Halfway between Halloween and Thanksgiving last season, in weather that could not decide between snow and rain, two 2-8 football teams slugged through four monotonous quarters of football in the Bronx. In the end, Fordham stepped on Georgetown’s head and dragged itself out of the quagmire that is last place in the Patriot League with a 38-30 victory. Nearly a year later, the Rams have fought their way out of the muck and into the upper echelon of the conference, while the Hoyas remain mired in mediocrity.
Following momentous wins over Colgate and Lehigh, second-year coach Tom Masella has Fordham off to its best start in league play in half a decade coming into Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff with Georgetown at the Multi-Sport Facility. The Rams are 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference.
“When you win a few of those games, kids start believing that good things can happen,” Masella said in a recent phone interview. “Last year, we just had to sift through our personnel and adjust, but a lot of those guys are making plays for us now.”
As Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Kelly said of the Patriot League-leading Rams Wednesday, “They are on a roll.”
For now, Kelly and his team are just rolling with the punches. Following a 42-13 pasting at Penn, the Hoyas are sinking ever closer to rock bottom. They own the league’s worst record and rank dead last in offensive production and total defense.
“We’re a young football team, and we’re making sophomore and freshman mistakes right now,” Kelly said Wednesday. “We’re just getting out-physicalled sometimes. We just need to keep plugging away. There were some good things in the first and the second half [of the Penn game],
so we just need to focus on that now.”
In order to jump-start an anemic offense, the Georgetown coaching staff has taken a page from Florida Head Coach Urban eyer’s 2006 playbook. Sophomore quarterback Robert Lane – who runs so well he shared time with Patriot League rookie of the year Charlie Houghton in the backfield last season – has split snaps with senior Matt Bassuener and even started in Bassuener’s stead last Saturday while the team captain nursed an injured knee. No matter who is calling the signals, senior fullback Kyle van Fleet will remain a fixture in the backfield. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound steel spring from Williamsport, Pa., did all the scoring for Georgetown last weekend at Franklin Field, catching two touchdown passes from Bassuener in the second half.
“Kyle runs the ball real well, and he’s big and strong,” Kelly said of his offensive co-captain. “We’re just trying to find as many ways as possible to get him the football.”
Whether it is lining Van Fleet up in an I Formation with Lane under center or switching the fullback to slot with Bassuener in the shotgun, offensive coordinator Jim Miceli will employ multiple looks to try and keep Fordham defensive standouts Dominique Owens and Matt Loucks on their toes. Owens – a senior linebacker from Columbia, Md. – has 56 tackles on the season, and Loucks, a junior free safety, has 46 stops and a pick in his third season in maroon and white.
“[Louks] improved a good deal over the past year and he’s making plays in the secondary,” Masella said, adding that he has been pleasantly surprised by a strong start from the Rams’ young defensive line. “And our linebackers have been playing hard and with a lot of passion.”
After watching Penn running back Joe Sandberg dash past his defense for 113 yards and two touchdowns in the first half Saturday, Kelly figured his film session come Sunday would be a long and arduous affair. But what the second-year coach saw came as a surprise.
“There’s an old adage [when watching film] that it’s never as bad as you think, but it’s never as good as you think,” Kelly said. “Last week wasn’t as bad as I thought. We were a few steps behind here, a few steps behind there.”
Kelly was without defensive stalwarts Chudi Obianwu and Travis Zorrilla, who had come on strong in recent weeks for the young defense desperate for hard hitting play makers. On Saturday, Zorrilla, a junior linebacker, and Obianwu, a sophomore defensive end, could only watch from sidelines as Penn ravaged the Hoya defense for 433 total yards.
The Rams’ two tailbacks – senior Jonte Coven and freshman Xavier Martin – are roadrunner fast and will have ample opportunities to attack a Hoya defense that has surrendered 505 rushing yards over its past two contests.
“Our running backs aren’t real big, but they’ve done a good job,” Masella said of the pair of 5-foot-9, 175 pound speedsters. “We have to get those guys in open space. When they get past the second level, they are dangerous.”
Georgetown has not won a football game since the first week of last November. The last hopes for a winning season were dashed in Philadelphia. Van Fleet and the rest of a senior class who are trying desperately not to leave behind a losing legacy are running out of time – and patience.
“The only way to begin to heal and get better is to win,” Van Fleet said. “We’ve been working hard all week and by Saturday, were hoping to get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
