NOTE: I've made some additions to the original post, thanks to some reminders from readers about a few names I omitted
Ryan Young
Assessing depth will be hard, along with just about everything else after this long COVID-19 shutdown. But you'd have to be a pretty big pessimist not to feel pretty good at what Columbia has returning in its running back corps for this season.
Atop that list is senior Ryan Young. Young came into 2018 and 2019 as the fullback-like, banging runner expected to get hard yards in the middle of the line. But despite his lack of Olympic-level speed, it's been Young who's had a number of breakaway touchdown runs over the last two seasons as he proves how lethal he can be once he bounces off the first guy trying to tackle him. The big, bruising RB used to be a staple in the Ivies from the days of Marinaro to Elias to DeOssie. But those days seem long passed until you see the way Young runs.
The outside running speedster with experience is fellow senior Dante Miller. Miller's abilities have been showcased in a few spectacular runs over his first two seasons on the field. But speedsters need better initial holes to get free and either Miller hasn't found them as much or the Columbia OL simply hasn't provided enough of them. But Miller is a potential game-breaker and he's proved this to be true enough times to keep defenses honest. It will be great to see what extra rest to learn and heal, (Miller had a non-knee leg injury his freshman year), will do for his game.
Flashes of brilliance also came last year for senior Broderick Taylor, who overcame a total of *two ACL tears in his freshman and sophomore years to get on the field in 2019. His breakout game was the Homecoming rout of a win against Penn, when he did most of the work on a game-icing drive that included a spectacular TD run. Taylor is clearly the player who could benefit the most from the added rest and recovery 2020 provided.
Three new-comers also have to fill Lion fans with some optimism. UPDATED: Nicholas Nesbitt was heavily recruited in the Ivies and runs in the style of Dante Miller. Officially classified as a sophomore for now, Joey Giorgi simply looked very impressive on tape and had massive stats to back it up in HS. I would not be surprised if he gets into the mix soon. I'm not as sure about freshman Jake Langdon, but he seems to have a lot of the ingredients we see in successful Ivy runners.
Considering what Columbia has in QB's who can run and RB's who can run, one could make an argument for CU to ditch the spread offense and go with a "ground and pound" attack that just about every Ivy defense is simply not equipped to stop. Of course, to do that you need a great offensive line and the OL will be the subject of the next installment of this unit-by-unit analysis.
5 comments:
I would hope that the OC has been exploring playing these two together in a traditional FB and TB alignment, especially if Young is a good run blocker. Their skills complement each other and would place additional pressure on the defenses and at the same time remove a bit from our OL. In this setting Young would run quick bursts ( not the slow developing plays we’ve seen the past few seasons) from tackle to tackle while leaving the outside running to Miller. Young would also be a great lead blocker for Miller when Miller runs between the tackles. This would also have the benefit of aiding play action passes with Young as decoy/ blocker and give our QBs a bit more time to set up for the throw ( Play action has the benefit of freezing the D momentarily). I also think this approach would benefit Lenhart both in his running and passing game.
An addendum to Jake on our QBs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bags rotates his QBs depending on the game situation, especially if Green has a true D1 arm.
I would hope that the OC has been exploring playing these two together in a traditional FB and TB alignment, especially if Young is a good run blocker. Their skills complement each other and would place additional pressure on the defenses and at the same time remove a bit from our OL. In this setting Young would run quick bursts ( not the slow developing plays we’ve seen the past few seasons) from tackle to tackle while leaving the outside running to Miller. Young would also be a great lead blocker for Miller when Miller runs between the tackles. This would also have the benefit of aiding play action passes with Young as decoy/ blocker and give our QBs a bit more time to set up for the throw ( Play action has the benefit of freezing the D momentarily). I also think this approach would benefit Lenhart both in his running and passing game.
An addendum to Jake on our QBs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bags rotates his QBs depending on the game situation, especially if Green has a strong accurate D1 arm.
With three outstanding runners returning (Ryan Young, Dante Miller and Broderick Taylor) the Lions may not to utilize the newcomers you mentioned, but it seems to me that there are at least two other incoming freshmen who could make an impact rather quickly at the running back position. One is Nick Nesbitt, a very talented player who played for Chandler High School, the Arizona State champion. The other is Justin Townsend who is listed on the 20212 Columbia roster as a 6'2" 225 linebacker, but is also noted for his accomplishments in high school as a running back.
Stan Waldbaum '62C
Don't forget that Dante uncorked his 80+yard touchdown run when he was freshman!
Tod Howard Hawks
Don't forget that Dante uncorked his 80+yard touchdown run when he was a freshman.
Tod Howard Hawks CC 66
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