Looking for a Step Up

35 Days Until Training Camp


63 Days Until the Season Opener

IFA Dinner Awardees Announced


The Ivy Football Association has announced the names of each school's awardees at the IFA dinner early next year.

Columbia's honoree will be Marcellus Wiley '97, whose resume has become well-known to just about every Ivy football fan.

What's interesting is that Wiley is being honored while he's still in his 30's, and I'm willing to bet that's a record in IFA history.

Another Melka on the Way?


Rising junior defensive end Nick Melka's brother Charles is on the scouting radar for a lot of schools. 


Like his brother and rising sophomore Lion WR Connor Nelligan, the younger Melka is a product of Benet Academy in the Chicago suburbs. 


Unlike the older Melka, Charles is already 6-4 and getting bigger. 




Jonesing for the DT's


I'll do a more in-depth profile if Nick Melka in the coming weeks, but suffice it to say that he is part of an impressive group of pass rushing DE's on the Columbia roster. 


That group is led by seniors Josh Martin and Seyi Adebayo, with big time help from Melka, sophomore Chad Washington and senior Will Patterson. Throw in the pass-rushing prowess of senior LB Ryan Murphy, and you have a lot of nervous QB's at the other seven Ivy schools this fall.


But the pass rush won't be able to kick in unless Columbia does a better job of stopping the run. And that means a handful of talented defensive tackles on the Lion roster really need to step things up. 


New defensive line coach Alvin Smith, who was an All Pac-10 defensive lineman at Oregon State, will need to get more out of the three returning DT's with significant playing time. They are junior Wells Childress, senior Greg Lee, senior Shad Sommers, and sophomore Eric Stock. 


The good news is Childress had an excellent spring, earning Head Coach Pete Mangurian's specific praise in his write-up of the spring game.

Magurian also wrote about Lee's improvement at what would be the nose tackle slot.

Sommers has been kind of an under-the-radar player over the last three years, but he did register three sacks last season.

A lot of Columbia fans are excited about the potential from Stock. He was a late addition to the 2011 recruiting class and he did get into a varsity game as a freshman.

And then there are two extremely talented incoming freshmen DT's who could make an impact right away.
They are Niko Padilla and Daren Napier, both out Texas. It's rare for freshmen to get a chance to play on either the D-line or the O-line in college, but we may see some exceptions to that rule this fall. 


The battle for those starting spots begins in just five weeks.