Nine months after the fact, during the Patriot League’s annual football media day earlier this month at Green Pond Country Club, the losing Colgate Raiders were still lamenting their 56-49 defeat to Lafayette, a back-and-forth, whiz-bang affair at Fisher Stadium.

It might’ve been the league’s most entertaining afternoon in years.

“Frustrating” is the way Colgate quarterback Greg Sullivan described the outcome after helping produce 558 yards of offense 279 rushing and 279 passing with no interceptions. Sullivan is the league’s preseason offensive player of the year.

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Raiders running back Nate Eachus is unable to get the excruciatingly long bus ride back to Hamilton, N.Y., out of his mind, knowing his 216 rushing yards and five touchdowns were not enough.

One game separated last year’s champion, Holy Cross, from the league’s other powers Lafayette, Colgate and Lehigh. This year’s champion will come from the same group. Bucknell is learning new systems from first-year coach Joe Susan; Fordham, which has gone to scholarships, isn’t eligible for the champion’s automatic NCAA playoff berth; and there is no reason to believe Georgetown isn’t the same old Georgetown.

“Those games in the top tier of the league are a lot of fun to play,” Lafayette linebacker Michael Schmidlein said.

“And with the NCAA playoff bid,” defensive tackle Mike Phillips added, “you just know what’s at stake in those games.”

“It comes down to execution and discipline at the end of those games,” said Holy Cross defensive end Mude Ohimor, the league’s preseason defensive player of the year. “The skill level among these teams is fairly even.”

“Everybody in this room was recruited by other Patriot League teams,” Sullivan said. “It’s all the same type of talent. Every championship season comes down to four or five plays. It’s unfair, but that’s the way it is. Everything is in the details.”

Colgate gets our nod and the league’s despite academics sidelining the Raiders’ leading rusher, Jordan McCord. Eachus put up 919 yards, 11 behind McCord, despite missing three games with an injury. He was a first team all-league player after being named rookie of the year in 2008.

Sullivan, overshadowed last year by Fordham’s John Skelton and Holy Cross’ Dominic Randolph, is a master at running coach Dick Biddle’s read-and-react offense, putting up 2,740 total yards and 25 touchdowns. “Our wide receiver corps is good but lacks playing experience,” Sullivan said. “That’s a big key.”

“In our first six games they’ll get some experience and we’ll get to see who fits where,” said Eachus, a Hazleton resident whose dad, Todd, D-Luzerne, is House Majority Leader in the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Doug Rosnick, with 29 catches for 396 yards, is the top returning receiver. The defense features cornerbacks Coree Moses and Demitri Diamond, the league’s rookie of the year who started all 11 games.

The offense led the league last year in rushing, time of possession, red-zone offense and third-down conversions. That probably won’t change.

Nobody comes close to returning more all-league players than defending champion Holy Cross. However, one of them is not Randolph.

Ohimor, strong safety Anthony DiMichele and placekicker Rob Dornfried were first-team selections last fall, while wide receivers Freddie Santana and Luke Chmielinski, TE Alex Schneider, RT Mike McCabe, FS Alex Johnson and P Don Lemieux were second-team picks.

The Crusaders go into the new season with two quarterbacks Ryan Taggert, who likes to run the ball, and 6-foot-4 Kevin Watson, a drop-back, pocket passer from Montgomery High School. The Crusaders return seven of last year’s top receivers, including veteran Bill Edger, a fifth-year medical redshirt.

“I think we’ll be right back in the thick of things,” coach Tom Gilmore said. “We have potential. We have the talent. Usually there are four teams that can win it every year.”

Fordham, which produced league championship teams in 2002 and ‘07, was the most-penalized team a year ago by a whopping 19 flags an area that contributed to the Rams’ failure to contend for another crown.

Players to watch are first team All-Patriot tight end Stephen Skelton and punter Patrick Murray, and a pair of second-teamers in defensive tackle Jordan Bledsoe and inside linebacker Nick Magiera. Darryl Whiting and Xavier Martin are productive running backs, and corner Isa Abdul El-Quddus intercepted three passes in last year’s Cornell game.

The Rams also picked up a couple of transfers from Hofstra, which dropped football running back Carlton Koonce and wideout Nick Talbert.

Bucknell hasn’t won a league title since 1996, under the late Tom Gadd. The Bison will be interesting to watch as they switch from Tim Landis’ double-slot option offense to Susan’s pro-style attack. Susan, 54, was a Bison assistant for 10 seasons (1981-90). He later served on Princeton’s staff and most recently was the recruiting coordinator at Rutgers. In his only previous year as a head coach, Susan led Davidson to a 10-0 season in 2000 the only unbeaten team in Wildcats history.

Incumbent quarterback C.J. Hopson led Bucknell in rushing as a sophomore but is still trying to convince Susan and his staff that he can make the transition. Hopson completed only 37 percent of his passes with no touchdowns and five interceptions last fall.

The offense features Shaun Pasternak, a record-setting wideout who missed most of last season with an ankle injury. Pasternak was the team’s MVP in 2008 after leading the league with 72 receptions for a school-record 1,083 yards and 12 touchdowns. Anthony Carter, a junior from Freedom, begins his third season as the starting right guard. Tackle Robert De La Rosa and strong safety Ahkiel White of Franklin, who tied for the league with four interceptions last fall, head up the defense.

Georgetown, coming off its third winless league season in the last four years and riding a 12-game losing streak since beating Marist in 2008, has only one way to go. Hoyas teams are a combined 6-49 in their nine league seasons.

They begin with 15 returning starters, led by linebacker Nick Parrish, whose 110 tackles last fall led the league. Defensive end Andrew Schaetzke finished among the league leaders with 5½ sacks and 9½ tackles for losses.

Patriot League football season plans to be close battle again in 2010
By ED LAUBACH, The Express-Times
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