History Means Nothing...

... or almost nothing to a group of college student/athletes who are all about 20 years old or so.

For them, the fact that Columbia hasn't beaten Penn in 21 years doesn't come with many personal memories of all those losses.

For them, the fact that Columbia coincidentally hasn't had a winning season or seriously contended for an Ivy title since it last beat Penn isn't really something they can grasp.

And that's how it should be.

The great thing about college football is that if any given program truly commits itself to getting better coaching and recruiting results, it can turn things around in a hurry. Columbia had never shown a consistent commitment to that until President Lee Bollinger hired Athletic Director Peter Pilling in late 2014 and he quickly lured Head Coach Al Bagnoli out of retirement to helm the Lions. That commitment hasn't faded since, and it's actually been increased with the building of the Columbia off season bubble indoor practice facility.

For the vast majority of the Lion football players, this committed Columbia is the only Columbia they've known.

That said, they certainly have memories of last season's tough battle with the eventual Ivy co-champion Quakers at Franklin Field that ended in a deceptively uneven 35-10 score. 

They have seen a Penn team that their coach built with his recruiting efforts win a share of the last two Ivy titles.

And they see that their 4-0 record has yet to convince many naysayers, (who are clearly relying more on Columbia's history than current on-the-field evidence), that they're for real.

For the fans, everything is different.

I could catalog dozens of interesting Columbia-Penn facts to explain just how much longtime Columbia fans want a win in this game.

But I'll stick with this top five in descending order of importance:


1) Penn had been a bottom feeder for most of the Ivy League's official history from 1956-82, when the administration got serious about winning in football. 1982 was a turning point for not just Penn, but the entire Ivy League. The Quakers became perennial winners, and Columbia got worse as Penn extended its dominance in recruiting in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas where the Lions relied on finding incoming talent. 25 years later, Columbia is in the midst of trying to make a major change of its own.

2) The Quakers have often played the role of bringing the Lions crashing back down to earth on the rare occasions when Columbia looked like it might have a strong team. The three most recent instances were in 2010 when the Lions came into Franklin Field and lost 27-13, 2009 when the Quakers came into Wien Stadium and beat the Lions by the same 27-13 score, and 2003 when Penn ruined Columbia's 250th anniversary Homecoming game with a 31-7 win. In each case, the Lions were 1-0 in the Ivies and hoping to make a statement. In each case, the Quakers went on to win the Ivy title.

3)  Two recent games were glaring examples of how superior coaching made the difference. In the 2011 Homecoming game at Columbia, the Lions under Norries Wilson famously botched a 1st and goal opportunity to seal the game with multiple delay of game penalties in a row and lost 27-20. The second was a year later when under Pete Mangurian, the Lions squandered a 20-10 4th quarter lead and lost 24-20. In both cases, Bagnoli was clearly the superior coach.

4) The last time Penn was looking weak coming into a game against Columbia was 2014 when the Quakers were 0-4. They proceeded to whip the Lions in Philly by a 31-7 score. Penn finished that season 2-8, the Lions went 0-10.

5) Many of the stalwarts of this current Lion team were either not yet fully prepped to play or out of action when these two teams met in Philadelphia last year. WR Josh Wainwright was out, WR Ronald Smith only saw very limited duty, and QB Anders Hill was not very effective in his third career start.