The Lions last hoisted the Cup in 2009
Columbia Lions at Fordham Rams
Liberty Cup XII
September
21, 2013
Location: Jack Coffey Field
Kickoff
Time: 1pm
Gametime
Weather Forecast: 76 degrees and partly
cloudy
The Spread: The latest line favors Fordham by 20 ½ points
How to Get to the Game
Directions are here, and I highly recommend using the Bronx River Parkway route. Also remember that Fordham's campus is directly across the street from the New York Botanical Gardens. So any directions and signs to that location are good too.
If you are in Manhattan this weekend, the best choice is to take the Metro North to the Fordham station.
Here is the Metro North schedule for the trains to Fordham from Grand Central Terminal for this Saturday morning.
TV/RADIO
Free video, (but subscription required): Patriot League Digital Network
Columbia audio with Jerry Recco and Sal Licata: Ivy Digital Network
The Columbia student station broadcast is on WKCR at 89.9 on your FM dial.
Lead Stories
-Fordham is just about the hottest team in FCS football at 3-0 and coming off a win at FBS Temple last week. The offense looks unstoppable with an All American RB, a super accurate passing and running QB, and more than a handful of receivers who can burn a defense. Fordham is now in year four of a football athletic scholarship program meant to elevate the team, the school's name, and I'm convinced, get the Rams a home game or two at nearby Yankee Stadium in the coming years.
-Columbia boasts the single biggest FBS transfer to FCS football this off season in new starting QB Brett Nottingham from Stanford. Many fans will be watching very carefully to see if the former 4-star high school recruit will live up to the hype.
-Fordham comes in as a huge favorite, the Lions are an unknown to the pundits, but they're erring on the side of disrespecting CU as much as possible.
-In their defense, Columbia hasn't won a road game since 2009, a 12 game losing streak right now.
-Columbia boasts the single biggest FBS transfer to FCS football this off season in new starting QB Brett Nottingham from Stanford. Many fans will be watching very carefully to see if the former 4-star high school recruit will live up to the hype.
-Fordham comes in as a huge favorite, the Lions are an unknown to the pundits, but they're erring on the side of disrespecting CU as much as possible.
-In their defense, Columbia hasn't won a road game since 2009, a 12 game losing streak right now.
Columbia Keys to the Game
1) Don't be Afraid to Shoot it Out!
Fordham can score a million different ways and in a hurry. The defense needs to at least make the Rams work for it. But if the offense just tries to slow things down every time it gets the ball it could backfire. Columbia has a great passer and lots of great receivers. Go for it. A few quick strikes might make the crowd a little less into the game in what will be a spirited atmosphere on Rose Hill.
2) Defend the Edges
With new starters at the outside linebacker positions, I expect the Rams to attacks Columbia's edges with lots of runs by Carlton Koonce to the outside and lots of passes to the outside as well. Brian East and Vinny Pugliese need to have solid games for Columbia to have a chance.
3) Test the Ram Run Defense
Fordham is giving up 230 rushing yards per game and that's not because of just one bad game; all three Ram opponents have run well against them. With everyone focused on Nottingham and his passing skills, (especially if the Lions come out throwing), Columbia may have an opportunity for a little misdirection by running it a lot too and not just with star RB Marcorus Garrett, but with some of the backups like Cameron Molina and Alan Watson as well.
1) Don't be Afraid to Shoot it Out!
Fordham can score a million different ways and in a hurry. The defense needs to at least make the Rams work for it. But if the offense just tries to slow things down every time it gets the ball it could backfire. Columbia has a great passer and lots of great receivers. Go for it. A few quick strikes might make the crowd a little less into the game in what will be a spirited atmosphere on Rose Hill.
2) Defend the Edges
With new starters at the outside linebacker positions, I expect the Rams to attacks Columbia's edges with lots of runs by Carlton Koonce to the outside and lots of passes to the outside as well. Brian East and Vinny Pugliese need to have solid games for Columbia to have a chance.
3) Test the Ram Run Defense
Fordham is giving up 230 rushing yards per game and that's not because of just one bad game; all three Ram opponents have run well against them. With everyone focused on Nottingham and his passing skills, (especially if the Lions come out throwing), Columbia may have an opportunity for a little misdirection by running it a lot too and not just with star RB Marcorus Garrett, but with some of the backups like Cameron Molina and Alan Watson as well.
14 comments:
Jake, I don't think a subscription is required to watch the game on the Patriot League Network, it's free...can anyone confirm this?
I bought a general admissions ticket because the Fordham box office said that would be where the Lion fans would be sitting.My Metro-North train from upstate gets into Botanical Garden station (a 15 minute walk to the stadium) at 12:37PM so I expect to get to my seat a few minutes before kick-off. From what I've read, there will be a sell-out and only standing room in the aisles or elsewhere will be available. Is this true? Do I really have to show up on the earlier train which arrives at 8:37AM to get a seat? Why do we schedule a school that can't be bothered to assign seating? Is this a high school or a college?
Get there early. No visiting stands. Seating arrangements and stadium are pretty bad.
Nottingham needs to learn how and when to get rid of the ball.
As Lou Little used to say, I can't understand a human being who can't block.
... and let the excuses begin...
Hey Pete, how are we doing on thet 4-year plan?
A total disaster. I really think we should drop Fordham. They were trying to run up the score with their first unit still on the field, throwing the ball, until there was less than 10 minutes to play. The WR play was abominable, as was the OL. Nottingham did hold onto the ball too long in the first quarter but threw some nice balls later on. The defense was also terrible. Two DBs failed to turn and look for the ball on two Fordham TDs. The TE was getting a free release and was open all day. Our TE was invisible. Our special teams were awful. If we still had Alec Fischer we would have avoided three horrible mistakes, including trying tc catch and then fumbling a pint inside the five and losing the ball on two kickoff returns. We did a decent job containing Koonce, I thought, for most of the day, but our pass defense on the square outs to the sideline was terrible. We had a largely nonexistent pass rush. Garrett ran hard, and well, I thought. If I were to point to our two biggest failings it would be special teams, that is kickoff and punt return teams, and our OL, which in addition to failing to pass pro was also responsible for three false starts. We have now suffered two enormous blow outs under the new regime. With all of his failings, at least Norries Wilson kept out team competitive.
With the score 10 zip, there was that one second quarter drive in which Nottingham's touch brought us to about the Fordham 12 yard line or so.
Then the interception on the one yard line. Fordham marches, but the defense holds. We get the ball back and stall with less than two minutes remaining. They take it down to the five or six yard line. The defense holds.
Going into half-time, there was reason to hope that the offense would get it together.
Hopes badly unrealized of course. But we play again next week.
Leonlion
Just plain stupid to play Fordham! We should have cancelled the Fordham games the moment they started giving athletic scholarships. Playing Fordham in the opening game of the season is particularly dumb. Our goal is to win the Ivy League championship not to compete with athletic scholarship schools. I hope we didn't incur too many injuries today. The stupidity of our athletic administration is shocking!
OldLion- Excellent recap! I saw that our linebackers we so far back they looked like DBs! I disagree that we should drop Fordham. Based on what you said, should we drop Harvard after last year's fiasco (thanks again Pete for that record-setting performance). Penn plays Villanova, and Brown plays URI every year... great rivalries! Yes, Dartmouth dropped UNH, but we're not at that stage with Fordham yet (IMO). Those kids were not ready to play. All of the other Ivies look leaps and bounds ahead of us (watching Princeton on NBC Sport Network now). Poor Nottingham, our WRs dropped so many ball. He looked good, but the Fordham QB looked GREAT! Our O-Line looked HORRIBLE! These kids need experience, bring back the JV team so these kids can lean something (notice how much worse we are after dissolving that part of the program). Last thing... Per Pete, Nottingham is a drop-back QB who was in the gun most of the time today. The irony is that he stuck Brackett under center all of last year. It is just outright embarrassing that this guy doesn’t know how to coach! We were not prepared!
IS #1 LION OUT OF HIS MIND. WE LOSE 52-7 TO FORDHAM AND # HE SAYS THAT HE DISAGREES THAT WE SHOULD NOT DROP FORDHAM IMMEDIATELY AS "we're nor at that stage with Fordham yet (IMO)''' WHAT THE HECK IS HE TALKING ABOUT. SURE BROWN PLAYS URI EVERY YEAR, BUT FORDHAM IS ALREADY MUCH BETTER THAN URI AND WILL BE EVEN STRONGER NEXT SEPTEMBER. AS FOR PENN, THEY ARE NOT PLAYING FORDHAM THIS YEAR AND NEITHER ARE ANY OF THE IVIES EXCEPT YALE. COME ON PLAYING AN ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP SCHOOL IN GAME 1 IS RIDICULOUS AND THE FORDHAM SERIES NEEDS TO BE CANCELLED NOW BEFORE SO THAT THE 2014 AND 2015 SEASONS ARE RUINED.
A good Ivy League team would be competitive with Fordham. Columbia simply wasn't that. Question is whether they don't have the talent, or they weren't prepared. A big test of Mangurian's coaching ability will be whether he can make Columbia into a good Ivy football team by the end of the year. And if not this year, then next. Perhaps the decision not to play JV ball and not to have a preseason scrimmage should be revisited before next year?
I for one don't agree about dropping Fordham. The main thing we need is better coaching, particularly the offensive schemes. When we lost our original OC to the pros before the start of last season, it was a bad omen. Mangurian seems attached to the current OC just like Wilson was to Vinnie. The new DC doesn't look too good either, no rush or pass defense at all. This team wasn't ready. It will take someone like the dynamic new coaches of Fordham, Princeton, and Cornell to turn things around, not someone who wants to do it the NFL way. When Coach M. & Co. took away our best weapon last year, Brackett's running ability, I knew we were in trouble. If the Lions can come back from this one I'll be happily surprised, no one wants it more than me and all you other Lion diehards. But tragedy stalks us. It will take a mighty soul to right the ship. Is it Mangurian? He has conviction, is that enough? We'll know in time.
So, when we lose badly we should drop the team? See Cornell game when they had Mcniff and oliaro circa 91.
When will everybody stop making these excuses on losing. If you don't invest in quality you won't get quality.
We get a song and dance from the coach and we hear about how the o line is leaner, working harder, grand experiment, etc. The QB was in the shotgun because if he were under center he would have been sacked more often than not. We ran the ball well, but didn't do it enough.
It isn't the schedule it is the fact that CU has been led by a very generous donor and this has allowed a lot of sins to be forgiven. Well guess what, those days are over and either we make a full commitment to the sport, which means hiring a coach who can win and developing all the infrastrcuture to conpete or we just shut it down.
Call me whatever you want, but I have met all parties involved and am hardly impressed by them or the results.
I wish the kids well because they are in for it and they are in shoes which are not favorable as most of us on this blog know.
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