I'm Brooke Rayder and I'll be bringing you the news and notes from Georgetown's Patriot League Championship Game against Lehigh today from Goodman Stadium in Bethlehem, Pa. I'm sure you are at home anxiously awaiting the 12:30 kick-off from your homes (unless you're here). Make sure you are tuning into today's free live audio webcast featuring Chuck Timanus and Ryan Sakamoto. If you have to step away from the blog or the broadcast you can also get updates by following Hoyas_Football on Twitter.
It's a beautiful day for Patriot League football in Bethlehem, Pa. Sunny, breezy, around 50 degrees, the last of the fall foliage is flying around on the field.
A little bit about the series: Lehigh leads 11-5, and 10-0 since Georgetown joined the Patriot League in 2001. The last Georgetown win against Lehigh was in 1925, with a 40-0 victory for the Hoyas.
You know what the Hoyas haven't had in 86 years? A chance to control their bid to the Division I FCS Championship. With a rushing defense that ranks 7th in the nation, the Hoyas look to stop a Lehigh offense that averages 491 yards per game.
Robert McCabe and Andrew Schaetzke are up to the task. Schaetzke has 11.5 sacks this season, leading the Patriot League. McCabe had 13 tackles in the win against Fordham last week, and 119 total on the season. I guarantee you Ryan Sakamoto could not throw down that many tackles in the Sports Information Department.
So here we are, getting ready for the starting line-ups! Make sure to click for more information as the game gets going.
We're in Staten Island, N.Y., home of the Wu Tang Clan and the Wagner
College Seahawks, today's opponent. The trip is Georgetown's first to
Wagner College Stadium since 2000.
Today's game will be just the third meeting in program history, with the
Hoyas and Seahawks splitting the pair of previous games. Last year's
game was a heartbreaker for the Hoyas, as Wagner placekicker made a
career-long 54 yard field goal to send the game to overtime, where
Wagner won in two overtimes, 22-16.
Offensively this has been a much improved team than it was a year ago.
The Hoyas have already scored 151 points through five games and have
featured one of the most explosive offenses in the Patriot League. They
also have the third best red zone offense in the nation converting on
18-of-19 trips inside their opponents 20 yard line.
On defense, junior linebacker Robert McCabe continues to impress. Coming
into today's game, McCabe is leading the Patriot League, averaging over
10 tackles per game. Sophomore outside linebacker Dustin Wharton is
also among the league's top five players in that category. It would be
difficult to talk about defense without mentioning senior defensive end
Andrew Schaetzke. Schaetzke is tied for the league lead with 5.5 sacks
and second with 9.5 tackles for loss, despite often facing double and
triple teams this season. That is expected continue.
The weather today could not be anymore different than the weather last
weekend in Lewisburg, Pa. Right now in Staten Island, it's 64 degrees,
not a cloud in the sky and a nice breeze that we can feel with the
windows in the pressbox just opening up. Right now, we're watching both
teams warm up with a nice view of the Verrazano Bridge. Interestingly
the pre-game music is of the unedited variety, which is always a jolt
for people who work a lot of events, where cleanliness of lyrics is next
to Godliness.
I'll be back soon with starters and then throughout the game as our
internet connection allows! Also, make sure to follow Hoyas_Football on
twitter and get to the app store if you're on your smartphone and
download the new GUHoyas app!
Good Morning Georgetown Football Fans and welcome to the blog!
We're a little over an hour away from kick-off here at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in rainy Lewisburg, Pa. It's a chilly, windy 54 degrees, the kind of Pennsylvania day where you round up the guys in the neighborhood for some tackle football at the park. Luckily, we're about to see just that.
Today's game with Bucknell has built up a little bit of hype around the Patriot League, with the Hoyas and Bison both entering today with 3-1 records. Not so bad for two teams picked to finish in the cellar prior to the season. Even The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. is talking about the Hoyas... http://articles.mcall.com/2011-09-28/sports/mc-patriot-notebook-0928-20110928_1_scott-darby-hoyas-patriot-league
The matchup will feature this past week's Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week (GU QB Scott Darby) and Defensive Player of the Week, Bucknell's defensive end Josh Eden. Eden, who had an interception return for a TD, a safety and a fumble recovery in last week's win against Princeton. Darby, as you may remember accounted for five touchdowns and had the best completion percentage in GU history (81.8 percent).
PATRIOT LEAGUE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR PREVIEW... Bucknell's Eden and Andrew Schaetzke are both among the top defensive players in the league. Schaetzke leads the PL in sacks and tackles for loss, while Eden is fourth in sacks and fifth in tackles for loss.
KEEP READING AFTER THE JUMP FOR STARTERS AND MUCH MORE...
Welcome to the Georgetown Football Game Day Live Blog!
We are a little over an hour away from game time here at Tenney Stadium on the campus of Marist. It's a beautiful day here for football, though a little bit muggy. Currently it's a 75 degrees and despite the forecast for rain, the sun is starting to peek through the clouds, just a bit.
Prior to leaving our digs at the Clarion the offense and defense took separate ends of the parking lot and went through its pre-game walk-through. I can only imagine what the other hotel guests were thinking if they looked out of their windows at around 10:30 a.m.
Anyway, we are now all set up in the press box. I'm sitting up here next to Chuck Timanus, the voice of the Hoyas. Make sure if you are reading this that you are also tuning into the free audio broadcast on GUHoyas.com today!
The press box here at Marist is not like any other that I have seen in my travels with Georgetown football. First, it's open-air which is nice and not rare. But the large, luxury suite-like areas set up for VIP's, is very different. Chuck and I are less then screen pass-distance away from Marist fans who are enjoying wine, beer and finger sandwiches. It will be interesting to see how that crowd progresses through the game.
On to football...Scott Darby will be starting at quarterback today. Isaiah Kempf will sit out after taking a big hit last week against Yale. Darby was under center for the Hoyas win against Marist in the Hoyas, 14-7 win over the Red Foxes last season.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: These two teams, while not natural rivals, have played some very close games, with six of the last seven being decided by a touchdown or less and two going into overtime. Each team has done a good job of defending its home field. Georgetown has not won in Poughkeepsie since 1999.
I'll be back with Georgetown starters and more information about the game and surroundings from Tenney Stadium throughout the afternoon. Make sure to follow us after the jump throughout the afternoon and keep your finger on that refresh button!
After boarding a plane for Texas this weekend, I never thought that the D.C. area was going to get as much snow as it did. Like Ryan, whenever they talk about the blizzard of "insert year here", I just assume it will snow some, turn to rain or the dreaded freezing rain, and ice up/melt within a day or so. Flash forward to Saturday and turning on the hotel tv.......bummer for all the people who were stuck in the blizzard. I received text messages and pictures of the streets and scenes (a grocery-store line a mile long, people buying things for the armageddon, etc.). At this point I just figured there would be some flight delays and changed the channel to some hoops.
Hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving and got to spend the holiday with people they care about. Turkey Day consisted of sleeping in, eating good food and watching a Bronco win to cap it all off. My parents have moved from just outside Philadelphia to Allentown,
Pa so the drive has turned into a 3 1/2 hour trip up I-95 to a 3 1/2
hour trek across I-83 and I-76. Not that this matters to many, but the
scenery is definitely different.
For all the pluses the world of instant internet communications offer the college sports Information office, the minuses are growing. Yes, we can now publish our own content, regardless of the sports editor's opinion of its newsworthiness and the information void that plagued "Olympic" sports has disappeared in the face of sport specific web pages. It is true that we have grown beyond traditional media (radio, TV, Newspapers) and can now instantly supply the fans with stats, video and detailed written accounts. Blogs like this even allow a sports information officer to become his/her own columnist, and all without an editor.
Hope
everyone had a nice day off for Columbus Day and if you didn't have a day off,
thennnn you know what it's like to work in sports information.But today, today is a new day.It is Tuesday here in wonderful McDonough and
that can only mean one thing ... blog updating!!!
Since it's a holiday, this is going to be a quick one, but just because the university it closed it doesn't mean we don't have work to do.Basketball media guides are being finished up, we have home games this week and people still need interviews so even though it is a Casual Monday we are still plugging away.I also want to let my boss, Bill Shapland, know that I was here at 11 a.m. waiting for our weekly meeting and I'm not sure why he didn't show...
