Boretti and Mangurian
The smiles and success that seem to surround everything
about Columbia Baseball right now are the well-deserved spoils of hard and
smart work by Coach Brett Boretti and his staff.
Tuesday’s article in the New York Times really focused on that joy and it emphasized how Boretti has tried to recruit
players with good character overall.
It’s the latest example of how Columbia Baseball continues
to be the opposite of everything Columbia Football has become.
And the dichotomy is getting worse.
For example, the only time I’ve ever seen a CU Baseball
player Tweeting anything was the recent, “where’s the love?” Tweet from Jordan
Serena as he implored the CU Athletics website to publicize more news about his
team. That Tweet was clearly the work of a fired up and well-meaning player.
Contrast that to the 4-5 Tweets I STILL SEE EVERY DAY from
CU football players on their PUBLIC ACCOUNTS that are filled with inappropriate
comments, references to drug use, and racial epithets. It’s an undisputed
disgrace that even after last year’s team-wide Twitter scandal, this is still
going on. Either the players doing this are stone cold stupid or the Mangurian
coaching staff hasn’t really cracked down on the problem like they promised
they would.
Now, let’s focus our attention on our incoming recruits. Mangurian
is talking about how he’s bringing in a “blue collar class” and these players
were simply missed by the traditional recruiting process used by the other
seven Ivy schools.
I don’t really know what makes a kid a “blue collar player,”
but I assure you we’ve got plenty of white collar kids in this group and on the
team already. Any coach who recruits and signs not one, but TWO, players from
the soft and posh Norfolk Academy the same year should probably stay away from making “blue
collar” boasts when in the company on non-sycophantic idiots.
The kind of prep school kids we should be going after are
the PG players at Lawrenceville like Princeton’s Anthony Gaffney who’s going to
go to the NFL. We continue to avoid even making serious visits to the
Lawrencevilles, Exeters, and Andover of the world. Just to be clear, Norfolk
Academy wouldn’t last one quarter on the field playing those New England and NJ
preps. The final score would be something like 60-0.
And while I like the idea of getting 4-5 kids the other
schools may have foolishly ignored, the fact that most of our players got no interest
from other Ivies is a clear red flag.
And now with at least 10 veteran players leaving or getting
kicked off the team, the importance of this questionable class has been
multiplied several times. With no JV program to help them learn, we’re asking
them to be varsity ready in a little more than 100 days. This is as close to a
sure-losing bet as there is in sports.
And here’s another disturbing contrast: baseball over the
last few year has been having fun, even when it’s not winning championships.
Football has clearly become a humorless program devoid of joy. If you read this and the last few weekly updates from the football website, you’ll see exactly
what I mean. These updates have all the emotion and joy as you might see in a
manual for performing colon surgery. Whoever wrote this or dictated it sees
football as a cold, boring and smile-free job. We should delete these articles
immediately so we don’t accidentally attract refugees from a North Korean work
camp to our program,
As usual, the Columbia administration is very much to blame.
Because the successful road map on how to win and manage a good team at Columbia is
being unfolded right in front of them! When was the last time the New York Times or
anyone wrote a piece about how good a CU football coach was doing his job?
(Probably 1996, when Ray Tellier
enjoyed an 8-2 season, but that turned out to be a very ephemeral high point).
Columbia athletics is now being dominated by a Dr. Jekyl and
Mr. Hyde. Luckily, unlike the movie, we can get rid of one without losing the
other. So let's do it before it's too late.
Lindy's, Sporting News Predictions
Head over to Bruce Wood's Big Green Alert for a look at how two college football magazines are calling the 2014 season right now. Of course, they both pick Columbia for last.
Lindy's, Sporting News Predictions
Head over to Bruce Wood's Big Green Alert for a look at how two college football magazines are calling the 2014 season right now. Of course, they both pick Columbia for last.
41 comments:
Jake, absolutely love your line about refugees from a North Korean work camp. But on second thought, can any of them block or catch a pass?
I'll check!
Well said Jake! Not sure WHY the administration/Pete/Staff are allowing this? To be a part of this football team, you need to do the "right" things. These types of racist and bigoted tweets are incomprehensible to me. What would their parents say? How about their future employers? At some point Diane and Pete need to react!
I would consider Nik Padilla the model CU blue collar player. Looking at his background, no one gave him anything. He worked hard at every step. Unless incoming recruits have that type of work ethic, it is a poor choice of words from Coach Pete.
I would like to say Chad Washington is a blue collar type as well but I will reserve opinion until I know why he is off the roster. Maybe they dropped his financial aid or some academic reason? His case was legally dropped but could be ramifications from it. You don't want the phrase hate crime to be associated with your name.
Bad news on baseball front. Speer had emergency appendectomy. Tough break for a great competitor.
I am confused Jake, I was told by "several" posters on this blog and on IVForums that this incoming class looks really good and we should all be confident for the upcoming season.
#1,
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree".
This is what happens when people only read a headline and then they post comments without reading the rest. RLB: I spoke extensively about the joy related to baseball in the first few graphs of the post had you bothered to read it.
Isn't this a CU football Blog? I think the headline was perfectly appropriate Jake
It's reality, not headlines, that counts, and the reality of
Lion football is a horror story. Only performance on the field will change that, hopefully this fall, but don't bet on it.
The headline was prescient about baseball cheer. Though I think the team is deep and resilient enough to acquit itself well, the loss of ace pitcher David Speer because of an appendectomy is not cheery news. That did occur, did it not, a few days back?
RLB, we've been through your routine before about censoring criticism of a sport that isn't in season, and in November you'll be saying squash is current, football is 10 months away..
Regarding baseball, Lions played a terrific game today but lost in the bottom of the 9th to Texas A&M, 3 to 2' as George Thanapoulos pitched well In place of ailing David Speer. Lions play again tomorrow to stave off elimination.
Let's not trash Squash. Arabic followers of the sport in the middle east are singing the praises of Columbia athletics for recruiting their best and brightest athletes.
RLB, this is a footbal blog.
Also, when basketball wins an Ivy championship I will be satisfied, not before then. Our inability to win in either of the two premier sports since the 60's is a disgrace!
I am a former athlete (although many of my buddies might argue that, ha ha) from the 80's and I am not alone by a longshot.
You may not like hearing the cold hard truth but thems the facts....
Have a nice weekend...
We have a legitimate shot at basketball this year.
However this blog may have begun, it has morphed into commentary about all CU sports, as it inevitably would have. Who could logically imagine that CU football could occupy 12 months of discussion.
Having said that, I agree with WOF's comment about our futility re FB and BB for the past 50 years. There is NO excuse for that. The only explanation is total apathy at the highest level of CU admin.
With 30+ varsity sports, it is obvious that we will have some success in something every year. Except of course for 3 years ago when we didn't win one title in any sport. So I don't personally care about baseball or a few other sports that won this year, although I congratulate the teams. The reason is that the few successes we have take our eye off the primary issue, that we have a failed athletic program. Our BEST years are only mediocre, but we are and have been so bad, since the beginning of the League, that even mediocrity is seen as success.
This must end. And the fact that this blog continues to remind us of the issues helps the process.
Right on, WOF and and Big Dawg. RLB scolds us for
complaining on this board about the fact that our football program stinks. He is horrified that "Ivy coaches have access to this blog," as if the other Ivy coaches would never know we stink if it weren't for this blog. Please stop insulting our intelligence, RLB,. You're really insulting your own intelligence. The other Ivy coaches know it because they see it on the field every year and they love it.
Our potential recruits know it too. It's surprising anyone wants come here here to play football,except third- ratters who figure they might get some playing time.
In fact, the entire world knows our football program stinks. I recall meetings with groups of college applicants in our area organized by the Admissions Office--I was an alumni volunteer for the AO then--and if anyone spoke the words "Columbia football" , all the high school seniors would erupt into laughter.
That's reality. And it's not some well-kept secret that's geeing exposed on this blog.
In response to RLB, my attachment to Columbia sports actually began the Fall before my freshman year, when I was a high school athlete and became captivated by Columbia's road win against Yale, 11-0, as I recall, at a time when Yale had not lost a game for two years and was ranked something like #10 in the nation. That was 1961.
Bill Campbell coached me my freshman year. I also ran track for 2 years for Dick Mason.
PS
I was also one of the very few CU non-players to witness our away game against Princeton in Jadwin Gym in 1968, the Tigers having given out next to no visitor tix for this crucial match-up. I and 4 Sigma Chi buds disguised ourselves as WKCR announcers and the campus cops politely escorted us into the gym where we saw the Lions lose, because of the absence of Dave Newmark, our 7' center.
We beat them a few weeks later in a playoff at St. John's. So I also saw the game where we won our last Ivy title. 46 years ago.
RLB, you were correct when you wrote "I have no idea why"...you don't. I doubt anyone on this board has no connection to Columbia as you imply. It's a free country, anyone can have a rooting interest without being an alum or having a family member who is. I'm an alum and have a child who is. Your chief targets on this board are alums, so you can drop that line of thought.
I don't recall your offering much information about yourself either. Nobody is required to play "I'll you you mine if you show me yours" with you. But to extinguish your distractions about bonafides, I've watched football under Lou Little, Naso and now Pete Mangurian. I covered football for the Spec, baseball and basketball too, and also the non-mass appeal sports you love to reference like wrestling, crew and fencing.
I've watched hundreds of abysmal games and occasional great ones like the losing-streak breaker against Princeton and the contests with Cornell's Ed Marinaro.
The one I remember best is the very first one, Little coaching, 60-minute Dick Carr at quarterback. We drubbed and shut out Harvard although Little always held down the score in such games. These days we need a coach who can get his team to score at all.
If you've seen as much as you claim, then you know that with Lion football it's always "Groundhog Day." You can like that if you want, but others don't have to.
Ok guys quick story....on the recruiting trail not to long ago for another college (juco recruiting) after I left CU I ran into an ivy head coach and his assistant. He asked me about this blog and some of the things that are said. He pointed out since it's open he directs any recruits that CU and them are fighting for to view it. What kind of message is that?
You're not clear when you say you were recruiting juco players for another college and after you left CU you ran into, etc. Do you mean you used to be at CU, or that you
consider Columbia players as Juco and were recruiting them for your college, or what do you mean?
But assuming you're legit, and not making up a lot of nonsense, I'd say that kids smart enough to be admitted into the Ivies and who want to play football and make a mark would discover that there are passionate fans here who support CU football, that they can get a fine education here and start a great
career, and that as for football, they can be part of an epic turnaround. They should also tell their CU recruiter about it, ask them about the specifics they read here, and also if CU is truly committed to turnaround or not, and why it hasn't happened already.
Then they should judge all of that for themselves.
ALSO, I hope they will do us a favor by reporting on this blog what answers they got from the CU recruiters and if they believed them. That would be some truly important information.
Recruiting can be cutthroat but people don't need this blog to make a case against the CU program. It's kind of classless actually and recruits likely pick up on that. They can make up their own mind and do their own research, not rely on peanut gallery input to influence their decisions.
If you don't think the content on this blog contributes to the negative impression of CU football, then you have your head stuck back in the 1960's.
It's the same here as it is for the BCS conference schools. Coaches will use everything at their disposal to cast the negative light, and the comments here are definitely part of it.
Tony, Steve, et al
Treating your comments respectfully, I grant there may be some truth in them.
However, I submit to you both and to everyone else here that the issues we have with recruiting have so little to do with this blog that it is meaningless. Re: discouraging recruits, this blog is equivalent to a flea biting an elephant.
I suggest that our 50 year record of failure, our horrible campus facilities and the trek back and forth to Baker have a much greater affect. So let us keep things in perspective, please. And if not for efforts such as these, how else would the sinecures in CU Admin know that the natives are very restless.
I can only speak for my own experiences being recruited as a student athlete in the mid 80's. The entire apparatus of the school's presentation is in play. If the people in the athletic dept are attentive, make a recruit feel welcome on their visit, the coaching staff is personable and introductions to current players is positive; the school offers what a student is looking for academically then things fall into place. It's like anything else, how a person is treated goes a long way. If facilities, attitudes, attentiveness is not there then a student goes elsewhere.
If a coach or school rep guides me to a blog to try and sway my opinion I am thinking, wow that is low.
If CU hadn't neglected football and Medn's basketball for the past 50 years we would not be frustrated alums complaining about "groundhog day".
Here is an idea. If the staff and admin want us to stop complaining on this open board, make a true commitment to winning. Hire the right coach, a guy who knows how to utilize the media and fan base to generate excitement and hope and who reaches out to the former players and shows appreciation for them.
The notion that it is our fault for complaining about the ineptitude of these teams is laughable. The only reason we do it is becuase the admin has been satisfied with futility for half a century... How is that our fault?
I have to admit, I'm always very curious bout what gets (as above) a submitted comment deleted by you, Jake. Profanity? Names used inappropriately>
I'd also like to hail Columbia's rowing program for a fair amount of success yesterday in the just-concluded IRA championships. (It's particularly wonderful that rowing is the sole sport NOT controlled by the NCAA.) No, we're not national heavyweight titleholders (U of Washington is, for the 4th straight year), but our heavy and lightweight crews were both more than respectable in a sport which gets no general mention on this site. Also, for what it's worth, I think basketball coach Kyle Smith is doing a fine, fine job, can only hope we'll retain his services.
I think Smith is doing a great job, too. It's just that after a 50+ year drought, he has to win a championship before some of us will be completely satisfied.
I can't for the life of me understand that some people can find it to be unreasonable for those of us who have lived through so many years of tolerated futility to feel that way...
Championships are hard to come by. I am happy for the bball program with a 20+ win season. It's always nice to win the big games, especially on the road. If the program develops that kind of consistency, that is the type of progress that keeps the wheels turning.
After re-thinking the claim that this blog discourages recruits, I hope that any intelligent youngster would reply that he'd be surprised if the alums here were NOT furious about our record.
Over the years, the AD has published blurbs from countless recruits who said they wanted to come here to turn that record around. If they are trying hard to do that, maybe it's the Admin that isn't.
Chick sorry let me clear this up. I had left columbia for another school and while I was on the road juco recruiting for that school I ran into these other ivy coaches.
Chick to add to your comment I agree I would hope an intelligent recruit would see any attempt by a rival coach to negatively recruit as being low. However in my experience that's not the case. These men are impressionable.
You can minimize what is said here all you want, but until EVERYONE associated with CU football starts to own it, you are part of the problem.
What happened with Chad Washington? He is a good player.
Well, impressionable kids or not, the status quo is intolerable. It's not ok for the football program to languish indefinitely. The solution is for the AD to admit they do not know how to fix the problem. Then retool their efforts with outside help.
Ditto on Chad. He is a major loss. Between him and Cieslak, that is a pass rush and a lot of tackles that won't happen this season.
Just saying men kids read the posts....This blog has cleaned up its language and comments remarkably in the last few years (JAKE thank you). But what recruit wants to go play for a coach or staff that gets ridiculed? Again I say this blog has been cleaned up quite a bit and that's a good thing.
The coach and the staff are their own worst enemies, though. We would be enabling if we lied and said they were doing a great job, they aren't!
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