Roundtable:Best players we’ve play against

Cole and I take some time to reminisce and discuss the best players we played against during our playing days.

Cole Jacobson: When it comes to pure accolades, Navy’s Brendon Clements is obviously going to be who comes to mind first. It’s not every day that a former FBS player suits up in the CSFL, let alone one who had started 35 games over three seasons for a team that’s perennially playing during bowl season. Entering our matchup against Navy in 2016, there couldn’t have been much more on the line. Both teams were 3-0, and we had already beaten Army, meaning that the winner of this game had the inside track to the league title. As if that wasn’t enough reason for excitement, Clements’ arrival to Navy’s sprint team only added more spice to the buildup.

That week of preparation for Navy felt like it took over an entire season — and the game would prove to be more than worth the wait. Being a part of our front seven, we knew all about how Clements had torn up the league in his first three games, and our group of guys was excited to prove that we could be the team to keep him in check. Even though I wasn’t anywhere near the starting lineup at that time, I felt just as engaged when watching film or defending mock Navy plays in practice, and I was fully on board with our plan: no new blitz packages, no new defensive alignments, just dominate up front like we had all year. By the time Friday night rolled around, it worked. We held Clements to a season-low 69 yards and no scores on 22 carries, eventually winning, 29-23, in a classic overtime game. The night exemplified one key trait of the sport; no matter who’s touching the ball, if he’s being hit at the line of scrimmage time and time again, he won’t be doing much. To hear about Clements’ eventual participation in NFL minicamps definitely gave our guys some further pride, and that win remains memorable three years later even to those of us who didn’t play a snap.

More recently, the Army passing attack of 2018 was as good as any I had seen in the league besides the peak Mike McCurdy era at Penn. The entire system was really what helped make that offense so effective. The offensive line was strong as always, wideouts like Clayton Carter, Tom Williamson, and Nitai Chun gave Army multiple good options on any given play, and most importantly, Army’s route combinations were incredible, finding ways to put certain defenders in a bind on almost every snap. But as the quarterback, eventual CSFL Player of the Year Keegan West was naturally the face of the offense. Unlike Clements, we already had a lot of familiarity with West, having played against him four times in his first three seasons, most recently when Army took us down in the 2017 championship game. So while Clements was a great athlete that we didn’t know much about, when it came to West, it was personal — we didn’t like him, and we wanted to shut him down like we had in that title game (though we lost 10-0, he only threw for 52 yards that day).

Unfortunately, that’s far from what happened. Though we changed up our scheme pretty significantly entering the game to slow their passing attack, experimenting with a Cover 2 Man defense that we had rarely, if ever, used before, it was all for nothing on that night. The Army offense was on a different level in the second half, and West exploded for a career-high 374 passing yards on 38-for-59 passing with four touchdowns and no turnovers. To see Army’s shift in offensive philosophy during his time there was very interesting from an opponent’s standpoint; in West’s first two seasons, Army was very much a “run if we can, throw if we must” team behind running back Marqus Burrell, but Army’s coaching staff clearly became more confident in West’s ability to air it out in the latter two years. In 2018, we saw the reasons for this firsthand, and he got the last laugh in what had become a great rivalry over the past four years.

As good as West was that night, the best individual performance I’ve seen in a game against us has to be Cornell QB Rob Pannullo in 2016 (though West and Chestnut Hill’s Mike Marino in 2018 are very close). Cornell was 2-3 entering the matchup against 5-0 Penn, as we had an opportunity to clinch a share of the title by beating the Big Red. Even though Cornell was long eliminated from title contention, it was clear how badly it wanted to play spoiler, and Pannullo led the way. Tearing our defense — the same one that had limited Army to nine points then kept Clements in check a few weeks later — apart as both a scrambler and a passer, Pannullo seemed to always make the right decision, accounting for 208 passing yards, 61 rushing yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers in regulation. I wouldn’t quite say he outplayed McCurdy, but he came very close to doing so, which is more than most can say. His magic ended up running out in the overtime periods, as he threw interceptions in both OT and 2OT, but we all had tremendous respect for the way he battled and how he had a huge underdog team on the verge of knocking us off at our home field.

Though he’s not the best overall player I’ve seen by any means, I will say that one player who gave me fits as a defensive lineman specifically was Post quarterback David Mosely in 2017. A winless Post squad was never a legitimate threat to beat us, as we were already up 42-0 early in the third quarter, but even with the victory not being in doubt, Mosley found ways to make us work. He entered at QB after starter Buddy Enriquez threw an interception on his first drive, and his elite speed and agility made all of us Penn D-linemen look like fools at certain points of the game. The box score would suggest that we had no problems all night — he ended with 74 passing yards and 42 rushing yards in a 42-7 loss — but being out there trying to chase him down in the backfield was not fun for any of us.

Kyle Johnson-Hackett: The number 1 guy for me is Navy RB #2 Brendon Clements. The star RB has one of the more interesting stories in CSFL history. A three-year member of Navy’s FBS team Clements made a historic impact in his lone season in the CSFL. I remember the 1 game I played against him in 2016 like it was yesterday. Clements had a field day on us rushing for 149 yards a 3 TDs. That day there wasn’t anything we could do to stop him, our young defense had yet to see an RB of his caliber before. He ran in between the tackles a lot because at that time our front couldn’t match theirs, but he also showed an ability to dominate on the outside.  I can say personally playing against him really helped me grow as a player. To witness greatness up close and personal is a great learning tool. It was a tough loss during a tough season for us at CHC, but I always enjoyed playing against the best and there was no RB I played during my career better than Brendon Clements. He even got a shot to live the dream when after his graduation he was invited to work out for the Washington Redskins, and he was invited to Green Bay Packers minicamp. He is now the  DB coach at Woodrow Wilson High school in West Virginia. I wish him the best of luck in his endeavors.

The best QB I’ve had to pleasure of playing against Penn QB #3 Mike McCurdy. McCurdy could do it all and that’s an understatement. The all time great QB could make every throw in the book and made it look easy. I had the opportunity to play him twice when I was still early in my career. The first time was in 2015 when we scrimmaged Penn. Aside from a few players on our team this was our first colligate action. It was safe to say that we were overmatched but still did everything we could to stay competitive. The second time I played McCurdy was in 2016. That day is one i didn’t r forget for the entirety of my career. McCurdy put on a show throwing for 298 yards a 5 TDs. There was nothing we could do to stop him. When we did get pressure, he maneuvered around the pocket like a pro to make the throw. When our DBs had good coverage, he would throw a dime and put the ball only where his receiver could catch it. There were a lot of “dang what else am I supposed to do” plays he made throughout the course of that game. McCurdy has since graduated from Penn and continued his academic career at Georgetown. I wish him the best of luck in whatever life brings him.

There’s no player that I had more mixed feelings about the Princeton QB #15 Chad Cowden. Princeton disbanded their CSFL team at the end of the 2015 season, but it was not the fault of Cowden. He did everything in his power to keep them competitive in games throughout his career. I had the opportunity to play him in the inaugural game for Chestnut Hill sprint football. My first career sack and the first sack in school history was on Cowden. That first game was a field day for us as a team. Cowden did what he could, but we sacked him 4 times and forced him to throw 3 interceptions. Nothing could go wrong for us that day as we won 48-13. But the next time we played almost ended differently, in fact it was a will forever be one of the most iconic games in CHC history. We had a rematch in the final game of the season and Cowden did not go down without a fight. He threw for 205 yards and 2 TDs and rushed for 124 and another 2TDs. Princeton was up 28 to 20 with time running down in the 4^th but miraculous plays from Raevon Floyd-Bennet, Reggie Robinson, Domoree Hill, Josean Perez and Jon Baldwin helped seal the game. Cowden was the perfect example of a star with no talent around him. Not to disrespect and of his former teammates but they were by no means “elite” players. Constant pressure, dropped passes, and inferior athleticism from his teammates made it hard for Cowden each game. That last game vs us at CHC was the last game for Princeton’s CSFL team. I can only imagine the type of monster Cowden could have been if he was surrounded by a better team. I don’t know what he is up to now, but I wish him the best. He was one of the toughest and most talented players I ever played.