There is no such thing as a moral victory in sports. Clear-cut wins and losses are the primary indicators for success and anyone who tells you otherwise is flapping their gums, hoping to mask larger problems of inefficiency and incompetence. But don’t try telling that to Georgetown’s football team, who haven’t had a winning year since 1999, and mired in a forgettable season, have continued to work—if for nothing other than pride—to give themselves and the student body a much-needed confidence-boost for the future.
After a close 35-28 loss to open the season on the road at Stony Brook, the Hoyas would also lose their next five games. And it wasn’t just the defeats that seemed so frustrating, but how they happened. Georgetown was routed by a combined score of 198-41, including a 55-0 drubbing at Holy Cross and a 45-7 loss to Cornell, the first homecoming loss in seven years. In those two contests, the Hoyas gave up close to 1,100 yards of offense while mustering only 353.
Some saw the problem as conservative play-calling, with the Hoyas often employing a run-first offense, even on obvious passing downs. Others believed inexperience was largely to blame for the Hoyas’ Patriot League demise, as Coach Kelly has admittedly employed a youthful lineup to build for the future. But whatever the reason, Georgetown has never mailed it in and has produced a ray of hope for the coming seasons.
Down 31-10 at halftime to Fordham, the Hoyas battled back and made the game competitive, something that had yet to happen in the previous five contests, losing 38-31 after coming up short on a close fourth down call. And if the measure of a successful team is how much they improve, Georgetown continued to build on its newfound success and offensive capability, beating the Bucknell Bison 20-17 last Saturday on the road with a last-second field goal.
Driven by a determined senior leadership and a previously nonexistent desire to throw the ball, senior quarterback Matt Bassuener connected on 35 of 46 pass attempts, while also running for 64 yards and a score. And with the calm of a grizzled veteran, senior kicker Eric Bjonerud knocked home the game winning field goal with 10 seconds to go, not an easy task with the hopes of a winless team riding on your boot.
Perhaps Coach Kelly said it best after the Fordham game when he said, “We haven’t won a football game and you don’t like moral victories, but they could have folded the tents up … but [they didn’t and] I attribute that to our senior leadership.”
It has taken this year’s cast of seniors 41 games to notch their 10th win for the Blue and Gray, but their determined resolve and never-give-up attitude has given everyone on the Hilltop something they can be proud of. Despite what John Thompson III might have you believe, it’s not easy to turn around a struggling program, but if the Hoya football class of 2008 is any indicator of the future, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
