For those who are interested - below the flip are my selection of picks tomorrow's Patriot League football games being played.
For my picks of the rest of the week, click here to visit the College Sporting News and read: "Rising Redhawks, Sinking Salukis", where I pick the Sports Network Top 25.
Last weekend - to quote a trashy one, oops, I did it again. Again I had a great week, going 4-1, and only missing the Lafayette/Princeton game that went into overtime and could have gone either way. Picking Assumption to beat Fordham - a pick I'm particularly proud of - as well as picking Georgetown to beat Holy Cross, Colgate to fall to Syracuse, and Lehigh to fall to New Hampshire, it was another good week in Chuckland. That puts my record on the year at 15-8. (more)
Georgetown at Colgate. At 2-0 in the league - amazingly - the Hoyas have a chance to put themselves in the drivers' seat for the Patriot League title and autobid should they go to Hamilton this weekend and beat QB Greg Sullivan and the Raiders. Could it happen for WR Keerome Lawrence and Georgetown? While they are certainly a better team than they once were, beating Colgate in Hamilton, they'll find out, is quite another matter - especially since the Raiders, far from flopping in front of Syracuse, actually matched up with them pretty well for a half and change.
Raider Order 35, No Hoya Harmageddon 16
Fordham at Holy Cross. This year's 'Holy War' - or, as alums themselves have called it on the message boards, the 'Jesuit Jihad' - has added meaning in the sense that both teams will be very, very eager to come away with a win and some momentum. The big difference? The Crusader defense, lead by DE Mude Ohimor, has been stifled by an ineffective offense, and while the Rams have has some issues, scoring points with QB Blake Wayne hasn't been one of them.
Ram Bones 29, Holy Rollers 11
Cornell at Bucknell. Televised for the first time nationally on CBS College Sports, as a proud Patriot League fan I am pulling very, very hard for the Bison to do Christy Mathewson proud and win one for the Hall of Famer. But will last week's bye week be enough? In this "battle of the 'Nells" - and also, incidentally, this battle of winless teams - Bucknell will need their freshman QB Brandon Wesley to reverse their awful offensive statistics in a hurry if they hope to come away victorious. Fortunately for head coach Joe Susan, Cornell's offense is in no better shape - and with the TV cameras on hand to record it, Joe Susan gets his first win.
Nell's Bells (Bucknell's) 15, Hell's Nells (Cornell's) 8
Harvard at Lafayette. Looking uncannily like the Lehigh of the past few years, Lafayette's 0-3 record has been the product of three straight excruciating fall-from-ahead finishes, including last weekend's 36-33 double-overtime heartbreaker where WR Mark Layton dropped a third down TD reception that might have been the difference. They face a Harvard team loaded with talent that discovered somewhere last weekend that Brown would not make their coronation easy, after humbling the Crimson 29-14. Does QB Andrew Hatch come to Easton and put last week's rough game behind him? Or does Lafayette figure out how to win close games this week? With a motivated team after last weekend's tough loss - and a team I still feel is loaded with talent - I think Hatch's Crimson come out on top.
Escape Hatches 35, Pacing Leopards 20
For my picks of the rest of the week, click here to visit the College Sporting News and read: "Rising Redhawks, Sinking Salukis", where I pick the Sports Network Top 25.
Last weekend - to quote a trashy one, oops, I did it again. Again I had a great week, going 4-1, and only missing the Lafayette/Princeton game that went into overtime and could have gone either way. Picking Assumption to beat Fordham - a pick I'm particularly proud of - as well as picking Georgetown to beat Holy Cross, Colgate to fall to Syracuse, and Lehigh to fall to New Hampshire, it was another good week in Chuckland. That puts my record on the year at 15-8. (more)
Georgetown at Colgate. At 2-0 in the league - amazingly - the Hoyas have a chance to put themselves in the drivers' seat for the Patriot League title and autobid should they go to Hamilton this weekend and beat QB Greg Sullivan and the Raiders. Could it happen for WR Keerome Lawrence and Georgetown? While they are certainly a better team than they once were, beating Colgate in Hamilton, they'll find out, is quite another matter - especially since the Raiders, far from flopping in front of Syracuse, actually matched up with them pretty well for a half and change.
Raider Order 35, No Hoya Harmageddon 16
Fordham at Holy Cross. This year's 'Holy War' - or, as alums themselves have called it on the message boards, the 'Jesuit Jihad' - has added meaning in the sense that both teams will be very, very eager to come away with a win and some momentum. The big difference? The Crusader defense, lead by DE Mude Ohimor, has been stifled by an ineffective offense, and while the Rams have has some issues, scoring points with QB Blake Wayne hasn't been one of them.
Ram Bones 29, Holy Rollers 11
Cornell at Bucknell. Televised for the first time nationally on CBS College Sports, as a proud Patriot League fan I am pulling very, very hard for the Bison to do Christy Mathewson proud and win one for the Hall of Famer. But will last week's bye week be enough? In this "battle of the 'Nells" - and also, incidentally, this battle of winless teams - Bucknell will need their freshman QB Brandon Wesley to reverse their awful offensive statistics in a hurry if they hope to come away victorious. Fortunately for head coach Joe Susan, Cornell's offense is in no better shape - and with the TV cameras on hand to record it, Joe Susan gets his first win.
Nell's Bells (Bucknell's) 15, Hell's Nells (Cornell's) 8
Harvard at Lafayette. Looking uncannily like the Lehigh of the past few years, Lafayette's 0-3 record has been the product of three straight excruciating fall-from-ahead finishes, including last weekend's 36-33 double-overtime heartbreaker where WR Mark Layton dropped a third down TD reception that might have been the difference. They face a Harvard team loaded with talent that discovered somewhere last weekend that Brown would not make their coronation easy, after humbling the Crimson 29-14. Does QB Andrew Hatch come to Easton and put last week's rough game behind him? Or does Lafayette figure out how to win close games this week? With a motivated team after last weekend's tough loss - and a team I still feel is loaded with talent - I think Hatch's Crimson come out on top.
Escape Hatches 35, Pacing Leopards 20
Comments
Still, last year, Holy Cross was very competitive. They gave the champs a great game.
This year, Colgate was competitive with Furman and Syracuse. Unfortunately, they're too slow on defense. Scholarships will help.
Lehigh's fall began with the departure of Lembo, and the decline has been steady. Lehigh wasn't even competitive against New Hampshire, which will be a bottom feeder in the CAA. And they had trouble beating Princeton, which will be a bottom feeder in the Ivy League.