Zoom in to see that the old, often illegible scoreboard has been replaced! This, in addition to the bigger jumbotron installed last season will make games a lot easier to follow at Kraft Field
The team looked pretty healthy overall. Reports that star WR Bryson Canty would be held out of the game because of a sore knee turned out to only be partially true as he did get onto the field and even made a nice catch on a long pass from 5th year senior QB Caden Bell, (who, I have to say one more time, it's amazing to have him in spring camp... extremely rare for a 5th year).
Bell and sophomore A.J. Simpkins got most of the reps at QB and passed accurately. Sophomore QB James McCauley got in some reps too and looked generally seasoned. Senior Joe Green did not play.
The WR corps looks as good as advertised. In addition to Canty's play, senior Marcus Libman was solid and made a nice TD catch near the end of the scrimmage. Libman also chucked a nice option pass for a TD to Simpkins. Senior Wills Meyer looked healthy and made some great catches. Rising sophomore Edan Stagg may have made the play of the day with a great spinning run after a catch for a big gain. RAC will be a big key for the Lions this year as Catny will draw a lot of coverage and the open CU receivers on shorter routes will need to make defenses pay with big yards after the catch. Not participating was 5th year senior J.J. Jenkins who probably is off this semester in order to be eligible for the fall.
The big question mark for the team, the offensive line, looked pretty good. The first unit was Zach Mills, Braeden Bellmer, John Iannuzzi, Noah Jordan, and Ryan Carr. I believe Andrew Pruske will be one of the leaders of this unit in the fall, but as a 5th year senior he too is probably off this semester. Also not participating was LT Luke Painton, who is shifting to that crucial role from the TE position. He too is a 5th year senior. It's really hard to tell just how good this unit will be when it counts. But the mechanics look good enough for now.
RB Joey Giorgi looked great all day, and it looks like he will be a screen pass target more this fall based on the throws that went his way Saturday. That could be a key element in the Lion offense that I think longtime fans will prefer to screen passes to wide receivers.
As far as replacing Painton at TE, I thought senior Dominic Busby and junior Jack Larsen looked good at getting open. But I don't expect either of them to be a deep threat like Painton often was. That seems like a good sacrifice to make with such a talented WR crew. Throw in the Giorgi element as a receiver out of the backfield and I think the Lion passing game will be varied enough.
Malcom Terry didn't run as consistently well as Giorgi, but he showed some good moves and got the highest elevation I've ever seen from a CU running back during a leap into the end zone for a late TD.
On defense the first line on the DL was made up of Justin Townsend, Ben Corniello, John Martin, and Reid Spachman. This feels like it could be a very formidable group, with Martin and Corniello bottling up the runners and Townsend and Spachman specializing in pass rush.
The first line linebackers were C.J. Brown, Anthony Roussos, and Roco Milia.
The first line secondary were Aaron Brebnor, Seth Parker, and Hayden McDonald, and Carter McFadden.
William Hughes handled all the place kicking and punting duties. All of his kicks were with the wind, but even with that taken under consideration it's clear Hughes has the leg strength to do a lot of damage. Accuracy will be the issue, but he made most of his FG attempts and was perfect on PATs.
In addition to just not knowing how good or bad the offensive line will be, I'd say the other concern is how Bell will learn to adjust for his height. The D-Line tipped a number of his passes (not too many) and I suspect CU's opponents will be gunning to do the same very often this fall. Bell may need to roll out more and/or use that screen option to Giorgi to fight that all season long.
It feels like the real headline from Saturday is there's a really joyful feeling all around this team and program right now. It looks like Head Coach Al Bagnoli isn't retiring anytime soon, the COVID nightmare is over, and coming off two winning seasons in a row is a nice feeling. Hopefully when the full team is able to practice together this summer, some more strengths will emerge.
18 comments:
Thank you, Jake, for your great write-up on the Columbia Football Team's Spring Game. My sense is that the Lions have a tremendous amount of talent on both sides of the ball and are very capable of winning a much overdue second Ivy League Championship.
What is the story with Joe Green? Is he still being held out due to his surgery?
It’s all about the O-Line as always as to whether we can truly contend for a title. And it’s a big question mark since it is a rebuild at several positions, including, crucially the LT. I am hoping for the best but not optimistic until we get a sense of what the rebuild looks like in the early season non- conference games.
Seems obvious that the coaching staff did not want to take a chance on Green getting re-injured in the Spring Game. Everyone knows that the Lions have two outstanding quarterbacks--Green and Bell-- returning for the 2023 season. However, the really good news from the Spring Game is that Simkins and Macauley look both looked sharp That gives the Lions the depth they need at quarterback to compete for the Ivy Championship.
So who is going to take Scott Valentas' place at middle linebacker? All three of the starting linebackers you mentioned are extremely talented players, but Valentas will be missed. Did Shawn Riley see action in last week's game?
I may have mussed him, but I did not see Riley play. He's still on the roster though and he is an unsung player... very good.
I was pleased to see in your write-up that the first defensive unit included the biggest player on the roster, namely John Martin, the 345 pound nose tackle from Louisiana.Columbia has twenty players listed on the roster as defensive linemen, including some very tough and talented players, but none is more intriguing than Martin. If Martin can dominant inside, that will really help us.
Missed Columbia's Spring Game, but I am not surprised that Malcolm Terry and Edan Stagg made favorable impressions on you. Both of them are likely to be impact players this year for the Lions. Terry is a very good running back and Stagg is a gifted athlete who can score from anywhere on the field. I would expect the Lions to utilize Stagg not only as a wide receiver, but as a punt and kickoff returner.
I saw Malcom run, I think he is a very strong back. He showed the ability to force a lot of break tackles. I really think he can emerge as the power back this year, he seems much thicker and stronger than Giorgi and Edwards.
I seem to think that Malcolm Terry had been a FB at Annapolis and deliberately lost weight when he came to Columbia. So maybe he has bulked back up. As far as Martin, players his size tend to have endurance problems and cannot go more than a few plays at a time—this could be a problem against hurry up offenses where it is tough to make substitutions sometimes. As far as Powell, will he be playing at DE or at LB this season?
Astute observations regarding Malcolm Terry and John Martin. I am just guessing, but perhaps Terry just needed a period of time to regain his comfort zone after transferring from the Naval Academy to Columbia. My understanding is that Terry had an outstanding high school career, but for whatever reasons did not excel at Navy. It often happens that it take awhile to adjust back to where you were in high school. As far as Martin is concerned, I have never seen him play, but again, my guess, is that he too has gone thru a period of adjustment and is ready to contribute significantly to the Lions hoped for success this year. I would never bet against a player from the Great State of Louisiana.
Wasnt last year starting nose tackle only soph? Did he leave program? Assuming cornelio replacing moyer
Ben Corniello was, in fact, cited by Jake, in his report as one of the four players on the so-called first defensive line of four players. Corniello was outstanding his freshman year at Columbia. What we are probably seeing is that the players who started the Spring Game should not necessarily be deemed the starters at their positions. Using the defensive line as an example, one of last years' key players, Patrick Passalaqua, seems to be busy setting school records in the weight events. That's not so bad, is it. The bottom line is that Columbia's defensive line looks very promising at this time.
Many first year college athletes enter the Transfer Portal because things did not work out for during their freshman season. It happens all the time and is a big factor now in the recruiting for many college football and basketball teams. Columbia Women's Basketball Coach has used this strategy to enhance the Columbia Women's Basketball Program. Not so yet with the Columbia Men's Basketball Program whose only incoming transfer last year was a Division III player who didn't see much playing time for the Columbia Men's Team last season.
I am still reeling from our baseball meltdown last weekend-first time in years that we were swept ina series-I had been concerned all year that our pitching was not what it has been in recent years and my fears were vindicated when we were basically hammered by Harvard, a team we swept last year. We also were not fielding well, and were missing a few starters, which killed us offensively. I have low expectations for the Penn series.
Speaking of low expectations, MBB shows no signs of being any better next year—only 2 recruits. How long will this disaster be allowed to continue. I can tolerate an occasional off-year in baseball, but men’s basketball under Engles seems hopeless.
I will be anonymously amazed when I see a post here that actually has a name attached to it !!
I hear ya, and I see ya, Doc!
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