10 Questions (part 3)

Kyle Baskin returns


The news has been coming in too fast for me to keep posting more than one new update each weekday to my top 10 questions of the year for the Lions.

But before we get to today's added question, we have the following quick updates:

-New weights and new player profile pictures are now available on the Columbia Football roster page.  I usually spend too much time every year focusing on one or two of the weight changes. I won't do that this year, but have at it.

-A surprise return to the roster is TE Kyle Baskin. Baskin was an exciting recruit who got on the field in his very first game as a freshman in 2016, but was banged up on a play and eventually left the team with injury issues. He's apparently healthy enough to return and could be a factor.

-But fellow TE Cameron Lipton-Martinez is off the roster and apparently off the team.


Now back to the Top 10 Questions:

4) Will Columbia have a real RB threat all season?

I don't know why this has happened, but in each of Head Coach Al Bagnoli's previous three seasons at CU the player who turned out to be the team's top runner didn't real make a major impact until late in the season.

With a new QB at the helm this year, it just doesn't seem like the Lions can afford to wait that long in 2018.

Junior Tanner Thomas certainly topped the depth chart coming into camp and he showed some nice flashes in 2017... especially in the win over Princeton.

But there's more talent backing him up than perhaps any Columbia fan is really used to seeing. Freshman Dante Miller has opened a lot of eyes, and there are still speedy veterans like sophomore Marquavious Moore around.

But again, the value of having a legitimate 100-yard per game back threat on this team is very high. The flip side is that no serious running threat will make whoever becomes Columbia's starting QB much more under the gun play after play.

If the Lions can answer "yes" to this burning RB question, 2018 could be a very special year.