Yes, new students, Georgetown has a football team.

And since they play and practice on the Multi-Sport Facility – at the confluence of seemingly every campus corridor – Leo’s, Yates and the residence halls – simply satisfying your id’s daily needs will bring you in contact with the hard-fighting gridrion Hoyas. Though your superego will tell you there are more pressing matters than stopping to watch a team coming off a 2-9 season and a last-place finish in the Patriot League, you have to get that football fix in somewhere.

Head Coach Kevin Kelly enters his second year at Georgetown with a young team. Gone are the anchors of last season’s offensive and defensive lines, including current Washington Redskin defensive end Alex Buzbee. After producing Georgetown’s first pro football player in over half a century, Kelly feels that he can repeat the success that he had at his previous stints as an assistant at Syracuse, Marshall, and Navy.

“Things have been going real well,” he said following a two-a-day last week. “The incumbents came back in shape, and the younger guys are going to do some things for us this year, so we’re excited about the combination.”

All eyes with be on senior linebacker Stephen Smith this season, as he dons the prominent Number 35 jersey. Each year, a Hoya football player is tapped to wear the number in honor of Joe Eacobacci (COL `96), a former player who was in killed on Sept. 11, 2001. While wearing Number 35 in 2005, Michael Ononibaku (MSB `06) earned first team all-America honors by the American Football Coaches Association, and Buzbee (MSB `07) wore it last season before donning his new burgundy and gold uniform.

Fellow senior linebacker Mike Greene, who notched 58 take-downs in `06, also returns behind a defensive line Kelly believes is one of the team’s strengths.

Senior defensive backs Kevin Cherepski and Darren Alberti add strength to sophomore cornerback Willie Broderick’s blazing speed in retooled secondary.

“Willie’s been doing his thing all summer, and he’s going to show up this year,” junior wide receiver Sidney Baker said of Broderick’s quickness, which has earned him a spot returning punts on special teams.

Senior quarterback Matt Bassuener, who now spends much of his time studying game film or throwing spirals, returns to direct Kelly’s spread option offense after throwing 15 touchdowns last season. If he can find a way to reguarly get the ball in the hands of junior wideout Kenny Mitchell – who led the league in kick return average and caught three TD passes last season – his stats should see a boost. Paired with reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Year Charlie Houghton, a cat-quick Canadian halfback, Mitchell provides Bassuener some options.

“Matt has had a good camp, Charlie is looking good after missing the spring [due to injury], and the line is ready to do some real good things,” Kelly said. “[Sophomore lineman Dan] Matheny and the rest the guys up front came back in real good condition.”

But don’t think that its just intimidating upper classmen making all the big plays. That kid at the end of your hall who you see shuffling out the door in sweats at 6 a.m. could be the next Houghton, who led the team in rushing as a first-year in 2006.

Slotback Mychal Harrison, was an honorable mention all-state running back at Westlake High in Atlanta, the same school that produced Mitchell and notorious NFL star Adam “Pac Man” Jones. He’ll fight for playing time with freshman Anthony Ford, who along with his twin brother and Hoya defensive back Arius, won three state titles under the lights at legendary Carroll High in Southlake, Texas.

If you live on the right side of Harbin, Village C or the Southwest Quad, you’ve already scored season tickets to a home schedule that includes defending league champion Lafayette on Sept. 8, as well as Ivy League bigs Yale and Cornell on Sept. 15 and 29, respectively. Just roll out of bed on Saturday morning, open up your window, and piece together the night before while taking in some Division I football.

And what’s freshman year without a road trip? The team opens the season over Labor Day weekend on Long Island against Stony Brook.

The Seawolves are one of the two teams that fell victim to the Hoyas last fall. But despite the low victory total last season, the 2007 Hoyas have much in common with the freshman class -optimistic, energetic, and largely unproven.

“I’m thinking 28-7, us,” Baker said when asked for a prediction on the season opener.

While the quiet Greene had no such brash prognostications, he did offer an insight into the bigger picture as he jogged off the field last week. “After what we did last year,” he said, “we have nowhere to go but up.”