Pre-Honors

Columbia gets three players on Phil Steele's annual preseason All Ivy 1^st Team; RB Marcorus Garrett, LB Zach Olinger and Punt Return Specialist Alec Fisher.

Three more Lions made the 2^nd Team; WR Connor Nelligan, TE Hamilton Garner, and Punter Paul Delaney.

If you’re keeping score, (and who isn’t?), Harvard led the league with 11 total players on the 1^st and 2^nd Teams combined, seven Cantabs were 1^st Teamers. Penn and Brown were somewhat distant seconds with eight total players on the two teams, Brown with four 1^st Teamers and Penn with three 1^st Teamers.

Dartmouth was fourth with seven overall players on the two teams, but with just two on the 1^st Team.

Princeton matched Columbia with six players overall, with four on the 1^st Team… but that’s a bit deceptive since DB Anthony Gaffney appears on the 1^st Team twice; once as a DB and once as a kickoff returner.

Trailing Columbia were Yale with five overall players, two of them 1^st Teamers. And Cornell brought up the rear with just four players acknowledged, two on each team.

Of course, Cornell can take solace that one of those players, senior QB Jeff Mathews, was named as Steele’s preseason Ivy Offensive Player of the Year.

Steele rated the best players in the Patriot League and NEC, where Columbia’s out of conference opponents Fordham, Lehigh and Monmouth reside.

Steele believes week one opponent Fordham is pretty stacked. He puts nine Rams combined on his 1^st and 2^nd All Patriot League Teams, six of them on the 1^st Team. Four Lehigh players were mentioned, two on each team.

In the NEC, week two opponent Monmouth only had two players honored and they were both on the 2^nd Team.

Each FCS team gets its own special team page in the Steele preview site as well. Columbia’s is here.  

Marcorus Garrett

Moment #64: Garrett’s Pretty Run

With Columbia now trailing 28-7 late in the 3^rd quarter of the week four game at Lehigh, the Lions got a little bit of a drive going and then they got a little bit of luck.

After reaching their own 49 yard line, Columbia went a little bit backwards and was forced to punt from its own 44. But the kick was mishandled and Brian East recovered it at the Mountain Hawk 26.

It didn’t take long for the Lions to cash in.

On the very first play after the fumble recovery, Marcorus Garrett broke free along the right sideline and was virtually untouched for a 26-yard TD run.

It was one of many pretty plays Garrett made last season, but it was his first 20+ yard TD run of his career.

How important is Garrett to the Lions’ chances in 2013? I think it’s hard to overstate it.