The Match-Up: The Leopards continue non-league play in week three when No. 15/17 William & Mary comes to Fisher Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. It's Family Weekend on College Hill as the teams play the seventh meeting in the series that began in 2012 and still has one Lafayette home game remaining.

The Week That Was: Lafayette battled Temple into the fourth quarter before a pair of blocked punts sealed the game for the Owls, 30-14. The game was played at Lincoln Financial Field, the Leopards' first game in a professional sports venue since playing in Yankee Stadium in 2014. Freshman QB Ryan Schuster completed 10-of-15 passes and threw for two touchdowns despite facing intense pressure (sacked eight times). The performance earned Schuster his second straight Patriot League Rookie of the Week honor. Senior LB Marco Olivas made a game-high 11 tackles, forced a fumble and also recovered a fumble. Fellow linebacker Jyaire Stevens made six stops with 1.5 TFL, forced a fumble and also recovered a fumble. 

Turnover Tales: In week two at Temple, the Lafayette defense handed the Leopards' a big win in the turnover battle. Lafayette forced three fumbles (all recovered by the defense) and did not turn over the ball. Lafayette is plus-three for the season. Lafayette started 2022 even vs. Sacred Heart, recovering two fumbles while giving up two interceptions.
    For the 2021 season, Lafayette was minus-one (-1) in turnovers with a record of 1-4 (Georgetown) when committing more turnovers than its opponent. The Leopards finished tied for 14th in the nation for fewest turnovers lost (11).

Reaching a Milestone: Malik Hamm recorded 1.5 sacks in the season-opening victory over Sacred Heart to become the program's all-time leader in the statistical category. With 25 career sacks, he is tied with Harrison Bailey '95 for 11th in career sacks in Patriot League history. Hamm already ranked ninth and 10th in single-season sacks at Lafayette with 8.0 in 2018, and 8.5 in 2019, respectively.

Year One In The Troxell Era: John Troxell is in his first season as head coach of the Lafayette Leopards. The '94 Lafayette alum returns to College Hill after a 16-year head coaching stint at Franklin & Marshall College. When Troxell first arrived at F&M, the Diplomats hadn't managed a winning season in 13 years. Four years later, after a full recruiting cycle, the Diplomats finished with a 9-2 record and continued to climb, subsequently reaching the postseason on nine occasions.
    Leopards fans are hoping for similar results on College Hill as the Maroon and White search for their first Patriot League title since 2013.
    Troxell has been a key ingredient in program rebuilds at each of his stops, and his time on College Hill as an assistant coach on Frank Tavani's staff was no exception. He served various roles as the running backs coach, recruiting coordinator and special teams coach from 2001-05. His selection as the recruiting coordinator in 2003 helped kick off a stretch of three straight titles for the Leopards in 2004, 2005 and 2006 that coincided with the program's first three NCAA FCS Playoff appearances.
    Prior to Lafayette, Troxell was part of a dramatic reversal at Muhlenberg College from 1997-2000 under head coach Mike Donnelly. He served multiple roles, working as the special teams coordinator (1997-99), quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach (1997-2000) and offensive coordinator (2000). Muhlenberg progressed from a 1-9 season in 1997 to the Eastern College Athletic Conference title with a record of 9-2 in 2000. In 2000, under Troxell's tutelage, the offense ranked 22nd in the nation and led the Centennial Conference in total offense (427.8 ypg) while averaging 31.0 points per game.
    Troxell joined the Muhlenberg staff after serving as an assistant coach for three seasons (1994-96) at Columbia University under head coach Ray Tellier, beginning his career path of coaching at elite academic institutions. In 1996, Troxell oversaw a secondary that recorded the third-best passing defense in the country. The turnaround tendency first showed itself at Columbia in 1994 when the Ivy League school recorded its first winning season in 23 seasons. An 8-2 mark and the program's best finish in 15 years followed in 1996.
    His first extended stint on College Hill came as a student-athlete from 1990-94, when he earned his bachelor's degree in government and law. Troxell was the starting free safety on the Leopards' 1992 Patriot League Championship team and received the Unsung Hero Award as a senior. He completed his master's degree in sociology and education in 1997 while on staff at Columbia.

Ringing The Bell: Among many changes for the John Troxell era is addition of a bell on the sideline. In lieu of a turnover chain, title belt, etc., Troxell has brought in the bell which a player will ring after securing a turnover or scoring a touchdown or a field goal. Troxell said that it symbolizes the "hard-fought battle" that is football. 
    Senior WR Joe Gillette, who finished cancer treatment this past summer, was the first to ring the bell on the Friday walk through before the season opener. For those undergoing cancer treatment, ringing a bell at the hospital is symbolic of part of ending cancer treatment or portions of it, which Gillette had done and why he was chosen to be the first to ring the bell.  
    "There wasn't one time he ever thought of quitting. No matter how bad it got, he never thought of it. He was here every single day," Troxell told the team. "So when you ring that bell, no matter if it's week 11, 10, 9, it's because you're not going to quit on each other. We'll keep fighting to the end."

The Opponent: William & Mary (2-0) enters ranked No. 15 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll and 17th in the Coaches Poll. The Tribe opened 2022 with wins over Charlotte (41-24) and Campbell (37-21) when a potent rushing attack was on display. W&M has averaged 287 rushing yards per game. 
    Senior Bronson Yoder has run for 215 yards and a TD while soph. Malachi Imoh has 143 yards and three scores in two games. Soph. QB Darius Wilson is a dual threat,completing 63 percent of his passes for 341 yards and three TD while running for 86 yards. He was one of four players to rush for more the 400 yards in 2021. 
    Senior WR Lachlan Pitts has five catches for 122 yards and a TD. Auburn transfer Caylin Newton, brother of former NFL MVP Cam Newton, has four catches in two games, bolstering a wide receiver corps that saw its top two targets graduate. 
    Defensively, soph. LB John Pius has 17 tackles in two games with 6.5 tackles for loss. Fellow linebacker senior Trey Watkins led the team with 76 tackles a year ago and already has 14 stops in 2022.
    William & Mary is coached by Mike London who is in his fourth season at the Williamsburg, Va.-based school. 

Last Meeting: Lafayette's outstanding defensive effort, which held William and Mary without an offensive touchdown through nearly three quarters, saw the Leopards come up short in a 24-3 final on Sept. 11, 2021.
     A blocked punt and an interception led to the hosts first two scores (a FG and a TD), and then the Tribe added a 38-yard TD on a fluke reception with seven seconds left in the third quarter that put the game out of reach.
     Micah Pettit's 47-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, the first of his career, accounted for all of Lafayette's scoring, and was the longest field goal for a Leopard kicker since Sept. 12, 2015 (Jacob Bissell).  
     The Leopards used two quarterbacks, splitting time between starter Aaron Angelos and classmate Rent Montie. Montie saw the bulk of the action, completing 24-of-41 for 188 yards with two picks. Defensively, linebackers Major Jordan and Marco Olivas combined for 18 tackles for the Leopards (0-2). The Maroon and White held William and Mary's offense to 173 yards and just seven first downs.