Small Wonder (The College Years)

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Hi, everyone. I hope you and those you love are safe and well.

I know many of you are familiar with The College Years. It's nearly 20 years old now, and I don't think it's been updated since 2004, but it's been on my laptop since I first discovered it a few years ago. It's not as flashy as some of the more "modern" games, but I like its low-key feel, and I find myself really enjoying it whenever I play.

I'm going to begin a TCY career at a very small school in a very small state. I've placed the Solecismic Eight in Delaware, and I've renamed it the Small Wonder Eight (after one of Delaware's nicknames). I'll be taking over as head coach at New Castle College.

I envisioned a small, historic campus in the hills of New Castle County, a school with an outstanding academic reputation that it insists on maintaining as it builds its football program. Fortunately, the game gave New Castle a strong academic reputation from the beginning (I confess; I would have restarted new games until that happened).



I'll be recruiting players who won't lower our academic standing while they raise the prestige of our program. We have a long way to go before we're regarded as a football power.



There are 125 Division I schools in our college football universe, so you can see just how small the Small Wonder Eight truly are.

I'm not going to write about each game, or each recruiting offer. I find I get bogged down when I try to chronicle a season in that much detail. Instead, I'll write a yearly summary. I'd like to create a long-running story, and I think I'll have a better chance of doing that if I tell it year by year.

I've looked over my roster, assigned a few players new jersey numbers, and identified my biggest recruiting needs. Now the story will begin.

I hope at least a few of you will enjoy following along.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

2004



After I looked at my first New Castle roster, I didn't expect much from the season. The offense looked decent, but the defense was almost frighteningly bad on paper. As it turned out, we were just as bad at stopping our opponents as I'd feared we would be, but our offense wasn't potent enough to bail us out.



The win over Wake Forest was the highlight of our non-conference schedule, and it gave me some hope that we might be a decent team. Then, we held our own through the first few weeks of Small Wonder play. Perhaps we'd be a scrappy, win-one-lose-one kind of team.

The trip to Blacksburg, followed by a beating from Seaford that was almost as bad, ended those false hopes. It's one thing to be curbstomped by Virginia Tech; it's yet another to lose that badly to Seaford.

We gave Wilmington, the eventual conference champion, a good fight in our rivalry game, taking a 17-14 lead in the fourth quarter before letting it slip away.

Offense
Fullback Jorge Gatewood (JR/Newark) made second team All-Small Wonder. Gatewood was a receiving threat, catching 21 passes out of the backfield.

The team's leading rusher was junior halfback Donovan Randle (Orange, NJ) who picked up 646 yards on only 106 carries, scoring four touchdowns. His classmate, A.J. Owens (South Charleston, WV) was a productive backup, averaging over five yards per carry and totaling 351 yards.

Quarterback Geoff Burgess (FR/Bayonne, NJ) showed signs of promise, but spent most of the season looking like a freshman. He completed only 44 percent of his throws and was picked off 19 times. Running for his life behind an offensive line that had trouble protecting him, Burgess was sacked 33 times, more than any other Small Wonder passer.

Burgess's favorite targets were Bo Francis (SR/Wilmington) (38-456-3) and deep threat Sam Meadows (JR/New Castle) (24-383-4).

Tackle Paul Kraft (SR/Upper Marlboro, MD) joined Gatewood on the second All-Conference team but, in general, the O-line was a disappointment.


Defense

A pair of seniors, OLB Marc Franz (Atlanta, GA) and S Ian Riley (Edison, NJ) were the best players on the defensive side of the ball, bright points in an otherwise fairly dark season. Franz made 65 solo tackles, six for losses. Riley was almost exactly as productive a tackler (63 solos, 6 TFL), and intercepted four passes.

Both Franz and Riley were second team All-Small Wonder picks, but I think Ellis Navarrete (SO/Wilmington) was even more productive. The hustling, undersized MLB was in on 84 tackles, nine for losses, and recorded 2.5 sacks.

In the Classroom
Our players were better there than on the field. The team's GPA was a solid 2.98, and our national ranking went up one spot to #17. Four players: P Mitch Barnett (4.0, Nuclear Engineering), DT Kevin Schwartz (4.0, Medicine), and ILB Van Fickett (4.0, Computer Science) made the Small Wonder Academic Team.

Barnett was also one of the league's better punters, while freshman Schwartz showed some promise as a pass rusher.


Recruiting
This is my favorite part of the game, so I'll be covering my recruiting classes in some detail. After all, they'll form the core of the New Castle team before very long.

I entered the recruiting season with several pressing needs. Ten scholarship seniors are graduating, six on offense, four on defense. We needed to bring in at least two WR and two OT, and the need to replace Franz and Riley made our defensive upgrades even more urgent.







WR Archie Franklin was our only nationally-ranked recruit, but I also really like RB K.C. Belajic and WR Dwayne Graham. Marc Harmon and Brad Hancock look like future starters on the O-line.

Lenny Tuiasosopo ought to give us a quick, pass-rushing DE. Jay McCarthy is an athletic OLB, while ILB Charlie Gallo looks like a big, tough run-stopper. I might have brought in my entire secondary of the future in CB Marvin Wallace, CB C.J. Farr, S Leonard Gunn, and S Stanley Sterritt.



Professor Laertes wasn't too impressed with our season. Honestly, neither was I.

All sixteen of our recruits are outstanding students, but TCY Today doesn't think much of them as football players. They ranked our class #122 out of 125, with only Claymont, Idaho, and Talleyville below us. I hope they prove the experts wrong; if they don't, I might be looking for a job before long.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

2005

I decided on a new format for my story. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did putting it together (I confess to being a stats nerd; I'm guessing that's a fairly common quality around here).

Making a roster helped me get to know the players better. Here are the starters on offense and defense, plus our kicking specialists and a few other players who made key contributions to our team this year.



Short version: 2005 went much better for New Castle than 2004 did.



We were still very easy for most teams to move the ball against, especially on the ground. I think we allowed a back to rush for 100 yards against us nearly every week. We were much more dangerous offensively, largely due to the contributions of one of the most dynamic first-year receivers in the nation.



After a lackluster season opener against UAB, we bounced back to beat Central Michigan and give a talented Wilmington team a good fight. A gritty win against Milford was sandwiched between two non-conference losses.

The Dover game was the low point of the season, a game in which all of our weaknesses were exposed. And to make matters worse, QB Geoff Burgess messed up his knee and would be lost for the season. Burgess had taken a big step forward, and had been one of the Small Wonder's better passers this season.

Then Harry Pehrson decided to rewrite the end of the story.

As a freshman, Pehrson appeared in four games. He threw 16 passes, competing 7, with two interceptions and a TD pass. His ratings are nothing special. In other words, there was nothing in his profile to make me think he would turn out to be the hero of the season.

Pehrson wasn't perfect. He inherited Burgess's exasperating tendency to throw passes to guys wearing the wrong color jersey, but he also slung 10 TD passes in three games as a starter, leading us to three straight wins. Just like that, we finished the season with a winning record, and just missed the chance to play in our first bowl game.

Pehrson's outstanding relief work was a great story, but the team's brightest star was last year's prize recruit, Archie Franklin. He led the conference in receiving, was an easy choice for the first team All-Small Wonder team, and was named to the National Freshman Team.

Fellow first year Leonard Gunn joined Franklin on the first All-Small Wonder squad, while seven New Castle players made the second team:

• RB Donovan Randle
• FB Jorge Gatewood
• G C.J. Gaines
• P Mitch Barnett
• K Dusty Springer
• LB Ellis Navarrete
• S Stanley Sterritt

Donovan Randle ended his career with a productive season, and we'll miss him next year. Same for our reliable specialists, kicker Dusty Springer and punter Mitch Barnett.


In the Classroom
Seven New Castle players were named to the Small Wonder Academic Team:
WR Archie Franklin 3.88, Medicine
T Brad Hancock 3.86, Jurisprudence
P Mitch Barnett 4.00, Nuclear Engineering
DT Kevin Schwartz
LB Van Fickett
S Leonard Gunn
S Stanley Sterritt

[Greyfriars Bobby]

2005

I decided on a new format for my story. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did putting it together (I confess to being a stats nerd; I'm guessing that's a fairly common quality around here).

Making a roster helped me get to know the players better. Here are the starters on offense and defense, plus our kicking specialists and a few other players who made key contributions to our team this year.



Short version: 2005 went much better for New Castle than 2004 did.



We were still very easy for most teams to move the ball against, especially on the ground. I think we allowed a back to rush for 100 yards against us nearly every week. We were much more dangerous offensively, largely due to the contributions of one of the most dynamic first-year receivers in the nation.



After a lackluster season opener against UAB, we bounced back to beat Central Michigan and give a talented Wilmington team a good fight. A gritty win against Milford was sandwiched between two non-conference losses.

The Dover game was the low point of the season, a game in which all of our weaknesses were exposed. And to make matters worse, QB Geoff Burgess messed up his knee and would be lost for the season. Burgess had taken a big step forward, and had been one of the Small Wonder's better passers this season.

Then Harry Pehrson decided to rewrite the end of the story.

As a freshman, Pehrson appeared in four games. He threw 16 passes, competing 7, with two interceptions and a TD pass. His ratings are nothing special. In other words, there was nothing in his profile to make me think he would turn out to be the hero of the season.

Pehrson wasn't perfect. He inherited Burgess's exasperating tendency to throw passes to guys wearing the wrong color jersey, but he also slung 10 TD passes in three games as a starter, leading us to three straight wins. Just like that, we finished the season with a winning record, and just missed the chance to play in our first bowl game.

Pehrson's outstanding relief work was a great story, but the team's brightest star was last year's prize recruit, Archie Franklin. He led the conference in receiving, was an easy choice for the first team All-Small Wonder team, and was named to the National Freshman Team.

Fellow first year Leonard Gunn joined Franklin on the first All-Small Wonder squad, while seven New Castle players made the second team:

• RB Donovan Randle
• FB Jorge Gatewood
• G C.J. Gaines
• P Mitch Barnett
• K Dusty Springer
• LB Ellis Navarrete
• S Stanley Sterritt

Donovan Randle ended his career with a productive season, and we'll miss him next year. Same for our reliable specialists, kicker Dusty Springer and punter Mitch Barnett.


In the Classroom
Seven New Castle players were named to the Small Wonder Academic Team:
WR Archie Franklin 3.88, Medicine
T Brad Hancock 3.86, Jurisprudence
P Mitch Barnett 4.00, Nuclear Engineering
DT Kevin Schwartz 3.80, Medicine
LB Van Fickett 4.00, Computer Science
S Leonard Gunn 3.74, Jurisprudence
S Stanley Sterritt 3.66, Jurisprudence

On the other hand, three lads will be missing the 2006 season for failing a class. Neither walk-on DT Monty Cone nor starting OT Joe Kirchhof could pass French II. DE Lenny Tuiasosopo, who was starting by the end of the season, flunked Algebra.

Despite these three slackers, our team moved up seven more spots in the academic rankings.



Now my goal will be to keep that academic prestige while I raise our on-field product.

I think I'll pause for now, before I write about our recruiting class and reveal our overall grade from Professor Laertes. There will be exciting news on both fronts.

[MalcPow]

What a great game. Good luck keeping those girlfriends happy.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

What a great game. Good luck keeping those girlfriends happy.

I agree; TCY is a heck of a lot of fun. I find it requires exactly the amount of brain power I usually find myself wanting to devote to a game these days.

None of my players have lost their relationships so far, so I'm guessing the ladies aren't too unhappy yet.

I just recruited a future Big Man on Campus. We'll have to see if one of the New Castle girls finds him once he arrives.

Thanks for stopping by, MalcPow.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

2005 Recruiting

Going into the 2005 season, I knew I needed offensive linemen--guards, especially--to replace four graduating seniors. I also needed three defensive tackles, a couple of wideouts, and a punter. Filling those needs would take up over half my 16-man recruiting class.

I had one scholarship QB graduating, so I decided to see if I could fill that spot, too. I was fairly happy with my quarterback situation; Geoff Burgess made big improvements this season, and Harry Pehrson was Mr. Clutch once he got the chance to start. Both Geoff and Harry were sophomores, so I didn't feel like I had to bring in a new QB1.

Looks like I did it anyway.







Corey Dodge, the #4 player in the nation, was right next door in Maryland. He is the kind of student we're looking for, too. Of course he was listed in black print on my recruiting screen--schools like New Castle aren't going to appeal to the #2 QB in the country. I thought I'd take a shot at him anyway.

Sometimes those shots go in.

Dodge is a true dual threat QB, accounting for almost 5000 yards and 27 touchdowns with his arm and his legs. Even if he ends up being half as good as advertised, he should be a star in New Castle. The thought of Corey throwing to Archie Franklin for three years makes me smile.

DE Blaine Hixon is also a Top 100 recruit, and G Jamie Luke just missed that cut. Both Hixon and Luke were #1 in the state at their positions and, along with WR Kendall Buckley, gave us three All-State players from Pennsylvania. Fullback Bennie Paige was ranked third among players at his position. And there's local boy Eugene Price, the best running back in Delaware, who will be groomed to fill Donovan Randle's shoes.

I should have pulled the offers from some of those WRs after the first two signed. Now, I'll have way too many wideouts on scholarship for the next couple years.

Seven of our recruits were listed among the top 1000 players in the country--a big improvement from last year, when only Franklin was rated that highly. They're not quite as academically distinguished as last year's group, but they seem like much better football players. They're still not a bunch of dummies; they all had better than 3.00 GPAs in high school, and their test scores are all over 1100.

We pulled in the #62 recruiting class in the nation, the best among Small Wonder schools.



Professor Laertes was much happier with my 2005 performance. So was I, for that matter.

Now, it's on to 2006...