Category: Lafayette Leopards
Leopards Keep their Feet on the Ground after Win
They didn’t dance in the Lafayette locker room Saturday following the Leopards’ 26-21 Patriot League victory over Fordham.
It wasn’t that the victory was insignificant. It was that the dancing was inappropriate.
‘’That was for the first half of the season,'’ coach Frank Tavani said Sunday. ‘’There will be no more dancing until the proper time.'’
He never identified ‘’the proper time,'’ but it doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines. It’s about focus. The next dance should not be expected until the Leopards can check off the phrase ‘’Patriot League champions'’ on their 2009 goals list.
Lafayette-Fordham: Rams' Masella Blasts Refs
You know you’re in for something when the coach starts his press conference by saying, “I have to be careful what I say today because, uh … it’s hard to beat 18 guys. Lafayette’s a helluva football team but it’s hard to beat 18 guys.”
That was Fordham’s Tom Masella following Lafayette’s 26-21 Patriot League victory Saturday in Fisher Stadium.
“I saw two of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in football today,” he added.
Patriot Games: Scholarships Pose Threat to the Ivy Way
Imagine, for a second, that instead of traveling to Holy Cross tomorrow to watch Harvard take on the Crusaders, you were one of over 30,000 fans packing into a maximum-capacity Harvard Stadium as the Crimson kicked off its season against a major-conference team, say, Boston College. It’s a pleasant thought, but the reality is far more complex.
Fordham’s decision in June to begin awarding football scholarships starting with this year’s recruiting class piqued the interest of a lot of people in the Ivy League football community. The move shows a changing mentality in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly Division 1-AA), which includes the Ancient Eight.
“It’s something we’re definitely keeping an eye on because if they go scholarships—we’re talking about the league now—it will change dramatically,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “The last time any Patriot League school had scholarships in that league was Holy Cross in the ’80s and ’90s. They dominated Eastern football at this level in a way that wasn’t seen before and hasn’t been seen since.”
No. 24 Liberty U. Big Test for Lafayette
Leopards, coming off opening win over Georgetown, will have little room for error.
If Frank Tavani and his Lafayette football team were in even a little hot water Saturday night in Washington, D.C., that was nothing compared to the Flames that will engulf the Leopards this week.
‘’That won’t be good enough,'’ Tavani said of the Leopards’ 28-3 Patriot League victory over Georgetown.
That comment came at Lafayette’s weekly media luncheon Tuesday. He said pretty much the same thing immediately after the game, and while he never mentioned any names then, it was pretty clear what he was saying: Lafayette will have to be a different team if it expects to win its home opener against the nationally ranked Liberty University Flames at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Leopards Healthy, Happy After Opening Victory
Two dozen doughnuts went uneaten Sunday in the Lafayette trainer Matt Bayly’s physical therapy room in the Bourger Varsity Football House.
‘’Leftover doughnuts,'’ head coach Frank Tavani said, ‘’is a good Sunday morning.'’
What it meant was the Leopards came out of their season-opening 28-3 victory over Georgetown without a lot of injuries that required immediate therapy.
Lafayette Opens Season at Georgetown
EASTON - A new-look coaching staff has led to a streamlined playbook with the goal of a more efficient offense as Lafayette College prepares for its season opener Saturday night at Georgetown.
After a rare bye in Week 1, the Leopards can’t wait to try out their offense in the first game ever played under the lights on the Washington, D.C. campus.
“I know for me it’s a lot easier because I’m not making any more calls,” senior guard Brian Wycinowski said. “I mean, (center) Mike Wojcik has to get up to the line, he has to read the safeties, he has to read the linebackers, then the D-lineman, then he’s got to call his protection. I just sit up there and wait for what he calls.
Leopards are preparing for a championship
Diets, workouts have a bunch of Lafayette seniors focused on one thing – a league title.
It was probably no coincidence that Tyrell Coon and DeAndre Morrow sat at a table with offensive linemen Ryan Hart-Predmore, Michael Wojcik and Brian Wycinowski on Wednesday at Lafayette’s football media day luncheon.
Coon and Morrow have spent the last couple of months eating like burly offensive linemen.
Meanwhile, Maurice White, who has a plan that encourages him to eat six meals a day, sat at the other end of the room. Maybe that was by design, too, because unlike Coon and Morrow, putting on weight is not the goal for White. In fact, he’d welcome losing a bit.
Lafayette Excited About Prospects for Return to Top
Considering how banged up the Lafayette College Leopards are at the moment, being idle until Sept. 12 might be the best thing that could happen to them.
Actually, the schedule sets up nicely for them in their quest to get back to the top of the Patriot League, which they were in command of last season until a brutal final month dropped the Leopards out of contention.
Opening at Georgetown, traditionally the weakest football link in an otherwise extremely balanced conference, helps ease Lafayette in. Difficult non-league home games with Liberty and Penn follow, but the bottom line is that the Leopards don’t have to go on the road for a league game again until Nov. 14, when they visit Holy Cross.
Dominic Randolph, Holy Cross Vying for First Patriot League Title Since 1991
Dominic Randolph remembers it well: The interception. In fact, he brought it up himself earlier this month during a conversation at the Patriot League’s annual football media day at Green Pond Country Club in Bethlehem Township.
The pick, by Colgate cornerback Wayne Moten with 11 minutes remaining in the Raiders’ 28-27 victory last November, all but sealed the league championship and the team’s eighth trip to postseason playoffs.
“It, obviously, was frustrating,” said Randolph, who played that game in Hamilton, N.Y., as a “senior.” The immediate future for football at Holy Cross took on a rosier hue last December, when the Patriot League granted the Crusaders’ prolific quarterback a medical redshirt season and fifth year of eligibility. The Crusaders, staring at a middle-of-the-pack finish, now are positioned to win their first championship since 1991.
And Randolph has one final season to make amends.
2009 Patriot League Football Preseason Poll and Award Winners Announced
Bethlehem, Pa. - After finishing one game off the pace in each of the last three seasons, Holy Cross has been picked to capture the 2009 Patriot League Football Championship in a poll of the League’s head coaches and sports information directors, it was announced at Tuesday’s Football Media Day at Green Pond Country Club.
The Crusaders were picked first on half of the 14 ballots, and finished with 67points to earn the top spot. Defending champion Colgate was just behind with six first-place votes and 64 points. Archrivals Lafayette and Lehigh shared the third position in the poll, each garnering 46 points while the Mountain Hawks also took home the remaining first-place vote. Fordham (35), Bucknell (24) and Georgetown (12) round out the rankings.
- 949 words - Patriot League, Holy Cross Crusaders, Bucknell Bison, Fordham Rams, Colgate Raiders, Georgetown Hoyas, Lafayette Leopards, Lehigh Mountain Hawks Patriot League discusses football scholarships
Fordham has declared its intent to offer athletics scholarships for football student-athletes beginning in 2010, and the Patriot League now will grapple with whether to allow its member institutions to follow suit.
The league’s presidents will decide by December 31, 2010, what direction to take.
- 866 words - Patriot League, Holy Cross Crusaders, Bucknell Bison, Fordham Rams, Colgate Raiders, Georgetown Hoyas, Lafayette Leopards, Lehigh Mountain Hawks Six Patriot Leaguers Receive Preseason FCS All-America Recognition
Center Valley, Pa. - Six Patriot League football student-athletes have recently been named to a preseason Football Championship Subdivision All-America team, including a pair of honors for Holy Cross senior quarterback Dominic Randolph and Colgate senior wide receiver Pat Simonds.
Randolph and Simonds were second-team selections by both The Sports Network and Phil Steele’s 2009 College Football Preview. Lehigh senior linebacker Matt Cohen was the only first-team preseason All-American out of the Patriot League as he was honored by Phil Steele’s. Three players joined Randolph and Simonds on The Sports Network list, as Lafayette junior kicker Davis Rodriguez was also a second-team choice while Bucknell junior wide receiver Shaun Pasternak and Lehigh junior offensive lineman Will Rackley were placed on the third team.
- 611 words - Patriot League, Holy Cross Crusaders, Bucknell Bison, Fordham Rams, Colgate Raiders, Georgetown Hoyas, Lafayette Leopards, Lehigh Mountain Hawks Can the Ivy League Get Its Game Back?
Lackluster teams prompt calls for change; a new chief’s listening tour.
The schools of the Ivy League are among the nation’s finest and richest, with billions in endowments under their command. From law to business to medicine, they’re No. 1 in practically every department but one: sports.
Why are the Ancient Eight increasingly irrelevant in the most competitive arena of all? The short answer, the long-accepted one, is that they choose to be: that they won’t sacrifice their academic ideals by giving athletic scholarships to athletes. But other factors—like a long-standing ban on postseason football games and the schools’ academic standards for athletes—appear to be dragging the league down.
A Fun Final Night of Spring Football at Lafayette
EASTON - Who’s at quarterback, what’s at tailback, I don’t know’s at wide receiver.
Lafayette College’s Maroon & White spring football game Friday night wasn’t exactly an Abbott & Costello routine, but it did feature an updated version of the Immaculate Reception and might have helped ease the uncertainty of those positions as the Leopards wrapped up spring practice in spirited style at Fisher Stadium.
Lafayette's Tavani Pleased with Team Speed
The night’s only touchdown pass was moved along off the hands of two defensive backs. A couple of tailbacks who couldn’t make the two-deep played ahead of three who did.
The No. 1 linebacker got only six plays, and the starting quarterback had so little time on the field that he jokingly asked a reporter if his eye black was smeared.
The Friday night event was the annual Maroon and White Game, the last of 15 spring practices, played under game conditions that were almost as confusing as the United States tax code.
Lafayette Football Enjoys a Physical Spring
Preparations for Lafayette College’s 2009 football season began last December when the coaches put together a ‘’lowlights'’ film showing the plays that may have been the difference between a playoff berth and the reality: three losses in the final four games for a 7-4 finish.
The most physical of coach Frank Tavani’s 10 spring practice periods as Leopards’ head coach will conclude with a 75- or 80-play game-conditions scrimmage at 7:30 tonight in Fisher Stadium.
And earlier this week, Tavani promised that ‘’the first two weeks of preseason summer camp [beginning Aug. 14] will be the most physical preseason camp we’ve ever been through.'’
Patriot League Teams Begin Spring Games This Weekend
Five Schools Will Also Host Bone Marrow Registration Drive
With the spring football practice schedule wrapping up throughout the Patriot League, four teams will play their spring intra-squad game this weekend and two more will follow next week.
- 398 words - Patriot League, Holy Cross Crusaders, Georgetown Hoyas, Lafayette Leopards, Lehigh Mountain Hawks Wood's Kajmo Selects Lafayette
In the end, a visit to the campus was all it took for Scott Kajmo to decide he wanted to play football at Lafayette College.
The 6-foot-4, 280-pound senior lineman, who helped Archbishop Wood advance to the PIAA Class AAA state championship game, knew he wanted to join head coach Frank Tavani’s program after spending 24 hours on campus.
The Leopards Open Spring Drills with a Roar
Lafayette will not be opening its football season tonight, next week or even next month; but you wouldn’t have known that judging from Friday’s opening of Spring practice.
Intensity was the order of the day from the 4:30 start to the 6:40 finish. And when most of the squad left the Fisher Stadium field for the locker room, the offensive linemen had to do a bit of detention because the coach was not totally satisfied with their performance.
Lafayette Football Team has Questions to Answer as Spring Practice Begins
For four years, Lafayette played some of its best football in the final month of the regular season – it won three in a row in 2007, four in a row in 2006 and three of the last four in 2005 and 2004.
Last fall, the Leopards went in the other direction. A season of promise fell apart down the stretch when they lost three of the last four, including their first since 2003 to arch-rival Lehigh. The final record, a respectable 7-4, had a distinctly unfulfilled feel.
That’s the way it is when the bar has been set as high as coach Frank Tavani and company raised it while establishing Lafayette as a perennial favorite in the Patriot League.
XML Feeds