Roar Lions 2024: February 2014

Friday, February 28, 2014

Participation Trophies

Below is an example of the kind of headline I hate the most from our athletic department

"Men's Swimming & Diving Open Ivy League Championships

In other words: “Hey, we’re PARTICPATING!”

“Hey, Nobody Drowned in Warmups!”

“We’re the Champions of just Showing up!”

What we don’t see in these horrible headlines is that CU is currently 6^th in the swimming competition. Also, the much-ballyhooed women’s swimming team totally bombed in the Ivy championships earlier this month. We didn't even finish in the top 3!

I’m sick of all of this mere celebration of showing up. Have the guts to tell it like it is in the headline and let us know we’re near the bottom of the league.

These kinds of stories/headlines add fuel to the fire for those of us who believe the administration only wants us to field teams and doesn’t really care if they win or not.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

BREAKING: Tim Murphy Hospitalized

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy is reportedly dealing with what the papers will only call a "medical issue."

But, it doesn't appear too serious.

Murphy is the best coach in the league in my opinion, Phil Estes is second and Al Bagnoli #3.

Play Ball

Let’s not forget to celebrate success as much as possible.

And with that in mind, the Columbia Baseball team begins its season tomorrow with the start of a four game set at South Florida.

The Lions will begin to defend their Ivy title on March 29^th at home against Brown.

Brett Boretti is the best coach in all of Columbia athletics. He not only excels on the field and in recruiting, but his P.R. skills are also first rate and should serve as a guide to the other coaches at CU.

In case you’ve forgotten about the stellar players on this team, here’s a short reminder:

Jordan Serena is a junior outfielder/infielder, and was 1^st Team All Ivy last year. He’s a speedster, stealing 27 bases in 28 attempts last season.

Mike Fischer is a top defensive catcher and was 2^nd Team All Ivy last season.

Aaron Silbar is another returning 1^st Team All Ivy infielder.

And of course there’s the fan favorite Joey Falcone. 2^nd Team All Ivy last year and the inspiration for many on and off the team.

The pitching looks very good too with a lot of All Ivy returnees.

David Speer was 1^st Team All Ivy last season.

Senior Joey Donino was 2^nd Team All Ivy.

And Sophomore Kevin Roy was All Ivy Honorable Mention and has a lot of upside.

For an unbiased look at how good the Lions are, check out this analysis from Baseball America.

This is an exciting and strong team that deserves more fan support. Much of the home schedule is during a time when it can be a little chilly to watch a baseball game, but not all of it. I hope to see you there.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

10 Questions

So spring practice is about to begin and we’re also about to get a lot more info from the football program.

That includes two open practices on March 8^th and March 15^th, a more information-packed introduction to our recruiting class, and a social media Q & A with Head Coach Pete Mangurian on March 18^th.

We’re also about to get some updates on the coaching staff. I know that will include a replacement for WR coach Wendell Davis, who has left the team. I thought Davis did a great job with the receivers in 2012, but something went very, very wrong with that crew last season. We’ll see if his replacement has any answers.

Speaking of answers, here are the top 10 questions I’d like to see fans ask Coach Mangurian on the 18^th:

1) Granted the team had some bad injuries in 2013, but how do you explain what was the absolute worst season in Ivy history?

2) Columbia’s offensive line was worse in 2012 than it was in 2011. Then it was worse in 2013 than it was in 2012. When will the bleeding stop, and wasn’t the terrible offensive line the biggest reason for the most serious injuries last year?

3) Why did you call big donors like Bob Kraft and use the “cupboard was bare” excuse for our woes last season? Didn’t you realize that would get out? And can you really say that your recruits are more talented and had enough experience to justify benching many of the older players?

4) Why don’t we have a JV program? Every other Ivy team has one and many of our players last season clearly needed more training for college play.

5) Has it always been your plan to completely “blow up” the football program and start from rock bottom?

6) Just about every other Ivy team is using QB’s who are running and passing threats at once. You’re bucking that trend. Why?

7) How many years away are the Lions from being a legitimate contender for at least a winning season?

8) Why have you recruited so many incoming freshmen who received no offers from any other Ivy school?

9) Why did strength coach Ryan Cidzik leave?

10) Explain why you deserve another season at the helm at Columbia football.

I If anyone reading this does decide to participate in the social media event with Mangurian, I URGE you all to keep it civil and above board. I know my questions above are rather sharp, but they contain no vulgarities or personal insults. I want to pre-emptively discourage anyone from doing that in this upcoming forum.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Who Stays, Who Goes?

During the Norries Wilson era, the online football roster would be updated within minutes of any personnel changes.

Or at least it seemed that way.

Now, we’ve known since the early days of last season that some of the players still on the published roster were not still with the team. But it’s hard to figure out the reasoning behind who stays on the roster and who doesn’t.

There are four names of undergrads now missing from the roster who were there as of the Brown game at the end of last season:

1) Connor Spears - transferred to USC

2) Ricky Wolff - ????

3) Jake Wanamaker - my sources told me months ago he was inexplicably run off the team by Head Coach Pete Mangurian, possibly for having the audacity to want to show up for his summer internship

4) Kyriakos Mourkakos - ???

But we know there HAVE to be more non-seniors no longer on the team.

One player who remains a roster mystery is WR Isaiah Gross. Gross was an extremely promising freshman in 2012 until he was injured in week 3. We know he showed up for the very beginning of training camp last summer, but he’s been AWOL ever since. Why someone who didn’t even suit up for one game last year is still technically on the roster is strange. Could it be that Coach Mangurian, who praised Gross very highly at the beginning of 2012, is holding out hope that his erstwhile star will return? Could it be that Mangurian is hoping no one will notice one of his most talented players just bailed on him? Who knows?

The bottom line is we will have little idea who remains on this team at least until spring practice.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Just about there...

Kyle Smith is almost there...

It was a gratifying weekend for Columbia men’s basketball with a weekend sweep of Brown and Yale, two teams that were ahead of the Lions in the Ivy standings when Friday began.

At 6-4 in league play, Columbia is very close to achieving my first wish list item for this year which is a winning Ivy record for the first time in 21 years.

But what else is still in reach for this team?

At 17-10 overall, Columbia still has a decent shot at a 20-win season. The Lions should at least be favored to win three of the last four, with only the road game at Harvard likely to be slotting CU as underdogs.

Trailing those same Crimson by three games with four games to go, it doesn’t look good for Columbia’s chances to grab an Ivy title even if they run the table and go 10-4 in the league.

But if the Lions win 20 or 21 games, will they get a shot at the NIT?

There’s no doubt in my mind that CU would deserve to get into the NIT, but I have a bad feeling about the selection committee’s opinions of Ivy teams. I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like the CBI postseason tournament may be Columbia’s best shot.

Nevertheless, that shouldn’t put a damper on what I’m sure every serious CU basketball fan is thinking already: “Next Season.”

For Columbia athletics, it always seems to be about next season. But with no graduating seniors on this team and several players improving as they get older, there is a very strong reason to think that next year will be a year when CU men’s basketball could win a title.

Until then, I am impressed with the improvement we’ve seen from this team so far and I’m holding out hope for that 20-win season and an NIT berth.

And while I think it’s taken until this season for Head Coach Kyle Smith to find the handle on winning tight games down the stretch, it should be noted how he’s been able to get to this point without having to blow up the team first or trash the previous coach’s recruits.

I may not be ready to coronate Kyle Smith, but he’s already shown himself to be head and shoulders better than football’s Pete Mangurian in every way.

Football is a many years away from being competitive for an Ivy title, basketball is just about there.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

General Orders

Joey Falcone

My favorite Columbia sports story of the last five years has to be the decision of Afghan war veteran Joey Falcone to transfer to Columbia’s undergrad School of General Studies and walk on the baseball team.

And it’s a story that’s still very much alive as the 27-year-old Falcone has two more seasons at CU ahead of him.

The fact that his story is unique is part of the problem, as it exemplifies Columbia’s obvious lack of desire to improve its varsity sports teams.

GS is an honorable institution at Columbia. And in recent years it has become even more honorable as more and more Iraq and Afghan war vets are enrolling in the school. Perhaps the best thing Columbia has done in the last 50 years is matching the US government's tuition contribution for veterans. For a very big numbers of vets, going to GS is tuition free.

Even before this policy went into effect, many of us started calling for Columbia coaches to use GS as a way to reach out to potential varsity athletes coming out of the military. Now with Falcone’s success story well-documented we’re STILL not seeing our recruiters using this avenue at all. GS, whether it’s for veterans or not, is an excellent and honorable way for Columbia to start leveling the athletic playing field in the Ivies. I remain at a loss for why we’re still ignoring this avenue.

Ford Childress

Childress’ Brother Lost… but maybe not for Good

GS is also a perfect place to deposit promising transfers. It’s been done before, but still not nearly enough.

One player who should have been on Head Coach Pete Mangurian’s radar at least a year ago was West Virginia QB Ford Childress. Ford is the brother of graduating senior Wells Childress, who was a transfer from Texas A&M.

Ford has just transferred to a junior college after running into some difficulties early on at WVU. But I still believe in him and his potential, (he comes from a really great family), and he should have been a prime transfer target. GS could still be a landing spot for him next year if we’re smart.

Are we?

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

It’s all about the O-Line.. Again

How many times over the last 9 years have I written a comment or a full post on just how important the offensive line is in football?

How many times have I pointed out that the Lions won’t be able to succeed at all unless the offensive line is at least doing a somewhat decent job?

And how many times have we all been disappointed in the same old failures up front?

While the wheels came off of just about every wagon for CU football in 2013, the offensive line remained the worst and most dangerously ineffective unit on the team.

Some take issue with my belief that one of the big reasons for that failure was the intentional slimming down of the players, and I respect that opinion.

But we all agree that the offensive line, despite all too many “experts” telling us that it HAD to improve compared to 2012, was an unmitigated disaster last year.

And now, once again without any actual proof other than “experience will make them better, etc.”, we’re told by some that the offensive line will surely be better in 2014.

Sorry, but that’s based on what exactly?

We’re now about six weeks away from the start of spring practice and I intend to keep the focus on the offensive line. I want to see evidence of improvement and strength. I at least want to hear the coaches pointing out specific players and areas where we can expect to see progress.

Not much of any of the other positives Columbia may or may not have coming its way this season will matter much if the offensive line doesn’t improve.

QB Brett Nottingham might be 100% recovered, but what’s he going to get done without decent pass protection?

Maybe one of the younger running backs will develop into a real threat, but we’ll never know unless we see some decent blocking.

The best Columbia team we’ve seen over the past 10 years was the 2009 team, and it’s no coincidence that it had the best O-line of the last 10 years as well.

If we include the incoming freshmen, I see we have 19 total offensive linemen on our roster right now. That’s enough actual players to craft a decent front five and maybe 3-4 good backups if the coaches have recruited well and know what they’re doing.

Let’s see what they can do.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Twitter Problems Continue

It was less than a year ago that the Chad Washington/football team Twitter controversy exploded for Columbia.

For the record, Washington was basically cleared of every real charge in the alleged assault. And based on what I know, I think justice was served. I think Washington was unfairly accused of committing a serious crime when he wasn’t the instigator and no real serious crime was committed anyway.

But the Washington story quickly morphed into something else when various student media outlets took a look at Washington’s Twitter account and the Twitter accounts of several of his teammates. They found a long list of offensive and just plain dumb statements that caused a stir on campus.

I’m a major fan of Free Speech, but a lot of people have a tough time understanding what Free Speech really means. It means you CAN say whatever you like. It doesn’t mean you get immunity from any consequences based on what you say.

So in that context, Athletic Director Dianne Murphy and Head Coach Pete Mangurian promised us the players who had made the most offensive Tweets would be dealt with and that all the athletes would be reminded of special guidelines on social media.

So much for that.

Not a week goes by that I don’t see an ill-advised, stupid, or vulgar Tweet by a CU athlete.

Again, I’m not in favor of censoring these young men and women. And I know they’re all very young. But I have to ask: WHY THE HELL is this still going on?

Today, I saw a pic on Twitter of one of our football players lying on a bench near the Low Steps with his hand right down his pants. The picture was actually taken by another football player, so that’s a two-for-one in the dopiness department.

I honestly don’t know who should be taken to the woodshed over this; maybe no one. But it’s just another embarrassment that I don’t see the other seven Ivy schools having to deal with as much as we do.

I’d like to know why this continues to happen and whether it’s indicative of an overall issue of the administration not serving our student athletes properly. Remember that there are people on the staff who are charged with this job, who are getting paid by tuition revenue and our donations. If Columbia wants to cut these positions to save money, that’s fine. But if we’re all paying for something we’re not getting, that’s not fine.

And where is that mentoring program that Mangurian supposedly set up for the players? Aren’t any of the football alums awake enough or caring enough to tell these current players to stop making fools of themselves online?

These Tweets and other stupidity could haunt these students well past graduation. Somebody PLEASE fix this!

Raye-Redmond Announcement

In case anyone wasn’t clear about this, Lehigh has now officially announced that Marc Raye-Redmond is a member of its incoming freshmen class.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Lost to Lehigh

Bye bye

I'm not sure why, but top running back recruit Marc Raye-Redmond, has apparently decommitted to Columbia and is now going to Lehigh.

This is all according to his Twitter feed.

I considered Raye-Redmond to be the best running back on our list and his loss hurts.

But our list of "confirmed" incoming frosh is still at 32 as CU has snagged a punter.

Parker Thorne

6-3 194 pound Parker Thorne of Hortonville HS in Wisconsin is joining the Lions.

Thorne will be the first confirmed Hortonville alum to play football for CU.

Here is the updated list of our confirmed incoming class of 2018 players so far:

1) Collin Breckenridge OL 6-2, 270 lbs. W.B. Ray HS, Corpus Christi, TX

2) Marcus Briscoe WR 6-2, 200 lbs. Diamond Ranch HS, Pomona, CA

3) Clay Caruso LB 6-3 220 lbs. Strongsville HS, Strongsville, OH

4) Leander Cutler RB/LB 5-9 205 lbs. Varina HS, Richmond, VA

5) Zach Dansby TE 6-5, 220 lbs. Westlake HS, Austin, TX

6) Turner Demuth RB/DB 5-11 190 lbs. Whitefish Bay HS, Whitefish Bay, WI

7) Pat Denny OL 6-3 270 lbs. Fox Chapel HS, Pittsburgh PA

8) David Donovan DE 6-3 231 lbs. Mainlain Regional HS, Linwood NJ

9) Charlie Flores OL 6-4, 280 lbs. All Saints Episcopal School, Fort Worth, TX

10) Connor Heeb OL/DL 6-4 245 lbs. Canandaigua Academy, Canandaigua, NY

11) Anders Hill QB 6-4 210 lbs. Fairview HS, Boulder, CO

12) Alex Holme LB 6-4 210 lbs. Bishop O'Dowd HS, Oakland, CA

13) Tyler Holmes WR/DB 6-0, 175 lbs. Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, VA

14) Lord Hyeamang DE 6-4, 235 lbs. Apple Valley HS, Apple Valley, MN

15) Mike McGrath OL 6-6, 294 lbs. St. Augustine Prep, Richland, NJ

16) Hagen Patterson LB 6-2 230 lbs. Lake Travis HS, Lake Travis, TX

17) Markham Paukune OL 6-4, 280 lbs. All Saints Episcopal School, Fort Worth, TX

18) Dominic Perkovic DE 6-6 235 lbs. Brother Rice HS, Bloomfield, MI

19) Bailey Popeck TE 6-5, 230 lbs. St. Georges School, Germantown, TN and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH (PG Year)

20) Cameron Roane DB 6-0, 190 lbs. Riverside HS, Durham, NC

21) Chris Schroer RB 6-0, 215 lbs. Elder HS, Cincinnati, OH

22) Reid Stables OL 6-3 293 lbs. Mullen HS, Denver, CO

23) Nick Surges LB 6-3 215 lbs. Benet Academy, Lisle, IL

24) Liam Talty DE 6-4 235 lbs. Sheldon HS, Eugene, OR

25) Parker Thome P 6-3 194 lbs. Hortonville HS, Hortonville, Wi

26) Ian Tyler DE 6-4, 205 lbs. Muskegon Catholic Central HS, Muskegon, MI

27) Bewley Wales OL 6-5, 285 lbs. Metro Christian Academy, Tulsa, OK

28) Greg Washington DE 6-3 215 lbs. Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, VA

29) Logan Waters LB 6-2 205 lbs. San Antonio Christian HS, San Antonio, TX

30) Dylan Weldon, DB/RB 5-9 175 lbs. Bishop Gorman HS, Las Vegas, NV

31) Devin Williams DB 5-9 180 lbs. St. John’s College HS Washington, DC

32) Noah Zgrablich K 6-1 190 lbs. Sierra Canyon HS Chatsworth, CA

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Final Calls for ID's

Just about all the commenters on this blog have let me know their identities in private or in public to go along with whatever online nickname they use.

Those commenters who have not will have their comments deleted by noon today.

My email is roarlions2012@gmail.com

This should serve the dual purpose of keeping the comments above board and helping to save from further ethical lapses the assistant football coach who trolls on this blog and harasses some of the people who comment on it publicly and privately.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Monday, February 10, 2014

How to Help

For the last few weeks, in the comments section here and on the VOY site, I’ve been getting battered by critics who say I’ve gone too far in my own criticisms of our football program in general and Head Coach Pete Mangurian and Athletic Director Dianne Murphy in particular.

Now some of the attacks on me have to be taken with a grain of salt since I have evidence that a significant amount are coming from employees of the athletic department and the football coaching staff. BUT that does not mean that I deny that there are legitimate fans/alums who aren’t happy with me right now and that they come to that conclusion honestly.

But I DO think those honest critics aren’t being entirely fair. Because this blog, (and the blog that started at a different address nine years ago), has been dominated by constructive thoughts on everything from recruiting to game-time management for almost a decade. The sheer percentage of positive information on this blog, even in the past year, far outweighs anything else you see here.

To that end, I AGAIN urge all of you to learn more about the CAEC.

A group of concerned and influential alumni has formed the Committee for Athletic Excellence at Columbia (CAEC - pronounced Kayak) with the objective of convincing the administration to bring in competent, independent outside consultants to review the entire athletic establishment, including intercollegiate team sports and the campus (so-called) fitness facilities. The assignment would be to make recommendations about improvements that could solve the obvious problems in both areas. They are seeking members - not money (donations are voluntary). Students, Alumni, Faculty and friends of the U are all welcome, although Princeton persons need not apply. If you are interested take a look at their web site www.lion-sports.org/

There is no doubt in my mind that the football program and athletics in general at Columbia have been mismanaged for many decades. It’s time to do something about it.

Noah Z. on signing day

Southland Kicker

6-1 190 pound Kicker Noah Zgrablich has committed to Columbia.

Noah comes to us from Sierra Canyon HS in Chatsworth, CA just outside of L.A.

DO yourself a favor and check out Sierra Canyon's website, because this awesome place looks more like Google HQ than a school.

Noah will be the first documented Sierra Canyon grad to join the CU football prorgam.

You can see his highlight video here.