Offers, Offers Everywhere!

February has been a furiously busy month for Columbia’s coaching staff as they have been handing out offers to class of 2017 high school players.

Here are some of the more interesting offers, based on my opinions alone, (and I'll profile more in the coming weeks):

Bryce Bailey, Castle HS (Newburgh, IN)

Bailey is a up-and-coming big offensive tackle, and when O-linemen get early offers like this you know they're going to be highly sought-after for the better part of a year. Indiana is also becoming a magnet for Columbia offers lately. (Also see Ben Stewart and Sam Helm). The state is recruited by O-line coach Jon McLaughlin.

Justus Harris, Roswell HS (Roswell, GA)

You often hear defensive backs described as "ball hawks," but this guy really takes the cake. If you throw a pass in vicinity of Mr. Harris, maybe you ought to think again.

 Charles "Tre" Caine, University Liggett School, (Gross Pointe, MI)

Caine is a hard hitting and fast DB who makes a big point of saying the first school to offer him a slot will get an "immediate sense of loyalty" from him. And Columbia gave him his first offer. Another find for Coach McLaughlin.

Jalen Cole, Mater Dei HS (Santa Ana, CA)

You have to mention a 1st team all state DB from one of the greatest high school football programs of all time. 

Jack Young, Mt. Lebanon HS (Pittsburgh, PA)

I have soft spot in my heart for Mt. Lebanon HS, a school that's sent us some of our hardest working athletes over the years. It's also the school where an admired fraternity brother of mine attended and he's probably a few years away from becoming the CEO of the largest pharma company in the world. And the first news anchor I ever worked with and truly admired in the process was also a "Mt. Lebo" grad. Getting back to Young, he's also received early offers from Dartmouth and Cornell, so there's something to this kid.

A Certain Formula

Marcellus Wiley, Josh Martin, and several other standout Ivy football players who eventually made it into the NFL share a similar M.O.

They got into the sport of football or found their true role relatively late in the game.

Wiley actually played football from a young age, but he didn't really grow into his body until college and then he finally found his best role as a defensive end.

Martin didn't play organized football until high school, which is late in the Pop Warner-dominated world for college-bound players.

Current rising CU star Lord Hyeamang is another late-arriver to football and I expect him to show major strides in his final two years at Baker Field. 

 These are the kinds of NFL-caliber players who fly under the major FBS recruiting radar and often become stars in the Ivy League. 

Based on this article , incoming Columbia freshman Lamine Nouck-A-Nwal might be another player who fits this description. Nwal is a native of Cameroon who came to the US when he was in 5th grade and probably knew nothing of American football before that. He's already put on 30 pounds in preparation to play on the offensive line exclusively.

The article also mentions Nwal's high school teammate, RB Alex Gibson, who is also coming to Columbia and spurned offers from Princeton and Dartmouth. 

Expectations Risen

(I apologize for the lack of posting lately, as I was traveling abroad. But I have returned to New York!)

Today's Columbia Spectator is the latest publication to note the high ratings for the football team's incoming recruiting class.

Besides the obvious fact that such talk truly raises expectations for the team, I thought there were two points in the piece worth of special note:


1) Head Coach Al Bagnoli's comment that the coaching staff is making a big splash on social media. This isn't just the #1 way news and info is getting out there for young people, it has now become the #1 way news and info is getting out there for everyone on Earth.

2) Greg Abbruzzese '91, was right to point out how even after more than a year at the helm no one is complaining publicly or privately about Bagnoli. There has never been so much "buy-in" from the Columbia world on probably anything.

Trinh Bolts

Based on the across-the-board offers he received, you could argue that LB Anthony Trinh was the #1 incoming freshman football player in the Ivies.

But now Trinh has decided to nix his verbal commitment to Princeton in favor of a preferred walk-on offer from Stanford.  "Preferred walk-on" status usually means the player taking that offer will have a good chance of getting a scholarship slot in a year or two.

While I have argued many times that it's the smartest move to take the Ivy offer over a slot at just about any other program, it's hard to make that same argument about schools like Stanford, Cal, Michigan, and Northwestern, etc. And the Trinh story shows just how easy it is for those schools to disrupt our recruiting process.

Staten Island Signee

It's always special when Columbia football brings in a player from New York City.

And that's what we got this month when Zach O'Neill from Staten Island's Monsignor Farrell committed to the program. 

Staten Island remains a pretty football rich region by NYC high school football standards, so hopefully Zach will be the first of more from the borough of Richmond to come our way.

Taylor's Dream

A nice short article and video about incoming DE Taylor Weldon includes the sad fact that his father passed away last year.

But it's also full of his future hopes and dreams.

Hopefully his goal to become a doctor to honor his dad will be realized along with a lot of wins on the football field too.