The Hard Facts

If anyone is still deluded enough to believe the outright falsehoods in President Bollinger's statement about a so-called improvement for CU Athletics, please see below:

(thanks to Rich Forzani '66)

These results are from the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. It is a very intense ratings system.

For the past nine years, Columbia’s sports team achievement rating compared specifically to the Ivy League is as follows:

(PS…8th place is last place)

’04 –’05                6^th place

’05 –’06                8^th place

’06 –’07                5^th place

’07 –’08                8^th place

’08 –’09                8^th place

’09 –’10                8^th place

’10 –’11                8^th place

’11 –’12                7^th place

’12 –’13                6^th place

I believe this is a stunning indictment of the AD performance record. Since taking office, Columbia has come in dead last 5 out of 8 years, and has never finished in the top 50%.  She has averaged in the past nine years a 7^thplace finish out of 8.

The “achievement”, or lack of it, to be attributed to the AD office is the stunning feat of moving up 2 positions since ’10 – ’11 from last to 6^th. Hardly a legacy to be proud of after nine years.

On Wall Street, this is known as a “dead cat bounce”, since even the worst of programs occasionally beats out someone.

Scouting Brown

Day-to-Day work and updates on the Ivy football season will continue on this blog. But to make sure the emergency situation Columbia football and Columbia athletics are under remains on the forefront, the following extremely common sense demands will be posted on top of every new post on this blog until changes are made:

FIRST: If you are a former player, please consider signing the letter in the post below: (click here to see it), which has now morphed into a living petition. 

Here's what we need to do as well: 

 1)    Replace Dianne Murphy as Athletic Director right away

2)      Replace Pete Mangurian as Head Football Coach the moment the season ends

3)      Bring in an outside consulting/expert group to make the replacement hires and evaluate the positions and effectiveness of everyone in the athletic department.

4)      Do NOT allow anyone who has had a leadership position or position of influence in any past hiring process to participate or interfere in any way with the overhaul process.

Please call President Bollinger at 212-854-1754 as soon as possible and asked to be connected to his office. Please respectfully ask that Murphy and Mangurian be let go as soon as possible.

You can also email: officeofthepresident@columbia.edu

MY EMAIL FOR ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS AND CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE IS:

roarlions2012@gmail.com

Scouting Brown

Overview

Longtime readers here know I always have the utmost respect for Brown and especially Head Coach Phil Estes.

But this year, he’s let something slip and it shows.

The trademark Bear offense seems to be doing just fine, as underrated QB Patrick Donnelly is quietly having another great year passing, and RB John Spooney is on the verge of a 1,000 yard season.

But the defense hasn’t had what it took when it faced the competent offenses in this league all year.

That leaves Brown with only the chance for a winning overall season to fight for Saturday.

Offense

How good is Donnelly this year? He’s completing 66% of his passes, has a 15-5 TD/INT ratio, and almost gets 7 yards per attempt. The only question is why he hasn’t thrown more, but that may have something to do with time of possession and other issues out of his capable arms.

Spooney has really come on strong the last few weeks with 166 yards in his last contest against Dartmouth. He’s literally a track star and as a senior this could be his final chance to shine, (his possible 5^th year status is not certain). Spooney comes into the game with 984 yards rushing, so he could break the 1,000 yard mark on the first play from scrimmage. He’s already broken off three 90+-yard runs this year. And watch out for him as an occasional receiver out of the backfield.

The receivers are led by 5^th year senior Tellef Lundevall, who has been hooking up with Donnelly since they were in high school together, and fellow senior Jordan Evans.  Lundevall has a few more catches and yards, but Evans has more TD catches.  Tight End Andrew Marks, also a senior, is a good weapon with 20 receptions, including one for 50 yards.

The Bear O-line is a gold standard of pass protection with just six sacks allowed all year. They’re not the best in the trenches for the short yards, but not the worst either.

But it is a bit stunning to see not one Brown WR even near 10 TD catches for the season. Even Spooney has run for a decent, but not good enough 9 TD’s so far. In general, Brown is just short on scores this year relative to their recent history. That’s been an issue this year.

Defense

In general this is still a solid unit. But it looks like it’s lost something as each game wore on. Conditioning could be the cause, and that’s something the Bear coaches will look at I’m sure.

Up front, the Senior DE Michael Yules is still a star, but he hasn’t had as spectacular a season as many predicted. The other DE, senior John Bumpus is having a great season and the two of them together present a very tough assignment for opposing blockers.

Like just about every other Ivy team, Brown is short on impact defensive tackles in the middle. But sophomore Ludovic Richardson is showing a lot of promise.

The linebacking crew is very strong with the combo of junior Daniel Giovacchini and seniors Adewole Oyalowo and Zack Lattrell leading the way. Giovacchini leads the team in tackles.

The secondary leader is Emory Polley, another senior. He has five interceptions and 36 tackles. Junior Ed Armagost is a tough one too with 50 tackles and two picks.

Special Teams

PK Alex Norocea may be the best in the league. He’s 11-13 on FG’s this season with no chip shot misses. He’s also 32-32 on PAT’s.

Sophomore punter Grant Senne hasn’t been remarkable, but he’s not terrible.

Freshman Alexander Jette has been handling all the kick and punt returns with no spectacular results just yet. He’s just solid.

Brown’s kick coverage teams have been spectacular. 

Letter/Petition UPDATE

UPDATE: Former player and former TRUSTEE Ed Botwinick, 1991 Team Captain Brad Hutton and 2003-04 Captain Rashad Biggers have joined the petition!!

I decided to delay publishing the new letter calling for Head Coach Pete Magurian's ouster from former Columbia football players because the Columbia Spectator wanted to publish it first.

You can see it by clicking the link in the above sentence, or you can read it below.

Note that Columbia Athletics Hall of Famer Rory Wilfork '97 has joined the cause.

The national celebrity I referred to earlier has decided he wants to address this issue with his own letter and in other ways, so we will await that. I apologize for jumping the gun on that, but I respect this person's right to change his mind and wait a few more days.

Finally, this letter is actually a petition. If you are a former CU football player or student athlete who agrees with the sentiments of the signatories, I am told you can add your name to this letter at any time. To do that, you can email me at roarlions2012@gmail.com or Rich Forzani at rforzani1@optonline.net.

Dear President Bollinger and Chairman Campbell:

As alumni of Columbia and the Columbia football program, we feel compelled to speak out about the current state of the program and the disastrous job performance of its current head coach.

In fewer than two years, Pete Mangurian has done what many thought impossible. He’s taken a program with a very sad recent history and made it clearly worse. The scores and statistics tell a woeful story. This team is performing worse than even the squads at the height of the infamous 44-game losing streak of 1983-88. We will almost surely go 0-10 this season for the first time since 1987.

That alone would be unacceptable, but we can also see that much of this futility is not an accident. Coach Mangurian has deliberately enacted policies that are not only making it impossible for us to win but are also putting the players in physical danger.

We refer to the deliberate practice of forcing the team’s linemen to slim down to weights sometimes 50 to 60 pounds lighter than the Ivy League norm. We also refer to the deliberate benching of experienced upperclassmen, some of them All-Ivy awardees, in favor of first-year players who have not been given a chance to develop their skills and boost their strength. As much as we hate to see the team continue to lose, we hate even more to see our current players put in a totally unnecessarily dangerous situation.

We know of no other solution to this problem but to replace Coach Mangurian as soon as the season ends. It pains us to publicly embarrass the program in this way, but it’s essential that the athletics department cut its losses and move on. Many of us were dismayed two years ago when we saw the hiring process for Mangurian not being carried out in the open way we were all promised. We know of several candidates willing to coach at Columbia who were not even interviewed. Some of those candidates include excellent former Columbia players and assistant coaches. In short, we believe the hiring of Coach Mangurian was not conducted properly, and thus the current poor results should not be a surprise to anyone.

To that end, we also strongly request that an outside group be brought in to assess the entire athletics department and conduct the hiring process for a new head football coach. We believe too many of the same people in and outside the department have failed in the past in this endeavor, and it’s time to look elsewhere for this crucial decision.

We remain ever loyal to Alma Mater, and that is the main reason we have decided to make this plea in this way. The signatories below include three Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame members and several substantial donors to the University. We all know that football and athletics in general can be more successful at Columbia provided our teams and athletes get the proper leadership. We are ready and willing to do whatever we can to help you make that happen.

Sincerely,

Jim Armstrong '99; Patrick Armstrong '94; Chad Andrzejewski , CC ’94, three-time letterwinner; Rod Azar, ’93; Billy Basso, ’93; Richard Beggs '66; Rashad Biggers '05, 2003-04 team captain; Matt Bloodgood '00, Chandler Bockledge '00; Ed Botwinick '56, Trustee Emeritus; Greg Bowman '00; Rob Carey, CC ’92; Joe Calcagno, CC ’93; Thomas Chorba, ’66; Jim Daine, CC ’94; Jay DePurtuis '98; Gary Edmonds, ’95; Tommy Enright '03; Darren Finestone '91; Rich Forzani, ’66; Ray Gerena '98; Michale Hefferon '94; Brett Hixon, ’03; Brad Hutton '92, 1991 team captain, Jennifer Jackson Strange, manager 1988-90; John Jennings, ’94, three-time letterwinner; Michael Kamen '66; Quinn Kayser-Cochran, CC ’91; Bob Kent, CC ’92, letterwinner; Chris Konovalchik '90; Neal Kravitz '00; Justin Logan '02; Alberto Marconi, ’93; Chad Moore, ’93; Dean Mothard; Paul Myott '90; Lawrence Nelson; Kiernan O’Connor, CC ’92; Jason Overdorf '93; Daniel Palmer '07; Pete Passaro '92; Matt Porter '01; Matt Radley '00; David Ramirez, CC ’96; Christopher Reed '90; Dominic Riebli '98; Claude Roxborough '00, Dennis Ryan ' 86; Tom Samuelson, ’84; Mitch Sisskind '68; Scott Spivey '93; Matt Streem '93; Kyle Stupi '12; Matt Swyers, ’93; Jason Tarbart, ’93; Matt Thompson, ’93; John Vomvolakis '91; Bob Walcott, SEAS ’92; Desmond Werthman, CC ’93, Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame; Rory Wilfork, CC ’97, Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame; Stephen Wolfson 

Ivy Power Rankings

Day-to-Day work and updates on the Ivy football season will continue on this blog. But to make sure the emergency situation Columbia football and Columbia athletics are under remains on the forefront, the following extremely common sense demands will be posted on top of every new post on this blog until changes are made:

FIRST: If you are a former player, please consider signing the letter in the post below: (click here to see it), which has now morphed into a living petition. 

Here's what we need to do as well: 

 1)    Replace Dianne Murphy as Athletic Director right away

2)      Replace Pete Mangurian as Head Football Coach the moment the season ends

3)      Bring in an outside consulting/expert group to make the replacement hires and evaluate the positions and effectiveness of everyone in the athletic department.

4)      Do NOT allow anyone who has had a leadership position or position of influence in any past hiring process to participate or interfere in any way with the overhaul process.

Please call President Bollinger at 212-854-1754 as soon as possible and asked to be connected to his office. Please respectfully ask that Murphy and Mangurian be let go as soon as possible.

You can also email: officeofthepresident@columbia.edu

MY EMAIL FOR ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS AND CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE IS:

roarlions2012.gmail.com

Let's get back to football a bit today if we can. I'll have posts today with Ivy Power Rankings, scouting reports on Brown, and my picks for the final week of the season.

Ivy Power Rankings 11/21

1. Princeton

2. Harvard

3. Dartmouth

4. Penn

5. Brown

6. Yale

7. Cornell 

8. Columbia

I put Dartmouth ahead of Penn because I thought the Big Green's win in Providence last week trumps the early season endless OT loss at Franklin Field. 

And I still put Penn ahead of Brown because despite the Quaker loss by shutout at Brown Stadium earlier this year, Penn is a much better team with Billy Ragone on the lineup, (he was out at Brown), and the comeback at Harvard was impressive.

New Letter/Petition

I decided to delay publishing the new letter calling for Head Coach Pete Magurian's ouster from former Columbia football players because the Columbia Spectator wanted to publish it first.

You can see it by clicking the link in the above sentence, or you can read it below.

Note that Columbia Athletics Hall of Famer Rory Wilfork '97 has joined the cause.

The national celebrity I referred to earlier has decided he wants to address this issue with his own letter and in other ways, so we will await that. I apologize for jumping the gun on that, but I respect this person's right to change his mind and wait a few more days.

Finally, this letter is actually a petition. If you are a former CU football player or student athlete who agrees with the sentiments of the signatories, I am told you can add your name to this letter at any time. To do that, you can email me at roarlions2012@gmail.com or Rich Forzani at rforzani1@optonline.net.

Dear President Bollinger and Chairman Campbell:

As alumni of Columbia and the Columbia football program, we feel compelled to speak out about the current state of the program and the disastrous job performance of its current head coach.

In fewer than two years, Pete Mangurian has done what many thought impossible. He’s taken a program with a very sad recent history and made it clearly worse. The scores and statistics tell a woeful story. This team is performing worse than even the squads at the height of the infamous 44-game losing streak of 1983-88. We will almost surely go 0-10 this season for the first time since 1987.

That alone would be unacceptable, but we can also see that much of this futility is not an accident. Coach Mangurian has deliberately enacted policies that are not only making it impossible for us to win but are also putting the players in physical danger.

We refer to the deliberate practice of forcing the team’s linemen to slim down to weights sometimes 50 to 60 pounds lighter than the Ivy League norm. We also refer to the deliberate benching of experienced upperclassmen, some of them All-Ivy awardees, in favor of first-year players who have not been given a chance to develop their skills and boost their strength. As much as we hate to see the team continue to lose, we hate even more to see our current players put in a totally unnecessarily dangerous situation.

We know of no other solution to this problem but to replace Coach Mangurian as soon as the season ends. It pains us to publicly embarrass the program in this way, but it’s essential that the athletics department cut its losses and move on. Many of us were dismayed two years ago when we saw the hiring process for Mangurian not being carried out in the open way we were all promised. We know of several candidates willing to coach at Columbia who were not even interviewed. Some of those candidates include excellent former Columbia players and assistant coaches. In short, we believe the hiring of Coach Mangurian was not conducted properly, and thus the current poor results should not be a surprise to anyone.

To that end, we also strongly request that an outside group be brought in to assess the entire athletics department and conduct the hiring process for a new head football coach. We believe too many of the same people in and outside the department have failed in the past in this endeavor, and it’s time to look elsewhere for this crucial decision.

We remain ever loyal to Alma Mater, and that is the main reason we have decided to make this plea in this way. The signatories below include three Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame members and several substantial donors to the University. We all know that football and athletics in general can be more successful at Columbia provided our teams and athletes get the proper leadership. We are ready and willing to do whatever we can to help you make that happen.

Sincerely,

Jim Armstrong '99; Patrick Armstrong '94; Chad Andrzejewski , CC ’94, three-time letterwinner; Rod Azar, ’93; Billy Basso, ’93; Greg Bowman '00; Rob Carey, CC ’92; Joe Calcagno, CC ’93; Thomas Chorba, ’66; Jim Daine, CC ’94; Gary Edmonds, ’95; Rich Forzani, ’66; Michale Hefferon '94; Brett Hixon, ’03; Brad Hutton '92, 1991 team captain, Jennifer Jackson Strange, manager 1988-90; John Jennings, ’94, three-time letterwinner; Quinn Kayser-Cochran, CC ’91; Bob Kent, CC ’92, letterwinner; Chris Konovalchik '90; Neal Kravitz '00; Alberto Marconi, ’93; Chad Moore, ’93; Dean Mothard; Paul Myott '90; Lawrence Nelson; Kiernan O’Connor, CC ’92; Matt Orlowski '99; Jason Overdorf '93; Daniel Palmer '07; David Ramirez, CC ’96; Christopher Reed ' 90; Dennis Ryan ' 86; Tom Samuelson, ’84; Scott Spivey '93; Matt Streem '93; Matt Swyers, ’93; Jason Tarbart, ’93; Matt Thompson, ’93; John Vomvolakis '91; Bob Walcott, SEAS ’92; Desmond Werthman, CC ’93, Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame; Rory Wilfork, CC ’97, Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame; Stephen Wolfson