You Have To Pay Your Dues
COLGATE UNIVERSITY
You Have To Pay Your Dues By Jim Leach Prior to the 2007 season, center Matt Sullivan had one start in a Raider uniform. At guard. The senior from Cockeysville, MD, had, in fact, never snapped a ball before training camp began in August. “We were a week and a half into camp when Coach Vogt said he wanted to try me at center,” said Sullivan. “I thought, ‘Whatever it takes.’” A City/County All-Star tackle and captain of the conference-champion Loyola Bakerfield High School team in Baltimore, Sullivan was recruited by a number of Patriot League schools and chose Colgate when he visited campus and experienced the tight-knit character of the team. “That and the quality of the academics were the deciding factors,” he said. Has the first impression from his recruiting visit held true for his three-plus years? “It’s surpassed my expectations athletically and academically,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything. The tightness of the football community has held up all four years.” Not that the transition from high school to Division I was without its revelations. “You come out of high school and you’ve been reading all these recruiting letters from people telling you how good you are. Then you arrive at camp and you’re surrounded by people who all got those letters and all heard how good they are, too,” Sullivan said. “It’s definitely an adjustment, but a necessary one. Playing as a freshman, or even as a sophomore, is rare in a league as competitive as the Patriot League. You have to pay your dues, but that makes getting on the field even more rewarding.” Sullivan said the experience of “putting on the look for two years” – in practice, adopting the style of the next week’s opponent to train the starting defense – “is a good lesson in persistence and dedication” that pays dividends on the field and off. “You see how much fun the guys are having when they get on the field. How much they love it. You aspire to do that. That’s what keeps you going. That’s what gets you up at 5:40 Monday morning to be in the gym lifting weights by 6:00. It’s what keeps you out there until 10:00 in spring ball.” By his junior year Sullivan was seeing action on the point-after unit, and subbing in as needed. His one start came in a win over Fordham. “I just kept grinding and it paid off.” Starting at center this season, he said, has been “a good adjustment. Being the only senior on the line, and being center, it’s allowed me to have a good role as leader.” Sullivan praised first-year offensive line coach
Casey Vogt: “He’s really helped us out as a unit.” When the team comes to the line, Sullivan said, he is responsible for “directing traffic, calling out the fronts, and letting people know what schemes we’re using. There’s a lot of communication, talking to guys on your left and right. And pressure. But I have fun with it.” While the quarterback calls the signals, it is the center’s snap of the ball that initiates every offensive play. Timing, then, is critical; a miscue is almost certain to result in a five-yard penalty. Once Sullivan is finished communicating formations and schemes, and has timed his snap to set a play in motion, the heavy lifting begins – he still has to deal with an onrushing defense intent on getting past him and into the backfield. “That wasn’t the easiest adjustment, snapping the ball and then going to block someone,” said Sullivan. “But Alex Relph and I got into a pretty good rhythm in camp, which we still have. I got used to the way he plays, and the way he calls out plays. With time, the snap becomes second nature. You don’t think about it. You just send it back and then go do what you have to do.” Sullivan said rhythm also comes into play off the field, timing the ebb and flow of conditioning and practice with the need to stay on top of his academic work as a sociology major. “Football forces you to organize your time,” he said. “You know you’ll have an hour here and an hour there. If you don’t do it then, it won’t get done. There’s no time Matt Sullivan for slacking.” Joe and Sue Sullivan will be in the stands today to see their son Matt in his last home game (and his first action against Lehigh). But they’ll be back; Matt’s sister Katie, a lacrosse recruit, plans to enroll at Colgate next fall.
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You Have To Pay Your Dues By Jim Leach Prior to the 2007 season, center Matt Sullivan had one start in a Raider uniform. At guard. The senior from Cockeysville, MD, had, in fact, never snapped a ball before training camp began in August. “We were a week and a half into camp when Coach Vogt said he wanted to try me at center,” said Sullivan. “I thought, ‘Whatever it takes.’” A City/County All-Star tackle and captain of the conference-champion Loyola Bakerfield High School team in Baltimore, Sullivan was recruited by a number of Patriot League schools and chose Colgate when he visited campus and experienced the tight-knit character of the team. “That and the quality of the academics were the deciding factors,” he said. Has the first impression from his recruiting visit held true for his three-plus years? “It’s surpassed my expectations athletically and academically,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything. The tightness of the football community has held up all four years.” Not that the transition from high school to Division I was without its revelations. “You come out of high school and you’ve been reading all these recruiting letters from people telling you how good you are. Then you arrive at camp and you’re surrounded by people who all got those letters and all heard how good they are, too,” Sullivan said. “It’s definitely an adjustment, but a necessary one. Playing as a freshman, or even as a sophomore, is rare in a league as competitive as the Patriot League. You have to pay your dues, but that makes getting on the field even more rewarding.” Sullivan said the experience of “putting on the look for two years” – in practice, adopting the style of the next week’s opponent to train the starting defense – “is a good lesson in persistence and dedication” that pays dividends on the field and off. “You see how much fun the guys are having when they get on the field. How much they love it. You aspire to do that. That’s what keeps you going. That’s what gets you up at 5:40 Monday morning to be in the gym lifting weights by 6:00. It’s what keeps you out there until 10:00 in spring ball.” By his junior year Sullivan was seeing action on the point-after unit, and subbing in as needed. His one start came in a win over Fordham. “I just kept grinding and it paid off.” Starting at center this season, he said, has been “a good adjustment. Being the only senior on the line, and being center, it’s allowed me to have a good role as leader.” Sullivan praised first-year offensive line coach
Casey Vogt: “He’s really helped us out as a unit.” When the team comes to the line, Sullivan said, he is responsible for “directing traffic, calling out the fronts, and letting people know what schemes we’re using. There’s a lot of communication, talking to guys on your left and right. And pressure. But I have fun with it.” While the quarterback calls the signals, it is the center’s snap of the ball that initiates every offensive play. Timing, then, is critical; a miscue is almost certain to result in a five-yard penalty. Once Sullivan is finished communicating formations and schemes, and has timed his snap to set a play in motion, the heavy lifting begins – he still has to deal with an onrushing defense intent on getting past him and into the backfield. “That wasn’t the easiest adjustment, snapping the ball and then going to block someone,” said Sullivan. “But Alex Relph and I got into a pretty good rhythm in camp, which we still have. I got used to the way he plays, and the way he calls out plays. With time, the snap becomes second nature. You don’t think about it. You just send it back and then go do what you have to do.” Sullivan said rhythm also comes into play off the field, timing the ebb and flow of conditioning and practice with the need to stay on top of his academic work as a sociology major. “Football forces you to organize your time,” he said. “You know you’ll have an hour here and an hour there. If you don’t do it then, it won’t get done. There’s no time Matt Sullivan for slacking.” Joe and Sue Sullivan will be in the stands today to see their son Matt in his last home game (and his first action against Lehigh). But they’ll be back; Matt’s sister Katie, a lacrosse recruit, plans to enroll at Colgate next fall.
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