The 2012 Slate

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Schedule Released

The athletic department has released the 2012 varsity football schedule.

Here it is:

Sept. 15 - MARIST
Sept. 22 - FORDHAM
Sept. 29 - PRINCETON*
Oct. 6 - at Lehigh
Oct. 13 - at Penn*
Oct. 20 - DARTMOUTH* (Homecoming)
Oct. 27 - YALE*
Nov. 3 - at Harvard*
Nov. 10 - CORNELL*
Nov. 17 - at Brown*


Some thoughts on all of this:

1) Yes that IS a home game against Yale even though we played them at home, (in the snow), in October. My guess is this is a slight shift in the schedule to make up for the fact that the Lions have played 2-3 more games at the Yale Bowl since the beginning of Ivy play than the Elis have played against us in New York.

2) The road game against Lehigh on October 6th will be a huge challenge, but luckily the Mountain Hawks are not likely to be as good as they were in 2011 with Payton Award runner up QB Chris Lum who is graduating.

3) Note that Dartmouth is the Homecoming opponent and not Princeton in week 3.

4) Marist, a team Columbia hasn't faced since a 31-7 win by the Lions at Wien Stadium in 2007, is back on the schedule again.

5) For the first time since the 9/11 attacks wiped out the first week of the season, Fordham will not be Columbia's season opening opponent. (That game was rescheduled for Thanksgiving Day at Fordham where the Rams won going away).

6) No starting times have been announced, and that's usual this early in the game, but a big question is: will Columbia opt for night games again now that night game "hater" Norries Wilson is gone?

It wasn't just Wilson, apparently the local neighborhood shakedown artists in Inwood often demanded some kind of tribute in return for the "late night" games that kick off at 6 or 7pm and end no later than 9:55.

With the Campbell Center construction annoying some sensitive folk in the area, this may not be the year to try for a night game... but we shall see.


Campbell Center Progress

Speaking of the Campbell Center, progress on the construction is moving along nicely.

Check out the pictures taken of the site just yesterday morning. Thanks to pro-football Inwood resident "Inwood Dave" for these pics!

Still No Coach at Yale!

The Hartford Courant is reporting that some type of issue with the proposed contract is what kept UConn's Don Brown from taking the Yale job Monday. I can't think straight salary was the issue, because that would have been the first thing to be made clear.

Several Yale sources tell me that the legendary Carm Cozza himself endorsed and pushed for the Brown candidacy, and now he is a bit miffed too.

The latest reports are that Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Kelly, the man I originally picked as the most likely hire, is now back at the top of the list of contenders.

Speculate away!



Fashion Football!

I missed this over the weekend, but Bruce Wood at Big Green Alert Blog noticed that two Columbia footballers, got on the CBS morning show on Sunday to model some of the wilder new college football jerseys out there.

Graduating seniors Mike Stephens and Nick Mistretta got the call to model for Mo Rocca's tongue-in-check piece.

To see it,  click here and cue it in about 3:56 into the tape.