Both Moglia and Moorhead have found a great deal of success since their undergraduate days at Rose Hill. Moglia coached both high school and college football after graduating in 1971, but in 1984, he made a career change to finance, working at Merrill Lynch for 17 years before being named CEO of Ameritrade Holding Corp. (now TD Ameritrade) in 2001, leading the company to record earnings performance. He returned to coaching in 2009, finishing his career with six seasons as the head coach at Coastal Carolina University, where he led the team to a 56-22 cumulative record and three Big South Conference titles before stepping down in 2019. He is currently executive director for football and executive advisor to the president at Coastal Carolina and is chairman of Fundamental Global and Capital Wealth Advisors. Moglia was recently honored with a Fordham Founder’s Award, and later this year he will be inducted into the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame.

After playing quarterback and setting multiple records for the Fordham Rams from 1992 to 1995, Moorhead played professionally for a year with the German Football League’s Munich Cowboys and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998. After several more assistant jobs, Moorhead returned to Fordham for his first head coaching gig in 2012. In four seasons, he turned the struggling program around, leading the Rams to three NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision postseason appearances, a Patriot League title in 2014, and a 38-13 cumulative record. After Fordham, Moorhead took the offensive coordinator position at Penn State University, followed by the head coaching job at Mississippi State University and, currently, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach role at the University of Oregon.

In honor of their Jubilee years, they spoke with Fordham Magazine about how their alma mater impacted their lives and careers, and what makes Fordham special to them.

How did your Fordham education shape your approach to leadership, coaching and mentoring student-athletes?
Moglia: I was a father when I began at Fordham, so my freshman year, I had to give up sports and I was responsible for 100% of my education, and I had to support my wife and daughter. So that first year I drove a truck for the post office and a yellow cab in New York City. Fordham Prep offered me a coaching job, so my sophomore, junior, senior year, during the season, I coached ball, and in the offseason, I worked for my dad. I give that background because not too many freshmen had a more difficult freshman year than I did, and not that many students had more demands on their time. I think laying a foundation about not making excuses and taking responsibility for yourself has become very much my leadership philosophy. Treat other people with respect, live the consequences of your actions. The way I lived at Fordham and the philosophy of our Jesuit education laid the foundation for that.

Moorhead: As Coach Moglia mentioned, when you’re dealing with 18- to 21-year-olds, you’re an extension of the foundation that their parents have built, and you’re in charge of them to help them become a better person, better student, and a better player. I think the embodiment of that idea of the development of the whole person, as well as learning how to think and communicate, are the two biggest takeaways from my time at Fordham.

What does your Jubilee mean to you?

Moglia: With the 50th, the Golden Jubilee, I’ve got five decades of living my life on a foundation that was built when I was at Fordham. I love our University and I take tremendous pride in that. You look back 50 years. It’s hard for me to believe that time has gone by. But for me, the Jubilee is a representation of five decades of my life personally and professionally, in two career spans. I’ll always be indebted to our University for that.

Moorhead: I think of the relationships. Calvin Hargrove, who was one of my receivers, literally just texted me this morning, checking in to see how I’m doing. All the guys I played with, we still keep in contact. And not even necessarily football players, but all kinds of people from your experiences as a student. And then all the kids I had the fortune to coach. Not just [ones like]  Chase Edmonds who have gone on to great careers in the NFL, but guys who become great husbands, great fathers, great business leaders who made an impact on their community. I think of those 25 years and some of the things that you can put in a frame or put up on a wall—those things are great, but they gather dust and they fade with time. But the one thing I think is the most long-standing and most impactful is the relationships over that time.

You’ve both coached at other colleges. What do you think makes Fordham a unique place?
Moglia: What sets Fordham aside, I think, is the mantra: “New York is my campus. Fordham is my school.” No other university I’ve been at has had that unique combination of culture and education. All the things go on New York City. And there are so many things that are a piece of that. Fordham is a greater university because of its connection to New York City. And I believe New York City is a greater city because of its connection with Fordham.

Moorhead: Nowhere else do you intertwine the campus experience, the athletic experience, and then putting it in smack dab in the middle of New York City. There’s just so much that the city has to offer when you step off campus, but you could not walk out and still have a great college experience. Nowhere I’ve been as successfully intertwines the campus experience and the city experience, and allows the student to do so much in a short period of time.

Who’s the Fordham grad or professor that you admire the most?
Moglia: Fordham’s had so many incredible grads that have had success in so many different fields. But to be consistent for me and my life, I began my entire life as a coach, so it’d have to be Vince Lombardi. Lombardi was a graduate of Fordham. He’s an Italian guy. His parents were butchers. There were so many connections there for me. But at the end of the day, he was a great coach.

Moorhead: Yeah, I agree with coach. Obviously, Vince Lombardi as a graduate. And Richard Giannone, Ph.D., professor emeritus of English. He was one of my English professors at Fordham, and I thought he did an incredible job. And then, from my time there as a coach, the opportunity that Fordham president Father McShane and athletic director emeritus Frank McLaughlin gave me—those are things for which I’ll be forever indebted.

—Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Adam Kaufman.

“‘Father D’ was a dedicated, gregarious teacher renowned for his wit and his sense of joy, as well as an academic adviser and mentor known for the pastoral care and concern he generously gave to so many students,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

Father Denniston was raised in Westbury, New York, and was ordained a priest in 1979. He served at St. Mary’s in Manhasset, St. Anne’s in Garden City, Notre Dame in New Hyde Park, and as pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Huntington.

He began his teaching career in 1984 as a member of the faculty at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York. In 1991, he earned his Ph.D. in theology at Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with a dissertation titled “An examination of Calvin’s Theory of Knowledge in His Theology and Exegesis.” He joined the theology department as an adjunct assistant professor in 1996 and was an integral part of the teaching staff until his accident last year. He was the author of Give Them What You Have: Interpreting the New Testament for Today (Ligouri, 2008).

Beloved in the Classroom

Though he was an accomplished scholar and author, Father Denniston was best known for the classes he taught.

Faith and Critical Reason, a required course for all incoming first-year students, was his specialty. He taught three to four classes of 30 students per semester, a course load that never ceased to amaze J. Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D., who was the chair of the department from 2013 to 2020.

“The amount of energy that he must have had to be able to do a high level of teaching multiple times in a row was always very impressive to me,” he said.

“You couldn’t know John and not know that he was a humorous, tongue-in-cheek, delightful man who really enjoyed life, and I think that he got a tremendous amount of energy out of his interactions with students.”

Brenna Moore, Ph.D., an associate professor of theology who served as associate chair of undergraduate studies in theology, said what was even more remarkable about this workload—he also taught classes about the Book of Revelations and apocalyptic themes in film—was how he managed to pay so much attention to individual students. They were not, he often reminded her, simply passive recipients of theology research.

“It was very transformative and very healing for me to start thinking about what I was doing in a very different way. He helped me just by telling me stories about his students, and asking me about my stories about students,” she said. “He also had hilarious stories about things students would say.”

Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., a professor of theology who was on the faculty when Father Denniston defended his dissertation in 1991, said that calling him the “pied piper” of the department would be no exaggeration.

“His courses, even one as recondite as Eschatology, would fill up minutes after enrollment opened,” he said.

James Burris, a first-year student at Fordham College at Rose Hill who took Faith and Critical Reason with Father Denniston last fall, said even an 8:30 a.m. start time didn’t dull the experience.

“Father D loved to joke around and incorporate a lighthearted environment into his classes but I always walked away feeling like I had learned something from his lectures. He was an example of the Jesuit values of the magis and cura personalis through his devotion to his students and his University,” he said.

Making Connections Around Campus

Father Denniston split his time between residences at the Rose Hill campus and in Long Island, and as such, was a presence in many lives outside of the academic setting.

He served as chaplain for the men’s football team; former coach Joseph Moorhead, FCRH ’96, called him “a tremendous man of God whose intelligence, sense of humor, empathetic nature, and true care for the students of Fordham and Bronx Community will always resonate with me.”

Anne-Marie Sweeney, who was the theology department’s secretary from 2003 to 2020, said one of her fondest memories will always be when Father Denniston presided over her son’s wedding in 2016.

“I told him a few times that he not only taught the students about religious faiths but also gave them the tools that would help them through life’s journey, wherever it would take them. He was kind, humble, and had a great sense of humor and always had a smile on his face,” she said.

He made connections as well with his fellow priests at Rose Hill. He lived at the Salice-Conley residence hall, but Associate Professor of Theology Thomas Scirghi, S.J., said he joined the Jesuit community for dinner once a week.

“He’s a gregarious fellow. He walks into a room, he’s kind of like a Jay Leno smile that lights up a room, and he really enjoys meeting people and being with people,” he said.

“He was just one of the guys. He’s a diocesan priest but he fit in here so well, and so he’s remembered well by the Jesuit community here.”

Father Scirghi concelebrated a wedding in Stony Brook with Father Denniston in late September, and he said Father Denniston was determined to bring joy to the setting, even in the midst of a pandemic.

“The couple originally had a guest list of 250 and now it was whittled down to 50. So it was kind of sad, a little somber, but he helped raise the tone there to help make it a joyful occasion,” he said.

Father Denniston is survived by his nieces Melissa Paladino and Erin Crosby; nephew John Denniston; great-nephews James Wallace, Joseph Wallace, Ethan Paladino, and William Crosby; and great-niece Sophia Paladino.

Gifts in honor of Father Denniston may be made to the Rev. John J. Denniston, Ph.D., GSAS ’91 Memorial Fund.

Information on services can be found here.

—Chris Gosier contributed reporting.

It is with very mixed feelings that I inform you that head football coach Joe Moorhead is leaving us to become the offensive coordinator of the Nittany Lions. On the one hand, this is a terrific move for Coach Moorhead, both for personal and professional reasons; on the other, it is a great loss to the Rams. The Coach turned around a struggling team, and helped them grow into winners on the field and off. His shoes will be hard to fill. (The official release is here.)

Coach Moorhead took very seriously his responsibility as a teacher-coach at a Jesuit school. Therefore, he not only encouraged the players to seek success on the field, but also encouraged them to be men of real distinction, men whose lives are marked by competence, conscience, compassion and deep commitment to the Gospel task of building up the human family.

Coach put his Alma Mater back on the map in ways that the Seven Blocks would cheer. I rejoice in the recognition that he has rightly received from Penn State, and I wish him nothing but success in Happy Valley. Coach Moorhead departs with Fordham’s blessings and prayers. We will all miss him, but we say Godspeed with gratitude and pride.

Sincerely,

Joseph M. McShane, SJ

Moorhead, an Eddie Robinson Award finalist as the NCAA FCS Coach of the Year for the past two seasons, led Fordham to a 12-2 record this fall and the Rams advanced to the second round of the NCAA FCS Championship for just the second time in school history.

Moorhead, the 2013 AFCA Regional Co-Coach of the Year, Patriot League Coach of the Year and a Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year finalist, led the Rams to unprecedented success in 2013, winning the first ten games of the year for the first time in school history and being ranked as high as fifth in the NCAA FCS polls, Fordham’s highest ever ranking on the FCS level. The Rams set a school record for most wins in a season in the modern era (since 1920) and accomplished a plethora of firsts, including the first win over an NCAA FBS team (Temple), the first win over a top-ten ranked NCAA FCS team on Jack Coffey Field (Villanova) and the school’s first ever home NCAA FCS championship win on Jack Coffey Field (Sacred Heart). For his accomplishments, Moorhead was named the 2013 Patriot League Coach of the Year.

A former Fordham quarterback, Moorhead and revamped the Rams’ offense, a unit that led the NCAA FCS in pass completion percentage (70.6%), was third in passing offense (360.9 yards/game) and total first downs (364), and seventh in total offense (515.3 yards/game) this fall.
After catching 26 passes for 312 yards over his first two years at Rose Hill, Ajala, who earned All-America honors from the Associated Press, Beyond Sports Network, College Sports Madness and The Sports Network and was also named first team All-Patriot League in 2013, had a coming out party this year, hauling in 93 passes for 1,646 yards, both team highs, with 14 touchdowns, tying for the team lead. He broke Javarus Dudley’s 2003 school record of 1,439 receiving yards in a season and tied Dudley’s school record for receiving touchdowns in a season, also set in 2003. Ajala is second in the NCAA FCS in receiving yards and is second in the Patriot League and fourth in the NCAA FCS in receiving yards per game (117.6). He also ranks among the top 20 nationally in receiving touchdowns (tied for third) and receptions per game (12^th).
Over his career, Ajala has 119 receptions for 1,958 yards and 16 touchdowns. He is sixth on the school’s all-time receiving yards list, seventh on the career receptions list and tied for sixth in receiving touchdowns.

Nebrich, a 2013 Beyond Sports Network and College Sports Madness All-American and the 2013 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, enjoyed one of the best regular seasons for a quarterback in school history.  He completed 353-of-480 passes (73.5%) for 4,380 yards with 35 touchdowns, and also rushed for 513 yards and nine scores. His completion percentage leads the nation as does his total offense (376.4 yards/game) while he also ranks in the top five nationally in passing yards per game (336.9 – third), passing efficiency (171.3 – second), completions per game (27.15 – third), and points responsible for per contest (20.5 – third). He went 11-0 as the starting quarterback during the regular season in 2013, one of only two FCS signal-callers to put up an undefeated mark for the season. He set every school single season passing record this fall, eclipsing John Skelton’s 2009 record of 284 completions for 3,708 yards and Mark Carney’s 2001 mark of 27 passing touchdowns. Nebrich also set a Fordham record with 524 passing yards in a win against Holy Cross on Nov. 2.

Light, one of the top tight ends in Fordham history who earned first team all-league honors for the second straight year and was a 2013 Beyond Sports Network All-American, caught 66 passes (a school record for tight ends) for 588 yards (the second most receiving yards for a Fordham tight end) and two touchdowns this year. He ranked second among all NCAA FCS tight ends in receptions per game (4.7) and third in receiving yards per game (42.0) and was eighth in the Patriot League in receptions per game (4.7) and tenth in receiving yards per game (33.2).

Over his career, Light has 134 receptions, a school record for tight ends, for 1,209 yards, second best among all tight ends in Fordham history, and three touchdowns.

The final 2013 NCAA FCS polls have been released and the Fordham University Rams finished the season ranked ninth in the NCAA FCS Sports Network poll and tenth in the NCAA FCS Coaches Poll. This is the highest ranking ever for the Rams at the end of the year (the previous best was 12th following the 2002 season).

The Rams enjoyed one of the most successful seasons in Fordham history, going 12-2 this fall, winning the first ten games of the year for the first time in school history and being ranked as high as fifth in the NCAA FCS polls, Fordham’s highest ever ranking on the FCS level. Along the way, the team compiled a long list of firsts, including the first win over an NCAA FBS team (Temple), the first win over a top-ten ranked NCAA FCS team on Jack Coffey Field (Villanova), the school’s first ever home NCAA FCS championship win on Jack Coffey Field (Sacred Heart) and the most nonconference wins in a season (six).

Along with the team success came a plethora of individual accolades as junior wide receiver Sam Ajala, junior linebacker Stephen Hodge, junior tight end Dan Light and junior quarterback Mike Nebrich all received All-America honors. The four also earned First Team All-Patriot League accolades, along with senior defensive lineman Brett Biestek, senior offensive lineman Thomas Fisher, senior running back Carlton Koonce, senior defensive lineman DeAndre Slate, senior defensive back Ian Williams, junior offensive lineman Mason Halter and junior placekicker Michael Marando. Nebrich and Hodge were also named Patriot League Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively.

Head coach Joe Moorhead was also honored, being named the AFCA Regional Co-Coach of the Year and Patriot League Coach of the Year as well as one of five finalists for the NCAA FCS Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award.

– Joe DiBari

Coming off the most successful season in Fordham football history, head coach Joe Moorhead was recognized by his peers today, being named AFCA Regional Co-Coach of the Year as well as one of five finalists for the NCAA FCS Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award.

The AFCA?recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association’s five divisions:?Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III and NAIA. The winners are selected by Active members of the Association who vote for coaches in their respective regions and divisions.

The 2013 Regional Coach of the Year winners will be recognized at the AFCA?Coach of the Year Dinner at the 2014 AFCA?Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14.

Moorhead shares the AFCA Regional Coach of the Year award with Maine’s Jack Cosgrove.

The Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award recognizes college football coaches who demonstrate Responsibility, Integrity, Sportsmanship and Excellence both on and off the field. Endorsed by the College Football Hall of Fame and now in its eighth year, the program awards one winning coach from each NCAA division (I-FBS, I-FCS, II, and III) with $50,000 to donate to a charity of their choice, a $20,000 grant to each school’s alumni association, and the Coach of the Year trophy.

Coach Moorhead has identified The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as his charity of choice, a decision that hits close to home for the Fordham mentor as his nephew is a cancer survivor.

Voting for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year will reopen for fans opened this morning atwww.CoachoftheYear.com and will continue through December 22.  Fan votes will account for 20 percent of each finalist’s final score. Ballots from two committees, college football media, and College Hall of Fame players and coaches, will account for the remaining scoring weight. Winners will be publicly announced at a media event on the morning of January 6, prior to the BCS Championship Game.

Moorhead, an Eddie Robinson Award finalist as the NCAA FCS Coach of the Year for the past two seasons, just completed his second season at Fordham as the Rams went 12-2 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA FCS Championship for just the second time in school history.

This fall, Moorhead led the Rams to unprecedented success, winning the first ten games of the year for the first time in school history and being ranked as high as fifth in the NCAA FCS polls, Fordham’s highest ever ranking on the FCS level. The Rams set a school record for most wins in a season in the modern era (since 1920) and accomplished a plethora of firsts, including the first win over an NCAA FBS team (Temple), the first win over a top-ten ranked NCAA FCS team on Jack Coffey Field (Villanova) and the school’s first ever home NCAA FCS championship win on Jack Coffey Field (Sacred Heart). For his accomplishments, Moorhead was named the 2013 Patriot League Coach of the Year.

A former Fordham quarterback, Moorhead and revamped the Rams’ offense, a unit that leads the NCAA FCS in pass completion percentage, is second on total first downs, third in passing offense, and seventh in total offense this fall.

In his first year at Rose Hill, Moorhead led the Rams to one of the top turnarounds in the NCAA FCS. Inheriting a team that had gone 1-10 in 2011, Moorhead guided Fordham to a 6-5 record in 2012, the second best turnaround in the NCAA FCS that fall. The six wins were the most for a first-year Fordham head football coach since Jim “Sleepy” Crowley also won six games in his first season at Fordham in 1933.

Moorhead led the Rams to back-to-back winning non-conference records, including a perfect 6-0 mark this year.  The six non-conference wins are the most in school history, surpassing the five by the 2003 squad.

Bronx, N.Y. (November 20, 2013) – Fordham University head football coach Joe Moorhead was named one of 21 finalists for the 2013 Eddie Robinson Award as the NCAA FCS Coach of the Year it was announced today by The Sports Network. A panel of about 160 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries will select the Robinson Award winner, which is presented by The Sports Network.

Moorhead has led the 2013 Rams to unprecedented success, winning the first ten games of the year for the first time in school history and being ranked as high as fifth in the NCAA FCS polls. The squad has also defeated an NCAA FBS team (Temple) for the first time while competing on the NCAA FCS level (last time Fordham defeated what is now an FBS team was a 1954 win over Rutgers). Fordham also beat two NCAA FCS top-ten opponents (Villanova and Lehigh) and  defeated a ranked NCAA FCS team (Villanova) for first time since 2002 and for the first time ever at home.

A former Fordham quarterback, Moorhead and revamped the Rams’ offense, a unit that leads the NCAA FCS in pass completion percentage, is fourth in passing offense, fifth in first downs and seventh in total offense.

In 2012, Moorhead led the Rams to second best turnaround in the NCAA FCS, bringing a team that finished 1-10 in 2011 to a 6-5 record.

Voting will reflect only regular-season results and will be conducted by a national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries. The winner will be announced at The Sports Network FCS Awards Banquet and Presentation to be held Dec. 16 in Philadelphia.

To read more visit Fordham Athletics website.

With the win, the Rams go to 10-0 on the year for the first time ever while Bucknell, who had a three-game winning streak snapped, falls to 4-5. The 10 Fordham wins are more than the Rams won the past two years combined (seven) and marks just the third time since 1920 that the Rams have won 10 games in a season (the other two years are 1987 and 2002). The win is Fordham’s sixth at home this year, tying the 1987 squad for most wins on Jack Coffey Field.

Peter Maetzold

Another credo that Moorhead expounds to the squad is that when someone gets injured, it’s vital that the replacement step in and do as good a job, if not better, than the player he is replacing. In the case of junior quarterback Mike Nebrich, who left the game in the first quarter with an injury, that appears to be an impossible request as Nebrich is candidate for the Walter Payton Award which goes to the top NCAA FCS player in the country. But junior quarterback Peter Maetzold did his level best, completing 21 of 35 passes for 318 yards and one touchdown off the bench in his first significant playing time since early in his freshman year.

In a game that featured more twists and turns than any roller coaster at Six Flags, Kings Dominion or Busch Garden, the Rams kept all 6,826 fans glued to their seats until the final play.

Senior running back Carlton Koonce gained 84 yards in the game, but none as important as the eight he picked up on a third-and-one call from the Bucknell 41 with about a minute left, seemingly sealing the victory for the Rams. But on the second attempt to kneel on the ball, the Bucknell defensive line pushed the Fordham offensive line into Maetzold, forcing a fumble which was recovered by the Bison’s Brent Forbes on the 33.

Bucknell quarterback Brandon Wesley then drove the Bison down to the Fordham 19 where he lost a yard on a rush with under 10 seconds left. Out of time-outs, Wesley attempted to spike the ball, appearing to have lost control of the ball for a fumble, but the officials ruled it a spike and Bucknell had the ball on the Fordham 20 with two seconds left.

Derek Maurer came on for Bucknell to attempt a 37-yard field goal but this time it was the Fordham defensive line that got the penetration allowing Williams and Chapman to elevate together and block the ball, and the Rams fell on the loose ball for the win.

The Rams return to action next Saturday, November 16, as they travel to Easton, Pennsylvania, to face the Lafayette College Leopards in Fisher Stadium at 3:30 p.m. To read more highlights of the game, visit Fordham’s athletics page.

Notes
The Rams snapped a two-game losing streak to the Bison with the win but Bucknell still leads the all-time series, 18-11… The Rams honored the 17 seniors with a special pregame ceremony… Koonce’s 84 rushing yards brings his 2013 total to 1,109 as he records his second straight 1,000-yard rushing season… He is just the second Ram to gain more than 1,000 rushing yards in a year,  joining Kirwin Watson, who had three… The 84 yards brings his career total to 2,930, good for fourth on the school’s career rushing list, 60 behind Xavier Martin (2007-10) for third… Ajala’s 123 receiving yards brings his season totals to 1,263 yards, the second best single season in school history (the school mark is 1,439 set by Javarus Dudley in 2003)… Marando has 45 PATs so far in 2013, the second most in a season in school history (school record is 47 by Micah Clukey in 2003) and 16 field goals, the third most in a season for a Ram (school record is 25 set by Patrick Murray last year)… Marando had his second three-field goal game of the year… Moorhead is now 16-5 as a head coach.

It’s only Monday, but it’s safe to say we found our media clips of the week.

This past Saturday, Fordham football player Sam Ajala set a school record with 282 yards receiving as the Rams, ranked eighth in the Football Championship Subdivision, improved to 8-0 for the first time with a 52-31 victory at Yale. Not surprisingly, the media has taken notice. Here are a few excerpts from this past weekend’s coverage:

“There appears to be new blocks of granite at Fordham.”

-Fox Sports

“The successful start has raised echoes of the great Fordham teams of the 1930s, featuring linemen known as the Seven Blocks of Granite. One of those “blocks” was Vince Lombardi, who would become a renowned coach. Appearances in major bowls followed in the early 1940s, but Fordham dropped football in 1954, and it returned as a varsity sport only in 1970, at a lower level.”

-The New York Times

The Rams, 1-10 two years ago before Moorhead took over, are now 7-0 — their best start since 1930.

-ESPN

“…if the Fordham scouting report was required reading last week, the [Yale] Bulldogs realized that their opponent Saturday was offensively inclined and prolific.

-The Hartford Courant

If Lombardi, who went on to become maybe the most famous football coach in history, and the rest of the blocks were still around, they might have had a hard time recognizing the game being played by Fordham these days. There’s no doubt, however, they’d love the results.

–Washington Post via Associated Press

“The most successful college team in the tri-state area can be found at Fordham University.”

–YES Network

Watch the full YES Network segment, which includes interviews with Coach Joe Moorhead and students, here.

-Gina Vergel 

Over six days at the combine, which will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium, players are tested both on the field and off, performing a series of drills, tests and interviews with more than 600 NFL personnel including head coaches, general managers and scouts.

For the entire list of invitees to the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine, click here.

Prior to the NFL Combine, Skelton will appear in the 2010 East-West Shrine Game, “America’s Premier College All-Star Football Game”, on January 23, 2010, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando. He will be just the third player out of the Patriot League to appear in the game, joining Gordie Lockbaum (Holy Cross, 1987) and Adam Bergen (Lehigh, 2004).

Skelton wrapped up a record-shattering career for the Rams this fall, closing out the year completing 284 of 441 passes (64.4%) for 3,708 yards and 26 touchdowns. He set new school marks for completions and passing yards, breaking Kevin Eakin’s former school records of 247 completions for 3,072 yards set in 2003 as well as breaking Steve O’Hare’s completion percentage record of 63.1% set in 1997. Skelton led the NCAA FCS in passing yards/game (337.09) and was ranked second in total offense (348.18 yards/game), fourth in completions per game (25.82) and total passing yards and tenth in passing efficiency (149.95).

Skelton threw for over 300 yards eight times in eleven games this year, including four 400-yard games. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 420 yards and five touchdowns against Cornell on October 17th, breaking the school record of 413 passing yards set by Joe Moorhead in 1995 and coming up one shy of the school record for scoring passes of six, set by Kevin Eakin in 2003. Skelton then broke his own record two weeks later, completing 43 of 67 passes for 427 yards, all school records, against Holy Cross on October 31st. He finished one passing attempt shy of the NCAA FCS record for most pass attempts in a game without an interception, just missing the national mark of 68 set by Marshall’s Tony Petersen against Western Carolina in 1987 (Peterson completed 34). Skelton surpassed his own school record of 420 passing yards in a game while breaking Matt Georgia’s 1999 records of 36 completions and 65 attempts.

Over his career, Skelton completed 802 passes for 9,923 yards and 69 touchdowns, all school marks. He shattered Joe Moorhead’s career completions record of 518 while also surpassing Eakin’s career marks for passing yards (6,112) and touchdowns (45).

– Joe DiBari