3rd down was not CU's friend in 2012
Starting with just a little Columbia coaching alumni news...
Former Head Coach Norries Wilson is being mentioned as the possible new offensive coordinator at Rutgers, which would be a promotion from his current job as running backs coach. His name comes first on this impressive list of coaches including former Columbia assistant John DeFilippo and former Brown Head Coach Mark Whipple.
And the bigger news most of you already know is that Chip Kelly, an assistant under Ray Tellier whom I've profiled many times in the past, is the new head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. Kelly's come a long way since he lived across the street from my dorm my senior year in 1991-92. But the cloud of possible recruiting violations at Oregon will hang over him for a while. If Oregon is eventually banned from BCS bowl competition, it'll hang even heavier. Here's hoping, nobody did anything wrong.
Recruiting
Thanks to those readers who indeed read carefully enough to see that the names I have been posting this past week are just players who MAY be on our final list this coming May. I stand 100% the five incoming recruits and one transfer I have listed, but everyone else is indeed just for speculation.
I'd say, "read the fine print," but that very clear distinction was made in the big letters.
Stat Attack
I like Coach Mangurian's "Moving Forward" mantra, but we want to move forward by recognizing what the team has to fix.
Let me just map out the top 3:
1) Pass Protection
The one area just about everyone agrees needs the most improvement is the offensive line, especially pass protection.
The Lions allowed a startling 40 sacks in 2012 for a total loss of 246 yards. And that was with a very mobile QB in Sean Brackett '13. Frankly, 40 seems like a small number when you consider how often Brackett was harassed in the pocket. Remember, the NCAA rules don't count every tackle of QB behind the line of scrimmage as a sack; if he starts to run or seems like he's starting to run it's counted as a run for a loss and not a sack.
So to be fair, Columbia gave up more like 50 sacks last season.
The Lions won't be able to improve much on their 3-7 record if they aren't able to get that number down to 30 or fewer sacks. It's as simple as that.
2) Touchdowns Scored
Columbia scored just 15 TD's in a 10 game season. Their opponents scored 35. A 20-TD disparity is shocking enough to ask how the Lions still managed to win three games last season. And even if you strip away the 69-0 loss to Harvard, CU still was outscored by 10 TD's in the other nine games.
3) 3rd Down Conversions
Columbia only converted 31% of their 3rd down chances, killing drives and putting their defense back on the field way too many times.
Fourth down conversions were even worse, as the Lions converted those 14 chance just twice for a 14% average.
In short, the offense needs to do better in clutch situations. An improved offensive line should help do about 90% of the work needed to get to that point.
7 comments:
Our men's basketball team won its Ivy League opener by a 67-58 score at Cornell this afternnoon in an outstanding all-around team effort. The rematch next Saturday should be a beauty. Incidentally,the Lion hoopsters have just added two more talented recruits for next year's class. go Lions
This isn't a strip joint, don't be such a tease...who are the new recruits?
Sure, why not. The two latest verbal commitments are from Kendall Jackson, a 5' 9" point guard from Oakland, California and Suffield Academy; and Chris McComber, a 6'7" 225 forward from John McCrae Secondary School in Ottawa, Canada. Columbia previously received commitments from Conor Voss, a 7'0" center from Saint Cloud, Minnesota and Jeff Coby, a 6'8" forward from Choate Rosemary Hall and Weston, Florida.
Two FB from OH: Keith Brady, John's brother, a 6'2" 205 LB from Lakota East; all league. Cameron Dunn, a 6'3" WR from Cinci St. X. Offers from Navy, Air Force and offer to be preferred walk on at Northwestern.
-Dr.V
The two BB commits were already known, but thanks anyway.
And thanks, Dr.V, for the new football commits. Looks like the Ivies are getting a lot of top players, hope we can keep up.
In my opinion, Chip Kelly leaving Oregon for the Eagles may very well be a sign that he considers the NCAA investigation a bigger problem than is currently known.
I remember when Pete Carroll left USC for the Seahawks, I thought, "Jeez, why would he make that trade? He's got the greatest gig in college football right now." Of course, the answer was that he knew the Reggie Bush scandal was a bigger liability than was then in public knowledge.
Chip Kelly's motivation to leave an Oregon program currently clicking on all cylinders may be similar.
I don't know what he was getting at Oregon, but maybe he concluded that he took the Ducks as far as they can go, that he will never be more marketable than he is now, that he wants to see if his offense can work in the NFL, and that he can make a boatload of money without having the NCAA's hot breath on the back of his neck.
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