Columbia Lions (2-7) vs. Cornell Big Red (3-6)
November 18, 2023
Kickoff Time: 1:00pm
Ithaca, New York
Game Time Weather Forecast: 40 degrees and cloudy
The Line: Columbia is a 1 1/2 point underdog
Leading Story Lines
-This is likely the last game for both head coaches in their current positions. Someone is going to go out a winner.
-Columbia has won the last two games in this very tight series, (the last 30 games have gone 16-14 for Columbia), and neither team usually runs up much of a streak.
-Cornell has been wildly inconsistent, while one of the only consistent entities in the Ivies this year has been the futility of the Columbia offense. Will one of these traits turn around?
3 Lions to Watch
-Senior RB Joey Giorgi #25 didn't have an explosive senior day game at Wien Stadium last week. Perhaps he'll have a better time against the Big Red's rushing defense, which is giving up 4.9 yards per attempt.
-Senior LB Anthony Roussos #16 will have his hands full chasing down the often-running Cornell QB Jameson Wang.
-PK Hugo Merry #33... does anyone else think this game will come down to a late FG?
3 Big Red Players to Watch
-Big Red QB Jameson Wang #1 will of course be in the spotlight as all QB's are, but the point will be whether he is having one of his more accurate passing days or not. Wang has been inconsistent through the air, but at times very good.
-When Cornell's passing game has productive this year, senior WR Nicholas Laboy #8 has been the top target.
-It's been a rough year for the Cornell defense, and it got worse when veteran team captain LB Jake Stebbins was lost for the season in week 2. Senior LB Noah Taylor #52 has been trying to fill the void.
118 comments:
Jake, you got bad intel. My sources tell me Fab getting 4 year contract to be announced next month
If your intel is correct, then it’s four years of disappointing seasons.
As always best of luck for the entire team. I'd love to see them finish up with a win and have a great Thanksgiving.
Let's go Lions! Go Light Blue!
Oh, who owns New York?!
Proud of our guys.
Interesting game. First half blowout and then Cornell made a game out of it.
Well done, despite Cornell's comeback...Boyz in Blue got it done!
Congratulations to every one of them.
If ever there was a year where a title was in reach, this was it. If the argument is Harvard and Yale had superior talent, we could have lost to them and still tied for a title. We played three teams to within one score, only to lose. We were up 9-0 on Dartmouth and then gave up twenty unanswered points.
If only we had a coach, who knew how to coach.
No reason to get soft simply because we beat Cornell.
All what worked today, passing on first down, rolling the pocket, running wide, playing two quarterbacks, was available all season.
This was a missed opportunity, and it is all on Fabish.
Thank you Mark for your service. Good luck to you in all your future endeavors.
Time to move on.
Cornell looked putrid.
He's getting the job, man. Face it.
The team gets a salute from all of us ...they are all winners in my book... ..I hope some seniors are able to return next year..
Fabish ...we wish him well wherever he goes...Fabish was given a fair chance...his play calling today was about the same.... Again ..we had a large group of talented bright you men ...and with better coaching the record would have been exceptional. ( our offense this year placed us last as we all know ..) I was expecting an Ivy League Championship ...I am impressed with so many of you who care so much about Columbia football ..Columbia can find a great coach I am sure.
In the meantime, we have Coach Griffith and her very exciting young basketball team ..and she is one great coach ...!!!!!!!!!!! Go Lions.
Some people just live in a dream world. LOL
I have to dissent. I would keep Mark. His team played hard for him all year.
And how did he repay them? With incompetence!
Are you joking? 3-7 doesn’t cut it, not with the expectations going into the season, the parity in the league, and the talent back from a 6-4 season. Dream on, Fabulist.
I think you mean “his team played hard in spite of him all year.”
Bye, bye, Mark. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
He's probably going to get the job.
Too true, lol. See ya, not so Fabs!
Last in the Ivies. 1-6. Well done, Mark.
With another year under his belt he will be a very good coach. I hope we keep him.
Whatever admin decides, do it quick. I think most of 2 deep on defense is eligible to return. Job1 for this off-season is convincing seniors to come back for their last season.
I would bring back Fab; but new offensive scheme.
I wish all of you would lay off Mark. He is a quality guy and his players play hard for him.
Agree
Justin Townsend. Had a great game
Nobody is leaving
Agree. He stays. Guaranteed.
It's how the story gets spun, pal. People want to talk about who plays QB, the offensive scheme and all of that. Piling doesn't care. It's too granular and irrelevant to him. He cares about this: Fabish was the OC during the Bagnoli years that were the best years in history. Bagnoli left at a bad time and has supported Fabish as his replacement. The timing was terrible for a first year coach, he struggled as some would expect. That's the story. Piling doesn't care about the schedule over the last 7 years, weather the OL was
young or any of that. I'm not pro Fabish or anti Fabish but that's how the story gets spun to the AD.
Mark Fabish is an empty suit. He is a third rate offensive mind, and a dysfunctional in game coach.
For all of you “quality guy” believers, at least have the guts three years from now, when his four year record against Ivy opponents is something like 9-19, admit that we were right.
If he is retained, it is clear why schools like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton win titles with regularity, and Columbia Football languishes.
There are some very highly talented coaches out there, and we stick with someone just only because they are a “quality guy”.
With a talented roster, he finished last in the league. But all is forgiven, because he is a “quality guy”.
I think that Fabish has the makings of an excellent coach. He had terrible luck this year and should have been 4-3 or 5-2 in the league.
The “makings of an excellent coach”? Absolutely imbecilic. Like someone else said, if Fabish is retained, we’ll go nowhere in four years. He will NEVER win a title. I wonder how many of the Fabulists are actually fans of the other Ivies who are hoping and praying that they can continue to feast on us.
If he is retained, what will be your excuse next year when we are again sub .500 in the Ivies? Terrible luck for a second consecutive season? Bad weather again? Unfortunate injuries? All of the above? Fabish and Mango both 3-7 in year one.
To all of you Fabologists, you’re not actually Columbia football fans. You are fans of Columbia and don’t really care how specific sports perform, particularly football. Just stop with the Fabish and staff love. They are terrible and it would be best to have them exit asap after their abject failure this year.
Get a new staff in as quickly as possible to get recruiting in a better spot. Without it we are at best a 1 win team in the Ivy the next few years .
💯
Agree, great game, season and career!
Go find another hobby, you have no clue what you’re taking about with Columbia football.
The definition of luck, “when preparation meets opportunity”.
I do not know what games “he had terrible luck this year” watched, but I, did not see players who were well prepared.
Look at the red zone production, and try and convince many one that knows something about football that it was the result of “terrible luck”.
There is not a coach in the League today who will not be thrilled to hear the news, should Mark Fabish be named Head Coach.
Let’s see if I get this, Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth just shared the title only because they were not plagued with “terrible luck”.
Totally agree. Columbia is a laughing stock this year. 1 win 🤦♂️
The term is "Fabulist".
Here is the solution!
Poll the 100 largest donors to Football and ask them whether Fabish should stay or go?
Something tells me, he would be out.
I think if he stays, there will be a falloff in financial support, unless he has a Sugar Daddy out there.
hope they make a decision either way quickly so we can assess if we are hitting the portal or staying.
Idiotic comment
Bagnoli/Fabish Keep Mediocrity at Bay
Agreed. Mark is an outstanding mentor and our young men would run through a wall for him.
One would think if he was going to be retained, they would have announced it already, a la Dartmouth, in an effort to help recruiting and to give the Seniors some direction.
It is hard to fathom that today’s game would be enough to swing the decision in either direction.
It seems the decision was made after Harvard and Yale, with Brown cementing it.
to be clear, we play for each other and for pride for ourselves. I play for my BROTHERS not my interim coach.
^^ as a FB alumn, I agree, you play for your team, not your coach. You young men deserve better.
Right now we need a quarterback, or a quarterback whisperer, for next year.
How well did this staff do with two veteran quarterbacks?
Sure you play for your brothers, every team does. That’s not the point though.
Coaches are there and are paid to prepare, motivate and extract the maximum potential from a group of young men.
Fabish is the antithesis of this objective.
When weak leaders are put in a position of power, they micro manage and ironically exacerbate their own incompetence and ineffectiveness. Fabish has done that with game prep, execution and recruiting. Send him and any/all of his staff that support him packing asap.
I played for my BROTHERS too. And the degree and the girls.
Columbia: Two proven QBs to start the season. Result: last place.
Harvard: No proven QBs to start the season. Result: A share of first place.
Let’s end the nightmare on Fabish Street.
All is well that ends well. Great win!
Sadly, college football is not like the NFL. There is nothing that helps last place teams for the coming season. You do not get first pick in the draft, you do not get an easier schedule next year.
Hire Mark Fabish and we are looking at a death spiral, for the next few years.
Next year we will not have an untested offensive line, but we will have “green” quarterbacks.
The combination of Joe D. and Marvelous Mark eeked out how many touchtdowns with two seasoned quarterbacks?
Subtract two defensive scores, and two scores against Harvard and Yale, that came with less than 30 seconds remaining in a game already decided, and that is an anemic average of less than two touchdowns a game in league play.
Fabulous Fabish is not the guy to catch the other teams in the league who seem to reload their talent and get better every year.
So who do we think Peter Pilling is speaking with? Surely Al. But since he’s not a football guy, what process do we think he is following? What highly placed football alums have his ear? PS, great win last nigh for MBB against a legitimate D1 opponent on the road.
Let’s face it, the Columbia Defense kept them in most of the games this year. Today the offense had a few long drives which gave the Def a chance to rest and they didn’t disappoint. Townsend is a Disruptor who had 2 more strip sacks today ( JT ends the season the Ivy League sack leader this year). Anthony R, Pat P, came through with solid game and effort all season. Also, JT’s 2 roommates Rocco M and Hayden M shined today with game clinching interceptions. Hayden going the distance with JT blocking for him was a great way to end the season. With most of the Defense coming back Columbia will be a force to reckon with next year. GO LIONS !!!
Mark Fabish needs Columbia, not the other way around.
When Al Bagnoli left Penn, Ray Priore did not make Mark Fabish his Offensive Coordinator. Mark Fabish was retained by Ray Priore only as the Receivers Coach.
But for Al Bagnoli, Mark Fabish would, at best, be an assistant in a D III program. There have been numerous head coaching openings in the last few years, at schools where a long time Penn assistant and Columbia coordinator and Bagnoli protege, would be a likely candidate. No one picked Fabish.
If he does not get elevated, it is not as if he is going to re-surface in any prominent role.
He is a creation of Al Bagnoli.
And no one should ever think Al Bagnoli is a “Columbia guy”. He took the Columbia job only so he could mete out revenge against Penn. Al is all about Al. Fortunately for Mark Fabish, Al’s ego is such that he wants to see his “legacy” continue via his surrogate.
News flash! You need a competent offense to win games.
I get it. Once again, the defense may well be good and a proven quantity. Yes, they may keep it close.
Now where do you see the offense coming from?
Look how pathetic our output was with two experienced quarterbacks?
Any of the alums on this blog?
Agree. Neither of those QBs played well at all. They both had disappointing seasons for sure. Very low completion %.
Great comment on Bagnoli
I’ve done this poll and he’s gone. Time to clean house. And, this is exactly who matters. Guys who write the checks!
Do people realize how inept the offense was this year?
On the season, including all ten games, the offense scored 19 touchdowns.
Of those, two came against Yale and Harvard with less than 30 seconds left in the games, against third string defenders.
On the season. Yale passed for 23 touchdowns, while Brown passed for 19 touchdowns.
Harvard rushed for 24 touchdowns and Dartmouth rushed for 18.
That is more offensive output from just one aspect of the offensive game plan, than Fabish et al, could produce from their entire offense game plan.
No wonder those teams shared a title and the Lions won one Ivy League game.
It is great news that a large part of the defense will be back next year. Now, where is the offense going to come from?
No question this year’s quarterbacks failed to measure up to expectations, but how many 2 and 8’s, and 3 and 6’s did they have?
Fabish was the difference maker. Unfortunately, in the wrong direction.
I think Jim Engles has finally turned it around. I'm expecting MBB to make Ivy Madness this year.
The girls will of course make it too, but it seems like the Princeton girls are still better than us as they came within a hair of knocking off #3 UCLA.
that too bro
Yes Engles took time but now he is good. Same with Fabish. It takes time to become a great coach. Cornell gave Dave Archer ten seasons. Buddy T had five losing seasons in a row when he came back to Dartmouth including O and 10. Great football and basketball win yesterday!
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut very now and then
Exactly. Engles and Fabish still atrocious. I fully expect us to lose by 40 to Princeton at the Jadwin.
Engles wins one game and he is knighted? ✔️ The record! Here comes still another last place finish!
Ditto for Fabish
Yes great win for both Engles and Fabish! Great day for the Lions! No reason to change coaches!
Funny. Never heard that one.
Why was Mark Fabish a failure this season?
The “softees” want us to believe it was solely due to a combination of rainy days, dropped passes, bad calls, and injuries; which they have lumped together into a category known as “terrible luck”. The only problem is every other team has to contend with all those same unpredictable happenstances.
Others say, he did not have adequate time to prepare for his new role. Pat Fitzgerald was terminated by Northwestern on July 10, of this year. Considering the start of Big Ten play, David Braun, had the same amount of time to prepare as Mark Fabish did. Whereas Columbia was last in the Ivy League, Northwestern is bowl game eligible.
Some believe, you cannot win as a first year Head Coach. Really? Other than at the high school level, when was Dartmouth’s Sammy McCorkle, a head coach?
It is true that some coaches are late bloomers. Afterall, George Seifert was 3-15 in his two years as the Head Coach at Cornell. Thirteen years after Cornell fired him, he won his first of two Super Bowls as the Head Coach of the 49ers. He is the winningest coach in 49er history.
We have to face the facts and set aside the emotion. Fabish had his chance and failed, and failed miserably.
Yes, maybe Fabish could be the next Seifert, but I am willing to take my chances. Send him on his way.
It's very rare for any coach to get a single year. I would imagine that's a very big factor in Pilling's analysis. He'll consider that a lot more that who played QB or why we didn't run certain plays. Im sure there are some examples, but it isn't common for a guy to get fired after 10 games.
I'm an interested fan, not for or against Fabish. But it's not often a guy gets let go so soon.
Fabish and his staff are done. That has been known by them for last 2 weeks.
BS
Anonymous #27, I hope your insights are correct and that Fabish is gone by Monday evening!!
ROAR LION ROAR
100% correct
Dismal seasons and inept coaching is nothing new to Lions’ fans.
What I cannot comprehend is the pervasive intense disdain for Mark Fabish.
Personally, I do not want him on the Athletic Department’s payroll for another nano-second, but what is the genesis of the venomous attitude towards someone, who before this past August, was never in the spotlight?
I also cannot understand the venom directed toward Fabish, who seems like a very decent guy.
Agree i have never seen anything like it even in the NFL.Cornell just parted way with Dave Archer after 11 years without a winning season. Prior to Al who many on this platform do not seem to like, we had ten coaches in 60 years none of whom came close to s winning record and seven never even recorded a winning season. Whoever we bring in will need time to rebuild and put in a system.
I used to check this blog a few times during the season to get some updates and info on the team. Now, I read it for the humor.
meant to be clear to the above Anonymous that none of us are playing for Fab. We are playing for each other. I cannot say I want to come back as a 5th yr now to only repeat this. This was too hard to go through
The result of POOR coaching!
sir it is not personal, it is a business
Both very unathletic and inaccurate. Lots of dropped passes as well.
Hit the road, kid.
I'm sure everyone realizes that the league doesn't allow grad students to play, unlike other leagues. So when people talk about a 5th year here, that specifically refers to a kid who has not graduated in 4 years and has only played 3 years. It's very uncommon for Ivy League athletes.
Dumb
We should ditch the all light-blue uniforms, we look and play better in the dark blue varieties.
My guess is people turned against Fabish, so quickly, because of his air of arrogance. His offenses in recent years had been marginal at best. If you look back at posts from last year, there was a general dissatisfaction, particularly regarding his constantly relying on bubble screens. The hallmarks of this year’s punchless offense were visible last year; the running primarily between the tackles, the unwillingness to take shots down the field, the predominant second and long after runs on first down. He used up considerable good will last year.
The hope was that Al saw what we saw, and would rein him in over the offseason. With the returning talent on both sides of the ball, we would have a legitimate shot this year, with a more creative and less predictable and easily defended offense.
Then, out of the blue, Al is gone, and in steps Fabish. While it may not have been scripted, it certainly looked that way.
Fabish proceeded to feel as if he had legitimately earned the position. Then, he never took responsibility for any loss. The play calling at Princeton was atrocious. People forget the only score came from a pick six. On two different sequences of first and goal, the team scored zero points, although the pick six came off one of the failed sequences.
Though he never said it, Fabish gave the impression, “who am I to be criticized”. He acted like a “nepo baby”, and yet felt he was fully deserving of being the head coach this year and beyond. My guess is, should he be asked, he would say he did a great job this year.
For everyone who believes he should be given more time, I ask, “what do think he will show you that he has not exhibited already”?
To be successful next year and going forward, the entire offense will have to be, totally thrown out, retooled and fully changed. Why not bring in somebody who has an entirely diffferent outlook, and moreover, is not a conceited jerk?
You seem like a jerk
I have listened to his pre conferences after both wins and losses and his weekly talks with Lance Medow. My take is that he is hardly arrogant but a genuinely decent guy trying to fill some very, very large shoes. I think he is a quality guy who will go back to the drawing board on the offensive side of the ball and will be a very good coach should we keep him, which I think we should.
Meant press conferences
If you criticize Fabish, point out his numerous failures (See above comment on the Princeton game), Bubble Screen, then you are called a jerk! Let's retool the offense by retooling the head coach! Stats show the detractors to be spot on.
It might have been nice if he went back to the drawing board during the season. It took until Week Nine to insert an end around, a jet sweep, an RPO, passing on first down.
Maybe his supporters watched different games than the group who want him gone?
Who actually has faith that Pilling will pull the trigger this week? I, for one, don't. He has let ineptitude and mediocrity survive much longer in other programs.
I'd like to see them run the Wishbone
Who said earlier that Pilling is making M. Diane Murphy look good?
Pilling, asleep at the switch!
How about hiring a triple option coach and giving out Ivy opponents one week to prepare?
When we went for 2 points after Cornell was offsides, and took points off the board, we ran a sort of full house bunch formation which was stuffed in the backfield. That play has not worked for us all year, and had Cornell scored after we went up 22-14, that missing point could have spelled disaster. I don’t quarrel with going for 2, but let’s not literally tell the other team that we are going to try to run it into the center of the line.
But come on now, Fabish is “a genuinely decent guy”.
Give him more time and he will get better.
Typical Fabish but why not the Bubble Screen in that situation! Ha ha. Will I be glad when this offense is carted out! Speaking of tip offs, how about when Bagnoli used the WildCat at the 35! Who said that the game passed him by in 2015? At least he got Fordham off the schedule and got Central Conn on.
Can we all agree that it's time to move on?
And Wagner and Marist. Build in 3 wins and tell everyone that you turned it around
The Wildcat at the 35!!??? Are you kidding me?
What about the wide sweep where the tailback throws it back across the field the the QB!!!!??? We should do that sort of trickeration on occasion.
It's been mentioned before , but if anything, CU fans should be most irate that with this roster, a share of the title was there for the taking in what was clearly a down Ivy year. There were no dominant teams. Parity ruled and poor coaching and execution cost us. And miss me on he only had two weeks to prepare. He's been here for years and likely was told months in advance by School of Bags.
Time for change. In no particular order, I'd be chasing Chesney, Poppe, Larsen and a host of other qualified young coaches that can recruit an motivate.
You're high if you think Chesney would take the Columbia job. His career is on an upward trajectory, not downward.
Are Columbia fans really this stupid? Now Bags was no good?You collectively dont have the courage to be disappointed. You babies were given a little hope and now are throwing hissy fits because things didnt go our way. No one thinks things went great this season but maybe your collective lack of football IQ led you all to overestimate talent? The clean house crowd are reacting based on their hurt feelings. Do coaches need to do better? Sure. But 60 years of history says you better be damn sure before you throw out the best winning football culture you have seen in the long sorry journey from 1961 to present
OK. We hear you, now tell us what makes Fabish better suited than anyone else out there.
Changing clothes in the same locker room as Al Bagnoli, is not enough.
What did he show you this year to prove he has potential to be the next Al Bagnoli.
Spare us the emotion, and give us tangibles why he is the best fit for this team going forward.
this is getting comical. football IQ. Columbia fans really this stupid?
100% correct
Changing the staff is incredibly disruptive; while we were disappointed with the results that’s football a few breaks going our way and we would have been looking at 4-3 or 5-2 in the league.
Absolutely
The IL was the weakest it’s been in years, and we were 1-6. If you want to play the « a few bad breaks » game, then you have to admit we were also a few plays away from being 0-7.
Fabish would not be allowed to remain HC at any of the other Ivies (except maybe Cornell). Let’s behave like one of the big boys, who would never reward a coach for a season like the one we had. As long as you keep talking about the past, that’s where you’ll stay. Move along now.
I saw a very low football IQ from our head coach this year. What program were you following?
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