Expect Dominance!

Coach Wilson reserved some of his highest praise... and expectations for DE Phil Mitchell (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics Dept.)

Make some time to go back to the Columbia Football Roster yet again. The information on the returning players has been updated, many with good comments by Coach Wilson.

Some of my favorites were:

On CB and co-Captain JoJo Smith

"All heart. He wins on effort, and his effort is the driving force behind his play and overcoming his physical limitations. I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the league."


On WR Austin Knowlin

"Austin can't rest on his laurels this summer. He's got a big target on his back. We're looking for him to be our go-to guy at receiver."


On TE Troy Evangelist

"Troy had a really good spring," notes Coach Wilson. "He is working hard this summer and gaining a lot of strength. If he puts it all together, he could be a dominant tight end."


On OL Ralph DeBernardo

"Ralph has a chance to be a dominant player in this league if he comes back stronger."


On DE Phil Mitchell

"Phil has got all the physical tools and a great attitude. He should be able to go out and dominate against the guys he plays against."


On WR Derek Jancisin

"He's more than a possession receiver," says Coach Wilson, "but not really a speed receiver either. He's a guy we hope opponents will have to account for this fall."


On RB-turned-CB Grant Jefferson

"He may be the best athlete on the team and I expect good things from him this year."


One of the words Coach Wilson used to describe several players was "dominate." He's setting the bar high for a lot of players who might think they can't get much better or don't think they can be good enough to begin with.

Back when Gary Barnett took over as head coach at Northwestern in early 90's, they started printing up "Expect Victory" t-shirts, and he came through in 1995 with a Big 10 Championship. So I think someone should create a t-shirt for Columbia titled: EXPECT DOMINANCE!



Big Things, like Carl Constant and the Coliseum, are in Uniondale


We have two good, but completely unscientific, reasons to believe our promising new freshmen offensive line prospect Carl Constant will be a great one for Columbia.

First there is the Uniondale connection. Constant is from that Long Island town that is best-known as the home of the Nassau Coliseum, (although that's more of a gerrymandered truth; the Coliseum is really in Garden City, along with Hofstra, the Long Island Childrens Museum, and the Cradle of Aviation), and so was perhaps the greatest center in the last 45 years of Columbia history: Mike Psyzczymucha, '71. The man with the unpronounceable last name went to Uniondale high school and eventually ended up working for the State Department, (and probably the CIA), as an expert on the Soviet Union and Eastern European languages. Adding to Psyzczymucha's legendary aura is the fact that Columbia only seems to have drawings of him and no pictures. Perhaps all the real photos of him were destroyed by "the company."

Next we have 1985 Lion captain Bill Strack. Strack isn't from Uniondale, but he is another great Lion offensive lineman from Constant's high school, St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows, Queens. Strack was great team leader in some tough times for Columbia football.

Strack fared a lot better than his fellow '85 Lion starter and Saint Francis alum Pete Murphy. For some odd reason, Murphy was singled out for the harshest criticism in Coach Jim Garrett's infamous "drug addicted losers" post game tirade after the inaugural game of the '85 season. Murphy's kicking stats in that game, (a 49-17 loss to Harvard after Columbia led 17-0 at halftime), were actually fine, but he never recovered from the senseless bashing he took and he quit the team.

(By the way, there are two other interesting tidbits from "drug addicted losers" link above. First, the author tells us that stories about Ivy football on the NY Times website are extremely popular, which is no surprise to me. Second, there's a slight factual error at the bottom when he says that the Garrett brothers "pummeled" Columbia in later years when they transferred to Princeton. Columbia may have been hurt by the Garretts in '86 and '87, but they were on the 1988 Tiger team that lost to Columbia at Wien Stadium and suffered the indignity of being the first team to lose to Columbia in five years).

The other stand-out Columbia offensive linemen from Saint Francis Prep in the 80's were Bill McGee and John Sharkey, both class of '89.

At least where Columbia is concerned, it appears that Saint Francis has been an offensive linemen factory. I still have some more research to do, but it doesn't appear that any Saint Francis alums in the last 40 years or so have excelled at any other position for the Lions.