A Preview of What's To Come

This will be the last post for the next 3 weeks, as I am getting married this weekend and then heading for my honeymoon.

Georgetown faces a Cornell squad on the Hilltop for Homecoming. The list of upcoming events for returning alumni includes the famous Chicken Finger night at the dining hall. Ah, desiderata. The positive thing for the Hoyas is I believe that they can only get better.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M, who we last all saw getting blasted off the Orange Bowl turf by Miami, hosts Baylor in the Big 12 opener for both squads. This brawl for the Brazos should be at least entertaining, and hopefully the Aggies should beat up on the Bears. Keep an eye (if possible, this game is on Versus network) on Aggie redshirt frosh QB Jerrod Johnson, who should remind Aggie fans of Kevin Murray and, hopefully Vince Young.

Hey, Hey Mercy Woman, Play a Song and No one Listens

In assessing Georgetown's brutal 0-55 defeat at Holy Cross yesterday, it seems appropriate to recall the melodic musings of Michael Nesmith, one-time Monkee, music video pioneer and fellow Texan.

One of the Monkees' more enlightening tunes in its 1960s heyday was the country/psychadelic ode to lost love,
"Listen to the Band."

Accordingly...

"Play the drum a little louder,
Tell me I can live without her
If I only listen to the band."

Once a season, a football team can run into a buzz saw like this. What makes this all the more unfortunate is that GU is a month into this season and looks like it has regressed from its spirited effort at home against Yale last week. Is there anything Coach Kelly and his staff can take from this game? Is it safe to use the old sports adage of "burn the tape"?

A loss like this is not necessarily indicative of the level (or lack thereof) of consistent fan support for the 0-4 Georgetown program. It isn't a reflection so much of GU's institutional commitment as much as it is an example of just how far Georgetown has to go. Stepping back in to MAAC play is not a realistic option. The Patriot League is the right league for GU to place its football team. However, the timeline involved in making GU a competitive program maybe just "moved to the right" a bit.

La Enorme Distancia

This is my reaction to the 34-17 beatdown Miami inflicted on Texas A&M last night


I have never been less enthused about the state of A&M football as I have been tonight. The only comparable feeling I have after tonight's debacle in the OB was after serving as an eyewitness to Duke's dismemberment of Georgetown back in January 2004.

1. Don't be fooled into thinking this Miami team isn't as good as it looked tonight. Their o-line --which included a pair of Texans, Jason Fox and Reggie Youngblood -- drilled the A&M d-line into submission. Conversely, their D-line set the tone on the very first drive. Their guys lined up and blew A&M's guys off the LOS with purpose.

2. Franchione is now responsible for some of A&M's most embarrassing losses -- a pair of drubbings at Tech in Lubbock, 77-0, the 06 Holiday Bowl, the 05 Cotton Bowl, the 17-16 field goal fest on national tv against OU, the disaster in Boulder in 05, Iowa freakin' State, the outright collapse against Nebraska last season, and this shellacking at the hands of a better motivated and talented Miami team.

3. I sympathize with Lane being frustrated about not getting carries, but honestly, stop complaining, Jorvorskie. The fact that Lane looks like an intemperate adolescent on the sideline is exhibit #1 that this coaching staff does not instill the fear of God Almighty and all His Avenging Angels into the players.

Everybody here wants to tag Miami as Thug U, but the reality is, you look at Randy Shannon, and you hear his life story, and you know this man will not put up with any B.S. from his players. Because he is a hardcore guy who had to endure family members dying. He pulled himself out of Liberty City and won 3 national championships as a player, assistant and coordinator. You see Shannon, and he has presence. He showed supreme confidence tonight by not even using his headset. He coaches from the front, more so than Coker or Davis and even more so than Jimmah and Erickson. Why? Because he was there once before. The Canes would go out and do ANYTHING Shannon asked to bring victory.

By those factors alone he is twice the coach A&M's current $2M man is.

4.The sad thing is that it's not even October yet and A&M is looking down the barrel of multiple conference losses because Franchione and his staff show no offensive creativity and betray no confidence in the very talent it recruited to advance A&M football.

The only school getting less for its investment right now is Notre Dame. Michigan would crush A&M by six touchdowns based on what I saw tonight.

And you know what really is disappointing? A&M does have a lot of talent that is getting devolved into football purgatory because this staff has shown no leadership or confidence. McGee is locked into an option offense and his skills are currently inverse to his heart. Lane shows no more maturity now than he did when he was a freshman. We recruited 3 dozen wideouts who don't even see a pass thrown their way. And, A&M has an All-American potential at tight end who is going to go pro after this season to save his marketable value to the NFL.

Calderon!

Rare is it in the college football world that a win by Miami over Texas A&M would be a signature win for Miami. Coach Randy Shannon and the Canes host #20 A&M without a Top 25 ranking in either the Coaches' or the AP poll. One could view this game as the third prong of this season's big Florida-Texas matchups. Texas eeked by Central Florida 35-32 out in Orlando last week, while in prep action the loaded Miami Northwestern Bulls dispatched Texas #1 Southlake Carroll 29-21 over in Dallas, breaking the Dragons' 49-game winning streak.

Tonight's matchup puts the Aggies in the primetime catbird's seat in one of the premiere and ancient artifacts in the entire sport. All the smoke and clouds add a chaotic and raw feel to what should be a quality night of football.

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We are still a few weeks off from basketball season, but your Hoyas are hard at work preparing to take over the world. All your investments are belong to us!

Handsome Dan and the Bulldogs

No, that is not the name of a South Texas '50s Latino rock and roll sensation. After a spirited effort by your Hoyas, Georgetown fell short of a superior Yale team 28-14. Standing at 0-3 for the year, Georgetown now faces a Holy Cross squad coming off a 31-28 defeat of Harvard up in Worcester.

Holy Cross is an interesting place, having forfeited its once-prominent athletic standing in both football and basketball to accommodate lowered expectations, much to the lament of notable alumni. Imagine, once upon a time Holy Cross could have been a founding member of the Big East along with Georgetown. Alas, that did not come to pass.

Still, Holy Cross has been something of a legitimate Patriot League power, and the Crusaders have given us mighty fits over the history of the series, where the purple knights have a 12-7 advantage.

Georgetown showed some serious fight against a talent-laden Yale squad, and fell short on a couple of goal-line opportunities that could have turned the game into a highly competitive fight. With Cornell, Penn and the rest of the Patriot League on the schedule, GU has a chance to build on the performance this past weekend.

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It's a short week in Aggieland this time around after Texas A&M dispensed with Louisiana-Monroe in a stout 54-14 victory that served as a nice warmup for this week's
nationally-televised tilt against Miami. This is only the second meeting overall for these two programs and really the first in the modern era. Also, given the fact that this is Miami's last year in the famed, creaky Orange Bowl, I am happy the Aggies finally made it out to South Florida. On the recruiting front, the Hurricanes fiercely pursued current Aggie junior tight end Martellus Bennett. Conversely, UM's Shawnbrey McNeal was an Aggie commit until late in the process, opting for Miami when his life-long favorite squad offered him a scholarship.

The compelling matchup here is A&M's talented offense against Miami's always-tough defense. Despite getting seared for 51 points down at Oklahoma two weeks ago, Miami's defense, led by future NFL star Calais Campbell, has the right mix of speed and power to drive an option-heavy offense like A&M crazy. Despite the sudden return of a passing game at Aggieland in the ULM victory, passing against the Canes will be a tall drink of water.

Clearly this is the biggest A&M game of the young season and, perhaps, one of the most telling of the Franchione era. UM, standing at 2-1 under new head coach Randy Shannon after victories over Marshall and Florida International and a defeat at the hands of OU, is not like the awesome 2001 squad that strolled to a national championship. However, Miami is Miami, and the Canes are always a stiff opponent in the Orange Bowl, where the squad takes on mythical properties.

Blue-on-Blue; War Dances; Dragons'n'Bulls

Once every so often, on days when we get home from a routine day at work, we pause for a second and remember the good old days of college. Never mind that you were poor, naive, lost, confused, and disoriented in those days. Never mind you had to write four 20-page papers at a time and deprive yourself of food and sleep to succeed. No, you only remember the good times.

This week is one of those weeks I wish I were still back on campus. This weekend's Yale-Georgetown tilt at the Hilltop is a big deal to Yale alumni as well as Hoya faithful. The Yale Club of DC is hosting a rather generous tailgate party on Saturday on our campus. Hey, anybody who has Red Hot 'n'Blue catering is fine by me, and I hope Georgetown extends warm hospitalities to our Ivy League guests.

It really is a misnomer in popular America that the Ivy League is some sort of tweed'n'books only league. All the schools play Division 1 sports, have reasonably active alumni bases, and we all know about the Princeton basketball program, but on the gridiron, these schools play like they mean it. The Patriot League, the organization where GU chose to home its football program, aspires to Ivy standards.

Georgetown already has in this decade a win over Cornell at the Big Red's own stadium. However, Yale is as tough an opponent Georgetown will face this decade short of a Bowl Subdivision Series program. While I am not a big fan of the other school's fan base hamming it up on our campus, it does show our own student body that big football and big academics can peacefully coexist.

There is a special place in our own fight song for Yale, as hoyasaxa.com ably points out.

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When the famed and state 20th-ranked Odessa Permian Panthers from out in West Texas face off in the Metroplex against #3-ranked Euless Trinity this weekend, Mojo will face a fascinating and highly motivating mashup of Texan passion, Pacific pride and teenage enthusiasm. Euless Trinity employs a version of the Haka war dance used by New Zealand's All Blacks rugby squad. Hawai'i also used the Haka until the team decided to retire it to find a more appropriate local war dance to employ. The reasons for the Haka's popularity in of all places, North Texas, is a tale of the emerging synergies of the global economy.

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Also this weekend, the state and national #1 Southlake Carroll Dragons take on national #2 Miami Northwestern Bulls in one of the most highly anticipated prep games in recent memory. SLC is riding a 49-game win-streak, and the legacy of the Bob Ledbetter and Todd Dodge reigns remains strong with this squad, which features North Texas-bound QB Riley Dodge and Texas-bound RB Tre Newton (son of former Cowboys great Nate Newton). Miami Northwestern boasts no fewer than six commits to the University of Miami, including QB Jacory Harris.

In light of the talent edge favoring Northwestern, SLC appears undermanned. However, the Dragons have beaten teams with similar talent profiles in-state, including Lufkin and Katy.

The game, in light of the Patriots-Jets SIGINT controversy, also apparently has some mischief as well, at least according to the Bulls.

Georgetown's football team has a few kids from Texas on the squad, including some from SLC.

Make sure to tune in to see perhaps a dozen future D-1 BCS and FCS stars at Ford Stadium in Dallas on Saturday.

Counting Tanks in the Fulda Gap

GEN William Odom's excellent book, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, relays an interesting anecdote -- that Soviet military officials trusted the western military journals and publications like Jane's for accurate counts of how big their forces were more than official reports. What any of this has to do with big-time football is up for interpretation, but let me take a stab.

As long as there has been football there have been signals -- signals for defenses, signals for offenses and signals for special teams. And, in response, opposing teams have invested varying levels of efforts in identifying and exploiting those signals for competitive advantage on the field. If an opposing coaching staff could capture the signals, it would have the keys to the kingdom, a way by which to drive a trojan horse through the gates of opposing squads. Within these horses would be special blitz packages, offensive sets exploiting a fatal flaw in the defense, and other assorted tricks.

The recent flap concerning the New England Patriots' signals intercept operation brings to light how much this activity has advanced. It's not enough for the backup quarterback wearing the ballcap and the smartly starched jersey to cover his mouth. It's also not enough for a half dozen grown men to gesticulate like so many mimes on a Parisian thoroughfare to mask what the true signal call really is in this sport.

No, in this case, it appears a modern NFL franchise has a fully integrated electronic information-gathering and supporting electronic warfare capability as well. The first activity is an old-hand practice simply brought into the modern era. The second apparent activity -- not officially confirmed, mind you, but still fascinating -- shows just how far people are willing to go to get a W on the field.

Scouting, and its mischievous sisters spying and sabotage, all play a role in the sport of football. One of the reasons Bowl Subdivision conferences have rules against intra-conference transfers is to prevent top talent from taking competitive data to rival teams. If you want an example of how devastating signals and play formation "source codes" can be in football, look at what Tampa Bay Coach Jon Gruden did when his Buccaneers faced off against the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl a few years ago.

It's really easy nowadays to generate a complete picture of an opposing team using common open-source material. A lot of that has to do with the sports portion of the Internet organizing into a form of collective intelligence that provides everything from comprehensive statistical analysis to the intimate activities of head coaches. The other factor is that technology is lighter, cheaper and more agile than before -- and the trend is continuing in the forward direction, not the other way. You can pack more and more data on smaller and smaller microchips. The smaller the package, and the more data it has, the more information you can carry, and the easier it is to make it portable. In other words, a single IPod probably has more power than WOPR.

Football is a marital sport, as we all know. It is not war, but its characteristics -- formations, groupings of personnel, the craft of specialists like nickel defensive backs and 3rd-down running backs, all lend themselves to martial bearing and style. We always hear words like field general thrown about by the commentariat. However much of an overstatement it is to compare football to war, and indeed, it very much is -- the analogies are easy to make because the parallels, however broad, are there.

It could be a simple task as counting how many tanks the Reds have, ie, how many different formations Arkansas will use against Alabama this week. Or, if we are to believe the assertion in the NY Daily News, it means actively trying to sabotage communications, ie, shooting anti-radiation missiles at a SAM radar site.

In light of the NFL's determination that indeed New England did break the rules, I wonder what steps teams both at the college and pro levels are taking to defend themselves.

This is something to watch as the season progresses at both ranks.

Six Years Forward

As previously noted, one of Georgetown's most solemn traditions is a recent one. Tom Ecobacci (C'96) was one of the 3,000 who perished during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on this country. Today, not only do we pray for the victims, we also extend our prayers to those who protect us and those who have died protecting us in lands far away from home.

It is hard to believe it has been six years since the attacks. So much stands between that terrible day and now -- war, the loss of loved ones, the trials of life and death. Let us hope that such terror does not visit our shores again.

Weekend Recap

I hope everybody had a good weekend. Week 2 of college football was in many ways even wilder than the first weekend.

Georgetown's offensive output dropped dramatically in a 28-7 loss to Lafayette in the Patriot League opener for both squads. Lafayette stormed to a 21-0 halftime lead and safely put the game out of reach when Leopards' DB Michael Quaterman picked off Hoya QB Matt Bassuener and raced 34 yards the other way to make the score 28-0.

Despite the 0-2 (0-1) conference start, Georgetown hosts a most interesting opponent this weekend at the Multi-Sport Facility (MSF) on campus -- Yale. This is the first meeting ever between these two fine academic institutions. Yale is coming off an 8-2 season that included an Ivy League championship. Despite the fact that the Ivies do not play in the Football Championship Series playoff system, the league is generally an excellent one at football's smaller echelon.

Even though Georgetown has already logged two games in this young season, for Yale, this is the opener and only one of two non-conference games the Bulldogs will play (the other against Patriot League power Holy Cross).

Needless to say, a win for Georgetown here would be huge for the program and for our efforts to match the Ivies' performance on the gridiron.

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Meanwhile, down in College Station, the Aggies needed 47 points and three overtimes to top a resilient and tough Fresno State squad 47-45 in a game that featured frantic rallies, fans passing out in heat and mass exoduses to the North End Zone . The Aggies sacrificed a 19-0 lead to Fresno State and overcame a near-death blow in the overtime period to beat the Bulldogs. Human Robeast Jorvorskie Lane blasted through Fresno State for 121 yards and four scores to overcome the Bulldogs' upset bid at Kyle Field.

Depending on your point of view, Texas A&M is either still struggling mightily to throw the football or has deliberately thrown that segment of the playbook overboard. Naturally, the Aggies don't care about this, they got the win, that's all that matters. This week's opponent, Louisiana-Monroe, should be victims through the air and the ground. However, with Miami up on Sept. 20, the Aggies need to show more in the vertical department.

Farmer Air

The last time the Aggies had a serviceable passing game was more than 20 years ago during the Reign of Saint Jackie. When Sherrill left after the 1988 season, the offense remained talented but focused on the running game in the RC Slocum era. In the intervening period, the Aggies never truly had a bona fide deep ball threat at either the quarterback or wideout positions, despite having some nice prospects at the latter (Terrence Murphy, Bethel Johnson, Robert Ferguson, Albert Connell).

Stephen McGee was recruited out of Burnet to be a classic pocket passer. To date, his notable achievements have all come through his legs running Dennis Franchione's option attack. Of course, the Aggies say they want to change that. With results like this, though, it's hard to ditch what works, right?

The problem with that, as we all know, is that for A&M to make noise in the Big 12, it needs a stable passing game. I am not suggesting something along the lines of Texas Tech's offense, but A&M has options looking down the field, including big tight end Martellus Bennett.

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On the Hilltop this week, preparations continue for the Lafayette game. The Washington Post previews the key matchups in GU's Patriot League opener.

Also, congratulations are in order for Hoya alum Alex Buzbee. Despite not making the active 53-man roster for the Washington Redskins, Buzbee was signed to the practice squad. For Head Coach Kevin Kelly, Buzbee's place anywhere near an active NFL roster is a powerful recruiting tool. It's not necessarily that I am under the illusion that overnight GU is going to be a football factory, but having a current active pro takes GU slightly from being a quaint fall diversion to something a little more significant in the university's consciousness.

Recruiting talent nationwide becomes a little bit easier, and allows Coach Kelly to pitch both GU's academic reputation and the promise that an NFL squad will at least look at you for training camp. Coach Kelly having D-1A/Bowl Subdivision experience is in itself a tool to use in recruiting, but this NFL angle will only help the program as it progresses.

Pride After the Fall

Michigan completely fell out of both the AP Top 25 and USA Coaches' Poll as a result of its 34-32 loss to Appalachian State. Losses like this can kill a program. To its credit, Michigan had never scheduled a 1-AA cupcake before, and the one year it does schedule an FCS opponent, it happens to be the two-time defending national champion. Oops.

Lafayette, Georgetown's upcoming opponent, is your typical Patriot League power -- a university dedicated to both strong academics and excellence on the field. As Hoyasaxa.com notes , Lafayette downed Marist 49-10 in its opener. A real treat for GU fans and alumni is that Saturday's conference-opening tilt will be televised, a rarity for 1-AA/FCS programs on the east coast.

Georgetown has a dismal record in the Patriot League after years of competitive dominance in the smaller Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. That said, after being on the steep end of the competitive curve in recent years, Georgetown's lean years in conference play may be behind it as it rolls ahead under coach Kevin Kelly.

A Stony Beginning; Farmers' Fight!

I hope everyone had a restful holiday weekend. We all know Michigan did.

A note about the current Hugest Upset in College Football Ever. Appalachian State had won two straight 1-AA/Football Championship Series titles. The FCS/1-AA field is a mishmash of recognizable programs (Ivy League, Patriot League) and refuges for BCS-level washouts (Sam Houston State, Texas State). However, Appalachian State is a well-constructed team that has all the talent to give a staid Big Ten program like Michigan fits. So, at the objective level, this win makes sense. It was highly improbable, but certainly in this age of parity, definitely possible. Plus, leave it up to the Dallas Morning News to discover a wily Texan, Jerry More, led the Mountaineers to the biggest win in that program's history.

Meanwhile:

While quite not the intimidating sight of Ralphie or Bevo charging at you at breakneck speed, if this isn't indicative of SMU, nothing is.

Georgetown stands at 0-1 for the season after the Hoyas' spirited comeback against Stony Brook fell short by a score of 35-28. The Hoyas face Lafayette next, followed by a highly anticipated 15th Sept. showdown with Yale. Stony Brook sports 12 D-1A transfers. This kind of talent disparity was tough to overcome, but the Hoyas were right there to take it.

Texas A&M did not necessarily roll in its 38-7 win over Montana State, but did score 38 straight points after giving up the opening score of the game to the Bobcats. Perhaps more concerning is that the defense gave up more yards to State than the Aggies gained on offense. One of the more interesting evolutions (or devolutions) is the transformation of Aggie QB Stephen McGee from gunslinging pocket passer in high school in Burnet to Bucky Richardson-esque option threat.

In the meantime, A&M's next opponent is Fresno State. It is the first time these two agricultural-dominant universities face off on the gridiron. As I will be on a jet plane this week, I will miss the first nationally-televised game for both squads this season!