Monday Headlines and Thoughts

Estes Out


The Providence Journal is reporting the Brown Head Coach Phil Estes is leaving the program.

This is not a complete shocker, but Estes still is the most successful coach in Brown history by far.  I often wanted Columbia to hire him away from Brown to see if he could work some magic here.

I hope someone out there gives Estes another chance... in fact, he would make a great assistant/consultant for our Head Coach Al Bagnoli right now.

Bagnoli Watch

In four years as Columbia's head coach, Bagnoli is now 19-21. He's reached 19 wins 33 games faster than Ray Tellier. He will not likely be voted Ivy coach of the year as he was in 2017, but considering the injuries that devastated this team he truly deserves it. It's hard to believe any other Ivy team this year could go 6-4 without its top three QB's, top three RB's. top LB, and top all-around player, (in Columbia's case that was WR Josh Wainwright).


Top 10

Longtime readers of this blog know I keep a running list, at least in my head, of the best Columbia games of each decade. With one season left before we finish the super-eventful 2010-2019 decade in Lions history, Saturday's win over Cornell may have cracked the top 3. I still put the win over Penn last year as #1 and the victory at Princeton also last year at #2.

Here's hoping 2019 will bring us lots more contenders for the top 10.


Next Year

For those of you wondering about next year, the Lions begin it on September 21 at St. Francis. The other non-conference games will both be at home, versus Georgetown in week two and CCSU in week four.