Monday, August 27, 2007

It's Never Too Soon


Do not open until 2008


No sooner did I get back to New York than I saw some Google alerts and email tips from a few friends about a top-rated high school fullback who's committed to Columbia for NEXT season. ESPN.com rates him as the 21st best fullback prospect in the country.

Nico Papas looks like a great kid, and as someone who's been coached by his dad most of his life, there's a lot of football culture in that household. We definitely look forward to seeing him next fall and hopefully he'll get to attend a game or two this season.

And can anyone imagine a quality recruit like this committing to CU EARLY in the bad old days of the 80's or even as recently as two years ago? Things really have changed at Columbia, and I hope everyone recognizes that.

The biggest bummer of this trip to Canada was that I missed "media day" at Baker Field. Of course, the event is more to promote the team to the general news media and not guys like me who are already locked in to the program. Let's hope those guys find it in their hearts to post a few stories in the papers about the team in the coming days. The players and the program and general really deserve it these days.

11 Comments:

At Mon Aug 27, 03:29:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a big win for the Lions.
Is Pappas formally locked up/committed to Columbia?

 
At Mon Aug 27, 04:08:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Any reports on today's intra-squad scrimmage?

 
At Mon Aug 27, 04:15:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like he has been given a "likely" letter from admissions on the basis of his oral agreement to attend if admitted early in December. I don't think we can do any more.

 
At Mon Aug 27, 04:59:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This young man looks like he is already ready for prime time!

 
At Mon Aug 27, 05:45:00 AM GMT+7, Blogger dabull said...

You are right Jake. This is what this staff can do. They are good at what they do and they are really good at selling what they do to recruits. They make it exciting to think about being a part of Columbia football. Now Papas can say he's coming to Columbia but he's never really committed to us accepts his admission and sends in some dough. They will even send him a letter to sign but even that is not truly binding. I'm pretty sure he knows what he wants to commit this early to Columbia and it sounds like it's the Ivy League degree more than the chance to play for a big time program on tv and in front of big crowds. So hats off to him for his maturity and clarity.

 
At Mon Aug 27, 06:49:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We now have two Nico's on the football team and a Niko (Scott) on the basketball team. Lions setting records!

 
At Mon Aug 27, 09:23:00 AM GMT+7, Blogger DOC said...

Yiasoo Nico!! (Greek for "To your health!") and best wishes for a great career at CU.

 
At Mon Aug 27, 12:10:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just read about Nico Papas. He's a terrific player who should have a tremendous career at Columbia. Congratulations to Nico and his family. Go Lions!

 
At Mon Aug 27, 12:14:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Scrimmage note on next thread.

 
At Mon Aug 27, 11:43:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

what's "next thread"?

 
At Tue Aug 28, 01:18:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Next post.

 

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