Georgetown Football Readies for Season Opener on Saturday at Stony Brook

Aug. 29, 2007

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University football team started classes for the 2007-08 academic year on Wednesday, but preparations for the team's season opener on Saturday, September 1 at Stony Brook have been under way for some time now.

After two-a-day practices concluded last week, Head Coach Kevin Kelly and his staff began to prepare for the 6 p.m. kickoff on Saturday night against the Seawolves. The team held a two-hour practice on Wednesday morning before the players headed off to classes. Several players met with reporters after practice to discuss this week's opener at Stony Brook.

Senior defensive end Nnamdi Obiako
On the start of the season...
"We're excited to get going. Camp is over and we're ready to take our aggression out on someone other than our teammates."

On preparation for Stony Brook...
"Game preparation has gone great. We had a very polished day today and we've got one more to go before we hit the road. We're ready to get going."

On playing a night game...
"I've never had a night game before, so I'm excited about that. It's not so much the opener, but having our opener be a night game and on the road, that tends to get you up."

Senior wide receiver Brent Craft
On the opener...
"I'm very excited. I think we're excited to demonstrate how much better we've gotten. We're really confident in our backfield. Between Charlie (Houghton) and Kyle (Van Fleet), we think it's one of our strongest points. It's a pretty solid deal back there."

On starting the second season under Head Coach Kevin Kelly...
"We definitely feel like we have more experience. We're more polished as a whole and we have a better understanding of what we're doing."

On playing a night game...
"Everyone's really excited to play under the lights. For some of us, it's the first time we've played at night since high school so it should be a cool experience."

Senior offensive lineman Dan Osterhout
On the opener...
"I can't wait. Four weeks is a long time and I want to hit someone else other than my teammates. We're extremely excited. We've been working hard since last year. We set our goal as a Patriot League title and we want to start toward that right off."

On starting the second season under Head Coach Kevin Kelly...
"We know what Coach wants. He's set the bar high for us. We know what we need to do and what it will take for us to win."

On the offense...
"If you really look at it, it looks like there may only be a few starters returning, but we've got a lot of good players who are going to play a lot this year. We're really confident with our group, especially on the offensive line, and the talent behind us with Charlie (Houghton) and Matt (Bassuener).

Junior wide receiver Kenny Mitchell
On the opener...
"I'm very excited. I've been thinking about this since last year finished up at Fordham. We made some strides last year with a lot of younger players, but we're hoping this will be a year for us to gel."

On playing a night game...
"That's how it was my freshman year, when we played at Bucknell. It was exciting for me, playing my first game and scoring a touchdown. I think with a night game you get the whole day under way, you see all of the other games and it just builds up the excitement."

On starting the second season under Head Coach Kevin Kelly...
"Matt is established now and he had a pretty good year last year, so he's confident coming back. The rest of the offense sees that and feeds off of it. On the defensive side, we've got some key guys coming back and some new guys who are much more developed."