Offers Ahoy!

It looks like the Columbia coaches were busy yesterday sending out at least nine offers by my count.

Here are the offeree names I found:

RB Brandin Bradford from O'Connor HS in Helotes, TX. 

DB Chris Bergin from Detroit Country Day School, same HS as current Lion rising senior Gianmarco Rea.

OL Russell Stripling from Chino Hills HS in Chino Hills, CA.

MLB Jordan Carey from Hazlewood Central HS in Florissant, MO.

WR Denzel Fondungallah from Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, MN, the same school where Columbia got WR deep threat Brandon Bowser  '06.

WR Trevor Russell from Casa Grande HS in Casa Grande, AZ, where Columbia found one of its all-time great TE's, Matt Less '90. 

WR Owen Piche from Nequa Valley HS in Napervill, IL.

OL Patrick Arnold  from Gretna HS in Gretna, NE 

WR Thomas Hennigan from Northwest Guilford HS in Greensboro, NC. 

Lots of Questions Persist 

Harvard is still the only Ivy team to officially announce its incoming football class of 2020. So the head scratching about some of its new freshmen still has a lot of people scratching their heads. Some people believe the low number of 26 announced athletes is the result of several offerees not coming through with the minimum grades to cash in on their provisional offers. 

Oh, and the excellent DT I really liked, Carter Hartmann? He won't even report to Cambridge for another two years as he is about to leave on a two-year LDS mission. 

Okay, reality check time. I think we all know Harvard will still be a strong program no matter what anyone thinks of this class. But count me among the people a little baffled by what he read out of Crimsonland yesterday. 

Making His Own Case

A DC-area Lion fan alerted me to the fact that one of the new players on the Harvard list wasn't on the Crimson radar, or anyone's radar about a year ago.

But LB Jordan Hill started Tweeting the Harvard coaches and persisted until they checked him out. 

Screen Gems

One more thing about Harvard: The Crimson athletics website is now featuring a large and accessible video archive filled with sports game film. It includes:

-41 minutes of the very first game at the new Wien Stadium in 1984. Note the lack of visitor stands, (they were added in 1986).

-Film from a 3-3 Columbia-Harvard tie football game at Harvard in 1963.

-A 34-7 Lion loss to the Crimson at Baker Field in 1966, (which features probably the best color footage you’ll see of the old stadium).

-Back to black and white with film of the 1971 21-19 thriller Crimson win at Harvard.

-The complete 1994 Columbia-Harvard game at Wien Stadium featuring lots of running by Marcellus Wiley '97.  (Columbia lost in a heartbreaker 39-32 in what was Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy’s first game with the Crimson).

-Levien Gym looking almost exactly as it does today in a 1979 basketball game that Columbia won 90-74.