Be Still My Beating Heart

Will wonders ever cease? Colgate has released video on all of its incoming football recruits!!! It was done rather quietly, but I assure you, it is there. Plenty of juicy highlights to digest as we await patiently for fall camp to begin (nothing like wishing away the summer, no?).

I've begun to post my thoughts around the web in various forums, but I'll restate somethings here too. So far I've been impressed with:

- the speed of Uzoma Idah, a DB who will probably be a return threat.
- the speed and moves of David Ashton, a LB who returns a punt for a TD!
- the strength of Franseco (Frank) Vittorini, a DL who stands up all his blockers (I bet he sees time this fall)
- the offensive line play of Kyle Poinsett. I think he's got a great chance to start next year.
- Patrick Simonds (WR) makes some outstanding catches. I love how he goes up for the ball.
- Tyler Spencer could see time on the DL as well. He's good.
- Mike Gandy at LB brings some heat with him and is putting himself in the right spots
- Tyrone Henry has got some wheels.
- Tony Watts is a heck of a back up to Jordan Scott. Maybe we'll run some sets where he can get the ball out of a wing spot?

I'll view them all in more detail as I get the time. More thoughts to come!

Colgate Lax in Newsday

Nice little article in Newsday today about senior Robert Trasolini and the good fortunes of Colgate lacrosse this year. It also mentions that Nagle has been a key part of Colgate's success. I sure hope we keep him, but given the strides Patriot League lacrosse is making and the fact he now has scholarships to use, I think we just need to keep him happy and he'll be here for a while.

A nice excerpt:

Colgate burst onto the national stage earlier this season when, on a chilly upstate afternoon in mid-March, it beat nationally ranked Navy, 6-3. Trasolini had two goals in the win. The Raiders have also posted wins over Bucknell and Binghamton, victories that could carry a lot of weight in the NCAA selection process.

That would give Trasolini, a biology major with an eye on medical school, a chance to fulfill his dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament. That's something that didn't seem possible when he finally made up his mind and enrolled at Colgate four years ago. Even if he doesn't play in the tournament, Trasolini said lacrosse and Colgate were the best decisions he's ever made, if not the quickest.

I hope this guys NCAA predictions are on. I think if we beat Army and play Navy well, we stand a good chance at large... but then again I also think we're going to win the whole thing! Let's Go 'Gate!!!!!!!!!!!

A Good Read

Big Green Alert (the Dartmouth blog) has a nice interview with Chris Lincoln, the author of the book Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League. The interview is worth the trip over, and the book looks promising as well. I plan on picking up a copy soon.

Give it a read.

Give Jim Nagle a Raise!

By virtue of an 8-6 victory in Lewisburg today, Colgate wins it's first ever men's Patriot League lacrosse title! CONGRATULATIONS COLGATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great season and I don't think we may be done just yet. Home field advantage will be nice as we're 8-0 at home this year, and the games will be tough, but we just might make it to the NCAAs. If you can make it out to Hamilton, Colgate will be hosting Army on Saturday at Tyler's field. Be there!

Now I sit and ponder how awesome it would have been if the women had come through too and Colgate had swept the Patriot League lacrosse season...

Taking a step back though, I think we need to all appreciate just how awesome this year has been athletically at Colgate. In my mind, we just swept the regular season titles in 'major' men's sports at Colgate this year: football, hockey and lacrosse. We've never done that before. I'm pumped! Throw in women's soccer winning a share of the title, the strides made in men's soccer and women's swimming and that's a pretty darn good year for Colgate athletics. It's even more impressive when both football and hockey were 'rebuilding', and men's lacrosse plays in one of the toughest leagues in the country.

Yes dear readers, Colgate sports are alive and well (well, except for basketball perhaps, but no need to really go into that) and in my humble opinion, they look even better next year. Let's Go 'Gate!

Oh, and in my mind, Bucknell's lacrosse program falling to 2-4 in the Patriot League just sealed any lingering doubts about their move to scholarships next year. I think they make a 'Colgate-like' jump in the next 3 months or so.

Spring Practice Comments

In another surprising opening up of Colgate football, we've actually got some comments from Coach Biddle to digest. I'm going to break them down for fun:

First:

"Spring practice was so-so,” said head coach Dick Biddle. “We went into spring practice knowing that we would be down a few players because of injuries. We were able to evaluate some people, and the main purpose of spring practice is to give guys a chance to develop in different situations, which we did.”

I would never expect Biddle to describe the situation in any more positive of terms. So-so is meaningless to me here. The next part is telling though. Spring Practice is much less about overall team performance but rather individual development. Without a game to prepare for, the coaches can have 15 practices to take a look at some new people and give those kids a chance to get better. Looking for 'how the offense did' or 'how the defense did' is less important than maybe some believe.

Then we come to this comment:

“We use that scrimmage to get a lot of hitting in and to work on different situations. We have not done an actual spring game, where we keep score, since I’ve been here,” explained Biddle.

Very interesting to compare this to the rest of Division I. Plenty of places make a big deal about the "One color vs. the other color" spring game. For Colgate, that just isn't the case. We're more about getting some work done. I like that.

Next:

“[Offensive lineman] Rich Rosabella (Naples, Fla.) had an excellent spring and will start next season. Mike Gallihugh (Midlothian, Va.) did a good job at linebacker. Our running backs looked good; Jordan Scott (Hyattsville, Md.) and J.J. Bennett (Cleveland, Ohio) both played well, and along with Steve Hansen (Orlando, Fla.), we definitely have some weapons there. We might have to explore some different ways to get them all enough touches. At wide receiver, David Morgan (Davie, Fla.) had a good spring, and will be our third receiver next season.”

Highlighting Rosabella is confirming what many have thought: he is going to be a VERY good lineman for Colgate and his situational experience last year has helped. Rosabella, with a healthy Jonas and Sulovski, with form a great right side to the offensive line.

Mentioning Gallihugh surprised me a bit. I guess he will have the starting job at one spot. I hope he has matured a bit because I wasn't too impressed in the clean up action I saw of him. Then again, transitioning from high school to college linebacker is probably one of the tougher positions to do that at.

We are DEEP at running back, which is great for a team that likes to run and run some more. "Exploring some ways to get some touches" has me raising my eyebrow a bit....

Morgan at the third wide receiver isn't really too much of a surprise. My curiosity lies with who will be number four. Simonds?

Finally:

Some questions remain to be answered in the fall. The backup quarterback position is still up for grabs, as “all of the backups were up and down during spring practice. One of our primary goals for fall camp is to establish a solid number two quarterback,” according to Biddle. Defensive line is another question mark, where Biddle said, “I could not name any starters right now. I’d be surprised if there are not freshmen on the two-deep and possibly even starting.”

One of the hottest topics on Colgate fan boards is "who will be the #2 QB?". I guess it is still unknown at this time. If you believe the chatter, it is between two players with four years of eligibility left, Pitcher and Meyers.

Defensive line? Freshman? Oh boy. This could be interesting this fall. My fingers are officially crossed.

April 27, 2006: I-AA R.I.P.

The NCAA will meet this month as they always do, except this year the following is on the table for consideration:

(1) Increase the travel party to 135 persons for preliminary rounds and to 150 persons for the championship game. The increase should include increases of a similar percentage for the squad size with these travel party limits.

(2) Local ground transportation expenses covered by the NCAA.

(3) Seeding eight teams in the championship bracket.

(4) Elimination of the current subdivision designations of the Division I-A and I-AA. Institutions that sponsor football should collectively be referred to as “Division I Football” and the former subdivisions would be referred to as “Bowl Division” and “Championship Division” as “Playoff Division.”

They are all of interest, but in particular the last item should be looked at and appears to be happening. It looks like I-AA will become Division I, no subclassification. We'll just be in the Playoff Championship Group. More to come...

2007 Recruiting - already!

Andy from Lafayette (in my opinion the recruiting guru of the Patriot League) picked this one up for us, so I thought I'd share. Current junior Shawn Roser, a 5'9" cornerback out of Washington, D.C., has been offered a spot on Colgate's football team in 2007. The full mention on rivals.com comes from him also being looked at by I-A Maryland of the ACC. Here's the blurb:

Washington (D.C.) Potomac cornerback Shawn Roeser already has an offer from Colgate, but he has picked up his second offer of the season from the ACC. What does the 5-foot-9, 165-pounder think of the offer and does he have any favorites right now?

"A few weeks ago I picked up an offer from Maryland," he said. "It's nice to get the offer from them, but I don't think that is a school I really want to go to. I'm really looking for a place that will give me playing time right away when I get there and somewhere I can get a good education."

I'd venture a guess we've got Maryland beat right now! Just comes down to who else gets in the mix, and if he thinks we'll need a new corner in 2007. We might...

Stony Brook on the move

And most likely Albany soon too. Take a read here.

To summarize, Stony Brook is leaving the NEC in 2007 to become a I-AA independent. They are going to the 63 scholarship max. This is most likely a move towards creating America East football by the end of this decade. I guess Stony Brook has figured out that they shouldn't wait to get to 63 scholarships if they want to be competitive with Maine, UNH, etc. at that time.

And what one does, the other will do too. Albany will make this move shortly too, probably in the same time frame as Stony Brook. We've got the Great Danes on the schedule next year, so they will have two scholarship classes under their belt. This move, if the follow like I think they will, will only help their recruiting.

I've beat this point pretty senseless around the Internet. but it is TIME for Patriot League football scholarships. Pretty much after 2007, Albany and Stony Brook (and who knows who else) will not be mid-majors anymore and they will be luring away a few good recruits from Patriot League schools each year.

I can't say I love this press

A column in Slate just popped up on my radar screen. The acticle is about the culture of lacrosse players in light of the Duke lacrosse incident. The author makes many statements about the priviledged backgrounds of lacrosse players and uses this snide comment to get his point home:

Some aficionados take pride in the fact that their sport was invented by Native Americans, but I don't imagine many members of the Onondaga Nation end up playing lax at Colgate.

How I'd love to have an example to shoot back to this writer to prove him wrong...

Fun Football Facts

I've become a fan of the I-AA football website, www.diaafootball.com, and came up with some of these facts from the site. Since 1973:

• Colgate has had 42 different opponents
• 10 of those 42 opponents are now I-A programs
• Colgate's record against teams that are now I-AA is 180-117-4 for a .605 winning percentage
• Colgate has winning records against 17 of our 42 opponents. Some records of domination that really stand out: 20-9 vs. Bucknell, 10-0 vs. Columbia (now you know why they dropped us), 22-7 vs. Cornell, 9-2 vs. Dartmouth, 14-3 vs. Fordham, 24-6-2 vs. Lafayette, 8-0 vs. Towson
• Some records of dissappointment: 0-1 vs. CCSU, 0-5 vs. Delaware, 2-5-1 vs. Penn, 3-8 vs. Yale
• Some hotly contest battles: 3-3 vs. Harvard, 17-16 vs. Holy Cross (god that feels good after losing every year straight from 83-96), 14-16-1 vs. Lehigh (we'll take a step closer to .500 this fall!), 12-10 vs. Princeton

There are plenty of other fun facts on the site, but I thought I'd highlight some of those. Only 5 months till fall camp!