Recruits: North Carolina and West Virginia
Dick Biddle called it his best championship ever.
Actually, Biddle included the word “probably” in his postgame assessment of Colgate’s 35-24 victory at Lehigh in 2012 – just in case one of his six other Patriot League titles was every bit as sweet.
But Biddle and the large Raiders contingent that swarmed the Goodman Stadium field at game’s end seemed to be in seventh heaven as the conference championship trophy was passed among players, coaches and fans.
“It was a great win for Colgate and for our assistant coaches, but I’m really happy for the players,” Biddle said. “That senior group hadn’t won a championship and would have been my first not to get a ring while they were at Colgate. Now they will cherish it for the rest of their lives.”
Biddle enters his 18th season as Colgate’s Fred '50 and Marilyn Dunlap Head Football Coach, and he stands as the winningest football coach in school history with an overall mark of 133-65 (.672). He became the inaugural Dunlap Chair for Football in April 2012.
Biddle was named Colgate’s 29th head football coach in November 1995 after serving as an assistant coach for a total of 10 years with the Raiders. He was given the job of rebuilding a Colgate program that hadn’t seen a winning season since 1990.
He has achieved the best winning percentage of any Colgate coach with seven or more years at the helm of the Raiders. Biddle also is the first Colgate coach to ever record nine straight seasons (1997-2005) with seven or more victories. In addition, last season marked his 14th campaign with at least seven victories.
Biddle is 78-24 against Patriot League opponents and 38-9 against the Ivy League.
Coach of the Year – Again
In 2012, he was named Patriot League Coach of the Year for the fifth time while guiding the Raiders to their seventh Patriot League title and seventh appearance in the NCAA playoffs.
Biddle in 2003 was named the American Football Coaches Association Division I-AA (now FCS) National Coach of the Year after leading the Raiders to a 15-1 record and berth in the national championship game.
In 2012 under Biddle, the Raiders finished third nationally in scoring offense, fourth in total offense and fifth in rushing offense. That makes five times Colgate has landed in the top 10 nationally in rushing and three times in total offense.
Quarterback Gavin McCarney and tailback Jordan McCord – Colgate’s Double-Mac Attack – finished the 2012 season with the unique distinction as the nation’s No. 1- and No. 2-ranked scorers. Both rushed for 23 touchdowns, with McCarney gaining the edge with a two-point conversion run against Georgetown. He finished with 140 points to McCord’s 138.
“Gavin’s season ranks right up there with the best I’ve seen at Colgate,” Biddle said of his QB. “He made everybody around him a better football player, and that’s what you look for in a quarterback.
“And Jordan plays one year at running back and rushes for 1,700 yards and makes All-League. Add to that the fact that if McCarney wasn’t so good, you could have put his yardage into Jordan’s and he would have had even more yards. To have 1,700 yards while your quarterback gains 1,400 is quite a story.”
On the defensive side, Colgate four times has been ranked in the top 10 in rushing defense, once in pass defense and once in total defense.
“The key with the defense was what they did in the Lehigh game,” Biddle said. “Shutting them out in the second half when we were down 10 points was the highlight of the whole year for the defense. They didn’t allow anything that second half and we were able to score three touchdowns.”
Wins from the Start
In his first Colgate season as head coach back in 1996, Biddle not only produced a winning campaign but also became just the third head coach in Division I history to record a winning record the season after a team suffered through an 0-11 campaign.
For his effort, Biddle was selected by his peers as the Patriot League Coach of the Year for the first time and was named the co-recipient of Colgate’s Howard Hartman Coach of the Year Award.
In his second season, he brought home the program’s first Patriot League championship along with Colgate’s first appearance in the NCAA playoffs since 1983. His back-to-back winning seasons were the first at Colgate since 1982-83, and Biddle’s effort again was recognized with a second straight selection as Colgate’s Coach of the Year.
In 1998, Biddle produced eight victories en route to a second straight appearance in the NCAA playoffs. His victory total was the highest since the 1983 campaign. He continued Colgate’s success story in 1999 with the school’s second Patriot League championship and third consecutive playoff berth. En route to the postseason, the Raiders tied the school record for victories in a season with 10.
For that effort, Biddle was named a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the top coach in Division I-AA.
The Raiders finished second in the Patriot League standings in both 2000 (7-4) and 2001 (7-3), but returned to championship form in 2002 with a 9-3 mark that set the stage for the following season’s national title run. Biddle that year became Colgate’s first three-time winner of the Howard Hartman Award.
Who Needs Scholarships?
The 2003 campaign was arguably the greatest in school history when the Raiders captured the imagination of the collegiate football world, becoming the first non-scholarship program to advance to the title game of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
En route, Colgate won a school record 15 contests to establish a Division I-AA record for victories in a season. Among those triumphs were playoff victories over Massachusetts (19-7), Western Illinois (28-27) and Florida Atlantic (36-24) – the latter on the road. Running back Jamaal Branch captured Colgate’s second Walter Payton Award as national player of the year.
After finishing 2004 with a 7-4 mark, the Raiders captured their fifth Patriot League title the following fall along with a berth in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. It was the fifth time in 10 seasons that Colgate had won eight or more games, finishing 8-4.
The Raiders bounced back from their first losing season in 2006 with a 7-4 record and second-place finish in the Patriot League the following year. In 2008, Colgate captured its sixth Patriot League title with a perfect 5-0 mark, and finished with an overall record of 9-3. Biddle earned his fourth Patriot League Coach of the Year award.
Colgate posted records of 9-2 and 7-4 in 2009 and 2010, respectively, to hand Biddle his 12th and 13th seasons of seven or more victories.
Back on the Raiders Sideline
Biddle returned to Colgate in 1992 as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach under Mike Foley. He previously had coached at Colgate under the legendary Fred Dunlap from 1977-82, serving as defensive line coach all six seasons and adding the defensive coordinator’s duties the last two years.
During that tenure, Colgate posted five winning seasons including the first 10-win campaign in the school’s history in 1977. The Raiders also made their first NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearance in 1982.
“Of all the places I’ve coached, I always considered Colgate as my best experience,” Biddle said. “It’s a great school and has a national reputation in regards to its academic and athletic programs. It is an honor and privilege to be the head coach of Colgate football. I feel that I’m representing all the great players and coaches who have worked at Colgate.”
After leaving Colgate in 1982, he joined the staff at Virginia Tech where he worked with the linebackers for two campaigns.
Biddle then was an assistant coach at Minnesota for five years (1985-89), the first season under Lou Holtz. Following Holtz’s departure for Notre Dame, Biddle served as linebacker coach under John Gutekunst for four seasons -- the last three as defensive coordinator.
Biddle coached two seasons (1990-91) at Navy, where he served as linebacker coach in his first year and defensive coordinator and linebacker coach in the second.
First Time Around
He came to Colgate the first time from Division III Allegheny in Pennsylvania, where he began his coaching career in 1973. During his first year at Allegheny, he coached the defensive line and wide receivers. For the last three seasons, he was in charge of both the defensive and offensive lines and linebackers.
In his second assistant coaching stint with the Raiders (1992-95), after Biddle was wide receiver coach for one season and running backs coach for two campaigns under head coach Ed Sweeney.
Biddle has also coached in three Bowl games: the 1984 and 1985 Independence Bowls while at Virginia Tech and Minnesota, respectively, and the 1986 Liberty Bowl with Minnesota. He also coached in the 1989 Blue-Gray All-Star Game.
A 1971 graduate of Duke University, Biddle was an All-ACC linebacker for two seasons. The former Blue Devils co-captain received Associated Press All-America third-team honors in his senior year and was a participant in the Blue-Gray and Hula Bowl games.
Biddle was a three-time winner of Duke’s Hatchet Award, given to the most valuable player on defense. In his final year, he also received the Blue Devil Club Award as the senior who contributed the most to the team. Biddle later was elected to the All-Century Team at his alma mater.
The Parkersburg, W.Va., native was All-State in football and won three letters in wrestling for Parkersburg High School. He and his wife, Sheila, are the parents of two sons, Jason and Brendon. Jason earned his undergraduate degree from SUNY Geneseo and his MBA from RIT, while Brendon graduated from Colgate in 2003 and lettered four years in football.
