Will he hoist one here?
The Philadelphia Daily News is reporting that former Penn Head Coach Al Bagnoli will meet with Columbia President Lee Bollinger and incoming Athletic Director Peter Pilling today or tomorrow.
It goes on to say Bagnoli is close to becoming the Lions new head coach as early as next week.
You may recall that on January 14th, I suggested that Bagnoli might be a good candidate for this job, but who knew that anyone was listening?
I think there are a lot of pros for Columbia in this move, provided some important details are worked out first. At 62, Bagnoli is not an old man by today's standards. But a major priority Columbia must demand is for him to focus on grooming possible successors within the program.
Too many people right now are focusing on the reasons why Bagnoli would want the job. I find this to be the result of lots of fans not understanding the kind of competitive fire a person like Bagnoli has. Money is also a big factor, and I believe he will be paid a record salary for an Ivy coach. But Bagnoli isn't doing this just for money. I think this is also about his desire to show he can win anywhere.
And remember, Bagnoli has been offered this job before. It was way back in 1989. Perhaps he sees this opportunity as a chance to complete some unfinished business.
As far as what I think of his abilities, that's well-documented on this blog and the old site over the past 10 years. Bagnoli may have played the role of the villain for a lot Lions fans, but I don't know of any of us who didn't think he was an excellent coach.
As the song says, let's see if he can make it here.
7 comments:
Penn opened up admissions for Bagnoli for years, to their credit. Will Columbia do the same?
Does anyone know anything about his assistants?
I would be shocked out of my shorts. If he does come aboard I hope he cleans house and brings in some solid assistants before spring camp.
Well, his top assistant is taking over at Penn, I believe. That would likely mean half the staff would stay whether for not wanting to uproot or the opportunity to move into more prominent roles with an in-house successor, especially if a few coaches were to follow Bagnoli.
I wonder if he will bring in a prominent HS coach to serve as acoordinator/successor and help with recruiting...
He used to have a stronghold on Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco, for example...
This is purely speculation on my part
Bagnoli wants an apartment at the Trump Palace. Cough it up!
That's a perfectly reasonable request. Though, Trump does think much of Prez.
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