-Remember last year at this time when WR Josh Wainwright was exciting, but also dropping passes and fumbling at key moments? Well, now he's a sophomore and the difference that year of experience makes is big.
-Remember last year at this time when WR Ronald Smith was... actually Smith wasn't playing yet at this time last year and made his debut in week 5 at Penn.
-So in the course of just seven games, the Lions have gone from having no real dangerous receiving threats to having two. That's a big jump in a very short amount of time.
-QB Anders Hill is now 5-5 as Columbia's starting signal caller. He stands a chance now of becoming the first Lion QB in modern history to have more than 10 starts and graduate with a winning record. Sean Brackett cannot say that. John Witkowski can't say that. Archie Roberts can't say that. Marty Domres can't say that. Even Sid Luckman can't say that. Stay tuned.
-No one is even testing CB Cameron Roane anymore by even throwing the ball his way more than once per game or so. We'll see if this keeps up in Ivy play, but that is the essence of what they mean in football when they say "shutdown corner."
-K Oren Milstein was a perfect 5-5 on PATs, despite having one of his kicks slightly tipped.
The Coach
-Head Coach Al Bagnoli is now 7-15 at Columbia. His predecessor only had three wins in 30 tries, and Norries Wilson needed 26 games to reach the seven win mark. Ray Tellier didn't log his seventh win at CU until he had coached 42 games.
-For the second straight game, every point scored by Columbia was scored by a Bagnoli recruit.
-What Columbia is doing now is winning the games it SHOULD win. The Lions were simply better going into games this year against an injury-scarred Wagner offense and a generally inferior Georgetown team. Last year, if Columbia had simply won the games they played against weaker opponents alone, the Lions would have gone 6-4, (they blew games they should have won over St. Francis, Georgetown, and Cornell). And in 2015, Columbia should have gone 4-6 instead of 2-8 after dropping games they should have won over Georgetown and Cornell). Getting teams to simply beat weaker opponents is actually a tough job that has to come first for any coach. Bagnoli seems to have arrived at this accomplishment now.
-What Columbia is doing now is winning the games it SHOULD win. The Lions were simply better going into games this year against an injury-scarred Wagner offense and a generally inferior Georgetown team. Last year, if Columbia had simply won the games they played against weaker opponents alone, the Lions would have gone 6-4, (they blew games they should have won over St. Francis, Georgetown, and Cornell). And in 2015, Columbia should have gone 4-6 instead of 2-8 after dropping games they should have won over Georgetown and Cornell). Getting teams to simply beat weaker opponents is actually a tough job that has to come first for any coach. Bagnoli seems to have arrived at this accomplishment now.
The Fan Experience
-Count me among the fans who was at first amused, and then annoyed by the P.A. announcer's performance at the game. I mean not personal offense, and I doubt many people could do better off the cuff, (was he hired off the cuff?), but come on. We can't have that guy doing the same routine at Homecoming.
-WKCR hasn't stopped broadcasting games, they're just only available on the stations internet feed and not over the regular air. I don't like that development either, but it's a big difference from abandoning sports altogether.
Hints for the Future?
-Almost every Ivy team, including the half of the league that doesn't start its Ivy part of the schedule until week three, (Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, and Princeton), waits until that Ivy schedule kicks in to show off some new weapons. But my guess is we saw glimpses of some new strategies Saturday.
They include:
1) We hadn't see much in the way of blitzing at all until LB Cal Falkenhayn burst through the middle of the line in the 2nd half for a big sack.
2) Hill executed the spring option, pitching the ball laterally to his right to RB Chris Schroer for a nice gain later in the game.
3) The Lions finally took some of the running game off-tackle and generally got good results.
Just to Compare...
-Columbia started 2005 and 2006 with 2-0 records, but the 2005 team was generally terrible and the 2006 team was an inspiring group. The 2005 team took that 2-0 record into Princeton and was thoroughly mauled by an up-and-coming Tiger team that was still not playing its best football. The 2006 team was 2-0 and played Princeton at Homecoming the following week and lost a close contest against the eventual Ivy champs. So, will this game be like the 2005 debacle that exposed a Columbia team that did not win again that season, or will it be more like the 2006 game that proved that team's grit? Or will it produce an entirely different result and lesson?
-Columbia started 2005 and 2006 with 2-0 records, but the 2005 team was generally terrible and the 2006 team was an inspiring group. The 2005 team took that 2-0 record into Princeton and was thoroughly mauled by an up-and-coming Tiger team that was still not playing its best football. The 2006 team was 2-0 and played Princeton at Homecoming the following week and lost a close contest against the eventual Ivy champs. So, will this game be like the 2005 debacle that exposed a Columbia team that did not win again that season, or will it be more like the 2006 game that proved that team's grit? Or will it produce an entirely different result and lesson?
5 comments:
On The Firing Lion recently, there was an announcement that they would be broadcasting (i.e., on the radio) a few Ivy games starting with Princeton, if I heard it right.
Nice work Jake. I expect that we might see more touches at RB for Ian Vandenberg, a converted WR who has great speed. I also expect to see more blitz packages featuring DeLorenzi. Things to be fixed: whoever plays opposite to Roane has to be coached up to look for the ball on deep patterns; we need to use a two back set from time to time; we need to develop a pass catching TE. One catchable easy pass to one of our TEs was dropped. Our LBs are occasionally trapped or out of position on inside running plays, leading to long gains. PS, the offensive pass i9nterference call on Wainwright was actually a very smart play on his part. That pass was underthrown (one of Hill's very few bad throws) and the DB would have intercepted it without the push off.
The PA announcer was not only an annoying homer, but failed to give ANY relevant info like
penalties (especially when refs mike wasn't working), players involved in plays, regular out of town score updates etc. Embarrassing !
Agree with you Old Lion, especially about pass catching TE, imagine that with our two wideouts !
PS....I wasn't referring to Jake's rankings, but in another poll I saw that put us in #3 position in the league.
Is Yale really that tough?
Game notes confirm WKCR-FM will be carrying the Pr game
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