Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Look to Reverse Fortunes Against Lehigh as Patriot League Race Heats Up
10/20/2006 8:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 20, 2006
What: Bucknell (4-3, 1-1 PL) vs. Lehigh (2-4, 1-0 PL)
Where: Goodman Stadium, Bethlehem, Pa.
When: Saturday, Oct. 21, 1 p.m.
Game Notes
Bucknell entered the victory column in Patriot League play with a 17-7 win over Georgetown last week, and now the Bison hit the road again looking to end eight years of frustration against Lehigh in the 70th meeting betwen the two in-state rivals. Bucknell, which snapped a seven-game conference losing streak last week, has not beaten the Mountain Hawks since 1997, when the Orange & Blue finished 10-1. If they can pull off a victory against the perennial Patriot League powers, the Bison will find themselves in the thick of the championship race with three games remaining. Lehigh comes in at 2-4 after a tough overtime loss to Yale last Saturday.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BISON
• ON THE SIDELINE: Tim Landis is in his fourth season at the helm of the Bucknell grid program. Landis is now 71-75-1 (.486) in his career, which also includes head coaching stints at Davidson (1993-99) and St. Mary's (2000-02), and 18-23 (.439) in three-plus seasons with the Bison. Landis is 0-3 against Lehigh as a head coach.
• THE OFFENSE: Despite the loss of the top two quarterbacks, the top two fullbacks and a starting slotback to injury, the Bison offense continues to be efficient and protective of the football (see page 3). The Bison lead the league and rank fifth nationally in rushing at 234.4 yards per game, and they are second in the PL in scoring at 23.0 points per game and fifth in total offense at 308.0 yards per game.
• UNDER CENTER: Collarbone injuries to Andrew Lair and Terrance Wilson, the top two quarterbacks on the depth chart, have meant a quick indoctrination to college football for promising freshman Marcello Trigg. The Tampa, Fla., native was named this week's Patriot League Rookie of the Week after passing for 118 yards and rushing for 30 in the win over Georgetown.
• BACKS & RECEIVERS: Bucknell is also a bit depleted at running back, where FB Paul Forcellini and SB Rashod Bumpers have both been lost with ACL injuries, and two weeks ago FB Josh DeStefano, the team's leading rusher, went down with a back injury. Fortunately, the Bison are still deep in the backfield, particularly with the addition to the lineup of exciting freshman SB A.J. Kizekai, who has four touchdowns and 231 yards in his first four games. Kizekai has entered the starting lineup at slotback alongside steady veteran Peter Kaufman, while fiery sophomore Kevin Mullen took over as the lead fullback last week and rushed for a career-high 110 yards.
• THE O-LINE: This is Bucknell's most veteran position group, with all five starters and the two top reserves either juniors or seniors with game experience. The regular lineup consists of co-captain Stefan Niemczyk (LG) starting alongside Chad Glasser (LT), Joel Hoffer (C), Jonathan Grainger (RG) and Michael Anthony (RT). Senior Michael Boccella, a starter in eight games last season, also plays at the tackle spots.
• THE DEFENSE: Bucknell's young defense has yielded a league-high 418.3 yards and 24.6 points per game thus far, but the Bison are coming off their best defensive performance of the season last week at Georgetown. They allowed only 269 total yards (84 coming on the final drive of the day in a 17-0 game) and did not allow a point until 27 seconds left in the contest. The Bison have also been opportunistic at times. The defense has forced 12 turnovers, held the opposition to only a 35 percent success rate on third down and only 10 touchdowns in 22 trips inside the red zone.
• DEFENSIVE FRONT: The heart and soul of the Bucknell defense is the linebacker unit, led by senior co-captain Dorian Petersen, freshman Sam Nana-Sinkam and junior Ryan Slater. That trio ranks 1-2-3 on the team and 5-7-8 in the Patriot League with 66, 59 and 55 hits, respectively, through seven games. Petersen had 13 tackles, a forced fumble and a recovered fumble last week at Georgetown. DE Todd Rinaldo, one of three first-year starters on the defensive line, had eight tackles last week and picked up a key fumble recovery in the Penn game two weeks ago.
• DEFENSIVE SECONDARY: Landis and defensive coordinator Jared Backus did some shuffling in the secondary five weeks ago, moving safety Matt Palermo to cornerback and inserting promising freshman safety Brigham Farrand into the starting lineup for the first time. Farrand responded well, tying Petersen for game-high honors with 11 tackles, and he intercepted a pass on the Bucknell 1-yard line and also recovered a fumble against Cornell. Junior safety Stephen Collage had two interceptions against Penn and leads the team with three picks on the season. CB David Frisbey is having a strong season.
• SPECIAL TEAMS: Bucknell continues to shine in all facets of the special teams (see p. 4 for more on the special teams). P Phil Azarik and the punt team downed four inside the 20 and three inside the 7 last week. K Will Carney made his only field-goal attempt against Georgetown and is now 5-for-7 on the season, the best percentage in the Patriot League.
BISON FOOTBALL NOTES & NOTABLES:
• With a victory over Lehigh, Bucknell would ...
• ... win its third straight road game on the heels of a seven-game road losing streak.
• ... win its third road game of the season, which would equal the team's most since 1997.
• ... snap an eight-game losing streak to Lehigh.
• ... win in Bethlehem for the first time since 1996.
• ... win back-to-back games for the first time since finishing 2004 with four straight wins.
• LAST WEEK: Bucknell continued its trend of winning every other week by smothering Georgetown 17-7 in a stellar defensive performance in Washington, D.C., last Saturday. The victory snapped Bucknell's seven-game Patriot League losing streak and avenged an overtime loss to the Hoyas in the 2005 season opener (see p. 16 of notes for recap and boxscore).
• YOUTH MOVEMENT: Head coach Tim Landis is relying on freshmen all over the field this season. This week against Lehigh the Bison are expected to start six freshmen, three on offense and three on defense. A whopping 13 of the 44 players on this week's offensive and defensive two-deeps are true freshmen. Bucknell's starting quarterback (Marcello Trigg), No. 3 rusher (A.J. Kizekai), No. 3 receiver (Cale Cadman), No. 2 tackler (Sam Nana-Sinkam), No. 2 scorer (Kizekai), and leading kickoff returner (Jason Davis) and all-purpose yardage leader (Rashod Bumpers) are all rookies.
• ROOKIE HONORS: If it's not clear just how much of an impact the class of 2010 is making this season, just check out the list of Patriot League Rookie of the Week honorees for 2006. Through seven weeks, Bucknell has claimed the honor five times ... and by five different players. QB Marcello Trigg became the fifth Bison to win the honor on Monday, after leading the team to the 17-7 win over Georgetown. Previously, RB Rashod Bumpers won for his 126-yard rushing effort against Duquesne in the season opener; Brigham Farrand was honored after finishing with 11 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery in his first career start against Cornell; Sam Nana-Sinkam won after posting 11 tackles in a loss to No. 7 Richmond; and A.J. Kizekai was cited for his two-touchdown performance against Marist.
• ADVANCED TRIGG: At Robinson High School in Tampa, Marcello Trigg was a record-setting passing quarterback. He passed for over 7,000 yards and a county-record 82 touchdowns in his prep career, and Trigg has infused a passing threat in his two starts in Bucknell's run-oriented spread option offense. In the team's first five games of the season the Bison completed only 16 passes for 272 yards, but in his two starts against Penn and Georgetown, Trigg has connected with a receiver 18 times for 243 yards, including the team's only passing touchdown of the year.
• PETERSEN BIG AGAIN: Senior co-captain Dorian Petersen had another terrific game last week at Georgetown and is making a major push for All-Patriot League honors in his final season. This week's Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week and Damon's Bison Athlete of the Week, Petersen had 13 tackles against the Hoyas. He also recovered a first-half fumble that led to a touchdown, and in perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game, he forced a fumble to halt a Georgetown drive in Bucknell territory in a 10-0 game in the fourth quarter. Petersen is tied for the Patriot League lead with three forced fumbles, and he is fifth in the league with 66 tackles.
• MULLEN ON THE MARCH: Sophomore FB Kevin Mullen was the team's workhorse last week at Georgetown. With fullbacks Josh DeStefano (back) and Paul Forcellini (knee) out with injuries, Mullen drew his first start of the season and responded with a career-high 110 yards on 27 carries. His four-yard TD run in the fourth quarter iced the game. In addition to his 27 rushing attempts, which were the most by a Bison back this season, Mullen also played on every special teams unit, including taking over DeStefano's important role as the protector on punts. That position is responsible for calling the protection scheme.
• MISTAKE FREE: Bucknell had gone 32 straight games without a turnover-free performance until posting a clean slate against Marist three weeks ago. The Bison did it again last week, with nary a turnover against Georgetown. In fact, in the last three weeks against Marist, Penn and Georgetown, Bucknell's only miscue came on a kickoff return. So the Bison have now gone 13 straight quarters without an offensive turnover.
NCAA Leaders, Fewest Turnovers Team No. 1. James Madison 4 New Hampshire 4 Northern Arizona 4 4. Harvard 5 Southern Illinois 5 San Diego 5 Liberty 5 8. Bucknell 6 Columbia 6 Wofford 6 William & Mary 6 Western Illinois 6 Southeast Missouri State 6 Hofstra 6 Illinois State 6
• MORE FROM LAST WEEK: Bucknell came within 27 seconds of what would have been its first shutout since 2001, also against Georgetown ... the Bison ran a season-high 71 plays and held a seven-minute edge in time of possession ... DB Stephen College picked off his team-leading third pass of the season, all coming in the last two weeks ... WR Daniel Zvara hauled in a team-best four receptions for 63 yards ... his 26-yard catch set up a touchdown ... of QB Marcello Trigg's eight completions, five moved the chains on third down ... DB Brigham Farrand recovered his second fumble of the season.
• AMONG THE BEST: Bucknell ran for 210 yards last week and now ranks No. 5 in Division I-AA in rushing offense.
I-AA Rushing Offense Team Avg. 1. Central Connecticut State 293.0 2. Southern Illinois 258.2 3. Drake 248.3 4. Northern Iowa 247.8 5. Bucknell 234.4 6. South Carolina State 228.0
• JUMPING RIGHT IN: RB A.J. Kizekai three weeks ago became the second Bison back this season to score a touchdown on his first career carry. In the season opener against Duquesne, RB Rashod Bumpers scored on a 51-yard run in the first quarter. Also in that game, QB Andrew Lair ran for a 38-yard TD on just his second career rushing attempt, and FB Paul Forcellini had a 13-yard TD run on only his fourth career attempt.
• TRULY "SPECIAL" TEAMS: Through seven games Bucknell's special teams have been excellent across the board. Some highlights:
• Kickoff Coverage -- Bucknell ranks eighth in the nation in kickoff coverage, allowing only 15.22 yards per attempt. The Bison have not allowed a return longer than 27 yards this season.
I-AA Kickoff Return Defense Team Ret. Avg. 1. Alabama State 15 12.00 2. South Carolina State 29 12.69 3. Western Illinois 21 13.14 4. Stony Brook 21 14.52 5. Prairie View 16 14.56 6. Albany 21 15.10 7. William & Mary 18 15.11 8. Bucknell 27 15.22• Punting -- Sophomore P Phil Azarik has been outstanding thus far. He ranks 16th in the nation with a 41.0 average on 41 attempts. While there are still at least four games to play, it is worth noting that the Bucknell single-season punting record is 40.9 by Rich Miller in 1996.
• Placekicking -- Sophomore K Will Carney is off to a strong start. He is 5-for-7 on the season and 9-for-13 in his career, including 3-for-4 from 40 yards or better. He is also 20-for-20 on extra points this season.
• CONOVER SIGNED TO TITANS PRACTICE SQUAD: Former Bucknell All-America defensive end Sean Conover, a 2006 graduate, was signed to the Tennessee Titans' practice squad prior to the start of the NFL season. Conover was initially signed as an undrafted free agent by the Titans in May, and he saw significant playing time in all four of the team's preseason games. In those four games he totalled seven tackles, including a sack, against Green Bay last week. He was one of the Titans' final roster cuts as the team had to get to the NFL-mandated 53-player limit, but he was then one of seven players re-signed to the practice squad.
• IN THE CLASSROOM: The Bison boasted a league-high 24 members of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll last season. In the spring 2006 semester, the Bucknell football players combined for a solid 3.0 grade-point average, the sixth straight semester the team has earned a 3.0 or better.
• LOOKING AHEAD: Next week Bucknell returns home to take on Patriot League rival Fordham in a Parents' Weekend clash at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The Rams are 2-4 on the season (0-1 PL) heading into this week's game against Colgate in The Bronx.
