Patriot League Players of the Week- Sept. 12

[smallcollegefbfan]

Patriot League Announces Football Players of the Week
Colgate's Sullivan, Bucknell's Jones and Kizekai, Holy Cross' Houghton All Honored

Center Valley, Pa. - Three Patriot League football teams that earned a victory on Saturday saw their student-athletes honored as players of the week on Monday, as Colgate junior quarterback Greg Sullivan, Bucknell senior linebacker Greg Jones and senior running back/return specialist A.J. Kizekai, and Holy Cross freshman running back Eddie Houghton earned the League's four weekly awards.

Sullivan earned the Offensive Player of the Week award after rushing for 113 yards and throwing for 148 yards and two scores in Colgate's 23-13 win over Stony Brook. Jones and Kizekai were both honored for their performance in Bucknell's 26-23 triumph over Robert Morris. Jones was named Defensive Player of the Week after recording an interception return for a touchdown and 13 tackles, while Kizekai notched 199 all-purpose yards, including 125 on four kickoff returns, and ties a Patriot League record with his fourth Special Teams Player of the Week honor. Houghton claimed his second Rookie of the Week award in as many weeks by leading Holy Cross with 80 rushing yards and scoring his first career touchdown.

Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week
Greg Sullivan, Colgate Jr., QB, 6'1, 204, Monroe, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury Sullivan carried the rushing and passing load with starting running back Nate Eachus out of action, as the junior quarterback carried 18 times for 113 yards and threw for 148 yards and two touchdowns in Colgate's 23-13 victory over Stony Brook. It was the third time in his career that Sullivan ran and passed for over 100 yards in a game, and he went over 1,000 rushing yards for his career. Sullivan's touchdown passes both went to Pat Simonds in the first half. A 37-yard strike gave Colgate an early 7-0 lead, and a 35-yard score made it 17-7 in the second quarter. Sullivan leads the Patriot League with 98.0 rushing yards per game, which places him 18th nationally.Sullivan earns his second career Offensive Player of the Week award, and first this season.

Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week
Greg Jones, Bucknell Sr., LB, 5'11, 226, Springfield, Va./Lee Jones had one of two Bucknell interception returns for a touchdown and led all players with 13 tackles to help the Bison past Robert Morris, 26-23, on Saturday. With the Bison leading 17-10 early in the third quarter, Jones picked off a pass and took it 25 yards for a touchdown for the eventual game-winning score. Jones receives Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career.

Patriot League Special Teams Player of the Week
A.J. Kizekai, Bucknell Sr., RB/RS, 5'9, 189, Pawtucket, R.I./Blair Acdemy (N.J.) Kizekai posted his usual all around effort on Saturday, returning four kickoffs for 125 yards and a punt for 14 yards while totaling 199 all-purpose yards in Bucknell's 26-23 win over Robert Morris. He moved into the Patriot League career top 10 with 4,747 all-purpose yards, which is fourth among all active FCS players. He also had a receiving touchdown that tied the game at 10 with two seconds left until halftime. It was Kizekai's 11th game with more than 100 kickoff return yards. He earns his fourth Special Teams Player of the Week award, tied with three players for the most in Patriot League history.

Patriot League Rookie of the Week
Eddie Houghton, Holy Cross Fr., RB, 5'11, 220, Toronto, Ontario/St. Michael's Houghton receives the Rookie of the Week award for the second time in as many weeks after leading Holy Cross with 80 rushing yards and scoring his first career touchdown in a 52-21 win over Sacred Heart on Saturday. He averaged eight yards per carry and also caught a pass for 14 yards to total career highs in rushing and all-purpose yardage.

[crusader11]

I know Dom Randolph can't get the Offensive Player of the Week every week, but his numbers were better than Sullivan's.

Sullivan ran for 113 yards and threw for 148 (261 total yards) and accounted for 2 touchdowns in the air.

Randolph ran for 74 yards and threw for 274 yards (348 total yards) and accounted for a total of 4 touchdowns (2 in the air and 2 on the ground).

Not taking anything away from Sullivan, but Randolph deserved the award based on the numbers alone.

[Tunkmaster]

Sacred Heart?? Please. Holy Cross, a ranked team, defeats, arguably, the worst team in FCS. I'd say Randolph underperformed in the game. It would be embarassing to Randolph to win against such competition.

[breezy]

It's really silly to say that Sacred Heart is arguably the worst team in FCS. In the preseason coaches poll in the NEC, Sacred Heart was picked to finish fourth out of nine teams -- ahead of, among others, Robert Morris and Duquesne. SHU has some very fine players and I think will do respectably well for the balance of the season.

Now, I was very impressed with Sullivan when I watched him play against Holy Cross last year, and the fact that he had to take on a greater load with Eachus out of the lineup might be a good argument to support his selection as POW, even though his numbers were not as good as Randolph's. Since Randolph has repeatedly put up 300+ and 400+ yards passing, you may think that he "underperformed," but the reason that his passing numbers were limited to 274 yards was the result of HC's robust and successful running game on Saturday.

In short, I have no quarrel with the selection of Sullivan as POW, but I respectfully disagree with the arguments you stated.

[Tunkmaster]

I don't think it's silly at all. Sagarin has SHU at 242 out of 245 D-I teams and the M Ratings of FCS teams has them at 116 out of 125. M Ratings is a composite of 12 rankings and SHU ranged from a high ranking of 77 to a low of 122. Holy Cross is 27. Granted, it's early and SHU may well move up. But, at this stage of the season it's all we have. Marist, rated 111 blew out SHU 31-12. They are what their record says - 2 losses, 2 blowouts.

[crusader11]

We'll have to agree to disagree with this one. Randolph clearly put up the better numbers, but I guess whomever selects the player of the week took the level of competition into consideration. We'll leave it at that.

[hvsader]

...SHU is much better than their record indicates. Watch #21 Coles, 200+ APYs on Saturday, he's a good one, as is their QB