Georgetown is not a football school, and with John Thompson III signing top high school recruits, it may stay that way. But don’t tell that to new Hoya football Head Coach Kevin Kelly. Kelly hails from Navy where he coached the linebackers and special teams. He has won the Ivy League championship with Dartmouth, and both a Division 1-AA national title and the Division 1-A MAC championship, at Marshall.
He’s an experienced coach who has been quoted as saying that it’s his dream to lead a Patriot League program. This should be exciting for football fans on the Hilltop, but for some reason it’s caused no real buzz. Sure, no current students have witnessed a winning season during their time here. But that’s no reason for Hoyas everywhere to be more concerned with Jeff Green’s hairstyle in mid-September than Saturday afternoon games on the gridiron. As a Hoya football fan, here is a list of things I would do if I were lucky enough to be in Coach Kelly’s shoes:
1. Tell Georgetown students how excited they should be about the program. Students don’t necessarily read Hoya talk boards online or press releases from the athletic department. Students would read things like mass emails directly from the coach. I would take out space in campus publications, to ask for support and encourage fans about what is to come for Hoya football.
2. Try to convince the athletic department and the board of trustees to give the new Multi-Sport Field some sort of intimidating moniker, like The Junkyard.
3. Find the next Mehdi Hassan. He remains the only player I’ve ever seen, at any level, jump over the offensive line, tackle the quarterback on his way down, cause a fumble and then recover it. All taking place in about .3 seconds. Too bad he’s a senior.
4. Somehow bring Jacksonville Jaguars’ quarterback Byron Leftwich to Georgetown. Kelly helped to recruit him to Marshall and coached him to championships. Plus, he’s originally from D.C. And, if I wanted to stick with Nick Cangelosi at quarterback, I could always have the 260-pounder play somewhere on the line.
5. Speaking of the NFL, I would talk to Paul Tagliabue. A Georgetown alum and the comissioner of the NFL, he must be able to create some sort of rule that lets Leftwich fire his agent, lose his sponsors and play with a G on his helmet.
6. Reward Hoya Blue. These guys were banging on pots and pans with their shirts off through torrential downpours in an overtime win against Duquesne. That’s the type of spirit that could transform Georgetown into a football school every fall. I would provide them brand new kitchen supplies in return for the promise that they never go shirtless again.
7. Change the halftime show. Why not let Groove Theory perform, or ask some Navy jets to fly over the stadium to pump everyone up? One can only take so many Rockette style leg kicks at a football game.
8. I would demand there be no more quarterback draws on third and 13 from mid-field on drives where it is vital that we score.
9. Continue to recruit around the Maryland and Virginia areas. There are 108 players on the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia’s football rosters that are from Maryland, Virginia or Washington D.C. Isn’t there some chance that Georgetown might land some of these kids with promises of more playing time, a great education and a Polaroid picture of them sitting on John Carroll’s lap?
10. Win. Georgetown respects a winner, and there’s no better way to get students excited about the program. Wins at the Junkyard and within the Patriot League would give students no choice but to drop their basketball obsessions during the fall and become a football school for just a few months.
