finally had a chance to meet Lafayette’s new director of athletics, Sherryta Freeman, at the Maroon & White football game last month. We had about 12 minutes together during halftime of the game. I’d have liked more time, but she was having a busy day.

When The Morning Call agreed to use our interview as its Newsmaker Q&A feature in Sunday’s paper, I knew there was no way everything we talked about would be covered because of space constraints. So, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on what was in print and to add to that to give Leopards’ sports fans – a passionate bunch – more to think about.

I was really interested in getting a handle on the results of the long-awaited study of the entire athletics program, which started in the fall of 2016 and had an original target date of April of 2017. That date came and went, and before anything was made public, the athletic director under whose watch it all began, Bruce McCutcheon, announced his retirement.

I was told that none of the candidates for McCutcheon’s successor was given access to the study’s findings at that point, so it wasn’t surprising when things kind of went into hibernation, giving the new department leader time to digest it.

Freeman told me she’s aiming for “the end of the summer” as the time when a new “strategic plan” will begin implementation over a period of five years. “The (old) study just gives us information; it doesn’t give us direction,” she told me. “It doesn’t tell us what we need to do. That’s what my job is,” she said.