Aaron Smith Bolts to Beantown
One of the two coaches from Norries Wilson's staff that new Head Coach Pete Mangurian was keeping on was WR coach Aaron Smith. He was even promoted to recruiting coordinator.
But Smith is moving on anyway.
In what I have to call a surprise announcement, Smith is going to Boston College to coach the receivers there.
I'm not sure how or why Smith decided to leave, but his departure is a blow to continuity for the veteran players as he was very popular. Even Athletic Director Dianne Murphy singled our coach Smith recently as a great asset to Mangurian's new team.
This leaves Coach Mangurian with an important hole to fill less than two months before the start of spring practice.
I thought Smith was a good person who got pretty good results on and off the field.
Because Smith was the recruiting coordinator, this issue presents the first real crisis for the Mangurian regime.
Let's see how he reacts now.
Patriot League Okays Football Scholarships
In a move that seemed highly unlike even a year ago, the Patriot League okayed athletic scholarships for football late yesterday. The rules will allow for up to 15 full scholarship players beginning with next year's recruiting classes.
Whether this decision will mean Georgetown will leave the league or if Fordham will rejoin it as a full member isn't really known right now.
But this move seems more than likely to change to nature of the Ivy League's long-running history of playing out of conference games against Patriot League teams.
On the bright side, Columbia has faced Fordham twice since it went "rogue" and started offering football scholarships... and both games were more than winnable for the Lions.
Stay tuned for a lot more developments on this big story.
Erik Kuklinski
New OL Commit
Well, we've been hoping for more offensive linemen in this class, and we've just heard of another one.
Erik Kuklinski, comes from Arlington High School in Lagrangeville, NY.
He's impressive at 6-7 and 270 pounds, but his strength stats need some work. strength stats need some work.
Nevertheless, his coach Dominick DeMatteo believes Kuklinski is the best prospect he's coached at Arlington.
Kuklinski missed much of his junior year because or illness and then injury and that explains why he wasn't a bigger target on everyone's radar last year.
Arlington High School is located near Poughkeepsie, northwest of New York City.
Coach DeMatteo is about as well respected you can be as a head coach in this region of the country.
But one note of caution, Kuklinski did NOT make his section's Senior Bowl All Star game this year, however I'm not sure if that was also due to injury.
Kuklinski would be the second Arlington product to play football for Columbia since a linebacker named Trip Finley '83.
Finley was actually a great star on the 1979 freshman team and the hero of that team's one win that season over Montclair State. But a shoulder injury ended his career before he could make an impact on the varsity.
And here is the updated list of our 30 confirmed incoming freshmen:
1. Oluwatoba "Toba" Akinleye DE 6-1, 215 lbs. Fort Hamilton HS Brooklyn. NY
2. Jacob Ardron LB 6-1 230 lbs. Diamond Ranch HS, Pomona, CA
3. Trevor Bell WR/KR 5-7 190 lbs. Hamshire-Fannett HS Hamshire, TX
4. Brandon Blackshear CB/WR/KR 5-10 170 lbs. Sherwood HS Sherwood, OR
5. Matt Cahal DB 6-0, 190 lbs. Brophy College Prep Phoenix, AZ
6.Chris Cicilioni G/DE 6-2 225 lbs. Valley View HS Scranton, PA
7. Mark Cieslak LB 5-11 235 lbs. St. Joseph's HS Montvale, NJ
8. Chris Connors WR 6-1 205 lbs. St. Edward HS Lakewood, OH
9. Alec Davison LB 6-1 243 lbs. Clement HS Sugarland, TX
10. Andrew Dobitsch WR 5-11 180 lbs. Northern Valley HS Tappan, NJ
11. Nick Durham DE/TE 6-4 228 lbs. Bishop Fenwick HS Franklin, Ohio
12. Josh Foster DB 5-11 170 lbs. Delran HS Delran, NJ
13. Michael Gerst RB 5-10 190 lbs. Bergen Catholic Bergen County, NJ
14. Scooter Hollis QB 6-1 175 lbs. Bowling Green HS Bowling Green, KY
15. J.D. Hurt DE 6-2 270 lbs. St. Anthony's HS Melville, NY
16. Max Keefe S 6-2 200 lbs. Choctawatchee HS Fort Walton, FL
17. Erik Kuklinski OL 6-7 270 lbs. Arlington HS LaGrangeville, NY
18. Brett Leatherwood OL 6-0 220 lbs. Anderson HS Austin, TX
19. Kevin McCarthy, S 6-1 200 lbs. Hingham, HS Hingham. MA
20. Trevor McDonagh, QB 6-3 200 lbs. St. Louis University HS St. Louis, MO
21. Cameron Molina, RB/LB 5-10, 185 lbs. Tuscarora HS Leesburg, VA
22. Daren Napier DT 6-4 275 lbs. St. John's HS Houston, TX
23. Niko Padilla, DT 6-2, 280 lbs. Parish Episcopal School Dallas, TX
24. Darin Patmon S 6-1 180 lbs. Land O'Lakes HS Land O'Lakes, FL
25. Travis Reim DB 6-1 185 lbs. Cedar Park HS Cedar Park, TX
26. Logan Scott QB 6-2 180 lbs. Chaminade HS West Hills, CA
27. Austin Stock, C 6-3 270 lbs. Solon HS Solon, OH
28. Hank Trumbull QB 6-4 210 lbs. Chadwick School Palos Verdes, CA
29. Julian Vigil DB 5-10 170 lbs. Mullen HS Denver, CO
30. Mike Zunica, FB 6-1 215 lbs. St. Rita HS Chicago, IL
Kickoff Rules Changing?
The NCAA rules committee could move kickoffs back to the 35 yard line like they did in the NFL last year, BUT it also may move touchbacks from the 20 to the 25 yard line. We should find out in just about a week because the rules committee meets again on February 21st.
The reasoning for all of this is injury prevention as it has suddenly dawned on the NCAA that a huge number of serious injuries occur on kickoffs.
Columbia fans don't need to be reminded of that. Remember Alex Gross' terrible injury at Lafayette in 2009 on the opening kickoff?
How many more games does Columbia win on '09 if Gross doesn't go down? One, two, three? (I say the Lions would have beaten Lafayette and Yale for sure with a healthy Gross for a 6-4 record that year).
VALENTINE'S DAY IS HERE, GENTLEMEN!!!!
IT MAY NOT BE A BAD A IDEA TO CHECK SOME OF THIS STUFF OUT TO REMIND YOUR HONEY THAT LIFE ISN'T ALL ABOUT FOOTBALL AND YOU KNOW IT!!!
Roar Lions Roar 2012 is brought to you by StealADiamond.com
***REMEMBER Enter the coupon code “ROARLIONS” for a 10% discount off anything on the site!***
7 comments:
Jake, to call the departure of Aaron Smith a crisis is a bit over the top.
Well, by "crisis" I mean that Mangurian has seen an early decision of his go bad and he also has little time to fix the situation since recruiting is a 365-day-a-year job. Hopefully, Smith gave Mangurian some good notice.
Of course, this is also an OPPORUTNITY. Is there a star coach or even star NFL WR with ties to Mangurian who would now like to get into coaching?
Jake, the oldlion is correct as Aaron Smith's departure can hardly be called a "crisis." In fact, if you are going to lose an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator this is about the best time for it to happen as the incoming class is certainly near completion. As you have now said, this is certainly an "OPPORTUNITY" for Coach Mangurian to add another outstanding assistant coach to the coaching staff with an NFL background or standout collegiate credentials.
.... the only issue I see with Coach Smith's leaving is related to player's who he was directly involved in recruiting who were also recruited by other Ivy's ... with Yale out there sniffing around our recruits, you can bet they will be wispering in the ear of those recruits ...
If Aaron Smith went to Yale rather than BC I might be concerned. I am more concerned that our incoming 270 pound OL can only bench 225. Even this very old Lion can do better than that.
The announcement came right after our 30h recruit was announced.
My guess is the BC opportunity has been in the works for awhile and he and Mangurian worked out a deal so that he would stay through recruiting period.
Coach Smith possesses the rare combination of a capable technical coach and motivator. Guys love to play for him and he knows his stuff. A tough loss to the program.
Post a Comment