Holy Cross Preview

The Bulldogs head to Worcester, MA to face the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 2 PM ET and the game will air on ESPN+.

This is the opening contest of the Kevin Cahill era in New Haven. Cahill spent 2012-22 on the Yale staff, the last five seasons as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, before leaving for Lehigh, where he went 23-14 with back-to-back Patriot League titles and took home the 2025 Eddie Robinson Award. He knows this opponent as well as anyone on either sideline, holding a 2-1 record against Holy Cross from his Mountain Hawk days, while Dan Curran is 0-2 against Yale. Elis enter ranked #19 nationally and were picked first in the Ivy League preseason poll, drawing 15 of the 16 first-place votes after sharing the 2025 title and winning an FCS Playoff game at Youngstown State.

Holy Cross enters the contest with an 0-3 record after facing a brutal trio of Lehigh, Colgate and Miami (OH). Unlike last September, none of these have been close. The Crusaders fell 35-10 at home to #11 Lehigh, dropped an identical 35-10 decision at Colgate, and were beaten 45-7 at FBS Miami (Ohio). Holy Cross has been outscored 115-27 on the season, averaging 9.0 points per game while surrendering 38.3, and is being outgained 425.7 to 300.7 yards per game at 5.1 yards per play to the opposition’s 7.6. That follows a 3-9 campaign in 2025 that snapped a run of six consecutive Patriot League titles or shared titles, and the Crusaders were picked sixth in the league’s preseason poll. Still, this is a dangerous spot for an opener. Holy Cross has three games of live reps and Yale has none, the Crusaders are rounding into midseason shape, and Fitton Field will be full for Family Weekend. This is an early test as always.

The Crusaders’ offense is led by junior QB David Lynch (6’3″, 215 lbs.), a Pittsburgh transfer who returns close to his native East Greenwich, R.I., after seeing action in three games for the Panthers in 2024, including the GameAbove Sports Bowl against Toledo. Lynch has completed 57.0% of his passes for 718 yards with 2 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, a 113.91 rating, and has managed just 22 net rushing yards on 12 carries. He put up a 313-yard game on 25-of-40 passing against Lehigh and 264 yards at Colgate before being held to 141 yards on 13-of-25 at Miami. Senior QB Cal Swanson (6’3″, 210 lbs.), who started the first six games of 2025 before a season-ending injury, and sophomore QB Dominic Campanile (6’1″, 220 lbs.) are both available and have Division I starts on their résumés. Sophomore RB Joseph Williams (5’7″, 180 lbs.) is the leading returner and was named to Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List” as one of the most explosive athletes in college football, though he has managed only 96 yards on 38 carries (2.5 per attempt) with the team’s lone rushing touchdown. Junior RB Jake Croce (5’11”, 208 lbs.), a Saint Anselm transfer with nearly 1,200 career yards and 10 touchdowns, and junior RB Datrell Jones (5’10”, 185 lbs.), a Boston College transfer, round out a committee that has produced just 61.3 rushing yards per game at 2.4 per carry. Junior WR Ty Curran (5’11”, 190 lbs.) leads the receiving corps with 12 catches for 163 yards, including a career day of 130 yards on seven receptions at Colgate. Junior WR Myles Abernathy (6’3″, 210 lbs.), a Georgia State transfer, has 10 grabs for 138 yards in two appearances. Sophomore WR Lincoln Fisher (6’2″, 200 lbs.) is the big-play threat on the outside at 15.7 yards per reception with a touchdown and a long of 32, and he had a breakout game against Yale a year ago. Junior WR SirCharles Gordon (6’3″, 195 lbs.) has six catches for 86 yards with a 36-yard long, and sophomore TE Drae Tyme (6’5″, 250 lbs.) is averaging 20.25 yards a catch with a 59-yard reception, the longest play of the Crusader season. The offensive line is headlined by fifth-year C Cam Nolan (6’3″, 305 lbs.), a two-time captain, Preseason All-American, Preseason All-Patriot League selection, 2025 first-team All-Patriot League and All-New England honoree, and the team’s offensive player of the year, who slides inside to center after 20 consecutive starts at right guard. He is flanked by senior LT Bradford Blattner (6’6″, 310 lbs.) and senior RT Bennett Nunnally (6’5″, 300 lbs.), both returning starters, with transfer guards Kuba Tyszka (6’6″, 300 lbs.) of North Dakota and Theo Bachelder (6’6″, 315 lbs.) of Old Dominion expected to make an instant impact. The projected front five averages 306.0 lbs. across the board, and the group has actually protected Lynch reasonably well — just two sacks allowed in three games, though 18 tackles for loss surrendered. The key for the Bulldogs in this contest will be to force the Crusaders to drive the length of the field and limit the explosive plays, because nothing in three games suggests Holy Cross can string together twelve-play marches. The Crusaders are converting just 34.4% on third down and have scored on only five of nine red zone trips for 27 total points, giving the ball away twice inside the 20 and failing on downs twice more.

Holy Cross returns talent on defense, but the unit has not been able to generate pressure or takeaways. Senior Edge Carlo Crocetti (6’3″, 240 lbs.) is a stud and the team’s top returning tackler. He posted 48 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks for 66 yards in 2025, the most sacks on the team, along with an interception and four quarterback hurries, and he has moved from off-ball linebacker to a full-time edge role after starting every game at linebacker a season ago. Senior LB Adam Due (6’2″, 220 lbs.) has been the most active defender on the roster with a team-best 27 tackles, including a 13-stop performance at Colgate, after a breakout 2025 that produced 47 tackles, five tackles for loss, two sacks, two forced fumbles, an interception and two blocked punts. Junior LB Will Miller (6’2″, 220 lbs.) is second on the team with 20 tackles, and junior LB Ron Burton (6’0″, 205 lbs.) has added 13 with 1.5 tackles for loss. Junior LB Jalen Rambert (6’1″, 240 lbs.), a Wofford transfer who led the Terriers with 89 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss last season, brings real experience to the second level. Senior S Garrett Baldwin (6’0″, 190 lbs.) has been the most complete player in the secondary with 12 tackles, three pass breakups and the team’s only sack. Senior S Chisom Onwuzurigbo (6’1″, 200 lbs.) is a captain and a four-year contributor who recorded 31 tackles, an interception and a team-leading four pass breakups in 2025, while junior S Braden Haas (6’1″, 205 lbs.) owns the lone Crusader interception this season. Sophomore CB Cam Boone (5’11”, 180 lbs.), a Robert Morris transfer, leads the team with four pass breakups, and junior CB Juju Tackie (5’11”, 210 lbs.) arrives from Wake Forest. The defensive line has been almost entirely rebuilt through the portal with junior DL Cooper Ackerman (6’4″, 260 lbs.) from UConn, junior DL Gabe Flores (6’1″, 270 lbs.) from Chattanooga, junior DL Aidan Horodnik (6’2″, 285 lbs.) from Stonehill and junior DL Brady Fodor (6’3″, 285 lbs.) from UConn joining sophomore DT Vin Ferrara (6’1″, 280 lbs.), who totaled 25 tackles in 11 games as a freshman. The results so far have been thin: seven tackles for loss, one sack and one interception in three games, with opponents completing 67.3% at 11.69 yards per attempt and eight passing touchdowns. Yale has to protect Reno at all costs — Crocetti is the one man on that front capable of wrecking a series, and the Bulldogs set a high bar by allowing only 13 sacks over 12 games in 2025. The Elis will also need to win in the trenches in run blocking to give the new backs opportunities. From there it is about exploiting coverage gaps. Smith and Wagner need heavy looks — TE Graham Smith caught nine balls for two touchdowns and both tight ends are built to punish a secondary that has been chasing all month. Nobody has a snap of tape on the Cahill offense at Yale, which cuts both ways, but if the front does not create movement early, use the pass game to open the run game rather than banging the head against it.

Sophomore K Owen Saraceno (5’8″, 170 lbs.) has been perfect but untested, going 2-for-2 on field goals with both attempts coming from the 20-29 range and a long of 26, along with a clean 3-for-3 on extra points. He handles kickoffs as well, averaging 61.9 yards with two touchbacks after averaging 58.8 yards with seven touchbacks in 2025. Junior P Ethan Moss (5’10”, 190 lbs.) handled all punting duties a year ago and was the hero of the Richmond win, averaging 45.1 yards on seven attempts with a career-long 67-yarder and a late 56-yard boot that pinned the Spiders at their own three, but he has struggled badly this fall at 36.40 yards per punt with a long of 43 and, remarkably, not a single punt downed inside the 20. As a team, Holy Cross is averaging 33.15 yards per punt with a net of 28.23 and has already had one blocked, while opponents are netting 41.25 against them with four punts inside the 20. That is roughly a free first down on every exchange, and Yale should feast on it. Reese Keeney averaged 41.39 yards on 41 punts last season with a 36.0 net, a long of 63, five boots of 50-plus, nine inside the 20 and zero blocked, while Noah Piper connected on 13 of 15 field goals at 86.7%, hit all eight attempts inside 40 yards, went 4-for-6 from 40-49 with a long of 50, and converted 31 of 32 extra points for 70 points. The return game tilts the same direction. Yale averaged 25.0 yards per kickoff return in 2025 behind Joshua Tarver’s 27.5-yard average and 63-yard long, while allowing only 14.94, and Holy Cross is averaging 16.75 on kickoff returns and a nearly nonexistent 2.33 on punt returns with a long of six. The one soft spot for the Elis is punt return, where they managed just 5.36 yards per attempt last season while allowing 12.10 — and there is yardage to be had, as Holy Cross has already surrendered 9.14 per punt return and a return touchdown this year. Two words of caution: Due blocked two punts in 2025 and the protection unit cannot fall asleep on him, and the Crusaders have a new special teams coordinator in Jimmy Walsh, meaning Yale gets a first look at whatever fakes and pressures have been saved up. For an 0-3 home team facing a ranked opponent on Family Weekend, a trick play in the third quarter is exactly the sort of thing that keeps them breathing. Yale’s special teams units will need to limit the mental mistakes to secure a win.

Go Bulldogs! Beat the Crusaders!