Preseason Chat

In my first official function as a member of the Columbia football broadcast team, I headed up to a rainy New Haven, CT today to attend the Ivy Football Media Day at the lovely Yale Golf Course clubhouse.

The event was shorter on ceremony than in past years. The preseason poll results were in a hand-out and were not discussed at the podium.

Here's how the poll came out:



Later in the week, I will reveal how I voted in the poll, (I was asked to participate this year), but I found the results to be unsurprising. It's hard to go against Yale this preseason and Penn seems ready for a good run for a title.

Then there were a few welcoming remarks from Ivy League exec Chuck Yrigoyen and then a quick update on the rules changes from officiating coordinator Jim Maconaghy. After that, everyone had two hours to go to each of the eight tables and speak to the head coaches.

My main goal today was to introduce myself to various folks from the opposing schools, the league office, and my media colleagues. But I did get a chance to talk with six of the Ivy coaches. Here are some of the highlights:


Columbia Coach Norries Wilson

For Columbia fans, here's the BIG NEWS: As this official release from the athletic department says, Coach Wilson does NOT expect QB Craig Hormann to be ready to start opening night at Fordham. However, he did tell me that he will keep checking with the doctors, and if Craig gets the "okay," he will start.

We also talked a little about improving the running game, which he said was "abysmal" in 2006. Wilson is confident with the center Mike Partain and Ralph DeBernardo and Mike Brune at the tackle positions. But he's very concerned about the new starters who will have to step up at the guard position. It sounds like the coach believes the running game will be as good as those guards can take it.

At tight end, he spoke about Troy Evangelist, and how he's doing great at catching balls, but needs to improve his strength to become a more effective blocker. Wilson says he wants to have Evangelist and Jamal Russell on the field at the same time as much as possible.

We talked about the wide receiver position, and Wilson wanted to make it clear that none of the starting spots is set in stone... even where Austin Knowlin is concerned. When I asked about why Derek Jancisin's stock has risen so high, the coach emphasized Derek's improved attitude and increased strength. But Wilson also had high praise for Taylor Joseph.


Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens

The very friendly Teevens, (he even remembered my name about an hour after I spoke to him and said goodbye as he headed out), talked with me a little about the sagging attendance league-wide, (something I spoke to each of the coaches about). He was the first to say what all of the coaches said in one way or another: families have so many more options these days that it's harder to get larger crowds.

Teevens also told me that he only lost 12 pounds on that cross-country bike ride he did this summer.


Princeton Coach Roger Hughes

Hughes was extremely modest, playing down my assertion that his move to start calling the offensive plays in 2005 was the key to the Tigers' turnaround beginning that season. Instead, he emphasized what he thought was his team's ability to come together and play at a very high level despite the apparent lack of big stars. He acknowledged that having the running QB Bill Foran as the starter this season will present a bigger challenge to his still-young offensive line, and he will definitely miss now-graduated QB Jeff Terrell's quick release and good decision-making.

Hughes noted the weaker attendance, but felt that the huge crowd that came up to Yale Bowl for the Tiger-Eli game last season was a step in the right direction.


Brown Coach Phil Estes

Estes rejected the notion that 2007 will be a rebuilding year for the Bears, and he talked about how close Brown was to going 5-2 in the Ivies last season. (The close losses to Yale, Dartmouth, and Columbia could have gone either way).

One interesting point he made was how he's happy Brown Stadium doesn't have FieldTurf... saying how he thinks being the only team other than Yale with natural grass gives the Bears an advantage.


Cornell Coach Jim Knowles

Knowles talked about how being such a strong running team has been great, but Cornell needs to improve its passing attack. He also felt that the team may be mature enough this year to start playing better on the road.

Another question I asked each of the coaches was whether the rising difficulty for regular students to get into Ivy schools is actually making it easier to convince football recruits to reject other offers in favor of getting into a school hardly anyone has a prayer to attend. Knowles says he tells recruits that an Ivy education is like a scholarship that kicks in later, but lasts a lifetime.


Penn Coach Al Bagnoli

Coach Bagnoli talked about how he hoped all the close losses last year would help his team mature. He also told me that the various Penn administrations he's dealt with have been hit and miss when it comes to supporting athletics.

We also talked about parity and how the last four seasons have produced four different champions. Bagnoli made sure I knew that no one major Division I or FCS conference can really say that.

The rest of time we chatted about Joe Sandberg and how this could be his year to take home the Bushnell Cup.

I was not able to grab some time with Yale's Jack Siedlecki or Harvard's Tim Murphy, but that's actually kind of a good sign as it was nice to see a decent amount of media people covering the event.


As you can see from the topics I discussed, I just didn't get the feeling that a more combative or probing approach was the way to go today. Now that I'm officially affiliated with Columbia, I don't need to make trouble anyway. Of course, it's not like I was going to drag any killer info out of any of these guys today anyway. It's just not set up that way.


**IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER**

As we get closer to the season, it will be important to note that while I express my own opinions on this site every day, those opinions are not necessarily those of Columbia University or anyone in the athletic department.

Also, I'll need to make sure people in the department and the players can trust me, so readers should realize that I am NOT Matt Drudge. I just won't publish rumors, or even confirmed facts that could be of a sensitive nature for the team, the school, or college athletics in general. I'm sure everyone reading this understands where I'm coming from.

But fear not... this blog is not about to "go vanilla." In fact, my predictions for the season are due out later this week, and they will be as opinionated as they can get.


I was overjoyed to finally meet BigGreenAlert
creator and sole writer Bruce Wood in person. And it was also really nice to meet Brett Hoover, who overseas the IvyLeagueSports.com
site that just gets better every year.

And the nice buffet lunch made the almost two-hour drive each way pretty much worth it.

All in all, this is a great league, with great people working for the individual schools and the league central offices as well.