Justin Woodley's '20 career on the field for the Lions was cut short by injuries, and now his tenure as a defensive assistant is ending thanks to the folks at Stanford.
Woodley was spotted at a summer camp for high school prospects in Palo Alto and was offered a defensive assistant role with the Cardinal.
We wish Justin the best of luck, but we will miss him.
Columbia Football training camp begins in about a month, and here are the five biggest questions that need to be answered:
5) Will the Lions be Ready for a Tougher Schedule?
It's seems likely that all 10 of CU's 2023 opponents will be improved compared to last year. The opener at Lafayette will feature an opponent with a stingy defense and picked for 3rd in the Patriot League. Marist has reportedly made some roster improvements (details pending). So, Columbia's six-game out of conference winning streak is definitely in jeopardy. Meanwhile, six of Columbia's seven Ivy opponents bring back their starting QB's.
4) Can Felkins be Adequately Replaced?
I thought senior William Hughes looked good as a placekicker in the spring game, and he certainly was a salvation as a punter at the end of last season for the Lions. If Columbia ends up having to sacrifice Alex Felkins' range (Felkins is now with Penn State as a grad transfer) for similar or better consistency from within 35 yards, the Lions will take it.
3) Who's the Mike?
Unanimous 1st Team All Ivy Middle Linebacker Scott Valentas' decision to graduate presents a major challenge for the defense. If I had to bet, I'd say the new MLB will be Anthony Roussos, or maybe Rocco Milia, but I think there are more than two candidates for this crucial job.
2) Will the New O-Line be Ready?
Columbia's offensive line took a major hit from graduation, but still returns a decent number of experienced players. The problem is, the Lions have become used to having a strong O-line the last two seasons and it seems unlikely that it will be able to maintain that level this year. The big wildcard is the move to switch senior TE Luke Painton to Left Tackle, which the optimistic among us can hope will be a game changer.
1) Who's the Starting QB?
Senior Joe Green had a strong 2021 season, but we now know he was already injured going into 2022. 5th year senior Caden Bell was a revelation as the starter during the second half of last season, showing some unique skills along the way. Can the job somehow be shared? Could Bell and Green sometimes line up on the field at the same time like Princeton did so effectively with its two QB's in 2016 and 2018? The possibilities are numerous.
It's that time of the summer again when the high school recruiting camps are done and we can start legitimately counting down to the start of the new season in the fall.
With 75 days left to go before the kickoff of the 2023 season, you can get more connected to it all by ordering your season tickets which went on sale today.
Click here to order or renew your season tickets.
If you're reading this blog, I don't think I need to make any special arguments to get you to buy season tickets. But in case you need any motivation, just think what it would be like if you could say that being at Columbia Football games this fall put you in the spot to enjoy this program's first three-straight winning seasons since the 1940's!
More specifically, I'm excited about the immense talent returning at our QB, WR, and DE positions. We have stars in Caden Bell, Joe Green, Bryson Canty, Marcus Libman, JJ Jenkins, Justin Townsend and more.
And you'll want to be there when Head Coach Al Bagnoli becomes the first Columbia skipper with a winning career record at Columbia since the days of the leather helmets.
By the way, the home slate features some great rivalries including Penn on Homecoming, Havard, and Brown.
I hope to see you there!
I've joined a great new app called "CenterClip" where audio clips of 5 minutes or less are featured by a number of great contributors.
Most of my pieces will be about politics and culture, but I will also sprinkle in some commentary about Ivy Football.
As we begin the final month before football training camp, I have an overview of what to expect this fall.
SPOILER ALERT: This could be the most experienced & talented Ivy League Football product we've seen in years.
