Leopards: A look back, and a look ahead

Caught on the tape recorder at Tuesday’s football luncheon:

“It came down to a fourth-and-1 and they jumped into a wildcat and they were able to knock us off the ball and run out the clock. So, we were right there and pleased how team played.” – Coach John Garrett. He was referring to the closing minutes of last Saturday's game, when Monmouth was able to control the clock while Lafayette needed a stop. That fourth-and-1 play resulted in a 16-yard gain and the Hawks were able to finish it off from there because Lafayette could not stop the clock.

“[Special teams coordinator Greg] Frantz has done great job building a culture on how important special teams are. A lot of kids coming in never had to play special teams because they were the best kids on their teams. Everybody was all-conference, all-state, something. So, when they got in the room, Coach Frantz really made it an emphasis point that you’re going to have to earn your spot and some of you guys aren’t going to be able to make the bus, especially for Patriot League games … We want 11 guys out there that are going to want to hit and make a difference in the game. I and the other seniors try to emphasize that you can change the game just by a punt, by a kick, by a huge kickoff return.” – Ryan Monteyne, who got the first punt block of his entire football career, on the lead role he can play as a member of all the special-teams units.

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.

Celebrare, Mario: A year to remember

My autographed copy of the 1969 program.

How well I remember the “Arrivederci, Mario!” Tour of 1994.

Everywhere Mario Andretti went that year, people showered him with accolades one last time. It didn’t matter whether he won on the track or not – at least, not to anyone except Mario himself. For everyone else, it was a matter of giving a good friend a deserved sendoff.

But somehow, I can’t think those 12 months could have compared to what should be tabbed the “Celebrare, Mario!” month the world’s most recognized race car driver is experiencing right now at the Indianapolis 500.

He is being blown away by it, and he doesn’t mind admitting it.

CELEBRATE!           

Twenty-five years after he stepped out of the cockpit as a full-time speed merchant, no one is saying “goodbye … see you later … bye-bye” to the Italian immigrant who has put Nazareth, PA, solidly on the map. People everywhere are opening their arms and embracing him, maybe like no other time in his life.

Some health issues will prevent me from attending the 103^rd Indianapolis 500 next weekend to watch the final chapter of this special time for Andretti as he is hailed for not only his only Indy victory 50 years ago, but also as the principal ambassador of his life-long pursuit.

But I have to say it’s been enjoyable for me to step into that time capsule and take myself back to my early years in the newspaper business. To re-read old stories and stir up old memories. But most of all, to talk to Mario again about those days and maybe to learn some things I never knew or even thought about.

My story that appears in The Morning Call. But we talked about so much more, so I thought I’d share some of the conversation with you.

Can Leopards benefit from some Sooner advice?

I think I found the answer to Lafayette football’s offensive problems.

Or, I found AN answer worth trying. And, it comes via another collegiate head coach who has no offensive coordinator.

I have been saying Lafayette Coach John Garrett needs to hire an offensive coordinator and actually give him charge over the Leopards’ attack, which produced an average of just 13 points per game in 2018 and 12 ppg in 2017.  

Lafayette won three games in ’17 and scored a grand total of 31 points in the three games combined. The Leopards got a lot better in winning in 2018, scoring 81 points in their three wins. But they also had five games in which they scored six points or less.

The one statistic that stuck out above – or below – all others was that Lafayette scored only four touchdowns on pass plays in 2018. Eleven games, four passing TDs. Only one other team in all the FCS had fewer TD passes (Jacksonville with three), and that team threw just 63 passes all year. Lafayette threw 361. It was horrible.

Spring football '19: The rest of the story

It sounds a lot like a cliché, but it really isn’t.

“A day like today is tough because when the defense does well, it means the offense isn’t, and when the offense does well, the defense is not. Either way, somebody on Lafayette is going to win. That’s a positive.  How we play is most important.  One fumble, a couple of tipped passes on which defensive players did the things we’ve been stressing all spring, not a lot of penalties. Spring ball goes quickly, mainly because you’re having fun.”

That was Lafayette Coach John Garrett’s glass-half-full assessment of the final practice of spring football camp on Saturday. They called it the spring game, but it didn’t have much of a game look to it.

That’s understandable because, as I wrote in my story for The Morning Call, the number of players not taking part (20} was nearly as large as the number of available offensive players (23, including the kicker and five quarterbacks) and more than the number of healthy defensive players (18).

The list of “watchers” starts with running backs Selwyn Simpson, J.J. Younger and Mike Dunn … goes to o-linemen Jake Marotti, Casey McCollum, Austin Pyne and Taron Hampton … and tight ends Scott Zadok and Jake Taggart.

That said, I’m giving the running game pretty much of a pass. Devin On, a walk-on, gave a good effort running and receiving; tight end-turned RB Ryan Monteyne got what looked like a parting of the Red Sea late in the day and ripped off an uncontested 55-yard “touchdown” run.