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Locking Up for the 86th Time
Sept. 22, 2009
2009 Gameday Central |
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
Live TV: Lafayette Sports Network (RCN-4&8, WBPH-60) National Replay: MASN on DIRECTV 640 and Dish 432 on Sept. 29 at 11:30 p.m. Internet: Live audio and video webcast on LSN All-Access THE MATCH-UP: Lafayette and Penn will square off for the 86th time on Saturday night at Fisher Stadium. Lafayette has won the last two meetings (24-17 in 2008 and 8-7 in 2007) both by a touchdown or less. Penn comes into the game with a 0-1 record, that loss at the hands of No. 2 ranked Villanova in the Quakers' season opener on Saturday night. The Quakers were 6-4 in 2009 and finished in third place in the Ivy League. The Leopards look to rebound from a 19-13 loss to No. 24 Liberty. Lafayette gave up 16 points in the first half and was forced to play catch-up the rest of the game. LAYTON'S LAURELS: Junior WR Mark Layton is in the midst of a breakout season. Layton, who made 17 catches for 194 yards all of last season, already has put up more significant numbers in 2009. The Sanford, Fla. native has 12 catches for 190 yards through two games with three touchdowns (the first three of his career). MOVING UP THE CHARTS: Senior QB Rob Curley is moving up the career passing charts. Curley jumped from 11th to eighth place on the career passing yards and from 11th to ninth on the career completions list after the Liberty game. He is also third in career completion percentage (59.5%) and eighth in touchdown passes (20). 100-YARD RUSHERS: Lafayette has four players on its roster who have rushed for 100-plus yards in a game: Tyrell Coon, DeAndre' Morrow, Jerome Rudolph and Maurice White. The number is second only to Appalachian State which has six who have broken the century mark. The Leopards are tied with Sacramento State for second in the category with UT Martin close behind with three and a freshman who rushed for 83 yards in a game recently. (Thanks to Brian Berger of Sacramento State) D-LINE: There is no doubt that the Leopards' defensive line is one of the most talented groups defensive coordinator John Loose has assembled in his 10 years on college hill. Seniors Andrew Poulson (10 tackles, 1 TFL) and Ian Dell (9 tackles) return to the starting lineup at tackle and fellow senior Allan Whitesell (9 tackles 1.5 TFL), who played in 10 games with four starts in 2008, is playing one of the defensive end spots. At the other end is junior Doug Gerowski (3 tackles, 0.5 TFL). Junior Michael Phillips made the most of his snaps on the defensive line in the season opener at Georgetown. He forced a pair of fumbles and recovered another. As a group at Georgetown, the defensive line combined for five tackles for a loss of 38 yards, including three sacks while they had just two tackles for loss vs. Liberty. PATRIOT LEAGUE SCHEDULE = ODD: Lafayette's season opener was also its Patriot League opener, but the Leopards won't face another conference foe for longer than a month (Oct. 24 vs. Fordham) when the Leopards will close the season with five straight conference games. Lafayette has now won six straight Patriot League openers. THE HEAD COACHES: Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani (Lebanon Valley '75) is in his 10th season as the fiery head man with the headsets and his 23rd year overall as a member of the Lafayette coaching staff. He is the 27th head coach in the program's 128-year history. Tavani was the running backs coach at Lafayette for 14 seasons prior to being named head coach in December of 1999. Tavani was the 2004 Patriot League Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award in that year. The Lebanon, Pa. native guided Lafayette to three straight Patriot League titles (2004, 2005, 2006) and his career record stands at 53-51. Tavani is 22-8 in Patriot League games over the last five years. Tavani knew a little bit about running the ball in his playing days, becoming the first player in Lebanon Valley College history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. In that senior campaign, he also garnered All-America honors and has since been named to four athletic halls of fame. Tavani signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles out of college in 1976 before jumping into coaching at Franklin and Marshall. His son, Daniel, carried on the college football tradition as an all-conference selection at Wofford. Of his other three children, Liam and Meghan both graduated from Lafayette and his youngest, Bridget, is a freshman on the women's soccer team. Al Bagnoli (Central Connecticut State '75) is in his 18th season as the head coach at Penn and holds a 114-55 mark with the Quakers. He is the longest tenured coach in the history of Penn football and is the second winningest active coach in the FCS ranks. Bagnoli's 114 career wins at Penn rank him second all-time in program history, while his 83 Ivy League victories are a school record. ABOUT PENN: •Penn comes into week two of its season with a 0-1 mark. The Quakers lost a 14-3 defensive battle against in-town rival Villanova. If any loss can be encouraging, this one would probably fall into that category, as Villanova was and is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation. In 2008, the Quakers recorded a 6-4 overall record, but rallied for a 5-2 record and a third-place finish in the Ivy League behind Harvard and Brown. Offensively, a pair of juniors occupy the important spots in the backfield at quarterback and tailback. Keiffer Garton started three games in 2008 and was twice named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week and was the team's second-leading passer and rusher in 2008. In the opener vs. Villanova, Garton was 19-27 for 185 yards and one pick. Joining him is tailback Mike DiMaggio who was a second-team All-Ivy selection last season after running for 585 yards on 133 carries with four touchdowns. On defense, senior Jake Lewko is in his second year as a starter after collecting All-Ivy Second-Team laurels in 2008. Lewko made a career-high 13 tackles, including 2.5 for loss, vs. Villanova. He led the squad in tackles in `08. Defensively, nine of Penn's starters are juniors or seniors. LAST YEAR'S GAME: Lafayette raced out to a 24-0 halftime lead and staved off a second-half Penn comeback in a 24-17 decision. Rob Curley hit Mike Conte once and Shaun Adair twice for touchdown strikes. The Leopards picked off Penn's Robert Irvin twice in the first half, one of which set up a Davis Rodriguez field goal. In the fourth quarter, Penn closed within a touchdown with 3:27 left. The Leopards went four and out and punted it back to the Quakers. Irvin picked up three first downs on passes to Kyle Derham and Tyler Fisher, but closed the game with four straight incompletions after advancing the ball to the Lafayette 46. CLOSE CONTESTS: The last three meetings between Lafayette and Penn have been decided by an average of six points (24-17 in 2009, 8-7 in 2007 and 21-11 in 2006). THE SERIES: Lafayette is 20-61-4 all-time versus Penn. The Leopards have won the last two meetings and the last time Lafayette beat Penn in three straight was 1978-82 when Lafayette won four in a row, the Leopards' longest winning stint in the series. Lafayette is 8-14 all-time against Penn in Easton and 12-47-4 in Philadelphia. The teams first met Nov. 25, 1882 in Easton when Lafayette lost 0-0/1-3 using a now defunct scoring system. INJURIES TO WATCH: Senior safety Eric McGovern has missed the first two games with a leg injury. The Harrisburg, Pa. native has been replaced in the depth chart by his younger brother Evan McGovern, but could be available vs. Penn. Fellow senior Joe Moore sat out the Liberty game while nursing a back injury. His status is questionable. DEFENSE VS. GEORGETOWN: A combination of a very strong Lafayette defense and a marginal Georgetown offense resulted in the Leopards shutting down the Hoyas' offensive attack. Lafayette allowed just 19 rushing yards and 194 passing yards, 81 of which came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach and Lafayette had its younger players in the game. For what its worth, in the early NCAA statistical returns, Lafayette is ranked first in the nation in scoring defense, third in rushing defense, 13th in pass efficiency defense and 12th in total defense. TAILBACK BY COMMITTEE: The offensive coaching staff led by coordinator Mickey Fein and under the watchful eye of former tailback and current head coach Frank Tavani is faced with a problem of selecting a tailback from a talented group of four. The quartet includes three seniors in Maurice White, DeAndre' Morrow and Tyrell Coon and sophomore Jerome Rudolph. None of the seniors has been able to maintain his health for an entire season which has opened up opportunities for the other tailbacks and eventually Rudolph as a freshman. White is a powerful runner who was No. 1 on the depth chart in 2007 and 2008 and led the Leopards in rushing last season with 80 carries, 469 yards and 2 TD's. White rushed for 76 yards on 17 carries at Georgetown, the most of the four backs. He had 37 yards and a TD vs. No. 24 Liberty. Coon is the biggest of the backs and is a slasher who led the team in carries (108) and ended 2008 with 454 yards and two TD's. He had just three carries for 18 yards at Georgetown. He left the game after taking a shot to the jaw on special teams, but could have returned in the second half had the score been closer. Morrow is a shifty back with soft hands out of the backfield who had 58 carries for 336 yards and two touchdowns in 2008. He had eight carries for 61 yards at Georgetown to go along with four catches for 60 yards and a touchdown catch. Rudolph and Morrow are the speediest members of the group. Rudolph carried for 199 yards on 35 carries and a pair of scores last year. His red and black cleats reached the end zone at Georgetown on a 48-yard scamper around the end. In a departure from recent seasons, Lafayette used two tailbacks in the backfield at the same time at Georgetown, eschewing tendency from recent seasons to employ a full-time fullback along with a tailback. Senior FB/TB Matt Ferber has seen significant playing time vs. Georgetown and No. 24 Liberty. UP AND DOWN ON THE GROUND: The Leopard rushing attack pounded out 205 yards on the ground vs. Georgetown, but managed just 70 yards vs. No. 24 Liberty. A NOCTURNAL VENTURE: The Georgetown game marked the first home night game in Georgetown history. Making history at night is not a new feat for Leopard football as Lafayette and Washington and Jefferson played in the first indoor night college football game on Oct. 25, 1930. A crowd of 17,000 witnessed the game at the Atlantic City Auditorium. The Leopards first three games of the season are 6 p.m. kick-offs. ABOUT THE PROGRAM: Since 2004, Lafayette is 37-23 and 22-8 in Patriot League play. Lafayette stands as the only Patriot League program to record a winning record in each of the last five regular seasons while also holding a Top 25 national ranking each year. TAKING CARE OF THE BALL: Lafayette led the nation in fewest turnovers per game in 2008, handing it over just 11 times in 11 games, down from 27 in 2007. Lafayette forced 14 turnovers, nine of them interceptions. This season, Lafayette did not commit a turnover in the season opener at Georgetown while forcing three (two fumbles and an interception). Lafayette did turn it over once (interception on a tipped pass) vs. No. 24 Liberty. The Leopards rank second in the nation in turnovers per game, averaging a half a turnover per outing. STANDING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM: Under head coach Frank Tavani, Lafayette football players have excelled as student-athletes. Twenty-three have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District selections and 38 have earned the distinction since 1995. In 2008, Lafayette had 18 student-athletes qualify for the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll for which they must achieve a minimum of a 3.2 GPA and earn a varsity letter. Lafayette has also claimed four of the last eight Patriot League Scholar Athletes of the Year. PRESEASON POLL: Lafayette was picked third in the Patriot League Preseason Poll of conference head coaches and sports information directors. In 2008, Lafayette was selected to finish fourth and that's where the team ended. This season, Holy Cross is in the top spot followed by Colgate, Lafayette and Lehigh tied for third, Fordham, Bucknell and Georgetown. The last time the preseason pick won the title outright was 2001 (Lehigh). ALL-PATRIOT LEAGUE RETURNERS: Lafayette placed 10 players on the All-Patriot League first and second teams in 2008, but just three of them return in 2009: senior LB Mark Leggiero, junior PK Davis Rodriguez and senior OL Ryan Hart-Predmore. THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE: Senior MLB Mark Leggiero is one of the top players in the Patriot League and his play in recent seasons was recognized as he was selected as the Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. He finished the 2008 season with 93 tackles, two sacks and an interception on his way to All-Patriot League First-Team honors. As a sophomore in 2007, he was second on the team with 77 tackles and three sacks and was an All-Patriot League Second-Team honoree. In 2006, he was the program's rookie of the year, playing in all 12 games on special teams and as the top backup at linebacker. Not surprisingly, Leggiero led the team in tackles in the 2009 season opener at Georgetown with seven and followed that with a career-high 15 tackles vs. No. 24 Liberty. ABOUT THE DEFENSE: Anyone who has been around the Lafayette football program in recent seasons knows that the Leopards' defense has been the team's strength under defensive coordinator John Loose who is in his 10th season on College Hill. Lafayette finished eighth in the nation in scoring defense in 2008, allowing 17.5 points per game, including four games where it surrendered fewer than two TD's. The Leopards were 10th in the nation in rushing defense (92.2 ypg), 20th in total defense (300 ypg) and 36th in pass efficiency defense (115.9 ypg). Lafayette boasted the No. 1 ranked defense in the nation in 2007, allowing just 260.1 yards of total offense per game (first in the nation), 84.9 yards on the ground (fourth in the nation), 16.9 points per game (eighth in the nation) and a pass efficiency rating of 108.3 (15th in the nation). Lafayette's defense production in 2009 follows... 2009 Game By Game Opponent Rushing Yds. Passing Yds. Total Yds. Points at Georgetown 19 194 213 3 No. 24 Liberty 119 242 361 19 AVERAGES 69.0 218.0 287.0 11.0 CURLEY'S THE GUY: Senior Rob Curley emerged from spring ball as the Leopards' starting quarterback. He was 3-1 as the starter down the stretch in 2007 and 6-2 as a starter in 2008. Curley completed 57 percent of his passes (121-212) for 1,424 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He started the first eight games of 2008 before injury and eventually a coach's decision put him second on the depth chart. In the 2009 season opener, Curley was the only QB to see playing time despite the wide margin on the scoreboard. He was 20-for-34 for a career-high 259 yards with three touchdowns. He followed with a 14-for-20 vs. Liberty for 216 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Sophomore Ryan O'Neil is penciled in as the backup with junior Marc Quilling, who missed most of preseason with a back injury, close behind. Quilling was 45-for-76 for 555 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in 2008. Quilling started the final three games of the season. WHO'S GOING TO CATCH THE THING?: With the graduation of the Leopards' top two receivers from 2008, including a career top-5 pass catcher in Shaun Adair, the Leopards are looking to a young group to pick up the slack. Lafayette has moved to a rotation of five players. Sophomores Mitchell Bennett and Greg Stripe are 1 and 1A on one side of the field while junior Mark Layton will be the other starter. Junior Nathan Padia and sophomore Kyle Hayes will also vie for catches. In the season opener at Georgetown, Layton had his proverbial "coming out party." The junior made seven catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns, including a career-long 46-yard TD catch. He followed with five catches for 83 yards and a TD vs. Liberty. Bennett was good for three catches and 52 yards receiving vs. Georgetown, answering that with two more catches for 41 yards vs. Liberty while Stripe made two grabs for 54 yards vs. the Flames. ABOUT THE KICKER: Junior PK Davis Rodriguez was one of just five underclassmen on any Patriot League squad to earn all-league honors. Rodriguez was 13-of-15 on field goal attempts in 2008 and was 4-of-5 on kicks of 40 to 49 yards, including a career-long kick of 47 yards at Colgate. He also converted 32-of-33 PATs and at one point had made 48 straight PATs. Rodriguez is 63-of-66 for his career (95 percent). With that as his background, Rodriguez struggled at Georgetown, missing kicks of 38, 34 and 32 yards. All had plenty of distance, but were wide. Against Liberty, Rodriguez missed his only attempt from 23 yards in the second quarter. The St. Petersburg, Fla. native earned Sports Network 2009 Preseason All-America Second-Team honors after an All-Patriot League Second-Team selection in 2008. LINE 'EM UP: While depth could be an issue on the offensive line moving along in the season, the front five is made up of four players who have had starting experience. Team captain and left tackle Ryan Hart-Predmore is in his second season at left tackle and third as a starter. The team captain earned All-Patriot League Second-Team laurels in 2008. He will be lined up next to left guard Brian Wycinowski who started 11 games as a junior. Another "W" returns to the starting lineup at the center spot in Mike Wojcik. Wojcik has started 19 games the last two seasons. The young buck in the group is sophomore Scott Biel at right guard. Biel earned the Offensive Scout Team award in 2008 and played his way into a starting position. Fifth-year senior Joe Moore sat out 2008 with an ACL injury after starting the final four contests of 2007 at right tackle. Sophomore Anthony Buffolino started in place of Moore vs. Liberty and is expected to play a big minutes this season. The offensive line is under the tutelage of first-year assistant coach Stan Clayton who boasts nearly 15 years of coaching experience at Toledo and Princeton among other institutions. As a player, Clayton was a member of Penn State's 1986 national championship team and went on to play four seasons in the NFL. THE PUNTER: For the second year, the punting work will be done by Tom Kondash. In 2008, the junior punted 57 times for 2149 yards and 37.7 yards per kick. He landed 22 kicks inside the opponents' 20-yard line with just one touchback and boomed a career-best 79-yard punt vs. Holy Cross. Kondash was far from his best at Georgetown, punting five times for 175 yards (34.8 ypk) with one kick inside the 20. He topped that with four punts for 170 yards (42.5 ypk), including two inside the 20 vs. No. 24 Liberty. I SEE A RED JERSEY AND I WANT TO PAINT IT BLACK: The Leopards' perfect mark in black jerseys came to an end in 2008 with a one-point loss to Holy Cross on Nov. 15 and a setback vs. Lehigh (black pants and jerseys). Lafayette is now 4-2 in the black jerseys. They wore black to beat Lehigh in 2004 and again in 2006 to win Patriot League titles. Fordham was also victim to the black jerseys in 2005. The only other time they've paired black jerseys with black pants was in a driving rain storm with standing water on the old Fisher Field grass surface against Columbia in 2005, a 14-7 victory. The Leopards pulled out the black pants against Holy Cross in week 10 in 2007 and continued their winning streak by beating the Crusaders 31-21. PATRIOT LEAGUE TITLES: Lafayette won three straight Patriot League titles in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The Leopards begrudgingly shared the title with Lehigh in 2004 and 2006, and with Colgate in 2005. The championships also led to three straight NCAA Playoff appearances, making Lafayette one of six teams in the country to appear in the 16-team field in three straight years. The Leopards have won six PL championships in the 24-year history of the league (1988, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006). LAFAYETTE vs. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE: The Leopards have played 345 games all-time against the six fellow members of the Patriot League, and are 177-152-16 (.540) in those contests. Since the Patriot League began play in 1986, Lafayette is 72-53-1 (.573) vs. member schools and has won league titles in 1988, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Lafayette vs. the Patriot League: Bucknell: 48-32-6 Fordham: 19-7-1 Holy Cross: 14-9-0 Colgate: 10-38-4 Georgetown: 10-3-0 Lehigh: 76-63-5 200+ RUSHING GAMES: When Maurice White ran for 212 yards in the 2008 season opener vs. Marist, it was the first time in nearly six seasons that a Lafayette ballcarrier eclipsed the 200-yard rushing mark in a single game. For White, it was the first time in his career (high school or college) that he managed the feat and it placed him in some elite company. Since 1990, there have been nine 200-yard performances for the Leopards, six of which were the work of Maroon Club Hall of Fame honoree Erik Marsh '95. DATE RUSHER OPPONENT CARRIES-YARDS W/L 09/09/08 Maurice White at Marist 29-212 W 11/16/02 Joe McCourt Holy Cross 38-203 W 11/19/94 Erik Marsh Lehigh 34-214 W 11/20/93 Erik Marsh at Lehigh 25-249 L 11/06/93 Erik Marsh at Holy Cross 36-221 W 11/21/92 Erik Marsh Lehigh 46-251 W 10/31/92 Erik Marsh at Colgate 41-225 W 11/16/91 Erik Marsh Colgate 20-200 W 10/19/91 John Kahn Columbia 41-224 WIN THE NFL RANKS: Blake Costanzo '06 is currently on the Cleveland Browns' 53-man roster and likely will be one of the team's top special team's performers. Costanzo, who now wears No. 54 for the Browns, played the last two seasons with the Buffalo Bills and was the team's special teams MVP in 2008 before being released. In the off-season, his contract was picked up by Cleveland. He is the lone Patriot League representative currently on an active NFL roster. AND WE GO TO...OVERTIME: Lafayette has played five overtime games all-time and is 1-4 in those contests. After winning the first overtime affair in 1995 over Fordham (24-21 on 11/11/95), the Leopards have lost their last four OT games (11/18/95 at Lehigh - 37-30; 10/18/97 at Cornell - 41-34; 10/3/98 at Dartmouth - 13-10; 9/8/01 at Towson - 16-13). HISTORIC FISHER STADIUM: Fisher Stadium has hosted the College's home football games since 1926. The facility underwent a $23 million transformation that gave Lafayette one of the premier FCS football venues in the nation. New spectator seating was built, including chairback seating in select areas, and additional visitors' seating was added for a maximum capacity of 13,132 fans. A state-of-the-art in-fill synthetic surface, lights, a press box and a 19-by-35 foot video board were installed, and improved restroom and vending areas were also included. The Bourger Varsity Football House includes a locker room, offices and team meeting rooms, as well as sports medicine and strength and conditioning areas. Now in its 82nd season, Fisher Stadium has been host to 404 Lafayette football games with the Leopards enjoying an overall record of 239-152-13 for a winning percentage of .609. Of the previous 81 seasons, Lafayette has produced 12 undefeated home seasons with the most recent being the 1992 Patriot League champion Leopards that went a perfect 5-0 - the first undefeated home season for Lafayette at Fisher Stadium since 1970. During the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons, Lafayette won 10 straight home games--tying the Fisher Stadium school record for consecutive wins first set 1926 and 1927 in the first 10 games ever played in the stadium. LAFAYETTE FOOTBALL IN ITS 128th SEASON: Since fielding its first college football team in the fall of 1882 (the same year that dirty little coward Robert Ford shot Jesse James and that Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted), Lafayette has had a proud, colorful gridiron tradition on the way to a total of 641 victories (641-540-39). Lafayette ranks 33rd among all college football teams in all-time wins entering the 2009 season, posting its first win in 1883 (25-0 vs. Rutgers). Lafayette accumulated 100 victories by 1900, 200 by 1915 and 300 by 1934. LAFAYETTE ON THE RADIO: The Lafayette Sports Network entered into an agreement with WAEB-AM 790 and WGPA AM-1100 to broadcast the 2009 Lafayette football season. The deal places Lafayette on the top two rated AM stations in the Lehigh Valley. See a complete broadcast schedule on the following page. Veteran broadcaster Dick Hammer is in his 43rd season as the Leopards' play-by-play man and will be joined in the booth at home by former Leopard greats Mike Joseph '88 and Phil Ng '88 on a rotating basis, and on the road by Lafayette SID Phil LaBella. LAFAYETTE SPORTS NETWORK TO TELEVISE ENTIRE SEASON: The Lafayette Sports Network, the national leader in Division I FCS television coverage, will televise all 11 regular-season Lafayette football games for the seventh straight year. Now in its 13th year, LSN has become a staple for Leopard fans both regionally and across the country. LSN's traditional live distribution to more than 10 million homes on RCN-4 and WBPH-60 covering all of Eastern Pennsylvania will be enhanced this season by live coverage on all of RCN's cable systems in major markets along the East coast. RCN subscribers in Boston (226,000), New York City (250,000), Philadelphia (382,000) and Washington, D.C. (131,000) will be able to watch all 11 Lafayette games on RCN-8. Nationally, LSN telecasts will be picked up for the ninth straight year by DIRECTV and DISH Network outlets, available to more than 90 million viewers via the Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). MASN, which is available regionally and nationally on DIRECTV channel 640 and DISH Network channel 432, is the official television home of the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals and Baltimore Ravels and reaches nearly 6 million homes in a seven-state region from Harrisburg, Pa. to Charlotte, N.C. Each LSN football telecast will air tape-delay on MASN on the Tuesday following each contest. A complete broadcast schedule follows. Gary Laubach handles all of the Leopards' play-by-play duties for the 13th straight season and is joined by analyst John Leone for the 12th straight year. In his ninth year as a member of the broadcast team is Dan Mowdy, who reports on the Leopards from the sidelines. RADIO AND TV SCHEDULELSN RCN-4 & 8, WBPH 60 MASN Mid Atlantic Sports Network (DIRECTV 640, DISH 432) A HISTORY OF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Lafayette football program has claimed three national championships -- 1896, 1921 and 1926 -- and recorded five undefeated seasons -- 1896 (11-0-1), 1921 (9-0-0), 1926 (9-0-0), 1937 (8-0-0) and 1940 (9-0-0). Of recent note, the Leopards have won six Patriot League championships -- 1988, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2005 and 2006 -- and made their first three appearances in the NCAA FCS Playoffs. LAFAYETTE'S FOOTBALL INVENTORS: Two primary elements of the game of football -- the helmet and the huddle -- were invented by former members of the Lafayette football program. George "Rose" Barclay from the Class of 1898, one of Lafayette's all-time great running backs, invented the helmet when the "threat of cultivating cauliflower ears" led him to piece three thick leather straps around his head for the 1896 game against Penn. Former Lafayette coach Herb McCracken (1924-35; 59-40-6) devised the first huddle system during the 1924 season after learning the Pennsylvania football team had stolen Lafayette's signals. Lafayette became the first team to huddle before each play and this system was immediately adopted by other teams. INSIDE LAFAYETTE FOOTBALL: Inside Lafayette Football can be seen every Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. throughout the season as well as 30 minutes prior to kickoff of all Lafayette contests. Laubach will sit down with head coach Frank Tavani, as well as select student-athletes, to discuss the Lafayette football program. LAFAYETTE SPORTS NETWORK ALL-ACCESS: Each LSN telecast will be available live through LSN All-Access, which streams the game worldwide to any high-speed internet connection. In all, more than 60 Lafayette athletic contests, as well as Inside Lafayette Football, are scheduled to be broadcasted through Lafayette All-Access this year for a rate of $9.95 per month and $79.95 for the entire year.
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