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Cat Fight: Leopards vs. Lions
Oct. 7, 2009
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
LAFAYETTE VS. COLUMBIA Radio: WAEB-AM 790 Live TV: Lafayette Sports Network (RCN-4&8, WBPH-60) National Replay: MASN on DIRECTV 640 and Dish 432 on Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. Internet: THE MATCH-UP: Lafayette (3-1) and Columbia (2-1) are both coming off solid road wins over Ivy League opponents. The Leopards pulled away in the second half for a 31-14 victory at Yale, while Columbia smashed Princeton 38-0 in the Lions' conference opener. On Saturday, the Leopards play the third of four straight games against Ivy League opponents, having already beaten Penn and Yale with Columbia and Harvard looming before the Patriot League stretch run. Lafayette used a balanced offensive attack to ring up 396 yards, including 21 points in the second half, at Yale. Columbia received a career-high 201 yards passing from M.A. Olawale, 93 yards receiving by Austin Knowlin and 79 yards on the ground by Ray Rangel in the Lions' first win to start the Ivy season since 2003. The Lions also forced three turnovers. Columbia is coming off a 2-8 mark in 2008. LEGGIERO'S BACKING IT UP: The Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Mark Leggiero, claimed his first-ever Patriot League weekly honor. The senior made a game-high 12 tackles, including nine solo stops, in Lafayette's 31-14 win at Yale. The Leopards held Yale to 58 rushing and 214 passing yards, 140 of which came in the fourth quarter after Lafayette had built a 17-point lead. Lafayette is surrendering just 13.3 points per game this season, tops in the Patriot League and sixth in the nation. Leggiero is Lafayette's second straight Defensive Player of the Week winner. Academically, Leggiero is an Engineering major who is a Patriot League Academic Honor Roll selection. This semester, Leggiero is enrolled in three classes: Architectural Design & Theory, Civil Engineering Project Management with lab and Political Sociology. Leggiero maintains a 3.2 GPA and posted a 3.3 in the 2009 spring semester. A SIX-PACK OF SACK: A key to Lafayette's win at Yale was pressure on the quarterback. The Lafayette defense sacked two different Yale quarterbacks six times, thanks to two apiece from Andrew Poulson and Ian Dell and one each from Doug Gerowski and Nick Oliver. The six-pack was the most sacks for Lafayette since Sept. 11, 2004 in a 17-6 win at Georgetown. (Marvin Snipes 2, Chris Brungo, Blake Costanzo, Tye Murphy, Maurice Bennett). BENNETT BRINGING IT: Sophomore WR Mitchell Bennett is enjoying a breakout season for the Leopards. Bennett has 13 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown. He is also the Leopards top blocking wideout, and his work helped spring several big running and passing plays at Yale. 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 55-51. 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. Norries Wilson (Minnesota '89) is in his fourth season at Columbia and holds a 10-23 mark. The Lions are coming off a 2-8 campaign that included wins over Dartmouth and Cornell. This season, Columbia is 2-1 with its lone loss to a 3-1 Central Connecticut State squad. Wilson was the offensive coordinator at Connecticut for four seasons and also spent four seasons in the Patriot League as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Bucknell. ABOUT COLUMBIA •This isn't your father's Columbia squad, as the Lions enter with a 2-1 mark fresh off a 38-0 drubbing of Princeton in the schools' Ivy league opener. •Columbia is coming off a 2-8 mark in 2008 when it was 2-6 in Ivy League play. The Lions were picked sixth in the 2009 Ivy League poll. •Columbia has turned the ball over just once in three games and ranks first in the nation in that stat category. •Senior TB Ray Rangel is averaging 109 yards per game and has scored two touchdowns. •Senior QB M.A. Olawale is a threat to run or pass. At Princeton, he threw for a career-high 201 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown. He has eight TD's (5 passing, 3 rushing) on the season. •Senior WR Austin Knowlin is Columbia's top playmaker, averaging six catches and 60 yards per game with two TD's. He had seven catches for 93 yards at Princeton. •Junior FS Adam Mehrer is the team's leading tackler with 37 tackles. Senior LB Corey Cameron was the Ivy league Defensive Player of the Week following the Princeton win in which he made 13 stops and helped the squad to its first Ivy League road shutout since 1961. WHITE BREAKS THE 100-YARD PLATEAU: Senior TB Maurice White churned out 131 yards on 21 carries at Yale, the first time this season that a Lafayette player his rushed for 100+ yards and the fourth time in White's career. 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. HEALTHY CURLEY: Senior Rob Curley's status was "questionable" for the Yale game, as he was coming off a head injury after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit and having his head slam off the turf vs. Penn on Sept. 26. Curley was 20-for-28 for 241 yards, two touchdowns and an interception and played the entire game. He did appropriately opt for a slide on one scramble, instead of his traditional head-first approach for the extra yardage. Curley was sporting a new state-of-the-art helmet at Yale, designed to reduce the incidence and severity of head injuries. CAREER CURLEY: Rob Curley has completed 66 percent (72-109-2) of his passes this season and is currently ranked second in Lafayette history for single-season and career completion percentage. Curley also moved into eighth place for career touchdowns (24), seventh in career passing yards (3,277) and seventh in career completions (270). IT GETS LATE EARLY OUT HERE: October 10 is the latest date Lafayette has ever hosted a night game since the Leopards installed lights for the 2007 season. Lafayette hosted Columbia on Oct. 6, 2007. ON SATURDAY: Saturday's game versus Columbia has the dual distinction of being Military Appreciation Night and Take a Kid to the Game night. Accordingly, Charles Smith, a 1949 Lafayette graduate who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, will perform the pre-game coin toss. He is representing the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the World War II Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge who will be in attendance at the game along with the local chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America. The Blue Star Mothers is a service organization whose members who now have, or have had, children honorably serving in the military. Group members support each other and their children while promoting patriotism. As part of the Take a Kid to the game promotion, parents will receive one free youth ticket with purchase of a full-price adult ticket. HISTORIC WIN AT THE HISTORIC (OLD) YALE BOWL: Lafayette's win over Yale was the first ever for the Leopard program in eight tries. The two teams first met in 1912, and prior to Saturday's win, last played in 2006. THE COLUMBIA SERIES: Lafayette is 27-11-2 all-time versus Columbia. The Leopards have won seven straight over the Lions in a span that began Oct. 6, 2001 with a 31-14 win in Easton. The last Columbia victory came in 2000, a 47-22 decision in New York. The teams first met Oct. 9, 1889 in a 10-10 tie and have never played on Oct. 10 in the 40 meetings. 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 tallied more substantial numbers in 2009. The Sanford, Fla. native has 27 catches for 359 yards through four games with six touchdowns (the first six of his career). Against Yale, Layton had seven catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Layton is averaging seven catches and 90 yards per game. AND WE GO...TO OVERTIME: Lafayette found success in overtime against Penn (9/26), beating the Quakers with Davis Rodriguez's 28-yard field goal. It was the Leopards' first overtime game since Sept. 8, 2001, when Lafayette lost to former Patriot League member Towson 16-13. Lafayette is now 2-4 all-time in overtime, winning the first overtime affair in 1995 over Fordham (24-21 on 11/11/95) but losing the next four (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) before the win vs. Penn. NATIONAL D RANKINGS: Lafayette's defense is sixth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 13.2 ppg. Lafayette is also 16th in rushing defense (81.8 ypg), 24th in total defense (284 ypg) and 53rd in pass efficiency defense (119.1 ypg). IN THE RED ZONE: Lafayette has both struggled and excelled in the red zone this season. The Leopards' defense is sixth in the country, allowing opponents to score just six of the 11 times they have allowed an opponent inside the 20-yard line. By contrast, the Lafayette offense has scored on just 11 of 15 red-zone opportunities, ranking 70th in the nation. P.L. PLAUDITS POST PENN: Junior K Davis Rodriguez and junior LB Michael Schmidlein earned Patriot League weekly football honors following Lafayette's 20-17 overtime win vs. Penn. Rodriguez nailed the game-winning field goal in overtime and was named Special Teams Player of the Week while his classmate, Schmidlein, made a game- and career-high 16 tackles en route to Defensive Player of the Week laurels. Rodriguez hit 2-of-3 field goals, including the game winner from 28 yards out in overtime. Rodriguez also connected on both of his PATs, as he scored eight points on the evening. He had previously kicked the game winner against Penn in an 8-7 triumph in 2007. Rodriguez earns his first Special Teams Player of the Week award this season and third of his career. Schmidlein made 16 tackles to help Lafayette limit Ivy League favorite Penn to just 17 points in the 20-17 overtime victory, the Leopards' third straight over the Quakers. He also recorded a tackle for loss and pass breakup as the Leopards held Penn to just 2-of-13 on third-down conversions. Schmidlein leads the Patriot League and is 14th nationally with 11.3 tackles per game. He earned his first conference Defensive Player of the Week award. Rodriguez and Schmidlein both were Patriot League Academic Honor Roll selections in 2008, earning varsity letters while maintaining a minimum of a 3.2 GPA in the fall semester. The duo also surpassed the 3.0 GPA threshold in the spring semester. A Government and Law major, Rodriguez is currently enrolled in four classes: African Cultural Institutions, Early American Political Thought, Introduction to Psychology (with lab) and Religion, Myth & Fantasy. An Economics and Business major, Schmidlein is taking Economics of Health Care, Intro to Finance, Economics of Sport and Intro to Sociology this fall semester. PATRIOT LEAGUE SCHEDULE = ODD: To say that the Patriot League football schedule is disjointed is probably an understatement. With just six football playing members (American doesn't field a football team and Army and Navy are otherwise engaged), scheduling is tough. Lafayette's season opener was also its Patriot League opener, but the Leopards don'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 now has won six straight Patriot League openers. 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 (17 tackles, 2 sacks, 2.5 TFL) and Ian Dell (17 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 TFL) return to the starting lineup at tackle and fellow senior Allan Whitesell (12 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 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 (8 tackles, 1 sack, 2.0 TFL). Junior Michael Phillips (8 tackles, 1 sack, 2.0 TFL) 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 in 2009, the defensive line has forced three fumbles and recovered three. 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. and his top performance of the season came at Yale when he had 131 yards on 21 carries with one touchdown. White leads the team in carries (55) and yards (271) in 2009. 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. Coon had the most carries against Penn, with 15 touches for 40 yards. Morrow is a shifty back with soft hands 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. He made a 26-yard grab vs. Penn and is currently third on the team in receiving. 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. He missed the Yale game with a foot injury. ABOUT THE OFFENSE: Lafayette has used multiple offensive formations in 2009, often choosing to employ three wide receivers and at other times two tailbacks with a pair of wide receivers, with one of the tailbacks in a role as a pass catcher. Lafayette has not completely abandoned the I formation, often going to a power I. The Lafayette offense has been far from predictable, choosing to pass out of the I as often as it does from other formations. 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. Against Penn, Lafayette forced one fumble. The Leopards turned it over twice at Yale (a fumble on the opening kickoff and an interception). The Leopards rank fifth in the nation in turnovers per game, averaging .75 turnovers per game. UP AND DOWN ON THE GROUND: The Leopard rushing attack pounded out 205 yards on the ground vs. Georgetown, but managed 70 yards vs. No. 24 Liberty. Lafayette had 91 yards vs. Penn's defense, but bounced back with 155 yards at Yale. ABOUT THE PROGRAM IN THE PATRIOT LEAGUE: Since 2004, Lafayette is 38-23 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. DEFENSE VS. GEORGETOWN: A combination of a very strong Lafayette defense and a sputtering Georgetown (9/12) 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. 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 were 6 p.m. kick-offs. Lafayette plays its final night game this season vs. Columbia. 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. 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 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 has started the two games since. 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. 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. Leggiero made seven stops vs. Penn and 12 at Yale. 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 67-of-67 for his career (96%). 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. Against Penn, Rodriguez was 2-of-3, including the game-winning 28-yard field goal in overtime, his second vs. the Quakers in his career. Rodriguez added a 31-yard FG on slippery turf at Yale. 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. 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 defensive 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 Penn 131 159 290 17 at Yale 58 214 272 14 AVERAGES 81.8 202.2 257.0 13.2CURLEY'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. 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 has recently been cleared to return to action. 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 CATCHING 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 is the other starter. Junior Nathan Padia and sophomore Kyle Hayes will also vie for catches. THE PUNTER: For the second year, the punting work will be done by Tom Kondash. In 2008, the junior punted 57 times for 2,149 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. Versus Penn, Kondash had seven punts for 283 yards (40.4 ypk) with a long of 52 yards and at Yale both of his punts landed inside the 20. Lafayette is 27th in the nation in punting (38.2 ypk). 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 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. 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. 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). IN THE NFL RANKS: Blake Costanzo '06 is currently on the Cleveland Browns' 53-man roster. 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. 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 405 Lafayette football games with the Leopards enjoying an overall record of 240-152-13 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 643 victories (643-540-39). Lafayette ranked 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'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. 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) 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. 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. 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 is 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 broadcast 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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