Easton Assassinated

Lafayette 24 Columbia 3

Why Lafayette Won

The Leopards defense dominated the line of scrimmage all day, harassing Columbia QB Caden Bell at will. Meanwhile on offense, Lafayette's star RB ran for 145 yards with two TD's on 20 carries. 

Why Columbia Lost

The Lions played just like you'd expect a team with four new starting o-linemen to play when it comes to pass protection. The defense had its moments, but was beaten on key plays in each half. 

Key Turning Points

-With the Lions ahead 3-0, the Leopards faced a 4th and 3 at the Columbia 36 on the first play of the 2nd quarter. Lafayette got the 1st down with a seven yard pass to Curtis and then used four running plays and one more pass to gain the remaining 29 yards for the go-ahead TD.

-With the score still 7-3 and about 7:30 left in the half, Columbia elected to go for it on a 4th ans 8 at the Lafayette 34. The Lions ended up turning the ball over on downs when Bell was harassed into intentionally grounding the ball. Six Leopards plays later, it was 14-3. 

-With about six minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the score still 14-3, Lafayette faced a 3rd and 10 at their own 20. The Leopards converted the 1st down with a Denobile pass to WR Chris Carisia for 30 yards. Five plays later, it was 21-3 and the game was essentially over. 

Columbia Positives

-The Lion special teams was decent, with fresham Hugo Merry hitting his first and only FG attempt of 42 yards and a few decent kick returns. 

-RB Joey Giorgi fought through the aggressive Lafayette defensive line for 73 yards on 18 carries. 

Columbia Negatives

-The offensive line couldn't protect Bell and he didn't respond well to the onslaught. The word will now be out to blitz vs. Columbia early and often. 

-The team that gave up the fewest rushing yards in the Ivies last year was torched for 243 yards on the ground against the Leopards. 

-The defense allowed Lafayette to go 9-17 on 3rd downs and 3-3 on 4th downs.

Columbia MVP

-It almost seems silly to award an MVP award after such a rough outing, but I give it to Joey Giorgi for his tough running all day. 

Shakedown Cruise or Smooth Sailing?

Fisher Stadium

Columbia Lions (0-0) at Lafayette Leopards (1-1)

September 16, 2023

Kickoff Time: 12:30pm ET 

Fisher Stadium

Game Time Weather Forecast: 75 degrees and sunny

The Line: Columbia is favored by 4 points

TV/RADIO: The game is available on ESPN+ and their is also audio available on the Columbia Athletics website

Columbia Game Notes

Lafayette Game Notes 

Leading Story Lines

1) Columbia begins the post-Al Bagnoli era under the guidance of longtime assistant coach and now Interim Head Coach Mark Fabish. While he's working in a system he's obviously comfortable with and helped build, there is no substitute for head coaching experience and Fabish is about to get his first bit of it. 

2) 5th year senior QB Caden Bell must prove he earned the starting job after a competition with 2021 Ivy Rookie of the Year Joe Green. Bell commands an offense with multiple returning All Ivy skill players, but a revamped offensive line. 

3) Lafayette looked good for much of its mismatch against top 25 ranked Duke last weekend, and now must live up to that performance against a much more evenly matched opponent. This is Lafayette's home opener, which adds to the team's excitement. 

3 Columbia Players to Watch

-Caden Bell won't just naturally be in the spotlight because he is the starting QB, but so will his style of play under center. Will he use more of his running ability than he was allowed to do last year? Will he test the Lafayette secondary with long bombs early? etc. 

-Senior WR Bryson Canty looks to prove he is the top receiver in the Ivies this season, and would most likely be the target of any early deep balls from Bell. Canty will also be tasked with drawing defenders away from Columbia's other talented receivers. 

-Senior MLB Anthony Roussos has the tough job of having to replace now-graduated unanimous 1st Team All Ivy LB Scott Valentas '23. Roussos will face a strong Leopard running attack and a rejuvenated offensive line. 

3 Lafayette Players to Watch

-Sophomore Jamar Curtis is having a monsters season so far, with 221 yards on 29 carries for a ridiculous 7.6 yards per carry average and one TD. 

-Sophomore QB Dean DeNobile appears to have won the starting job after starting the Duke game because of an injury to season opener starter Ryan Schuster. The jury is still out on DeNobile as a passer, but he looked good as a runner vs. Duke and netted 56 yards on eight carries.  

-Junior DB Saiku White is touted as one of the best defenders in the Patriot League and he is the Leopards leading tackler. But he will be tasked with leading the secondary against Columbia's best-ever receiving corps.

History

Columbia and Lafayette used to play almost every year in the 70s and 80s, but the two programs haven't faced off in football since 2010. 

As I documented on the original Roar Lions Blog, Columbia won that game 42-28 thanks to super performances from QB Sean Brackett '13 and LB Alex Gross '11. Gross' big game coincidentally came on the same day that he was featured in an article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. 

Columbia has never won at Lafayette, but did eke out a tie in 1995 and the last meeting in Easton was a 24-21 Leopard victory aided greatly by a flurry of questionable penalty calls and non-calls. I titled my report on that game: "Pennsylvania Penal Colony."

This game will begin a series of games vs. Lafayette over the next few years. I suspect that the Columbia coaches and administrators will be watching how these games go to decided if scheduling out of conference games against old Patriot League rivals should take priority in the future, or if focusing more on more local opponents like Marist, Wagner, and perhaps newer programs like Long Island University (LIU) makes more sense. 

Week 1 Picks

 

(While this is week 1 for the Ivy teams, I have been picking the games played by Columbia's out of conference opponents. My record so far this year is 2-2 straight up and 2-2 against the spread)

Holy Cross +2 1/2 at Yale

I think Yale is very, very good. But I think Holy Cross is better and will win this game. 

Cornell -3 at Lehigh

The Big Red often play their best game in week 1. I think Cornell wins here.

St. Thomas + 17 1/2 at Harvard

The Crimson will win, but not quite cover this spread. 

Colgate +9 1/2 vs. Penn

I think Penn will win this game, but the Quakers usually start seasons a bit slow and that means they will have trouble covering the spread. 

Princeton -24 at San Diego

The Tigers usually start very strong, and San Diego is a very weak team. 

Brown +6 at Bryant

I like the underdog Bears to actually win this game.

New Hampshire -6 1/2 vs. Dartmouth

UNH is a powerhouse, but I think they will just barely cover this spread. 

Stonehill +9 1/2 at Georgetown

The Hoyas will win, but their recent streak of dominating opponents will end here. 

Davidson -9 at Marist

I've lost any notions that Marist has improved over last year. 

BREAKING: Caden Bell Gets the Start at QB

Bell is QB 1

Count me clueless as to why Columbia would send out this week's game notes and two-deeps to Lafayette before posting it on the CU site for its own fans... but thanks to Lafayette for making them available here.  

Okay, let's get to the answers to our top questions regarding the lineup:

Caden Bell is listed as the starting QB. 

On the offensive line, the surprise starter at center is Mark Chapman, with last year's starter Andrew Pruske not listed on the two-deep at all. I'm guessing this is because of an injury, or the info is not accurate (as we sometimes see with two-deeps). 

The other starters are Luke Painton as expected at LT, Zach Mills as expected at RG, sophomore Noah Jordan at RT, and junior John Iannuzzi at LG. Freshman Ahmari Owens notably makes the two-deep backing up Jordan at RT. 

Senior Dominic Busby gets the start at TE. 

The starting WR's offer no surprises with Bryson Canty, Marcus Libman, and J.J. Jenkins getting the nods. The real drama was the battle for the WR backup slots, and they went to sophomores Edan Stagg and Jordan Kelly, and senior Wills Meyer. 

The deep and talented D-line starting slots go to Justin Townsend, Patrick Passalacqua, Ben Corniello, and Quentin Autry. Sophomore Joshua Powell and Owen Thomas cracked the two-deep as backups. Fans of the still-big-but-slimmed-down John Martin will be happy to see the junior on the two-deep at DL as well. 

C.J. Brown and Anthony Roussos made the starting lineup as expected at linebacker, but Rocco Milia is a bit of a surprise as third starting LB. Freshman Charlie Newton is the only frosh on the defensive two-deep backing up Milia.

The starting secondary sports go pretty much as expected to seniors Seth Parker and Carter MccFadden, junior Aaron Brebnor, and junior Hayden McDonald. 

Freshman Hugo Merry gets the start at placekicker and senior William Hughes stays on as the starting punter after turning around CU's punting game late last season. McFadden is listed as the starting kickoff and punt returner. 

As always. I advise everyone to take the info from all two-deeps from all schools with a big grain of salt. They are often intentionally inaccurate. But lately, I have noticed less chicanery going on with Columbia's two-deeps compared to years ago. 

Just for the Record

There are some mistakes to correct in the game notes, (hopefully some of these will be fixed when they are posted on the CU website), but two I wanted to clear up here:

-The correct spelling for our sophomore wide receiver wearing #13 is EDAN Stagg

-Columbia last played at Fisher Stadium in 2009, not 2007. That was a 24-21 loss to the Leopards marked by some very tough penalty calls against the Lions and the season-ending injury for star linebacker Alex Gross '11. 

-Also I think Lafayette made more than three total trips to the red zone in 2002. :)

 

View from Easton

Lafayette's athletics communications team has put out a 10-minute preview video for the Leopards home opener against the Lions on Saturday.  I have to agree with the hosts' take on the questionable calls at Duke that went against Lafayette in the 1st half that definitely took away a lot of the team's momentum.

The commentators do misname Columbia's new interim head coach as "Mike" Fabish, and it seems like they've mixed up Joe Green and Caden Bell, but there's more value in their summary of some of the top Leopard players.

Oh, and they also remind us that Columbia has never defeated Lafayette in Easton.

For the (correct) record, the Leopards used to be an annual foe for the Lions for decades, but Columbia hasn't played Lafayette since a 42-28 Lions win in 2010 that I documented on my old Columbia blog.

There is also a two-minute video on this page of Lafayette Head Coach John Troxell talking about Columbia. 

Lafayette Game Notes

The Leopards have also released their game notes, complete with two-deeps.

That two-deep answers the question about who will be starting at QB: sophomore Dean DeNobile who showed good running ability against Duke Saturday night and slightly less consistent passing talent... but clearly dangerous. 

With that running QB in mind and the impressive stats starting RB Jamar Curtis has put up in the first two games, Columbia needs to be ready to defend the run in a big way. Lafayette's receivers are less experienced, and that's another reason to expect a ground-heavy attack.