Yale Bulldogs (4-2) vs. Columbia Lions (3-3)
October 28, 2022
Kickoff Time: 6:30pm ET
Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium
Game Time Weather Forecast: 52 degrees and cloudy
The Line: Yale is favored by 2 1/2 points
TV/Radio: The game is going to be broadcast live on ESPNU
Leading Story Lines
1) Both teams are coming off gut punch losses and need to prove they can emotionally recover just as much as win the battle on the field physically.
2) Yale comes in with the Ivy League's best running attack. Columbia has the best rush defense in FCS football. Something's gotta give.
3) The two teams played an exciting back-and-forth game at the Yale Bowl last year, eventually taken by the Elis. Expect more drama here.
3 Columbia Players to Watch
-RB Ryan Young has had good games against Yale in the past. He will be looking to keep that streak going.
-DL Justin Townsend is on everyone's radar now and Yale will work hard to neutralize him.
-PK Alex Felkins will be looking to redeem himself after missing a short FG that could have won it for the Lions last week.
3 Yale Players to Watch
-QB Nolan Grooms turned the tide in the Yale win over Columbia last year. He's having an inconsistent season so far and would love to turn it around tonight.
-RB's Tre Peterson and Joshua Pittsenberger are a lethal running tandem that will challenge CU's strong rushing defense.
-DL Clay Patterson is a force who may be extra motivated to outshine CU's Townsend.
83 comments:
Our DBs are getting schooled so far. But the lions came out tonight with some grit!!
Are you kidding me?
What a frickin meltdown! WAKE UP!!
Horrific
Punt blocking and pass defense are a clown car!!
I bet there is not a single coach in the Hall of Fame who had two consecutive punts blocked.
I wonder the total number of punts having been blocked for the other seven Ivy League teams?
Another poor effort. We will likely not win another game. Special teams and defensive backfield were particularly poor. See you next year Lion faithful.
Is there a mercy rule?
Maybe this is a talent issue? I am at a loss right now……
There is only one way to find out. Have someone else coach these players.
Our sideline was dead. Yale’s was alive. Chasing two points early in the game is just plain dumb. Having two punts blocked is a new low. I saw no life on our sideline. And who is coaching the DBs who neither play the ball nor tackle after the catch. And our defense spent so much time on the field in the second half that the inevitable set in. Other mistakes: not sealing the edge and allowing Grooms to extend plays with his legs; running Young inside on first down when the holes weren’t there for him; not taking enough shots down the field. But the sad truth is that this team didn’t seem to have any fight in the second half. I just don’t think we have been well coached this season.
The sad part of all this is that the first half showed that we have talent and probably should have had a lead at half time. But Yale made half time adjustments which worked and we obviously didn’t have a clue as to what to do next.
What would your son say about the loss? That it is all on the coaching?
How did we enter the 2022 football season without having at least two decent punters on the team? Seems like something went wrong with our recruiting. Our punting game has been a huge problem the entire season.
I agree with the poster who questioned why we chased two points after our first touchdown. Even worse, however, is that after failing on the two point conversion, we kicked for the extra point following our second TD.
Bell is doing ok as our new starting quarterback, but we have no one with any varsity experience behind him. Seems like the coaching staff missed the opportunity to get AJ Simpkins et al. on the field in the fourth quarter tonight
The magic that Al brought to the program just hasn’t been there this year.
That was as embarrassing an effort as I’ve seen in a long time . Whomever is coaching ST’s and the secondary should be ashamed of that performance. And to the hated Eli’s. Argggg
What magic? He’s well under .500 vs Ivy teams over his tenure here .
Congrats to Caden Bell who showed some grit. The RBs once again ran hard. Hey, look at that, we actually used our TEs and guns what happened, first downs.... Who would have thought?
I am packing it for this year as a fan...Can't believe the disaster of a year...NJ Lion predicted earlier that we might not win another game all year. Right on, NJ Lion. We did abandon the Hurry Up and Wait in half one and actually looked good moving the ball. Even threw deeply and scored a TD! But ah, that Two Yard Terror is still our favorite pass play... Need more speed at RB so what do we do? Keep Edwards out until the fourth quarter! Georgi giving his all..Valentas with a superb effort... Special teams? Need more pressure on the QB.. Give myself a Thanks Captain!
Similar to what Dartmouth did earlier this year, maybe we should have an open tryout for punter... In fact, maybe we should have an open tryout for coaching while we're a it. Just shameful! Sooooo, we abandon the Wildcat offense to nonsensically try a 2 point conversion when it was completely unnecessary? And why was that? Usually, opposing coaches watch game film of opposing players and check the injury report. Now the opposing coaches just want to make sure that everyone on this coaching staff is in tact so that they can throw deep, blitz without protection, block punts. ESPN caught Al looking bewildered on the sidelines after the second blocked punt. Can someone explain why we are playing man-to-man defense with 5'9"-5'10" DB versus 6'2"(+) WRs? And then, when when the staff figured out that they should be playing ZONE Defense, half the team was still playing man-to-man. That is why Yale was wide open - SEVERAL times!!! This is CRAZY!
I was there last night. I thought that we played a good first half, even with the idiotic decision to chase for 2 points. In most of our games we play a pretty good first half (OK, Penn was a disaster from the get-go). But looking at last night, it was very similar to last year’s Yale game, only worse. We played good football for the most part in the first half, Yale made some adjustments, whatever ever adjustments we made didn’t work, and Yale wore us out. I think we really miss Paul Ferraro as DC. And the absence of a reliable punter has been noting short of disastrous. As far as the offense, Bell is playing his heart out and isn’t a bad player, but last year’s version of Joe Green was just better. So what does this say about Al and whether he still has it. I frankly don’t know; he resurrected a program in receivership, but if this ship isn’t righted in a hurry we will revert to historic form, heaven forbid. Only Al can answer if he still wants to do it, but Peter Pilling is going to have a few tough decisions to make after the season.
The Columbia Football History, has for the most part been subpar. Through its entire existence.
Bagnoli, has brought a better culture. To Columbia. Covid messed that up. To not play in 2 years is huge. It’s frustrating but to change now. Could plummet this program to where it doesn’t wanna be. Go Lions
If Men's Basketball is any example Columbia Football Fans cannot expect any help from the Athletic Director. Engles is still our head coach despite a horrendous record of something like a 32-97 won-loss record. Furthermore, President Bollinger is retiring as President of Columbia University in June so he's a lame duck president so he is unlikely to make any significant decisions before he goes. Hopefully, the new President will have a better appreciation of athletics than Bollinger and will push forward with the professional soccer teams's proposal to build a new 25,000 seat stadium at Baker Field and a world class gymnasium on the campus.
The elephant in the room must be identified: Fabish would then likely get serious consideration as Al's successor. That would be a disaster.
I had believed that Al had cured the team of the boneheaded plays we have seen so often under previous coaching regimes. Well, they're back.
The Columbia Football Program from 1983 to 1988 was a travesty, an embarrassment. However, how do we categorize the last two weeks?
Punts get blocked, (I am certain Jim Harbaugh would agree), but not twice in succession, and three times in two games. (To make it even worse, on one of the blocks the receiving team had a return on.) That just does not happen in any program, never mind one run by a veteran, respected, successful Head Coach. I would not know how to describe what I have just seen, other than, “that does not even happen on Madden!”
I know I could never have played for a coach who was disengaged or aloof. Every shot of the Coach last night, had him with the mouthpiece of his headset turned upward. At no time was he shown speaking to a player. But it does not really matter what we think of the coach.
All that truly matters is how the players feel about him. They are the ones who make the time commitment, and suffer the physical and the greatest emotional tolls. It pains us to not win, but not to the extent it crushes a player’s psyche. If the players truly wish the Coach gone, they will make their feelings known.
Yet at the same time, those of us who support the program financially, and spiritually, deserve a better product than what has been on display the last three weeks and four of the past five weeks. A “better product” does not mean wins against a Marist or a Wagner. A “better product” does not mean unseasoned assistant coaches, however great their promise or future might seem. A “better product” does not mean the loudest cheer of the night coming from the few fans in attendance, when the punter manages to kick the ball downfield. A “better product” does not mean defensive backs who act as if they just made a Richard Sherman-esque goal line stand, when, in fact, they just got beat by a mile, and a wide open receiver dropped a catchable ball. A “better product” means winning the games you are supposed to win, and being competitive in every other contest.
There is intense anger and disappointment. No one saw this season developing as it has. Most likely, much of the vitriol will be mis-placed. Before long those in the “Saint Al Camp” will remind us that the Coach is entitled to keep his job as long as he wants, since after all “if it was not for him, there would be no program now.”
There is no denying that in the last few weeks, the program has given back much of what it has gained in recent years. We lost very winnable games in unimaginable ways. What difference does it make, as to the cause? The real issue is, “what will it take to move forward?”
It would be sad if people are willing to be satisfied with fifteen wins in conference play, over the last seven years.
Yes, “Football is a humbling game”, but it is possible to lose without being mortified or humiliated. Good teams lose every week, but not playing up to their potential, week in and week out, and finding new ways to lose, is not the definition of a “good team”.
Amen...
This year Bell is way better than this year Green.
CU is not the only program that was messed up by Covid. That is no excuse.
A lot of us saw this coming… huge lack of leadership with last years graduating class, clearly not a next generation to replace those seniors. And then you lose ur two qbs from NC. It is definitely not all coaching but a combination of execution and play call.
So this is my first year a Columbia fan and I'm a glass half full kind of guy. There was a lot of good in this game that I was happy to see.
1. Caden Bell is a good quarterback and capable of leading this team.
2. Using the tight ends seems to be more of priority and it helps the offense immensely.
3. The front 7 continues to be wall of talent and effort that causes problems for opponents. They don't make many mistakes, they control their gaps well. They just seem to get tired by being on the field too much.
4. Was glad to see a fair catch on a kick-off. There definitely seemed to be better decision making and focus by our returners.
5. There was a lot of concern internally about what the effort would be for this game. The boys came out and played hard looking to impose their will until ...
The bad.
1. Special teams are killing this team. The blocked punts, the penalties, the decisions. two blocked punts are unacceptable.
2. The two point conversion play has to go. The decision is left up to the QB to make the final call but man it is a buzz kill. The need to maintain momentum and positive vibes faaaaaaar outweighs the need to chase cheap points. Just kick the extra point.
3. The psyche of this team is fragile at best. With little to play for, it doesn't take much to make things go sour. Those blocked punts changed the game and the team just couldn't recover. Their collective body language after the fact was awful.
I like Coach Bagnoli and feel that he is the guy that can make Columbia a winner. Some things go differently this season and the lions are fighting for a championship. Most of those things are in direct control of the CU program. There is a lot of talent on the squad and that shows what he can do for a program.
Moving forward, there needs to be a direct focus on fixing the fixable problems and work on that consistency. This is a proudful group of kids and there is still a winning record as a goal that is worth chasing. Hopefully the coaching staff can keep their spirits up. The kids have invested so much and don't really have the option to pack it in for the season. I think fans need to not "pack it in" as well.
Al operates as a CEO; he does not actually role up his sleeves and coach up individual players. He delegates to the assistants, and when we had Paul Ferraro the defense kept us in virtually every game. Stovall may be a good LB coach but appears not to be ready to coach an entire defense; there is just too much confusion at the back end and too many DBs totally out of position. Special teams is the worst I have ever seen; whoever is responsible for our punting team needs to be replaced. As far as Fabish, he relies much too heavily on plays that never work and never rectifies problems as they emerge (if pass pro is inadequate put an H back with Bell, if bubble screens keep getting blown up don’t use them, try a lead blocker on running plays). As far as the deep balls which Yale was completing, for most of them the DB was keeping up with the receiver but never turned to try to play the ball—a cardinal sin. Since so many of Groom’s passes were 50/50 balls.
As fans and alums we are understandably frustrated by a season that was predicted to be a potential Ivy League championship contending one that has devolved to this. In order to contend you must have all facets of the game firing on all cylinders. Sometimes when one squad fails to perform it draws the others down. I think we have seen this with special teams creating short fields for the opposition, when our defense can only respond for so long before getting worn down. We have lost our only experienced QB for the season. We can not sustain drives for 4 quarters with the current offensive game plan, line and skill position players. I haven't given up yet- curious to see if we can salvage a win or two, at least be competitive with Harvard. If not, then a change at the top is warranted.It
That’s not an excuse it’s a fact.
Are we living in the Second Coming of Pete
Mangurian? I had a terrible sinking feeling
when Bagnoli, for the second consecutive week.and for no earthy reason, ordered a two-point conversion attempt after our first
touchdown.
Why do tour DBs never turn their heads to see where the pass is, but just follow the receiver until he catches it? So many bad habits.
I feel sorry for Caden Bell, who waited four years to play because of the COVID mess.
Bell was a startter and winner in one of the nation’s very best high school conferences.
Obviously, the coaching was better there.
Obvious post from a parent of a player. Wonder what their sons would think of this whining?
Wow. You just blame everything on the coaches. Are you kidding about Stovall? He is one of the brightest defensive minds in the league and players love him
Well said. This is the kind of post from a parent this is a reasonable take
Why does your son keep telling you Al is disengaged and aloof? Is he not getting the playing time he thinks he deserves? Let me tell you, 90% of the players in this team love Al
The poster who wrote Al is “disengaged and aloof”, has made it clear they are not a parent of a player.
Al did not call for the 2-point conversion. That formation is a set formation to take advantage of the defense IF IT IS THERE. It is up to the QB to make that decision. That is the formation that the ST coach Rice has implemented and Al is okay with that approach. Clearly, with a new QB in place, his decision making for that conversion was wrong and is likely not on the same page with what the coach Rice wants. They obviously put a halt to that with the second TD. My hunch is we won't see it again unless it is necessary.
DBs had a bad game. They've been solid all year and Yale got the best of them in 1-on-1 situations. The adjustments by Stovall and Kukesh just didn't work for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, the DBs just didn't make the right decisions (Yale 3rd TD for example to an uncovered WR)
The achilles heal of this team is the special teams units. That has to change and there were some good changes (e.g. fair catch on deep kickoffs). Obviously, the punt blocking needs to be addressed and I suspect we'll see some personnel changes there going forward.
As for the offense, with a new QB, there is only so much that can be changed. Sure he knows the playbook, but he doesn't have a ton of experience with all of the plays. You can't call plays that the QB isn't comfortable with. so there are only so many adjustments that can be made. Additionally, there some things that he hasn't seen yet and is still learning. That linebacker blitz for sack is a good example. He likely missed that read.
One thing to consider, that yale QB was fantastic at keeping plays alive. Sometimes you just get beat.
I see a lot of good things from this team. I'm just not seeing the consistency and that is an obvious problem. To me, that should be the focus moving forward ... and the punt team.
Saw the game on TV last night. Wish I could see in person but too far away. Some things stood out. !) Yale seemed to have more, better players than did CU. Game planning and will to win can take away some of that discrepancy but during a full game the better players usually win out and that is what it looked like last night. 2) CU seemed like an untuned engine, Yale like a tuned engine. It is hard for me to know whether that is the fault of the players, or the coaches, or both. 3) I called most of CU's plays before they ran them (in particular the first blocked punt), and I haven't seen them operate in a while. If I can do that, the Yale defense can do it better. What seemed most missing were what I call "set-up" or "serial" play calling where a given run is setting up a short pass in the same area to a longer pass or a screen or a reverse or some such. All the plays seemed discrete without relation to the play(s) that came before or after. 4) Coach B looked frustrated in the close ups, as in we taught them differently, what are they doing? I did see a player put his arm around him later in the game which I thought was a good sign.
No one wants to lose. It's a burden. I am not in the locker room with the players or coaches so I wouldn't know what to suggest to stem the tide. They are fighting themselves more than anything else.
The point is everyone they have played was affected by covid…
It was a striking moment last night to see a CU player put his hand on Al's shoulder as if to cheer him up and encourage him. I can't remember ever seeing anything like that between a player and a head coach. Others may interpret it differently but I am confident that the players love Al and respect his accomplishments at CU and throughout his career.
On the other hand, Al is probably not a hands-on coach at this point so the primary motivational and tactical responsibility belongs to the assistants. It looks like this is not working out. Lots of teams have won with less-than-ideal head coaches and with players who sometimes had less raw talent than the opponents. To win in that environment, somebody else has to step up big time. Right now there are too many mistakes throughout and also weak play in the second half, which is an especially bad sign. Al, great as he has been, is not going to fix that. Who will? Buehler? Buehler?
Brown just beat Penn 34-31.
That moves the Lions into eighth place in the Ivy League Power Rankings.
In Jake’s “Ivy League Preview” on September 2, he picked Columbia to finish Second.
What now?
You think Edwards is our fastest RB?
Oh yah , all the other past coaches as well.. Come on man
If we had made the FG against Dartmouth and escaped with the win would that have vaulted us above both Cornell and Dartmouth all the way to 6th? Here is where we see if the culture has really improved—do we lay down and die or do we see some leadership for the last 3 games? I predict that next week Jon Poppe will be urging Murphy to take several deep strikes down the field the first time Harvard is on offense, and based upon last night’s showing I think I’ve got a pretty good idea who they are going to target.
Look, I'm glad that Bell is having his moment, but if Green were healthy, Green would play. Bell is a much better runner, but I have never see so many double-clutch misfires. I don't really care about the HS program that Caden came from because he got beat out. What Al should have done is rotate quarterbacks like he used to do. And Caden would have had a better chance to prove himself in the games. Having said that, we should allow the 3rd string QB to get some reps. Note, NOT replace Caden, just give him some experience. Again, I'm happy that Caden will be able to end his career as a starter, however, he's the 7th or 8th best QB in the league from what I've seen today watching all of the other Ivy games.
I think we can all agree that Al does not coach, he manages the process. The problem is that the process has to change. Al doesn't even have a game plan with him on the sidelines. All he has is his headset, which he flings off and then yells at the officials on questionable calls. Nobody does that better! However, making any to reference Mangurrinan, Tellier, McElreavy, Shoop, or Wilson is an insult to the program. Al is 10 times better than those coaches. Al added credibility to the program. Now he has to realize that things must change. Al either becomes more active with the process, or he will retire at the end of this year, or next. Our next challenge is allowing the Football Committee (AKA "Hot Dog Committee") and Ted G. anywhere near the selection process. They FAILED miserably with the aforementioned coaches. The one thing Pilling has to understand is that Fabish is NOT the "coach in waiting"...
Stats can be and are deceiving.... Yet, Since Bagnoli won his last Ivy Crown in 2012, he has had 6 losing seasons at Penn and Columbia.7 in the Ivy league... He will be 70 in January. Time is up?
Should we start next season with the same Head Coach, who expresses a willingness for arenewed involvement on game day; a new Offensive Coordinator; a new, experienced, proven Quarterbacks Coach; and a new, experienced, proven Special Teams Coordinator; I believe all of us would be supportive, enthusiastic and looking forward, not concerned with what happened this year.
We need Al to get more involved throughout the week and TEACH these coaches how to coach; not just on game day. Why don't we do what other Ivy coaches do and send them to SEC, PAC 12, Big 10, etc. schools and watch how they coach. Basically, learn a new approach to the game. Think of it as a professional enrichment class. Food for thought...
You probably worked from home as well
Clearly the Nick Saban of “managing the process” can be successful. The only problem is that Mark Fabish is not Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkasian,or Bill O Brien.
Are we really Ewing fair to Mark Fabish? Doesn’t it all begin with the OL? And our senior laden OL has not played well in IL contests this year. Except for Minch at RT, we seem undersized compared to teams we have played to date in the league. Take Yale: as Al said before the game, it’s OL is enormous. The effect of a big OL becomes more apparent by the 4th quarter, when smaller DLs get tired of having 325 pound behemoths leaning on them. So in the first half of the Yale game we either played them even up or perhaps even outplayed them, but by the middle of the second half our smallish OL (I know it sounds crazy that an OL which averages around 290 is smallish) was not able to do as much as the Yale OL, which gave Grooms the opportunity to extend plays (how many times did we almost sack him?).
Pardon the typo-mean to say are we really being fair to Fabish—spellcheck and auto correct got me again
Let’s also add that CU football has been padding W/L records with non conference cupcakes vs schools we don’t even recruit against . Marist? Wagner ? Central Ct. etc. I do like the Lou Little rivalry. But yes, if you just look at our Ivy record over the last seven years, it’s not good enough period . What I watched Friday night looked like 80’s Lions’ football all over again. It’s time to make some changes .
Well said indeed . Also Bags picks these ST players at the camps. That second punt wasn’t on the punter as he received no blocking and middle rush blew it up. But on the others, you could make a pie with the time he takes to get the punt off. Inexcusable to have such poor ST play at this level. And the secondary….yikes
Fabish is just not that good as an offensive coordinator. He can’t or won’t make adjustments. Same predictable offense year after year. Start the game great, then here comes the 3 and outs. Defense gets gassed, game over.
I agree almost entirely with the excellent remarks of Lion1. However, I do respectfully disagree with his statement that Al Bagnoli is a 10 times better head coach than all of the former Columbia head coaches that he named. In my opinion, and that of many others, Ray Tellier was an outstanding football coach, who was very much respected by his players, peers and friends at Columbia. The outstanding 1996 Columbia Football Team with its 8-2 record stands in support of my view. Ray was also an excellent recruiter and football mind. Also, for whatever reason(s) neither he, nor for that matter, any other former Columbia Head Football Coach, received as much support from the Columbia Administration as does the current coaching staff. Fortunately, there are at present a number of members of the Columbia Board of Trustees and other prominent Columbia alumni who strongly support all of Columbia Athletic Teams. Hopefully, they will take it upon themselves to ensure that the next President of Columbia University considers athletic success and improved athletic facilities to be a very high priority.
If Fabish becomes HC it’s back to the dark ages. With NYC as it is right now, CU football may never recover.
Ray Tellier was an absolutely atrocious head coach. I do hope you’re only jokingly suggesting otherwise. He had only 2 winning seasons out of 14, and he was a horrific 28-70 in conference, including an 0-7 Ivy campaign in his final season. Even the 8-2 team, as good as it was, got absolutely shellacked by the first-place team. If you want to hang all of that on the administration, you have to acknowledge he was also sub .500 at Rochester (21-26), with only four wins over his first three seasons. Granted he did go 8-2 and 9-2 in his last two seasons there, but with 7 of his 14 teams at Columbia finishing either seventh or eighth in the Ivies (and his winning no more than four games in any of his last six seasons), I’d say he was given a longer term than he deserved.
Speaking of ex-Lion head coaches, has anyone followed the trajectory of Mr. Shoop post Columbia?
Stints as Defensive Coordinator at Penn State, Tennessee, Mississippi State and now at South Florida.
Who would have ever thought?
Ray Tellier was a good coach with zero support from the horrendous duopoly of Sovern and Cole. Let me count the ways: no visible support; no financial backing, no support for new facilities, selling off of a portion of Baker Field.
I have a question as a former high school DB from many, many years ago. I remember being coached to play the ball and the receiver, and on deep balls to turn and look for the ball when the receiver also starts to look for the ball. Most of the time our receivers seem to be face guarding the receiver on the deep ball, which usually leads to a completion on balls which should either be batted away or even intercepted. What am I missing here? The first Yale TD pass, as I recall, was a textbook example of what not o do as a DB (including missing the tackle).
You make no sense.
Agreed
Our local hs coaches corners in 1-on-1 coverage to play it just the way lion db’s did against yale as they have all season long. Stay in step with receiver focus on hands attack hands and arms when ball comes in. Has worked well last year from 3rd game until this most recent game
I recall corners giving up a lot of deep balls in first 2 games last year. I was assuming they were new to this technique and it seemed so as games 3 -10 were much improved in this regard
So what happened friday? Did anyone notice yales receivers were clearly a step faster than our corners? That cover technique doesnt work as well if you can not stay in phase w receiver. Well, why didnt our heretofore heralded DC make halftime adjustments? Guessing here, but Yales qb is an excellent runner and at some point you have to pick what the opposition will beat you with. Rotating safeties to deep half coverages would open up scramble/running lanes. Given the “throw it deep and pray” nature of some of Grooms throws, I for one will not second guess the strategy. (And in fairness to mr grooms, he did place several balls perfectly)
Sometimes these things are a bit more complicated than looking at height and weight on the roster, coming up with a nickname and then declaring you know the solution to all our problems
I don’t believe Fabish can process adjustments, “ this is the game plan…”
I agree with the anonymous poster about the lack of support given Coach Tellier. Columbia University President Michael Sovern was indeed a very nice man and a brilliant legal scholar who did many good things for Columbia; however, acceding to the demands of the anti-sports types within the Upper West Side and Inwood communities to pressure Columbia into giving away extremely valuable land at Baker Field for a new neighborhood hospital was not one of them. How bad was that decision? I have been told thru the years that the list is endless. Here are just a few. First, it eliminated then and possibly forever the possibility that Columbia would build a multi-level garage adjacent to Baker Field thereby leaving everyone attending sporting events at Baker Field in the position where there is simply no garage parking on site. Second, the decision was obviously dumb from a financial viewpoint, because the value of that land today is infinitely greater than the so-called "sale price." Third, it was and is absolutely inane to build a hospital immediately adjacent to an athletic facility. Fourth, there was no need neither then, or now, to construct a satellite hospital at the northern tip of Manhattan Island when the local community it purports to serve is just miles away from the Columbia University Medical Center. Fifth, there were and still are numerous undeveloped properties across the street from the Allen Pavilion where the hospital could have been constructed.
Are you freaking kidding me?!?! I lived through those Tellier years and he was horrendous. Al is not 10 times, but 100 times better than Tellier!
Look folks, there are so many factors involved here. Making adjustments isn't always as simple as "just" making adjustments.
1. You have a backup quarterback playing in his second full game. He may know the whole playbook, but he certainly doesn't have experience with the whole playbook. Therefore, there are limitations with what adjustments can be made. I'm sure Fabish would love to run him more, but you have to be careful exposing him to getting hurt as your next option is a true freshman running the offense.
2. Given Bell's limited playing time, there is a learning curve for him to read the defense. Case in point, it is the QB's call on the extra point conversion to go for two or pull the team in an kick the extra point. Clearly he read the defense wrong in that situation.
3. Kukesh is one of the better young football minds on the staff. He knows how to coach (he was the d-line coach the past two seasons) and his background is the secondary. Credit the Yale receivers here. They were bigger, had good speed and good hands as well. Sometimes when you're getting beat as a DB, your technique goes out the window. Guarantee you that the DBs playing know what they're supposed to do. Sometimes they make mistakes, like not switching off on receivers, or both covering the same receiver (third touchdown)
4. As I've mentioned in previous threads, the number of coaching transitions has caught up to this team a bit. I think that has contributed to the number of self-inflicted errors from the squad.
5. We as fans don't know who is responsible for making what adjustments. Is it Fabish and Stovall? Is it the position coaches? We know it isn't Al because that isn't how he operates.
6. The achilles heal of this team is the number of errors committed by experienced players ... especially on special teams. The coaches definitely aren't happy with those errors and are working with the kids in positional meetings, film study, and practice.
7. Sometimes, things just begin to snowball. It's clear (to me at least) that these kids are pressing a bit. Some wind up trying to do too much and mistakes soon follow. They still have something to play for (overall winning record and senior day) so hopefully they can take a collective breath and focus on the fundamentals. They've done enough good things on offense, defense, and field goal kicking to know that they are talented enough to compete with anyone in the Ivy. They just need to work on putting it all together consistently for four quarters.
Look, Tellier was a nice guy, but he couldn't recruit or coach. With a record of 28-70, that really speaks volumes. He was a better Assistant AD and skilled at shaking hands than a coach. Ray also had a nice staff. There is not a better guy than Erv Chamblis who still keeps in touch with ex-players, from what I am told.
Let's talk about recruiting for a minute... There should be NO EXCUSE for not getting good players (yes, I know, it's a double negative)! The problem is that these IVY recruiters all look at the same information and go for the same kids. It's how you approach the process that must change. If you are looking at kids who are being heavily recruited by H.Y.P., PASS! The odds of getting them, is minimal. If recruits are looking at Dartmouth or Cornell... PASS! Why? because they are interested in going to school in a rural setting! That leaves Penn and Brown to compete against selected recruits. We should win those battles every time. We need to utilize prep schools better. We need to park "bubble" kids in prep schools while they reclassify (similar to what Yale and Harvard do). Princeton targets kids in their Sophomore years and sticks with them. Also, we need to get better transfers and utilize GS. Remember John Robinson, the transfer from SMU? Galen Sneider, the Duke Transfer? - both were All-Ivy (Galen, twice) and they graduated from GS. Also, if we are going to utilize the coveted transfer slots, we need to utilize them for impact positions; not RBs or DBs (unless they are taller than 6' because we keep playing sprint size football DBs). We need to target D-1 Scholarship kids and explain to them that BC, Rice, UVA, Duke, etc. are offering 4-year scholarships; whereas Columbia is a scholarship for 40 years! Roar Lions!!!
Obviously, I have over-simplified the recruiting process and yes, we do get guys interested in HYP, but our focus should be looking outside the box. This formula that I outlined is not new. This approach is exactly what Megan Griffith employs as the women's basketball coach (except she gets international players as well) and look at her success. Nevertheless, the principal is what we need to follow...
A lot to unpack. Hard to believe we are talking about Ray Tellier- he was a good guy and without the current support he had some success - he had s couple of winning seasons which is morethan you can say for the four coachesbefore himand 3 coaches after him. The issue was that he stayed 14 years with only 2 winning seasons. The expectations now are different. But the bottom line is the current staff can recruit and i thought were getting kids who other ivies wanted and were winning head to head recruiting battles otherwise how do you explain 8-2 in 2017, 6 and 4 in 2018 and 7 and 3 last year. That is why this year is so upsetting because over the last 7 years we had seen significant improvement and there was no reason to think differently about this season. Not sure of any of us thought we would win the title but most of expected a winning season. We were starting to feel a winning culture and looking fowarf to fall saturdays. What is most alarming about this season is not that we are winless in the league but how we are just not competive. Go back and look at 2015 results Al’s first year without his recruits ilonly won two but in almost every game. As much as we want to win every Saturday, i would he far less concerned about the program if we were winless in the league but in every game where one or two plays made the difference. It feels like we have gone back to pre 2015 and i cant figure out what happened. Has recruiting fallen off that much in just one year? Did a few changes in coaching assignments cause this disaster? Is there simething else we dont know?
I feel most sorry for the players who work so hard and their parents and families who myst be beyond disappointed with the results and the product in the field. I also feel for the alums and long times fans because i think we finally thought we had created a culture of winning and maybe close to a championship culture and then this season comes. Hoping we csn start winning again
That is absolutely correct, you have no idea.
The only aspect of this response is that Sovern was “a very nice man”. Maybe in his old age that was the case, but he could be very, very difficult and unpleasant in his earlier years.
As far as using GS, that is a slippery slope and would run afoul of the academic banding system used by the IL because its admission standards are shall we say “flexible”, that is, it accepts half its applicants.
NJ Lion all over it in re Tellier! How about Norries Wilson as a coach? Maybe we can get him back to run the offense... Why did Penn can the HOF coach? Lots of food for thought
I wholeheartedly disagree about bring in a lot of transfers. Not the way to do it and no other IL team brings in a lot of transfers. They also rarely pan out
If we do not use the portal we are really going to be left behind. That is how Joe Green got in…it is the culture now. Skilled players are for hire through the portal. Its the way college football will be recruiting from now on.
I would however disagree with the “40 year” scholarship. Athletes are coming out with huge debt from ILs. It is just not worth it for so many young people today. The degrees do not hold the value that they used to. Its also part of the recruiting issue…without scholarships and now NIL money we are going to struggle.
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