Ethan Gallo is making a name for himself in the Cortland backfield, even as last year's All-America running back, Jaden AlfanoStJohn, remains in a Red Dragon uniform at wide receiver. Photo by Sofia Ammirati for Cortland athletics

By Greg Thomas
D3sports.com

There were big storylines everywhere in Division III this week. Mary Hardin-Baylor made a loud statement and a return to the national spotlight by winning their duel with fellow purple power, UW-Whitewater. Salisbury continued their torrid start by knocking out Johns Hopkins, and we saw some of the best teams in Division III’s best conference (it’s still the WIAC) measure their mettle against Division II opponents. 

Amid all of those fireworks, Cortland rallied to defeat Susquehanna 40-38 and in doing so let the Division know that the champs aren’t going away easily.

In 2024, Cortland’s Curt Fitzpatrick is the one head coach that can prepare his team for a new season as the defending champion. Despite winning a championship for the first time, Fitzpatrick’s focus was to have his team looking ahead. “Basically, once we got to spring practice we started talking about turning the page. The dangerous thing for a coach is your team assuming that you're going to have success in the future because you had success in the past. That's a coach's worst nightmare – this coach anyway!” 

Fitzpatrick continued: “It's a new team and now the challenge isn't winning the national championship. The challenge is to start all over again and try to build your team the best way. So the process doesn't change from year to year.”

Senior defensive lineman Nick Lardaro told Around the Nation about how he’s focused on just the 119th edition of Red Dragons football. “I would argue this year, ironically, we're trying to forget about last year. We're a different team. We're the 119, not the 118. We're very internally focused and we're trying to make this team unique and special and trying to build this team as opposed to just trying to carry on from last year, trying to make this team new.”

While there are plenty of 118’s returning to Cortland this season, the Red Dragons raised some eyebrows when people noticed that D3football.com Fourth Team All-American running back Jaden AlfanoStJohn would be changing positions to play wide receiver in 2024. Fitzpatrick acknowledged the challenge of changing too much from a championship team. “Yeah, it is difficult, with Jaden's situation specifically, in the offseason, thinking about how we can utilize our best players,” Fitzpatrick said. “Jaden's such a talented player. He's more than just a running back. We never needed him to catch the ball much in the past because of the receivers that we had but we felt good about the depth in our running back room and we wanted to play some of our best guys and still maintain the explosiveness that we had on the perimeter.”

Cortland entered the offseason with questions on the perimeter. After graduating Cole Burgess (currently signed to Cincinnati Bengals practice squad) and JJ Laap (played for the L.A. Rams this preseason), finding new threats like AlfanoStJohn on the outside was a priority for Fitzpatrick. “It was really from a problem-solving mindset. That’s how I tried to think of it. Don’t just do what you've done just because you had success. We’ve got to think sometimes outside the box and solve problems in unique ways.”

Sophomore running back Ethan Gallo has been part of that creative problem solving for Fitzpatrick. Before you can be comfortable moving an All-America running back to a new position, a coach needs to be confident in who will fill that role. Gallo has answered the call with nine touchdowns already this season, including three in Saturday’s win. 

Despite registering just six carries in his rookie season in 2023, Gallo learned a lot from the Red Dragon veterans. “It's amazing having guys like Jaden, and going back to last year, guys like Ashton Capone to be leaders for me and show me the ropes.” Gallo said. 

Even though they don’t share the running back room any more, AlfanoStJohn continues to be a source of leadership for Gallo. “I didn't really know what it was going to be like having Jaden at receiver. Having him and his knowledge – he's started for the past three years so there's a lot of knowledge and we're pretty close.”

Teams rarely win championships without having to win close games. Cortland is no stranger to dramatic wins during their win streak, now at 15 games. Cortland leaned into that experience on Saturday after falling behind 14-0 and 24-7. “I felt confident Saturday when we were behind because of our experience in the playoffs,” said Fitzpatrick. “Because we had so much belief and trust in the 60 minute game whether you're ahead or behind against a good team, you have to play all four quarters.”

Even in a reserve role last year, Gallo learned the importance of four quarters as Cortland’s 2023 season went through dramatic moments on the way to the championship. “We saw a lot of adversity. We were down and in a lot of close games. We won by one more than once. Games came down to field goals and extra points. Stuff like that just shows how every play matters and it's got to be a this-play mentality every single game, no matter who you're playing, no matter the week,” Gallo said. 

Lardaro agreed, noting that those experiences have cultivated confidence within the team. “We're down in the first quarter, we give up three touchdowns and we don't have an answer yet,” Lardaro said of Saturday’s game. “There's not one person pointing fingers. I've been here for three years and I've seen that a few times. Not this game. Everyone was just listening to the coach, we're talking on the headset to our position coach, we're talking to each other. ‘What do you see out there? What can we fix?’ Not one person is blaming another guy.”

That unwavering confidence in one another keyed Cortland’s run to a national championship in 2023 and after Saturday’s rally at Susquehanna, the Red Dragons are poised to make another run at the championship. Said Lardaro, “That's a veteran mindset, that's maturity, and that's something you love to see.” 

Top 25 Talk

It was an interesting week in the Top 25, to say the least. Susquehanna played great in their game against Cortland and moved up in the poll despite the loss. UW-La Crosse also impressed, going to the wire with Division II’s No. 2 team, Grand Valley State. The Eagles were similarly rewarded despite losing, moving up to No. 3 in the D3football.com Top 25. Indeed, I am one of the voters that moved the Eagles up, going from No. 8 on my ballot last week to No. 3. Susquehanna did not move on my ballot, but I had the River Hawks slotted at No. 6 already and am still higher on Susquehanna than the poll average. 

Teams rising while losing is one oddity this week, but we also have teams that won and moved down. Wheaton thoroughly dominated Augustana 42-3, but slid down one spot from 18 to 19. The Thunder only lost two points in the poll (out of a total of 8,125 points available, so the nominal difference here is negligible), but Wheaton’s position has to be anchored somewhat to that of UW-Oshkosh who defeated Wheaton in Week 1. The Titans lost 44-7 to Division II Michigan Tech. A loss of that magnitude, even to a Division II opponent is going to cause a slide and Oshkosh’s slide inevitably limits Wheaton’s ability to move up. Wheaton moved backward on my ballot as well, from 16 to 17. UW-Oshkosh is currently No. 16 on my ballot.

Another team sliding after a big win is Linfield. Linfield is not currently on my top 25, but I suspect ballots that do have Linfield treated them similar to Wheaton. 

And of course, what do voters do with Mary Hardin-Baylor, unranked last week, doubling up the former No. 3 team UW-Whitewater. The Crusaders made a massive statement on Saturday and launched their way back into the Top 25. I ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor No. 14. Where does that put UW-Whitewater? At this point in the season, I try to honor head-to-head results (see the Wheaton-Oshkosh pairing above). I placed the Warhawks just behind UMHB at No. 15. It was hard for me to move Whitewater too far behind Mount Union given the common opponent results with John Carroll between those two teams. 

In the end, my Top 10 for Week 3 looks like this:

Seven Ways to Saturday 

Whether you need to recap the week that was or get ready for the week to come, D3football.com is your daily source for fresh Division III football content. We’re bringing the content seven ways to Saturday. 

Sunday: New Top 25 Poll

Monday: Around The Nation podcast. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas recap the weekend that was and preview the weekend to come in Division III football.

Tuesday: Team of the Week Honors

Wednesday: Features columns

Thursday: Around The Nation Column

Friday: Quick Hits featuring our panel’s predictions and insights into the weekend’s games

Saturday: Game Day! The D3football.com Scoreboard has all of your links for stats and broadcasts. 

I’d Like to Thank …

Special thanks to Curt Fitzpatrick, Ethan Gallo, and Nick Lardaro for spending time with Around The Nation this week. Additional thanks to SUNY Cortland Sports Information Director Fran Elia for coordinating our conversations this week! 

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There’s nothing small about small college football. Division III is home to 240 teams, and many thousands of student-athletes and coaches. There are so many more stories out there than I can find on my own. Please share your stories that make Division III football so special for all of us! Reach out to me at greg.thomas@d3sports.com or on X @wallywabash to share your stories.