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• Eight of the Bison’s 11 opponents from 2018 remain on their 2019 schedule, with Princeton, Temple and Towson taking the place of Monmouth, Penn and William & Mary. While they have faced the three new additions to their slate a combined 76 times, they most recently took on the Owls in 1970 (L, 3-10), the Towson Tigers in 2003 (W, 14-10) and the Princeton Tigers in 2011 (W, 34-9). • Bucknell’s 2019 opponents went a combined 65-59 (.524) a year ago, with its five non-conference foes going an impressive 37-20 (.650). Colgate (10-2) and Princeton (10-0) reached the 10-win threshold, each winning a league title. Three other teams posted a winning record while three finished a single game below .500. In addition, Temple took part in the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl while Colgate and Towson made the NCAA Division I Football Championship. At various points in the 2018 campaign, Colgate, Princeton, Towson and Villanova appeared in the FCS’s top 10 • Bucknell and Temple met every season from 1927 to 1970, with the winner receiving “The Old Shoe” trophy. The Owls will be the Bison’s first FBS foe since 2015, when they put up a strong fight in a 21-14 loss at Army West Point. Bucknell is 0-6 against FBS schools since the FBS/FCS classification began in 1978. • For the 42nd-consecutive season, the Bison are set to square off against an Ivy League opponent. They have played at least one Ivy League team every year since 1978, taking on Cornell (57) the most. Penn (35) and 2019 opponent Princeton (16) round out the top three. • Bucknell has played Pennsylvania rivals Lafayette and Lehigh a combined 178 times, which accounts for almost 15 percent of its games in program history. The Bison and Mountain Hawks are set to meet for the 83rd time while Bucknell’s game against the Leopards will be their 97th. • The Bison return an All-American in P Alex Pechin, who enters 2019 with the school record in career punting average (43.7). In 2018, Pechin captured six All-America awards, making the Athlon Sports Team, the STATS, Phil Steele and Hero Sports First Teams and the AP and AFCA Second Teams; notably, he became Bucknell’s first specialist to garner All-America laurels from the AFCA and AP. In 2017, he was honored on the STATS Third Team. • Bucknell returns two All-Patriot League players in LB Simeon Page (1st in ‘18, 2nd in ‘17) and Pechin (1st in ‘18, ‘17 & ‘15). Both Page and Pechin were voted to the 2019 Preseason All-Patriot League Team. The Bison graduated three All-Patriot League honorees following the 2018 season: WR Alan Butler (2nd in ‘18), OL Pat Finn (2nd in ‘18) and CB Bryan Marine (1st in ‘16, 2nd in ‘18). • Pechin, who was granted a fifth year of eligibility due to a season-ending injury suffered as a sophomore, has a team-best 35 games under his belt. Only two seniors have played in at least 25 games: WR Justin Bethea (28) and TE Marcus Ademilola (26). Two juniors, OL P.J. Barr and DL Roger Mellado, have appeared in all 22 of the Bison’s games since they arrived in Lewisburg. • Ten players on Bucknell’s 2019 roster enter the campaign with at least 10 career starts: Barr (19), Bethea (17), Mellado (17), TE Alex Twiford (16), LB Sam Chitty (12), Page (12), S Brandon Benson (11), QB John Chiarolanzio (11),
MARCUS ADEMILOLA OL Erik Lukner (10) and OL Justis Peppers (10). Of that group, six are juniors and four are seniors. • Bucknell returns a total of 53 letterwinners in 2019, a group that includes two fifth years, 19 seniors, 22 juniors and 10 sophomores. Pechin is a four-time letterwinner. Six seniors are three-time letterwinners: Ademilola, Bethea, Chiarolanzio, Chitty, LB Jon Fox and DL John Hunt. • The following Bison changed position groups ahead of the 2019 campaign: Luke Hamper (LB from DE), Renn Lints (WR from QB), Stefone Moore-Green (WR from RB) and Jake Wilson (WR from QB). In addition, Joe Fex could be utilized as both a running back and wide receiver. • The following Bison changed numbers ahead of the 2019 campaign: TE Simon Behr (#81 from #94), Benson (#3 from #36), LB Max Bunzel (#32 from #49), S Eric Butler (#27 from #28), DL Brandon Crkvenac (#97 from #92), CB Sterling Deary (#2 from #16), CB Micah Dennis (#8 from #23), Fex (#26 from #31) and WR Blais Herman (#9 from #86). • At the conclusion of the 2018-19 school year, Pechin became the third football player to be recognized as the Patriot League Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, joining fellow Bison David Berardinelli (1992-93) and Lehigh’s Nick Martucci (1998-99). Earlier that year, the Biomedical Engineering/Management for Engineers double major became the Patriot League’s fifth repeat Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year, joining fellow Bison Berardinelli (1991 & 1992), Rob Glus (1993 & 1994) and Travis Nissley (2009 & 2010) and Fordham’s Barry Cantrell (1996 & 1997). • LB Rick Mottram, a Mechanical Engineering major with a perfect 4.0 GPA through his first four college semesters, captured CoSIDA Academic All-District II honors in 2018. At least one Bison has received this distinction 16 of the 19 seasons since 2000, including the past five in a row. The Bucknell football program also boasts 24 national Academic All-Americans, with the most recent being RB Matt DelMauro (1st team) in 2015. • The Bison placed a league-best 45 student-athletes on the 2018 Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. Of the team’s honorees, 26 made the Bucknell Dean’s List by posting a GPA of 3.50 or higher. Four players—Chiarolanzio, DL Alex Jordan, Mottram and Wilson—recorded grade point averages north of 3.90. It was the third-straight year the Bison boasted at least 40 Patriot League Academic Honor Roll members as they had a school-record 48 in 2017 and 46 in 2016.
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• Bucknell is entering its 134th season of football. Dave Cecchini, the 27th head coach in program history, is in his first season at the helm. Most recently the head coach at Valparaiso, he has a long track record of building explosive offenses at elite academic institutions. Previously the offensive coordinator at Lehigh, The Citadel and Harvard, his offenses have shattered school records at his every stop, propelling his teams to a combined seven conference championships. An All-American wide receiver at Lehigh during his playing days in the early 1990s, he spent 13 of his 24 seasons as a coach at his alma mater.