Chu Chu Rah Rah

HCGLC: From Community to Culture

2012-02-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

Dear Crusaders,

I hope this message finds you doing well. In a prior communication I touched upon the fact that two and a half years after the launch of the Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council in the fall of 2009, I see our collective efforts transitioning from merely building 'community' to establishing 'culture'.

A community is a group that has shared interest. A culture is much more than that. A group that has a set of shared values, beliefs, and programs to promote them....that is culture!! That is what I see developing in and around the HCGLC as we work to fulfill our mission, stated as "committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field".

Without readdressing our existing programs (Ring of Honor, Lifetime Achievement Awards, receptions, Career Nights, and more), I welcome sharing with you some new developments and programs that go straight to culture. What are they?

1. The Holy Cross Crusader Baseball program is in the process of launching the Holy Cross Diamond Club with many of their programs and initiatives modeled after the HCGLC. I was especially pleased to share with the leaders of the HC Diamond Club the blueprint for our 90-Wide Mentoring program so they can replicate it. That is spectacular!! Many thanks to Craig Cerretani for making this happen!!

I know I speak for everybody involved in the HCGLC in stating that we welcome helping each and every team, club, and group atop Mt. St. James launch a formal mentoring program. Mentoring is the essence of Jesuit education and values.

2. A senior college recruiting executive from Oracle will soon be visiting Mt. St. James to make a presentation on that dynamic corporation and simultaneously meet students to discuss employment and internship opportunities. How great is this? Spectacular. Who made this happen? None other than our HCGLC member and former Malden Catholic flash, Mark Cannon '77. Thank you Mark!!

3. Prior to the football luncheon on this Saturday morning, two time Crusader captain and current Morgan Stanley executive Casey Gough '08 will be presenting to both our current Crusaders and many of their parents on the "Do's and Don't of Networking". Thank you Casey!!

Each of these three initiatives is a result of a growing mindset and a spreading of values embedded in our leadership council. What are these values? I see them and promote them as "a pursuit of excellence encompassed by large doses of integrity, respect, and love." They are powerful and they work!!

I encourage others on this distribution to continue to think outside the box for ways in which we can utilize our values to further our mission and establish our culture. Thank you to everybody both on and off campus who are integrally involved in these efforts.

Other Points/ Stories of Interest

1. If you have not yet read the book Fraternity by Diane Brady, I strongly recommend it to you. A number of former HC gridders and coaches (Ted Wells, Eddie Jenkins, Joe Wilson, Rod De Leaver,Tom Boisture, Denny Golden et al) are profiled or mentioned in this spectacular book which highlights the efforts of Fr. John Brooks in recruiting and mentoring African American students who matriculated at HC in the late 1960s. For anybody who has an ounce of Purple blood, Fraternity is a MUST read!! I wrote the following review,

Fraternity, Ultimately a Love Story

2. Congratulations to former gridders Steve Buchanan '74 and Ken Komodzinski '60 who were recently elected into the Holy Cross Hall of Fame. (http://www.goholycross.com/sports/m-footbl/2011-12/releases/20120201tx7i09).

3. Congratulations to Dan Adams '07 who recently completed an amazing feat known as Mission Kilimanjaro.

What was the mission? For Kyle Maynard and team, including our fellow Crusader Dan Adams, to summit the highest peak in Africa. Why is that so special? Click on the link to Kyle's name and you will learn why.

What was the purpose? "To send a message to our heroes in the veteran community and to kids with disabilities around the world that regardless of any challenge we face, no obstacle is too great to be conquered."

How awesome!! Congrats to Dan (standing on the far left), Kyle, and the entire team as they proudly display our colors at the summit!!

4. We will keep you informed as to our schedule of programs and events over the next few months (Spring game/Alumni Game/barbecue/, golf outing) BUT it is never too soon to circle the date of August 30th when our Crusaders will once again kickoff their season UNDER the LIGHTS at Fitton Field against the UNH Wildcats.

5. We welcome the incoming Freshman class of Crusaders to the HC Football family!! We also continue to pick up individuals who are interested in being on this distribution. Please share this message with your friends, family, neighbors, coaches so that our culture can continue to spread.

I know we have NO interest in losing.....so....

LET'S WIN!!!

Larry Doyle '83
Chair/HCGLC

lwdoyle128@aol.com

Book Review: Fraternity, Ultimately a Love Story

2012-01-28T08:31:00.002-05:00

From my blog, Sense on Cents,

In the process of navigating our economic landscape, we are perpetually encountering risks. These risks not only present themselves from the standpoint of the market and the economy but also on a much larger scale from a social, political, and personal perspective as well.

How do we learn to manage risks going forward? We are compelled to study and appreciate the lessons from the past.

To do just that, I strongly encourage people to read a recently published book which takes us back to the volatile days of the late 1960s. This literary masterpiece very personally details how a group of young African American students and the Jesuit mentor who recruited them to college took very real risks. What was the result of managing these great risks?

A foundation for long term and very real rewards. This fascinating book is Fraternity by Diane Brady.

I will admit I am slightly biased but enormously proud that Fraternity is largely set upon the campus of my Alma Mater, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Brady descriptively outlines how Fr. John Brooks, a Jesuit priest at Holy Cross, took very real risk in 1968 in the personal recruitment of young African American students to what was then a virtually all white campus. Recall that at this point in our nation’s history, we were experiencing significant racial turmoil culminating in the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Brooks took the not insignificant financial, administrative, and professional risks at this point in time because he knew that Holy Cross as an institution needed to embrace these young men and the African American community at large if it were to advance its mission and elevate its vision going forward.

What about the young men themselves? What possessed these men largely from the inner cities of New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Detroit to venture to a middle sized industrial city in central Massachusetts when most had opportunities to attend college elsewhere in more comfortable surroundings?

While not every African American student who ventured to Holy Cross at that point in time went on to graduate and achieve untold success, do you think it is mere coincidence that those profiled in Fraternity did accomplish remarkable achievements?

Who are these men? They include current Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, noted attorney Ted Wells, Pulitzer Prize winning author Ed Jones, legendary Wall Street financier Stan Grayson, and former NFL player and Massachusetts policy maven Eddie Jenkins. Not profiled but also worthy of mention are men of real character such as Art Martin, Gil Hardy, Walter Roy, and Joe Wilson. All of these men blazed the trail for future Crusaders such as Mark Cannon, Ron Lawson, Rod De Leaver, Torey Thomas, Daryl Brown, Obi Green, Emanuel Mendoza, Reggie Woods, Eddie Houghton, Devin Brown, Gary Acquah, and SO many more.

The more I read, the more I appreciated that Brooks and these then young men had a real sense of shared commitment. That bond did not mean that they always saw eye to eye on every issue. In fact, they tested and challenged each other repeatedly and took very real risks in the process. Why? Those challenges spurred real personal growth for the individuals and the institution.

As I read Fraternity, I also learned that whether they knew it or not at the time theshared sense of commitment held by this visionary Jesuit priest and this group of ambitious young African American students was ultimately a love affair. The power of this virtue known as love mitigated the risks these men took, but then also provided the foundation for remarkable success in their lives.

Somewhat uncannily, I am now rereading the longstanding #1 bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie with a group of young men. That book by Mitch Albom was embraced across America because it also taught us —albeit in hindsight—about the power of love.

Fraternity teaches us that in the face of very real risks, lives can be changed, dreams can be achieved, and visions can be realized when love is embraced and people give of themselves for a cause and a mission greater than personal self-interest. That love was abundant at Holy Cross in the late 1960s and still is today. As a graduate, I am most proud.

Given the challenges facing our country at this time and for the foreseeable future, I would hope that collectively we might stop, pause, and appreciate that love is the greatest risk mitigant known to mankind.

That virtue of love is the embodiment of our Sense on Cents virtues of truth, transparency, and integrity. If only those leading our political and financial institutions could appreciate and practice real love in the midst of pursuing profit or personal gain.

Love, including tough love laced with competitive spirit, is the standard and value upon which I believe any great business or practice should be built. Why? Love is the great equalizer and neutralizing force to the powers of greed and fear.

You don’t believe me? Read Fraternity by Diane Brady. The lessons and virtues highlighted within are clearly the stuff of a longstanding best seller.

I only wish I personally owned the movie rights.

Larry Doyle

Save the Dates....and MUCH MORE!!

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Fellow Crusaders,

Happy New Year!! I hope you and your families had a beautiful Christmas season and that all good things lie ahead for you in 2012. Included in those good things we certainly expect there to be a healthy dose of Purple Passion and Pride!!

With 2011 now in the rear view mirror, the HCGLC has a strong 2-plus years of foundation under our belt.

In 2012 we look forward to further pursuing our mission, ("commitment to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field"). As we do so, we look to build upon the success of the HCGLC to date and transition our efforts "From Community to Culture". More on this later and throughout the year.

For now, break out your date books or your Blackberries or whatever you use to keep your calendar and please IMMEDIATELY put in the following SAVE the DATES!!

1. Holy Cross Football Luncheon Saturday, 2/11/12, 12:00 Noon Hogan Ballroom

>>This event will be preceded by an informational session led by Casey Gough '08 for the team and anybody else who would like to attend on the "Do's and Don'ts of Networking" at 11am. Thank you Casey!!

2. Spring Game/Barbecue Sat 4/14/12 Game @11:00 AM, Cookout @ 2:00 PM

>>The HCGLC will also award the Jackie Mo' Lifetime Achievement Award at the reception. Who will join past winners Jackie Mo' himself and Jack Scott in being selected for this most prestigious award? The nominating period remains open until April 1st.

3. Varsity Club Dinner Sat 5/5/12 @ 5:00 PM

>>Let's make sure to get a strong representation to see current HC gridders accept their hardware and congratulate those past HC greats whom will be entering the HC Hall of Fame.

4. Holy Cross Football Golf Outing Friday June 1, 2012, Blackstone National GC

>>In order to operate this outing at the level and in the fashion at which it belongs, the HCGLC will look to incorporate a formal Golf Committee for purposes of 'turning out the troops' for what is always a fabulous event. More on this as we approach springtime.

5. Kickoff to the 2012 Holy Cross Football Season...never too early to start planning.

>>Are you ready for an encore presentation "under the lights" along with some payback for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats? As reported recently,

University of New Hampshire unveiled the team’s 2012 schedule, which kicks off with a Thursday night game at Holy Cross (Aug. 30).

Rest assured we will look to show our newly inducted President Fr. Boroughs a great time while inspiring our HC faithful and the residents of the Woo to FILL FITTON FIELD.

OTHER POINTS of INTEREST!!

1. Was it 25 years ago that the Crusaders went undefeated in winning the mythical 1-AA national championship? Thanks to a loyal Crusader for sharing the Best of the Patriot League Football 25th Anniversary. Along with that '87 team, a few Crusaders by the name of Gordie Lockbaum and a defensive back Dave Murphy also receive prominent mention in that link!! Congrats to the '87 team, Gordie, and Dave for this recognition.

Speaking of that 1987 team, one would think it is a 'no-brainer' that we look to honor that group during the upcoming season.

2. The HCGLC recently sent out the "90-Wide the 3rd Edition" to our 125 dedicated mentors and their mentees. If anybody on this distribution would like a copy of the Spreadsheet which lays out this fabulous program please let me know and I will forward it.

We are thrilled to learn that the Holy Cross Baseball Team is in the process of launching a similar mentoring initiative. Kudos to Bill Cupelo '09 for spearheading that effort.

3. Bill Maloney '59 informed us recently that we lost a great one with the passing of Dave Stecchi. I had the distinct honor and pleasure of meeting Dave at the Ring of Honor ceremony both in 2010 and 2011. Dave was inducted into the HC Hall of Fame and epitomized what it means to be a Crusader. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

4. Our friends at TV 3 in Worcester share with us a halftime interview with Coach Gilmore during this week's HC-Navy hoop game. This 7-minute clip is fabulous as the coach talks about recruiting, the high expectations for the 2012 team, the '90-Wide' mentoring, and much more.

Lastly, I am continually asked to add more and more friends of Holy Cross Football to this distribution which now numbers well over 1200. Any effort of real meaning always wants to grow. On that note, do your friends and family members---who are not on this distribution but should be---a favor and preemptively share their e-mail addresses with me so we can grow our audience and further our mission!!

Our goal for 2012 is to increase distribution by 50% so we can more effectivelyTransition the HCGLC from a WINNING Community to a WINNING CULTURE!!!

Thanks for your continued support.

Comments, questions, suggestions? Do not be bashful and know that The Suggestion Box is always open.

I know we have no interest in losing, so.....

LET'S WIN!!

LD '83

Chair/HCGLC

90 Wide Mentoring: The 3rd Edition

2011-12-29T13:39:00.000-05:00

Fellow Crusaders,

The mission of the Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council is succinctly stated as "committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field".

Our pursuit of excellence in winning off the field is embodied in a number of initiatives but none greater than our 90-Wide Mentoring Program.

We launched this formal mentoring program in December 2009. With two years of mentoring and relationship development under our belt, our foundation has been well established. With this message linking to the "90-Wide: The 3rd Edition" we are now well positioned to elevate our efforts and further establish a "culture of winning off the field". I thank everybody on this distribution who is helping us make that happen so we can far exceed any preconceived notions within our mission.

Let's dare to be truly great!!

On that note, prior to my addressing some highlights of our program, I ask you to please save this message and the attached file. Please share this message and file with your friends, family, and colleagues (including your high school coaches, advisors, and teachers) so more and more people know how special Holy Cross and Holy Cross Football truly are.

1. 90-Wide Mentoring Highlights

>>124 Holy Cross alums are involved mentoring our current and recently graduated Crusaders.

>>These alums live in 23 states up and down the east coast but as far and wide as Oregon, California, Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota,Texas, Florida, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia.

>>Our mentors work in 30 separate and distinct industries, including Education, Real Estate, Banking, Investment Banking, Medicine, High Tech, Dentistry, Marketing, Law, Government, Consulting, Pediatrics, Physical Therapy, ....and many more.

2. To the Mentors and our current Crusaders

What is mentoring? As highlighted at a website, Mentorset,

"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be." Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring

Mentoring is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool. It is an effective way of helping people to progress in their careers and is becoming increasing popular as its potential is realised. It is a partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.

A mentor is a guide who can help the mentee to find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions to career issues. Mentors rely upon having had similar experiences to gain an empathy with the mentee and an understanding of their issues. Mentoring provides the mentee with an opportunity to think about career options and progress.

A mentor should help the mentee to believe in herself and boost her confidence. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. Mentoring allows the mentee to explore new ideas in confidence. It is a chance to look more closely at yourself, your issues, opportunities and what you want in life.

Mentoring is about becoming more self aware, taking responsibility for your life and directing your life in the direction you decide, rather than leaving it to chance.

As our nation and economy continue to face very real and likely long lasting challenges, the need for our 90-Wide is growing ever stronger.

I exhort each and every mentor and current Crusader to open the attached file and reach out to your mentor/mentee TODAY.

Arrange a date and time to speak and/or meet. Then please meet and/or speak regularly. The life you change may be your own. As the mentors provide wisdom, our current Crusaders can provide a sense of youthful spirit and exuberance, along with a look back to life on the hill.

I hope the file is self-explanatory in terms of understanding whom your mentor/mentee is but allow me to lay out how to read it.

When you open the file (open it wide), the names of all mentors and mentees are listed alphabetically by last name. Thus, Gary Acquah will see his name listed first. Gary then can see that he is paired with John Hackney. Gary would then scroll down to see John's name and his contact info (typically cell, e-mail, and business info). I hope Gary will immediately drop John a line or make a call and that John will do the same so that they can begin or continue to grow their relationship. There is no set of rules as to how to make relationships work. Do not be bashful.

With approximately 260 people on this distribution and involved in this program, invariably some of the current contact info may have changed or was transcribed in error. Please do not hesitate to contact me so we can properly address.

On that note....

LET'S WIN!!!!

LD '83

Chair/HCGLC

Tom Gilmore: FINALIST for Coach of the Year

2011-12-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

Last week I asked for your assistance in voting for Tom Gilmore as Liberty Mutual's Coach of the Year. You answered the call.

On behalf of all those who love Holy Cross and Holy Cross Football, I thank you.

Just yesterday, Tom Gilmore was named a FINALIST for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year.

What are those involved in this process saying about Coach Gilmore?,

"College football fans clearly recognize Coach Gilmore as one of the game's true
leaders, and we agree he is an excellent finalist for the 2011 Liberty Mutual

Coach of the Year Award," said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual senior vice

president, consumer marketing. "Each year, we ask fans to vote for the

coaches who best exemplify the award's characteristics – sportsmanship,

integrity, responsibility and excellence, on and off the field. Coach Gilmore does

just that, through his success on game days, as well as providing leadership to

his student-athletes and commitment to the greater Holy Cross community."

Be mindful that this voting process and award are not a mere popularity, stuff the ballot box sort of undertaking. How does it work?

Selection committees of more than 50 College Football Hall of Fame players and

coaches – including Archie Manning, Lou Holtz, Vince Dooley, Ronnie Lott and

Archie Griffin – and the national college football media, such as Kirk Herbstreit,

Stewart Mandel and Tim Brando, will also cast votes for the winners to ensure

coaches are evaluated fairly and measured against the specific values of

responsibility and integrity. Winners are ultimately determined using the

following voting weight: fans, 20 percent; College Football Hall of Fame, 55

percent; and college football media, 25 percent.

With a full 80% of the process and results determined by the College Football Hall of Fame and the college football media, those facts speak VOLUMES as to what those "in and around the game" think of Coach Gilmore.

Be mindful, though, that a vote for Coach Gilmore is also a vote for Holy Cross and an assist in elevating and accentuating the Holy Cross 'brand'.

While the qualitative assessments alone are reason enough to vote for TG, I want to give you 70 thousand other reasons to vote for our man.

Liberty Mutual will award $50,000 to donate to the charity of the winner's

choice, along with a $20,000 grant to the winning school's alumni association

for student scholarships and activities. Between Dec. 6 and Dec. 22, fans can

visit www.CoachoftheYear.com to vote among the finalists. Fan votes

constitute 20 percent of a coach's final score.

Thus, I ask you once again to vote early and often---as in each and everyday---for Tom Gilmore as the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. A vote for Tom is a vote for Holy Cross.

So many players who have gone through the Holy Cross Football program during Tom's tenure have shared the profound impact that Tom and the staff have had on them 'on and off the field'.

I recently received a message from a former Ivy league player who did not play for Tom but who has gotten to know him and wishes that he did.

With his permission, I welcome sharing with you the following comment:

Who could possibly have a better teacher than Tom Gilmore who had a 3.7 gpa In Computer Science from University of Pennsylvania, 1st team Academic All American, MVP of the Ivy League as a defensive tackle who decided that teaching is the most noble profession of them all.

I vote him in as America's #1 teacher.

Can I quit my job and help a Coach that stands for everything that represents manhood for these fine Christian gentleman that he leads?

When the record is written, and his full story is told at the end of his career, we will never forget the example he has given to all us of what 100% total commitment means.

Tom Gilmore represents all that is good about college athletics today.

I will do everything I can to help TG accomplish his mission! There is no one like him in college sports today!

One of my great regrets in life is that I never had a chance to play for him.

A friend of HC football.

Here is the link to vote:

Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year

Let's WIN!!

LD '83

HCGLC Mission: committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-23T19:14:00.002-05:00

Fellow Crusaders,

All too often our nation, our business, our markets, our politics, and so many aspects of our lives focus on the very short term. Even our sports tend to focus on the short term as well. How many times do we seem to focus on and debate the outcome of yesterday's game without appreciating the efforts, the commitment, and the teamwork that are required to generate even a modicum of success. Dare I say the pride and passion of tradition are embodied much more in the latter than the former.

Don't get me wrong, victories are critically important. Why else do they keep score?

That said, as we gather together to celebrate our traditional Thanksgiving feasts, is there any doubt that our real sense of gratitude lies not in outcomes but much more in the effort expended and the relationships developed along the way.

In that spirit and with the Holy Cross Football team having just completed its seventh straight winning season, I think there would be many on this distribution who would join me in thanking:

1. Coach Tom Gilmore and his dedicated staff for their endless hours of work in preparing "our Crusaders" during the season and equal if not greater commitment in advancing the program during the off season. Let's not forget to thank Tom's better half, Joanie, and the better halves of all those on the staff.

2. The student-athletes and all those connected to Holy Cross Football who display the pride and passion on the field which we love to express off the field.

3. The parents and families of all those on the team who by extension increase the pride and passion of our Crusader Football family. Special thanks to the parents and families of this year's senior class. Don't be a stranger in the years ahead.

4. The 130 mentors who are committed to helping our Crusaders "win off the field".

5. All those in the Holy Cross administration and Athletics Office whom have supported the efforts of the HCGLC over the past two years. Special thanks to Fr. McFarland as he gets ready to depart Mt. St. James. We wish him godspeed to wherever the good Lord directs him.

6. Special thanks to the numerous Holy Cross alums and supporters who make attending the Crusader Football games so enjoyable. I do not have the time nor the space to list all those who fall into this category but they run from those who graduated in the late '40s to graduates from just this past May. Let's never forget the passion of our subway alums.

7. Special thanks to Brendan Devlin '01 who had the vision and dedication to launch and develop the Fill Fitton Field site which was integral in making the 1st night game in the history of Holy Cross Football a resounding success.

When I add up the pride and passion for Holy Cross Football embodied in all of these individuals and groups highlighted above, I am assuredly not alone in knowing we have something truly VERY SPECIAL. How special?

Well, please allow me to share a paragraph taken from a recent letter written by Fr. McFarland. He highlighted the following,

"On Sept. 1, Holy Cross held the first night football game in its history against the University of Massachusetts. The game drew what was probably the largest crowd to see a football game at Holy Cross in almost 20 years. Alumni who had not been back to campus in years came to see it. Most of the student body was there, arrayed in purple and cheering loudly throughout the game. The beautiful late summer evening, enthusiastic crowd and exciting game created a festive air in which everyone enjoyed a wonderful time.

The response to this game shows the power of sports to engage a community and bring it together."

No doubt about that.

While we will have plenty of opportunities (team breakup luncheon in February, spring game/cookout, and golf outing in June) to get together over the coming months, we have 9 full months before we can once again express our Purple Pride and Passion for Holy Cross Football at Fitton Field when we see the Cross take on the Wildcats of the University of New Hampshire. This game is also expected to take place 'under the lights'!!

In an attempt to help those who are already suffering withdrawal and simultaneously further elevate the fabulous tradition which encompasses the program, I welcome sharing with you a video which will allow us all to relive the memories made this past September 1st.

How does one define tradition? Joe Wilson, Jon Morris, Al and George Connor, Bruce Kozerski, Rick Cohn, Bobby Hurley, Bill Campbell, Vince Promuto, Mike Pizzotti, Jim Grogan, Larry Ewald, Glenn Verrette, Craig Cerretani, Dick Regan, and so many more are captured in this 38 minute tribute video.

You think this program and these people are special?

Just a little bit.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the Holy Cross Football family!!

2011 Ring of Honor Video (click on the link)

Let's WIN!!

LD '83

Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council Mission: committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field!!

The Credit Goes To.....

2011-11-09T19:51:00.002-05:00

Fellow Crusaders,

What a world.

With our global markets and economy continuing on a daily roller-coaster and events in the world of college athletics getting roiled by the unfolding travesty and tragedy at Penn State, where can one turn to receive a dose of meaningful integrity and admiration these days? Well, in my opinion, I think we need not look any further than the 23 seniors at Holy Cross who will take Fitton Field for the final time this coming Saturday vs Lafayette.

While a few plays here and there this season could certainly have changed the outcome of some hard fought and closely contested ballgames, having personally witnessed a majority of these contests I am not stretching to say that the weekly effort and determination displayed by our Crusaders on the field of play this season has further elevated our Purple Passion and Pride.

I know I speak for many in stating that I am proud to embrace these Crusaders and call them "our brothers".

The credit goes to them for they have been the ones "in the arena" week in and week out not only throughout this season but over the last four years. On that note, I welcome highlighting their names here and congratulating them all while also reminding them to bring their youthful exuberance and enthusiasm along with their own passion, pride, and discipline and 'play to win' this Saturday vs Lafayette and next Saturday vs Fordham.

Please join me in congratulating:

The members of the Holy Cross senior class are tailback Matt Bellomo (Holliston, Mass.), tailback Francis Camara (Reading, Pa.), offensive guardKyle Cannon (Southington, Conn.), cornerback Chandler Fenner (Virginia Beach, Va.), offensive guard Andrew Jameson (Brockton, Mass.), wide receiver Josh Jenkins (Maywood, Ill.), free safety Cav Koch (Dallas, Texas), linebacker C.J. Martin (Plano, Texas), wide receiver Clinton McCabe (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), offensive tackle Mike McCabe (Watertown, Conn.), wide receiver Charles McCall(Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), defensive end Ryan McGinn (West Chester, Pa.), defensive tackle Eric Oldiges (Taylor Mill, Ky.), linebacker Ricky Otis (Cleves, Ohio), punter Corey Page (Tampa, Fla.), tight end Alex Schneider (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.), quarterback Ryan Taggart (Bedford, Texas), placekicker Paul Tearson (Austin, Texas), linebacker Jimmy Thomas (Severn, Md.), quarterback Mark Tolzien (Rolling Meadows, Ill.), quarterback Kevin Watson (Belle Mead, N.J.), center Sean Whited (Canton, Ohio) and tight end Mike Wright (Quincy, Mass.). These 23 players will be recognized prior to the start of the game, along with team managers Ashley Alebiose (Stamford, Conn.), Billy Bellerose (Shrewsbury, Mass.), Tatiana Senat (Norwalk, Conn.) and Joe Tutino (Taunton, Mass.). The Crusader seniors have led the team to a 26-17 record over the last four seasons, including the 2009 Patriot League championship and a trip to the 2009 NCAA playoffs.

2. In regard to the Fordham game, I want to highlight a postgame reception being hosted by the Holy Cross Club of Metro New York,

The Holy Cross Club of Metro New York City

invites all New York Area alumni and friends for an afternoon of tradition and rivalry...

Holy Cross Football at Fordham

Saturday, November 19 * 1:00 p.m. kickoff

Game tickets in the Holy Cross section, $10/each, can be purchased in advance through the

Holy Cross Ticket Office - (508) 793-2573

Holy Cross Alumni & Friends Post-Game Reception * 4:00-6:00 p.m.

O'Keefe Commons - Located in O'Hare Hall, near main parking garage
Fordham University Campus, Bronx, NY
FREE event - Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar
Click here for a campus map with location of O'Hare Hall

To ensure numbers to the post-game reception, please RSVP to Jen Whipple at Holy Cross by November 14:

crusaderathletics@holycross.edu or 508-793-3583

** Co-sponsored by the Holy Cross Department of Athletics and the Crusader Athletics Fund **

3. While the season may be coming to a close in ten days, for the hundred plus involved in pursuing the mission of the HCGLC there is no off season. A number of us had a recent meeting with the team to address career planning and further developing relationships through our '90-Wide' Mentoring Program.

With the economy getting no less challenging this mentoring is becoming ever more important. I thank all of the 130 Holy Cross alums involved in this effort and helping us pursue our "commitment to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field".

First things first....BEAT LAFAYETTE!!!

See you at Fitton and................

LET'S WIN!!

LD '83

Chair/HCGLC

HCGLC Mission: committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

HCGLC Suggestion Box

2011-10-24T19:52:00.000-04:00

Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council Mission: committed to excellence in helping the Holy Cross Crusaders win on and off the field.

Fellow Crusaders,

I hope this communication finds you and yours all doing well. As I write, our Crusaders are riding the crest of a two game winning streak and poised for a huge league matchup this Saturday at Fitton Field against the resurgent Georgetown Hoyas. With every game from here on in effectively a 'playoff' game let's give the men a huge home field advantage on Saturday at Fitton for Family Day.

Please bring your pride, your passion, and your immediate and extended families to Fitton this Saturday. Give another Hoiah and a Chu Chu rah rah.....LET'S WIN!!

Other notes of importance include:

1. This Thursday Bill Maloney will once again lead the charge as assorted members of the HCGLC, including Craig Cerretani, Tavares Brewington, Brian Hopkins, Dan Adams, and yours truly share their wisdom on the topic of career planning with our Crusaders. Bill has been a leader on this front for close to thirty years. I know many Crusaders who would not be where they are today if it were not for Bill's efforts and energy. There is no doubt that the efforts here are fully consistent with the mission of the HCGLC.

2. Those on this distribution certainly know and appreciate that we have the finest college football coach in the country manning our sidelines and leading our Crusaders. Let's elevate Coach Gilmore's national standing by supporting him as the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. I know there are likely many Crusaders fully versed in the art of Chicago and Boston style politics....on that note, you can legitimately vote early and often (as in daily) for Coach Gilmore. Play to win....Vote to win.

3. In the spirit of supporting our fellow Crusaders, major high five to Coach Paul Pearl and the men's hockey team for knocking off the then 7th-ranked Boston University Terriers this past Saturday evening by a score of 5-4. Talk about playing to win. Great job!! For more details on this HUUUGE victory, go here.

4. In lieu of our annual HCGLC meeting at Homecoming in mid-September, I opened up the HCGLC Suggestion Box and informed you I would report back in late October. Well, the responses have been numerous and fabulous. In short, let me tell everybody on this distribution, "I love the way you think!!"

I received a number of responses from individuals encouraging the HCGLC to "keep up the good work." Others chimed in with words of encouragement including, "chu chu rah rah...", and "Beat BC".One loyal Crusader offered the suggestion that "HC should sign Tom Gilmore to a lifetime contract."

In terms of actionable items, three suggestions stood out and I am happy to share them here:

>> Run a joint reception between the HCGLC and its like partner the Crusader Hoops Club chaired by Whitey Moynihan '83 and Roger Breslin '93. Great idea. I will talk to Whitey and Roger about that.

>> Host an Inside Holy Cross Football online radio program along the lines of the Inside Ivy League Football program on BlogTalk radio.

I love this idea and think it would be a great way to connect with many of our Holy Cross faithful at a distance along with having a great time talking about Crusader Football. Perhaps we can find a recent Crusader grad aspiring to a career in broadcasting to host this in season show. Will keep you informed.

>> This next suggestion takes the cake in terms of creativity and thinking outside the box. If, or perhaps when, the Patriot League does reinstitute football scholarships, let's bring Holy Cross Football back to Fenway Park. For details of past football glory at Fenway, go here.

While obviously there would be a lot of moving parts to Holy Cross hosting a football game at Fenway Park, be mindful that management at Fenway is very much in the market to utilize the venue as much as possible. How so?

Fenway regularly hosts concerts in season when the Red Sox are on the road. Fenway hosted the NHL's Mid-Winter classic between the Bruins and Flyers a year or so ago. A college hockey doubleheader is on the docket this year.

The Fenway management is certainly well aware that Yankee Stadium is making a big push to host college football games including Rutgers vs Army on November 12, 2011.

While a Boston College-Holy Cross game at Fenway would bring back a lot of memories, do you think the 'generals' and the 'troops' from West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy might love to come to Boston for a game and some recruiting while they are at it. You think?

Think this might be pretty cool? Just a little bit.

Thank you to the Crusader who dropped this in the HCGLG Suggestion Box which always remains open.

Dare to Dream and Dare to Be Great!!

See you at Fitton on Saturday.

LET'S WIN!!

LD '83

"I Hate Losing..."

2011-10-14T15:21:00.001-04:00

Fellow Crusaders,

Who doesn't hate losing? But then who is willing to put in the requisite effort and has the ability to lead a team to success?

There is a quote in a newspaper today which address losing. There is another quote highlighted just below and captured in an interview almost eight years ago which addresses effort.

"We have to begin this process by outworking other people in all areas.  A great work ethic can solve a lot of problems, but we also have to improve on other fronts .......

"I believe that Holy Cross will climb back to the top of the Patriot League ........."

Talk about keeping one's word. Tom Gilmore and our Crusaders have put in huge effort over the years.

This year's contingent will look to rebound tomorrow at Fitton Field against the Big Green of Dartmouth on Kid's Day. Bring your own kids and all their buddies.

What does Coach Gilmore have to say about tomorrow's game? From today's Worcester Telegram,

"I hate losing, maybe more than anyone in the world..."

No doubt about that.

Let's get behind Coach Gilmore and our men tomorrow at Fitton as they look to get back on track with a big W and pick up momentum going into Patriot League action the following week.

LOOKING BACK and RELIVING the TRADITION CELEBRATED on September 1st

I received a nice video recap of the Ring of Honor ceremony this week. We will look to get it uploaded and displayed online in the very near future. The pride and passion on display are palpable.

As a teaser and incentive for those on this distribution to watch and share the video when it is distributed I offer the following quotes without attribution. Some may know who is speaking. Many may just appreciate being associated with the obvious quality of our brethren.

"This is one excited guy you're looking at right now. Unless you've played college football you don't understand the honor that this is that your school would recognize you. It's been 48 years since I played for Holy Cross......."

"I can't even express what this night would have meant to Dad. He would have loved to have been here....."

"I'm fired up because it's Holy Cross Football under the lights. I'm Class of '77 and a lot of my teammates are here....."

"I'm from Scottsdale, Arizona. It's so exciting to be back at Fitton Field and see so many buddies. It's been 30+ years for most of us...."

"1980 we got out of here but it's like we never left. It's fantastic to be back here. Actually it's the first time I've had an opportunity to come back for a football game and I'm excited to see this Ring of Honor and the tradition that goes along with it. We've got to keep this thing going...."

"I came back here from Fort Lauderdale.....this is fabulous...."

"I want to thank Holy Cross for putting this together and making this happen tonight. It's so amazing to come back here and see so many former teammates and classmates and be part of this first night game under the lights at Fitton Field...."

"Think of how many great football players have come through here over the last 116 years....."

"I thank God for all the blessings he bestowed upon me and I thank everyone else who has had a part in that...."

"For some of you, you knew early on that you were going to go to Holy Cross but for me the road to the college on the hill was a little bit different....My early years were spent in North Carolina in cotton and tobacco fields and quite frankly college was not even on my radar screen...high school graduation was my goal....."

"Your presence here recognizes our efforts to overcome the season ending hepatitis epidemic...."

"Football is a violent sport but the irony of it all is that it is played by some of the most intelligent, most caring, most courageous, and most successful men and none more so than the Crusaders....."

"Holy Cross was so special to him throughout his life. He showed up here when he was 17 years old...he didn't have a scholarship but he started on opening day as a freshman....."

"He was most proud of beating Boston College 55-12...."

Let's WIN....!!!!

LD '83

Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council Mission: committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

HCGLC: Let's WIN!!

2011-09-27T18:34:00.000-04:00

For those who care about Holy Cross Crusader Football, September 2011 was simply spectacular.

1. Our Crusaders stand at 2-1 as the men get poised to take on the Top 10 ranked University of New Hampshire Wildcats this Saturday in Durham, NH. For those who have seen the team in person or via broadcast, the quality of play is outstanding. The exciting brand of football may be only outmatched by the Purple Pride, effort, and determination displayed for 60 minutes of every game. Students of the game know a team is ultimately a reflection of its coaches. In that spirit, we can all look forward to more hard fought, well played, disciplined football atop Mt. St. James and wherever the Crusaders travel.Thank you Coach Gilmore and staff!!

Speaking of which, this weekend's game between HC and UNH will support a very worthy cause. Those in and around Boston are likely aware of a very tragic accident earlier this month in which Husain and Muji Karim were critically injured. Husain played at HC prior to transferring to UNH to play with his brother. UNH is highlighting the fact that its Football Home Opener is Dedicated to Karim Brothers Recovery Fund.

Sincere gratitude and true Christian charity are core to our Jesuit principles and emblematic of the class and pride in the HCGLC and by extension the Holy Cross Football Family. Please keep these men in your prayers.

2. Those in attendance at Homecoming witnessed Bruce Kozerski being feted for his induction into the Ring of Honor. Those who played with or watched Bruce on the gridiron in the early '80's know how great he was both on and off the field. He has not changed but only gotten better since then. We can all take great pride in having him as a Purple brother.

I STRONGLY encourage you to relive Bruce's past and appreciate his present by viewing this halftime interview Bruce had with TV 3 ten days ago. I do not think Bruce would mind my sharing his e-mail address if you would like to extend him a hearty congratulations on this great honor.

3. Thank you to all those who wrote in over the last few weeks to share your expressions of pride and passion in Holy Cross Football following the excitement of the event on Mt. St. James on September 1st. Many who communicated highlighted that they had not been back to Fitton Field in 20+ years. Thank you for coming back. I hope it is not another 20+ years before we see you again.

The greatest form of support for the Holy Cross Football family is to come back more often, bring friends, support the Gridiron Club, spread the mission of the HCGLC, and "spread the faith" so that we can continue to elevate the pride, the passion, and the program to ever greater heights and ultimately a National Championship!!

On that note.....see you in Durham, NH this Saturday....

LET'S WIN!!!

LD '83

Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council Mission: committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross football win on and off the field.

"Something Very Good Going On in Worcester"

2011-09-12T14:50:00.000-04:00

Fellow Crusaders,

Let's dispense with the formalities and get right down to business.

1. Our men in purple delivered an exceptionally well oiled performance this past Saturday. Congratulations to Coach Gilmore, staff, and team!! In a game that finished in less than two and a half hours, the 'saders opened league play by beating Colgate 37-7. Well done, gentlemen!!

I am not so sure the game was as close as the score indicated but for those in the stands it was pure delight and very well balanced in every regard.

2. There is clearly something very good going on in Worcester atop Mt. St. James . Get involved and bring friends, family, neighbors et al to Fitton Field for a great Purple brand of college football.

How uncanny, though, that this past Saturday's score is eerily similar to the 34-6 score of the game in which HC played on September 18, 2010 against a school from Cambridge. The fact that we were on the short end of that score should provide significant motivation for our troops to repay that favor in spades this weekend. I hope many on this distribution will return for Homecoming and give our men a meaningful home field advantage in this key matchup vs Harvard.

3. Prior to the game, we will have a reception for 2011 Ring of Honor inductee Bruce Kozerski on the left field line of the varsity baseball field. Please come join us, congratulate Bruce, and get ready for the on field pre-game ceremony prior to kickoff. Bruce started every single game during his career at Holy Cross. Let's make sure we express our pride and admiration to him and his family who will be coming in that morning after Bruce coaches his son and teammates from Holy Cross HS in Covington, KY the night before.

The power of positive thinking believes both Holy Cross contingents will gain victory this weekend.

4. Since inception in fall 2009, the Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council (HCGLC) has held our annual meeting on the morning of Homecoming. On a going forward basis, we are looking to change the format. Instead of a one hour phone call/meeting which due to conflicts only a handful could attend/participate, we will now 'open the electronic floor' for a month long period of feedback, comments, ideas regarding what the HCGLC does, how we do it, and what more we might do to pursue our mission of "commitment to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field".

How will our 'month long electronic meeting' work? To spare everybody the chance of receiving an endless stream of e-mails and comments, please respond directly to me only. I will then collate and synthesize the comments and creative genius provided and issue a summary report in the latter part of October. Post that report, we can develop action plans in order to execute and win.

I strongly believe this format will not only encourage participation but also positively impact the pursuit of our mission. I have a few ideas of my own and will include them in the report. Please let me know if you would like to attach your names to your ideas or deliver them confidentially.

Remember, the sole focus of the HCGLC is the pursuit of our mission. Nothing more, nothing less. By opening the electronic meeting to the entire audience of HC Football alums and Gridiron Club members, I hope we will generate greater support and consensus. Please also know, though, that along with creative genius we always need "hands on deck" and the "do, re, mi" flowing into the Gridiron Club as well.

For purposes of review, since our last meeting on the morning of Homecoming 2010, many dozens of loyal supporters have been involved in the following programs/initiatives. We thank the Holy Cross administration for the accompanying support of our council, our causes, and our mission.

>>Induction of first two classes into the Holy Cross Ring of Honor
>>Career Night, (number 25 perhaps??) led by Bill Maloney '59. THANK YOU, BILL..!!!

>>'90-Wide' Mentoring which now incorporates 130 alums gains further traction

>>Meeting with board chair Kevin Condron in fall 2010 to discuss topic of scholarships within the Patriot League >>Strong turnout for the Alumni Game as part of the spring football game/barbecue. THANK YOU Dan Adams '07 for leading this charge!!

>>Awarding of 2nd Jackie Mo' Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in spring 2011 to Jack Scott

>>Annual Golf Outing in June 2011 ...this can and needs to be improved in terms of attendance
>>Support of 1st Night Game at Fitton Field...unmitigated success!!

>>Ongoing moral and financial support by so many of the program we all know and love. Our collective passion remains fueled by the finest coach in college football, Tom Gilmore.

The Suggestion Box is now open, or dare I say, our electronic meeting has come to order. I welcome any and all thoughts, comments, feedback. Please be respectful but not bashful and rest assured any and all confidence will be protected if desired.

On that note, I look forward to seeing many of you at Fitton this Saturday for another Crusader victory and a special day for Bruce Kozerski '84.

One other point, and a major one at that....

5.LET'S WIN!!!

LD '83

Chair/HCGLC

lwdoyle128@aol.com

No Bad Press and Onward to Victory!!

2011-09-06T19:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, for those in the public eye, like Holy Cross Football, there truly is no bad press.

On that note, I am happy to provide links from other sites talking about Crusader Football and the HCGLC. Additionally the Crusaders have a HUGE Patriot League game this coming Saturday. Let's make sure the team once again feels the support of everybody in Crusader Nation.

See you at Fitton on Saturday.

Let's Win!!

LD '83

1. A website covering BC Football entitled BC Interruption writes Observations from Thursday's UMass-Holy Cross Football Game,

(Extra Point) Holy Cross' Ryan Taggart Isn't Too Shabby, Either

Just for kicks, how about an outlook on Holy Cross football? Senior quarterback Ryan Taggart showed a little rust at the beginning of Thursday's game, but he rebounded in a big way. After completing 4-of-7 passes for 26 yards in the first quarter, Taggart threw for 220 yards in the final three quarters and finished with 246 passing yards and one touchdown on 23-of-44 passing. In short, Taggart's the real deal.

Taggart is also very good on his feet. For instance, on a fourth and two from the UMass three yard line, Taggart took the snap and rolled right, only to find no one open in the end zone. Instead of trying to squeeze in a bad pass, Taggart used his excellent field vision and spun left around a UMass defender and made his way into the endzone.

However, as do many college quarterbacks, Taggart has one major Achilles heel: he can't find receivers on long passes. Taggart was unable to find his receivers on deep tosses down the sidelines, overthrowing his target each and every time. Also, Taggart was not very effective on third downs, which isn't very helpful for teams that want to, you
know, win games.

Not that Ryan and team needed any further motivation but I think the writer down by Chestnut Hill just provided it. Go get 'em Ryan!!

2. Feedback from last Thursday has been phenomenal. The ultimate thanks needs to go to ALL those who generated support for the event beforehand, those whom were in attendance at the game, and those who have expressed their postgame sentiments to the administration.

I think I speak for everybody in Crusader Nation to state how proud we are to have George Connor, Jon Morris, Joe Wilson, and Bruce Kozerski inducted last Thursday into the Ring of Honor.

For those who heard the remarks of the honorees, how special was that!! How do we define pride??

>>Listening and learning that George Connor was born prematurely, weighing in at a mere 2 lbs, with his folks being told not to expect a long life for their newborn, only to see that young tyke go on to lead the Crusaders to the GREATEST upset in college football history.

>>Listening and learning that Jon Morris has such pride knowing that his grandchild will enter Fitton Field to see the family name proudly displayed.

>>Listening and learning that Joe Wilson had no knowledge of Holy Cross growing up in rural North Carolina. From North Carolina to Jamaica Plain in Boston to Mt. St. James, Joe celebrated his day with many friends including his high school football coach. How great was that!!

>>Bruce Kozerski was not with us last Thursday when he was coaching Holy Cross HS in Covington, KY. Please join us on Homecoming in ten days when we will warmly embrace Bruce at Fitton Field.

Are you proud to be associated with these legends? Just a little bit, right??

I was thrilled that we also had many honorees from last year with us as well including: Bill Osmanski's grandchildren, Ed Murphy, Vince Promuto, John Provost, and Gordie Lockbaum. I think we are "running" with a pretty good crowd.

It is great to be a Crusader!!

Given the success experienced last Thursday, I would think it would be a virtual certainty that we will induct the 3rd class into the Ring of Honor and the Crusaders will host the Wildcats of the University of New Hampshire on Thursday August 30, 2012 under the lights. SAVE THE DATE !!

All this said, LET US FOCUS on the next 14 games of Crusader Football this season!! That's right!! Think national championship consistent with the HCGLC mission of "commitment to excellence" both on and off the field.

On that note.....next up on the docket...

3. Holy Cross Football Plays Host to Colgate on Saturday.

The Crusaders put a major dent in Colgate's hopes for a Patriot league Championship a year ago. You know the Raiders hope to repay the favor this coming Saturday. Please come out to Fitton Field this Saturday with friends, family, neighbors, colleagues et al to see the Purple gain victory over the crowd from Hamilton, NY.

4. On the topic of our commitment to excellence off the field, a website covering Dartmouth College football entitled Big Green Alert writes from mid-August Who's Beating Who,

Holy Cross Magazine has a story about the mentoring program set up on Mount St. James to help football players during school and then after graduation. The story notes that the program is . . .
named "90-Wide" for the 90 or so football alums who originally signed up to help. The "Wide" pays homage to Coach Tom Gilmore's wide-spread offense. Since its inception in December 2009, the number of mentors has grown to about 120 from 23 states.

Also from the story is this quote from former running back Chuckie Doyle:

"We're not trying to be like a University of Alabama Booster Club. Providing mentoring to football players doesn't cost a dime. We're simply asking former football players to give of their time and talent and give some career advice to present-day football players. Mentoring is the essence of Jesuit principles. In truth, a mentor always gets back more than he gives."

Let's continue to spread the faith and.....

LET'S WIN!!!!

September 2, 2011: The Mission Continues...Dr. Joe Ciccone '97 Writes of Purple Pride

2011-09-02T13:59:00.000-04:00

In the midst of speaking with some people yesterday, I referenced the fact that while some may have viewed yesterday's activities and assorted events on Fitton Field and atop Mt. St. James as a mere football game combined with a nice ceremony, for those of us who "believe" we know it was something far bigger than that.

Yesterday was not a culmination of efforts which generated a sparkling production. Yesterday was a point in time celebration and highlighting of who we are in the context of an ongoing and continued pursuit of our mission.

For those who would like a reminder of the mission of the Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council it is simply and succinctly stated as: The commitment to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

The game was hard fought. Our Crusaders came out on the short end. We know there are no moral victories but our 'Saders reflected a passion, character, and sense of purpose for which all of Coach Gilmore's teams are known. The spirit of the play is a clear indication that the 2011 rendition of Crusader Football will have significant success.

How can you help this year's team and the mission of the HCGLC?

Go to a game/games. Bring friends. Spread the word about the program. Spread the word about the HCGLC. Share your expressions of support not only with friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues, but feel free to share them with our friends atop Mt. St. James.

On that note and with the permission of Dr. Joe Ciccone '97, I welcome sharing with you the sentiments he shared with me and some on campus this morning:

From: Ciccone,Joseph M. (BIDMC - Urology)
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 12:05 PM
To: LWDoyle128@aol.com
Cc: mmcfarla@holycross.edu; rregan@holycross.edu; bbellerose@holycross.edu; tgilmore@holycross.edu
Subject: PRIDE

Dear Gentlemen,

Last evening atop Mount Saint James was magical. On behalf of Holy Cross alumni, particularly the football alumni, I wish to offer my since appreciation and congratulations for a job very well done. Coach Gilmore has the troops fired up and a valiant showing was given against a very strong opponent on a national stage.

In watching the replay of the early portion of the broadcast in CBS Sports the campus and stadium looked dreamlike. More importantly Holy Cross Football became a vehicle for trumpeting the larger mission of our college. The Jesuit principles and purity of this mission was communicated eloquently, not only by the images on the screen, but by the commentary of the broadcasters, one of whom said "They're playing for all the right reasons." This is Holy Cross Football in a nutshell. It brought tears to my eyes to witness my school and my football program, both so dear to my heart, to be put on the pedestal they deserve and to witness their glory spread far and wide.

The future for Holy Cross and Holy Cross Football is bright. Whatever beginning last night marked, may we continued to push forward with open minds, with soundness of principle, and, as always, with God on our side.

Joseph M. Ciccone, M.D.,

Fullback/Tight-end, Class of '97

Clinical Instructor of Surgery

Harvard Medical School

Urology Practice Associates

Thank you Dr. Joe for eloquently stating what so many of us know to be true. Let us continue to "spread the faith"!!

For those who would like to view a replay of yesterday's game, I understand it will air on CBS College Sports this afternoon at 4pm.

On a more somber note, please keep our Purple brother Jack Nealon '82 and his family in your prayers. I learned yesterday that Jack lost his son Kevin this summer. May God Bless Jack and his family.

LET'S WIN!!

Larry Doyle '83
Chair/HCGLC

Countdown to Kickoff: 5 Days ...The Legend of Bruce Kozerski and Much More...

2011-08-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

Game week...

For those in the track of this witch Irene, please be safe and sound so we can see you this coming Thursday when we make history.

Let's get after it.

1. Thank you to everybody who has been involved in generating enthusiasm and excitement for our upcoming "event". The names are too countless for me to mention individually but the Purple Pride has been fabulous and unlike anything seen in a long time. Well done.

How strong have our colors been? Strong enough that they have been highlighted by the Big Green Alert, a blog/website for Dartmouth Football, which recently highlighted,

Of Holy Cross, The Sports Network writes:
After winning three of their final four games, to post a sixth straight winning season, the Crusaders believe they have enough talent to capture the league title . . .
*
Holy Cross, by the way, is geeked up about its first-ever night football team against UMass on Sept. 1. They are turning it into quite an event on Mount St. James, even selling a special T-shirt commemorating the event. link

There's also a website called Fill Fitton Field whose mission is, "To assist the Holy Cross Athletic Department in achieving a specific goal: selling out Fitton Field for the game."

Hopefully there are equally innovative initiatives (say that three times fast) in the pipeline for Dartmouth's first-ever night game against Penn on Oct. 1.

2. For a wealth of information about the game, parking, etc, please reference this link from the Holy Cross Athletics website.

3. For those who care to purchase the above referenced night game T-shirt or other Holy Cross sportswear, go here.

4. Thanks to Tom Heffernan '84 who inquired and informs us that people are welcome to attend 4pm Mass with the team on Thursday in the chapel. Think there is a little something special about the Cross? How many schools are there where you can get that done? Thank you Tom!!

5. Great to hear that Jerry McCabe '87 will be 'in the house' this coming Thursday.

6. Holy Cross' 12th Man is "Sending a Message to the 'Saders".

7. Thank you to Peter Muldoon '85, one of Holy Cross' great quarterback's, who shares with us The Legend of Bruce Kozerski '84,

I can’t put into words what Bruce Kozerski means to Holy Cross Football. But I will try.

First, I would like to congratulate Bruce on his well deserved induction into the Holy Cross Ring of Honor. In my humble opinion, you are the best offensive lineman (sorry Mr. Morris) that has ever played at Holy Cross and it was an honor to have played with you. As a quarterback, I knew that my right side was always protected and even though opposing teams knew that we were going over the right side on all short yardage situations, you always stepped up and cleared the way. Heck, even Chuck Doyle was able to gain a few yards behind you!

From 1980 through 1983, Bruce anchored some very talented Crusader offensive lines and blocked for many exceptional runners in Fenerty, Clivio, Shimshock, Covington and Doyle. Every time Bruce stepped on the field, his teammates could rely on him to give an exceptional effort and he would always dominate the opposition. Bruce was a no nonsense type of player and his football knowledge helped him take his game to another level, as he did during a very successful 15 year NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals. While at Holy Cross, Bruce mastered every offensive line position and was even the long snapper on special teams. He did it all. Even in the classroom, Bruce excelled and gained accolades as an Academic All-American.

As you are being inducted into the Ring of Honor and on this historic night at Fitton Field, please know that all of your Holy Cross teammates and coaches are very proud of you. You are one of the best ever to have worn the Crusader purple and this honor is well deserved.

I will not be able to make it up to HC on the 1^st but I know the Crusaders will make us proud. What an exciting night for the program.

Congratulations and BEAT UMASS!

Peter Muldoon

Class of 1985

On that note.....stay safe and....,

LET's WIN!!

LD '83

Countdown to Kickoff: 10 Days...The Legend of Jon Morris

2011-08-22T16:24:00.004-04:00

Does time fly or what? I believe I first communicated in mid to late June about the historic event that will take place upon Mt. St. James on September 1st. We are now ten short days away from this momentous occasion which will bring together so many members of the Purple faithful.

The outpouring of pride and passion surrounding this event has been spectacular. I thank every single individual who in their own way has played a part in assuring that this event will be an enormous success. On that note, let's dispense with further formalities, and bring you up to date on developments:

1. Ring of Honor

I have received word that Steve Osmanski, grandson of Bullet Bill '39, will be with us on the 1st to represent his grandfather. How great is this!!

Steve will join Vince Promuto, John Provost, and Gordie Lockbaum at midfield to welcome this year's inductees (Al Connor representing his Dad, George Connor ex' 46, Jon Morris '64, Joe Wilson '73...we should inform you that Bruce Kozerski '84 will be working his own sidelines the evening of the 1st as coach of Holy Cross HS in Kentucky. Bruce will be inducted on the 1st and will join us at Homecoming vs Harvard on the 17th).

Steve Osmanski is one of Milwaukee's finest and we thank him and his entire extended family for embracing the tradition and displaying the Purple Pride!!

2. Television Viewing

A few people who can not join us on the 1st have inquired about how they can view the game. The game will be nationally televised on CBS College Sports. You need to make sure your cable provider carries this station. If not, find a local establishment that does and give another hoiah ....

3. Local Marketing

The local marketing effort for this game is going into overdrive with direct outreach to schools, hospitals, and corporations in full swing.

Additionally, Holy Cross will have a presence at a Worcester City Hall afternoon concert this coming Friday and in local malls. Hats off to the Holy Cross cheerleaders who will go into town to 'rally the local subway alumni'!!

4. Ticket Sales

Ticket sales remain brisk. Check the Ticket Thermometer at Fill Fitton Field (www.fillfittonfield.com) for updates over the next ten days.

The buzz and excitement from near and far for this game is unparalleled and dare I say increasing as kickoff approaches. I hope every individual on this distribution will join us on the 1st. How can you be a part of the event?

If you can not join us in person, please buy a ticket or tickets and inform the ticket agent that you want to donate it/them to the Ticket Fund for needy and deserving local Worcester schoolchildren.

Thank you in advance to the alumni and friends who have displayed real Christian charity and already donated multiple hundreds of tickets to this initiative. If you can not be with us in person, please take the mere five to ten minutes tomorrow to call the HC Ticket Office and make this donation. The number is (508) 793-2573.

5. Student Pep Rally

I have been informed that the students will have a pep rally Thursday afternoon of the 1st starting at 5:30 in Kimball Quad and are strongly encouraged to create a Purple Wave by dressing 'in uniform' for the game.

6. Gameday Details

5pm: Gates Open

5:30pm Football Alums and Friends Tailgate at Tent on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium.

6:45-7:15pm Ring of Honor Recognition and Public Remarks by Honorees at the Tent referenced above

7:45pm Crusader Walk of Honor formed on Fitton Field by Football Alums and Friends for honorees and then the 'Saders!!

7:50pm Ring of Honor On Field Ceremony

8pm Kickoff to VICTORY!!

11pm est Postgame Tailgate on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium (recommended you bring a few cold ones for this postgame victory celebration)

Parking is expected to be tight so I recommend people get to the Woo early and "get comfortable"

6. The Legend of Jon Morris

Thank you you to Bernard Dempsey, a teammate of Jon Morris both on the Hill and prior to that for sharing this recollection of the legend that is Jon Morris.

I regret deeply that I will not be at the ceremony to honor Jon Morris for all his accomplishments as an athlete.

But I would like to discuss my lasting impression of Jon which is so much more treasured than him leading our high school team to the Washington, D.C . City Championship and our having played together at Holy Cross.

Unlike anyone else who is his contemporary, I think I have known Jon the longest, going back to grade school. Then, of course, we both played at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C. along with others who went on to Holy Cross, such as Jimmy Holloran and Henry Partridge.

My lasting memory is the very first day we all reported to summer pre-season practice at the Cross. Everything was new to us with new faces, a new part of the country, rough hewn coaches, and ungodly two-a-day practices in broiling heat.

At the end of the day we could barely make it to dinner after practice and then to Wheeler Hall to sleep.

Jon was my roommate during that first year of summer practice. We commiserated and groused about everything that was new and strange.

We talked about our families, friends, and those who were enjoying the balance of the summer in a more conventional way than were we.

Then it would thankfully come time for us to crawl in bed. The one memory I have carried with me and I have tried to emulate from that late summer of 1960, is seeing Jon, after the lights were out, kneeling at the side of his bed and saying his night prayers to Almighty God as his last act of the day.

We all know that Jon was the farthest from being ego-driven. Rather, he always was and remains a good man and his example sent a strong message to me that his spiritual life was more important than the acclaim which he so richly deserves.

Warm regards,

Bernard Dempsey '64

LET'S WIN!!!

LD '83

Please share this message with family, friends, and colleagues who may not be on this distribution.

HCGLC Mission: Committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

Countdown to Kickoff: 19 Days...UNITING CRUSADER NATION

2011-08-14T17:10:00.002-04:00

With less than three weeks to the kickoff to the 2011 Crusader Football season, to say that there is a LOT going on would be an enormous understatement.

For those on this distribution not yet aware, numerous forecasters and prognosticators around the nation have projected that given a wide array of signals they project an EXPLOSIVE Purple Tsunami on Mt St. James in the late afternoon and throughout the night on September 1st.

The forecasted projections indicate that this explosive Purple Wave emanating on Fitton Field will literally and figuratively roll throughout New England and to many parts of the nation. Ride the wave and join us on the 1st.

I hope as many people as possible on this distribution will join us for what will assuredly be the biggest event at Fitton Field in a very long time. Bring your friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

Let's dispense with the formalities and get right after it.

ARE YOU READY for SOME FOOTBALL?

1. Ticket Sales

Thanks once again to the creative genius of fellow Crusaders Brendan Devlin '01 and Dan Adams '07, we can track how ticket sales for the game vs UMass 'under the lights' are progressing. How so? Please visit Fill Fitton Field regularly and monitor how the "heat" is rising in terms of ticket sales via the recently launched Ticket Thermometer which I am happy to share with you below.

As of a week ago, the Ticket Thermometer registered the following level. In talking with the esteemed Linda George in the HC Ticket Office, the pace of calls and ticket sales is quickening as the days go by. The "thermometer" will be updated regularly over the next few weeks.

I view the current level of ticket sales as the political equivalent of having totally solidified our base and now we need to "turn out the vote", that is attract those in the local Worcester and surrounding markets. On that note, what are the initiatives being undertaken by the Athletics Office with the support of the HCGLC and friends?

1. Promotional e-vite delivered to all those companies affiliated with the Worcester County Chamber of Commerce. Has already generated a positive response.

2. Promotional e-vite being delivered to all the individuals working in Worcester Public Schools.
3. Promotional e-vite delivered to every high school in MA, CT, RI, and NH.
4. Engaging local radio and TV station with promotional materials.
5. Blanketing local area markets, malls, and parking lots with flyers.

6. Selling tickets at locales with high pedestrian traffic (train station and local malls).

2. Game Day Details

5pm Gates Open

5:30pm Football Alums and Friends Tailgate at Tent on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium

6:45-7:15pm Ring of Honor Recognition and Public Remarks by Honorees at the Tent referenced above

7:45pm Crusader Walk of Honor formed on Fitton Field by Football Alums and Friends for honorees and then the 'Saders!!

7:50pm Ring of Honor On Field Ceremony

8pm Kickoff to VICTORY!!

11pm est Postgame Tailgate on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium (recommended you bring a few cold ones for this postgame victory celebration)

Parking is expected to be tight so I recommend people get to the Woo early and "get comfortable"

3. HCGLC Uniting Crusader Nation Challenge

No do not worry, this challenge will only require you to reach into your pocket to buy the next round of drinks. How so?

The HCGLC Uniting Crusader Nation Challenge is laying the gauntlet down to all the regional clubs not within an easy drive of campus to host a reception at one of your local establishments and enjoy the company of friends and fellow 'Saders in watching our gridiron Crusaders take on UMass under the lights on September 1st.

Who has already answered the call?

SW Ohio (Greater Cincinnati)
Florida Suncoast (Greater Tampa)
Greater Philadelphia
Metro-NYC
Has there ever been an event in which the entire college community nationwide has come together to celebrate? If there has been, I am not aware of it.

We will keep you apprised as to who responds to the challenge. For those out in the field, perhaps you can reach out to your regional club head proactively and inspire them to "respond to the challenge" and help us "Unite Crusader Nation".

Are you in?
I would hope and think this should be a layup.

4. Coach Gilmore Pre-Season Interview

For those who have not yet witnessed our Head Football Coach Tom Gilmore talking about the upcoming season and the excitement for the game "under the lights" I am happy to provide the following:

Interview with Holy Cross Coach Tom Gilmore

Remember all we do is to further the mission of the HCGLC:

Committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

Please share this message with friends, teammates, classmates, parents, and others who may not be on this distribution.

LET'S WIN!!

Larry Doyle '83

Chair, HCGLC

HCGLC Uniting Crusader Nation Challenge

2011-08-12T10:56:00.000-04:00

As part of the ongoing initiative to support the college and the Holy Cross Football Program the Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council in conjunction with the Alumni Relations Office is launching the following challenge.

No do not worry, this challenge will only require you to reach into your pocket to buy the next round of drinks. How so?

The HCGLC Uniting Crusader Nation Challenge is laying the gauntlet down to all the regional clubs not within an easy drive of campus to host a reception at one of your local establishments and enjoy the company of friends and fellow 'Saders in watching our gridiron Crusaders take on UMass under the lights on September 1st.

Who has already answered the call?

SW Ohio (Greater Cincinnati)
Florida Suncoast (Greater Tampa)
Greater Philadelphia
Metro-NYC

Has there ever been an event in which the entire college community nationwide has come together to celebrate? If there has been, I am not aware of it.

We will keep you apprised as to who responds to the challenge. For those out in the field, perhaps you can reach out to your regional club head proactively and inspire them to "respond to the challenge" and help us "Unite Crusader Nation".

Are you in?

I would hope and think this should be a layup.

Let's WIN!!

LD '83
Chair, HCGLC

Countdown to Kickoff: 27 Days....Major Props!!

2011-08-06T06:49:00.000-04:00

We are less than one month out from kickoff to the 2011 Holy Cross Football season and its opening up under the lights" vs UMass. Here is your Crusader Football Fix!!

With our Crusaders now in camp, let's ratchet up our focus in spreading the word and the enthusiasm to Fill Fitton Field!!

I. Gameday Details for All Holy Cross Football Alums and Friends

5pm Gates Open...this time is subject to change and may be moved up.

5:30pm Football Alums and Friends Tailgate at Tent on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium

6:45-7:15pm Ring of Honor Recognition and Public Remarks by Honorees at the Tent referenced above

7:45pm Crusader Walk of Honor formed on Fitton Field by Football Alums and Friends for honorees and then the 'Saders!!

7:50pm Ring of Honor On Field Ceremony

8pm Kickoff to VICTORY!!

11pm est Postgame Tailgate on Left Field Line at Baseball Stadium (recommended you bring a few cold ones for this postgame victory celebration)

Parking is expected to be tight so I recommend people get to the Woo early and "get comfortable"

II. MAJOR PROPS
There are a number of alums who have truly stepped up to rally the troops and to Fill Fitton Field. I want to publicly acknowledge the following loyal 'Saders!!

1. Brendan Devlin '01 for launching the Fill Fitton Field website. If you have not perused that site, check it out. There is a lot of great material there. Sign the Guest Book if you have not done so yet.

2. Mark Cannon '77, Craig Cerretani '79, Steve "Gerald" Hiorns '80, Ed Doyle '82, Doug O' Donnell '83 are sponsoring and/or bringing upwards of 400 students from selected middle schools, high schools, and youth sports programs to attend the game. How great is that!! Well done, gentlemen!!

3. Chuck Doyle '86 for organizing a busload of fanatics from Fairfield County. Chuck showing his lead blocking skills once again.

4. Bob Danahy '55 has underwritten a nice block of tickets for classmates from the Great Class of 1955. Nicely done, Robert!!

5. Bill Maloney '59 is hosting a class dinner prior to the serious tailgating and game. Ever the leader, Bill!!

6. Vince Promuto '60, John Provost '75, and Gordie Lockbaum '88, three of last year's inductees into the Ring of Honor will be with us on the 1st. These Crusader Legends will be at midfield to greet this year's honorees. Nicely done gentlemen!!

I know that Ed Murphy and his clan have a significant rooting interest in a Fordham-UConn game on the 1st but will certainly be with us---and we will be with them---in spirit that evening.

7. Class captains/agents leading the charge to inspire their troops to be "in the house" include:
Ron Maheu, Rod Deleaver, Elmo Wright, Craig Cerretani, Glenn Verrette, Paul Matasavage, Dougie O' Donnell, Tom Heffernan, Leo Carlin, Chuck Doyle, John Hackney, Gordie Lockbaum, Jim Grady, Patrick Quay, John O' Neil, Dan Adams, Casey Gough, Nicholas Cole, Anthony Dimichele. GREAT JOB and Thank YOU!!

I encourage others to follow the lead of all these "brothers" and rally your own troops, friends, neighbors et al to help us Fill Fitton Field and give our Crusaders a real homefield advantage as we create a Purple Wave on September 1st.

III. TICKETS
If you have not yet purchased your tickets, dare I ask why you are waiting....LET'S GO...
For ticket info and details...
http://goholycross.com/fan_central/Ticketing

IV. Aside: a Crusader Connection in New Orleans Saints Training Camp
Two of the best Crusaders from the early '80s are reconnected in a manner of speaking in the NFL. How so?
Terry 'Moses' Malone '83 has Harry Flaherty's son (Harry Jr., Princeton '11) in camp down in the Big Easy. Here is a big shout out to 'Moses' and both Harrys.

.....tick....tick...tick...

V. The Countdown to Kickoff Continues.

With this message, let's formally welcome the freshman and their families to the Crusader Football Family.
All the best to Coach Gilmore, staff, and the team as they get camp into full swing over the next few days. Rest assured gentlemen, all the alums, the HCGLC, and friends of HC Football "HAVE GOT YOUR BACKS"!!

LET'S WIN!!!

LD '83

Countdown to Kickoff: 40 Days...2010 Building the Brand/Ring of Honor MUST SEE Video

2011-07-24T08:57:00.004-04:00

Time flies. We are a mere 40 days away from making history when the 2011 Crusader Football team takes the field 'under the lights' vs the University of Massachusetts.

Many people remain busy with preparations for the day and the induction of the second class of Crusader Legends into the Holy Cross Ring of Honor. Details of the game day festivities will be released within the next few weeks.

To capture a sense of the awesome spirit embodied in the Ring of Honor program, I am happy to share a video clip captured and produced by the HCGLC of last year's Ring of Honor reception and ceremony. I firmly believe that anybody with an ounce of Purple blood will want to watch this video.

The remarks of the honorees (Bill Osmanski's '39 son Bob, Ed Murphy '43, Vince Promuto '60, John Provost '75, Gill Fenerty '86, Gordie Lockbaum '88) are filled with names, memories, and emotions which are truly PRICELESS. The video also captures the spectacular fall setting atop Mount Saint James.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee, your favorite cold beverage or perhaps a glass of fine wine and enjoy this 55-minute clip. It is truly special. Special thanks to Brendan Devlin '01 and Dan Adams '07 for the effort and technical prowess in embedding this video at the Fill Fitton Field website which was developed and launched by Brendan. GREAT JOB by these 'Saders!!

I hope you will watch the video in its entirety and then:

1. Share it with friends, family, teammates, classmates so they too can enjoy it and we can further spread the word and Build the Brand!!

2. Commit to joining us on September 1st when the second class (George Connor ex'46, Jon Morris '64, Joe Wilson '73, and Bruce Kozerksi '84) is inducted into the Holy Cross Ring of Honor.

3. Buy your tickets and join us on September 1st. Ticket information link. Discounted group rates available. Additionally for those staying overnight a select number of discounted hotel rooms are available. Please inquire with the ticket agent in the Holy Cross Ticket office at (508) 793-2573.

Enjoy the show along with the other material at the Fill Fitton Field site!!

LET'S WIN!!!

LD '83

Holy Cross Building the Brand/Ring of Honor; October 2, 2010

Countdown to Kickoff: 48 Days...The Legend of George Connor

2011-07-16T10:14:00.000-04:00

The Legend of George Connor

NOVEMBER 28, 1942--A football game that every Holy Cross football fan should never forget.

This game between the storied Jesuit rivals, the pagans (haha) from Boston College and the loyal sons from Holy Cross, was played at Fenway Park. While Fenway may now be home to Red Sox Nation, on this blustery day back in 1942 it was filled with college football fans from all over New England and far beyond that as well. The estimated attendance was 40,000 but as the years went by you would have thought every citizen in Worcester County witnessed "the greatest football game ever played."

Boston College came into this year end rivalry game with an unblemished record and a top national ranking. Led by The Brain, Eddie Doherty, the BC Eagles not only won their games but they took no prisoners in doing so. The lopsided nature of all their scores certainly allowed a few of the 'Eagle fans' to pick up a few extra bucks along the way. I distinctly recall a number of my boyhood pals salivating before the BC-HC game thinking that this would be'easy money'.

While BC had run roughshod over their opponents, the loyal sons of Holy Cross had a decidedly mediocre record. Many of the Boston faithful believed the game would be a mere formality. In many regards, the game did become a formality, although certainly not as anybody had expected. In fact, thinking back upon it, there are moments when I still can not believe the near perfect performance displayed by the boys in Purple. It was truly unbelievable and pure delight.

The Crusaders could not be stopped and absolutely dominated the entire game.

The backfield play of Grigas and Bezemes truly excelled, both in running and passing. However, as every true football fan knows, the game is won and lost along the line of scrimmage and it was on that line of battle that the Cross turned the game into a rout. In the process, the legend of one George Connor was born.

This young Irish stud from Chicago, along with his sidekick Jim Landrigan, manhandled the Eagles and their legendary lineman Gil Bouley. Whether it was trap left, trap right, straight up the gut, or around end, the boy wonder from the Windy City George Connor led the Purple up and down the field.

The Cross led at halftime either by a score of 20-0 or 20-6. My memory of close to 69 years is not clear on this fact. However, the score of the first half was not important.

The Cross as a team and Connor especially just got stronger and stronger and thrashed the Eagles throughout the second half scoring another 35 points. Any thoughts of mercy or feelings of pity for the boys from Boston were very short lived.

The final score of 55-12 will remain etched in my memory forever. The performance of George Connor will as well.

I would maintain that this game is still the greatest upset in the history of college football.

The tragedy of The Cocoanut Grove fire that November night certainly put everything in perspective but the legend of one George Connor was borne that afternoon and I was there to see it.

I look forward to the evening of September 1st, when George Connor will take his rightful spot in the Holy Cross Ring of Honor. He deserves it based upon his performance alone on November 28. 1942.

Bill Doyle '48

Countdown to Kickoff: 57 Days...Update and Story on Crusader Legend Jon Morris '64

2011-07-07T17:35:00.001-04:00

With the Countdown to Kickoff a mere 57 days away.....

1. Ticket sales for the opening game "under the lights" remain at a very brisk pace. Thank you to those who have already purchased. If you have not done so yet, make sure you get on the horn first thing tomorrow at (508) 793-2573 and buy those tix...!!

2. Alums and groups of alums will be coming in from far and wide including: California, Wyoming, Arizona, Chicago (a good sized contingent), Ohio, Missouri, Delaware, DC, PA, Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and points all over New England.(this is what I know of ...I am sure plenty more are coming from other points). Let us know if you are coming and from where by signing the Guest Book at the Fill Fitton Field site highlighted below.

3. A busload of alums from Fairfield County is being arranged. If anybody cares, contact Chuck Doyle '86 at cdoyle@bizcap.com to get on board. I do believe buses from other regions are being arranged. Contact the head of your local alumni club and prompt them to make this happen.

4. A number of school groups will be in attendance. I know specifically of a large (100+) contingent coming from Malden Catholic. MAJOR HIGH FIVE to Mark Cannon '77 for making that happen. I also believe a large group from New Bedford High School will be in attendance. High five to Denny Golden '89. I do believe arrangements for other schools and teams are in the works. Thanks for everybody involved on this front. What other schools and clubs can we get involved?

5. The effort to have local Worcester school children attending via donated tix is off and running. I know a nice sized contingent from The Nativity School in Worcester will be attending due to the generosity of one alum. Thank you Ed Doyle '82.

If you can not be with us in person on 9/1, join us in spirit by purchasing ticket(s) and donating them to this Worcester Schoolchildren Fund. Who knows, perhaps the young boy or girl in attendance will be so inspired by the Purple Pride on display and will want to attend The Cross someday....thanks to you.

6. A good sized contingent from the Central Massachusetts Chapter of the High School Football Officials will be in attendance after a clambake tailgate that afternoon.

7. Every local high school of players from both HC and UMass are being contacted to come see 'their boys' compete. Additionally all high schools in New England have been or will be contacted.

8. Alums from teams and eras connected to the honorees are organizing to come back and stand up for their teammates/classmates being inducted into the Ring of Honor. (George Connor, Jon Morris '64, Joe Wilson '73, Bruce Kozerski '84). We know some of last year's honorees will be in attendance as well and ready to meet this year's honorees at midfield.

9. Details have gone out and will be redelivered to all of the local chambers of commerce and media outlets.

10. Holy Cross Magazine will be talking it up.

11. Will our fellow alum The Sports Guy Bill Simmons at ESPN respond to the numerous invitations delivered by the HCGLC? He can't say he hasn't been invited.

All I got for now, ....although I should share that Linda George in the HC Ticket Office told me, "I CAN'T WAIT to see Joe Wilson. He's such a nice guy!!

Another alum said, "I have not felt this much excitement around a Holy Cross Football game since the BC game at Foxboro."

Get on board and buy your tix sooner rather than later, unless you want to be in the nosebleed or the endzone.

PLEASE spread this message and get people to attend. Do not assume or presume that others will carry the torch. We need EVERYBODY INVOLVED spreading the word!! Especially people connected to local civic groups, clubs, and organizations.

Sign the Guest Book at Fill Fitton Field if you have not already indicating that you are coming or merely to send a message of encouragement.

There is great pride on display and it will inspire others as well. (Kudos to Brendan Devlin '01 for launching this site)http://www.fillfittonfield.com/I_m_going_.php....Have some fun and check out all the other parts of the Fill Fitton Field site.

Purple Pride!!

LET'S WIN...and make sure we give our Crusaders a real homefield advantage in the process!!

LD '83

A nice article ran recently in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette on Crusader legend Jon Morris '64 who will be inducted into the Holy Cross Ring of Honor prior to the game on 9/1. I thought you may enjoy reading, ...then go buy your tickets so you can be there when WE MAKE HISTORY!!

Now enjoy....

Patriots, Holy Cross to Honor Jon Morris

Countdown to Kickoff: 63 Days...Rodney Deleaver '74 Writes of Joe Wilson '73

2011-07-01T08:38:00.002-04:00

A little bit of a Friday Crusader 'fix'.....

Linda George in the Holy Cross Ticket Office has informed me that the 'phones are ringing off the hook' with people from both near and far purchasing tickets for the "event" on September 1st when our Crusaders take on UMass under the lights.

Call 508-793-2573 and get involved so we can make sure we Fill Fitton Field. Spread the word.

Holy Cross Football Tickets Now On Sale

Our fellow 'sader from the Class of 1974, Rodney Deleaver, takes a walk down memory lane and writes with passion about his teammate Joe Wilson.

Thank you Rodney. I hope everybody has a great 4th of July holiday weekend...

LD '83

Joe Wilson, HC 1973

By: Rod DeLeaver, HC 1974

Dear Fellow Crusader alum (gridiron and otherwise),

Unless you've been starring in a GEICO commercial, I am hoping that you have heard about the spectacular events scheduled for Thursday evening, September 1, 2011.

A quick trip along Route 290 in either direction from Webster Square, or Auburn, and you will pass Fitton Field which will soon host its FIRST ever night football game to be played against UMass.

But that is only one of the events planned for the evening. Earlier on September 1^st that day, we will be preparing for the induction of the second class into the Ring of Honor for permanent display on the walls of Fitton Field.

We ask that each of you pass along the word, make plans to attend, and encourage others to help us fill the stadium. Come join us and be fortunate enough to witness two sequential historic events in the annals of Holy Cross athletics.

One of the chosen members of the second class for induction into the Ring of Honor is a teammate of mine, who graduated in 1973, as the single season rushing record holder at that time.

JOE WILSON earned a starting fullback spot in his first season of eligibility. Remember during that period freshmen were not eligible for varsity sports participation.

I first met Joe when I visited Holy Cross as a football recruit in February 1970, the winter after his Freshman season. For those who might recall, the varsity 1969 football season was lost to an epidemic of hepatitis thrusting the freshman football team into the limelight for that Fall season.

The team showed fortitude and zeal, but it was Joe Wilson’s repeated display of speed and power that had the coaching staff abuzz.

Most people make friends and acquaintances one person at a time. Joe Wilson got to meet his Holy Cross football family twenty five, or so, players at a time. That number was about the size of the incoming recruitment class ‘back in the days’.

Naturally, you added in the rest of the team thru walk-ons to reach your magic number for the squad. Then you get to add the full measure of the teams that arrived on campus before your class, adding about another 70 players or so.

After a few weeks of walking up to the " HILL" to the practice field, you began to get the feeling of camraderie forged in the single purpose and goal of making the efforts necessary to win.

This process has been the same since Holy Cross fielded its first football team, and competed against all comers, both local and national.

Like each of the honorees, Joe Wilson has fondly endeared himself to the memories and lore by his deeds for this honor. Very few people realize that the teams that included Joe, also produced several other former NFL players, including his backfield mate for 2 seasons, Eddie Jenkins.

But there is little doubt as to how much Joe meant to his teams during his 3 season career, and just as importantly, what a great ambassador for Holy Cross he has been since his graduation. He has demonstrated his strong family values and integrity throughout his collegiate and professional football and business career without fail.

The Ring of Honor is such an inspiring and great concept that has the unending support of its conceptualization from the members of the Holy Cross Gridiron Club, who work tirelessly to support the student-athletes and the football program of Holy Cross.

To the current and future players, we offer the moments of common ground between the many years of former players, each of whom have dedicated, in no small way, an enormous measure of their personal being in pursuit of victory for Holy Cross on the field of competition.

We have learned that sportsmanship, can only fuel the inspirations of student-athletes who don the colors of our alma mater.

We, your colleagues from past competitions representing Mount Saint James, offer our voluminous vocal encouragement to do your best, and accept the outcome in the same spirit of those who have stepped on the field before you with sportsmanship and valor.

We, just as those who have played before us beginning on September 26, 1903, remain, henceforth now and forever, Crusaders.

Rodney

Countdown to Kickoff.....70 DAYS!!

2011-06-24T11:20:00.003-04:00

FILL FITTON FIELD!!!

Let's Fill Fitton Field for the Holy Cross-UMass Game on 9/1 "Under the Lights"!!!

Tickets Go On Sale June 29th.....Call (508) 293-2573, or go online at www.goholycross.com/tickets

Buy Your Tickets Early as Assigned Seating is a Certainty!!

Group Discounts Available along with Discount Hotel and Game Ticket Packages (check with the ticket agent)

Can't Be There In Person, Join Us In 'Spirit' by Donating Ticket(s) to Local Schools (ask ticket agent to set tickets aside)

Holy Cross Greats George Connor, Jon Morris '64, Joe Wilson '73, and Bruce Kozerski '84 Will Be Inducted into Ring of Honor Prior to Game...

"Please Spread the Word and Share This With Anybody and Everybody, Including Classmates, Teammates, Local Civic Groups, Clubs, Schools...."

Help us 'make history' on September 1.

Visit www.fillfittonfield.com (thank you Brendan Devlin '01)

Purple Pride!! Let's WIN!!

LD '83

Fill Fitton Field - September 1, 2011 vs. UMass

2011-03-27T13:30:00.001-04:00

I hope this message finds all the supporters of the Holy Cross Football program doing well. While we wish Coach Gilmore, staff, and team the best both on and off the field as they are now actively engaged in spring practice, I want to take this opportunity to keep all of you up to date on developments in and around the HCGLC and our mission of being "committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field."

There are a lot of very good things happening so I will dispense with the formalities and dive right into the mix.

1.Spring Football Game on Saturday April 16th.

Major high five to Dan Adams '07 for his tireless efforts in rallying the troops for the upcoming Alumni football game as part of the spring football game on Saturday April 16th. Dan's enthusiasm and leadership are infectious and deeply appreciated by yours truly and all members of the HCGLC. Please make every effort to get back to campus to take in the spring game, catch up with friends, and get a sneak peek at the 2011 Crusader gridiron contingent. If you want to play, Dan can be reached at either: daniel.adams@sunlife.com, usafootball43@gmail.com,

Following the game, the cookout is always a great take. For those mentoring a current Crusader, this day presents a fabulous opportunity to catch up with your student-athlete and further build a rapport and relationship which will change lives on both ends. OurHCGLC 90-Wide Mentoring Program now encompasses 120 alums. GREAT JOB, gentlemen!!

During the cookout, the HCGLC will once again present the Jackie Mo' Lifetime Achievement Award. This year the HCGLC is extremely pleased to present this award posthumously to the man, the myth, the legend, the one and only former trainer for HC Athletics Jack "Skitchie" Scott. In short, as some have said, we may not have been blessed with Jackie Mo's presence atop Mt. St. James if Skitchie were not there first. Embrace the tradition!!

Post cookout festivities will take place as well. Will confirm and make sure the name of the fine local watering hole is properly disseminated. We can toast Jack and Jackie more than once.

2. Holy Cross Football Annual Golf Outing

SAVE the DATE

Friday, June 3rd
Blackstone National Golf Club
Sutton, MA

Shotgun start in the AM (Believe it is 9am) followed by lunch and awards. Will confirm the time and make sure more details are sent out in the coming weeks. This Friday June 3rd is the beginning of Reunion weekend. For those in reunion years, come back early and get your weekend started on the right note.

$250 per person includes range, golf, cart, lunch, and the company of a hundred plus of your closest friends. $200 per person for those out in the last 10 years.

To save headaches the day of the outing, I believe it is best that we make this a pay in advance. I will check with the person who really runs HC Football, that being LuAnn Hennessy, and let you know how this will work. For now, BLOCK THAT DATE and get your boys and girls rounded up for a day of fun both on the links and at the 19th hole.

3. NIGHT FOOTBALL COMING to FITTON FIELD http://www.goholycross.com/sports/m-footbl/2010-11/releases/20110325cr05x1

Major kudos to Athletic Director Dick Regan and the HC administration for making this a reality.

>SAVE the DATE

>Thursday evening (pre-Labor Day weekend) September 1st.

>Your Holy Cross Crusaders will take Fitton Field under the lights against the UMass Minutemen.

>Scheduled for a 7pm kickoff.

>The HCGLC in conjunction with the Athletic Department is targeting this evening to have the second induction of honorees to the Building the Brand/Ring of Fame at Fitton Field. A reception beforehand will be held to properly honor this year's inductees. The online voting at www.goholycross.com for this year's honorees is scheduled to launch in mid-to late April with the honorees announced by mid-May.

Let's set the scene: as the sun is setting on Fitton Field on Thursday evening September 1, let's presume that Jon Morris is strutting to mid-field to see his name unveiled on the back wall of the visitor's side of Fitton Field with the home side Holy Cross faithful going wild, an overflow contingent of HC's Worcester subway alums rallying another hoiah and a chu chu rah rah, and the legendary UMass band being drowned out as 22k plus fans make history.

Can you say Field of Dreams? THIS IS OUR HOUSE!!!

Major high five to Brendan Devlin for already purchasing the domain name www.fillfittonfield.com. We will look for major support from everybody to make this event one to remember.

Hope to see many of you on April 16th. Please spread the word on all these fronts to all your friends, family, and colleagues. Thanks again to Coach Gilmore for his inspiration and passion which inspire us all.

LET'S WIN!!!

Larry Doyle '83

Chair, Holy Cross Gridiron Leadership Council

HCGLC Mission: Committed to excellence in helping Holy Cross Football win on and off the field.

Analysis of the Week - Lafayette

2010-11-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

This week, I have turned to one of the most astute and knowledgeable posters of the Holy Cross football team: breezy. Aside from his great thoughts from the games--many of which he travels to--I have found that he constantly digs deeper with regard to the team. He often inquires about how many of the younger players on the team are doing by seeking out reports from the Junior Varsity games, and keeping a close eye on the depth chart and participation reports. I always enjoy reading what he has to say about Holy Cross' games come Sunday morning. Thank you, breezy, for providing us with the "Analysis of the Week."

Back from the game today in Easton -- great day for a football game -- who knew it was the middle of November?

Good turnout on the Holy Cross side, and the fans had plenty to cheer about today.

Lafayette QB Ryan O'Neil (brother of former HC QB John O'Neil) played very well and displayed none of the inaccuracy that Lafayette fans have bemoaned. HC QB Ryan Taggart also played well although he started slowly in the passing game.

HC special teams deserve special kudos in this game -- the fumble recovery on the Lafayette FG attempt at the end of the second quarter that was returned for a TD, some excellent kickoff returns by Zitnik and Fess, recovery of both onside kicks, the blocked punt, and some deep kickoffs by Lemieux that were well covered stopping the Lafayette returner around the 20-yard line several times.

Although Lafayette had a wide margin in total yardage, much of that was due to a couple of long drives in the 4th quarter when the HC defense was playing prevent style (someday someone will explain to me what the prevent defense actually prevents).

HC offense played much better in second half and each time Lafayette would close to within 3 points, the offense responded with a TD.

HC had two penalties early in the first quarter but only one more penalty for the rest of the game -- a very questionable pass interference call.

Fortunately, the game was played without any apparent injuries on the HC side and only one injury to a Lafayette defensive back that did not appear to be too serious.

It's a good thing, too, because HC has had a ton of injuries this year. Freshman RB Reggie Woods got his first action of the season, rushing three times to give Sam Auffant a breather. Freshman DT Michael White saw substantial action alternating with Tony Ruoti. On many passing downs late in the game, freshman LB Mike Tucker was inserted at DT in an effort to put some pressure on the Lafayette QB.

A good day. Let's get a win against Bucknell next week to end the season with a winning record.

I completely agree with this assessment, especially the recognition given to the Special Teams units, which is what I will harp on in my assessment. Just as these units outclassed the Colgate Raiders, they made Lafayette look like a feeble Pop Warner team out there. Often times, Special Teams is a great way to take momentum from an opponent and use it to ignite the entire sideline and team.

For all intents and purposes, Holy Cross was as dead as a carcass for much of the first half. The first four drives of the game for HC went: punt, field goal, downs, downs, and punt. While Lafayette was not doing much on the offensive end themselves, they were the better team for the first 29:32. Lafayette was poised to go up 13-3 as their stellar kicker Davis Rodriguez (you would not know how good he was in his last three performances against Holy Cross) lined up to kick a 42 yard field goal. Enter: Cav Koch and the field goal block unit. Benefiting from a bobbled snap, Koch took the ball 68 yards to the house to give the Crusaders a 10-7.

Boom. Just like that instead of being down by 7 or 10 at the half, HC is up by 3. One can make the argument that it was not the Holy Cross Special Teams that were so good, but it was the Leopards' that was simply atrocious, but HC simply did their job on Special Teams. The Crusaders ostensibly did not deserve to be leading at halftime, but thanks to Special Teams, they took the momentum with them into the locker room and it carried over into the second half.

In the early stages of the second half, Special Teams came up big once again. With Tom Kandish standing inside his 20 yard line, Perry Townsend blocked a punt giving HC fantastic field position. In Kandish's defense, he was practically mimicking Dustin Pedroia by crouching down to field a ground ball at second base. The snaps for Lafayette were low all day, and Townsend capitalized on the Leopards' miscue. The ensuing drive for Holy Cross stalled after just three plays, and as Rob Dornfried lined up for what would be a mere chip shot from the 23 yard line, the field goal unit for Holy Cross would fail and execute all in the same play.

Failure: Lafayette was able to get a strong push through the middle of the Holy Cross line and block Dornfried's three point bid.
Execution: The headiness of Dornfried to track down Brandon Ellis, who recovered the blocked kick, was a touchdown saving tackle--the first tackle of Dornfried's career I believe.

Talking to senior offensive lineman Graham Gawryszewski on the ride home from Easton, Graham commented that it was not Cav Koch's touchdown at the end of the first half that was the play of the game, but it was Dornfried's tackle along the Lafayette sideline that was the big play. I agree with him. If Ellis takes it pay dirt for six, Lafayette regains the lead 14-10--a major momentum shift.

Special Teams is all about retaining or giving away the momentum in a football game. Our offense greatly struggled to get going until the latter stages of the game, the defense allowed Ryan O'Neil to sling the ball all across the field, yet the Special Team units were there throughout the entire game. Thank you, breezy, for shedding light on the play of Special Teams along with several other aspects of Saturday's game in Easton, PA.

Check back in the coming days for a final look at the Lafayette vs. Holy Cross game.

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu

More Color on the '90-Wide' Mentoring Program

2010-11-10T16:59:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday evening, November 4th, Mr. Bill Maloney '59 led his 26th rendition of a
Mentoring/Career Planning evening for the HC Football team. Hats off to Bill,
Dominic Blue '98, Craig Cerretani '79, Dan Adams '07, Pete Mondani '79, and Brian Hopkins '98 as they and yours truly provided career and life wisdom and passion to the current
Crusader gridiron contingent and the Holy Cross cheerleaders as well.

The night started at 7pm and was still going strong with personal conversations at 10pm.

As we try to institutionalize this process via the formal '90-Wide' Mentoring
Program, I thought people may like to review a cross section of some of the
student-athlete's positive feedback on the mentoring program at large and
selected mentors individually.

As we look to compete with the top colleges/universities in the nation, this
mentoring program will continue to distinguish our Alma Mater and our student-athletes.
Mentoring is the essence of Jesuit principles. Thank you again to all those who mentor our Crusaders. You are helping us pursue our HCGLC mission of being committed to excellence on and off the field. We will incorporate the 35 new HC alums who have volunteered for this mentoring program and roll out the second rendition in early December with a full contingent of 115 HC alums spread across 25 states and 20 industries.

That should cover it.

LET'S WIN!!!

1. Has been great. Mr. Guilfoile is a great man and has been an outstanding
mentor. He has gone above and beyond to contact me and keep in touch with me. I
continue to learn more and more about Mr.Guilfoile and am at the point where I
am comfortable asking him anything about his career.

2. Awesome experience. I earned a prime time internship as a sophomore because of
Mr. Hilson's guidance andsupport. My relationship with Mr. Hilson is great. He
is an unbelievable man.

3. Wonderful. My mentoring relationship is really developing and very helpful to
my transition into college as well as adapting to college life.

4. It has gone well so far. This summerI shadowed Mr. Verrette for the day at
FHO Partners in Boston. This opened up my eyes to a field I am interested in
getting involved in. I am very pleased with the relationship with my mentor.

5. Peter Mondani has been thegreatest mentor I could ever have. Pete has given
me opportunity after opportunity. The advice, critiques, and recommendations have
made me such a better person inside and outside of the business world. Peter
inspired me to go for the FMP internship this past summer. I felt like I did a
great job and it was because of the confidence Pete instilled in me. I can't
thank him enough.

6. Great communication. Dr. Joe Ciccone brought Taylor Glor '10 and me to Beth
Israel Hospital for a day to shadow him righti n the operating room!! He was
extremely helpful in getting permission for us to be right next to him during
surgery. After a long day, we enjoyed a greatdinner with Joe.

7. Mr. Grutt and I have kept in closecontact throughout this year. Last winter I
was fortunate enough to meet Mr.Grutt in his office, learn about his business
and meet his colleagues Our relationshipcontinues to grow.

8. I am extremely fortunate to be involved in a program like this. The mentors
are willing to do whatever they possibly can to help. Over the past year Cindy
Mercer and I have developed a strong relationship. Cindy has provided me with the
opportunity to meet many of her colleagues and actually got me involved in a
number of volunteer opportunities.

9. I have met with my mentor and gained a lot from the meeting. Mr. Chuck Doyle
was very helpful in mapping out future plans for life after Holy Cross. I will
look to reconnect with Mr. Doyle after the season and learn even more from him.
He clearly has a genuine interest in my development.

10. This program is unbelievable. I am humbled to be following in the footsteps
of the mentors in this program. I wish I had been more proactive with this
program up until now. I will be utilizing this program much more now as a senior.

11. It is a great advantage to have amentor. We keep in regular contact and he
keeps me on the right path. I would never want a different mentor than Mr. Adams.

12. Mr. Laurendeau is awesome. He is veryhelpful and always prompt in answering
my questions and providing feedback.

13. The '90-Wide' is an outstanding program. My mentor Mr. Ed Doyle and I have
had many contacts throughout the past year. He was extremely helpful in guiding
me through the process of getting an internship. Mr. Doyle is a fantastic
resource and I could not ask him to do anything more.

14. I stay in regular contact with my mentor Mr. Cerretani. It has been great to
get feedback and to learn from his experience. I look forward to continuing our
relationship.

15. KC Sullivan has given me plenty of good advice on both school and careers. He
has also helped revise my resume.

16. The mentoring program has been awesome. I have had a great relationship with
Casey Gough. Additionally I have gained a new mentor in Mr. O'Gara who has helped
me tremendously. He provided me an internship this past year at the Chicago Board
of Trade. Mr. Tom O'Brien is also a very valuable mentor to me as well.

17. Fantastic. This program is very helpful with resume building and making Holy
Cross connections. Mr. Prestegaard has helped me develop my resume and other
skills. His input and advice has been very beneficial.

Larry Doyle
Chair, HCGLC

Reactions to the Lehigh Game

2010-11-10T00:28:00.000-05:00

Over on Lehigh Football Nation, arguably the best FCS football blog there is around, Chuck Burton writes an article every Monday entitled: "Sunday's Word." This Monday, the word he formulated his article around was: "Hungry." Any why shouldn't it be? Lehigh came out very hungry from the get-go, and really took it to Holy Cross on the defensive end. Eventually, their potent offense came around and they ran away with a convincing 34-17 victory.

To piggy back on LFN's "Sunday's Word," if I was to write a similar article on Holy Cross' behalf, the word would be "Deflation." Just when Holy Cross began to blow up the proverbial balloon, Lehigh came up with a big play to deflate the Crusaders. Here are several instances that illustrate the theme of deflation:

Holy Cross is one play away from stopping Lehigh inside the Red Zone and entering halftime just down 7-3, but Lehigh puts one into the end zone: 14-3 Lehigh.
Holy Cross is able to force a fumble on Lehigh's first possession on the second half, but proceeds to go 3 and out after getting the ball, and Lehigh scores on the next possession: 21-3 Lehigh.
Holy Cross finally gets a touchdown of their own to make it 21-10, but cannot stop Lehigh on the next possession and the Mountain Hawks go up 28-10 early in the 4th quarter.
With Holy Cross clinging to a glimmer of hope, they fumble the kickoff and Lehigh gets the ball back.

Lehigh had an answer for everything Holy Cross did; it really was that simple.

Here is what went right against Lehigh:

Good to see Sam Auffant get to the outside and use his speed to break a run of 20+. We have run the sweep to the wide side of the field plenty of times in the last several games and have had success with it.
Billy Edger continues to demonstrate how he is one of the top receivers in the Patriot League. His touchdown catch in the final seconds of the fourth quarter gave him 7 TDs on the year which puts him first in the Patriot League in TD receptions. Remember, Edge also missed the Harvard and Georgetown games in the beginning of the year due to injury.
Rob Dornfried did his job on Saturday. After struggling early in the year by missing a couple extra points and a field goal, Dornfried is showing why he is one of the premiere kickers in the League. He was 2/2 on PATs and 1/1 on field goals. On the season, Rob is 7/9 on field goals and 19/23 on PATs.
Ricky Otis was a stonewall on defense as he has been all year. Otis recorded 14 tackles, and also recorded a fumble in the beginning of the 3rd quarter that was recovered by safety Alex Johnson.
As has been a trend for much of the season, many receivers were getting involved in the passing game. The duo of Ryan Taggart and Mark Tolzien combined to find eight different receivers throughout the game.
The team has the cliche "never say die" attitude. Even when losing 34-10 in the game's final minutes, the sideline was still up and the offense was moving the ball (granted, Lehigh did have their second unit in). A big shout out goes to freshman offensive lineman Manny Mendoza for keeping the sideline vocal. I don't know how he stayed positive when the Patriot League Championship was all but lost, but he did.

Now, for what did not go according to plan:

It is hard to pinpoint what exactly went wrong against Lehigh, but reflecting back onto the game, it seemed like the offense never got into a groove. Credit the Lehigh defense for much of that. What aspects of the offense failed to perform?

As great as the quarterback play was against Colgate, the same efficiency was not there on Saturday. There were several overthrows, misreads, and miscommunication between quarterbacks and receivers.
Only 23/43 when passing the ball. That is simply too low of a passing percentage.
I am not exactly sure what the reason is, but why can't Alex Schneider become a bigger part of the offense? Not sure if this is simply the quarterbacks not getting him the ball, or whether it is play calling, but in the second half of the 2009 season he emerged as when of the bigger threats on offense. This season? He has just 187 receiving yards and one touchdown.

I thought the play calling was a little too conservative, especially when we got behind in the game. I was hoping we would open up the play book a little more. Specifically, and this came in a special teams situation, I thought there was a perfect time to run a fake punt in the 3rd quarter--a fake punt that we work on every week during practice.

On 4th and 1 on Holy Cross 37 yard line in the beginning of the 3rd quarter when we trailed 14-3, we elected to punt the ball. Not a terrible decision, but Lehigh went onto score on their ensuing possession to go up 21-3. This may have been a good time to take a chance and extend the drive; maybe we could have put points on the board and made it a one possession game.

Killed in the time of possession department. This happened for two reasons:

The defense failed to come up big on 3rd down as Lehigh was 9/18 on 3rd down conversions.
The offense struggled to sustain drives exhibited by seven punts throughout the game

The defensive line, after playing an exceptional game against Colgate, was pushed around by Lehigh in the trenches. Coach Gilmore said in his pre-game speech that this game would be won up front--Lehigh got the best of us here. Elusive quarterback Chris Lum found great success running quarterback draws as he picked up 64 yards on the ground. Lehigh's rushing total for the game eclipsed 200 yards; I don't think anyone thought the Mountain Hawks ground game was going to be that strong.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the defense was undisciplined on multiple occasions and were burned on Lehigh's throwback pass. We had practiced against it all week, we knew they were going to do it, yet we were unable to stop it.

This was a real tough game to swallow, especially for the seniors. A win against Lehigh would have almost certainly given Holy Cross their second straight Patriot League Championship in so many years. From a pure emotional level, it will be hard to get up for these next two games as the PLC and a playoff berth is not on the horizon, but these seniors have had a winning record in their three previous seasons. You can bet that in their last they do not want to have a below .500 record.

Now, onto Lafayette. If you have not been down to the brand new Fisher Field, I suggest you try to make the trek down to Easton. It is one of the state of the art facilities for FCS football, and our games down in Easton have been filled with drama recently. Who could forget in 2006 the coming out party Dominic Randolph had to the Patriot League (34/46 for 352 yards and 4 TDs)? Or, how about that 2008 game where it was the "mystery man"--a name the voice of Holy Cross football Bob Fouracre anointed Rob Koster--who hauled in a last second pass from Dom Randolph to beat the Leopards? If the 2010 edition of the Crusader-Leopard battle in Easton is anything like the prior two meetings, you don't want to miss it!

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu

Analysis of the Week - Lehigh

2010-11-09T13:51:00.001-05:00

Lehigh flat out beat us this past Saturday. They were the better team, and I do not believe anyone would deny that. I wish them the best of luck in the FCS playoffs, and believe they will represent the Patriot League well. With that being said, I want to look at one play that Lehigh runs that crushed us on Saturday.

Coach Gilmore constantly preaches that one needs to simply: "Do your job!" If each player on either the defensive or offensive end simply "does their job" and takes care of their assignment, than we will be successful as a collective whole. Lehigh obviously made the "do your job" philosophy a very tall task, yet if Holy Cross defended a play that Lehigh has crushed opponents with all season, they may have found themselves in the game in the waning moments, rather than down by three scores. I look to PurplePeopleEater this week for the most accurate analysis regarding this play, as well as the play of the game for Lehigh:

IMO - that play just before half was pivotal (going into half 7-3 and with whatever momentum a last score holds, we had something positive..and the fact that we didn't allow more points in the first half would've been a key at half). And then that late first half score coupled with an early 3Qtr LU score really made it tough.

But regarding that LU 1st half TD, anyone at the game can recall our "D" yelling that there was no LU players on the left side...I don't think we even had a cornerback or ayone out there as LU had no one there either. Upon the snap, the entire play rolled right but an LU player flared out of the pack and was all alone on the left. It seemed like the play was drawn out exactly like it ran (call it a 'trick' play but it was creative, affective and done exactly at the right time). That was the play of the game!!!

I remember sitting at my desk on the afternoon of October 30, the day that Colgate played at Lehigh, and decided to splurge on spending the $6.95 to watch this game online. Aside from being very impressed with how well Lehigh moved the ball through the air, I recognized that they continually went to this throw-back pass when absolutely needing a big play. Against Colgate, they ran the play once with their primary quarterback Chris Lum (a 9 yard TD pass to Jake Drwal), and ran it another time with their "Wildcat" quaterback Michael Colvin (a 7 yard TD pass to Alex Wojdowski). This was Lehigh's bread and butter when they needed to convert, and, sure enough, they burned us on it twice.

The play at the end of the first half, that PPE alluded to, definitely was the major changing point in the game. Going into the half down 4 (7-3), instead of 11 (14-3) is a major difference, especially because Lehigh would be receiving the ball to begin the second half.

Although PPE already explained the play, I will do my best to explain how it works as well. The main objective of the play is to have the entire offense, but more importantly the entire defense too, flooding to one part of the field. Lehigh accomplished this with having Chris Lum and the offensive line roll out to the right side of the field; the receivers all broke to the right side as well. What made this play, however, was how the Lehigh tight end Alex Wojdowski sold his block exceptionally well, and then leaked out to the wide side of the field. He was all alone, and while Anthony DiMichele was in position to potentially make a touchdown saving tackle, Wojdowski danced around him for six. DiMichele was sucked into the design of the play, and struggled to recover.

Lehigh's offense is much more than just this one play--call it a trick play if you want--but this throw-back pass will definitely burn another team later in the season; I can guarantee you that. The Mountain Hawks did a great job of setting up this play so they were in a position to be successful when calling it.

Look for my reactions of the game as to "What went right, and what went wrong" later today.

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu

Joe Tutino '12 Weighs in on the Colgate Trip

2010-11-01T23:55:00.002-04:00

Although it is coming a little later than usual this week, Joe Tutino has fabulously provided his great insights to our trip to quaint Hamilton, NY. I cannot think of a single part of the trip that Joe left out, other than myself having some serious digestive problems on our drive from the hotel to Colgate on Saturday morning; there definitely was something peculiar in those sausage links.

Figuring that we have a bye week this week, I thought I’d delay my recap so there would be something to read about over this weekend. It’s only been a week, but the excitement of the Colgate win is still fresh in everyone’s minds. After a long ride through the winding roads of western Massachusetts and eastern New York, a huge win over the 1932 National Champions proved to be a huge momentum booster heading into the bye week as the boys prepare to take on the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University this coming Saturday. All things considered, the winner of this game will be in complete control of its destiny for the Patriot League Championship (as I write this, Lehigh dismantled Colgate 44 to 14 on Senior Day in Bethlehem). This week proved to be big as injured guys have slowly made their way back onto the field and into pads, enthusiastically preparing for another potent offensive attack in Lehigh. But, for one last time, let’s take a look at the game that kept us alive in the hunt for another PLC…

As Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ chimed through the speakers at Colgate’s Andy Kerr Stadium, the sun slowly descending behind the hills of Hamilton, NY, the Holy Cross football team erupted into unrestrained jubilation after upsetting the preseason Patriot League favorite Raiders of Colgate University, 31 to 24. To those who were not there, it is extremely hard to put into words the anxiety of scoring early, losing the lead and then scoring on a really bold play to win the game. Recording the first road win of the 2010 campaign and the first road victory at Colgate since Kerr Stadium had a grass surface back in 2000, the Cross took full control of their own postseason destiny as they have the last couple of seasons, not to mention taking at least a few more years off of Coach Gilmore’s life. Something felt very different about this game almost from the very beginning. As soon as we arrived at the locker rooms to the time the boys stepped on the turf for warm-ups, the entire team was vocal and upbeat, something that was not really seen or felt before last week’s defeat at Dartmouth. The hangover from the Hanover trip was almost nonexistent and that was evident in practice this past week. The entire coaching staff did a great job of keeping the guys loose, yet focused on correcting mistakes from Dartmouth and, boy, did it show. The boys were talking a good game on the field, but they brought the intensity to back it up against what appeared to be an arrogant Colgate squad.

Colgate, sporting purple Holy Cross t-shirts during pregame that read “Finish,” must simply not have believed that the Crusaders would be unable to a) establish an aerial attack and b) stop their vaunted rushing game. To a small degree, in terms of statistics on paper, this was true. The combined passing assault of Ryan Taggart and newcomer Mark Tolzien only combined for 12 completions on 22 attempts for 131 yards and a safety (2 total sacks), hardly a dominating performance. Colgate back Nate Eachus showed us why he is one of the top backs in the entire FCS, rushing for 155 yards and 2 touchdowns on 22 carries for an average of over 5 yards a carry. His quarterback, Greg Sullivan, tacked on another 55 yards on 14 carries. These are stats on paper; the final score tells a different story. Taggart and Tolzien combined for three big touchdown passes, including the game-winner with 5.2 seconds to go in regulation. Their stats do not jump off the page, but their performance at key junctures of the game spoke volumes. Taggart continues to get a little better each week with experience. His near-flawless final drive to win the game where he accounted for all but 2 yards of a 76 yard, :58 second drive, capped off by a 14 yard touchdown floater to Billy Edger, was championship-esque. Tolzien worked wonders in his action, throwing a touchdown pass on his first career completion to Freddie Santana and hitting Luke Chimielinski on a perfect pass in the back of the end zone late in the second quarter that I could’ve sworn from my position was an interception. Being thrown into the fire with no game experience was telling of Gilmore’s trust in his game, his talent (he was nationally ranked by ESPN as a senior quarterback coming out of high school) and the preparation of quarterbacks coach Andy McKenzie (he did have a certain quarterback under his tutelage from 2008-9). What was surprising about Tolzien was that, when he got back to the sidelines after that first touchdown, he acted as if he had been there before, confident to get back out there and do it again—which he did. With the injury to Kevin Watson, Tolzien’s progression in game situations will be crucial down the stretch.

In her weekly preview in the Telegram and Gazette, Jennifer Toland touched upon the fact that, in order to win, the Crusaders would have to slow down Eachus, but they would be unable to completely stop the junior Colgate back. Though Eachus ran for over 150 yards and 2 scores, he was never able to really strike full out fear in the defense. What stood out to me was his ability to find one hole and burst into a clearing. More specifically, in the first quarter, Eachus was able to get through a couple defenders and turn on the afterburners en-route to a 35 yard touchdown run to cut the lead down to 3 points. Similar to 2008, he was able to pick up yardage in small chunks, but this time around he could not break the game open with big 10 or 20 yard scampers or find the sticks on key third downs. When he was able to find space, the play would be nullified for a holding penalty, dashing Colgate’s hopes of any kind of momentum (I believe a lot more holding calls could have been called on Colgate’s offensive line, but the zebras were picky). What was also different than 2008 was that Colgate’s running game had relied heavily on clock management. This was a difficult plan to follow considering we put up points before they were able to gain any kind of a rhythm, disrupting Colgate’s Dick Biddle from implementing his time consuming offensive game plan that worked to perfection in the snow in 2008 and again this year against the likes of Monmouth, Princeton, Georgetown and Cornell. One of their scoring drives in the third quarter took up almost eleven minutes, eating away at precious clock time they could have used in the third quarter. Two years ago, our offense may have been too good for our defense, scoring at will in short bursts of time. However, when Colgate would make a stop, we would be handcuffed on defense knowing that we were too banged up to stop their running attack, which included Eachus, Sullivan and the sneaky, deceptive, and illusive Jordan Scott (the three adjectives describing Jordan Scott are indicative of both his on the field talents, as well as talents off the field). This year’s win was won because of the early lead, turnovers, consistency on both sides of the ball, an earlier scheduling time (October rather than late November) and contributions in all three phases of the game.

There was no one particular star of the game in Hamilton this past Saturday, though freshman utility man Andrew Zitnik became the first ever Patriot Leaguer to garner Special Teams Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week in one game. Zitnik came through with 150 all purpose yards, including one of the most exciting 93 yard kickoff returns, bouncing off defenders and spinning his way to the promised land to post a ten point lead in the first. Zitnik’s return brought back old memories of Brett McDermott and even Ari Confessor (coaching at URI now) racing down the sidelines to glory and into the record books. Not only did he contribute on special teams, he added two big carries for ten yards to his resume, giving the offense another weapon instead of Eddie Houghton and Matt Bellomo. But, like I mentioned, he wasn’t the proverbial “star.” Guys like Tolzien, having endured a tough preseason competition for the starting quarterback slot and seven straight games holding a clipboard on the sidelines, stepping up to throw arguably two of the biggest passes of the game; one to draw first blood and the other to give us a big halftime lead. Guys like Donny Lemieux who, having been relegated to backup placekicker, came up with some huge punts to pin Colgate deep in their own territory on many occasions, throwing off their game plan to score early and play with the conservative run game. Even usual stars like Edger, limited to zero production stats-wise for the first 59 minutes of the game and enduring the yapping of defensive backs (most notably cornerback Coree Moses), coming up big when it really counted to the delight of the Holy Cross faithful. The tenacity of Perry Townsend, blowing through wedges with total disregard for life and limb, forced their special team’s players into guessing where he was going to be every time the ball was kicked. From guys like veteran Dakota Allosso firing up the guys to newcomers like Mike Tucker who forced Sullivan into throwing the ball away on the game’s final play, this was truly a team effort and, truly, a team win.

To paraphrase the venerable Bob Fouracre (his call—a must listen—can be found here: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/holycross.portal#; go to about the 2 hour 20 minute mark for the end of the game), the Colgate faithful were absolutely stunned after the Taggart-to-Edger touchdown, but they were stunned in general that Holy Cross even showed up to play the game. Riding a 12-game home winning streak, Colgate never really displayed a sense of urgency until their final possession. Even then they seemed to not know if they wanted to go for the win or settle for overtime, rushing twice then electing to throw a pass before punting the ball away. The trio of Sullivan, Eachus and wideout Doug Rosnick were quite effective in putting up serious yardage (356 yards of total offense). But big Colgate turnovers in the first half dug a deep, insurmountable hole, not to mention costly penalties late in the game to put the game out of reach. Colgate failed to realize they were not playing a Princeton or a Cornell, teams from the Ivies that have underperformed in recent years. I don’t think that Colgate believed our offense would be able to muster even a first down, never mind a game-winning drive, something this team had not seen yet this season. What we saw on Saturday was a near-flawless performance in all three departments or as close to near-flawless as we have seen all season. Joking with Kevin before the game, I thought what we needed to do was go with an onside kick to start the game and put guys out of position on offense to throw Colgate off of their game. Though we didn’t go with the onsider, all other facets of the game were unpredictable when I’m sure Coach Biddle and Co. was expecting the predictable. Benefitting from great field position from great defensive play and aggressive special teams play, combined with timely offensive play calling, the boys put a wide grin on Coach Gilmore’s usually stern countenance and ensured an entertaining ride in the cool moonlight back to Mount Saint James. And in response to a Crossports poster, yes, I can personally report to you that Coach Bandy had a smile on his face, too.

Like Kevin said, after two weeks on the road and a long bye week, we return to the lush grass of Fitton Field for the first time in almost a month to face Lehigh, the cream of the crop in the Patriot League this year. As always, Coach Gilmore will be up for this game especially, considering the time he spent patrolling the sidelines at Goodman Stadium, not to mention second year outside linebackers coach Matt Mohler, a former All-Patriot League linebacker for the Mountain Hawks (when isn’t Big Tom fired up for any game though?). To paraphrase John Candy in the epic motion picture Rookie of the Year: “This one’s for allllllllll the marbles, folks!” Another stellar performance is going to be needed from everyone, considering that Lehigh (based on today’s win) is better than Colgate. Maybe we’ll see Alex Schneider emerge as he did at the end of last season. Could Andrew Zitnik possibly repeat his performance this weekend? Does Taggart share duties with Tolzien, or do we see Watson return from injury for a three pronged attack? Will the defensive line step up big again? Does the coaching staff avoid cardiac arrest? Stay tuned. Beat the Hawks.

Tidbits from the Colgate trip:

In full disclosure, on the final timeout called with just over ten seconds to go, Coach Gilmore had originally wanted the timeout with about two seconds to go after running one more play, informing the referee closest to the sideline that he wanted to control the final play. After Taggart ran the play, to the surprise of most of us (including the coaching staff), he called the timeout with ten seconds with an interesting facial expression; I couldn’t tell if he was regretting the decision he had made or he knew exactly what he was doing. Obviously it was the latter. Not to sound cheesy or anything, right before we took over on offense on the final drive, I told Billy Edger I was feeling a touchdown from him on the ensuing drive as he squirted his gloves with water. True to form, Edge came through.
Hands down, I think this was one of the best hotels comfort wise we have stayed in my two years as a manager. Situated in the beautiful Handshake City, Utica, NY (home of more strip clubs than McDonald’s from my count, including “Teasers” that could be seen glowing from our room), the Radisson Hotel we stayed at came complete with Sleep Number beds in all rooms and crystal clear Panasonic TVs, as well as free chocolate chip cookies and Wall Street Journals in the lobby. Though Kevin Callahan and I missed breakfast as a result of staying up really late to watch scary movies on AMC, the breakfast food was reported to be uncharacteristically subpar, but the dinner the night before was superb. Devouring some of the best ice cream sundaes we’ve ever had, we got to spend some quality time with Coach Gilmore and the kickers, discussing among other things what Coach Gilmore would be for Halloween. Unsurprisingly, he’s going as a football coach.
Order Pizza Classic if you’re ever in downtown Utica. The cheese pizza was well worth the price and the chicken wings rivaled Wings Over Worcester, not to mention they’re open until two in the morning. It doesn’t get any better than waiting for pizza with a grumbling stomach and watching a drunken guy in red shorts and Jordan flip flops almost stumble straight into the glass wall at the Utica Radisson. Just another priceless moment on the road in the Patriot League.
Colgate has one of the best overall football facilities in the league, having installed an impeccable field turf surface a few years back with a gigantic video board. Similar to Harvard, we utilized a pre- and post-game dressing locker room in their basketball/hockey complex (which was a little tight), but we moved to an auxiliary locker room under the stands for halftime. Instead of shagging kicks this week, Billy Bellerose and I explored the hockey arena and basketball courts in the complex. Overall, it’s a pretty impressive operation with all sports having offices in just one building. What is interesting to note is that they have a three or four lane bowling alley right next to their main athletic offices (somehow I don’t think Dick Regan would approve). Also, Colgate does an admirable job of promoting their athletic history through colorful interpretive trophy cases, displaying jerseys from hockey/football greats alike; for one, I never knew that Mike Milbury was a Raider. A little touchup to our trophy cases would be inexpensive and wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Colgate’s press box, constructed in 2003, is pretty nice, up there with the UMASS press box in terms of overall functionality and comfort. While the snacks were lacking this week, the amount of free programs and maneuvering space more than made up for that. The only real letdown was that our equipment had to be carried down two flights of stairs before we reached the elevator; the elevator was slower than the one in the Fenwick basement. In terms of media outlets, Time Warner Cable was covering the game on television for central New York. The TV announcers were clearly getting peeved when the Colgate coaching staff had to cross the path of their cameras to get to their coaching box (who came up with the position for the camera was my biggest question). And just like UMASS’, Colgate’s video board carried the broadcast of the game during the game. That allowed for myself and the others on the sideline to see ourselves every few seconds during the game—not something you get to do everyday. (Not to sound conceited, before the UMASS game, I purposely ran across midfield while throwing the football with the other managers to see how athletic I looked.)
Doug Rosnick and Greg Sullivan are two of the most talkative guys I’ve ever seen on a football field; up until the game, rightfully so with the numbers they put up. I can only wonder what they did with their Holy Cross t-shirts after the game.
Nice to see the band making the trip out to Hamilton, as well as a decent contingent of parents. Compared to home games of the past, the band sounds much better with the recent addition of a new band director. After the game, Coach Gilmore and the parents invited the band to come eat with us at the post-game tailgate, a nice gesture considering the great enthusiasm displayed by the band the entire game.
A sad day in the world of mangers this past week as Notre Dame manager Declan Sullivan died after falling from the lift he was filming from at football practice in South Bend. Scissor lifts like the ones used at Notre Dame are used at almost every facility we have been to, including two we use for sideline and end zone film at practice. We used to joke a lot when it started snowing or raining (which it did a lot at the beginning of the year) that we might get blown over; it got pretty real this past week with the news. Our hearts go out to Declan and the Notre Dame community.
If you make it to the game on Saturday, don’t forget to wish myself and Andrew Zitnik a happy birthday!

Thanks against Joe T. for your always entertaining input and commentary.

Hopefully I can draft up a preview to the Lehigh game in the next day or so as Championship Game #2 is on the horizon. I have three papers and a test later on in the week, but we all know that Chu Chu Rah Rah and Holy Cross football takes precedence over everything else.

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu

Reactions to the Colgate Game

2010-10-26T18:23:00.002-04:00

For most college football teams, reaching a championship game is the sought after goal at the beginning of every season. For many teams, the dream of reaching a championship football game never becomes a reality. In fact, many college football players will never in their four years participate in a championship game. The Holy Cross Crusaders, however, are in a unique situation where they are fortunate enough to play in four straight championship games. While these are not "true" championship games, for the Crusaders they absolutely are: Win one championship game, and then move on to the next one.

It is certainly not the ideal situation, having your backs against the wall knowing that every game is of the "must win" variety from here on out, but it is also motivating in the sense that one more loss and the season comes to an end. After having already lost to the Georgetown Hoyas in the fourth week of the season, making our Patriot League record 0-1, the Crusaders can ill-afford another league loss; a loss would mean no Patriot League Championship (PLC) and no bid to the NCAA FCS Playoffs. Everyone in the field side locker room at Colgate's Andy Kerr Stadium knew what was at stake this past Saturday, and they will all understand what is at stake on November 6th against Lehigh at Fitton Field: Win, and live to get to another championship game. Lose, and the dream of winning another PLC has slipped away.

When looking at the game itself, and not the logistics of what a win and loss to Colgate would mean in the greater scheme of things, I was fortunate enough to speak with a good friend of mine, and avid poster PurplePeopleEater, prior to Saturday's contest. PPE and I chat for a few minutes before every game about the upcoming opponent and how the week of practice went leading up to the game, and I am always blunt with my thoughts on how the team is looking and what we should expect from our opponent. Not wanting to upset PPE, I asked him: "Do you want my thoughts with, or without my purple shaded glasses on?" He of course wanted my true thoughts, so this is what I told him (for the sake of brevity, I will try to keep my explication of our dialogue short):

This team is a mystery. We lay an egg against Harvard and Georgetown. Then come back and play well against Fordham, and even better against Brown, but then play our sloppiest game of the year against Dartmouth and give away the game. If the same team that showed up in Hanover last week, is here in Hamilton today, things will get ugly.

Here is how we win the game: Get up early, and limit the big plays from Sullivan and Eachus. If Colgate ever gets up by two scores in the game, I don't think we stand much of a chance as they will just grind out the clock. If we can be the beneficiaries of a Colgate turnover, and maybe execute a trick play, we can definitely win the game.

Everyone in attendance in Hamilton, and those who watched the game online, witnessed how good this Holy Cross team can be when there are a minimal amount of mental mistakes, the football is valued, and all three units (offensive, defensive, and special teams) execute their jobs. The offense fed off of the defense's stellar play in the first half, and the special teams turned in easily their best performance of the year. There were many things that went right on Saturday, let's take a look at them:

Ryan Taggart and Mark Tolzien. Tolzien's first career passing attempt went for a touchdown to Freddie Santana, and the final pass of the game for Taggart was a beautifully lofted ball to Bill Edger in the corner of the endzone. What is overlooked about Tolzien's pass is his poise in the pocket; he was absolutely drilled by a Colgate defender, but hung in there long enough so Freddie could get free on the crossing route.

Excellent decisions were made all day from the two signal callers. There were zero interceptions thrown, something that killed us against Dartmouth, and the offense really valued to ball against Colgate.

The offense had a 50% conversion rate on 3rd downs. I commented on how the inability to extend drives was a major problem for the offense earlier in the year. There were far too many "3 and outs" and the inability to string together first downs was very frustrating. Take a look at the drastic improvement on 3rd down:

UMASS (3/12), Harvard (5/13), Georgetown (5/16)

Compiling these numbers, Holy Cross was 13/41 (32% on 3rd down)

Fordham (13/18), Brown (5/15), Dartmouth (8/19), Colgate (6/12)

32/64 (50% on 3rd down). Much of the improvement on offense is a direct result of their success on 3rd down.

Discipline was fantastic against Colgate; only committing three penalties for 23 yards was crucial. On the flipside, for Colgate, their lack of discipline certainly contributed in Holy Cross winning the game.

A holding call on their last drive in the 4th quarter negated what was a 12 yard run from Nate Eachus out to midfield.

Special Teams (there will be many bullet points for this one, so bare with me)

Welcome to Holy Cross, Andrew Zitnik! You have read all about his fantastic 93 yard kick return, so I will save you the explanation, but the cuts he made and his breakaway speed was outstanding. I am sure he will have a spot on the Kickoff Return Team for many games to come.
Don Lemieux's punts were instrumental in pinning Colgate deep into their own territory. On two occasions, he forced the Raiders to begin their drives inside the five yard line.
Rob Dornfried was 100% on the day with extra points (4) and field goals (1). Although, one of the PATs just squeezed through as it hit the right upright on an extra point.
Perry Townsend. It is becoming a ritual to see Perry storm down the field, evading many blocks, and taking out the ball carrier's legs from under him.

The defensive line, in my opinion, was the difference maker in the game. Although they will not get too much credit for it, the boys up front gave a herculean effort against the Colgate offensive line and running game. While the box score shows that the Raiders rushed for over 200 yards, I would argue the D-line held Nate Eachus in check for much of the game.
The trio of Freddie Santana, Luke Chmielinski, and Bill Edger is a true force to be reckoned with; they very well could be the league's best receiving unit. While everyone will remember Edger's catch in the endzone to win the game, the biggest play of that drive, and of the game, was Freddie's catch down the sideline that setup the ensuing touchdown pass to Edger.
Clock management by coach Tom Gilmore was superb down the stretch. Saving those three timeouts until the final drive was key, and electing not to use a timeout after picking up a first down was smart. An even smarter move, although I did question it at the time, was using the final timeout with 10 seconds remaining, rather than letting the clock rundown to just three or four seconds.

Conventional football philosophy would say to run it down, and have the field goal be the very last play of regulation. Yet, coach Gilmore wanted to be able to run one more play before kicking the field goal, and it was a perfect play call: a fade to Bill Edger. Edge was either going to catch the ball, or it would fall harmlessly incomplete. If it is incomplete, then the field goal is kicked.

What did not go right:

Mark Tolzien played nearly a flawless game in his debut, but taking the sack in the endzone was a crucial mistake. At the time, HC had a 10 point lead, so Colgate would have scored twice in the final quarter to knot the game up; a daunting task for them as Colgate's forte is not moving the ball quickly.
Alex Schneider only had two passes thrown his way, and did not have a reception. We ran a play designed for him to catch the ball in the back of the endzone, but he was held up on the play (probably should have been a holding or pass interference called). Schneider needs to develop as a bigger part of the offense.
Questionable play calling on 4th down and two at the Colgate 31 yard line in the 4th quarter. I loved the decision to go for it, rather than attempting a 48 yard field goal, but didn't like the play call.

The original play was a play-action pass out into the flat where Taggart would have found either Schneider or Reed Apfelbaum, but Colgate called a timeout before we could run the play. Following the timeout, Taggart overthrew Bill Edger on the outside, and the ball was turned over on downs.

While there are other things I could gripe about such as the disparity in the time of possession, unbalanced play calling (37 runs plays versus 22 pass plays), and how we allowed Colgate to get back into the game by scoring 17 straight points, I would be on the verge of becoming too nitpicky.

Everyone knew Colgate would most likely possess the ball for 35-40 minutes.
Running 15 more plays on the ground, rather than through the air actually worked quite well as we took advantage of the great push our offensive line was getting against their D-line.

As I previously alluded to, Holy Cross came close to playing a near perfect game, and they needed to in order to leave Hamilton, NY with a victory.

Obviously, beating Colgate was the most important part of the game and of the entire road trip to upstate New York, without a win the season is over. However, after the exceptional performance from the team, everyone realizes just how good this team can be when playing to their potential. It goes without saying that there cannot be a letdown against Lehigh on November 6th; the team must ride this emotional high throughout the rest of the regular season.

Holy Cross has won championship game number one, and now it is on to game number two against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

Go Cross!

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu

Analysis of the Week

2010-10-24T17:56:00.001-04:00

Ever since I began closely following Holy Cross sports during my junior year in high school (2005), I have been a close reader of the Holy Cross Athletics message board entitled "Crossports" (www.crossports.com). I did not begin contributing until November of my freshman year at HC, but have constantly used the website as my primary outlet to stay updated with HC athletics, as well as to read other posters' commentary and analysis of Holy Cross athletic contests and teams.

I have always enjoyed the great commentary from posters such as: Non Alum Dave, HC92, hchoops, dadominate, and CHC8485 among many others. In fact, my first post ever on the site was jokingly directed at Dave and the rest of the "Section F'ers" who traditionally sit in the same section at the Hart Center during basketball games. Crossports is a very unique community in the "cyber world"; it is easily one of the most informative and comical sports message boards around. The great analysis that many of the posters share over on the board is what makes the site so enjoyable to read.

While I believe I provide accurate analysis following many of the football games, I think a neat feature that can become a staple for Chu Chu Rah Rah is having an "Analysis of the Week" post. There are many other astute observes of Holy Cross football who post on Crossports that should be highlighted. The following day after a Holy Cross football game, after reading through all the commentary about the game, I will select what posters' analysis I deem to be the most informative and accurate. Following their analysis, I will provide my own reactions to the commentary.

So without further adieu, here is the first "Analysis of the Week":

The ever informative RookieDad chimed in on the play of the defense against the vaunted Colgate running attack:

The D were warriors! Rampant holding on the part of the Raiders' OL went uncalled all day. (I know, I know "it happens all the time".) However, I took it as a sign of desperation by Colgate since our guys were never as aggressive this year as they were today. Basically, big piles in the A-gaps forcing Eachus to cut to outside and into awaiting OLB and/or corners.

Our D did have trouble initially with 'Gate's two back attack reminiscent of an updated spit "T" option with some nice faking by the Raider QB. However, once our guys calmed down, covered their assignments and merely tackled the first red shirted RB they saw rather than try to solve the mystery, they did fine. In fact, 'gate's first touchdown by Eachus was caused by one of our players trying to confirm if he had the ball or not rather than just going ahead and planting him.

Basically, our DL came out and hit the Raider OL in the mouth who then were so shocked by the temerity of the Crusaders they never recovered in first half. Our guys were so stubborn up front 'gate kept substituting centers - never a good sign. Rock fight up front it was indeed!

A classic game that will be a lifetime fond memory for everyone on the team.

By the way, is Perry Townsend unstoppable or what? And, does anyone know how Zitnik got loose?

Next championship game at home against the mountain chickens in two weeks. Show up and strap in. Let's not get ****y though (pun intended).

RookieDad is very accurate in stating "covered their assignments." Defending a running-based team who runs misdirection plays and the option, stopping an offense like this is simply knowing one's assignments and doing your job. That is one of Coach Gilmore's favorite phrases: "Just do your job." If everyone on defense simply does their job, albeit a very tough job against such a great running team like Colgate, the defense will succeed. And although Colgate eclipsed the 200 yard mark in rushing yardage, there was only one run, a a 35 yard scamper by Nate Eachus, that saw the 'Gate running attack get behind our secondary.

What was so impressive on the defensive side of the ball, particularly the defensive line, is that they did a fabulous job without three regulars on the D-line. Jack Maliska, Eric Oldiges, and Matt Ferrel were all sidelined due to injury (Ferrel did travel, but he was a game-time decision and could not play). The depth and talent of the younger guys up front was really demonstrated on Saturday. Michael White, Mike Tucker, Joe Bell, and Matthew Boyd all seamlessly stepped in and played exceptionally well. In fact, it was Tucker who pressured Colgate quarterback Greg Sullivan in the game's final play to clinch the "W" for the Crusaders.

I am not going to lie, I had some serious doubts heading into the game with how thin our defensive line was against one of the premiere rushing attacks in the nation. The resiliency of the "big uglies" up front, and the constant pounding that was put on Sullivan and Eachus during every hit certainly kept the Colgate offense in check for much of the game.

Thank you, RookieDad, for your great analysis.

Look for some of my reactions to the game in the coming days. Also, I am sure Joe Tutino will want to share his thoughts on our trip out to Hamilton, NY sometime this week as well.

Kevin Doyle '11

KLDOYL11@holycross.edu