This Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., Georgetown will take on Holy Cross in the first of only five home football games this year. Those of you who came to Howard two weeks ago to see the Hoyas pull off a 12-7 win know just what this team can accomplish. Three weeks later, the Hoyas are 1-2 and looking to turn things around after losing to Yale last weekend. This is the latest home opener since I’ve been at Georgetown, and I’m ready to go all-out and cheer in full force on Saturday. After all, a little delay from a tropical storm didn’t stop us at Howard, and we’re not going to let losses to Lafayette and Yale stop us from making noise at home against the Crusaders. Here’s why I’m going to the game and why you should, too.
It’s football: It’s the same reason I plan my Mass attendance around the Cowboys game or spend my Saturday afternoons flipping between six different college football games. It’s the biggest of big-time sports; end of story.
It’s a chance to support my classmates: As much as I love basketball, I’m not so blind as to think that they’re the only student-athletes at Georgetown who put in a ton of practice. Over the summer, I saw football players coming back from their early morning sessions as I was just getting up for work. From spring practice to voluntary summer workouts to two-a-day camp and throughout the season, these guys work extremely hard. The least I can do is show up and let them know I appreciate how much they do to represent the name on the front of their jerseys.
Anything can happen: I’m looking forward to watching two quarterbacks, sophomore Keerome Lawrence and freshman James Brady, evolve. In the backfield is former Patriot League Freshman of the Year Charlie Houghton, who is a threat any time he gets across the line of scrimmage. At wide receiver the Hoyas have Kenny Mitchell, who would be the fastest man on just about any field. On defense the Hoyas have another potential star in Ataefiok Etukeren. These are just a few of the players who can break out on any play and change the game single-handedly.
It’s a chance to celebrate Georgetown: Everyone at Georgetown is always running around doing his or her own thing, and cheering for the Hoyas can give us a sense of community, as anyone who has watched a Big East game at the Verizon Center can attest. In the middle of campus, on beautiful fall days, I get a chance to be surrounded by students, alums, and fans alike, who, for a couple of hours at least, are all focused on exactly the same goal that I am, and it’s here that I remember how much we really are Georgetown.
Every game starts 0-0: I’m not an unrealistic idealist: I know as much as anyone what our season was like last year. I know we’re still building a program that only recently joined I-AA. And I know that we’re facing as tough a schedule as ever. So I don’t have expectations of sweeping the league or watching a Football Championship Sub-Division playoff game on TV this season. But I do know that anything can happen on the gridiron, that every game is a fresh start, and that our team is talented enough to put up a fight every week. So I show up every Saturday ready to watch something special happen, to witness a time-expiring field-goal or a game-ending sack, to stand at the front of the bleachers when the game is over and triumphantly sing the fight song with a victorious team. And if future Hoyas look back on that game as the win that made a difference, as the start to a Georgetown football resurgence, I won’t have to say that I heard the cheers from the library, or that I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. I’ll say that I watched every minute of it.
See you Saturday.
