Final Statement

Will Dante Miller finish the season as the Ivy's top rusher?

Columbia Lions (6-3) at Cornell Big Red (2-7)

Kickoff: 1:00 PM

Schoelkopf Field

Game Time Weather Forecast: 42 degrees and cloudy

The Line: Columbia is favored by 8 1/2 points

TV/Radio: The game is available on ESPN+

Columbia Game Notes

Cornell Game Notes

Leading Story Lines

1) Columbia is trying to clinch a 7-3 season record that would well exceed most predictions for this season. This would be just the fifth winning season for the Lions over the last 50 years. Columbia is also looking to clinch a 4-3 record in Ivy play, which would be just the third winning conference record in that 50-year span. 

2) On the other end of the spectrum, Cornell's performance may be the deciding factor for the future of Head Coach David Archer. There are growing rumblings among football alumni that he should be let go, and a win over the Lions may earn him a stay of execution. 

3) Season finales at Cornell can sometimes involve a very quick descent into weather hell. It's often fun to watch from a cozy living room chair, (but I'll be at the game in person).

3 Columbia Players to Watch

-RB Dante Miller comes into the game with a slight league lead in total rushing yards. For some reason, the Ivies count the rushing title winner as the player with the most average yards per game, but Miller is a close second in that measure. So, it seems like Miller would be a good player to watch to see if he tries to win the Ivy rushing title outright. 

-WR Bryson Canty has had a bit of a coming out party the last two weeks. The freshman deep threat could figure prominently in the final game of the season, which is often used to showcase future talent for Ivy teams not playing for the title. 

-LB Cameron Dillon may be the player most responsible for containing running Cornell Jameson Wang. If you stop him, you usually stop the Big Red offense.

3 Cornell Players to Watch

-QB Jameson Wang (see above)

-On the other hand, passing QB Ryan Kenney -- who sometimes pulls a gem of a game out of his hat -- may be unleashed all day in hopes of testing the Lion secondary.

-LB Jake Stebbins is the best defender on what's generally been a good Cornell defense.

Week 10 Picks

 

I went 4-2 straight up last week and 2-4 against the spread, putting my season totals at 46-16 SU (.741) and 37-23-2 AGS (.616)

Yale +8 1/2 vs. Harvard

I like the Crimson to win, but the Elis to cover

Brown +25 1/2 vs. Dartmouth

I think the Big Green will win by 18-to-21 points

Princeton -15 1/2 at Penn

The Tigers will be up for this game

CCSU +4 vs. St. Francis

Blue Devils to win

Morgan State +4 1/2 vs. Georgetown

The Hoyas are reeling

Butler +16 1/2 at Marist

Marist will win, but not by 17

Ivy Power Rankings

1) Dartmouth

The Big Green defended their #1 ranking better than any other team in that spot has all season

2) Princeton

 

A very nice bounce-back win for the Tigers

3) Harvard

The Crimson found a QB and now look great again

4) Yale

The Elis played half a game at Princeton. Now they need to hope QB Nathan Grooms just had a bad day and hasn't been "figured out" 

5) Columbia

The Lions took care of business after a slow start against Brown

6) Penn

The Quakers have avoided being totally embarrassed in several games this season. That counts for something

7) Brown

The Bears almost pulled off a strong win with the help of their defense

8) Cornell

The Big Red seemed like it had at least a tough defense. But not last week

Green and Roussos Honored

QB Joe Green won his third Ivy Rookie of the Week award and WR/KR Mike Roussos was named Special Teams player of the week. 

"Clean Joe" seems like a lock for the Ivy Rookie of the Year award now, but let's see what shakes out at Cornell on Saturday.

It would be great if Roussos exercises his option to return to CU for one more season on 2022.

Weird at Wien

 There were a lot of strange things about Columbia's 23-17 win over Brown Saturday. Here are just seven of them:

-In all my years of going to Columbia football games, I've never seen a weather delay during a game at Wien Stadium. We did have a delayed start at Towson in 2008 because of some lightning in the area, but that's it.

-When the rain stopped and the Lions had tied the game, a rainbow appeared above the southern end of the stadium.

-PK Alex Felkins missed two PATs, but nailed a 42-yard FG. Yes, he technically had the wind behind him for the FG attempt, but it was hardly blowing in a straight line and a 42-yarder is never a gimmee. 

-After the one-hour weather delay, the teams agreed not to go in for a full halftime break and they just had a 5-minute time out on the sidelines. It was a merciful decision for everyone's sake, but in a game where every PSA-laden media timeout was taken without fail, it was a weird surprise. 

-Columbia's sudden surge in the 3rd quarter was much more like something we've seen from Lion opponents over the years. It wasn't quite like Brown's stunning surge in 1994 that erased a 27-10 Columbia 3rd quarter lead and led to a a 59-27 blowout loss to the Bears, but it had some of those elements. 

-After going three games without a lost fumble or an INT, (and losing two of them), Columbia committed one of each against Brown but still won the game. 

-Ryan Young's 60-yard TD catch and run along the west sideline into the south end zone was a rare example of a really astute call by the referees. They correctly noted that Young was forced out of bounds by the defender before the catch, but then re-established himself in bounds in time to make the catch and run legal. Anyone who noticed the official's hat on the ground after that TD was very likely to believe the TD would be incorrectly negated.