Big Green Alert's Bruce Wood went out and grabbed the physical copy of Lindy's magazine and its predictions for the 2012 season.
Harvard is picked to come in first... and Columbia last.
This is going to happen a lot during the remaining three months of the offseason.
I'm sorry, but we're going to have to get used to it.
With the team going 1-9 last year, a new offensive line and no All Ivy WR's or RB's on the roster, there's no way the prognosticators are going to give new Head Coach Pete Mangurian the benefit of the doubt.
Columbia's placement aside, I say it's way too early to be making full predictions for the 2012 season.
I will be making my choices just around the time of the Ivy coaches media day, which I expect to be about August 1st.
Beyond yesterday's discussion about which freshmen QB's look best is the discussion we need to have about grooming the starting QB for next year.
Sean Brackett and Andrew Weiss are seniors and so is transfer Andrew Heinrich, which means incoming frosh Hank Trumbull and Trevor McDonagh have a great chance to be long-time starters for Columbia.
But how will they get there? Practices during the season won't offer much time for reps unless Brackett or Weiss is hurt. The JV season has been canceled. Somehow, some way, the coaching staff and especially offensive coordinator/QB coach Jaime Elizondo is going to have to prepare Trumbull and McDonagh to take the top job at what could be a moment's notice.
This is not going to be easy, but it HAS to get done.
One solution could be to get Trumbull and McDonagh on campus this summer and get them at least more familiar with their teammates in the informal workouts that take place in June and July. After that, I got nothing.
Lowery Drafted
Now we have TWO MLB draftees from the Columbia baseball team!
Pitcher Pat Lowery, who just graduated last month, was picked in the 21st round by the Angels.
Horace Mann Horror
A new article in this coming week's NY Times Magazine details several decades of sexual abuse at the Horace Mann school, located just a stone's throw from Wien Stadium. Some of that abuse allegedly was conducted by an assistant football coach in the 1970's.
HM hasn't been a huge football feeder to Columbia or to the other Ivies in a long time, but every ten years or so we do get a player from that school.
Stories like this are always tough to read, but it's important that we all remember how vigilant we must be about the people coaching and teaching our children.
7 comments:
Jake, don't waste your time discussing predictions. Smart coaches dismiss them as nonsense. Some coaches use them for motivational purposes. As Yogi said, "they mean nuttin."
You are underestimating the ability of this coaching staff to develop quarterbacks quickly. Despite the academic pressures facing them, I believe the freshman quarterbacks are very talented and will be ready to contribute almost immediately. Last season, Fordham opened the season against Connecticut with a freshman quarterback at the helm. That same quarterback started against us along with two freshman wide receivers and a freshman tight end. Plenty of other schools started freshman skills players early in the season. It's a different story at the non-skill positions, but it certainly possible to contribute at those positions too.
None of the predictors attended the Brown game when we played like a championship team. None of the predictors have any idea how improved we will be this fall.
The previous poster neglected to mention Fordham went 1-10 and their coach got fired. It's not easy to get a freshman QB ready and if you are playing a lot of freshmen at skill positions, you are going to lose. As for prognosticators, sorry but they're usually right. We heard the same squawking last year when we were picked sixth. We finished last. The coaching staff has a lot of work to do to make us competitive. As fans, best not to get carried away.
Though we went 1-9, they were 4 games they "should have won" .... i.e. Fordham, Princeton, Yale, and Penn .... if, and I know it's only theoretical, but if we win those we would have finnished 5-5 and 4-4 in the Ivy League .... oh what could have been !!! .... but .... we didn't and we need to replace most of the O-line, wide receivers, and defensive backfield ....not a simple task .... so predicting a finish between 6th thru 8th probably is warranted .... let's hope a couple of those promising freshmen will help get us to the top 4 quickly ...
Fordham's 1-10 record had little to do with the productivity of its freshman skills players, although the Rams did change quarterbacks in the mid-season. Of course, Fordham's sole victory last year was against Columbia and in that game its freshman quarterback and its two wide receivers played very well. I question the validity of the prior poster's statement that if you play freshmen at the skills position you are going to lose. I could just as easily say you are going to win.
We gave away the Fordham game. We were out coached. We were out coached in the Penn game as well. Then the season fell apart. Vinnie didn't know how to call plays or how to keep Brackett from getting himself killed on running plays.
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