William & Mary vs. Lehigh Headlines a Loaded Patriot League Week 2
Labor Day has come and gone. Unofficial fall is here. It may not be that crisp outside and the leaves may still be on the trees, but it’s palpable at tailgates and on gridirons across America.
And for the ten fine institutions in the Patriot League, unofficial fall means the meat of the nonleague schedule.
After two action-packed weeks that featured mostly league contests, five teams, Richmond, Villanova, Holy Cross, Colgate and Fordham, take their show on the road to face FBS opponents.
Georgetown is idle this weekend after last week’s drubbing at home by #9 Lehigh. Lafayette hosts Marist in its home opener, while Bucknell travels “up” the Shenandoah Valley to take on the Virginia Military Institute.
And the runaway Patriot League Game of the Week, and perhaps the FCS Game of the Week, will kick off Saturday afternoon between William & Mary and Lehigh, the only league game on the calendar. Let’s dive in.
Friday, September 11
Richmond Spiders (2-0, 2-0 Patriot) @ North Carolina State Wolfpack (0-1, 0-1 ACC)
Carter-Finley Stadium | Raleigh, N.C.
Time: 7:00 p.m.
All-time series: 21st meeting (NC State leads 18-1-1)
Last matchup: September 7, 2013 (NC State 23, Richmond 21)
TV: ESPNU (Jay Alter, Tom Luginbill)
First-place Richmond remains on the road this week when it takes the two-and-a-half-hour bus trip south to Carter-Finley Stadium, an environment where the Spiders have not had a heck of a lot of success since the series kicked off in 1895.
Richmond will need QB Ashten Snelsire’s aerial attack to continue to send missiles to WRs Bryce Allen and Quanye Veney and TE Sean Clarke. The Spiders’ mistakes allowed Howard to have a fighting chance on Saturday night, but Richmond’s defense held against a lackluster Bison offense; they cannot make the same kind of mistakes and expect this game not to end in a blowout.
NC State is hungry for a win on its home turf after being dispatched easily in Week 0 by Virginia in Charlottesville. Expect Wolfpack junior QB CJ Bailey, a rare example of a modern-day Power 4 signal caller who has played his entire career at one school, to bounce back in a big way after last week’s very disappointing performance (12/23, 83 yards, 1 INT) on national TV.
Villanova Wildcats (1-1, 1-1 Patriot) @ #24 Louisville Cardinals (0-1, 0-0 ACC)
L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium | Louisville, Ky.
Time: 7:00 p.m.
All-time series: First meeting
TV: ACC Network (Cooper Boardman, Charles Arbuckle, Ashley Stroehlein)
For two basketball-rich schools who have squared off 19 times on the hardwood (Louisville leads that series, 10-9), Friday night will mark the first time ever that Villanova and Louisville face off on the gridiron.
Villanova barely escaped Lewisburg last week with the win, thanks to a defense that tightened up after the William & Mary collapse to open the season. Head coach Mark Ferrante needs senior QB Pat McQuaide, still in eligibility purgatory, to be the consistent field general that he was last season; last week, McQuaide and the Wildcat offense managed only 17 points and 16 first downs (0 in the third quarter) against a back-of-the-herd Bucknell team.
Jeff Brohm’s Cardinals played #9 Ole Miss down to the wire last weekend in the Music City Kickoff, led by Ohio State transfer QB Lincoln Kienholz (18/29, 307 yards, 2 TDs; 14 carries, 69 yards, 1 TD).
Reigning Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week Omari Bursey and the Nova defense will have to contain Kienholz if the Wildcats hope to keep this one close on Friday night in the Derby City.
Saturday, September 12
Lafayette Leopards (0-1, 0-0 Patriot) vs. Marist Red Foxes (1-1, 0-0 Pioneer)
Fisher Stadium | Easton, Pa.
Time: 12:30 p.m.
All-time series: 7th meeting (Lafayette leads 6-0)
Last matchup: September 14, 2024 (Lafayette 56, Marist 14)
TV: ESPN+ (Gary Laubach, Mike Joseph)
Lafayette has been unable to catch a break all season to this point.
In Week 0, the Leopards lumbered into Washington, D.C., with hopes of starting the Patriot League slate at 1-0 against a tough foe in Georgetown. But before they had a chance to wipe the early-season cobwebs away, an extended lightning delay forced the first-ever league “no contest” after one half of about even play.
Last week, the Leopards were on the wrong end of an offensive onslaught from the Huskies of Connecticut, finding themselves surrendering 56 points before punching in a garbage-time touchdown to avoid the shutout.
Now this week, Lafayette should catch the break they so badly need with their home opener vs. Marist, a team the Leopards have never lost to in six tries. It should be a prime opportunity for senior QB Dan Lipovski to get into a real rhythm with fellow senior WR Carson Persing, who nabbed five catches against a tough UConn defense, in front of a friendly Fisher Field crowd.
The Leopards will have to contend with Marist graduate QB Sonny Mannino, a big 6-5, 245-pound field general who can run and put up career-high numbers across the board (16/25, 203 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT; 9 carries, 110 yards, 2 TDs) against Division II Franklin Pierce last weekend.
Expect the Red Foxes to play tough, but Lafayette should win this one going away.
Holy Cross Crusaders (0-2, 0-2 Patriot) @ Miami (OH) RedHawks (0-1, 0-0 MAC)
Yager Stadium | Oxford, Ohio
Time: 1:00 p.m.
All-time series: First meeting
TV: ESPN+ (Eric Rothman, Brad Hopkins)
Saturday afternoon will mark Holy Cross’ second-ever football game played in the state of Ohio (since beating Dayton, 36-14, in 1962), but the third time in the last four seasons that the Crusaders will take on a MAC opponent (19-17 loss at Northern Illinois in 2025; 37-31 win at Buffalo in 2023).
Dan Curran’s squad will have to roll into Oxford as tough as a buckeye, especially after back-to-back 35-10 duds vs. Lehigh and Colgate.
The Crusaders will need to generate some kind of defensive pressure on Kansas transfer freshman QB David McComb (16/33, 241 yards, 1 TD), something that has been severely lacking in the early going against lesser opponents.
The RedHawk defense yielded 7 TD passes and 59 total points to Pitt in Week 1, a potential ray of daylight for sophomore QB David Lynch to take advantage of, especially after Lynch fired another 3 INTs last week in Hamilton.
Holy Cross cannot afford to go down by 21 points early again this week; if they do, expect Curran to rotate QBs to give different looks and take some of the pressure off Lynch.
Miami will want to use this game as a punching bag in its home opener. The RedHawks rely on the arm of McComb, a balanced rushing attack and electric special teams play to try to put this one away after 15 minutes.
Colgate Raiders (2-0, 2-0 Patriot) @ Central Michigan Chippewas (0-1, 0-0 MAC)
Kramer/Deromedi Field at Kelly/Shorts Stadium | Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Time: 12:30 p.m.
All-time series: First meeting
TV: ESPN+ (Dan Gutkowsky, Ahman Green)
Colgate has been the unsurprising surprise first-place team of the young season.
Coming off big wins over Jesuit rivals Fordham and Holy Cross to begin the year, Curt Fitzgerald’s Raiders have every intention of challenging for the Patriot League crown in 2026. But before ‘Gate gets back into the meat of the league schedule, it has an enticing road matchup vs. a Central Michigan team projected to finish in the top half of the MAC.
But you wouldn’t guess the Chippewas were on the war path to glory in their opening game after second-year head coach Matt Drinkall’s squad was blasted on the road by New Mexico, 38-7, managing a paltry 149 total yards and 9 first downs in Albuquerque.
Senior Angel Flores and junior Jadyn Glasser, Central Michigan’s one-two QB punch, were stymied in the desert all night and will look to generate some home cooking against one of the Patriot League’s top defenses.
If Colgate senior QB Jake Stearney can air the ball out like he did against Holy Cross, especially to favorite target sophomore WR Matt Fogler, while continuing to feed sophomore RB Danny Chaban, the league’s leading rusher, the Raiders could find themselves within striking distance to secure their first-ever win over an FBS opponent since the I-AA-to-FCS transition in 2006.
Bucknell Bison (0-2, 0-2 Patriot) @ VMI Keydets (0-2, 0-0 SoCon)
Alumni Memorial Field at Foster Stadium | Lexington, Va.
Time: 12:30 p.m. (moved up from 1:30 p.m. due to weather forecast)
All-time series: 10th meeting (Bucknell leads 6-3)
Last matchup: September 13, 2025 (Bucknell 35, VMI 28)
TV: ESPN+ (Wade Branner, Chip Tarkenton)
Bucknell came within an outstretched hand of a determined Villanova defender from registering the biggest upset in Week 1 of Patriot League action, but alas, close is only good enough in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the saying goes.
The steady improvement from Week 0 has to be encouraging for Bison first-year head coach Jeff Behrman, who leads Bucknell back to the heart of the Shenandoah Valley for a matchup with the Keydets of VMI.
The Bison will need their Four Offensive Horsemen of the Susquehanna Valley, QB Chris Dietrich, WR Sam Milligan, WR TJ Cadden and RB Michael Cadden, firing on all cylinders on Saturday afternoon against a VMI defense that has already yielded 111 points and 1,073 total yards in just two games.
But it’s the Bison defense that will likely be the key to victory in Lexington, one that held Villanova’s highly touted offense to just 17 points and 16 first downs in last week’s home opener.
Ashley Ingram’s Keydets are hoping for a more competitive game against a peer institution after two straight blowouts on the road against Idaho State (38-10) and Virginia Tech (73-3). Ingram is no stranger to Bucknell, having served as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in Lewisburg from 2006 to 2007.
VMI will need to get much more out of the quarterback position that has only managed 98 yards through the air to begin the season, with junior QB JoJo Crump taking a majority of snaps.
About the only thing that has gone right for VMI so far has been the punting game, with senior P Ben Shrewsbury averaging more than 48 yards per punt, good for best in the nation.
This will be a big measuring-stick game for both the Bison and the Keydets, with Bucknell likely having the upper hand in this one.
Goodman Stadium | Bethlehem, Pa.
Time: 2:00 p.m.
All-time series: 10th meeting (William & Mary leads 8-1)
Last matchup: November 14, 1992 (William & Mary 26, Lehigh 13)
TV: ESPN+ (Marco Socci, Lance Haynes)
William & Mary and Lehigh are no strangers to the spotlight, but this week’s Showdown in the Shadow of South Mountain is by far the biggest Patriot League game of the season to this point and possibly the national FCS Game of the Week.
With a big win to start the season at Villanova, Mike London’s Tribe would be in the driver’s seat for the league auto bid with an early season win over Rich Nagy’s defending league champion Mountain Hawks, but they cannot have the kind of sloppy fourth quarter they had last week vs. Delaware State if they expect to leave Bethlehem with a win.
It starts with William & Mary’s ability to force turnovers and stall opponents’ drives, sporting a nation-leading +8 turnover margin through the first two games while shutting down the passing game (allowing only 1 passing TD so far).
Junior QB Winston Watkins and junior RB Andrew King will have their hands full with a Lehigh defense that held Holy Cross and Georgetown to a total of 24 points.
But it’s the two-headed monster of Mountain Hawks senior QB Hayden Johnson and senior RB Luke Yoder, one of the top passing, rushing and scoring duos in the nation, who put the Crusaders and Hoyas away early and who will be looking to get the Goodman crowd into it in Lehigh’s home opener.
Surprisingly, Lehigh has only ever beaten William & Mary once in nine tries.
Expect this game to come down to a Max Lipinski field goal (averaging 4 field goals per game, #1 in the FCS) or a late Lehigh defensive stand as the afternoon shadows creep in across the Lehigh Valley.
This has all the makings of an instant classic.
Fordham Rams (0-2, 0-1 Patriot) @ Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (0-1, 0-0 Sun Belt)
Brooks Stadium | Conway, S.C.
Time: 7:30 p.m.
All-time series: First meeting
TV: ESPN+ (Roy Philpott, Brock Osweiler)
By the time they arrive back in the Bronx on Sunday, Joe Conlin’s Fordham Rams will have traveled more than 4,000 miles roundtrip to collect a total of $775,000 from two Group of 5 opponents in North Dakota State and Coastal Carolina, and likely two lopsided losses.
Saturday night’s game in the Pee Dee is yet another tall order for a Ram team that has only scored one offensive touchdown to this point.
Senior QB Gunnar Smith, who led the Patriot League in completions and passing yards a season ago, is looking to settle into any kind of rhythm after starting the season 25/49 for 232 yards and only 1 TD pass.
The Fordham defense, led by senior LB Andrew Osmun, looked great for two quarters against NDSU, but will need the offense to stay on the field for longer stretches to avoid getting worn down in Conway.
Coastal Carolina put a scare into West Virginia in Morgantown last weekend in Ryan Beard’s first game as head coach, actually outgaining the Mountaineers, 425-413, including 373 yards and 3 TDs from Missouri State freshman transfer, and Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week, QB Deuce Bailey.
Saturday will likely be a long night on the Surf Turf for the Rams if they can’t contain Bailey and his corps of Coastal receivers.
Closing Thoughts: Remembering September 11
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a horrible day that had a significant impact on Patriot League students, staff and alumni at the time and to this day.
Fordham’s Rose Hill campus is located just 17 miles north of Ground Zero, and Georgetown’s campus is only 3.5 miles north of the Pentagon. I vividly remember games being canceled, including the Holy Cross-Harvard game, in the wake of the attacks as Americans tried to make sense of what had happened and how best to respond.
Although no current rostered Patriot League players were alive in 2001, teams and fans will undoubtedly pause to remember and honor the victims, first responders and their families on this poignant anniversary.
In a small way, I would like to honor the victims’ memories by listing the names of the victims who attended each of the ten current Patriot League schools:
Bucknell: Brad Fetchet ’99, Mark McGinly ’97, Keith Coleman ’90, Bonnie Smithwick ’68
Colgate: Nestor Cintron III ’96, Scott Coleman ’94, Edward Porter Felt ’81, Todd Pelino ’89, Aaron Jacobs ’96, David Retik ’90, Sharon Balkcom ’80
Fordham: Lloyd Brown (student), Patricia Cody (student), Christopher Dincuff (student), Gary Albero ’85, Joseph Allen ’84, Michael Armstrong ’90, Nichola Brandemarti ’01, Matthew Burke ’95, Thomas Celic ’82, Christopher Clarke ’90, Kevin Cleary ’91, Scott Thomas Coleman ’00, Patricia Colodner ’95, Thomas Cullen ’92, Dwight Darcy ’67, John Doherty ’81, Sareve Dukat ’81, Andrew Fisher ’92, Thomas Fitzpatrick ’92, Cono Gallo ’01, Giovanna Gambale ’96, William Gardner ’77, Rev. Francis Grogan ’68, Linda Lee ’94, Thomas Anthony Mahon ’89, Christian Maltby ’86, John McDowell Jr. ’91, Eskedar Melaku ’01, John Moran ’94, James Patrick ’93, Everett Proctor III ’79, Robert Pugliese ’76, Joseph Roberto ’86, John Salamone ’97, Kevin Szocik ’97, Michael Tamuccio ’85, Peter West ’68, David Winton ’94, Joseph Zuccala ’74
Georgetown: Joseph Shea ’76, Lisa Raines ’82, Stephen Cangialosi ’83, Matthew Leonard ’84, Thomas Galvin ’90, Patrick Sullivan Jr. ’91, Sarah Manley ’92, Joe Eacobacci ’96, Jason Sabbag ’97, Daniel McNeal ’00, Vanessa Kolpak ’01
Holy Cross: Edward Brennan ’86, Thomas Burke ’85, Neilie Heffernan Casey ’90, John Farrell ’91, Todd Isaac ’94, Beth Quigley ’97, John Ryan ’78
Lafayette: Eric Thorpe ’89, Neil Levin ’76
Lehigh: Philip Guza ’67, Allison Horstmann-Jones ’92, Garry Lozier ’78, Gregor Malone ’81, Robert McLaughlin Jr. ’93, Edward Pykon ’90, Scott Saber ’86, Thomas Sinton III ’82
Richmond: David Brady ’82, Donald Jones II ’84, Thomas Clark ’86, Michael Finnegan ’86
Villanova: W. David Bauer ’78, James Berger ’78, Dennis Michael Cook ’90, Jeannine Damiani-Jones ’94, Christopher Dincuff ’92, Jeffrey Mark Dingle ’90, Christopher Duffy ’00, William Fallon ’70, Peter Gelinas ’90, Michael Gould ’94, Amy Jarret ’94, Jennifer Lynn Kane ’97, Danielle Kousoulis ’93, Kaaria Mbaya ’86, Matthew Vianna ’00
William & Mary: Alysia Burton Basmajian ’00, James Connor ’85, Michael Edwards ’90, Mark Ludvigsen ’91, Christopher Murphy ’98, James Reilly ’98, Gregory Trost ’97
Every year since the 2003 season, Georgetown has honored former tri-captain Joe Eacobacci ’96 by awarding his #35 jersey to a deserving player as a living memorial to his spirit and memory.
According to the Georgetown Football website, following a standout football career, Joe worked as an energy trader for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where he was working on September 11, 2001.
Senior safety and team captain Braylon Wise was selected as the 22nd recipient of the #35 Joe Eacobacci Memorial Jersey for the 2026 season.
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