How a 0-4 Start Forged Holy Cross’ Late-Season Surge Behind Curran’s Loyal Staff

The 33-14 dismantling of No. 19 Richmond on November 7 didn’t look like a team that started 0-4. It looked like a program that had finally figured out who it was.

Sophomore running back Jojo Williams gashed the Spiders for 206 yards and three touchdowns, his fourth straight 100-yard game. The defense held Richmond to 209 total yards. Holy Cross moved to 4-2 in the Patriot League, tied for second, and 4-5 overall — a resurrection built not on schematic wizardry but on a coaching staff that refused to panic.

“You learn a lot about what you really have through game reps and competition,” offensive coordinator Matt Schell said. “For me, it was an eye-opening experience because you have an idea of what you think you can and can’t do, but that may not be true. You have to be able to adjust.”

The adjustment began with trust. Dan Curran, in his third season at Holy Cross, brought Bryan Robbat and Schell with him from Merrimack, where he spent 11 years becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach. Both earned promotions to coordinator this season — Robbat to defensive coordinator and associate head coach, Schell to offensive coordinator — after serving in supporting roles during Curran’s first two years on Mount St. James.

Their paths to this moment were unconventional. Robbat, a North Andover native, graduated UMass Dartmouth in 2015 and landed a quality-control gig at Merrimack through a connection: Pat Graham, the Warriors’ linebackers coach, knew Robbat’s mother. Curran gave him a project expected to take a week. Robbat finished in a day.

“I had no idea who he was,” Curran said. “I thought, ‘This guy might be on to something.'”

Robbat left for a year at New Hampshire, returned to Merrimack, climbed to assistant head coach and special teams coordinator by 2022, and followed Curran to Worcester. His defensive philosophy now fits on a napkin: “Attack, be relentless and break their soul. If you’re constantly attacking, and you can do that in multiple ways, and you’re relentless with your attack, you’ll eventually break them down and then you get the wins.”

Schell’s route ran through UMass, where he was a defensive graduate assistant and director of football operations, then a year at Pitt under Mark Whipple. Whipple, the 1998 Division I-AA national championship coach at UMass, called Curran on Schell’s behalf when the Merrimack job opened.

“He knew what I was looking for,” Curran said. “A dedicated and intelligent individual capable of connecting with players and relentless in recruiting and scheme development.”

Schell spent two years coaching Merrimack’s receivers before joining Curran at Holy Cross in 2024. “I learned a ton from Coach Whipple,” Schell said. “I wouldn’t be in coaching without him.”

The 0-4 start tested everything. Thirty-three new players had arrived. Early games revealed an offense overly reliant on the pass and a defense still learning its identity. The turning point, Robbat said, was a 38-28 loss to Yale in Week 4 — followed by a 38-30 win at Lafayette where defensive mistakes nearly cost them.

“You win small and then you start to win bigger,” Robbat said.

The offense found balance. Williams emerged as the catalyst, the first Holy Cross back with four consecutive 100-yard games since Jerome Fuller in 1991 — father of Jordan Fuller, who set program rushing touchdown records in 2023. Williams’ 206-yard effort against Richmond earned Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week and the Division 1 Gold Helmet Award.

“Everything we’ve been working on with these guys is coming to fruition,” Schell said. “Our players are doing an unbelievable job at the everyday, consistent build-up and executing at a higher level.”

Curran isn’t surprised. “You always have to be willing to continue to adapt and grow, I don’t care if you are in year one of being a coordinator or year 10,” he said. “Both those guys are more comfortable understanding our personnel, and their ability to put our players in the best position to be successful is often an overlooked trait by coaches. The Xs and Os are great, but it’s about players more than plays.”

Georgetown awaits Saturday. The Crusaders control their playoff destiny — a phrase that sounded absurd in September.