Okay, so I'm stuck on a gas line here on Long Island right now. This is actually my second line of the morning, as I waited on one for about 90 minutes only to see the station run out of gas five cars before I made it to the pumps!
So as I wait on line #2, (we haven't actually moved in the last 22 minutes), I thought I should do something somewhat productive and write a bit.
Here are some thoughts:
-Thank goodness this is not a home game for the Lions this week. Playing the game would seem to be in poor taste locally and who could spare the gas for the drive?
-I think things will be better next week to set up what could be an emotional Empire State Bowl vs. Cornell. I hope it turns out to be a real celebration of the fighting spirit of New York.
-I wonder how the team made it up to Boston okay with the Academy buses that certainly burn a lot of gas. I suppose the Academy bus company was able to fill up in the southern part of New Jersey where apparently supply was a little bit better or maybe they filled up well north of New York City and then backed down to the city to pick up the team. But I wonder if they'll be some interesting war stories to hear about how the team made it up there yesterday and where they stayed or if they left a little early to get away from some of the worst of it here in New York.
-35 minutes now and no movement.
-I really think Harvard is going to come out of the gates today playing very aggressive football. I can't emphasize enough how much head coach Tim Murphy must be upset about how the Harvard team let down in the last two games. They blew a 24 point lead against Princeton in the fourth quarter and they almost blew a 21 point lead against Dartmouth in the second half. So I expect the Crimson to come out all guns blazing. If they get the ball first on offense, i think they're going to go for a long pass or some kind of trick running play to try to get on the board quickly. If they're on defense first, I think they'll blitz the heck out of Sean Brackett and try to make the Lions make a big mistake via a turnover. Columbia is going to have to take advantage of that Harvard aggression to see if they can make Harvard make the mistakes by throwing some short passes and see if they can frustrate this team that is going to want to get a sack really early, an INT really early, a fumble really early, etc. The longer Columbia avoids making that kind of mistake the better chance they have to win.
-Just moved up by one car length after 42 minutes.
-When it comes to Harvard's offense I really think the Crimson are going to want to try to attack Columbia in the running game along the edges I don't think they want to run up the middle too much.
-More later...
20 comments:
Jake,
good luck getting gas. I think that "H" always comes out playing hard and aggressive football. They average over 38 points per game. CU is second in the league in the +/- of turnovers with +6. Maybe we can get a few more today.
If the game video is, as it seems from the CU website, unavailable on SideLion Pass, you can buy it on the Harvard website for $9.95.
A huge backward step today. We did not show up and still have a quarter to,go.
What was Mangurian thinking in throwing a freshman QB against the best defense in the IL? Sure, we weren't going to win this game, but what kind of a message does it send to the rest of the team when Brackett is pulled after two series? I can see working in a rookie QB if you have a strong and seasoned OL, but we have two freshman tackles and two sophomores at guard and center who didn't get any real game experience last year. I am very disappointed. This rivals the Rutgers loss in 1976, but actually is worse because Rutgers was moving toward big time football.
Hands down the worst effort I've seen from a Columbia team in 30 years. It was an absolute embarrasment. I have no other words to describe being there as an alum.
I have been making apologies for this staff al season and for the last three weeks thought we were moving in the right direction, although I questioned some personnel decisions in which seniors were benched, we passed up easy FGs, we insisted on running instead of letting Brackett make yards with his legs if necessary, and we went light to the point of absurdity. Now I am wondering if I was just plain naive. This hire is on Dianne. If we lay two more eggs in the next two weeks, then what?
If we lay eggs the next 2 weeks, then what .... then we go 2-8 .... I played on a team that made a transition to a new coach ... the new coach made lots of changes his 1st yr ... he had a 5 yr contract .... he could afford to make lots of mistakes on the field his first year ... the previous year we had been 2-7, with no changes, we would have won a couple of more games because we we had 9 starters returning on defense and 5 on offense .... but we moved personnel around significantly, negating our edge in experience .... we went 2-7 ... 3 seasons later we went 6-3 ... he improved our record .... he sacrificed 2 years to show improvement .... if we want to see improvement we are going to have to be patient ... it will take at least 2 more seasons ...
Jake...Is that worse loss in program history, point differential wise? I think it has to be.
Since 1956 .... looking at the Columbia year-by-year history, it IS the worst loss ever .... other than this loss, no one has scored more than 59 points against us since the formation of the Ivy League (Brown beat us 27-59 in'94 and Penn beat us 28-59 in '08) ... next worst defeat (point differential was Harvard loss in '73 (0-57)
Rutgers beat us 69-0 in 1978. Pre-Ivy, the worst shellacking was by Princeton in 1889 (71-0). I call this "dumpster-diving" in the record books.
The question I have, based upon the way we played Penn, Dartmouth and then Yale, is if our guys quit on Mangurian today, or at least if the upperclassmen quit on him once he pulled Brackett and basically told them that he is playing for next year. I raise the comparison with the three prior games because we played hard for all three. Granted Harvard was much, much better, but so was Lehigh and probably Princeton, and we didn't quit during those games.
Gas lines at Baker Field today were almost as bad as Long Island. Most Inwood stations have no gas, and when one gets a delivery, as the Sunoco next to Baker Field did today, the line stretched down to 207th St for cars and was about 50 people long for containers (water jugs, iced tea bottles, you name it.)
Very fortunate indeed that there was no home game today because honestly it would have been a disaster (off the field, never mind on it). Except for the traffic, as there really is none now since nobody, including the livery cabs, has any gas for driving. It can't be long now before all teams start taking the subway to Baker for practice.
By the way, the A is not running because the 207th St yards flooded, which flooded 207th St and Dyckman stations. May not be back in service by next week. We'll see.
The coaching has been terrible..Brackett can win !
This was a disgrace. Was there any preparation for the game? We regressed to periods in our history that most try to forget and those that played during those periods I mean no insult. The players and coaches quit.
I was a pretty good player in my day, but we lost then and I feel that I let down the fans and my team. However, I never stopped for the whole game and never did the team stop playing nor the coaches coaching or preparing.
This was a total lack of preparation and will power. The shame should be unbearable for all involved!
This isn't a told you so moment for all those others that have questioned the coach and administration. This is a grave concern moment where we risk going to a worse place then we have known.
Hey, I didn't realize we were fielding a pop warner team with a pop warner coach at the helm.
Nice hire, we couldn't drag some guy or girl off the street who could do a better job? Perhaps rather than searching Cornell's list of poor coaches we could just go over to morningside park and find a hobo who undoubtedly has more skill.
The coach has two running stars ..Brackett and Garrett...let them run and pass once in a while.
Obviosly this coach is stubborn or worse. This team can win both Brown and Cornell and should have won against Dartmouth and Penn..Dianne should chew this coach out. Use the talent you have ...coach!
Who keeps score of scrimmages?
If we get blown out in the final two games then everybody from Bollinger, to the trustees, to Murphy and then to Mangurian, needs to be held accountable. Are we an Ivy League school or not? Do these clowns realize the morale this has on alumni who care about the College? Bollinger never goes to football games and apparently couldn't care less. Murphy apparently hired a Cornell crony. The Cornell crony disses our gifted QB by pulling him after two series! We field an offensive line which is smaller than Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic. We banish seniors like Gertz and others. And this is going to build morale? Either this administration cares,or it doesn't. If it doesn't just own up to it.
After cooling down a little bit, RedTiger had a great post. Still not sure if Mangurian was the right hire but he still needs time.
Jake, you need to make a nickname required, tired of seeing all these anonymous posts bashing the coach because he is not playing a certain player enough or having him run enough, etc.
That being said, Mangurian really needs to address the fanbase via facebook or wordpress or whatever. The only quote I could find was "embarrassing is an understement". We need more than that. One thing I really miss from Norries are his weekly emails (win or lose) summarizing the game and his thoughts on it. I am disappointed in the inconsistent way in which Mangurian communicates with us.
Oldlion, also great point. Do they even care how humiliating and embarrassing this is for the alumni?
OldLion, How old are you anyway??? You ound like you have been around forever, and I agree and enjoy reading your posts. It even sounds like you could be very influential with the admisinstration. You would be a great representitvie and would probably get somewhere speaking to Bollinger and Murphy about what frustrates you. Any interest? I will continue as you are to root for the lions and hope Mangurian can get things going.Be there saturday cheering this team on. Go Lions
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