The "Sure" Things

 

Seitu Smith

Coming into last season, it was a decent assumption that one of Columbia's best and deepest positions was quarterback. 

After all, the Lions had two starters with career winning records as starters returning for 2023. One of them, Joe Green '24 was a former Ivy Rookie of the Year. The other, Caden Bell '24, was riding a a three-game winning streak going into the new season. 

Naturally, both Green and Bell had a lousy 2023.

Bell had just a 42% completion rate and 4.46 yards per pass attempt. 

Green's completion rate was a decent 56%, but his YPA was also a paltry 4.67.

Columbia's QB's combined for just six TD passes. 

When looking for reasons for CU's 3-7 2023. everything starts and ends with the QB position. 

New Offensive Coordinator Seitu Smith is also taking on the duties of QB coach, and one can see the pluses and minuses connected to that double duty. 

On the positive side, there should be no loss of communication or fuzzing of the bigger offensive picture for the QB's when the same guy is in charge of the playbook and the signal callers. 

On the negative side, it feels like a heavy lift for the same man to take over a brand new offense and a stable of QB's at the same time. 

While QB's seemed like the deepest position last year, WR's sure looks like the most talented and diverse group this season. 

With Bryson Canty, Marcus Libman, Titus Evans, and Edan Stagg all back the new QB starter will have some nice targets to choose from. But new WR's coach AJ Gallagher has some big shoes to fill in replacing the popular Jerry Taylor in that role. 

The overall point of this post is that preseason perceptions can often be very wrong. But they can also be correct in a vacuum. That is, the Lions may indeed have a very talented and deep WR corps but if the QB play doesn't improve it won't matter. 

 

The New Faces & Voices

Yesterday's virtual Ivy Media Day was interesting enough, especially since we saw and heard from all the new coaches in the league. It is definitely a new era not only for Columbia for so many other other Ivy football programs. 

The main questions we all have about the Lions for the coming were of course not answered in that forum, but my own sources and some now-public information have yielded some updates:

1) QB 1 at least going into camp will be sophomore Chase Goodwin, who did at least make brief appearances in five games last year. 

All I can say definitively about this is that if Goodwin got any time last year considering how far down the depth chart he was to begin 2023, he must have been impressive to both the former and now current coaching staff. 

2) There was a special ZOOM for the players with Coach Poppe last night and some of the emotional aspects of life at Columbia during this tumultuous year were at least mentioned. Please, let's not forget what the players have been subjected to during this time and how for the most part, they have risen well above the level of conduct too many of the faculty and their fellow students have exhibited.

3) Not related to the team THIS year, but interesting was yesterday's announced commitment from 6-6, 240-pound TE Cameron Kossmann from Marquette HS in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield. 

Just six days ago, he was the subject of this glowing piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Kossmann had offers from Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Navy, Army, Eastern Illinois, Northern Indiana, Kent State,Temple, Missouri State, Tenn-Martin, Western Illinois, and Ball State.

He'll be the first Marquette grad to come to Columbia Football. 

This is another recruiting coup for Head Coach Jon Poppe.

Weekend Roundup

 In addition to the Ivy preseason poll results, we had some news this week:

Dante Miller

-Dante Miller '22 got significant playing time in last night's NY Giants preseason opener vs. Detroit. Miller had 63 yards on 12 carries, a nifty catch and run on one pass reception, and the local TV announcers discussed him at length. It's still not clear if he will make the team, but his chances seem to have improved after last night.

Jared Richardson

-This news technically came out a little before this week, but Columbia will face six players who made the STATS FCS preseason All America teams this coming fall. (no Columbia players made the teams)

They are:

1st Team: Lafayette RB Jamar Curtis (Curtis rushed for 145 yards and 2 TDs vs. the Lions in Easton last year). 

2nd Team: Penn WR Jared Richardson (Richardson had 7 catches for 91 yards and no TDs vs. the Lions in NYC last year) 

2nd Team: Brown DB Isaiah Reed (Reed had 3 tackles and 2 pass breakups vs. the Lions in NYC last year)

3rd Team: Lafayette OL Ryder Langsdale (Lafayette had 243 net rushing yards vs. CU last year, but also allowed 3 sacks) 

3rd Team: Lafayette DB Seiku White (White had 2 tackles vs. CU last year) 

3rd Team: Dartmouth PK Owen Zalc (Zalc hit two 47-yard FGs vs. Columbia and was 2-2 on PATs in Hanover last year) 

The Ivy League will hold its virtual coaches news conference this Monday August 12th at 11am. I think people will be impressed by Columbia Head Coach Jon Poppe's debut. Senior LB CJ Brown and WR Bryson Canty will join him. It should be noted that neither Brown nor Canty were guys I expected to be back with the team this year. so perhaps their very presence is a major feather in Poppe's cap already. 

Here's the link to watch the news conference via YouTube. 

Lion feeder Database Updated

As some of you know, I keep a running record of every high school that has sent graduates to play football at Columbia. 

I call it the LionFeeders Database and I've just updated it with the names of the incoming freshmen and newcomers for 2024. 

The database differs from my unofficial list of committed recruits in that it only includes players who at least show up to training camp their first summers at CU. A few of the players who publicly committed to Columbia this year decided to move elsewhere, etc. 

In addition to giving our recruiters some insight on recruiting trends, the database also serves as a fascinating look at educational and cultural trends in America. Many of the schools that once had vibrant football programs have either disbanded football today or have disappeared as schools altogether.

Feel free to check it out and offer corrections or updates if you see any!  

Underestimated?

 

Columbia was picked dead last in the Ivy League's official preseason media poll, released yesterday. 

With all the upheaval in the program and last year's last place finish, it's not hard to see why the Lions got the booby prize. 

But while I don't see Columbia as a serious title contender this year, there's reason to believe the program is being underestimated. 

Here are the top reasons why:

1) Veterans

The Lions have a lot of key returning players this season, including almost the entire secondary and linebacking starters from last year, four very talented and experienced wide receivers, their best pass rusher, and a lot of other 2023 starters back. 

2) Poppe Effect

I believe in new Head Coach Jon Poppe's abilities and the stability of his staff after last year's last minute retirement of Al Bagnoli. Poppe has this team behind him and he is a hands on coach with great enthusiasm. 

3) Pressure's Off

For the first time since Columbia's breakout 2017 season, the Lions are facing little pressure to contend. That's contributing to a "fresh start" mentality on one hand, even as so much of that veteran talent remains. 

The Dark Clouds

The reasons to be pessimistic are real, but not unique to Columbia. 

One is the horrific upheaval and ugliness displayed by so many deans, administrators, faculty, and non-athlete students on campus since last October. Columbia was perhaps the worst of the Ivies in this regard, but all eight schools exemplified behavior that has to be a downer for all the varsity teams. Is this the culture and institutions these young men and women want to play for? 

Second is the fact that the Lions will have to break in a new starting QB this year. But of course, CU is not alone in that challenge this season either. The play of Northwestern transfer Cole Freeman and the development of very talented freshman Caleb Sanchez present a lot more upside to the equation compared to the generally disappointing play from the QB position last year. 

The schedule is a little tougher as well. The season opener against FCS top contender Lafayette will be rough. Top Ivy contenders Harvard and Penn are road games this year as well. 

But there's reason to believe the other seven games will be a lot more winnable.

For what it's worth, I don't think Columbia will indeed come in last in 2024.