Luke Eddy with fellow great Lion kicker Larry Walsh '86
Backstory
There are few paths to college football that are as unique as Luke Eddy's.
The Worcester Academy grad was committed to playing soccer in high school, until the start of his senior year when he first took up placekicking.
He did so well that some college recruiters scrambled to grab him, and Columbia won the race in the end.
Career Highlights
2010:
-Got onto the field in just the second game of the year, going a perfect 3-3 in PAT's and nailing a 37-yard FG in the 24-10 win over Towson.
-Did his first kicking off duty the following week against Princeton, booming two kicks for an average of 65 yards while going a perfect 6-6 in PAT's.
-Boomed a 48-yard FG and a 34-yarder in the 27-13 loss at Penn in week 5.
-Set a new record with 27 straight PAT's made before missing his final attempt of the season at Brown
2011:
-Made a 35-yard FG under extreme pressure late in the Homecoming game against Penn after a series of penalties pushed the Lions back from a 1st and Goal situation.
-Made a tough PAT in the snow after a penalty pushed the Lions back to keep things close in the week 7 loss to Yale.
-Was a perfect 5-5 on PAT's in the no-room-for-error double OT win over Brown in the season finale.
Scouting Report
Has the strongest leg in the Ivies, but still needs to work on the fundamentals. Came late to the kicking game and sometimes it shows.
Tremendous potential to break the all-time longest FG record in CU history, (50 yards by Matt Pollard '89 in 1988)
Should be able to contribute more on kickoffs this season now that the kicks are being moved back up to the 35 yard line.
Jake's Take
The previous coaching staff's failures to properly prepare this team were no more evident than on special teams. Eddy, a latecomer to kicking, needed more work with his coaches and not less. His enthusiasm and great work ethic helped him avoid serious problems in his first year, but he ran into some roadblocks last season. Hopefully, the new staff is working with him to regain his well-deserved confidence and set him on the path to a possible NFL career.
Yeah, his leg is that strong. (Check out how his PAT's just keep going higher and higher through the uprights if you don't believe me).
And with no known incoming kickers this season, it seems like putting more time and faith into Eddy is exactly what the coaches have decided to do.
I know it's still the slow summer period, but can the athletic department website please put a moratorium on future "stories" like this one?
We are sports fans, and none of us gives a hoot about a speech Dianne Murphy gives somewhere. Honestly, I don't think anyone on her staff has the guts to tell her this, or worse: they think she'll be pleased to see a story like this even though she didn't ask for the coverage in the first place.
This only annoys me because even some of our longtime fans couldn't name more than three players on our football team. They would really appreciate a special series of profiles on the team during these months leading up to the season. I'm sure something like that will appear on the site sometime in the 2-3 weeks before the season, but that's not enough time to really give as many players as much exposure as possible. This is the time, in fact it's past time to do this.
And that's why I started my player profiles early last month.
10 comments:
Neither she nor the dept. is responsible for some, most Lion followers being ignorant of players. Anyone who's interested can be informed by checking the roster on the fb site.
Well ... it's time for us all to grab our "blnkies" and curl up in the cornerr and hide with 16 players from Harvard being picked as preseason All Ivy by College Football Madness .... granted, Harvard has talent .... but 16 players ... really ???
Jake, I certainly agree with you that whoever is responsible for publicizing the Columbia Football Team is doing a terrible job as is evident by the total lack of publicity given the players so far. I cannot imagine Coach Mangurian putting up with this for very long as knows the value of publicity at both colleg and professional football level. There should be a story on Columbia Football on the Athletic Department Website everyday. No excuses!
... err ... uhh ... I just looked at the College Madness website .... the Ally-Ivy picks includes 3 teams ... Columbia had 8 players on the list (Brackett, Ward and Martin on the 1st team) ... interestingly, incoming Freshman Alec Davison made the 3rd team without ever having played a down ... hmmm ... I think AD has the potential to be a great one, but picking him without ever having donned the Blue and White is not justified ..... so much for preseason picks
Picking an incoming freshman to the 3rd Team All-Ivy is a great story and one that should appear on the Columbia Athletics Website. Davison is going to make an immediate impact.
No reason to recruit a kicker when you have four very good kickers returning. You need a strong kicking game to win football games and the Lions certainly have the players to do that this season. Coach M will get the best out of these guys.
The Murphy posting is absurd. Why would anybody care? Incredibly, the AD still has not posted the roster for men's basketball. There is still no article on incoming BB players. That is disgraceful. Dianne, get with it.
In fact ... 3 incoming freshman made 3rd Team All-Ivy withi=out ever suiting up ... in addition to Alec Davison, Cameron Countryman (WR-Penn) and Brian Meador (OL-Yale) made the 3rd team ...
If Dr. Murphy were a faculty member working toward tenure or promotion, this would be classified service on the cv. Since she is not, and even if she were, the article is void of anything of value to the sports fans. Aren't the coaches of any sport speaking somewhere or holding camps? Aren't any student athletes worthy of a story on their internship or charity work, or even their thoughts on upcoming seasons? Would someone have to leave their office to obtain such information but does not deem it worthy of publication? I only wish there were a video accompanying the article so I could learn the "Art of Negotiation."
Ryan Cidsik, our new Director of Strength and Conditioning for Football and Outdoor Sports, looks like a great new hire for Columbia Athletics and particularly Columbia Football. Impressive credentials and astounding physical weightlifting skills.
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