Thursday, September 5, 2013

Opponents Gear Up for Week 2


Scoping out the Opposition


All three of Columbia's out of conference opponents are in action this weekend, so the Lion coaches will get a chance to really scout the enemy.

Fordham

Fordham's game notes for its very tough home game Saturday night vs. Villanova are out. They show absolutely no changes from the starting lineup compared to last week's season opener. That includes listing team captain Ian Williams as the starter at safety even though he sat out all but the first play vs. Rhode Island with some kind of head injury. We'll see if this two-deep is accurate; sometimes injuries are not factored into the equation.

Villanova will come into the Bronx as a 14 point favorite.

Monmouth

Monmouth is also playing a Saturday night game. The Hawks have a very tough trip to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The Monmouth two-deep is virtually identical to last week's, except that Andrew Jurczynski is now starting at one DT position after playing a backup role in the opener at Montana State.

The Hawks are 12 1/2 point underdogs in this game.

Lehigh

Lehigh kicks off its 2013 season with a home game against Central Connecticut State.

Mountain Hawk blogger supreme Chuck Burton has a good preview of the game here.

The Lehigh game notes show the Hawks have an offensive line with an average weight of 290 lbs. Two seniors, two juniors and one sophomore make up the front five.

Senior Brandon Bialkowski has won the battle for the starting QB job.

The Mountain Hawks will use the 3-4 defense and the starting front three is comprised of two juniors and a senior who average 253 pounds.

Lehigh is a 17 point favorite over CCSU.

Picks

I'll make my picks for these games tomorrow, but so far I am 2-0 against the spread and 2-0 straight up.





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Nova-Fordham line seems awfully high. I think Fordham has a decent shot at winning.

oldlion said...

Why is everybody all,of a sudden so high on Fordham? The team we saw last year was very beatable, and in fact we gave that game away. I expect 'Nova to cover.