Craig Picks the Crimson

The man who has been covering the Ivy League for the general news media the longest, Craig Haley, is picking Harvard to win the Ivies followed by Dartmouth and Yale.

Haley is putting a wise amount of confidence in Harvard's O-line which appears to be the best in the league.

Unlike a number of pundits who think Columbia will climb out of the cellar, Haley puts the Lions back in last.

Respect has to be earned.


Herschel's Visit

Herschel Walker did more than just make an appearance at Lions training camp yesterday. He talked about fighting for respect, sometimes quite literally.

Obviously, training camp isn't about celebrity appearances but we seem to be enjoying an upgrade in that department from the days when the only visitors to our camp were Governor George Pataki.

A longer long at Walker's visit can be seen on the Columbia channel on the Ivy League Digital Network.


Fordham Update

There are 23 days before the Lions season opener at Fordham, but the Rams are just eight days from starting their season at Army.

We've learned a few new things about Fordham in the last few weeks, and not all of them are bad from a Columbia perspective:

-The Rams broke training camp Tuesday with an intrasquad scrimmage that did NOT feature their best player, RB Chase Edmonds. There was no explanation as to why he didn't play very much. But if Edmonds is hurt in any significant way the Rams are in serious trouble, so being cautious and keeping him healthy was probably the reason.

-The #1 starting QB is Kevin Anderson, a transfer from Marshall who was on the team last year and only saw very limited duty despite Fordham's need for a decent backup when Michael Nebrich was often hurt. When the Rams announced they were picking up another transfer this summer, Luke Medlock from Florida International, I thought there was a chance he was being brought in to start.

This all means that other than Edmonds, most of Fordham's offense remains a big mystery. But it's hard to believe it will be as good as the Rams O was in 2013 and 2014.

You can click on the highlight video to see the Fordham scrimmage summary.


Joey Falcone Update

Falcone wasn't being used very much for the Gulf Coast Yankees ever since he joined the team in late June. He was hit by a pitch in one of his first games and I can only guess he was injured. But that changed last week when he was re-inserted into the lineup as a regular starter on August 21st.

He immediately starting tearing the cover off the ball after that. In five games, he went 9-for-15 with an incredible 11 RBI including a homer. He was promoted to the Charleston Riverdogs last night and he went 1-4 with a single and an RBI in his debut.

Including tonight's game, the Riverdogs have 12 more games to play in their 2015 season.


You can follow Joey's daily progress here.