“Dear old Holy Cross,” as Georgetown’s antiquated fight song refers to it, was anything but dear to Georgetown’s football team last season. The Crusaders sent the Hoyas home with an embarrassing 55-0 shutout loss. Memories of the beating must be lingering in head coach Kevin Kelly’s mind with just days left before Georgetown’s home opener against the Crusaders, especially after a similarly lopsided loss last weekend to Yale.
“We watched the film on Sunday, and we make the corrections, and we move on from there,” Kelly said. “We have a lot of positions where we have a lot of young players, so they can learn from that. What’s important is that we correct the mistakes and get better for this week.”
Holy Cross (0-2) lost its first two games of the season against UMass and Harvard by a combined four points. The Crusaders are led by senior quarterback Dominic Randolph, who Kelly says is one of, if not the best quarterback in the league. That will be problematic for a Georgetown secondary that gave up 361 yards through the air last week. Randolph recorded four touchdown passes and 480 total passing yards in the first two games.
The Hoyas (1-2) will need a Herculean effort on defense to stop the Holy Cross offense, which has scored 66 points in its first two games. In order to do that, the secondary needs to improve its coverage and the front seven need to provide more pressure on the quarterback. Kelly has stressed a desire to make Randolph as uncomfortable as possible in his traditional pocket-style passing attack.
“They’re more of a one-back, throw the football team, so we’ve got to do a good job of disguising coverage and mixing pressure and coverage,” Kelly said. “We have to make it difficult for him to throw the ball where he wants to throw it and change up our looks.”
While Kelly hopes his team will come up with a positive result on Saturday, he believes it will be a series of individual efforts that will ultimately win the day.
“I think a lot of it is just going to be assignment football,” sophomore linebacker Nick Parrish explained. “‘One man, one job’ is what they preach to us every day. You can’t try and play outside of yourself. It’s your individual skills up against your opponents.”
After a three-game road trip that Parrish said felt like “forever,” the Hoyas are anxious to get out in front of their home crowd on Saturday and pick up an important Patriot League win.
Kick-off is slated for 1:00 p.m.
