Prayers for Solo

Solo Scored the Winning TD in the 1988 Streak-Breaker vs. Princeton

Solomon Johnson ’91, one of the most exciting players in Columbia history, is fighting for his life at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey.

Johnson has been battling some serious illnesses in recent years, but this appears to be his biggest medical challenge to date.

He is on a respirator and battling double-pneumonia. 

Let’s all keep “Solo” and his family in our prayers. 

Virtual Media Guide Available

Check out the online version of the football media guide for 2013.

It contains the updated record books and some great new photos.

Ranked Out

Week one opponent Fordham’s QB, Michael Nebrich, has been named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week after leading the Rams to a 51-26 slaughter of Rhode Island Thursday night.

With a much tougher test against Villanova in the Bronx this Saturday night, we may get a better idea of how good Nebrich and Fordham really are after that game.

Just for the record, the folks who put together the Sagarin ratings, still place Columbia below Rhode Island in their rankings.

But as Big Green Alert’s Bruce Wood always points out, the Dunkel Index can sometimes be a lot more realistic, and it has the Lions a few spaces ahead of URI and even Yale too.

Columbia comes in at 107 out 126 FCS teams in the Dunkel Index, with Fordham at 55, Monmouth at 66, and Lehigh all the way up at 17.

Harvard is the top Ivy team at 10, with Brown a respectable 35 and Penn down at 49.

Columbia never gets much respect from the pundits, but it seems like the Lions are being super snubbed this year considering CU DID beat both Cornell and Yale last year and a top QB from Stanford has transferred to Morningside Heights.

But again, the only way to get respect is to win more games on the field.

The Guys Up Front

Kendall Pace last year

The football team has released the final video of training camp and it features the offensive linemen working with Coach Ed Argast.

This video stood out from the rest because it actually showed a coach actively correcting the players. So for those of us desperate to see a sense of urgency in improving the offensive line, I think we got it.

The other thing I noticed is that freshman Kendall Pace looked very big and very strong compared to the other players, although Jimmy Yukevich seems bigger than he was last year.

Player weights have not been updated yet, but we’re keeping an eye out.

And yes, the intense training camp schedule is now over, but practices will continue of course.

Hopefully, some more news about the depth chart will trickle out soon.

Moment #18: Futility Defined

For one fleeting moment in Columbia’s historically awful loss to Harvard in week eight, it looked like the Lions might grab at least a little solace.

That happened with about 15 seconds left in the 1^st half and CU trailing by 42-0.

A Paul Delaney punt was fumbled by the Crimson’s Scott Miller at the Harvard 32 and picked up by Columbia’s Augie Braddock.

Braddock got all the way to the Crimson three before he was tackled by Alexander Norman.

That left five seconds for the Lions to get some kind of score to at least avoid the shutout.

It was not to be.

All QB Sean Brackett was able to do was fire off two incomplete passes before the half ended.

If any one series in this game defined just how futile the Columbia efforts were, it was this one.