Columbia Two-Deep Released

We should rename our two-deeps release "To Tell the Truth" 

For what it’s worth, (and I think we’ve established it’s not worth all that much), the starting lineup for the Lions game against Penn this Saturday have now been released.

Once again Kelly Hilinski is listed as the starter, but we wait to see if there will be any last minute change to that as there was last week.

WR Connor Nelligan is not listed anywhere, and I have to think the hard shot he took late in the game last week may have him out for this game. That would be a big blow to an already weak Columbia passing attack. Freshman WR Cameron Dunn appears to be getting the start in Nelligan’s place. Fellow frosh WR Toure Douglas cracks the two deep as Dunn’s backup. Sophs Chris Connors and Isaiah Gross are still MIA despite rumors that at least Connors would reappear in time for this game.

Otherwise, the listed lineups show no change from the last few weeks.

One Stop Redemption

We all know who this is

If there’s one team and its fans that should pay the least attention to Columbia over the last 30 years, it should be Penn.

That’s because the past 30 years have been an incredible period of consistent Quaker success in Ivy League football while the Lions have posted just two winning seasons in that same time.

But for some reason, Penn fans, players, and even coaches seem to have a single-minded obsession with putting Columbia down. It’s one thing to be a sore loser, it’s quite another to be a sore winner.

I’m not a shrink, so I can’t really offer any expertise on why this is so. But I’ve never heard any longtime Penn fan deny this. And far too many Columbia fans are unable to ignore it.

One thing I’ve said for years to my fellow CU fans who complain about all the ribbing and vitriol coming from Quaker-land is this: until the Lions beat them, we have to take it.

It’s been 17 years now since Columbia last beat Penn. A lot of the games have been close, especially the last two, but close doesn’t count.

And that leads me to the point I want to make about this week’s Homecoming game.

The game this Saturday is one of those rare games that could erase all the bad feelings and disappointments of the entire season in one afternoon. Yes, the bad blood and hurt feelings are so prominent that a win over the Quakers would mean that much to the fan base.

Would this be true if Columbia were contending for a title or even a winning season? Actually, it would be pretty close. That’s how much this program wants and needs to beat Penn. The fact that it’s Homecoming only doubles the stakes as the Lions haven’t won a Homecoming game since 2000, and four of the last five losses have been agonizingly close games.

Penn will be favored by at least two scores. Penn is the defending Ivy champion. Penn rallied to erase a 10-point 4^th quarter Columbia lead to beat the Lions 24-20 at Franklin Field last year. Penn escaped from Wien Stadium with a 27-20 win in 2011 after an epic collapse by the Lions inside the Quaker 10 yard line late in the game and an inexplicable pass interference call on the ensuing Penn drive. Pre-1982, Penn and Columbia had won the same number of Ivy titles. Since 1982, Penn has won 15, and Columbia has none and Columbia is only Ivy team not to have won at least a share of the Ivy title since then.

You can’t have a more obvious game pitting the haves versus the have nots. And while the Lions surely won’t be awarded a winning season or an Ivy title on the basis of one win alone, this is really the greatest prize Columbia can grab this year.

Will it happen? Penn seems weaker than usual this year, but the Quakers have been deceptively slow starters in recent years and they don’t care about winning the Ivy title “ugly” if need be. Columbia, with its hopeless passing attack, may not even be as up to this game as it was when it took on Penn in 2011 or 2012. But stranger things have happened.

The point is, this is our Super Bowl.

I’m not a head coach or an athletic department shill, so I get to say that truth out loud.  

And so do you

Around the League

Teevens lives to fight another day 

This past Saturday was the opposite of the “separation Saturdays” you here TV analysts talk about in college football.

That’s because two of the mightiest-looking Ivy teams, Penn and Yale, lost. Harvard did not exactly dominate Cornell. Columbia looked like it had a pulse vs. a powerful Lehigh team. Brown looked very good, but against a so-so opponent in Bryant. Ditto for Princeton against Lafayette.

It’s certainly not clear if this trend will continue, but it looks like we’ll see a more of a competitive Ivy season going forward.

My top game of the week was Dartmouth’s 20-13 win over Yale at Memorial Field. Buddy Teevens really needed that win, and so did the entire program. What I was most impressed with was the way the Dartmouth defense played, especially against Tyler Varga who was held under 70 yards rushing. As long as Dalyn Williams is healthy, the Big Green have a chance to win games.

Harvard’s 34-24 win over Cornell definitely leaves me wondering about how good this Crimson team really is. Backup QB Michael Pruneau definitely played well, but Head Coach Tim Murphy clearly doesn’t want to rely too much on his running game. RB Paul Stanton did a fine job, but was only given the ball 16 times. Cornell’s QB Jeff Mathews had another super game and the Big Red aren’t even pretending to run the ball anymore.  But with Cornell obviously throwing on every down, why couldn’t the Crimson do a better job of stopping them? But until they lose, Harvard is still my pick to win the title.

Princeton’s offense still looks killer, but the defense is really off its game. Clearly, the Tigers got lucky when they faced a still unprepared Columbia offense last week because Lafayette racked up a lot of yards in the 42-26 PU win. Princeton goes to Brown this coming Saturday night and the Bears could hang some serious damage on the scoreboard.

Speaking of Brown, QB Patrick Donnelly had another stellar day with four TD passes and 339 yards in the air in the 41-14 win over in-state opponent Bryant. It’s starting to look like RB John Spooney is really just there to mix things up a bit and the Bears are still very much a “pass first” team.

I won’t read too much into Penn’s 27-14 loss to William & Mary. I said last week that the Quakers have a pretty good way of not putting too much into these out of conference games. Plus, it was a rainy day in Williamsburg. But I still have questions about the Penn run defense, which gave well over 200 yards rushing. It does seem like the Quakers have found the post-Lyle Marsh answer in their own running game with Spencer Kulcsar, but  he doesn’t have Marsh’s nose for the end zone or his ability to really burn defenses as a receiver coming out of the backfield.  Penn’s pass rush is getting better though.

IVY POWER RANKINGS

1.       Harvard

2.       Princeton

3.       Brown

4.       Penn

5.       Dartmouth

6.       Yale

7.       Cornell

8.       Columbia

Signs of Life

The wind came from the north...



Lehigh 24 Columbia 10


Why Lehigh Won

The Mountain Hawks churned out 440 yards of offense and mostly passed the ball at will while holding the Columbia passing game in check. Lehigh QB Brian Bialkowski didn't have his best game, but he was brutally efficient at times and still completed 66% of his passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns. The Mountain Hawks were also able to control the clock when it really counted.


Why Columbia Lost

The Lions offense was still unable to get the job done, despite a 150 yard rushing performance from Marcorus Garrett and better pass protection. The passing attack was still almost non-existent, going nine of 21 for just 71 yards. One crucial turnover and a bonehead play call also sealed Columbia's fate.

Key Turning Points

-The Lions opened the game with an impressive drive into the stiff wind with 10 plays that set them up with a 1st and goal at the Mountain Hawk five. But Columbia could move no further and they had to settle for a Luke Eddy 23 yard FG instead of a badly needed TD.

-After Lehigh took a 10-3 lead Max Keefe muffed the ensuing kickoff, giving the Mountain Hawks the ball at the CU 31. Six plays later it was 17-3.

-After the Lions narrowed the Lehigh lead to 17-10 late in the 3rd quarter, the Columbia defense forced a three-and-out and seemed to be riding steep momentum. But the Mountain Hawk punt nailed the Lions at their one yard line. On the first two plays of the possession,Columbia played it safe with short QB runs by Kelly Hilinski. That left the Lions with a 3rd and eight at their thre with time rapidly running out in the quarter. All CU needed to do was run it one more time to run out the 3rd quarter clock and get the very strong wind at their backs for a likely punt. But the Lions elected to pass and Hilinski's toss fell incomplete. Columbia's Paul Delaney was forced to boot into the brutal wind and the kick went just 26 yards. Lehigh responded with an eight play TD drive and the game was then basically out of reach.

Columbia Positives

-Garrett finally got the ball more than 20 times and parlayed his 27 carries for 150 yards and a TD. He broke open for several runs, but also had a fantastic game pushing the piles for extra yards on runs up the middle.

-The offensive line did a decent job with pass protection, although it did allow two sacks near the end of the game that killed the Lion hopes. Overall though, only three sacks were allowed and the CU QB's weren't harassed all day.

-Columbia's defense held the Mountain Hawks to their worst performance of the season. While Lehigh still looked generally good with the 440 offensive yards, but the Lions still grabbed their first two INT's of the season and gave the offense a great chance to win the game.

-Columbia only committed four penalties.


Columbia Negatives

-QB's Trevor McDonagh and Hilinski both showed flashes, but neither were consistent enough to get the passing game going.

-The CU defense's one weakness was pass coverage in the middle of the field. Lehigh WR's seemed wide open all day on short routes.

-The decision to pass on that 3rd down play at their own three was a classic case of a coach throwing away points and killing momentum. You could feel the air going out of the home side of the field after that play.

Columbia MVP

Marcorus Garrett now has 421 yards rushing on the season and is back on track to register only the second 1,000 yard rushing season in Columbia history. Garrett is also now the 3rd all time leading career rusher in Lion history.

On Display

Relax men, McCroskey is in charge


Lehigh Mountain Hawks vs. Columbia Lions


NBC Sports Network Ivy League Game of the Week


Location: Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium 

Kickoff Time: 12:00pm

Gametime Weather Forecast: 65 degrees and partly cloudy

The Spread: Lehigh by 28

Columbia Game Notes

Lehigh Game Notes

How to Get to the Game

Here is my complete guide to getting to, enjoying, and even eating at a Columbia home football game. 

(Note that the new free bus shuttle from the Upper East Side will be leaving earlier tomorrow: 10:30am)

TV/RADIO

Broadcast live nationwide on the NBC Sports Network

The Columbia student station broadcast is on WKCR at 89.9 on your FM dial

Lead Stories

In the immortal words of the now-furloughed air traffic controller Steve McCroskey, "looks like we picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue." 

Lehigh is a damn good team, one that's already beaten powers like New Hampshire and they also beat Princeton at Princeton. 

And now their head coach is pushing them to "play angry" after last week's loss at Fordham. 

Yikes.

On the Columbia side, the bad news just keeps pouring in. Now, Wells Childress joins Seyi Adebayo and Brett Nottingham on the list of players who are out for the rest of the season. 

It looked like Head Coach Pete Mangurian was going to try to mix things up on offense this week by listing freshman QB Kelly Hilinski as the starter on the two-deep... but now he's walking that back and saying sophomore Trevor McDonagh will at least be the guy under center for the first few series. 

So far, nothing has worked to get the Lion offense going. The good news is that this Lehigh defense may be the worst unit CU has faced all season. The bad news is that it's still very good.

Finally, the elephant in the stadium tomorrow will be the intense fan dissatisfaction with a team that seems to be entirely without any direction right now.   

Columbia Keys to the Game 

1) Test the Lehigh Defense 

Maybe all this back-and-forth about the QB decision is a way to hide the fact that Pete and co. plan to run the ball 40+ times and test that sketchy Mountain Hawk run defense... nah! Who am I kidding? We'll be primarily passing down field again I'm sure. Too bad, because running and throwing more screens against these guys might actually work.


2) Get Rough with their Receivers

 Time to start jamming more receivers, make that any receivers, on the line of scrimmage. Lehigh throws the ball a lot in the middle of the field and it would be a shame if they were wide open and untouched on every play.



3) Do Something Tricky

Even though it didn't work, I liked the option pass the Lions tried at the end of the first half against Monmouth. This week would be a fun time to try a trick run or two like an end-around or a reverse. Something to show signs of life would be good.