Thursday, February 16, 2023

Speedy Addition, and a Line Shift



5-11 170-pound WR/DB Ethan Fullerton from Notre Dame HS in Sherman Oaks, CA has committed to the Lions. 

Fullerton will be the third Notre Dame alum to come to Columbia Football. 


So our unofficial commit list is now up to 27 names:


1) Qwincy Amos DB 5"11 170 lbs. Warren HS San Antonio, TX

2) Terell Battle WR/DB 6"3 190 lbs. Mountain View HS, Lawrenceville, GA

3) Jalen Campbell DL/OL 6"4 295 lbs. Jackson-Reed HS Washington, DC

4) Jaylen Carter WR/DB 6"0 180 lbs. Taft School Watertown, CT

5) Christian Carti WR 6"1 190 lbs. Bergen Catholic HS Oradell, NJ

6) Colin Cook 6"3 185 lbs. Pope John Paul II Prep Hendersonville, TN

7) Braden Dougherty TE/DE 6"5 230 lbs. Dublin Coffman HS Dublin, OH

8) Titus Evans WR 6"1 170 lbs. Mansfield Timberview HS Arlington, TX

9) Ethan Fullerton WR/DB 5"11 170 lbs. Notre Dame HS Sherman Oaks, CA

10) Braylon Gardoni 6"0 180 lbs. Fort Bend Christian Academy Sugar Land, TX

11) AJ George LB/RB 6"2 190 lbs. Ottawa Hills HS Toledo, OH 

12) Chase Goodwin QB 6"2 200 lbs. Memorial HS Houston, TX

13) Quinn Herlihy DL/LB 6"3 238 lbs. Cheshire Academy/Shrewsbury HS Worchester, MAha

14) Jaden Hinton OL/DL 6"3 300 lbs. Ames HS South Easton, MA

15) Griffin Johnson RB 5"11 190 lbs. Marysville HS Marysville, OH

16) Sean Kimani OL 6"5 290 lbs. Duluth HS Duluth, GA

17) Baily Kornegay-Douhadji DE 6"3 230 lbs. East Caweta HS Sharpsburg, GA

18) Keelan Kornegay DE 6"3 230 lbs. East Caweta HS Shapsburg, GA

19) Xander Menapeace QB 6"4 208 lbs. Hamburg Area HS Hamburg, PA 

20) Malachi Mercer LB 6"1 225 lbs. Bergen Catholic Oradell, NJ

21) Hugo Merry P/K 6"3  210 lbs. Frederick HS Frederick, MD

22) Mikey Nabbout DE/TE 6"3 245 lbs. St. John's Prep Danvers, MA 

23) Chase Newton WR/DB 6"3 195 lbs. Walter Payton Prep Chicago, IL

24) Ahmari Owens 6"5 305 lbs. Springfield Central HS Springfield, MA

25) Levi Robins DB 5"11 175 lbs. Saguaro HS Scottsdale, AZ

26) Will Rubalcava DB 6"0 170 lbs. Rick Reedy HS Frisco, TX

27) Nik Winzer OL/DL 6"6 285 lbs. Matawan Regional HS Matawan, NJ


PAINTON SWITCH?


I'm hearing reports the TE Luke Painton has exited the transfer portal and will return to CU this fall as a... LEFT TACKLE. Apparently, he has put on the added weight needed and is ready to go. 


This would seem to be what may be a number of special moves the coaching staff is implementing to shore up a Lion offensive line that is taking a very tough series of graduation losses all at once. 


As one of my former classmates noted, Penn TE Joe Valerio made the same position switch for the Quakers and ended up playing All Pro level football in the NFL as an O-lineman. 


So, we shall see. 



32 comments:

Anonymous said...

The excellent Viking RT O’Neill made the switch at
Pitt when the coaches told him he could make the NFL as a tackle but not as a TE. He is $80 million richer for that advice. I wonder if Painton got similar advice.

Anonymous said...

GeorgeStark from New Rochelle played tight end for the Lions in the early 70s. Pretty quick, mediocre hands. Put on a lot of weight (muscle) and went on to play quite a few years in the NFL at OT as one of the famous Washington Redskins “hogs.”

Anonymous said...

Painton was a very good blocker from the TE position and with his size he should be able to carry 300 pounds at 6’7”.

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed, George Starke was one of the greatest two sport athletes in Columbia history--sensational football player and outstanding frontcourt player in basketball---I assume he is already in the Columbia of Hall of Fame and, if not, he should be admitted immediately

Anonymous said...


Why was Levien Gymnasium "renovated" rather than expanded, or replaced by a world-class athletic facility? I thought Bollinger promised to build a new health fitness center either as part of the new Manhattanvile campus, or on the Morningside Heights campus. Does anyone know why Bollinger didn't keep his word?

Anonymous said...


The new football commit from Harvard-Westlake School looks really good on film. He appears to have been recruited at a very high level, but may have suffered an ACL injury.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Bollinger's so-called promise to build a new health facility, the land is ready to go on the new Manhattanville campus. But given the choice of using fundraising dollars to build new neuroscience and business school buildings, or a shiny new gym, Bollinger went with the former, which was the right way to go. I'm sure President Shafik will take your $300 million donation and immediately break ground on a new facility.

Anonymous said...

One of the truly great tragedies in Columbia history was not going ahead with the gym in the park in. 1963 when all of the plans were approved. By waiting until 1968 we lost the chance to have a premier facility which also would have benefitted the community. One more reason why the knuckleheads who were responsible for the 1968 fiasco have earned my lifelong enmity.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the last anonymous poster about the 1968 fiasco. The Local Harlem Community was totally exploited by the left-wing radicals and ended up with no gymnasium facility at all. I also respectfully disagree with the poster who apparently misunderstands the Bollinger mindset which has nothing whatsoever to do with the monies donated for the neuroscience and business school. Bollinger had plenty of opportunities to raise an equivalent amount of money for a new health care facility. but being a pompous self-absorbed sports hating radical, he chose instead to walk down the same path as did the radical left-wingers of the late 1960"s. Why do you think the sport lovers in the University of Michigan were so happy to see him go to Columbia? Bollinger was obsessed with "affirmative action, a policy that only a small number of Michigan residents cared about.

Anonymous said...

But to his credit Bollinger fixed football by supporting the hiring of Pilling and the recruitment of Bags and his staff, plus the $$$ that all of that required. compare him to the disastrous reign of Sovern and Cole, for example, who sold off part of the Baker complex and did nothing for sports.

Anonymous said...

I do not recall who told me this, but somehow my understanding is that it the goal of every college head football coach in the Ivy League to start the football season with at least two quarterbacks on the roster who the coach believes can lead the team to an Ivy League Championship. In that respect, I believe the Lions are in very good shape with Caden Bell and Joe Green, both of whom are certainly capable of doing just that. I also expect AJ Simpkins to be ready as well. Also, both of the freshman qb's seem very talented. It's much too early to make any predictions, but we certainly should have a terrific passing game.

Anonymous said...

Bollenger didn't do anything to help any of the Columbia indoor sports teams and wouldn't spend a nickel on a new aquatic facility on Amsterdam Avenue when the space came available. Columbia could have had an outstanding aquatic facility where local kids woulld have learned to swim. That facility would have also freed up additional space to expand the size of Levien Gymnasium. I assume everyone on this Board knows that one of the majors soccer teams wanted to double Baker capacity and for some reason the proposal was rejected. Also, Bollenger and the Board of Trustees did nothing to improve the Baker Facilities once the Campbell Center and the Soccer Stadium were constructed. Maybe some others on this Board know exactly what happened. Incidentally, it's not too late for Bollenger to show some interest in Columbia's sports teams and the local community. After all, he is getting paid a few bucks to serve as Columbia's President thru the spring semester.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS said...

Until Bollinger has the guts, the moral rectitude, to tell all about the infamous Columbia Data Scandal, I suugest all alumni of the University withhold all donations to their Alma Mater.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

2/20/23

Anonymous said...

It’s the board, not Bollinger. If this were a public company there would have been a derivative suit filed and the board would have been compelled to retain counsel to conduct an independent investigation. A little sunshine is the best form of disinfectant. That’s the problem with presidents for life— they tend to become autocrats and intimidate board members.

Roar Lion said...

Tod, I appreciate your posts but who cares about this USNWR "scandal?" It was stupid to fudge data, but ultimately meaningless. Does anyone believe CU is a lesser university because we're out of the ranking? Or, more ridiculously, that it was a better university because a barely alive magazine using pseudo science said so? Columbia is one of the half-dozen best universities in the country. It doesn't matter what USNWR says. We all recall how many outstanding professors CU employs; how amazing it is to study in NYC; how truly crappy the administration was, at least in my era. USNWR changes none of that.

I'd rather withhold money from Columbia because it employs Jim Engles than because some third rate administrators saw fit to fudge absolutely meaningless data.

doc/jock said...

Roar Lion and Tod
I appreciate your remarks and the fact that you are NOT anonymous. We do not need all the comments by a series (or 1) of anonymous persons. What keeps you from identifying your remarks?

Roar Lion said...

It's my middle name.

Anonymous said...

Without anonymity there would be far fewer comments.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS said...

If one does not use his/her real name when posting her/his belief, then she/he does NOT have a belief.

Anonymity vitiates worth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

P,S. Columbia did not "fudge." Columbia cheated.

Roar Lion said...

Okay, Tod, but they cheated to absolutely no purpose. No student was misled - CU has always been a great university, nobody matriculated because CU was 4th instead of 7th or 9th in the ranking. CU didn't become better because it gamed a rankings exercise that doesn't matter. USNWR is, as I said, a Potemkin village of a magazine that no one cares about. If someone gets fired, fine with me, but they will have been fired for doing something pointlessly dumb.

Let's get back to the important work of complaining about Coach Engles.

Anonymous said...

Tod,
I dont blame Columbia for "cheating". I blame the math professor for exposing them. Everyone is cheating. Do that
or drop. For example, I work at NYU medical school. It's the same shit hole now as it was a few years ago when it was ranked 37th in the country. They hired a new egotistical dean who decided to fudge the numbers and they've been ranked 2nd in the country the last couple of years. 37 to 2. How does that happen? Cheating!

Anonymous said...

This nonsense started with Steve Brill at that rag The American Lawyer when he got big law firms to provide him with data on profitability by effectively telling them that he will lowball their numbers and make them look like dying institutions unless they opened their kimonos. USNWR plays the same sort of game—give us your numbers or we will make you look bad. I’m sure that everybody pads their numbers—so one angry math professor decides to bite the hand that feeds him by trashing his own institution. USNWR is not the SEC—who knows how various institutions come up with their numbers, and frankly who cares. I only fault us for one thing—instead of boasting about our high ranking —especially in recruiting—we should have ignored the whole thing; and as far as the errant math professor—he can do all of us a favor by going to work at NYU.

Tod Howard Hawks said...

Dears Sirs,

I respectfully disagree with the comments of the two above.

When I was at the College in the 1960s, if a student were found to have plagiarized, he was summarily expelled. He had been caught cheating. That was the right response then and, I believe, it will be the right response when those who were complicit in the Data Scandal are found out.

USNWR annual rankings have been called "window-dressing." I agree. Nonetheless, they are principally the reason why Columbia College and SEAS in the recent past received over 60,000 applicants worldwide resulting in an admit rate of 3.7%

For example, let's say an extremely bright female high-school senior in Bucharest uses her computer to read the annual NSNWR rankings, sees that Columbia is tied with Harvard and MIT for 2nd place, and loves the prospect of living in and exploring NYC, the capital of the world, for four years. She therefore applies to the College, is accepted, and decides to attend our Alma Mater.

Because of the egregious conduct of those Columbia cohorts who cheated by lying to the world, Columbia rapidly, in my opinion, will see a precipitous drop in the number of applicants to all schools of the University, a drop in both the number and amount of donations from alumni, a loss of its best professors to other schools, and an exponentially difficult task to replace them with professors of equal, stellar qualities.

To those who have posted on this board that "everybody cheats," I wish never to meet you.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Anonymous said...

Agree!!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you don't want to meet me. I actually consider your great integrity a character flaw rather than an attribute. It's important to live in the real world. All universities are putting thier best foot forward and Columbia was just doing the same. Columbia is in a tough position b/c the math professor wanted them to include GS data and we know it's not "fair" or "representative" to admix CC and GS data b/c the schools are so different, even if they are both technically undergraduate. In summary, Columbia didn't outright lie like my employer NYU med school (#37 to #2!!!) and I agree that we need to bury the rankings but so long as they are there we need to keep up with the Joneses and put out best foot forward. Integrity is not black and white. Good people are in all shades of grey.

SpuytenDuyvil76 said...

Integrity is paramount. "Everybody cheats" is not the appropriate rationale.

But frankly, the USNWR is a bogus rating. They are not a rating agency, they are not a government agency, they are simply a failed news magazine that relies soley on these annual rating issues for revenue. They change criteria and have a large amount of subjective criteria that change to suit their purpose.

I'm not saying what happened with Columbia is excusable, I'm saying it just shouldn't and doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things.

If a student is so naive, so shallow as to base their selection (should they be so lucky) as to which ultra-elite college to attend based on those rankings, then they don't belong at Columbia.

CU should simply stop participating. End of story.

As others have said, the College, and the University, are recognized globally for the quality of the faculty, the quality of the research, the number of Nobel Laurates (there is some hard data!) and the overall quality of student life which has improved tremendously since the benighted decades of the 1960's and 1970's.

In lumine tuo...

Anonymous said...

Did i just read harvard med school will no longer submit data for medschool ratings? Columbia leading the way! Really nice to see people waking up to the silliness that usnwr ratings have always been

Anonymous said...

Not sure I would call it "leading the way" if Columbia withdrew after being caught cheating. They led the way like Nixon did.

Anonymous said...

Of course we should not include GS—it is an alternative college for non-traditional students and admits half its applicants while advertising for students. The real problem is that Peter Awn, the late former dean of GS was at war with the College and successive College deans; he wanted to aggrandize GS at the expense of the college and under his aegis GS grew and grew and grew, demanding more and more resources at the expense of the College.

Anonymous said...

True!

Anonymous said...

I thought several posters were referring to Painton as baby Gronk? To me, his move to tackle makes sense.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, he's Baby Gronk with bad hands