The Coach
-Al Bagnoli is now 8-15 as the Columbia Head Coach. He has reached eight wins six games earlier than Norries Wilson and 30 games faster than Ray Tellier.
The Team
-A lot of people are pointing out this is the first time the team has started 3-0 and posted an overall four game winning streak, (stretching back to the season finale win at Brown last year), since 1996. But most of Columbia's previous great seasons featured losses to Princeton, including the 1933 Rose Bowl team, the 1961 Ivy co-championship season, and the 1996 8-2 team.
This team, with two late game clinching scoring drives already in the books, is looking more and more like the 1971 6-3, (5-2 Ivy), team that came in second in the Ivies. The '71 team was a group of comeback kids that made their first real statement that year with a win over Princeton to end a 26-year drought against the Tigers.
The Players
-QB Anders Hill is now 6-5 as a starter. He's the first Columbia starting QB to earn four straight wins as a starter since Don Jackson '73 did it with three wins at the end of 1971 and a win to open 1972.
-Hill now has TWO come-from-behind wins with possessions that began with under two minutes left under his belt. The last Columbia QB to have even one of those wins was Jeff Otis '05. In those two game-winning drives, Hill's stats in those two drives not including incomplete spike passes to stop the clock are 4 for 8 for 94 yards, 11.7 yards per attempt, two 1st downs, 1 TD, 0 INT, and 1 sack.
-Hill's overall 3rd down passing stats are 23 of 31 for 398 yards, 12.8 yards per attempt, 18 first downs, 4 TD's, 2 INT's, and 5 sacks.
-As I wrote yesterday, WR Ronald Smith's 236-yards receiving broke Bill Wazevich's 50-year-old record of 215 receiving yards. But what I left out was that Wazevich set that record against... Princeton. But the Lions lost that game, 28-14. The QB in that game was the NFL-bound Marty Domres '69.
-Junior LB Sean White was the emergency starting replacement for sophomore Matt Tofano when he went down with a career-ending injury. White has played extremely well in every game, but he was a difference maker Saturday. His interception was a highlight everyone noticed but he was also in on many key tackles and had 11 total.
-Sophomore DB Ben McKeighan's INT was the result of an athletic dive to keep the ball from falling harmlessly to the turf. No longtime Columbia fan is likely to forget the many dropped INTs that would have ended games in just these kinds of circumstances in games that ultimately ended in either a Columbia loss or another few minutes of agony. Phillip Murray '03 dropped an INT on a very similar play against Cornell in 2002 and that ended up leading to a winning TD pass by the Big Red a few moments later. Jared Katz '17's drop of an INT late in the Dartmouth game last year gave the Big Green new life and almost cost the Lions the game. The list goes on and on.
-Sophomore Justin Hill is becoming a serious force in punt coverage. It'll be exciting to see what he can do in the secondary. Freshman LB Justin Woodley got some quality playing time. He looks good and he looks BIG.
7 comments:
Ready for this????
Computer ranking website has us at 21, with only Dartmouth in front,
@ 17. Yale is third, @ 31. The rest trail miserably.
Marist is way down the list, but I'm still worried. We need that game.
I was critical of Hill last season but he has been outstanding since game 7 last year. He has a strong arm and he shows touch and poise. As Jake notes, he's executed two minute drills and also consistently made good plays in the red zone and on 3rd down. It's been gratifying as a fan to see him improve so dramatically. Kudos to him for his hard work, and to his coaches. Also, it never hurts to have stud receivers!
50 years? Ouch. Bill Wazevich was a classmate and all around good guy. Sadly, he died relatively young. We took good teams for granted in the 60's. Football was competitive, Marty Domres and George Starke went on to good pro careers. Basketball, led by Jim McMillian, another deceased classmate, won the Ivies and was ranked #5 nationally. Jim started for the LA Lakers for several years. Then the campus uprising in 1968 set CU back.
I think the work QB coach Ricky Santos has done with Anders has been amazing. It took awhile to develop in part because Santos had to divide his time in the 2016 preseason between Anders and Mornhinweg, with the bulk of his focus on Mornhinweg because he was the starter at the beginning of the season. Now that Santos has had full attention on Anders for almost a year, there's been a great progression.
The Hill/Wainwright/Smith development can be attributed in large part to the many sessions in the bubble this winter. I have heard Al say as much more than once.
In Al we trust.
The person that we should thank is Peter Pilling. To pull this program out of the crap we were forced to deal with is nothing short of amazing.
As for Marist, my concern is this is a trap game in many ways....we should be favoured by a lot and could get over confident (though I have faith in the coaching staff to temper this). My bigger concern is injury, specifically to Hill. Welcome opinions, but if we go up by two scores, I would hope to see Suitt brought in, or Bean...give them snaps and rest/protect Hill....just sayin......
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