Scouting Brown

Day-to-Day work and updates on the Ivy football season will continue on this blog. But to make sure the emergency situation Columbia football and Columbia athletics are under remains on the forefront, the following extremely common sense demands will be posted on top of every new post on this blog until changes are made:

FIRST: If you are a former player, please consider signing the letter in the post below: (click here to see it), which has now morphed into a living petition. 

Here's what we need to do as well: 

 1)    Replace Dianne Murphy as Athletic Director right away

2)      Replace Pete Mangurian as Head Football Coach the moment the season ends

3)      Bring in an outside consulting/expert group to make the replacement hires and evaluate the positions and effectiveness of everyone in the athletic department.

4)      Do NOT allow anyone who has had a leadership position or position of influence in any past hiring process to participate or interfere in any way with the overhaul process.

Please call President Bollinger at 212-854-1754 as soon as possible and asked to be connected to his office. Please respectfully ask that Murphy and Mangurian be let go as soon as possible.

You can also email: officeofthepresident@columbia.edu

MY EMAIL FOR ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS AND CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE IS:

roarlions2012@gmail.com

Scouting Brown

Overview

Longtime readers here know I always have the utmost respect for Brown and especially Head Coach Phil Estes.

But this year, he’s let something slip and it shows.

The trademark Bear offense seems to be doing just fine, as underrated QB Patrick Donnelly is quietly having another great year passing, and RB John Spooney is on the verge of a 1,000 yard season.

But the defense hasn’t had what it took when it faced the competent offenses in this league all year.

That leaves Brown with only the chance for a winning overall season to fight for Saturday.

Offense

How good is Donnelly this year? He’s completing 66% of his passes, has a 15-5 TD/INT ratio, and almost gets 7 yards per attempt. The only question is why he hasn’t thrown more, but that may have something to do with time of possession and other issues out of his capable arms.

Spooney has really come on strong the last few weeks with 166 yards in his last contest against Dartmouth. He’s literally a track star and as a senior this could be his final chance to shine, (his possible 5^th year status is not certain). Spooney comes into the game with 984 yards rushing, so he could break the 1,000 yard mark on the first play from scrimmage. He’s already broken off three 90+-yard runs this year. And watch out for him as an occasional receiver out of the backfield.

The receivers are led by 5^th year senior Tellef Lundevall, who has been hooking up with Donnelly since they were in high school together, and fellow senior Jordan Evans.  Lundevall has a few more catches and yards, but Evans has more TD catches.  Tight End Andrew Marks, also a senior, is a good weapon with 20 receptions, including one for 50 yards.

The Bear O-line is a gold standard of pass protection with just six sacks allowed all year. They’re not the best in the trenches for the short yards, but not the worst either.

But it is a bit stunning to see not one Brown WR even near 10 TD catches for the season. Even Spooney has run for a decent, but not good enough 9 TD’s so far. In general, Brown is just short on scores this year relative to their recent history. That’s been an issue this year.

Defense

In general this is still a solid unit. But it looks like it’s lost something as each game wore on. Conditioning could be the cause, and that’s something the Bear coaches will look at I’m sure.

Up front, the Senior DE Michael Yules is still a star, but he hasn’t had as spectacular a season as many predicted. The other DE, senior John Bumpus is having a great season and the two of them together present a very tough assignment for opposing blockers.

Like just about every other Ivy team, Brown is short on impact defensive tackles in the middle. But sophomore Ludovic Richardson is showing a lot of promise.

The linebacking crew is very strong with the combo of junior Daniel Giovacchini and seniors Adewole Oyalowo and Zack Lattrell leading the way. Giovacchini leads the team in tackles.

The secondary leader is Emory Polley, another senior. He has five interceptions and 36 tackles. Junior Ed Armagost is a tough one too with 50 tackles and two picks.

Special Teams

PK Alex Norocea may be the best in the league. He’s 11-13 on FG’s this season with no chip shot misses. He’s also 32-32 on PAT’s.

Sophomore punter Grant Senne hasn’t been remarkable, but he’s not terrible.

Freshman Alexander Jette has been handling all the kick and punt returns with no spectacular results just yet. He’s just solid.

Brown’s kick coverage teams have been spectacular.