Monday, September 30, 2013

Ivy Power Rankings

Yale stunned everyone by using the pass primarily to beat Cornell 38-23 at Yale Bowl. Henry Furman was 29 of 36 for 353 yards, three TD’s and no picks. RB Tyler Varga hardly had to do much by his usual workhorse standards, rushing for 105 yards on just 21 carries. Cornell’s Jeff Mathews had a decent game, but his two interceptions hurt. RB Luke Hagy has been a non-factor so far this season for the Big Red.

After two games, Dartmouth looks like a super offense but weak defense kind of team. Holy Cross freshman QB Peter Pujals really torched the Big Green in every way for a 31-28 win at Memorial Field Saturday night. But you know what? The Penn game this coming Saturday is really the key game and I wouldn’t get too down about Dartmouth’s defense until we see what happens there.

Speaking of Penn, the Quakers got whacked by Villanova 35-6, and unless Head Coach Al Bagnoli is holding something back I’d say they have a real problem with their running game. Of course, the thing Bagnoli may have been holding back is QB Billy Ragone’s running plays. It makes little sense to risk having him re-injure himself against a non-league opponent.

Finally, Princeton’s offense looks sharp but the defense seems iffy after two games. Slamming Georgetown by 50-22 isn’t that impressive considering how poor a team the Hoyas are these days, but the sheer execution of the Tiger offense has me impressed. Quinn Epperly is a major weapon as a runner with a pass or two mixed in.

So here are the rankings right now:


1)      Harvard
2)      Brown
3)      Princeton
4)      Yale
5)      Dartmouth
6)      Penn
7)      Cornell
8)      Columbia

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

2 Columbia football players made the Ivy league "honor roll" for last weeks performances

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/fball/2013-14/releases/Football_Weekly_Release_-_Week_3

Anonymous said...

Who were the 2 players?

Jake said...

Garrett and Vinny Pugliese

Anonymous said...

Jake,
What's Diane Murphy's email so we can send her occasional messages?

Anonymous said...

Jake, if you think that Brown is the #2 team in the league, then I'm assuming that Harvard can be expected to blow the remaining teams out of the water.

Jake said...

They will at home. On the road, it's a different story. I know most teams lose something away from home, but Harvard really does. Luckily for them, they get Penn at home and Princeton too.

Anonymous said...

Mark these words! Our defense will be much better by the Yale game. They will not have the passing success they had last Saturday.

Anonymous said...

It's not our defense that is in question.

Anonymous said...

True, but if the D can hold the scoring to below 17, our O will have a chance.
I expect Garrett to score 2 TDs per game for the rest of the year.

Anonymous said...

I have to get some of the stuff you guys have been smoking..brown looked very good and harvard was faster than a junebug when I watche them...princeton is laying wood and we are laying eggs

Anonymous said...

Watched

Anonymous said...

How can you say the D is not a problem? Count up the opposition points in the last two games (89).

Anonymous said...

I watches both games, did you? When the defense has over 100 plays in a game you will loose by a significant margin. How many three and outs did columbias offense have? How many turn over, in the red zone no less. You clearly didn't watch either game.

Anonymous said...

The reason you can nit-pick what the defense did wrong was because they were on the field pretty much the entire game. The offense was on and off the field pretty much before you could say "we are getting out butts beat"!

Mitch S.'68CC said...

I'm always puzzled by this notion of "the defense was on the field the whole game." Well, so what?! I think this started as a kind of mantra for NFL commentators. The truth is, in terms of conditioning, football is not that taxing compared to many other sports. Players used to routinely be on the field the whole game, including CU's last championship team (tied for title in 1961) when substitutions were severely limited.

Meanwhile, some of the excuse-making and delusions I read here really amazes me. "Number 76 is gonna be great!" "The defense is gonna shut down Princeton!" I want to say loud and clear that I have every player on the CU team deserves huge respect. I KNOW the experience they're going through. It's the same experience virtually every CU football player has had. It is definitely not of their own making. But a 1-9 season now seems extremely optimistic. 0-10 is much more likely. Turning CU into a winning program -- which has not happened since WW2, or even before then -- would require a genius coach, consistently incredible recruiting, and huge support from the administration. None of these things have ever happened. Are any of them real possibilities? Let's stop kidding ourselves and really ask "what is to be done?"

Anonymous said...

email ajo13@columbia.edu, since he's the one who writes Murphy's responses.

Al's Wingman said...

I wouldn't assess Penn's capabilities based on the 'Nova game. Penn is still Penn and has plenty of talent to win the Ivy Championship.

Harvard is their usual self and so is Brown (Good enough for third place).

Dartmouth and Cornell are typical middle to lower end of the pack.

Yale is a wild card and has everything to prove.

Roar Lion said...

If you were at the game, you'd know the defense played alright. We had ten three-and-outs and turned the ball over 3 or 4 times in our own end. The D was constantly on the field and backed up, thanks to the O. Pete gave up a courtesy touchdown at the end of the game by going for it on 4th and long from deep in our end, which makes the score look worse. Our D is good enough to keep us in games. The O is an entirely different story. It's an 0-10 offense. Inaccurate QB, no pass pro, very weak receivers who drop a lot of balls and show little athleticism. Unless something miraculous happens with the execution on offense, it will be an 0-10 or 1-9 season.

Anonymous said...

To mark my words,this is not last years team.Fact of the matter is
if they stay healthy, they will make Columbias head spin run back to Morningside heights with they're tail between the legs.
I gaurentee that
Yale football fan

Anonymous said...

I agree with previous poster, Yale has been very underrated, even now by you, Jake.

Al's Wingman said...

A courtesy touchdown? We have a coach giving up courtesy touchdowns? #charlie brown pose