2015 Results: Colgate 9-5 (6-0); Patriot League Champions, Quafterfinals
Returning starters:
Offense: 9
Defense: 9
Coming into the season Raiders look to be the most balanced team in the Patriot League. Senior quarterback Jake Melville is the focus of the Raiders offense, and honestly, he’d be the focus of most offenses in the nation. Last season Melville completed 55% of his passes for 2,552 yards (a nice 13.2 yards per completion) and perhaps most impressively was his 11 touchdowns to just 2 interceptions. What made Melville such a threat throught he air was is his ability to get outside of the pocket as he ran for 1,073 yards (5.8 yards per carry) and 11 more touchdowns. Helping open up room for Melville to make plays is running back James Holland who ran for 732 yards and an impressive 16 touchdowns last season. That kind of threat out of the backfield opens up plenty of space at wide receiver to make plays. The biggest beneficiary of that is John Maddaluna. Maddaluna is a burner on the outside as he finished with 62 catches for 910 yards last season. Between Melville and Holland there aren’t many touchdowns to go around, but for Colgate to repeat last years playoff run I think Maddaluna will need to find his way into the end zone a few more times. Complimenting Maddaluna on the other side is Alex Greenwalk, who finished last season with 5 touchdowns and 598 yards on 40 receptions last year. After that there is a drop in production returning though. The top end talent is there to see a repeat of last season, but depth could become an issue should the injury bug show up.
Last season the Raider defense was inconsistent at times but overall fairly solid. The best thing to help this unit with it’s consistency is the face that 9 starters return from last years squad. As an added bonus, two starters from the 2014 campaign return after missing last season due to injury – Defensive tackle Victor Steffen and safety Adam Bridgeforth. Returning up front are the anchors for the entire defense, Pat Afriyie (First Time All League), Alex Campbell (Second Team All League) and Brett Field (Second Team All League). The havoc caused by those three up front frees the linebackers and secondary to make plays sideline to sideline, which is seen in the secondary secondary as Joe Figueroa, Christian Hardegree and Tyler Castillo all being in the top 10 on the team in tackles. Normally the secondary being towards the top of the team in tackles isn’t a good sign, but when it can be attributed to guys up front allowing them too make playes, compared to them being forced to make them, it’s a good sign.
The challenge for Colgate is staying on edge. Coach Hunt commented on the difficulty of repeating as champions. Colgate achieved it last year with the ability to win a lot of close games, which they’ll need again this year as the two toughest games, Fordham and Lehigh, and all three OOC games on the road.
2016 Schedule:
9/2 @ Syracuse
9/17 @ Yale
9/24 @ Richmond
10/1 Cornell
10/8 @ Lehigh
10/15 @ Bucknell
10/29 Holy Cross
11/5 @ Fordham
11/12 Lafayette
11/19 Georgetown
AGS Preseason Patriot League Prediction: 1st