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Byline: Jennifer Toland
COLUMN: COLLEGE FOOTBALL
James McGillicuddy jokes with his younger teammates that when he was going to his first college frat party, they were heading off to their first seventh-grade dance.
Yeah, at 24, McGillicuddy has a few years on Stanford's freshmen.
McGillicuddy's six-year Stanford journey - often arduous, finally fun - is nearing its end. The Cardinal, 5-1 and the No. 14 team in the country, is at the midway point of its football season and McGillicuddy is a thesis away from earning his master's degree.
"It's amazing how things work out," the always-affable McGillicuddy said this week from Palo Alto, Calif. "I would have never expected things to play out the way they played out. What do you do when thesethings happen? That's the way I looked at it, and I tried to make the best of all my situations."
McGillicuddy, the former St. John's High star from Worcester and the 2004 Gatorade Massachusetts Player of the Year, was injured his first three years at Stanford. He underwent two surgeries for a torn patellar tendon in his right knee and persevered through two years of pain, rehab and recovery. The tendon never fully healed, so his next step was a nonsurgical, cutting-edge procedure involving platelet-richplasma (PRP) drawn from his own blood. It was a success, and McGillicuddy made his Cardinal debut early in the 2008 season.
This year, like last, the 6-foot-3, 307-pounder is a backup offensive lineman, but he's also enjoying his new hybrid role - lining up as a fullback, tight end, wing back and even as a slot receiver in certain Stanford formations.
"I'm all over the field," McGillicuddy said. "It's pretty neat. I get to move around in space, block people, and we've kind of built some special packages where I can get in there and hammer some people, so it's been pretty fun."
McGillicuddy is still waiting for his first touch and touchdown.
"I get in (quarterback) Andrew Luck's ear a little bit," he said with a laugh. "No, Andrew's such a special quarterback, I'll let him make his reads and throw the ball to whoever he wants."
Stanford is coming off a two-point win over USC. The Cardinal tooka beating from Oregon, but its other four wins have been by an average of 34 points. Stanford is off this week and returns to action Oct.23 against Washington State.
"We have a great opportunity ahead of us," McGillicuddy said. "If we execute, we should be sitting pretty come January."
McGillicuddy has witnessed a major transformation of the Stanford program in his time with the team. The Cardinal was 1-11 his sophomore year, then coach Jim Harbaugh came to town.
"We were terrible," McGillicuddy said. "It wasn't a winning environment. Coach Harbaugh came in, changed the culture, changed the way we practice, the way we train. He changed the way we think about competing. He's done wonders for the program. He sets the bar high. We were 1-11 and now we have a chance to go 11-1, which would be awesome."
McGillicuddy earned his bachelor's degree in science, technology and society. His master's will be in communications. He'll be interviewing for jobs soon and would like to stay on the West Coast, but withhis parents in Worcester, he may also consider coming back home.
"The way things have played out with me," McGillicuddy said, "who knows? I could end up across the world."
Ohimor living up to name
Mudiaga "Mude" Ohimor's first name means "to stand firm" in his father's native tongue in Nigeria. It defines the Holy Cross senior defensive lineman pretty well.
"The way he carries himself is like a champion," HC senior captainAnthony DiMichele said. "He's a very hard-working individual and he always rises to play. That's Mude, definitely."
Ohimor helped lead the Holy Cross defense's best performance of the season in last week's 17-13 win over Brown. Brown came into the game averaging almost 29 points, but HC shut out the Bears in the secondhalf.
"We are improving," Ohimor said, "but there is still a lot of roomfor improvement."
Ohimor, the preseason Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year,had one of the key tackles as Holy Cross stopped Brown inside the 5-yard line in the fourth quarter.
The 6-foot-3, 245-pounder, who hails from Stoughton, had an outstanding junior season. He earned first-team All-Patriot League honors after leading HC's defensive linemen with 34 tackles and topping the team with seven sacks and nine tackles for loss.
Statistically, it has been a quieter 2010. Through six games, Ohimor has 16 tackles and one sack.
"Some of that can be attributed to how opponents are taking him into account," coach Tom Gilmore said, "and a lot of offenses are getting rid of the football. They don't want to take sacks or negative plays and they're designing things, either max protecting or getting ridof the ball quickly, and that eliminates a lot of opportunities.
"But Mude is doing what we want him to do. He's working hard and sometimes you have seasons like that when you're doing everything you're supposed to do, it's just not showing up on the stat sheet. You keep plugging away, you get those stats at some point."
The Crusaders have six sacks on the year and missed out on at least three more last weekend, letting Brown quarterback Patrick Donnellyout of their clutches to scramble for big gains.
"We've got to get after the quarterback, flat-out," Ohimor said. "A few times, we're right there, we've got the quarterback running around. We have to find a way to seal the deal."
This week, Dartmouth's balanced offense will present a challenge for Holy Cross, Ohimor said, but the Big Green feel the same way aboutHC's defense.
"Ohimor is one of the best we've seen," Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said.
Ivy League trip
Holy Cross ran its winning streak at Fitton Field to 13 games lastweekend. Tomorrow, the Crusaders will be seeking their first road win of the year when they travel to Hanover, N.H., to face the Big Green. HC has won six straight against Dartmouth. The Big Green are 2-2 with wins over Bucknell and Sacred Heart, an overtime loss to Penn anda 3-point loss to Yale on a last-second field goal. ... HC sophomoredefensive lineman Jack Maliska of Winchendon, who was injured against Brown, will miss tomorrow's game because of a sprained ligament in his knee. ... Penalties (10 for 90 yards in the Fordham game, 11 for 88 against Brown) have been a problem for HC the last two weeks. The defense was flagged for three penalties during a fourth-quarter Brownpossession. Earlier in the game, the offense was called for three consecutive penalties (two false starts, delay of game). "I think it's a focus issue," Gilmore said. "It's staying disciplined and it's understanding the situation. We're going to place a very special emphasison it." ... Teevens, the Stanford coach from 2002-04, recruited McGillicuddy to play for the Cardinal.
Stalwart Greyhounds
Assumption's offense, led by quarterback Andrew Kupec, wide receiver David Canney and running back Herb Woodard, has gotten a lot of the attention during the Greyhounds' 5-1 start, but AC's defense has been solid as well.
For the first time, the Greyhounds lead the Northeast-10 Conference in total defense, passing defense, rushing defense and scoring defense. Dan Conrad of Holden and Ethan Maxfield are among Assumption's tackle leaders, Matt Chalmers has a team-high four sacks, and Bobby Sansoucy had two interceptions in last week's 20-0 win over Pace - the sixth shutout win in Assumption's varsity history.
The Greyhounds, ranked No. 7 in this week's ECAC Lambert Poll, areat Merrimack at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
COLLEGE PICKS
Record
Last week ... 6-4
Season to date ... 41-19
20 Fitchburg State
28 at Mass. Maritime, noon
34 Assumption
24 at Merrimack, 1
27 UMass-Dartmouth
14 at Nichols, 1
13 Becker
33 at SUNY-Maritime, 1
41 Castleton State
17 at Anna Maria, 1
27 Worcester State
25 at Bridgewater State, 1:15
24 Holy Cross
21 at Dartmouth, 1:30
10 Boston College
31 at Florida State, noon
21 Richmond
27 at UMass, 3:30
30 Ohio State
27 at Wisconsin, 7
Staff Graphic
