The 5 Most Burning Questions for Columbia Football after the Homecoming thrashing of Penn
1) Is this just a bit of a fluke, or did the real Lions finally emerge Saturday?
The historic win over the Quakers was certainly real, but Penn really did almost nothing right. There is a precedent for this program under Head Coach Al Bagnoli suddenly emerging after being under the radar. That was essentially the story in 2017 when the Lions turned from a team that was almost winning a lot of games to suddenly winning every game for the first six weeks of the season.
2) Even if this is for real, is it good enough to beat Dartmouth?
Based on what I've seen this season, the Big Green seem a lot better than any other Ivy team. Thus, we may not learn much about the Lions if they lose Friday night in Hanover.
3) Is Lenhart a full-time starter at QB?
Sophomore QB Ty Lenhart brings a new dimension with his running prowess and he's not a bad passer as far as hitting open receivers goes. But he seems to throw at least one dumb interception per game and that could still give Bagnoli a lot of pause.
4) Are the Linebackers okay?
Since Bagnoli arrived, the Lions have been reloading at linebacker every year. Now with the emergence of freshman LB Scott Valentas, (which is not a surprise, as he was one of our highest-rated recruits), and perhaps some improved play from senior Jalen Williams, Columbia may be able to overcome the most injury-effected unit on the team.
5) Is Ronald Smith done for the year?
We were assured Smith would be back for Homecoming, but he did not suit up for the game. I can't believe he'll be in the lineup vs. Dartmouth, but stranger things have happened.
3 comments:
Jake, don't forget about sophomore LB John Harris, who started along with Valentas because of the injuries to Woodley and Dillon. Harris was a record breaking RB in high school whom the Lion's converted to LB and he is looking real good so far.
Penn gave Dartmouth somewhat of a game of it (28-15).
There was a good degree of wound self-infliction by them, so we.would do well not to assume it was all us getting better.
But what cannot be missed is the marked improvement of the run game. Something changed in the blocking schemes to finally enable our stable of backs to make repeated long runs. Unless the intel on Penn is that they are weak vs the run, this does seem a real development.
I never understood why Coach Bags had so many QBs on his roster... until last year ...when injuries destroyed the position...Think though that you only need 4...Think that Lenhart has separated himself from the pack of 6 and earned the starting spot for now.. With more experience he will only get better..How about that initial pass to Roussos! R.Pelletreau
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