Post-Grad

Chiefs GM John Dorsey likes those Ivy Players

First off, you could say that this Satuday is going to be a HUGE day for Columbia sports.

The first game of the Ivy League Championship Baseball Series begins at noon at Satow Stadium.  Game two –which by definition will be an elimination game in the best of three series – will begin shortly after game one.

And after the baseball games, the football team will officially wrap up the spring football practice with a scrimmage. Head Coach Pete Mangurian says the scrimmage will begin at 6pm or 7pm depending on the time baseball ends.

Right now, the forecast is calling for a clear, but chilly day for early May with temps in the low 60’s.

Martin and the Chiefs

I think it’s safe to say that Kansas City Chiefs General Manager John Dorsey and new Head Coach Andy Reid have a healthy respect for Ivy League players. The Chiefs picked Princeton standout Mike Catapano in the 7^th round and later signed Columbia All Ivy star Joshua Martin as a free agent. In fact, there’s a good chance Catapano and Martin will be in direct competition for the same spot on the roster at linebacker.

Dorsey was a star player for UConn when the Huskies were a Division I-AA team. So he knows the value of many of the diamonds in the rough at our level of football. That may be at the root of these choices, but oddly the Chiefs were often a fairly regular landing spot for a number of Ivy football players well before Dorsey joined the organization this year.

Hopefully, Martin will get a good chance to make the team and advance the fame of the Columbia program in areas of the country where we’re not known.

It was generally a good draft for the Ivies with three players taken. JC Tretter of Cornell went in the 4^th round, as did Harvard’s H-back extraordinaire Kyle Juszczyk, (okay NFL announcers, he’s YOUR pronunciation challenge now!),  also going in the 4^th round before Catapano.

I have to think it was Martin’s dominant game against Cornell in November, when he repeatedly pummeled and finally hurt QB Jeff Mathews, that sealed the deal for his NFL chances. If Mathews lives up to the expectations that he will soon play in the NFL as well, (he’s a rising senior this year), then maybe Martin will get a chance to sack him again!

 

Martin is the kind of Ivy player most likely to make a splash in the NFL. Since most of the guys likely to be drafted by the NFL are grabbed up by the BCS programs out of high school, it's late bloomers like Martin who often fall into the Ivy schools' lap while they're still under the radar. Give the University of Wyoming credit though, because recruiters there DID recognize Martin's potential and they did offer him a scholarship which he accepted... before changing his mind and coming to Columbia. 

The most successful former Columbian in the NFL in recent decades, Marcellus Wiley, followed a similar path. He came into the Ivies as a scrawny RB, got bigger and then made the switch to the D-line. After that, he was NFL draft material in a big way and the Bills took him in the 2nd round. 

Meanwhile, Sean Brackett is looking for a shot at playing in the Arena Football League or in Canada. He could also head to Europe and follow the path Alex Gross ’11 paved two years ago. I’d love to see Brackett in the AFL. It could be the perfect venue for his skills.