Good as Gold

John Audino


At last night's annual Gold Dinner honoring our graduating senior players, Head Coach Al Bagnoli officially announced the arrival of new QB's coach Ricky Santos. 

But there's also news that former Union Head Coach John Audino is finally coming back to Columbia as tight ends coach. Audino took over at Union after Bagnoli left that D-III school and compiled an impressive won-loss record there over 20+ years.

Audino comes full circle after coaching under Bill Campbell and Bob Naso at Columbia in the early 1970s and 80s.

Before that, Audino was a running back at Notre Dame playing for the legendary Ara Parseghian.

Bagnoli wanted Audino to join the staff last season, but he decided to stay at Union for another year... a decision I wonder if Audino now regrets.

But don't let his final year fool you, Audino is a wise coach that Columbia is lucky to have on board. His hiring kind of reminds me of how lucky Columbia was to grab veteran coach John Gutekunst as an assistant back in 2010. Gutekunst had been the head coach at Minnesota during the 1980s.

Mornhinweg on the Mend

Rising senior QB Skyler Mornhinweg is still recovering from a broken foot and will miss spring practice. But I am told he will be ready in time for summer camp. That should mean the spring will be a key time for rising junior QB Anders Hill to step things up and should be a chance for the other QB's on the roster, rising sophomores Ryan Suitt, Kyle Castner, and Danny Hong to show what they can do.

Bubble Team

And one more thing... the long-hoped-for inflatable bubble over Kraft Field is going to become a reality in time for next winter.

BREAKING: Ivies to finally hold postseason tournament next year

The Ivy League has just announced that men's and women's basketball will hold conference tournaments beginning next year. 

The Ivies are finally joining the 20th century, albeit 16 years into the 21st century.

Could a change in the rule barring postseason football be far behind?

High School Confidential

Cavalier Stadium


As I continue to follow the furious pace of offers our coaching staff is currently making to Class of 2017 high school juniors, I'm trying to keep track of the several high schools where we're finding, (and hopefully eventually netting), talent.

Here are the facts about just some of the more recent Columbia offerees from schools where the Lions have found at lease some players before:

-Lake Travis HS is where Columbia found current starters DB Brock Kenyon and LB Hagen Patterson. Now we have an offer out to All State DB Austin Hiller. 

-Cardinal Newman HS in West Palm Beach, FL has long been a font of football talent. But only one documented Cardinal Newman grad has been successfully recruited to Columbia, Matt Swyers '93, who did not have much of a football career in college. The coaches are trying to change things up with a recent offer to DB Carson Powell.

-Even casual high school football fans have heard about Mater Dei HS in Southern California. Calling that school a "power" is an understatement. Columbia has offers out to at least three Mater Dei juniors, DB Jalen Cole, DB Roman Kafentzis, and now DB Kyle Moses. So far, only one Mater Dei grad has come to Columbia football: Robbie Gibson '04, also not someone who had a memorable college football career.

-Saint Francis HS in the shadow of Google HQ in Mountain View, CA is becoming a new focus-point for Columbia recruiting lately. Current players Justin Aimonetti and Landon Baty hail from that school along with new offeree DB Cyrus Habibi-Likio. Aimonetti and Baty are currently the only St. Francis players the Lions have netted.

-Xaverian HS in Brooklyn, NY is mostly known for basketball, (Chris Mullin starred there), but it has football too. Despite its proximity to Columbia, only one documented Xaverian grad has played for the Lions, Bob McDonald '76. We currently have an offer out to All State DL Mike Marinelli.

-The University Liggett School outside of Detroit has been a strong source of football talent, but Columbia has only one football alum from there, Kevin Espy '02. Now we have an offer out to DB Charles Caine.

Further and Further

One of the joys I get from reviewing my database of Columbia football feeder schools is looking at how the recruiting map has truly become larger and larger over the decades.

In the early days of recruiting Ivy athletes, the Northeast was truly and understandably over-represented in recruiting.

Don't believe me, check out some of these figures:

-The recruiting class of 1970, (players who came to Columbia in the fall of 1966), consisted of 56 young men hailing from just 11 states. 47 of them were from the Northeast, including 46, (82%), from just five states: NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

-The recruiting class of 1980, (players who came to Columbia in the fall of 1976), during the hey day of then-Head Coach Bill Campbell, hailed from just 10 states and 77% of the class came from those same five states of NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

-The recruiting class of 1990, (players who came to Columbia in the fall of 1986), saw the number of states drawn from increase to 18, with just 38% of the players coming from the five states of NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

-The recruiting class of 2000, (players who came to Columbia in the fall of 1996), culled its crop from 18 states and only 25% came from the five states of NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

-The recruiting class of 2010, (players who came to Columbia in the fall of 2006), was a bit of an outlier. That class of 30 players came from just 15 states, and 40% of them came from the five states of NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

-But this recruiting class of 2020 of 40 so-far-known incoming players comes from 20 states. Only 20% coming from the five states of NY, NJ, PA, CT, and MA.

The upshot of this all is the fact that today's recruiters at Columbia really have to cover a lot more territory than just a few years ago. The "offer offensive" many of you have noticed via Twitter helps achieve that goal as one shared Tweet about Columbia football can instantly cross the nation in a moment.

Honoring an Ivy Legend

Leo Reherman was a great offensive lineman at Cornell in the 1980s, where he sometimes lined up against Columbia great Matt Sodl '88. 

A few years later, Sodl and Reherman became great friends at UCLA Business School. 

Before going into business as expected, Reherman became famous on American Gladiators. 

Reherman suddenly passed away last week and the news has hit Matt hard. But he is determined to honor his friend and Matt has sent the following info to all the readers here:

It is with a very heavy heart I wanted to announce that Leo Reherman (UCLA Anderson Class of 1993) passed away last Tuesday.  We will be having a memorial service to celebrate his life on the beach in Manhattan Beach this Saturday (March 5^th) at 10 am.  All who knew him are welcome and encouraged to share in this celebration of this life.  The details of the service are below:

LEE 'HAWK' REHERMAN'S CELEBRATION OF LIFE CEREMONY

THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 5TH
10:00 AM
ON THE BEACH JUST SOUTH OF THE MANHATTAN BEACH PIER
(Follow Manhattan Beach Boulevard to the Beach)

**Please bring flowers to add to the circle of flowers that we will all plant in the sand!**

**Attire will be strictly enforced in keeping with 'Hawk Style'! No suits or dark clothes allowed! You must wear outdoor beach clothing. Cargo or board shorts, bikinis, jeans, t-shirts, jerseys and anything that you would wear to party with Lee at the Beach!**

**Immediately following the ceremony, we will all walk 2 minutes up the street to Shellback Tavern (116 Manhattan Beach Blvd.), one of Lee's neighborhood haunts to LAUGH, cry, LAUGH some more and share our favorite stories about the man we all love so much!