Prime Secondary

Coach Bagnoli and Landon Baty


Columbia's pass defense in 2017 was truly the best in the Ivy League.

While Cornell came out slightly better on the stat sheet, the fact is the Big Red had the worst run defense in the league and teams rarely needed to test their secondary. Cornell gave up 130 fewer yards in the air than the Lions, but that was on 54 fewer pass attempts.

Columbia had the most interceptions as a team with 13, allowed opponents just a 51% completion percentage, and just 6.3 yards per attempt.

The good news is that three of Columbia's four 2017 starters are back for 2018.

The bad news is one of them is not Cameron Roane.

Roane was truly the best shutdown corner in modern Columbia history, and now the question is just how good will the rest of the unit be without him.

Also gone is Denzel Hill, who made an impact at CB when he was healthy in his final season.

Getting back to the good news, 2nd Team All Ivy and team captain Landon Baty is back for a 5th year at safety. His breakout season last year included a lot of stellar stats, but his enthusiasm on the field and in the locker room is worth almost as much.

Fellow safety and senior Ryan Gilbert also had a breakout year in 2017, and was named as the team's most improved player.

Also back is junior CB Ben McKeighan, who performed extremely well last year in his first season as a starter considering he was targeted constantly by teams looking to avoid throwing anywhere near Roane.

So that brings us to one of the hottest questions facing the Lions right now: Who will replace Roane as the other starter at CB?

Will Allen might make the move to CB, but he seems more suited to the safety position at 5-9.

Junior Justin Hill is another candidate, but he has seen limited duty at the position. Sophomore Blake Wooden is also a likely contender.

But don't be surprised if one of the highly talented freshmen corners gets the nod. Derric Lee, who made my list of the top 10 incoming freshmen at #7, could be the one.

There are a lot more known quantities at safety. Sophomore Ben Mathiasmeier is just too talented to stay off the field and senior Jacob Young keeps making an impact wherever he's asked by the coaching staff.

But the pressure will be on this group with the loss of Roane and the departure of secondary Coach Jonathan Poppe to Harvard. New DB Coach Andrae Murphy will have to show he can herd this talent and keep the Lions atop the league in pass defense.