Norwin grad Kadosh-Harris plays key role in helping Washington & Jefferson football win PAC title, make NCAA playoffs

As he sat on the platform during Presidents Athletic Conference football media day in August, Washington & Jefferson coach Mike Sirianni made no secret of the chip his team would carry on its collective shoulder. In the veteran coach’s estimation, his program wasn’t receiving the respect it deserved, even though it had been chosen to win the PAC.

“We don’t get talked about. We don’t get voted in the top 25 because we don’t post stuff on Twitter every 20 seconds,” Sirianni said at the time. “We felt disrespected. We still do.

“We talked a lot about toughness this offseason. … If you’re going to beat us this year, you’re going to have to kill us.”

After an 0-2 start, during which the Presidents gave up a combined 87 points to Utica and Hampden-Sydney, the season looked to be on life support. Once PAC play started, W&J got new life.

Saturday’s 67-0 throttling of Thiel was the Presidents’ eighth win in a row, all in PAC play. They were rarely challenged and, in fact, had the conference regular-season title and a spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs wrapped up even before the finale.

A revamped defense — the Presidents (8-2, 8-0) had to replace six starters — played a big role, surrendering a mere 8.5 points and 215.4 yards per game to PAC opponents. Both numbers were tops in the conference.

Norwin grad Nathaniel Kadosh-Harris is one of the players who stepped up to fill a void in the defense. The junior lineman — W&J’s defensive line was all new — contributed 26 total tackles (including 5 1/2 sacks), three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

“Personally, nothing special,” Kadosh-Harris (5-foot-10, 220 pounds) said when asked about his play. “I just trust my abilities and trust that the coaches are going to call the plays to put us in the best situations.

“Our DBs do a good job of making sure we have time to get to the quarterback. My other defensive linemen do a great job of forcing pressure on the QB, and a lot of my sacks can come from him just being pushed out of the pocket toward me.”

His biggest game came Nov. 1 against Case Western Reserve. The Presidents were up 28-17 in the fourth quarter, and CWRU had the ball looking to rally late. On third-and-12, Kadosh-Harris sacked Spartans quarterback Sam DiTillio, caused him to fumble then recovered the ball himself to seal the win.

“It’s a night game, big crowd, a deciding game for the (NCAA) playoffs,” he said. “You want to go out there and be the one to make the play and be the one to help your team win, so I was just very fortunate and lucky to be the one to do that.”

Luck had little to do with it. The sack was his second of the game. The forced fumble also was his second of the game.

The type of urgency Kadosh-Harris displayed in that game is typical of how the Presidents approached their entire PAC schedule. After the two early losses, Kadosh-Harris said, the players treated every game like a playoff game.

“The first two games were tough losses,” he said. “Then we had that bye week, and I think that extra week just to kind of look at what we were doing wrong, look at what we had to fix, the things we can kind of get better at really helped us.”

Coming out of the bye, the Presidents walloped Grove City, the team most believed posed a threat to W&J in the conference, 34-14. And they haven’t stopped winning.

As for that respect Sirianni wanted? W&J still is not ranked in the D3football.com poll, but Kadosh-Harris said rankings haven’t been brought up by anyone on the team.

The Presidents, instead, are focused on making a deep run in the playoffs.

“We’re happy to be in the situation that we’re in and happy we turned around an 0-2 season,” Kadosh-Harris said. “We know what we can do, and we’re excited to show it in the postseason.”