Last Week
In the final week of no Ivy games to pick, I went 1-1 straight up and 0-2 against the spread. My season record so far is 3-2 straight up and 2-3 against the spread
Dartmouth -17 1/2 at Georgetown
I fully expect the Big Green to win this game pretty easily, but I also think there will be some holding back by the second half and covering this spread might be tough. I'm torn, but I think Dartmouth will come out of the gate roaring.
Penn +7 at Lehigh
These Quakers aren't a very strong team by Penn standards, but Lehigh is still not anywhere near as strong as it was 3-4 years ago. I think Ray Priore and co. will actually win this game, because this opener really means so much to him. After this week, it gets a lot tougher for Penn.
Brown +7 vs. Bryant
Bryant is a big-time FCS contender this year, but Brown usually starts their seasons very strong. Last year was an exception with all the rookies in starting slots. Bryant will win, Brown will cover.
Colgate +5 vs. Yale
Colgate is a good team playing on its home field. I think they will cover and win.
Rhode Island +25 vs. Harvard
The Crimson will cruise to victory, but not by more than 21 points or so. Tim Murphy usually saves his best for much later in the year. With QB phenom Joe Viviano now out for the season, Harvard may be a little less crisp on day one.
Cornell +14 1/2 vs. Bucknell
Bucknell was supposed to be this strong challenger for the Patriot League title this year, but I've been very unimpressed with the Bison so far this season. I think Bucknell will win against a Cornell team full of holes, but not by more than two scores.
Lafayette -5 vs. Princeton
Under Bob Surace, the Tigers have often started slow. I don't see the Leopards losing this one.
Monmouth +3 at Wagner
Monmouth will come into this game a little fresher after Wagner's odd opener at Rice two weeks ago. This is going to be a great game though and I wish they had played it last week before the Columbia season started so I could watch it in the stands.
Media Attention
Lots of and lots of mainstream news media outlets have started to pay attention to Columbia Football in the last few days, and I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of it.
But here are some essential links to click on and read when you can:
-The New York Times has what I would call an uncharacteristically thorough and basically basically positive article about the upcoming season.
-The teasers are all done and now WNYC radio has launched the first full episode of "The Season."
You can hear episode 1 here.
-The just laid-off Flip Bondy at the Daily News put together an interesting piece about the veterans of the 44-game losing streak in the 1980's and where many of them are now.
-Head Coach Al Bagnoli gets a starring role in the AP's very quick preview of the 2015 Ivy season.
-The Columbia Spectator's big 2015 preview comes out tomorrow, but today the paper has a very interesting look at RB Cameron Molina and an analysis of his stats.
-The snarky campus website BWOG has an interview with Bagnoli worth reading because it asked some important questions others have been avoiding.
Now THIS is Funny
When I was producing local news, we HAD to end every broadcast with a quirky or funny "kicker" story.
The following would qualify:
Many of you know by now that former Columbia Head Coach Norries Wilson has been named interim Head Coach at Rutgers in light of Kyle Flood's suspension.
But as the Scarlet Knights line up against Penn State Saturday night in Happy Valley, Wilson and co. will be facing the Nittany Lions' very hot defensive coordinator... none other than Wilson's predecessor at Columbia, Bob Shoop.
5 comments:
Norries was a very nice man in my opinion. The sort who, as a recruiter, was someone parents could be happy to see walking up to their front door. As for Shoop, he seems to have grown greatly as a coach. He'll be a head coach again soon enough, and probably at a FBS school. When he is, I hope he remembers his Columbia experiences at least half-fondly. (And that loss to Temple this season too.)
Nice NY Times piece. Al comes off well.
Now here’s a novel idea…now that we have practices on south field, what about a special event of
homecoming one Saturday on south field—just as the football team used to do when Gehrig was on the football team (yes, he played baseball AND football), etc. way back when. Before this is dismissed as a crazy “impossible”idea, think of what an
extraordinary event it would me, like few in Columbia history.
It would be a spectacle, like the hockey games they set up in Fenway Park, or the Yale/Havard game at MSG this year.
There is enough space on campus to do it in front of Butler. You would have to set up temporary bleachers and a couple of goal posts , not to mention create a field for the day (!). It would costs a load of money (perhaps Kraft family or Nike could sponsor event?), but what a grand pageant; and, furthermore, I think you would get return on the investment many times over. The whole campus would be filled with homecoming tents, tailgates parties on upper level of campus, students would be hanging out the dorms looking at the game, spectators would watch the game from the Low steps, banners would hang from the buildings. The press would cover it like crazy, and any aerial photograph of the game would be an unbelievable recruiting tool. Maybe it would even be televised. Heck, maybe you even have throw-back jerseys from Sid Luckman’s day and have the team march out of Low Library down the steps to start the game. Yeah, it a “crazy” idea, but this is a new era in Columbia football and everything’s on the table… If it actually worked, you could do it every homecoming!
Spec is ding a really good job so far in covering football. Some very well written pieces have appeared in the last few days.
DE LinDon Harris (6-2/215)Sidwell Friends, Washington, DC commits to Columbia https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/recruiting-insider/wp/2015/09/17/sidwell-friends-football-standout-lindon-harris-commits-to-columbia/
Princeton crushed the Leopards! The tiger may not be as dormant as you think.
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