Breaking: Chad Washington in Trouble

The NY Post is reporting that rising junior DL Chad Washington is accused of making racial threats against another student. Link is below:


http://m.nbcnewyork.com/nbcnewyork/pm_107633/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Z6vAYaAE

Deep Thoughts about Depth

The W.C. Matthews Trophy belongs to CU!

I’m still on a high after attending Columbia’s two game sweep of Dartmouth to win the Ivy League Baseball Championship series. It was such a great day for Columbia and the fans in every way. Winning the Ivy baseball title in 2008 was great, but we had to watch that series on the internet as the games were in Hanover, NH. This time, there was a standing room only crowd getting into every pitch all afternoon long with perfect weather to boot.

The baseball team showed all the qualities we’d like to see the football team acquire, especially coming through in the clutch.

It’s a great thing that Head Coach Pete Mangurian regularly uses Facebook and Twitter to praise the baseball team, as it shows he recognizes what it takes to succeed in Columbia sports.

I hope Columbia gets a chance to play somewhere relatively close to New York in the NCAA regionals. We won’t find out until the end of this month.

Spring Game

A better, more detailed analysis of the spring game/scrimmage/demonstration is surely coming from Mangurian’s own keyboard probably by tonight, so I will keep my impressions short and hopefully a little different from what you’re likely to see elsewhere.

I mostly liked what I saw Saturday night.

I liked the new format for the “spring game,” as it helps focus on individual units of the team.

I liked the emphasis on getting the younger players more playing time and saving the sure starters from possible injury. (That’s a tradition Mangurian started last year and it’s a sound practice. Look up "Chad Musgrove" if you don't know what I'm talking about).

I liked the way Augie Braddock, (I wrote "Augie Williams" before because I miss that dude), and Cameron Molina played, giving me hope that we have the deepest running talent Columbia has seen in about 10 years.

I liked the way Trevor McDonagh is clearly good enough to start in the Ivies. I think he may get a lot of snaps early in the season when Columbia is playing its non-conference schedule and Brett Nottingham gets more used to the system. I still think Nottingham is our starter, but McDonagh is making that decision a little tougher to make. And that’s what every football team needs to happen at every position.

My dream of seeing a NYC-HS recruit turn into a Lion star got a shot in the arm thanks to the play of rising sophomore Toba Akinleye Saturday night

I also agree with Mangurian’s assessment of the tight end play. It was improved and has suddenly become an area where Columbia seems to have good depth.

I like the way the secondary is starting to look. It’s still #3 on my list of units I’m worried about, (#1 is the O-line, #2 are the linebackers), but with Malcom Thaxton’s improved play, it’s less of a concern.

Speaking of the linebackers and O-line, there was nothing there to make me worry more… but I’m still about as concerned as I can be. Without marked improvement from the offensive line, Columbia won’t accomplish much this fall. And if the linebacker play deteriorates, the challenge to improve on last year’s 3-7 record will be steep.

Again, for a more detailed and reliable analysis of the performances on the field let’s wait for the official release from Mangurian today or tonight.  

Here’s my overview on where we are as we head into the loooong wait before training camp begins in late August:

Mangurian and the players can only focus on improving themselves. The trouble is, much of what will determine Columbia’s fate in 2013 is the schedule of opponents. Unless the Lions make significant improvements to every unit of the team, even matching last year’s 3-7 record will be difficult. That’s no fault of the players or Mangurian, it’s just the nature of the game.

There are reasons to be optimistic, mostly on offense. I can’t remember the last time Columbia had this much real talent in the passing and running games. That kind of balance can make up for a lot of problems in other parts of a team, within reason.

The other reason to be optimistic is at least the defensive line seems to be shaping up quite well despite the graduation loss of Josh Martin. There’s a deep level of talent at DE and DT, and that should help reduce any major problems at linebacker.

But it keeps coming back to depth, doesn't it?

I remember before the 2007 spring game, and how good I was feeling about the Lions after their strong 2006 finish. Then, someone from the athletic department who I've known for a long time reminded me that depth was still a problem for the team. And sure enough, 2-3 injuries during the fall of that year doomed Columbia to a 1-9 season.

Now we have a team that has actual talented depth at QB, RB, WR, TE, and on the DL. The secondary may not be too far behind. I wish the O-line looked better now even though I know it will be better by the time the season starts. That needs to happen.

For the next 137 days until the season kicks off, we’ll be a bit in the dark about what this team is capable of.  That’s the nature of the beast. So let me apologize in advance for the kinds of “grasping at straws” posts you might see here in the summer months. 

Spring Preview

Kevin Lempa


Head Coach Pete Mangurian gave an interview to the Spectator today giving some insight into where the program is now.

The highlight was the coach's assessment of QB Trevor McDonagh and how he has improved.

It's a very basic coaching rule not to hand starting jobs over to players who haven't officially joined the team yet. I have no doubt that McDonagh is making great strides, but let's see what shakes out on the field.

As for Brett Nottingham being the answer to every question, well no one says that.

In fact, the more I think about it the more I realize we have several questions on defense that neither Nottingham nor McDonagh can answer:

-How will the team respond to the loss of the super DC Kevin Lempa?

-How will the team respond to the loss of Josh Martin, Mike Waller and Ryan Murphy? Will the return of Seyi Adebayo be enough to fill those gaps?

-Who are the linebackers who will start along with the super Zach Olinger and make sure he's not overtaxed at the position?

Hopefully we'll get some answers to those questions tomorrow night.

You Gotta Be Rich to Get Rich!

Artist's rendition of the Perelman Building

My network, (CNBC), broke the news this morning that Ron Perelman was donating $100 million to Columbia Business School.

The story got me thinking about how Universities and non-profits often only really draw the big bucks after they establish a reputation as being one of the best.

Let me back up a bit here before I connect this to Columbia athletics. Columbia alums my age and older know that the B-School used to be the black sheep in the Columbia grad school family. While the law school and med school were always top 5 ranked programs, the business school was barely in the top 25 as recently as 1988. Despite the boom in Wall Street during most of the 80’s, the school seemed moribund and trapped inside the odd-looking Uris Hall directly behind Low Library.

But with the school’s continued resurgence as the 90’s began, Columbia started putting more of an effort into boosting the business program. By the end of the 90’s, it was a top 10 program.

And then, it started attracting big donors, the kind of donors who like to donate entire buildings. And there you have the biggest single reason why Columbia has chosen to expand into Manhattanville in the first place.

Yes, yes… lots of other schools and administrators needed more space. But the B-school was shooting for big donations from guys like Perelman, Henry Kravis, and Warren Buffett, (two down, one to go. Buffett has still not ponied up massive cash to his Alma Mater). Take a real good look at the blueprints for the new space uptown and it’s obvious the business school is the big dog of the expansion.

Simply put, Columbia Business School is reaping the rewards of its success. The trouble with that is, schools like this end up getting more and more donations and soon the job of expanding and building to suit all those big ticket donors can be impossible.

But that’s a problem that’s generally good to have.

Considering Columbia football’s struggles for the last half century, it’s amazing that it has roped in as many dedicated donors as it has. The uptick in those kinds of donations in recent years is even more impressive.

When you talk Columbia football donors, you’re still mostly talking about Bill Campbell and Robert Kraft. I don’t mean to leave the other somewhat lesser known names out, but that’s the deal.

But if you think the donations to CU football are impressive now, wait until we start winning, (I know, we’re waiting for 52 years already… but you get my point). I predict 2-3 winning seasons in a row or just one Ivy title will open some floodgates that could result in one or more of the following items checked off our collective wish lists:

1)  Parking garage at Baker Field

 2) Practice field on campus, (Manhattanville)

3)  Free pizza to go along with the free beer in the pregame picnic area, (okay, that may have been a little stretch).

Old Argument

For those of us who consider ourselves longtime fans, we all might think we are among the first people to have started the call for removing the Ivy football postseason ban.

Well, we’re probably wrong.

A reader just sent me an interesting NY Times article about the Yale football team voting unanimously to urge the league to end the postseason ban.

The dateline on that article? January, 1961! 

Where Do They Rank?

A lot of talk on the Columbia Football Twitter feed today is surrounding rising junior Chad Washington’s question about what color uniform fans would like the Lions to use when they are redesigned over the offseason, (my guess would be they are already redesigned, considering there are just 143 days to go before the season starts. I think the program is just waiting to make the “big reveal”).

For as long as I can remember, lots of CU fans have favored black or navy blue uniforms, but I doubt we’ll ever make a color change. I would focus on expecting a new design.

While we await the arrival of Brett Nottingham to the team, I thought it might be helpful to list my top 5 Columbia QB’s of the last 40 years with a short scouting report-style assessment to go along with each player

Hormann had a great arm

       5) M.A. Olawale ‘10

A very talented power runner and strong-armed passer. Re-ignited a Lions team that had lost 13 straight games before he came into the middle of the 2008 game against Dartmouth and almost won it on his own. Started out the 2009 season strong, but went down to injury midseason. Did come back in week 9 in the middle of the Cornell game and led a comeback win in Ithaca. Coaches let him down on several occasions, especially by not giving him any playing time in 2007, when starter Craig Hormann desperately needed the relief.

       4)  Craig Hormann ‘08

Way above average passer without much mobility. Had a stellar 2006 season to lead the Lions to a rare .500 record. Tore his ACL before the 2007 season, making him even less mobile. Had a decent senior season in ’07 with some standout games, but Columbia just didn’t have enough of a running attack to balance his game.

3) Mike Cavanaugh ‘96

Way above average runner, and decent passer who was lethal when he put those skills together in 1995. In ’94, he was half of a shuttle QB’ing system with Jamie Schwalbe ’95 that created a Lion offensive juggernaut. Went down with an injury in week 7 of ’95 and never played again.

2) Sean Brackett ‘13

Had the total package. Great running ability and strong arm. Didn’t throw too many picks, but often went into droughts with his completion percentage. His 2010 season was his best, including a 5 TD pass performance against Princeton. Got beaten up way too often by defenders.

1          1)      John Witkowski ‘84

Single-handedly made Columbia football watchable during a very lean era for the program. Had a super-quick release that kept him out of pass rush trouble. Arm strength was massive. Shattered dozens of Ivy records and still holds all the key marks in the Columbia stat book. But the Lions defense and coaching staff was so bad, he won fewer than five total games in his three seasons as a starter.  Went on to get a cup of coffee in the NFL.

Honorable Mentions: Bruce Mayhew ’91 (had an All-Ivy year in 1990), Jamie Schwalbe ’95 (was often unstoppable in that 1994 season), Jeff Otis ’05 (fantastic 2003 season)