Author: Jimmy Sullivan

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2018.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the game of basketball is passing Carmelo Anthony by.

At age 34, the former Denver Nugget and New York Knick signed a one-year deal with the Houston Rockets before this season. Houston wanted some more firepower after a playoff run that left them one win shy of knocking off the defending-champion Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals in 2018. They were hoping Carmelo could give them the offensive spark they needed to send them over the edge in the Western Conference.

Narrator voice: he didn’t.

Anthony has been a total flop in 10 games with the Rockets, posting the lowest Player Efficiency Rating (PER, for short), minutes per game and points per game figures of his 16-year career. These career-lows surpass last season, where he set his previous career-low in all of those categories with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last year was also a spectacular failure for Anthony and his team; the former had his worst career season, and the latter lost in the first round to the upstart Jazz. Anthony was terrible in the playoffs, scoring just 71 points in the six-game series and shooting 6-for-28 from behind the arc. This year, the Rockets are clearly better without him and would be well-served to cut him loose, which is what they are reportedly planning to do in the not-too-distant future. Anthony is coming into the last stage of his career, and it is fair to wonder whether or not he has anything left in the tank.

But I will not tolerate the slander of Anthony’s accomplishments and time in basketball. Here’s why.

The small forward who won a national title in his only season at Syracuse was pegged with wild expectations since the age of 17. In high school, Anthony’s Oak Hill team faced off against St. Vincent-St. Mary in February of 2002. You might have heard of the star of that St. Vincent-St. Mary team: LeBron James. Anthony’s squad won 72-66 in a game that was nationally-televised on ESPN. The next year, Carmelo attended Syracuse and carried the Orange to a national championship in his only collegiate season. The whole world knew of his talent, and as it turns out, he was just getting started.

He went into the draft that summer as one of the top players in arguably the most stacked draft class of all-time. Anthony was taken third that year by the Denver Nuggets, sandwiched between James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Melo was asked to carry a straggling Nuggets franchise into the future, and he did just that; Denver made the playoffs each of the first five years of his career, but each season was marked by a first-round exit that didn’t take more than five games. The 2008-09 season, though, would be Denver’s breakthrough, as the team reached the conference finals before ultimately losing to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol’s Lakers. Two years later, he was traded to the Knicks and, well, there have been many words written about that, but it’s still worth mentioning here.

His time in New York was much-maligned, and many criticized him for not being able to get the Knicks further in the playoffs in his seven years with the organization. The fact is, however, that the Knicks never surrounded their superstar player with enough talent for the team to be successful. The Knicks won 54 games in 2012-13 and finished with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference in one of the most bizarre one-off campaigns in recent memory. Anthony finished third in the MVP voting and led the team to the second round of the playoffs before being bounced by the Indiana Pacers. The rest is history: the Knicks hire Phil Jackson in 2014, he immediately gets in a power struggle with Anthony and others while trying to build the Knicks in an image that would never be successful all while publicly feuding with his star player. Anthony outlasted Jackson, as the latter resigned in 2017, and Anthony was traded to the Thunder last Sept., which is where we are now.

He was part of the best draft class in the history of the league and somehow still stood out. He sometimes gets lost in this era of NBA superstars like LeBron, Kevin Durant, Wade, Tim Duncan, Bryant and others, but his achievements should never be glossed over in the annals of NBA history.
I don’t say that lightly, either. Until last year, Carmelo averaged 20 points per game in each of his first 14 NBA seasons. The full list of players to do that over the course of an entire career? Michael Jordan, James and Durant. Durant was drafted in 2007 and Jordan played 15 seasons. You can pick on Anthony’s efficiency, which indeed is what has doomed him in the last act of his career. But he is one of the best pure scorers in the history of the league, and his impending downfall shouldn’t prevent us from recognizing that.

Carmelo Anthony is my generation’s Bernard King—always putting up great numbers and almost always doing so on subpar teams. I’m not accepting the unrelenting criticism of Carmelo, and you shouldn’t, either.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2018.

Time ran out on Fordham Football on Saturday, as the team dropped a 17-13 heartbreaker to Holy Cross for its ninth loss this season.

The Rams were trying to rebound after last week’s 41-0 drubbing at the hands of nationally-ranked Colgate. With two games left in one of the most disappointing seasons in program history, the Rams had little to lose with their Patriot League chances out the window after last week.

Saturday’s first two drives ended in punts, as winds of over 20 m.p.h and frigid temperatures affected both offenses. After losing the coin toss, Fordham head coach Joe Conlin, in an exceptionally savvy move, decided to play in the face of the wind to start the game so the team could have the wind at his back in the fourth quarter.

Fordham’s second drive went far better than its first, as freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat hit wide-open tight end Isaiah Searight up the seam for 58 yards and the first points of the game with 9:42 to go in the first quarter. The catch was the senior’s fourth touchdown catch of the season and DeMorat’s 11th toss for a score.

Both teams traded punts for the rest of the first quarter, and interestingly enough, Holy Cross was unable to pin Fordham inside its own 20-yard-line despite having the advantage of the wind.

Fordham’s next drive got down to the Holy Cross 38, and the Rams were faced with a fourth-and-one at that spot. The handout went to senior running back Colton Smith, and he was stonewalled inches short of a first down. Smith was pressed into duty after freshman running back Naim Mayfield was unable to travel with the team because of illness. Holy Cross got something going on the next drive, and the Crusaders got inside Fordham territory for the first time of the afternoon. The drive came to a screeching halt, though, when senior quarterback Geoff Wade ran to the left and tried to throw over the middle and was intercepted by Fordham senior Dylan Mabin. However, Fordham was unable to take advantage, and the ceremonious trading of punts continued until inside of five minutes to play in the first half.

With about four-and-a-half minutes to play in the half, Holy Cross punter Cody Wilkinson came on for yet another punt. It was blocked by junior Jesse Bramble, and Fordham received possession at the Holy Cross 43. But again, the Rams’ offense sputtered, and sophomore Andrew Mevis came on to punt after three straight DeMorat incompletions.

Holy Cross’ next possession went 13 yards in eight plays and took over three minutes off the clock, leaving the Rams with just 47 seconds to work with from their own 42. Fordham took seven plays to go 21 yards and called upon Mevis to try to hit a career-long attempt from 54 yards away with the wind whipping behind him.

And hit it he did. Mevis’ kick, which might have had enough distance from 65 or even 70 yards out, gave Fordham a 10-0 lead going into the halftime break. Conlin’s decision to play the elements paid off in spades. Fordham’s defense held Holy Cross to just 79 first-half yards.

The second thirty minutes, however, would be the Rams’ undoing.

After a Holy Cross punt to open the second half, Fordham was stopped at its own 42. Mevis came on to punt into the Worcester wind and attempted a low, end-over-end boot to knife through the gusts. Instead, the Crusaders blocked his kick and took over possession 21 yards away from Fordham’s end zone. Two plays later, Wade hit an unguarded Derek Mountain on an exquisite throw-back play to the left after a rollout to the right to bring Bob Chesney’s team within three points.

On Fordham’s next drive, junior running back Tyriek Hopkins was dispossessed by Holy Cross defensive lineman Jake McArdell in his own territory, and the Crusaders took possession at the Fordham 41 after standout linebacker Ryan Brady recovered the loose change. Senior receiver Jonathan Lumley had a chance to recover the fumble but continued to block downfield anticipating that Hopkins would still be running. To the Fordham defense’s credit, it held the Crusaders to a three-and-out and a punt, but the offense continued to struggle.

With about three minutes left in the third quarter, wide receiver and former quarterback Blaise Bell passed the ball on a trick play to fellow wideout Martin Dorsey. The trickery worked, and Dorsey hauled in the pass at Fordham’s eight-yard-line. Three plays later, Wade went back to Dorsey to give the Crusaders a 14-10 lead with 2:15 left in the third quarter.

The teams continued to trade stops into the fourth quarter, and things would remain this way until the final 10 minutes of the game. On a third-down play from Holy Cross’ 43, senior receiver Austin Longi dropped a lateral from DeMorat. Brady got his second fumble recovery of the day at the 47-yard line. On the next drive, Wade was stripped on the run by sophomore linebacker Jeremy Imperati. Freshman Ryan Greenhagen tried to pick up the ball and run with it instead of falling on it. The ball eventually rolled out of bounds, and the Rams missed their opportunity at a stop. Running back Miles Alexander went for a four-yard run on the next play, and kicker Derek Ng drilled a 37-yarder into the teeth of the wind.With 7:37 to play, Holy Cross led 17-10.

Fordham held possession for the next 5:15 and got all the way down to the Holy Cross nine-yard line. However, DeMorat was sacked and threw incompletions on the next two plays. Mevis cashed in from 35 with 2:15 to bring the Rams within four. And that is where things started to get really weird.

Holy Cross was faced with a third down and three yards to get from their own 30 after a Fordham pseudo-onside kick attempt failed. Wade found Mountain for two yards, but Mountain was inches short of the first down, and Fordham senior Larry Menyah forced him out with 1:53 to go. Holy Cross eventually punted, and the Rams got it on their own 41 with 107 seconds to play.

Fordham had a fourth-and-five with about a minute left. DeMorat looked for Searight, and the senior made an insane catch over the back of the defender to move the chains. Fordham continued to push towards the red zone and got there when DeMorat hit senior wideout Corey Candle near the sidelines with 35 seconds left. Candle was stopped with forward progress in bounds but the clock stopped for the chains to move. A clock issue pushed the time down to 23 seconds left. The referees announced that the clock would start on their signal, meaning that Fordham would have to get up to the line and quickly run a play.

Then, DeMorat inexplicably used 15 of the 23 seconds remaining to figure out what to do. Fordham’s offense did nothing for this time until snapping it with eight or nine seconds to play. A holding call pushed the Rams back to the 29, and a Hail Mary attempt fell to the ground to give Holy Cross it’s fourth win of the year and send Fordham to 1-9.

While the referees probably erred in their handling of the situation, there is no excuse for what Fordham’s offense did (or didn’t do) at the very end of the game.

Fordham outplayed Holy Cross on Saturday. The Rams outgunned them 295-221 and looked like the better team for large chunks of the game.

Fordham has one more game left in this God-forsaken season; it will be against Bucknell on Saturday. The lights are about to go out on this season, and it can’t be saved.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2018.

Fordham’s football team did not send its seniors off right on Saturday.

The Rams lost 41-0 to Colgate University; the result earned Colgate, the 11th-ranked team in the country, at least a share of the Patriot League title while the Rams fell to 1-8 in what Fordham coach Joe Conlin called an “unforgivable” effort on senior day.

“We didn’t execute today,” Conlin said. “We didn’t play the type of football that I want us to play. It’s not what Fordham Football is going to be, so to send these seniors off on a performance like that, to me, is unforgivable.”

A Colgate team that had given up six total points in its last six games heading into the day imposed itself on Fordham’s offense. Freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat was sacked eight times and the Rams were outgained 562-28 in total offense on the afternoon.

Colgate picked up a first down on the first play of the afternoon with a 10-yard scamper from quarterback Grant Brenaman, but Fordham’s defense held strong and forced a punt. Fordham was heading towards a similar fate on their first drive, but a shotgun snap from senior center Dominic Lombard went astray, and Colgate recovered the loose ball at Fordham’ eight-yard-line. Two plays later, the Raiders took advantage with a four-yard touchdown run from James Holland, Jr. to put Colgate in front 7-0 just 3:43 into the game.

Fordham continued to struggle on the next possession, with two DeMorat incompletions and a three-yard run from junior running back Tyriek Hopkins. In two drives and six plays, Fordham had just a punt and a lost fumble to its offensive ledger. Colgate also went three-and-out on the next possession, in part due to a false start penalty on third down and short yardage. Fordham had more issues on the ensuing possession and nearly lost another fumble on another poor snap from Lombard. TySean Sizer’s punt return put the Raiders near midfield.

On the first play of the next drive, Holland, Jr. busted loose once more. He took off on a run up the middle, broke through the hole and beat the Fordham defense for 52 yards and a score. The score gave Colgate a 14-0 lead with 5:56 left in the first quarter.

Fordham moved the chains on the next drive for the first time in the afternoon, but was unable to do anything else and punted from its own 37-yard-line.

Colgate then marched downfield to Fordham’s 26, but Holland, Jr. fumbled and senior Antonio Jackson, in his last home game in a Rams uniform, recovered and brought it back to the Colgate side of the field. Fordham, however, went in the wrong direction with a two-yard loss from running back Naim Mayfield and a ten-yard loss on a sack by Colgate’s Coco Coleman.

Colgate did not fail to take advantage of Fordham’s offensive ineptitude.

The next drive started with three runs from Holland, Jr. and an acrobatic 24-yard catch from tight end Nick Diaco. Running back Alex Matthews took it down to the one-yard-line on the next play, and took it to the house one play later. With 11:37 left in the first half, Colgate led 21-0 and showed why it was the 11th-ranked team in FCS heading into the afternoon.

The next drive followed the same pattern for Fordham: short run, incompletion, sack, punt, and Colgate got it back on their own 39.

Conlin said protecting the quarterback will be a top priority for the team as the year winds down.
“Every week, we cannot sustain drives,” he said. “We gotta do a better job of protecting the quarterback and being a little more consistent on the ground.”

Even if you take DeMorat’s eight sacks out of the equation, Fordham only rushed for 33 yards on the afternoon. Hopkins and freshman Naim Mayfield combined for just 16 yards on the day.

Both teams traded punts on each of their next drives. Colgate continued to do whatever it wanted on the next drive, as a 23-yard strike to Owen Rockett got Colgate to the Fordham 10. The Raiders punched it in the end zone on the next play on a short pass to running back Malik Twyman, but a chop block by Rockett knocked Colgate back 15 yards. Eventually, the Patriot League leaders settled from a 28-yard field goal from Chris Puzzi to make it 24-0 with 4:38 to play in the first half.

The Rams were able to get a first down on the next drive on a 10-yard connection from DeMorat to senior receiver Corey Caddle. Disaster struck on the next play, though, as DeMorat was intercepted by Ben Hunt on a throw over the middle.

“Timmy probably had his worst day,” Conlin said. “He’s not using his legs like he used to, and there are times when he just doesn’t have a chance. Other times, he’s not using his legs like he did so well against Central Connecticut and Bryant. You’ve got a 17, 18-year-old kid going up against one of the best defenses in the country, and a really well-coached defense, so he’s gonna have struggles.”

After the pick, Colgate was faced with a fourth-and-four at the Fordham 25 and quarterback Grant Breneman converted with a 23-yard toss to Rockett. Breneman kept it on a read option for a touchdown on the next play to make it 31-0 Raiders, and that would be the score heading into the locker room.

The second half started with more of the same, and despite a pretty 15-yard throw from DeMorat to senior Isaiah Searight, Fordham punted for the seventh time in the game. The Rams got a stop on the next possession, but their offense still could not get anything going. After a completion to Austin Longi on second down, DeMorat endured his fifth sack of the day at the hands of Colgate’s Dillon DeIuliis.

The Raiders completed a third-down pass for 29 yards to Rockett on the next possession. Sacks by freshman Ryan Greenhagen and sophomore Glenn Cunningham with Colgate inside the 10 forced the Raiders to kick another field goal from 43 yards, and Puzzi had his field goal blocked and returned to the Fordham 45 by Anthony Diodato.

Fordham crossed midfield for the first time in the half with an 18-yard throw from DeMorat to Searight. Fordham stalled at that point, and the Rams were stopped on fourth-and-10 from the Colgate 37.

Fordham almost got it back on the next play, however, as Glenn Cunningham forced a fumble from Holland, Jr. and Ryan Greenhagen made the recovery. However, the initial ruling that Holland was down stood, and the Raiders kept the ball. Malik Twyman ended the drive with a seven-yard run to make it 38-0 Colgate early in the fourth. Fordham punted on the next drive.

Twyman added insult to injury on the next possession with a 55-yard sprint on a beleaguered Fordham defense. Colgate’s drive stalled, and kicker Chris Puzzi barely made a 35-yard field goal into the teeth of the wind to make it 41-0 Raiders with 8:54 to play, and that would be the final score.

When everything was said and done from Jack Coffey Field, Fordham had punted it 11 times, lost 50 yards in the running game and earned just over half a yard per play. Conlin was particularly frustrated with his team’s performance in both the run and pass games.

“If you’re inconsistent in two phases, the call sheet starts to look like a foreign language,” Conlin said. “We gotta do a better job of executing, we can’t have these unforced errors and bad snaps and stuff like that. That stuff’s unacceptable, and that’s the mark of a bad team and obviously, we can’t have that stuff if we want to be a good team.”

The Fordham Rams are not a good team. They have been officially eliminated from any chance at contending for a Patriot League title this season, and this outcome was several weeks in the making. The Rams faced one of the best teams in the country on Saturday, and were thoroughly out-classed in every phase of the game.

Fordham has two more games this season against Holy Cross and Bucknell; both will be on the road. The Rams have an opportunity to salvage a lost season with better performances at those venues the next two weeks.

After Saturday’s blowout, it would be nearly impossible for the Rams to sink lower.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2018.

The rain and wind cranked all afternoon at Jack Coffey Field on Saturday as the Fordham Rams lost 21-13 to Lafayette and fell to 1-7 on the season.

The weather was a big part of the story in this one, as cold temperatures, a driving rain and a howling wind made playing conditions difficult. The wind consistently blew towards Keating Hall, and the rain caused various puddles to form on the artificial surface.

The weather had an effect on both offenses; Lafayette kept it on the ground for 58 of its 67 offensive plays, and both teams combined for just 164 yards through the air.

“It was really very frustrating,” Fordham head coach Joe Conlin said of his offense’s second-half performance. “We had a couple opportunities to make plays, and we didn’t. We had dropped balls, we cut guys loose in protection and things like that.”

Fordham didn’t gain much traction with its first drive of the afternoon, and the Rams went four yards in the wrong direction in three plays. Lafayette got a penalty-induced first down on the next possession, but the Rams stopped the Leopards on fourth-and-two from Fordham’s 38-yard-line. The next two possessions ended in punts, and Fordham eventually got possession with under five minutes left in the first quarter and still no points on the scoreboard.

Fordham finally got something going on its next possession. The Rams converted on a fourth down play with Naim Mayfield running it up the middle, and on the next play, which was also the first of the second quarter, freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat hit sophomore wideout Hunter Harris over the middle for 20 yards. Two plays later, DeMorat connected with senior tight end Isaiah Searight for an eight-yard score to give Fordham a 7-0 lead with 13:51 left in the second quarter.

Lafayette had an answer on its next drive, however.

The Leopards kept it exclusively on the ground for eight plays and 75 yards on a drive that eventually ended in a Selwyn Simpson 38-yard touchdown scamper. Prior to that drive, quarterback Sean O’Malley was one-for-four with just five passing yards. Simpson’s second touchdown in as many weeks tied the game at seven with 9:48 to go in the half.

Fordham’s next drive lasted just three plays and started inauspiciously with a Dylan Mabin fumble on the kickoff. However, sophomore punter Andrew Mevis flipped the field with a 66-yard punt that stopped dead outside Lafayette’s goal line. Two plays later, Noah Fitzgerald recovered a Lafayette fumble four yards outside the end zone, and Fordham’s offense converted with a four-yard touchdown pass from DeMorat to senior Austin Longi. After a botched extra point, the Rams led 13-7 with 7:51 left in the first half.

The next three drives finished in three-and-outs as the rain and wind continued to wreak havoc on the playing conditions. On a Fordham drive that started with 2:52 left in the half, Tim DeMorat struggled to handle a snap from the shotgun. Even though the officials ruled that DeMorat recovered the fumble, the call was changed on review, and Lafayette got possession at Fordham’s 39 with 99 seconds left in the first half. After three straight runs, the Leopards kept it on the ground for fourth-and-short, and the Leopards turned fourth down into a home run as C.J. Amill broke free for a 31-yard touchdown scamper. Lafayette took a 14-13 lead late in the half, and that would be the score heading into the locker room. But despite being outgained 150-88 and 145-(-15) on the ground, the Rams were only down by one.

After halftime, Lafayette converted on a fourth-and-one around midfield but could not do any more. Jacob Bissell’s fourth punt of the day rolled to the three-yard line before the Leopards special teams unit downed it. Fordham didn’t get anything going and punted after three plays.

Selwyn Simpson started the next drive from the Lafayette 45 with a 51-yard run down the right sideline all the way down to the Fordham four-yard-line. Simpson got two more runs on the drive, and he punched the last one into the end zone for his second touchdown of the afternoon with 8:26 to play in the third quarter; that score made it 21-13 Lafayette.

The next four drives after Simpson’s touchdown all culminated in punts. Lafayette kept the ball almost exclusively on the ground, and while the offense had its ups and downs, the strategy seemed to work.

Fordham’s first possession of the fourth quarter did not go smoothly. Naim Mayfield went down trying to make a block in pass protection, and DeMorat nearly hit Hunter Harris with a deep ball over the middle before a Lafayette defender broke it up. Lafayette’s next drive featured more of the same; penalties, rushing plays and a drive-ending punt.

“I thought we did a better job of getting off of blocks,” Conlin said of his defense’s second-half performance against the Leopards’ rushing attack. “I thought our secondary did a better job of coming up and filling in than they did in the first half.”

DeMorat’s first throw of the next possession was intercepted by Lafayette corner Eric Mitchell. Lafayette actually threw it twice on the next possession, but once again punted on Fordham’s end of the field. The Rams got it back with 6:34 to go; the team needed 90 yards and a two-point conversion to tie the game.

But, following a common theme for the Fordham offense, the Rams could not get anything going. After a completion to Searight on first down, which was the freshman’s second completion of the second half, DeMorat was sacked on second and threw an incompletion on third, leading to a punt inside Fordham’s end zone.

Lafayette could have ended the game with points on the next drive, which looked promising after C.J. Amill picked up a first down to the Fordham 25. However, the drive stalled, and kicker Jeffrey Kordenbrock missed on an ugly field goal attempt from 46 yards to keep the Rams alive.

DeMorat started the next drive with completions to seniors Jonathan Lumley and Austin Longi, but the team was pushed back by a false start by freshman Phil Saleh. Running back Tyriek Hopkins then made the most of a swing pass and got the Rams down to the Leopards’ 42. On second down, DeMorat tried to force a pass to Jonathan Lumley over the middle into double coverage.

It did not work.

The freshman was intercepted by junior defensive end Keith Earle with under two minutes left to seal the deal for the Leopards, who took three kneel-downs to ice the game after the pick. The loss sent Fordham to 1-7 overall and 1-2 in the Patriot League, which means that the Rams will be fighting for their conference lives next week when they take on league-leading Colgate. A loss eliminates them from conference title contention.

“We need to take what is given to us,” Conlin says. “We got the easy throws we gotta make, and we gotta do a better job of maintaining our blocks, and we obviously have to protect the quarterback better.”

DeMorat was sacked four times on the afternoon, and the offensive line struggled like it has all season long. The freshman was pressured for most of the afternoon and was not afforded the adequate time to throw.

“If you give up a sack late, it’s not a big deal, but if guys get through right now and immediately get in the quarterback’s vision, it kind of just screws everything up,” Conlin said.

Fordham’s rushing offense, which has shown signs of improvement the past few weeks, took a major step back on Saturday as it went for -20 net yards if you include DeMorat’s sacks. Mayfield and Hopkins combined for just 25 rushing yards on 13 attempts, and the Lafayette defense did not give the tandem any room to run.

With Saturday’s loss, Fordham will need a miracle just to have a chance at winning the Patriot League. The team that was projected to finish second in the conference before the season now has its backs firmly against the wall, and the Rams face a must-win game against Colgate next Saturday.

Fordham is trying to salvage something from what may be about to become a lost season. To do that, they’ll first have to beat the best team in the Patriot League. The wind will not be at their backs.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2018.

The weekend before last, I was watching the fourth quarter of the Chiefs-Patriots Sunday Night Football game when an extraordinary thing happened.

Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, otherwise known as the only good player left on my fantasy team after I traded away Todd Gurley (facepalm), caught two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a 75-yard bomb to tie the game at 40 late in the fourth. I was really happy, and not just because the Chiefs were going toe-to-toe with the NFL team I hate the most.

I was losing my mind because Tyreek Hill was on my fantasy team, and his two late scores put me ahead for good in my matchup that week. That probably speaks to my sorry mental state more than anything, but a win’s a win.

But what if I told you there is a more troubling personal side to the electrifying, lightning-fast star of the NFL’s best offense?

Hill was arrested in Dec. 2014 and sentenced to three years of probation in 2015 for assaulting his then-pregnant girlfriend, Crystal Espinal. The details are gruesome and harrowing, and the incident got Hill dismissed from the Oklahoma State football and track teams. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft and has terrorized NFL defenses ever since. To be fair to Hill, he completed his probation in August and even reconciled with Espinal, as the two got married just last month. I’m not against the Chiefs giving him a second chance, but you can’t have Hill’s on-field heroics without his off-field troubles.

Another example of this is Brewers relief pitcher Josh Hader. Many fawned over his dominance in this year’s playoffs, and he was used in a Swiss Army Knife role coming out of Milwaukee’s bullpen. However, some of us are old enough to remember when Hader was in hot water after years-old, insensitive tweets exposing several different prejudicial phobias were uncovered on his Twitter account. I’m old enough to remember this because it happened three months ago. We were all shocked when this happened, but in the ensuing weeks, several other players were caught with old prejudicial tweets on their accounts. It was a trend, and it led to many more questions than answers.

All of this is troubling in and of itself, but it leads to a larger point in sports: when we build athletes up as perfect, upstanding citizens all of the time, we are absolutely begging to be disappointed.

Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley once said, to the tune of a lot of controversy at the time, that he was not a role model. He could not have been more on-the-nose if he tried. When we make these people societal role models, we set ourselves up for failure. To an extent, professional athletes sign up for public scrutiny, and they can’t live remotely normal lives. But we use athletes to demonstrate to ourselves and others the “right way” to do things (whatever that means). When they don’t do that, we burn jerseys, wonder how this could happen and search for answers until the next time someone else does the exact same thing.

To that end, I ask this question: why are athletes put on this pedestal in the first place?

While the majority of athletes seem to be good, upstanding citizens, others are not. We need to accept that. Sometimes, our heroes disappoint us, and that’s just a part of life. We cannot simply put athletes above reproach, particularly when they play for our team. Sometimes, that’s okay; like many Mets fans or New York area sports followers, I am going to tell my children about how good of a citizen David Wright was when he played for the team. The problem is this: we give athletes too much influence over our behaviors. Sometimes, this is okay (see: bat flipping), but other times, it isn’t. Athletes are influencers, but we shouldn’t treat them as gods, because if we do, they will never reach that standard. Worse than that, we’ll be left with the pieces.

Of course, this does not mean that athletes should ever get a pass when they screw up and we should hold them to a higher standard than we would for others. But parents, listen closely: do not, do not, do NOT use an athlete as the sole example of good behavior for your children. Players need to worry about themselves and make sure they are doing the right thing without consideration of the pressures of the public eye. We don’t need to act shocked when they mess up, because they will. Often.

Professional athletes are really good at what they do, and we should expect them to be. But if we expect them to all be perfect all the time, we are going to be incredibly disappointed.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2018.

Fordham Football has its first win of the season, and head coach Joe Conlin has the first win of his coaching career. The head coach told WFUV that the win “feels pretty special,” and it does, both for him and Fordham.

The Rams defeated Lehigh University by a stunning score of 43-14 to win their first game of the season. Junior Tyriek Hopkins rushed for 117 yards, and freshman running back Naim Mayfield added 89 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The Rams had several scintillating performances on the day.

Freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat easily had his best game of the season. The Merritt Island, Florida native completed 14 passes on 23 attempts for 299 yards for two touchdowns, which went for a combined 160 yards. The tone for the day was set when he hit senior wideout Austin Longi for a 45-yard bomb into double coverage on the first play of the game. The Rams ended that drive by missing a field goal, but it was clear that Fordham’s passing offense was set on making big plays downfield, which it has sorely lacked to this point in the season.

The game started with a painful sequence of turnovers and punts that does not need to be rehashed Fordham did not score in the first quarter for the sixth straight game to start the season, which continued a troubling trend. The Rams struck the first blow offensively in the second quarter when DeMorat hit senior Jonathan Lumley on a short pass over the middle. Lumley then took care of the rest, as he rumbled 73 yards downfield for the first points of the game. It was only the fourth catch of the season for Lumley, who had a frustrating start to the year leading up to Saturday’s game. Then, because this is the Patriot League and one does not simply kick extra points in the Patriot League, the Rams brought their kicking unit onto the field and got a two-point conversion on a trick play. Fourth-string quarterback Sean Holland fired a screen pass to tight end Jack Gildea, who followed a convoy into the end zone for two points. The score was 8-0 Fordham.

The wide receiving unit had its best game of the season, and two men stood out in particular. Seniors Austin Longi and Corey Caddle both went for over 100 yards on the afternoon. Longi caught five balls from DeMorat for 108 yards, including the first play of the night. In the second quarter, he hauled in a 40-yard strike that got Fordham down to the Lehigh one-yard-line; the play was initially ruled a touchdown but was brought back to the one-yard-line upon further review. However, Mayfield scored the first of his two touchdowns on the next play, and no harm was done for the Rams.

Caddle only made three catches, but he made the most of them. His biggest play of the game came in the third quarter when he took a DeMorat pass for 87 yards and a score. It was the second monster touchdown of the day for the Rams, and it was also the longest touchdown for Fordham since 2015.

Fordham took a 22-6 lead into the locker room behind touchdowns from Lumley, Mayfield and a rushing score from DeMorat. Joe Conlin tried to get him more involved in the running game throughout the contest, and it seemed to pay off. DeMorat’s rushing TD came at the end of an especially impressive drive at the end of the first half, as the Rams held possession for 4:10 before scoring with just 16 seconds left on the clock. The freshman quarterback looked poised, and his head coach noticed.

“Timmy played his heart out,” Conlin told WFUV. “It was great to see him kind of take command, and he was a different kid on the sideline this week than he was last week. We felt good about the gameplan and his role in it.”

Lehigh was expected to make adjustments out of the halftime locker room. The defending Patriot League co-champions were on the ropes and needed a response to get off the mat against the winless Rams. The Mountain Hawks were even booed going into the locker room, which was an unusual response from the fans of a team that has won at least a share of the last two Patriot League titles.

They didn’t have one in them.

Lehigh quarterback Brad Mayes, a first-team all-Patriot League selection in 2017, led the Mountain Hawks down the field late in the third quarter. On a third-down play to the end zone, he was intercepted by Fordham junior Jesse Bramble. The next Fordham drive ended with Caddle’s long touchdown, and after the 14-point swing, Fordham led 29-6.

The Rams were set after that; they added fourth-quarter touchdown runs from Hopkins and Mayfield for good measure. Lehigh scored a meaningless touchdown and two-point conversion with just under 12 minutes to play, but the Rams had salted away the victory long before that. With the win, Joe Conlin finally gets off the schneid as the head man at Fordham, and the Rams are in the win column for the first time since November 18, 2017.

What was particularly impressive on this afternoon was Fordham’s running game. It wasn’t just that Mayfield and Hopkins were prolific, but it was the manner in which they were. Hopkins hit the hole with an exceptional burst on Saturday, and his late touchdown run was the best proof of that. Mayfield was hardly ever taken down on first contact, and he often kept the pile moving for extra yards when it appeared as though the play was dead. Last year, it was D’Angelo Palladino rushing for 299 yards in the absence of Chase Edmonds. This year, it was Mayfield and Hopkins combining for 206 yards in the absence of Palladino, sophomore Zach Davis and senior Colton Smith. Fordham’s reinforcements have burned Lehigh in back-to-back seasons, and the Rams put up nearly 200 net rushing yards after having averaged just 24 yards per game in their first five contests.

One of the other standouts for Fordham was still in high school last year. DeMorat continues to improve, and if there were any questions about Fordham’s quarterback situation, the freshman answered them on Saturday. Joe Conlin is not taking his quarterback’s performance for granted.

“He’s still a freshman, and next week, God only knows, that’s how it is with freshmen, but today, he played like a grown man.”
“God only knows” is an accurate forecast for this Fordham team. After coming into Bethlehem as double-digit underdogs, they left as 29-point victors.

God only knows what will happen when Fordham hosts Bryant on Saturday. But this week, the Rams are winners. It’s the first time the team has been able to say that in 2018, and it’s the first time Joe Conlin has ever been able to say that as a head coach.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2018.

It was another Saturday in the fall, and it was another frustrating loss for Fordham’s football team.

Fordham lost to Georgetown University 23-11, its fifth loss in a row to start the season. The Rams had their chance to win this one, but it ultimately went down as a loss in the first Patriot League game of Fordham’s season.

Both offenses got off to extraordinarily slow starts, with the first four drives of the game all ending in punts. Georgetown was doomed by multiple false start penalties, and Fordham freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat was nearly intercepted on one occasion.

Georgetown started their third possession on their own 28 with 5:27 left in the first quarter and finally got to work. After Winston Jackson Jr. ran it twice for 11 yards, the Hoyas completed a screen pass for 12 yards to Brandon Williams. Williams got another 12-yard catch just two plays later, and Georgetown kept the drive alive with a 29-yard screen play to Jay Tolliver. The Hoyas finished the drive when Gunther Johnson hit Cameron Crayton in the end zone after senior defensive back Dylan Mabin fell down in coverage. After the score, Georgetown ran one of the wildest trick plays you will ever see, as the long snapper flipped the ball diagonally to Christian Tate, who ran it into the end zone to make it 8-0 with 59 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Fordham’s next drive started out much like their others, but the offense reclaimed some momentum with a 32-yard strike down the sideline to senior Isaiah Searight on a third and long. Two plays later, fill-in running back, junior Tyriek Hopkins (both junior running back D’Angelo Palladino and sophomore Zach Davis were out) broke off a 15-yard run to set up the Rams at Georgetown’s 13.

Hopkins got the ball on every play the rest of the drive and finished the series with a 2-yard score. Sophomore kicker Andrew Mevis missed his third extra point of the season, however, and the score was 8-6 with 12:50 left in the half. Yes, you read that right: 8-6.

Both teams went three-and-out and punted on their ensuing drives. Georgetown’s possession featured a frustrating play on a quarterback keeper. Quarterback Gunther Johnson kept the ball on a read option, instead of handing it to his running back, who got destroyed on the play. The referees thought Johnson had given up possession, so they blew the play dead after Johnson had gained five. It looked like he had a chance at a lot more, but the inadvertent whistle killed the play, and the Hoyas were forced to punt.

Georgetown’s snap went awry and punter Brad Hurst launched the ball from his own five-yard line out of the back of his team’s end zone for a safety. This already-bizarre game got even weirder, and Fordham tied it at eight.

Three more punts followed, and Georgetown got it back on its own 21 with 1:32 left in the half. Williams made back-to-back acrobatic catches to get Georgetown to the Fordham 32. Then, on the next play, Williams dropped a pass that went right off his hands and would have gone for a touchdown if he had caught it. A short run and a sack came next; Johnson fumbled on the sack but Georgetown recovered. After a penalty for running into the kicker, Georgetown went for it with 25 seconds left in the half. A short pass to Jackson Saffold fell four yards short of the marker, and the teams went into the locker room tied at eight.

The second half started with a punt from each team, with Georgetown punter Brad Hurst fired a 60-yard bomb to flip the field early in the third quarter for Georgetown. Fordham took that drive and made something of it, but with possession at the Hoya 43, senior Tristan Nevotne picked up a holding penalty on first-and-10. That didn’t stop the Fordham offense, and DeMorat converted a third-down toss to senior receiver Austin Longi to move the sticks. The drive stalled at the Georgetown 19, as DeMorat was unable to connect with Corey Caddle on third-and-nine. Senior kicked Kyle Facibene was called upon in lieu of Mevis to attempt the 36-yard field goal, and he drilled it with flying colors to give Fordham an 11-8 lead. Facibene’s one kick of the day was impressive, and it will be interesting to see where that position goes moving forward.

On the next drive, Georgetown running back Herman Moultrie ripped off a 41-yard run to get the Hoyas down to the Fordham six yard-line. Two plays later, Moultrie punched it in to give Georgetown a 15-11 edge with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. The Hoyas did not concede the lead for the rest of the game.

Hopkins set the tone for Fordham on the next drive, as he nearly broke off a touchdown run and got another first down. DeMorat hit Searight for an 18-yard pass to get the Rams inside Georgetown’s 35-yard line. However, Fordham couldn’t get anything going from there, and senior backup running back Colton Smith suffered a right leg injury on a third-down run that got no yards. Fordham tried to go for it on fourth down, but a false start penalty on freshman Austin Glazier forced a Mevis punt instead. His kick went about 15 yards in the air before rolling dead at the Georgetown two-yard line.

After two positive running plays, a third-down pass from Johnson was intercepted by junior defensive back Jesse Bramble as he fell out of bounds at the Georgetown 28. Fordham only got one yard in the next four plays, though, and DeMorat’s fourth-down pass attempt to Jordan Allen fell harmlessly to the turf. Fordham’s defense got yet another stop on the next drive and gave the ball back to the offense with 7:09 left on Fordham’s 28. The Rams couldn’t take advantage.

“It’s very frustrating,” head coach Joe Conlin said of his team’s inability to take advantage of the opposing team’s mistakes. “If you want to be a great team, you gotta play complimentary football.”

Fordham’s next drive was emblematic of the game up to that point: DeMorat’s first pass was rushed and incomplete to junior receiver Joe Ferraro and his second was deflected then intercepted by Jethro Francois. Georgetown got down to the Rams’ one-yard line before being shut down on fourth-and-goal trying to run a trick play eerily reminiscent of the Eagles’ “Philly Special” Super Bowl play. A fumble by wide receiver Josh Tomas was recovered by sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Diodato, and Fordham took over at its own five-yard line with 2:21 to play and a chance to win it.

And then, to start that drive, an old face returned to the Fordham offense.

Senior backup quarterback Luke Medlock was sent to the bench after the Stony Brook game in favor of DeMorat. Conlin was looking to catch lightning in a bottle by bringing Medlock back in; the move had nothing to do with DeMorat’s health.

“Timmy was a little late on some reads,” Conlin said. “We just wanted to give Luke a chance, see if he could change something up, see if he could drive us down the field.”

It didn’t quite work out that way for the Rams.

Medlock’s second pass of an supposed game-winning drive was easily intercepted by Francois on the Georgetown sideline. Moultrie punched in a touchdown after Francois’ return went all the way back to the Fordham one-yard-line, and despite a botched extra point that was laden with hilarity after Georgetown’s long snapper illegally completed a pass into the end zone for a two-point conversion (it was called back), the score was 21-11 in favor of Georgetown with only two minutes left in the game. A safety on the next drive, which featured DeMorat instead of Medlock, made it 23-11, and that would be the final.

“Obviously, a frustrating loss,” Conlin said. “I thought the defense played tough. With the exception of one drive, I thought those guys did a great job. It seems to be a common theme, we just put them in too many difficult situations.”

It was another rough week for Fordham’s offensive line, as it conceded five sacks for the third time in the last four games.

“We have to do a better job of protecting our quarterbacks, and I think our quarterbacks have to help themselves out with staying on their reads and getting the ball in play faster,” according to Conlin.

The loss drops the Rams to 0-5 on the season, and things do not get easier from here. Next up for Fordham is the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, who were picked to finish second in the preseason Patriot League poll and are currently 1-4 following a 66-7 loss to 23rd-ranked Princeton. After that, Fordham faces Bryant, Lafayette and Colgate to close out its home slate and enter November.

Fordham has not won a game this season. After today’s loss, Coach Conlin pinned the blame on himself, but a team does not lose its first five games in this fashion with only one person to blame. This has been a collective failure to this point in the season for the Fordham Rams, and the team disappointed in its most winnable game to this point in the season.

Fordham is 0-5. Lehigh is next. The Rams hope that more losing is not in the offing. The precedent has been set, and it isn’t good.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

Fordham’s homecoming did not turn out to be a festive occasion for the school’s football team.

The Rams lost their fourth game in a row by a score of 24-13 to Central Connecticut State University. The loss drops the Rams to 0-4 as they head into a much-needed bye week before Patriot League play starts on Oct. 6. The main headline heading into the afternoon was whether or not the Rams would start freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat in place of struggling senior Luke Medlock. Fordham head coach Joe Conlin answered in the affirmative, and DeMorat would start Fordham’s annual homecoming game.

The game started with Zach Davis getting two carries for 20 yards on the game’s first two offensive plays. Davis played in his first game since sustaining an injury in the first game of the season against Charlotte, and he made an immediate impact. However, two straight throws from Tim DeMorat fell incomplete, and the Rams were forced to punt.

Central Connecticut State’s first drive was more successful, as the Jake Dolegala-led offense walked all over the Fordham defense for five plays and 72 yards. The drive ended on a touchdown when Arthur Gilmore broke wide open on play action after a Fordham defender fell down. After just three minutes and 46 seconds, Fordham was trailing 7-0 after their second slow start in as many weeks.

Fordham’s next drive was promising; DeMorat hit Isaiah Searight for a 17-yard gain up the seam and got another first down running the ball. But a read option play from the Central Connecticut State 32-yard-line went rather poorly, as DeMorat and Davis miscommunicated on a read option play, and the Blue Devils’ Mike Mushaw ran it back to Fordham’s 40. Once Central Connecticut State got the ball back, they drove to Fordham’s 10 and were faced with a fourth down and one. The 6’6”, 235-pound Dolegala snuck it up the middle and got four yards over the left guard for a first, but the Blue Devils were stopped on 3rd-and-goal from the 11 when Dylan Mabin broke up a pass to the end zone (Mabin missed the last two games with a knee injury). Francis Cole converted a field goal opportunity from 28 yards away and Central Connecticut took a 10-0 lead with 2:25 to play in the first quarter.

DeMorat converted a third down on a quarterback keeper on the next drive, but the Rams were once again forced to punt. Then, on the Blue Devils’ next drive, Dolegala threw an interception to Antonio Jackson at the Fordham 20-yard-line. Jackson broke several tackles and his electrifying return ended at the CCSU 19. Two plays later, DeMorat hit Searight over the middle for the tight end’s first touchdown of the season. Despite another missed extra point from Andrew Mevis, the Rams took back the momentum and the lead was down to 10-6.

The Blue Devils’ next drive fizzled out with only one penalty-induced first down. Fordham took its next possession to the CCSU 39, but DeMorat missed an open Searight on 3rd down and the Rams were forced to punt it away. DeMorat couldn’t get anything done with the next drive, and the Rams lost yardage due to a holding penalty. Mevis’ punt was blocked and the Blue Devils got possession at the Fordham 30 with just under a minute left. After a Noah Fitzgerald personal foul, Arthur Gilmore hauled in his second touchdown of the afternoon. Central Connecticut State took a 17-6 lead into the locker room.

After getting a stop on their first defensive possession of the second half, Fordham moved quickly downfield. After grinding out a first down with three runs from Davis, Fordham got a nine-yard scamper from DeMorat, a 24-yard gain on a slant route from Austin Longi, and a 25-yard touchdown run from Davis. After scoring just 13 points in their past two games, the Rams reached that number with 11:11 to go in the third quarter.

Another punt from CCSU gave possession back to the Rams at their own 16. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Grant Ibeh jumped a short pass from DeMorat and ran it back 19 yards to the end zone to make it 24-13 Blue Devils.

“We made too many mistakes in the first half, and then the pick-six in the second half was critical,” Conlin said.

The next six possessions resulted in punts, and Fordham needed a score with possession and just under six minutes to go. On a fourth-and-10 play, DeMorat found Corey Caddle short of the sticks and he was not able to get the first down. Fordham got one more possession on the afternoon, but it ended with DeMorat taking a fourth down sack.

Other than the pick-six, DeMorat had a solid afternoon. He finished 17-of-27 for 181 yards and a touchdown. At times, the true freshman looked like a polished quarterback. At other times, he looked like a true freshman.

“I thought Timmy played tough,” Conlin said. “We just gave them the ball one more time than they gave it to us.”

There were positives to take away from this game for the Rams. The defense held CCSU to just 265 yards of total offense and 168 passing yards. If you take out the pick-six and the blocked punt near the end of the first half, the Rams’ defense only should have allowed 10 points.

“Those guys, they play their hearts out,” Conlin said. “They did a great job against the run, they gave up 265 [total] yards.”

Another positive for Fordham was the return of running back Zach Davis and cornerback Dylan Mabin from injuries they suffered in the first game of the year against Charlotte. Both made their presence felt; Mabin had four tackles and a pass deflection while Davis ran for 69 yards and caught for another 23. The Rams will need both to be healthy and performing at a high level if they want to have any success in Patriot League play.

Isaiah Searight also had his best game of the season, as he caught four passes for 76 yards and a touchdown. DeMorat targeted him early and often, and it is clear that the freshman feels comfortable throwing to a 6’4”, 250-pound target.

Fordham is off next week, and that is almost certainly for the better. The team is 0-4 and has now been outscored 138-36 in those games. Granted, they are playing some very talented opponents. But for the first time all season, the Rams got themselves into a winnable game against an opponent they have beaten in years past. They simply weren’t able to get it done.

Two weeks from now, Fordham will take on Georgetown. After that, they go back on the road to face Lehigh. Joe Conlin’s team is going into its bye week at 0-4.

The Rams need answers, and they need them now.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

Let’s say that you are a normal human being with a normal life. You have kids, you’re in good shape and you have a great life.

Then, all of a sudden, your back hurts. That pain results in you having back surgery. You feel better, but you still don’t feel quite right. Then, not quite 18 months later, you need another surgery. The month after that marks another procedure. You take the next year or so to get back into your regular life, but then, just over six months later, you need yet another surgery. You have just had four surgeries on the same general area of your body in 36 months.

This would be hard enough to overcome if you were an average person. But this happened in real life, to someone who is not the average person.

This past weekend, that not-so-average guy won a PGA Tour event.

Tiger Woods notched his first tournament win in five years on Sunday when he won the Tour Championship by two strokes over Billy Horschel. Woods’ third-round 65 all but sealed the victory. The win was Woods’ 80th career victory, which brings him within two of Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82.

Is it equivalent to winning the Masters? No. Should anyone care that it wasn’t? That answer is also no.

This is a man who didn’t have a swing as recently as a year ago and had serious doubts about his ability to come back more recently than that. A man who was well on his way to becoming the greatest golfer ever (he could still get there) was reduced to a shell of himself. On Sunday, that man completed his long road back to becoming one of the sport’s elite.

But Woods’ ability to come back and look like himself goes far beyond just one player or one round. Because, as hyperbolic as this sounds, Tiger Woods embodies the game of golf in 2018.

Don’t believe me? Let me give you some numbers. Saturday’s telecast of the third round of the Tour Championship garnered a 3.14 overnight rating, which was the highest rating for the third round of that tournament in 15 years. It was also the highest-rated third round of any FedEx Cup Playoffs telecast on record (dating back to 2007). People tuned into this tournament, which usually doesn’t get a lot of buzz, for one reason and one reason only. I think you can figure out what that reason was.

There’s more evidence to support this. This year’s final round of the Open Championship, which Woods led briefly before fading down the stretch, gathered a 5.0 rating, which was the best for that tournament since 2006. The previous ratings high for a final round at the Open was set in 2000. You know who hoisted the Claret Jug at the end of both of those tournaments? Tiger Woods.

It started to tumble down with an extramarital affair that came to light in 2009, and it ended with his myriad injuries. In between, there was inconsistent play, multiple swing coaches, multiple caddies, and just eight wins in nine years. It wasn’t the Tiger Woods we had come to know over the years.

And then, this year, he came roaring back. It started with him playing in back-to-back tournaments in February, which may not seem like a big deal, but for someone in Woods’ position, it clearly was. Then, he earned back-to-back top-five finishes in March at the Valspar and the Arnold Palmer. He suffered a dip in performance after that, which included a tied-for-32nd finish at the Masters before missing the cut entirely at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. After that, though, the Tiger awoke from his hibernation, and he tied for sixth at the Open in Scotland. His best major championship performance came three weeks later, when he finished second at the PGA Championship, two strokes behind Brooks Koepka. On Sunday, Woods’ wait for a win finally ended.

This is not just a great comeback story. This is a story about a man who was at the top of his sport, fell all the way to the bottom multiple times, and ultimately came back to something resembling his previous form.

This is also relevant because just about everyone is rooting for him to succeed, which hasn’t always been the case.

In 2000, a year in which Woods won three of the four major championships, Philadelphia Inquirer writer Bill Lyon wrote an article entitled “Isn’t Tiger Woods Actually Bad for Golf?” He wasn’t alone; several other experts expressed concern that Woods’ dominance was somehow bad for the sport. Their argument was that, much like some will argue with UConn Women’s Basketball, Woods was too dominant and people would get tired of seeing him bulldoze the field on a weekly basis.

I can say this was also true of me at a time. When I was young, I hated Tiger Woods. I don’t know what it was, but I always rooted against him up until he got hurt. It was probably based on nothing, but I enjoyed rooting for underdogs (as I still do), and Woods was always the opposite of that. However, I was always glued to the television when he was in contention at a major. Always.

Now, I’m acutely attuned to the leaderboard whenever Woods contends. This time, though, I’m on the other side of the rooting spectrum, along with just about everyone else who watched his rise, fall and eventual return to the top of the sport.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

Fordham Football conceded its third blowout in as many games in the home opener on Saturday, falling 28-6 at the hands of Stony Brook.

An 0-3 start is not what Fordham Football wanted to begin this season. That being said, starting off against an FBS opponent and two nationally-ranked FCS teams is hardly an easy way to begin a campaign. A part of this probably should have been expected.

The way Fordham has lost its games in 2018, though, is concerning.

It was a night that started inauspiciously for the Rams, as the offense suffered a false start on the first play from scrimmage. After a completion by senior quarterback Luke Medlock to senior wide receiver Austin Longi and a run of no gain by junior running back Tyriek Hopkins, Medlock threw an interception to Stony Brook’s Jordan Scarbrough, who took it to the house. Medlock had just thrown his third pick in two games and his fifth overall interception of the year. It was déjà vu all over again for head coach Joe Conlin’s team.

Medlock’s second pick of the night came on the next drive and ended a promising Rams series at the Stony Brook 32. It came off a batted ball, and though it would be unfair to put blame on the senior quarterback, two turnovers to start the evening isn’t exactly the start he or the team were hoping for.

The Seawolves punched in their second touchdown of the night when quarterback Joe Carbone hit Nick Anderson for a 26-yard strike to push the score to 14-0. Desperately needing some signs of life on the next possession, Fordham instead gave the ball away before its offense could even come back on the field. Hopkins lost the ball on the kickoff, and after a Stony Brook recovery and two runs by Jordan Gowins, the score was 21-0.

After this sequence of events, the game was never in doubt. Hopkins had a particularly rough evening; he later muffed a kickoff and was tackled at his own three-yard line and also struggled in pass protection. Fordham’s offensive line has been generally poor so far this year, and the team is undoubtedly feeling the effects of losing stalwart lineman Anthony Coyle to graduation. On this night, though, the offensive line had arguably its worst game of the season.

If you want a sense of how things went for the Rams, they finished the evening with a net rushing total of -7 yards. That is not a typo. Negative. Seven. But what’s even more startling is that this stat is not an anomaly; in the first 12 quarters Fordham has played in the 2018 season, the team has ran for a net total of -19 yards. This stat rankles Conlin, who spent the past nine seasons as an offensive line coach at three different schools.

“We gotta do a better job up front,” Conlin said. “We gotta do a better job finishing our runs at the running back position.” Conlin also made sure to note that the offensive line started two freshmen (left guard Austin Glazier and right tackle Phil Saleh). But make no mistake; he is not treating the youth in their lineup as an excuse.

“We gotta be able to put guys in there and have success. That’s something we’ll obviously take a close look at because it’s unacceptable; the ground game on the season is unacceptable and we need to fix it.”

We already knew going into Saturday night’s game that the offensive line was an issue for the Rams. What many wanted to see was how Luke Medlock would fare after back-to-back pedestrian showings. His performance improved after the two early interceptions, but it was far from an unqualified success.

He ended the night with 149 passing yards and only completed 16 of his 37 pass attempts. After the home opener, Medlock has now thrown six interceptions and just one touchdown in the team’s first three games. In fairness to him, he was under consistent heat from the Stony Brook defense all night, and he likely would have fared better with more time to throw. Regardless, Conlin and the coaching staff opted, for the second straight week, to play true freshman Tim DeMorat in a relief role with the game already decided.

The Merritt Island, Florida native had his ups and his downs in his brief stint at quarterback. After hitting Isaiah Searight for 22 yards on his second play from scrimmage, he hit Stony Brook corner Damarcus Miller in the numbers on his fifth snap. And so it went for the rest of the game, but DeMorat flashed the potential that drew schools to him on the team’s final possession of the evening.

The Rams got back-to-back first downs with a 14-yard pass to freshman running back Naim Mayfield and a 26-yard strike to Longi which left Fordham at Stony Brook’s 31. After after a short completion to Searight, DeMorat hit senior receiver Corey Caddle with a 29-yard bomb to the back corner of the end zone. The throw was placed in the perfect position to allow Caddle’s speed to run it down. Yes, it was a topsy-turvy night (6-10, 96 yards, TD, INT), but DeMorat showed why Fordham should be excited about his future.

As for the present, Fordham may have an interesting dilemma with its quarterback situation.

“We gotta look at the film and things like that, but certainly we’ve taken notice of that,” said Conlin. “The team seems to respond to Timmy, he can make some plays and improvise and things like that, so we’ll see.”

Conlin also took a similarly noncommittal tact in his postgame interview on WFUV, and when asked if there was any scenario in which DeMorat could start next week, he said, “Everything is always in play,” he said “We tell these guys all the time that no one’s job is etched in stone, so everything’s in play, but that’s not a thing I can answer right now.”

If everything really is in play, then we will need to monitor the Rams’ quarterback situation closely in the coming week. The Rams take on Central Connecticut State at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, and then the team has its bye week before closing a three-game homestand with Georgetown on Oct. 6. It remains to be seen how much Conlin and his staff want to shake things up with a bye week coming right after Saturday’s game.

It should also be noted that both of DeMorat’s performances this season have come after the game has already been decided. If he is to be the starter at some point this season, he’ll need to prove that he can handle things in more pressurized situations. Medlock also has a major edge in experience, as he spent the last three seasons as Kevin Anderson’s backup and filled in capably when Anderson went down at various points last season. Despite his struggles, there is something to be said for Luke Medlock’s experience and expertise, even if his struggles make him look more like a freshman than a senior.

Fordham is 0-3. The Rams have been outscored 114-23 in those three losses. Their running game has quite literally gone backwards. Oh, and by the way, they may have a quarterback controversy on their hands, as well.