Day-to-Day work and updates on the Ivy football season will continue on this blog. But to make sure the emergency situation Columbia football and Columbia athletics are under remains on the forefront, the following extremely common sense demands will be posted on top of every new post on this blog until changes are made:
We must:
1) Replace Dianne Murphy as Athletic Director right away
2) Replace Pete Mangurian as Head Football Coach the moment the season ends
3) Bring in an outside consulting/expert group to make the replacement hires and evaluate the positions and effectiveness of everyone in the athletic department.
4) Do NOT allow anyone who has had a leadership position or position of influence in any past hiring process to participate or interfere in any way with the overhaul process.
Please call President Bollinger at 212-854-1754 as soon as possible and asked to be connected to his office. Please respectfully ask that Murphy and Mangurian be let go as soon as possible.
You can also email: officeofthepresident@columbia.edu
AROUND THE LEAGUE
It gets harder and harder to recap the varsity league news from what feels like a junior varsity perspective, but here goes:
-Princeton really earned its top dog status, coming back from a 16-0 early deficit to beat Penn 38-26 at Franklin Field. QB Quinn Epperly was brilliant again, with two TD passes and two TD runs. Penn hero Billy Ragone just didn't have it Saturday as he threw three INT's. The wheels are falling off the Penn train and one really has to start wondering about the team's chances for next season.
-Yale had the upset of the week, beating Brown 24-17 thanks to a late 32 yard TD run by Deon Randall. The Eli defense was surprisingly strong. This is an improving program.
-Dartmouth slapped Cornell 34-6 in Hanover to keep Buddy Teevens' job safe for now. Sophomore RB Kyle Bramble was the surprise star with 110 yards rushing. He was in because RB Dominic Pierre got a bit banged up and the Big Green coaches wanted to keep him healthy. Cornell looked especially inept and so the question is: can the Big Red be bad enough to lose to our Lions in Ithaca this coming Saturday? I wish I could say "yes," but they still look better than Columbia, especially at home.
IVY POWER RANKINGS
1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Dartmouth
4. Brown
5. Yale
6. Penn
7. Cornell
8. Columbia
17 comments:
Columbia shut out in player of the week honors yet again. Not even an "honorable mention" for a Lion player. Been that way since week 6.
Is this a league decision, or is Columbia not even bothering submitting names for consideration?
http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/fball/2013-14/releases/Football_Weekly_Release_-_Week_9
I think that the absence of a Columbia player in the weekly honors list is the fault of the CU athletic department. In many previous weeks when the team was much more competitive there was also a lack of Lions in the weekly list. I'm sure that it's somebody's job to submit a candidate after every game and he or she just doesn't care any more.
I agree that Cornell is a better team than Columbia, especially at home. But with both teams winless and relatively inept, this one will come down to heart. Who has not yet given up on the season and, more to the point, on their teammates? I hope Columbia wins because, with lesser talent, that would speak volumes about the young men on the squad.
As requested, I have called President Bollinger's office to suggest the firings of Ms Murphy and Mangurian. I spoke with an extremely friendly assistant who indicated that there have been a number of similar calls throughout the day.
Tigers pulled off the win at Franklin, much to my surprise. It was Penn homecoming and the fans were especially vicious; not an easy environment and one which often consumes Tiger teams. I watched a loss there in '93 when even Keith Elias couldn't get us a W. I'm definitely going to the Yale game at Princeton next week -- this team is special. Beware a loss to Dartmouth though -- never an easy game, often involves snow, titles have slipped away before in Hanover...
Impressive win for Princeton, no doubting that.
MBF: Thanks so much for calling! We have to keep this up. If the Daily News column is even close to being right about admin. support for Mangurian and Murphy, we must change that.
My weekly honors go to Olinger with 10 tackles and Pugliese with a sack , 2 batted away passes and 6 or 7 tackles.
I think the last time Princeton "lost" a title in Hanover was 1991 in a winner-take-all game between the Green and Tigers.
There was also the notorious 1995 game when Tosches went for the tie at the one-yard line rather than go for it all. The "tie" game the Tigers the title outright (a loss would have given the Tigers a shared title). Tom Osborne could only shake his head in shame....
Cornell is not winless. They spanked what looks to be a relatively strong Bucknell team ( beat Lehigh and Dartmouth) in their first game of the season. Zero chance we win that game unless we borrow Harvard's o-line for the day and Garrett is playing at 100 pct behind them. As stated before, the worst team ever fielded wearing light blue. I hope they surprise us but it just isn't in the cards this year. Amazing what has happened so quickly as I thought we were so close to making a legit title run Norries last few years with Brackett at the helm.
teacher mike 196
As others have said, its all about the culture of losing football at CU. When President Bollinger was at Michigan, he knew that winning football was a big part of the university's tradition. The jobs of the president, AD and head coach would be on the line if there were too many losing seasons in a row.
Bollinger doesn't have to worry about his job at CU because Lou Little was 110-110-10 over 26 years and survived a few presidents. College football is not on Bollinger's CU agenda as it was at Michigan.
Jake, in insisting on Murphy's firing, a bill of particulars regarding her complete incompetence would be useful. In other words, it isn't just the fact that Mangurian crashed and burned, which she can fob off on him, but the proces by which she hired him which is dispositive.
Good point. I wonder, if similar to key employee hires by employers, a personality test / profile was conducted on the coaching applicants and Pete specifically. That could have been the first red flag.
I was at the infamous 1995 tie! And it was in the snow, too. Crazy game.
By the way, Penn drew 21,000+ for the Princeton game. Whoa. Biggest crowd since 1996. There may be a similar size crowd at Princeton this week for Yale. There is hope for Ivy attendance yet....
I was at the Columbia-Harvard game. Of the announced crowd of 4,622 it had to be at least 25% Harvard fans. One day Columbia will shake off its problems, but will it ever draw 10,000+ for any game but Homecoming?
Unusual to see Penn so far down the list but kudos to the rest of the league for balancing things out. Good parity with Yale, Brown and Dartmouth on the upswing. What else can be said about Princeton? I did not foresee such a masterful climb to top dog.
I personally think that other than Yale, attendance is doing fine in the Ivy this year. Dartmouth has probably played in front of more fans this year than any other year in a while (at least when we play Yale at home). Decent weather has certainly helped...
True, always room for improvement and we should keep working on that. But this year is not the year to be bemoaning a decline in Ivy attendance.
We will see how the final numbers look at the end of the year.
Rich Forzani '66C
First, good luck to the team this coming week. If there's a chance to get a win, it's this game. Go, Lions.
Second, Re: Murphy's continued employment, we have several factors to consider.
a) Her overall record is the salient ding. Despite the incredible spin put on it bt the AD office, it is demonstrably horrible and speaks for itself. I've published the stats previously. Mother Thersa should be fired with these numbers.
b) Too many rumors about the PM hiring process; it should be accurately explained once and for all. No one really understands it.
c) Vetting a new hire is always critical; I'm curious how much was really done, or was this a case of a desperate AD looking to fill a slot fast.
d)Finally, I hear anecdotally that Bollinger wasn't a big fan of FB at Michigan. With Murphy being a "showcase" for diversity and a reputed fundraiser, it will take a lot of noise to move her.
Rich Forzani '66C
PS.....somewhat off-topic for this string, but important nonetheless. It has to do with Parent-Team communications which was being discussed/criticized on the previous string.
It appears to me, speaking as a non-FB parent, that most of these issues are non-malicious and unintentional. At least I hope so.
I understand that the previous parent who was "liaison" is no longer doing this. Can someone else volunteer to spread info re tailgates, etc. instead?
Also, re emails, have you tried sending a note/email to the team or making a call to ensure they have your address on the distribution list?
I'm not alibiing anyone, but you are after all dealing with an organization, with all the red tape that implies. You parents have enough aggravation already. Maybe there's a simple way to fix these issues at least.
Good luck.
Post a Comment