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Hoyas in Final Countdown for Holy Cross |
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Written by Michael Minnich
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Wednesday, 30 August 2006 |
Washington, D.C. – First year Georgetown University head football coach Kevin Kelly and the Hoya football team are making final preparations this week for the 2006 season opener against Holy Cross. The Blue and Gray will kick off the new season under Kelly on Saturday at the Multi-Sport Field at 1p.m.
To get a sneak peak on the 2006 season, fans can visit the Georgetown athletics website (www.guhoyas.com) on Thursday to view the first installment of “Hoya Talk.”
“Hoya Talk” will be hosted each week by Chuck Timanus – the Voice of Georgetown football. Timanus will be joined by Coach Kelly and the pair will discuss the previous game and the Hoyas’ upcoming opponent. The first installment of the show will serve as a season preview and discuss the season opener against Holy Cross.
On Tuesday afternoon, Kelly spoke with members of the media from Massachusetts on a conference call, discussing the opening game. “It’s a new team and a new staff,” Kelly said. “The kids are doing a terrific job this summer working, running and lifting weights and those kinds of things. They’ve responded to the staff very well and now we’re just all in anticipation of the first ball game, just like Holy Cross is I’m sure.”
The game on Saturday will cap off an exciting eight months for Kelly, who was tabbed to run the Georgetown program in January. “I think that every coach would say they’d like to have more time, but it’s gone very, very quickly,” Kelly said. “It’s hard to believe that it’s less than a week away. We’re getting down to “polish time” for the ballgame, but it’s been a good camp. Like I’ve said, I’m just real anxious to get started and see where we are.”
Kelly will look to two of the staples of Georgetown football in recent years, the defense and special teams, to lead the way. “Our defense has had some success over the years, but as I’ve told them, not enough,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to keep people out of the end zone.
“Rob Sgarlata, who was defensive coordinator last year and is still on our staff, has coached many of these young men very well and they’re responding well to our style of defensive and our scheme and I expect them to perform well. We have two kickers who have been battling it out, Eric Bjonerud and Christopher MacGriff. The past four years I was the special teams coordinator at Navy and we’ve got the whole staff involved with special teams in making it a focal point. We’re hoping that can be a determining factors in most of our games this coming year.”
Kelly knows that of the two teams taking the field on Saturday, the one on the home side will feature a lot of youth. “If you look at just at the two ages of the football team, we have just eight seniors starting and we’re a young football team,” he explained. “Plus we have a new staff and anytime I’ve been involved with new staffs, there are always some bugs you have to work out, so obviously that’s a concern, especially for the first ballgame.
“(There are) new players, new coaches, and a new way of doing things. The key is we have to hang on to the football, we have to create some turnovers and we have to win the kicking game.” More than anything, Kelly has been impressed with the team’s effort. “Our strength and conditioning coach, Augie Maurelli, in my opinion, is one of the best in Division I football,” Kelly said. “He works the guys hard; he’s got a great system that he’s implemented here. We’ve preached it since we got here in January.
Our kids worked very, very hard through preseason and we have a little buzzword called “Fanatical Effort” that’s part of the style. Our philosophy from Navy is playing hard every snap and having that fanatical effort. I’m hoping that will spill over to Saturday’s game.”
Kelly will also see a familiar face on the sidelines at the Multi-Sport Field on Saturday, as Holy Cross Head Coach Tom Gilmore was on the same staff at Dartmouth in 1991. “Coach Gilmore is an excellent football coach; he’s very thorough,” Kelly said. “He’s intense, which you have to be to play this game or coach this game and just knowing Tom and viewing his last two years….the first year is always the toughest and then improvement the second year was not a surprise at all.” |
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