Multiple sources telling me the team has just been informed that Head Coach Al Bagnoli is stepping down immediately due to health reasons.
Offensive Coordinator Mark Fabish will be the interim coach this season.
UPDATE: Fabish will NOT be handling both the HC and OC jobs at once; another offensive coordinator will be hired.
Athletic Director Peter Pilling sent a letter at this hour to the Columbia Athletics family, explaining that Bagnoli will stay on as a coaching advisor.
Training camp begins in roughly two weeks...
MORE TO COME
7 comments:
Yikes!
Wow. Can't wait to read Jake's analysis of everything but what a pleasure it was watching Al take over the program. Made Columbia "my" team when I moved into the neighborhood in 2004 and have seen some good ball and some not so good and then whatever you want to call the Mangurian years, which was the first time I actually would miss home games even if I was at home two blocks away. But seeing Al turn the program around has been so much fun to watch. A stat that shows his impact: Program won six or more games three times from 1948-2014. Under Al, the Lions did that four times in seven seasons.
Wishing him best of health and best of luck of course to Fabish.
Wishing Al good health in retirement and sending gratitude for the exceptional job he did with our football program. He will be missed.
Hopefully coach Bags will be okay, This is going to be hard on the team. I’m not confident Fabish can get the team to rally behind him. Wilson, father of former player class of ‘21.
Al Bagnoli is the greatest football coach I have ever seen, not so much because of his Xs AND Os but because of his vision and leadership. the way he set about resurrecting a defunct program almost instantaneously from the dark days of Mangurian and Murphy should be a case study at leading business schools. I think Mark is ready for this job. He has been mentored by Al for 30 years, he is dedicated and hard working, smart and creative (although I hate his bubble screens). He is a local boy with unparalleled access to Northern NJ high school football and with the exception of his Penn years has lived in this area his whole life. He is a JERSEY GUY with street smarts who knows that he has a chance to earn the job of a lifetime. So let’s all get behind him. Remember that Al in recent years operated basically as the CEO and the coordinators were given the flexibility to handle the product on there field.
Agree with the poster that Mark is the right guy for the Columbia job and I do expect Columbia to compete strongly for the Ivy League Title this year. In fact, I expect the Columbia Team to be very motivated to win the Ivy League Championship for Al, Mark and the entire Columbia Football coaching staff.
Mark is a tremendous recruiter who is known and well respected not only in Northern New Jersey, but all over the country. Of course, he is particularly well-known and liked in Bergen County, New Jersey and the counties.
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