Season Tickets on Sale NOW! UPDATED

 

Football season tickets for the 2022 season are now on sale on the athletic department website. 

Buying tickets early is a great way to show this team and this program your support and admiration for the amazing turnaround we've seen since Athletic Director Peter Piling, with CU President Lee Bollinger's strong support, made the bold move of hiring Head Coach Al Bagnoli in 2015.

As fans, we now EXPECT Columbia to put up winning seasons. We've had three in the last four seasons, when people as old as I (I'm 51) had only experienced 3 winning seasons in our lifetimes pre-Bagnoli. 

And while I will have a much more extensive preview of the 2022 Lions later this summer, (as always), I will briefly say now that this is clearly the most returning experience and talent Columbia Football has had coming into a season in my lifetime. 

You don't want to miss this.

UPDATE

We now also know the start times for all CU games, with the exception of the 10/15 game at Penn (this is a possible TV coverage issue that is not yet finalized in that case).

Some interesting notes: Season opener at Marist will be a NIGHT game, 6pm kickoff.

As I previously reported, the Yale game at home will be FRIDAY night at 6:30pm on ESPNU. (There should be a few more games televised on SNY, as has been the case for the last few years). 

Homecoming will start at a later time, but only by 30 minutes with a 1:30 kickoff. 

Now, if we could just get the official list of the incoming freshmen and transfers... we can REALLY get this summer waiting party started!!!

Ferraro's Feats: FINAL CHAPTER

This is the seventh and final installment of the 10 greatest defensive performances for the Lions during Paul Ferraro's tenure as defensive coordinator. Ferraro announced his retirement in April.

When a guy works as a defensive coordinator for a team for six seasons and choosing his best overall game in that role is super easy, it tells you a lot about how important and impressive that one game was. 

But that's how impressive Columbia's 19-0 shutout of eventual 2021 Ivy champion Dartmouth was last season. The fact that it was at Memorial Field and on national TV only added to the impact of the game. 

Dartmouth's offense wasn't just "good" in 2021. It was one of the most potent and multifaceted in all of FCS football. But the Lions held that potent offense on the road to just 262 total yards, a 25% 3rd down conversion rate, and 0 for 3 on 4th downs. 

The Big Green also had numerous chances to put some kind of score on the board in the 4th quarter to at least make the game look somewhat respectable. But Columbia denied them that as well. 

Dartmouth proved its offense was still for real over the remaining four games of the season, as the Big Green swept those games and finished a near-perfect season.

The fact is, not only was this win the most impressive game of Coach Ferraro's tenure at CU... it's also the most impressive win for the Lions during the entire Al Bagnoli era.  

Updates?

Well as they say, "the devil finds work for idle hands to do"... so, without much official news from the athletic department about the football team to work with, I'll just report here on some interesting developments that are as-yet not 100% confirmed but seem likely.

Nationally Televised Game

Based on some nice research from Dartmouth football journalist and blogger Bruce Wood, it appears Columbia's home game against Yale this fall will be the ESPNU Friday night national broadcast game. That would mean the game would be on October 28th, probably with a 7pm start time. 

Columbia last hosted a Friday night home game vs. Yale in 2016, which ended in a narrow loss and the debut of eventual Eli star QB Kurt Rawlings. 

Elias Barrett

New Local Player?

Elias Barrett is a promising D-lineman about to graduate from nearby Half Hollow Hills East High School in Western Suffolk County. He had publicly stated that he took a PWO offer from West Virginia a while back, but now he has CU Football in his Twitter bio... and I believe he will be a part of our incoming freshman class. (Plus, WVU has published its list of incoming freshmen, transfers, and PWOs and Barrett's name is not there).

Barrett checks off a lot of the boxes for players who eventually make a big impact in the Ivies. It appears he's a bit of a late bloomer, at least at his position, (think Josh Martin) which is why the bigger schools didn't show requisite interest. He's also someone who could get bigger rather quickly if need be. I think he could also turn out to be a Lou Miller/Daniel DeLorenzi type performer for us. 

But the added plus is that like DeLorenzi, Barrett is from the NYC area and could help rekindle interest in Columbia on Long Island especially. 

The last H,H,H, East grad we had at Columbia Football was a promising RB named Alexander Filacouris '21, but he never broke into the lineup. 

 

News Blackout

 Last year, it was surprising that it took until the late date of June 3rd for the incoming freshman football class to officially be announced. 

Well, here it is June 16th and there is no announcement in sight. 

I'm not sure if there's a bureaucratic hold up, but it's also strange that season tickets are not available for sale either. 

I know there are probably staffing issues in the Athletic Department, (is there any office in America without them these days?), but these delays lead me to believe there may be some serious work challenges facing the staff and/or new Ivy/NCAA regulations forcing delays on official class announcements. 

Ferraro's Feats: Part 6

This is the sixth installment of the 10 greatest defensive performances for the Lions during Paul Ferraro's tenure as defensive coordinator. Ferraro announced his retirement in April.

#2: Columbia 44 Penn 6

The 2019 season was mostly a disappointment for Columbia, but everything from the weather to the turnout to the breaks went the Lions way at Homecoming against the Quakers. 

The CU defense held Penn to just 14 1st downs, 232 yards of total offense, and a 26% 3rd down conversion rate. 

Granted the defense got help from a very productive Lion offense that day. That included 255 total yards of time-consuming rushing yards for the game. 

Columbia's most dominating game of the decade SHOULD have also been a shutout... but a botched handoff turned into a fumble recovery for a Penn TD late in the game. The score was already 44-0 at the time of that miscue.