6 Month Report Card

Darin Patmon

Every year, the sportswriters moan about the corruption in college football.

They talk about the big money malaise, the lack of a real education for the players, etc.

And yet, when faced with the reality of a college football league devoted to the true scholar-athlete they ignore it.

Thankfully, we do get a few articles in the papers every year like this one about incoming frosh Darin Patmon.

It's the kind of story that belongs in the A section as well as the sports page.

But this kind of coverage is too rare for my taste.

This year alone, 241 young men have made the mature choice to play Ivy football.

And I won't be happy until I see 241 articles about each and every one of them.

The sham that passes for an actual college experience for too many young men who play BCS-level football will never go away as long as the practice is accepted by the news media.

Time to shift gears and focus on the Ivy players.

If you have the time, please email the Tampa Bay Times and thank them for this article and demand more like it.

Mangurian's Progress

It takes a lot for a sports fan to avoid getting too excited by new and shiny things.

I'm guilty of it every time I gush over a promising new freshmen commit.

And I've been guilty of it when it comes to every new coach of Columbia football since Ray Tellier came along in 1989.

And considering the incredible work new Head Coach Pete Mangurian is doing in his first six months on the job, I'm finding it hard to avoid too much gushing praise right now.

Luckily, since 2010 I have vowed to keep the public admiration to a minimum until I see actual WINS on the field.

I think Coach Mangurian would be among the first to endorse this policy, so let me make it clear: NO feat can be considered a serious success for Columbia football until it adds up to numbers in the WIN COLUMN. 

This doesn't mean that individual feats by great players won't be or shouldn't be acknowledged. But it does mean that we have to wait until this fall and probably a few more falls to come before we really know if we have the WINNING coach we've craved for so long. 

That said... here's what we've seen that new, positive, and unique to Coach Mangurian so far:

1) Straight Talk

Well, not so much talk but writing that is clear, intelligent, frequent and quite in depth. 

I don't think any coach writes better than Mangurian at the college or pro level... at least not while they're still in the job.

I emphasize the WRITTEN aspect of Mangurian's messages because they're more valuable than the spoken words of a flashy speaker. There are A LOT of coaches who can talk a good game and charm you with some funny stories or a smile. 

But writing the truth and making insights in print is a tougher job, fraught with pitfalls for a coach who may be forced to regret those written records  someday soon. 

2) Optimism

Every coach has to have a level of optimism. Jim Garrett thought we could go 10-0 in 1985, (we went 0-10). Bob Shoop famously guaranteed a win on Homecoming against Penn in 2003, (we lost 31-7). But those were cases of "rah rah" cheerleading, not a case of a coach looking at the evidence in front of him and predicting something positive... publicly.

On his Twitter feed and his Facebook page, Mangurian has talked about the "great" season ahead. And I don't think this is just cheerleading. I think he believes it as far as whatever he defines a "great season." No way Garrett really believed the Lions were going undefeated in '85 or Shoop thought we were beating Penn in '03. 

3) Total Program Shake-Up

Every new head coach brings in a new system, but Mangurian is trying to overhaul everything about the way Columbia runs the football program. 

So far, that's been exemplified by his move to make practices very early in the morning rather than late afternoon, (the way it's been for decades and decades). He's overhauling the weight training program and taking an entirely different approach to recruiting.

Will any of these new and shiny innovations lead to more wins? I don't know yet, and anyone who says they know is really just guessing.

But if they do, we can say we at least saw the signs of improvement early on. 

We will withhold our first real report card for about six more months.