The BC Pipeline is Alive

6-1, 220-pound LB Christian Gonzalez from Bergen Catholic HS has committed to Columbia. 

He also had an offer from Lafayette. 

According to my LionFeeders database Gonzalez will be the 16th Bergen Catholic grad to come to Columbia Football. He was also join BG grads Christian Carti '27, Pat Colicchio '25, and Malachi Mercer '27 on the Lion roster. 

So the list of known commits grows to 12:

1) Rodrigo Diaz-Martorella DE/TE 6"4 255 lbs. Miami Palmetto HS Miami, FL 

2) Liam Donagher DB 6"2 200 lbs. Grafton Memorial HS/Choate (PG Year) Grafton, MA

3) Jeremiah Douglas DB 6"2 185 lbs. IMG Academy/St. Paul's HS Brooklandville, MD 

4) Christian Gonzalez LB 6"1 220-lbs. Bergen Catholic HS Oradell, NJ

5) Miron Magee DB 5"10 160 lbs. Lake Highlands HS Dallas, TX

6) Carter McCray DB 6"0 185 lbs Cornerstone Christian HS San Antonio, TX

7) Emanuel Nazy OL 6"4 280 lbs. Hackensack HS/Don Bosco Prep Hackensack, NJ

8) Casey O'Sullivan TE/DE 6"3 245 lbs. Seton Hall Prep West Orange, NJ

9)Sam Pearman K 6"0 180 lbs. Los Gatos HS Los Gatos, CA

10) Xavier Phipps WR 6"5 190 lbs. Dekaney HS Houston, TX

11) Benny Sasso OL 6"3 270 lbs. Wall Township HS, Wall, NJ

12) Caleb Solomon DB 6"1 180 lbs. Miramar HS Miramar, FL 

 

Welcome to 2010!

Coach Poppe's Twitter profile pic

One of the major adjustments we're going to have to make in the Jon Poppe era is that now we have a coach who is personally active on social media, in particular Twitter/X. 

This is hardly a new medium for college coaches, even in the Ivies. But Columbia has never had a football head coach who maintained his own active account.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm NOT complaining that Al Bagnoli didn't have his own accounts. At his age, it would been kind of transparently pathetic had he chosen to do so. AND I am aware that Mark Fabish was active on his account, both as an assistant for years and last season as interim head coach.  

But Poppe is a next-level social media guy, as he even reposts statements by recruits and makes it clear that he's watching. 

One of those Poppe reposts is an extremely promising looking QB recruit from Northern Calitornia. This tells me Poppe has his priorities straight. 

Okay, I know this is all old news for almost anyone else, but I applaud this bold leap into the last decade! 

Penn Exposed?

Speaking of things everyone's known for a long time, we know that offering coveted slots at Penn's undergrad Wharton program has long been one of the most effective recruiting tools in all the Ivies. 

But according to one disgruntled Penn donor, the Quaker athletics department has been doing more than offering slots. Saul Rosenthal is suing Penn for allegedly using some of his donations to improperly fund scholarships for athletes. 

As if Penn and all the other Ivy schools weren't under a lot of justified donor scrutiny as it is, this is the first instance of the recent Ivy controversies potentially touching athletics. 

Au Revoir Augie

We still haven't seen the official announcement that Seitu Smith will be the new offensive coordinator. But we have learned that Augie Hoffmann is leaving the pride to return as head coach of St. Joseph Regional HS in New Jersey. 

So, in addition to the official announcement on Smith's appointment still on the table we also await the names of our new defensive line and tight ends coaches... among other things. \

Post-It to the People

 

This pic snapped this weekend, would indicate that my sources have been correct with their reports to me that former Harvard star WR Seitu Smith has been hired to be Columbia's new Offensive Coordinator and QB coach. 

Since graduating in 2016, Smith has coached at Dartmouth, Brown, Yale, and with the Cleveland Browns. Smith's most recent work has been with the Elis, where he's worked as the assistant head coach and running backs coach. 

He is considered a serious up-and-comer in the coaching world, and rounds out what is definitely the youngest coaching staff in Ivy football history. 

Tall Receiver

A commitment I missed from two days ago is Xavier Phipps, a 6-5, 190-pound WR from Dekaney HS in Houston. 

Phipps had offers from Fresno State, East Carolina, Penn. and UT Rio Grande Valley (are we stealing their offerees or are they shadowing us?).

He will be the first Dekaney grad to come to Columbia Football. 

So the list of known commits grows to 11:

1) Rodrigo Diaz-Martorella DE/TE 6"4 255 lbs. Miami Palmetto HS Miami, FL 

2) Liam Donagher DB 6"2 200 lbs. Grafton Memorial HS/Choate (PG Year) Grafton, MA

3) Jeremiah Douglas DB 6"2 185 lbs. IMG Academy/St. Paul's HS Brooklandville, MD 

4) Miron Magee DB 5"10 160 lbs. Lake Highlands HS Dallas, TX

5) Carter McCray DB 6"0 185 lbs Cornerstone Christian HS San Antonio, TX

6) Emanuel Nazy OL 6"4 280 lbs. Hackensack HS/Don Bosco Prep Hackensack, NJ

7) Casey O'Sullivan TE/DE 6"3 245 lbs. Seton Hall Prep West Orange, NJ

8)Sam Pearman K 6"0 180 lbs. Los Gatos HS Los Gatos, CA

9) Xavier Phipps WR 6"5 190 lbs. Dekaney HS Houston, TX

10) Benny Sasso OL 6"3 270 lbs. Wall Township HS, Wall, NJ

11) Caleb Solomon DB 6"1 180 lbs. Miramar HS Miramar, FL 

Taking Shape

Before we get updated on the coaching staff hires, let's look at some recruiting news. 

The good news is 6-0, 185-pound CB Carter McCray from Cornerstone Christian HS in San Antonio has committed to Columbia. 

McCray had offers from Army, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Fordham, Colgate, Texas State, North Texas, and UT Rio Grande Valley. This appears to be a pretty big "get."

McCray will be the first Cornerstone grad to come to Columbia Football, according to my LionFeeders Historic Recruiting Database.

The bad news is that RB Brodey Berg has decommitted, saying in a Twitter/X post that he is opening up his recruitment again because of the coaching change at CU. 

So the list of known commits remains at 10:

1) Rodrigo Diaz-Martorella DE/TE 6"4 255 lbs. Miami Palmetto HS Miami, FL 

2) Liam Donagher DB 6"2 200 lbs. Grafton Memorial HS/Choate (PG Year) Grafton, MA

3) Jeremiah Douglas DB 6"2 185 lbs. IMG Academy/St. Paul's HS Brooklandville, MD 

4) Miron Magee DB 5"10 160 lbs. Lake Highlands HS Dallas, TX

5) Carter McCray DB 6"0 185 lbs Cornerstone Christian HS San Antonio, TX

6) Emanuel Nazy OL 6"4 280 lbs. Hackensack HS/Don Bosco Prep Hackensack, NJ

7) Casey O'Sullivan TE/DE 6"3 245 lbs. Seton Hall Prep West Orange, NJ

8)Sam Pearman K 6"0 180 lbs. Los Gatos HS Los Gatos, CA

9) Benny Sasso OL 6"3 270 lbs. Wall Township HS, Wall, NJ

10) Caleb Solomon DB 6"1 180 lbs. Miramar HS Miramar, FL

YOUNG GUNS

I can report that Head Coach Jon Poppe is very close to announcing his choice for offensive coordinator, which is clearly the most highly anticipated hire for this staff considering the Lions overall offensive performance in 2023. 

So far, we've had the announcements of a number of young coaches to fill Poppe's staff. They include, (as I reported) Justin Woodley '21 as the Linebackers Coach, A.J. Gallagher as Wide Receivers Coach, and the previously-reported news of Greg Skjold returning, this time as the Offensive Line Coach. 

The CU Football Twitter/X feed also announced the hiring of Kenneth Tinsely, the running backs coach from Georgetown, (which enjoyed a very good season on the ground this fall), to assume the same role here at CU. Tinsley has also served as the running backs coach at U. Maine. Tinsley will be one of the "older" coaches as he is over 30 years old! 

Speaking of older, and definitely wiser, the CU Athletics website still lists Augie Hoffmann as the Tight Ends Coach, which would be a big positive to balance out the overall youth in the staff. Hoffmann also impressed just about everyone in his first year at Columbia this fall and his New Jersey recruiting ties run deep. Here's hoping he really is staying on.

Of course, the defensive staff is still headed by DC Justin Stovall and CU coaching veteran Andre Kukesh, who is staying on as DB's coach. That still leaves the defensive line coach slot open in addition to the as-yet un-named OC. 

But this will definitely be the youngest coaching staff in Ivy football history, by far. If anything, it will be an interesting experiment for everyone to watch as the league has seen most of its older coaches move on. 

 

A Kafkaesque Lesson for Jon Poppe

Everyone who knows new Columbia Head Coach Jon Poppe also knows he's a very energetic man on a mission. I'm excited to see what his energy and experience will produce for the Lions in the years to come. 

But one of the things Poppe is going to face, like every CU head coach before him, is a chorus of naysayers and scolds who stand in the way of any new approaches and even calculated risk-taking.

I know this is a football blog, but it's also an IVY LEAGUE football blog so I ask you to indulge me as I use a hardcore literary reference to make my point. 

One of the most important works for any goal-oriented person to read is the short story "Before the Law" from Franz Kafka's book, The Trial. 

I'm sorry if I spoil the story now by saying that it is an elegant narrative explaining how we often handcuff ourselves by listening to the naysayers and scolds in life who are either ignorantly or intentionally providing us with incorrect advice. These are the voices who play a huge role in impeding bold changes, even for the people or organizations who most need that change.

As I've been saying here all year, Columbia Football is not in need of a significant rebuild thanks to what Al Bagnoli, Peter Pilling, and many others have achieved over the last eight years. But there is still bold innovation needed, especially when it comes to Columbia's current recruiting needs in the context of all the new rules in place for college football. 

To be more specific: COLUMBIA NEEDS TO BRING IN A QB!!! And Poppe is going to need to ignore any weak-minded or weak-willed naysayers who may discourage him from taking some bold steps in the face of that need. 

For example, you know there are going to be people who tell Poppe NOT to aggressively explore the transfer portal, NOT to scour the country for guys with preferred walk-on offers from bigger programs, etc. 

One prime example of the former is a recent Cardinal Hayes grad who got offers from Princeton and other Ivies, chose an ACC program instead, but is now in the transfer portal. I can just hear the usual naysayers telling Poppe not to bother with someone who already rejected the Ivies in the past. That's baloney of course. 

All head football coaching jobs are hard, but it isn't the workload that waters down the passion of obviously passionate coaches like Jon Poppe. Like a challenging workout, he'll likely be even more energized by that work. 

I also don't think he'll be overly discouraged by honest criticism of what happens on the field, whether it comes from the fans or anyone else. 

But our job as fans is to make sure those discouraging, scolding, and narrow-minded voices stay as far away from Poppe as we can keep them. 

A Stunning Display of Normalcy

There was something startling about today's introductory news conference for new Columbia Football Head Coach Jon Poppe.

It was an amazingly unique and almost radical first for a new CU head football coach:

It was NORMAL.

By "normal," I mean the speech Poppe gave was the kind of speech you're likely to hear from just about any new coach taking over a program. He talked about commitment, adaptability, strategy, and even a little bit of luck. 

While I came into the event thinking intently about how Poppe is the first Columbia Football head coach since Buff Donelli took over in 1957 who HASN'T had to spend most of his opening speech talking about how he needed to fix everything about the program from the ground up. 

That's because he doesn't. As Poppe said himself in a the Q & A session, the program is MUCH better off than where it was in 2015 and doesn't need to focus on starting over when it comes to facilities, recruiting, or overall team commitment. It's not that each of those things don't need improvement, it's that none of them are at rock bottom or even very close to it. 

It's one thing for all of this to be true, and it's another for a new head coach to realize it and have the humility to see he doesn't need to restructure every little thing. It's pretty obvious Poppe has that awareness. 

The other bit of new from the event is that it's clear Poppe has not finalized his staff and negotiations and other work behind the scenes is going on right now to get that done. Clearly, bringing in a quality offensive coordinator is a major part of the puzzle when it comes to staff. 

The other challenge via recruiting, existing player development, or the transfer portal will be finding a new starting QB for the 2024 season. Poppe doesn't have to do a rebuild, but he still has some major work ahead of him. 

But as his former players at CU have been telling me for weeks, Poppe will not lack for that enthusiasm and commitment that it will take to get these immediate and long term jobs accomplished. 

 

Poppe Presser Day Updates

As we await the official news conference to welcome new Head Coach Jon Poppe, here are some more updates and details:

-The event will be at 1pm today in the 2nd floor lounge at the Dodge Fitness Center. For those who cannot attend, I believe it will be streamed live, but the details on where to find that stream have not been posted yet. 

-You can expect most of the news conference to cover Poppe's biographical info and his coaching resume. I don't know if we'll be presented with a more clear picture of who is and isn't on his coaching staff, but we can hope.

-On that note, I can report that former Lion LB Justin Woodley '21 will be rejoining the staff as the linebackers coach. 

-Sources also tell me that will coach Greg Skjold is rejoining the staff, he will not be the offensive coordinator. That's despite Skjold serving in that role under Poppe at Union this past season. 

-I think I'm not alone in hoping that Al Bagnoli will be at the news conference and say a few words of welcome and encouragement for Poppe and the new staff. 

Poppe Presser Set for Wednesday

Multiple sources confirm to me that the official news conference to introduce new Head Coach Jon Poppe will be this Wednesday afternoon in the 2nd floor lounge of the Dodge Fitness Center and will be open to the public. The exact time has not been confirmed. 

I'm sure we'll get some of the questions about what Poppe's staff will look like during that news conference, etc. 

The response to Poppe's hiring has been very positive from every one of the members of the team I've heard from since Friday. That should play a role in convincing a decent number of players with options to return to Columbia next fall, as opposed to using their remaining year or years of eligibility elsewhere. 

 

It's Official... but still lots of unanswered questions

The Columbia Athletics Department has made the official announcement that Jon Poppe is the new football head coach.

But some of the info my sources provided me over the last several weeks has changed, (it happens in developing news stories). 

-Sources tell me Justin Stovall is staying on as Defensive Coordinator. 

-I can NO LONGER confirm that Princeton Wide Receivers Coach Brian Flinn is joining Poppe's staff at Columbia. I am now getting unconfirmed reports he will remain at Princeton.

-Gregory Skjold is returning with Poppe to rejoin the Columbia staff. Skjold served as the offensive coordinator under Poppe at Union this year, but I do not know what his job title will be at CU now. 

-Poppe informed some of his Union players Thursday night that he was going to Columbia, as reported by the local press in the Union area. 

As the official release reported, the official intro news conference for Poppe will be this Wednesday. Hopefully, we will have more answers then.

Of course, I have posted several thoughts about Coach Poppe over the years on this blog. As I re-read those posts last night, I realized they were ALL POSITIVE. That includes this post I made about how Columbia had the best secondary in the Ivies in 2017 and how that unit was going to miss Poppe as he went to Harvard. 

JON POPPE TO BE NAMED NEW HEAD COACH SUNDAY

Because I do this blog as a supportive tool for the football program and the players, I've held off on publishing this information that I've had confirmed for more than a week. But since the facts are now becoming known by more and more members of the Columbia community anyway, it's now time to "go with the story."

Jon Poppe will be the new head coach of the Columbia Football program, with an official announcement coming this Sunday. 

Poppe served as secondary coach and recruiting coordinator at Columbia under Al Bagnoli from 2015-17 before going to Harvard in those same two roles, (Poppe had been an assistant at Harvard before his time at Columbia as well). 

For the past year, Poppe has been the head coach at Union College, where the Garnet Chargers went 10-2 this year and made it to the 2nd round of the Division-III playoffs. The 10 wins were a record for a 1st-year coach at Union. 

Poppe is bringing with him the outstanding wide receivers coach at Princeton, Brian Flinn, who my sources tell me will be the offensive coordinator and associate head coach. Flinn's record at Princeton and Villanova before that speaks for itself. 

I'm also told that Augie Hoffmann  will remain at Columbia and likely take on the role of offensive line coach. There has been an effort to retain much of the defensive coaching staff, but I'm not sure if any of them will decide to remain. 

Getting back to Poppe, his Columbia connections run deep. His father Bill and brother Will both played for Columbia, and all of the boys in the family including the dad are Bergen Catholic alumni.

Poppe is an excellent recruiter. For Columbia, he was responsible for bringing in many of the players who turned the program around, most notably Cameron Roane '18 who remains the best cornerback CU has had in my lifetime. While it is true that recruiting for Harvard is a "different animal," Poppe had some major successes there as well. 

He is not yet 40, which may give some of us pause, but he will be surrounded by some older staffers and he's far from the youngest person to get an Ivy football top job, (he's about 8-9 years older than David Archer when he was made HC at Cornell). 

It's also a fact that the CU secondary has fallen off in quality since Poppe left. Hopefully, he can reverse that fast. 

The other key positive is Poppe's knowledge that the program needs an offensive mastermind to work with him is an excellent sign of his self-awareness and awareness of the Columbia challenge. As I've written before, this team/program now is NOT A RECLAMATION PROJECT! There is good talent on the roster, great facilities in place, and a tradition of winning over the last eight years now. 

Jon Poppe has what he needs to succeed at Columbia and there is no doubt he has the enthusiasm to go along with that.