I know we have 22 days until Columbia football finally kicks off, but all three of our out of conference opponents will be starting tomorrow. So it's time to start my weekly series of predictions.
Last year against the spread I had a better than .600 winning percentage and my straight up picks were better than 80%, so this will be a tough record for me to top this year.
But here goes:
Monmouth -3 vs. Delaware State
Monmouth is one of a handful of NY/NJ-area FCS schools really trying to boost its football program and reap the free publicity for the entire school that comes with that.
The Hawks start this season without some of their offensive stars, but their new expanded stadium and the enthusiasm of a new season should be enough to carry them to a win and to cover this tiny spread.
Take Monmouth and lay the points.
Fordham -18 vs. St. Francis
I think Fordham could beat St. Francis by 28, but if Ram Head Coach Joe Moorhead is smart he'll ease off on the throttle a bit in this game. He needs his team to think about 2014 as a marathon, not a race if he wants to fulfill the lofty goal of winning the FCS championship or at least get into the late rounds of the playoffs.
That said, I still think Fordham wins this game by something like 34-10.
Take the Rams and lay the points.
Holy Cross over Albany (NO LINE)
Don't worry, this doesn't happen too often but there is no betting line that I can find for the Holy Cross at Albany game tomorrow night.
Albany is coming off a tough season, but has a lot of talent and a brand new coach from U. Maryland.
Holy Cross is coming off a couple of rough seasons, but they have an excellent veteran coach in Tom Gilmore.
One thing about Gilmore's teams at Holy Cross: they're always very well prepared for the season compared to their opponents. The advantage flattens out as the season goes on, but week one is almost always a good week for the Crusaders.
I like Holy Cross to win here.
27 comments:
Correct roster is online. New weights. Gross is no longer on the roster.
Couldn't have picked them any better. You were nearly perfect except Albany won by a point. As Hervé Villechaize once said in the Man with the Golden Gun "Tho clothe yet tho fahh"
52-23 Fordham destroying St. Francis
14-13 Albany scores 2 4th q tds to beat Holy Cross
52-21 Monmouth beats a nondescript Delaware St squad. In fact, Delaware State has it much worse than Columbia. Their next 3 games they may lose by 150 points combined to Delaware, Towson and Temple (who dismantled Vanderbilt this week)
21-3 Wagner over G-Town for good measure.
Fordham freshman RB had 180+ yards in his debut. Who could have predicted that? Turns out somebody kind of did: http://culions.blogspot.com/2014/05/what-theyre-up-to.html?m=1
Every one of CU's out of conference opponents not only won today, but they were generally impressive doing so. Albany's defense was stellar, and Fordham and Monmouth have super running backs to go along with other assets. We look like a HS team compared to them.
Way to support the boys, Jake. If I were the AD I wouldn't talk to you either. With friends like you , who needs enemies?
This "Jake doesn't support the players" line has gone from laughable to old." As for the AD, you still don't get it. I don't want the AD or the dept to talk to me, I want it to talk to us... all if us. The fans are starved for even the most nominal info, the players are not promoted or acknowledged or even properly introduced to the fans except by me, and the administration clearly disdains any fan-generated demands for success. It's as simple as that and I'm also getting tired of defending my support for the players from attacks by people who don't even have the guts to really identify themselves fully.
Do you want Jake to stop telling us his opinion? He is being honest.
Alawicius, I appreciate your optimism but it is more blind loyalty in my opinion.
Jake, you're still stuck in last year. You haven't seen this year's team, so how can you say what they look like?
WOF, sometimes blind loyalty is an attribute, all you need to see is Lion football.
Jake, as a long time supporter of what you have been doing, I think some of the negative comments are a result of your brutal honesty. For example, it is hard to say we support the players on the one hand and to say they look like a high school team on the other hand.
I think everyone here has blind loyalty or we wouldn't be here. The differences are in the threshold for pain and also whether you can ignore reality or expect it to improve without any indication that this is possible or even intended. The sentence from Jake above which begins
"The fans are starved.....demands for success." Sums it up completely.for me.
This is a question I've often wondered here.
Are the comments supposed to anticipate that the players will read them, and therefore we have an opportunity or even a responsibility to be positive?
Or is this a site where contributors "call them like they see them" -- as in, it looks like a high school team -- without feeling that a responsibility to a player/reader has been breached?
In short, is it a "booster site" or not? I would prefer it not be a booster site. I'd like to know others' thoughts
Mitch S 68CC
Mitch: this is not a booster site.
In response to Mitch S: while this is totally Jake's call, I think that there is a line that should not be crossed. Specifically, AD hominem attacks on the players and their abilities. I for one thing that calling us a high school team is pretty much on the borderline, for example. And some of the attacks on Pace seem to me to be over the top. But saying our coaches are unresponsive or that our guys are too light on the OL is fair game. I think all of us who participate on this board want a good program. To that extent we are boosters.
Let's be fair, I did not say we were a HS team, I said we look like a HS team compared to Fordham. Which we do if you care to be honest.
Our player that was suspended for the season for failing an NCAA performance enhancement test will be eligible to play after game 5. Sorry for posting more unimportant info on the board Jake.
CU football is not a HS team but until proven otherwise they are not competitive and not suited for FCS. If not for Ivy conference membership they would be demoted two full levels and then embarrassed by NAIA teams. I saw a game last week. Was it eastern or southern Oregon against Menlo College. The Oregon team executed beautifully. QB racked up nearly 500 yards and before you say who is Menlo, they are a fine program with excellent players and coaches, middle tier NAIA. This year for CU of course remains to be seen and here's hoping for the best. I would really like to see big changes come to fruition but the proof will have to reveal itself quickly and everything is stacked against them. Zipperhead logic would have you believe conditioning drill times are worth anything.
Good to see Jeff Adams still in the league. He was cut by the Titans but immediately picked up by Houston.
I don't mention specific players in a derogatory fashion because it isn't fair. We don't expect them to be pros in training, we expect them to be Columbians who can play competitive Ivy football. We can accurately describe their actual play in games, and that's sufficient criticism, without opinionating that someone stinks.
It seems to me that the individual criticism here is confined to the coaches and school nabobs, which is where it belongs, not with the players. It starts with recruiting and if that isn't successful, that's even more training the coaches must do. But they're the ones being paid to produce.
Danny, more details on the scrimmage? And anything else you may have that the negheads here consider "unimportant." Good to hear that Mark C. will be back. Any word on I. Gross?
Hey, everybody, without Danny we'd have nothing at all from the team since Jake has pretty much taken himself out of the loop. So how about some props for D. White!
Who was suspended by the NCAA?
Alawicius, I think you might be delusional.
I am a former player, nothing has changed in 30+ years and yet I am still reading this blog daily and paying for it.
How can you possibly accuse me of not being loyal?
I want this team to win so badly I can't express it. Believing in unicorns is not going to get us an Ivy championship and I sadely believe I will never see one during my lifetime because the admin does not care and never will.
College football will be banned again before we win anything.
And the really sad part is that Pete doesn't get that many others feel the same way and his bunkering in approach only pours salt on the wound.
Great comment, Chick
Slamming athletes on a personal basis is unacceptable. I haven't seen that here so much. But even doing it to the team as a whole is distasteful.
Any of you who have played for CU understand the incredible effort and sacrifice required to participate, regardless of talent. Every one of our guys is motivated. This must be respected.
As far as their actual play, paraphrasing Chick, look to our recruiting, training, game planning and field coaching. This is where it is, not on the team. Because they are doing all they can.
WOF, your words as a former player have more resonance than any, especially the Admin, which gives us nothing but silence. The featured stories on the AD football website still are about freshmen players planting bushes in a local park some months ago, and tickets are on sale for the Fordham game. Perhaps the latter IS news, if anyone actually is buying tickets for a Columbia
game
Quote from Nick saban..The definition of "crazy" is coaching an 18-25 yr old to make the right decision in a 7 second span while the bullets are flying
What I don' get Chick is that people like alawicius, Danny and the staff still don't have any respect that many of us feel the way we feel. I get that they want the team to stay positive and weed out negative thoughts but to expect the fans and former players to think that way, particularly after the two years of slop we have just witnessed, is unbelievably ignorant and/or naive.
Maybe Pete will prove to be the next Bellichick this year and pull a rabbit out of his hat in spite of his personality but when his current PR campaign is to have a friend of one of his assistants use the spread offense (whihc we don't use) as the explanation for our smallish line it really makes it look like we are woefully undermanned in all facets of the organization and quite incompetent to boot.
I would really appreciate it Danny or Pat would ask the staff why they treat the former players and fans in general with such little regard. I want to know if they are purposely alienating themselves from us or if it is simply out of ignorance and incompetence.
I don't need to know the gameplan or anything like that but they could be doing so much more to turn us around and support them.
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