Head Coach Jon Poppe will surely be named Ivy League Coach of the Year, but I'd like to make sure we're all on the same page in pushing for Poppe to be named NATIONAL coach of the year, (at least for FCS football).
Here are some of the key talking points in promoting his candidacy:
1) Took a team picked for last in the Ivies to a tie for the championship
2) Inspired, by word-of-mouth only, several key Columbia players to commit to a 5th year after he was named head coach in December 2023.
3) Established and developed amazing depth at the QB position after Columbia's two starters from 2023 graduated. All three Columbia starting QB's this season won at least one key Ivy game and looked confident in their roles, even if suddenly thrust into them.
4) That said, Poppe and his staff made the quick and difficult decision to make the change at the starting QB position after the Harvard loss to a true freshman.
5) Overcame an unusually long list of key injuries to starters, including two QB's, CU's All American candidate at DE, and multiple starters on the offensive line.
6) Instilled a remarkable level of resiliency both during games when bad things happened and in the weeks following Lion losses.
7) Provided excellent communication with the fan base, with weekly emails that were truly educational about football and forthcoming. With the exception of the need to surprise Brown with the move to insert freshman QB Caleb Sanchez as the starter in week 9, even the weekly game notes and two-deeps were honest and trustworthy.
I'm sure there are more items to list here, so feel free to add to them.
NOTE: None of this is in any way an insult to Al Bagnoli, Mark Fabish, Joe D'Orazio, or any of the coaches who have come to this program since 2015 and played a role in making this season happen. Because I have a job and a life, I just can't police the immature comments on this blog as much as I'd like. But I do know that gratitude is the key to happiness in life and I'm publicly acknowledging Bagnoli, Fabish, etc. now and always.
62 comments:
Well said. And I would emphasize other injuries as well to at least 7 starters. Sanchez outplayed Wang. That means he was coached to succeed.
Wang’s challenge was top of the Ivy League defense Columbia.
Cornell Daily Sun article on the game reads as if our win was a fluke.
Lions move up to #3 in FCS in scoring defense. 16.10 ppg.
Jake, it's kind of fun to note that in the comments section at the end of your Tuesday August 6, 2024 blog someone (not me) posted anonymously the following comment: "We will win the Ivy Championship this year, the soph QB is the real deal and the team is loaded on both sides." Whoever wrote that post (not me) is certainly entitled to come forward and take a bow
Jake as always handling the controversy with the coaches with class. Acknowledge the shoulders of giants that Poppe stood on (Fabish Bagnoli, D'Orazio) but still respect the season that Poppe was able to produce. Well said
Wasn’t me either, but whoever it was, was truly prescient. Like our chances next year with the experience our “next man” players gained this year, the “real deal” soph QB returning as a junior and the enthusiasm and momentum Poppe and staff have instilled in the program. Congrats to all and Go Lions
We will have a real battle for starting QB next year.
Perhaps. Competition is a good thing, right? One thing is for certain, all the cheerleading, which goes back to Feb. 2024 and continues today, will have zero impact on the outcome!
If my counting is correct 5 returning Oline with at least one start under their belt (hoping carr can rehab for full season in 2025). Imho lack of starting experience among Oline was biggest factor in 2023 struggles
Classy like an open field slide
I think any Columbia coach who wins an Ivy championship (after 63 year drought, 3-7 prior season and picked to finish last) must be Ivy League COY. Not sure about National Coach of the Year, but he should be on the short list for sure!
Thanks to all the players and coaches who layed the foundations. I hope Poppe shows class and grace when he accepts IL COY to acknowledge same.
I had planned to fly to NYC from Hong Kong to watch this game...but work got in the way....bad call by me!
Chen 82
Didn’t Ray Tellier win national coach of the year in ‘96?
In 1996, his team went 8-2 overall, 5-2 in the League which was good for 2nd Place. He won the AFCA (American Football Coaches Association) NCAA Division I-AA Coach of the Year. The problem being, the next year, he was 4-6, 3-4 in the League, which yielded a tie for 5th Place. Maybe we do not want to lobby that hard for Coach Poppe to receive a similar accolade.
In 1997, we were 3-7 and 2-5 in the Ivies (no one counts the Mitch Marrow Penn forfeit anymore). Teller never had another winning season after 1996.
Poppe absolutely deserves to be COY. Case closed
Should be unanimous; he has said that Hayden McDonald should be DPOY.
But let’s not forget that we also got waxed by Dartmouth (40-0) in 1996. We were in every game this year; even the loss to Harvard was only a two-score game until the fourth quarter, if memory serves.
The first game in the '97 season we were absolutely creamed by Harvard on the road (I was there), reflecting how fragile the program really was and how dependent the '96 team was on a few great players, principally Wilfork and Riley. Now seems a completely different set of circumstances in so many positive ways, but keeping expectations realistic and an underdog mentality will help in a league that will continue to be highly competitive week in and week out.
Tellier had only 2 winning seasons out of 14, and that includes the 8-2 mark from the talent-drenched squad in 1996. Thank goodness he wasn’t eligible for the Jim Engles lifetime coaching contract.
Since the Ivy League started playing football as a league in 1956, this is only the 8th year Columbia has had a winning record in league play. Donelli did it twice, Navarro once, Tellier once and Bagnoli twice. This season was genuinely historic for Columbia football and our first year coach. Best of luck to Coach Poppe next year and all the years he is Columbia Head Football Coach. I hope it is for a while.
Great job by Pilling
Congrats to all!
Does Stovall get hired away after his brilliant coaching of the defense? If Reno leaves Yale, is that an opportunity for him?
Tellier twice??
Good week for Columbia Lions....IL FB champs, NCAA Tennis Singles National Champion, Men's Bball 8-0 start, women's bball 2 close losses to Villanova and Indiana against 5 wins......what's in the water?
Nope. Ivy records only.
O-Line seems to be returning some experienced players, however, they need better condition, like Darmouth's and Harvard's O-Lines. RB will be a BIG loss. TEs need to step up as well. Not concerned about the QB situation or WRs. We are deep! Honestly, I would make Freeman an RB and/or H-Back who can throw. I love his energy and grit, but he has "happy feet", short-arms the ball and won't stay in the pocket to let the play develop. Sorry, not trying to be critical, but this is what we all see. As far as defense, lots to shuffle on the D-Line who were great this year. LBs were great. The DBs had their moments, but overall, good. I love our kickers (punt/FGs), but we just need more consistency at the FG slot. They both have great legs, which is an overall plus. As far as the coaching, they all need another year under their belt and then they can move on, if they want to. Harvard had coaches in the system for 20+ years! We need to capitalize on this Championship and solidify recruiting. Use GS for more transfers!!! GEAT job this year!
I know we're all reveling and will continue to do so. Wow! What an accomplishment and what pride for the team and our Lion family. So many accolades across multiple sports. In case you missed this, reported last night that Jon Poppe is indeed in the mix (of 15 candidates) for FCS National Coach of the Year....https://gocolumbialions.com/index.aspx
We cannot use GS for transfers—league has strict rules on academic levels for incoming football players. While we can occasionally use GS for a one-off special case (we had a vet in GS but he didn’t play), we cannot look as if we are skirting IL requirements for purposes of stacking our roster.
Will Townsend use his redshirt year to come back?
Hayden MacDonald is Buchanan finalist as national FCS defensive POY!
Giorgi should have been 1st team
Agree
Double plus agree. For what it’s worth, I thought both he and Pitsenberger got shafted.
No Giorgi first team all Ivy? Disappointed is an understatement.
Losing Townsend —entered transfer portal as graduate student; was really hoping he would return. Twitter statement was very bland—no thank you or kudos to coaches—I wonder why.
Just may be gauging interest. He may have 2 years eligibility. I’d want to know if I could get my MBA for free, wouldnt you?
That said, he has a long tough rehab in front of home wishing him the best whatever he decides!
Doesn't the above add to seven?
Getting started in a grad degree is valuable.
Townsend says in his twitter post that he has 2 years of eligibility
Others in the portal are grad transfers Ianucci and McDonald.
Anticipating next year. 😊
Just because Townsend has entered the portal does NOT mean he's not coming back. Libman entered the portal, I believe twice. Sit tight and see what happens.
Hate to say it but his market may be negatively impacted by his injury. I know he will attack his rehab with all he has, but getting back on the field by next Sep is not a given
Feel so bad for all the guys that were injured. Seems the knee thing comes in waves some years
Our men's basketball team is undefeated, but except for Villanova it has played a very weak schedule so far.
Don't be so negative, even the national press is getting on board.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2024-11-26/how-columbia-football-and-basketball-are-rewriting-history
Yes, don't be negative. Yes, perhaps a modest schedule, but not unlike previous years...and over these past years, we've lost to most of these teams. As I posted on this blog following the Villanova W, we could indeed be undefeated going into the 12/30 game vs. Rutgers. We've had several meltdowns and some bad habits resurface in a couple of these early season games, but held on. I definitely see us in the Ivy Men's Tournament up at Brown's Pizzitola Sports Center.
Similar schedule to all the Ivies.
I definitely don’t. Don’t drink the Kool Aid. I see Princeton, Yale, Penn, Brown, and possibly Cornell finishing ahead of us. Rutgers will tune us up, by the way.
Agreed. Even Nova is bad. When you take a look at some of the OOC games Princeton has played, for example, you realize that the people saying our schedule thus far is comparable to other Ivies’ are wrong.
I’m still laughing at the clowns that said Engles would win an IL championship before Poppe. Year one versus never, lol.
Penn?
Why do you think Penn is a top 4 team?
Right. Today Harvard is going up against St. John’s. And Yale has already played Purdue (!), Minnesota, and Delaware. Dartmouth, meanwhile, has beaten BC and has a game with ND in early December. Cornell has had contests against La Salle and Syracuse, and so on. Pretty clear we’ve had a lot of gimmes in comparison.
So we’re beating crappy teams, but we should sing Engles’ praises because up until this year we’ve lost to similarly crappy teams? I just want to make sure I’m following the logic here. The real question is whether Engles will be fired after he once again doesn’t make the playoffs and doesn’t have a winning record in conference. Or should we just keep giving him more unearned chances?
I think Penn has had a tough stretch of late, but I believe they’re improving again (and they seemed to play better against Navy). If they beat Maine today, I see them hitting their stride by the time the Ivy campaign rolls around. The Palestra is a tough place for opponents to win, so I could see them going 6-8 or 7-7 this year.
Ask Pilling.
Is this Lance Meadow?
It seems like most ivies play 2 tough teams, 2 D3s and a mix of MAAC, Patriot, America East teams. Not all, but close to that.
Definitely DEI
It’s always DEI with Columbia
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