Thoughts for a Tuesday
Scenes from the Lions last win over the Crimson
The last time Columbia defeated Harvard, it was a 16-13 thriller on a chilly day in November, 2003. I'll always remember that game as then-sophomore Prosper Nwokocha's coming out party as he made two key interceptions on back-to-back Harvard posssesions, the first one set up the Lions winning TD, the next one iced the game. Nwokocha, (whose brother Chuck once played for Harvard), went on to become a captain his senior year. Which freshman or sophomore will make a key play this Saturday? There are certainly a lot of possibilities.
The big question coming into this Saturday's game is whether some of the injured players, especially Justin Masorti, will be recovered in time. Hopefully, we'll get a better handle on that in the coming day or two.
Harvard is a surprising 4-0 in Ivy play this year, but you can argue the Crimson really haven't played any top quality league opponents so far. Dartmouth was their best Ivy opponent, and last week the Crimson barebly beat them at home, 28-21.
posted by Jake @ 2:30:00 AM
23 comments
23 Comments:
Any chance we'll see Kelly or MA on a few series? MA running the option is somehting I'd like to see. The biggest immmediate problem seems to be our offensive blocking schemes. I would like to see us spread the offensive sets. In addition, it is very hard to run an effective ground game from the shotgun, since the running back doesn't have the chance to get a head of steam before being handed the ball and we have QB who isn't mobile. On defense, I hope we see Masorti. He was having a Des Werthman type of game before he hurt his ankle. He absolutely splattered McLeod on a few plays when he shot the gap. I liked Mitchell at NT.
On recruiting next year's freshman class: we need an Ayo/Reese type of big, punishing back. I had thought that Stoll was that guy, but he gets no carries out of the FB slot. We also must do something to get some nasty linemen on both sides of the ball. As for the hand wringing about how hard it is to recruit, I just don't buy it. Larry McElreavy recruited an incredible class of freshmen one year, clearly the class of the league. And our current freshmen might be the best class in the ivies. We just need some stud linemen.
We may have a few of those linemen you seek in this freshman class. It's just very hard to expect a freshman to compete in the trenches with more mature big guys. I think Brian England has done real well when called upon and should be the stud we're looking for at the nose.
Some of you Columbia guys are equating being the only Ivy who has to actually play freshmen due to depth issues to having the best freshman class?
They are hardly the same.
To the 01:11:00 PM poster. We will never know how good a fullback Stoll is since they never give him any carries. The same will be true no matter who they recruit because this offensive scheme doesn't utilize the position. It's a shame, because one of the fastest, most talented players isn't being used.
You're right. I heard that Stoll can really motor. The laws of physics would lead one to believe the a DB does not want this full head of steam coming at them.
2:31 poster: if you don't like whart we Columbia guys say on our board, then don't waste your time reding it. As for Stoll, I just don't get why he isn't used like another Nick Hartigan. He is big and fast. And when he is a lead blocker he usually will kick out the linebacker. I agree that England is a future line stud, perhaps at the nose, based upon what I have seen. OUr biggest need right now is an offensive line that can hold its blocks. We are still relatively small up front.
Kelly threw a bunch of picks in the Harvard scrimmage this year(Hormann didn't play). I highly doubt he sees anytime this Saturday. Let's hope a different CU team shows up as Harvard is starting to hit their groove with Pizzotti at QB.
Dawson had a few nice runs in the Colts/Panthers game towards the end. I had a chance to speak with him at the Ivy football dinner last year and he seems like a well grounded bright kid.
its always easy to blame the o-line when things are going bad, but we need to think about it a little more before we start handing out blame. you gotta realize our guys have been playing from behind for a lot of minutes, which keys the defense in to our pass first tendencies even more.
NW has been quoted as saying that he would like to run the ball more and run it out of the I formation if he had the personnel. He currently doesn't. The O-line is simply not phyically strong enough. If you watch the O-line on the on the sideline pass videos or on the other school's equivalent services, you will see that the O-line gets no push off the ball and frequently gets out muscled. They have good size but they simply aren't strong enough to CONTROL the line of scrimage, especially on running plays. Yeah, yeah, they have been in the weight room and all that. However, they need to spend a lot more time there. The whole team needs to get stronger. When you see the guys in their street clothes, it is obvious(except for a very few)that they have a long way to go in the weight room.
And that exactly is my point why this could be an ugly ugly game. Harvard has best D-Line in the league and we have an immobile QB with perhaps the worst O-line in the league. Just being realistic here and that's why Brown and Cornell are winnable games--this one isn't.
Neat story on cnnsi.com of Sam Dana who recently passed. He was oldest living NFL alum at age 104. Played football at Columbia briefly alongside Gehrig.
If Harvard's so dominant, why did they barely squeak by Dartmouth? And why, when we barely lost to Dartmouth, would this match-up fall into the ugly, ugly column? And I will bet, no matter the weather, that no one thought we would hold Yale for two quarters.
Guess what, it's the score after 4 quarters that matters. You sound like a complete CU homer saying we were knotted at halftime. Who cares--we lost convincingly. Hey I hope we hang in there with Harvard but i have seen both teams play twice this year and we are outmanned-period. They have a better QB, better backs, better Defense, better kicker, better o-line. I will give us the edge at WR--is that enough--I doubt it...
I didn't say we didn't lose to Yale convincingly and obviously we have to win all four qtrs but, like I said, if Harvard is so strong, why did they squeak by Dartmouth? And why isn't this slightly possible instead of mostly impossible? Why bother going to games and cheering them on if we know they will more than likely lose?
The way people talk about Hormann - I wonder what people would have said about Witkowski if internet message boards existed then...
Just saying. Many of Hormann's numbers are second all-time to Wit (keep in mind he split time with Joe Winters his soph season) - and people make it out like he is the problem with the team.
Some Columbia fans are as classless as Yale and Penn fans...
Let's hope the players stay off the boards and focus on the task at hand and believe every week that they can win.
that's why I'm not going to that game. After 25 years i have a pretty good feel which ones are winnable. Hey I would have never thought we would beat Brown in Providence last year but we did so there you are.
And to the poster on comparing Hormann to Wit--not even close. Wit's arm was nfl caliber and thus why the Lions drafted him and he played on and off for 5 yrs. Hormann is a good QB no doubt but nowhere near Wit's caliber. The only thing similar is they both always played from behind with little to no running games and thus put up huge stats..
CH is doing a good job throwing certain routes. He throws a nice deep ball but has had a tougher time with some middle distance efforts. For whatever reason we don't use the slant routes very often to keep the LB at home. While he has limited mobility, he's #1 for a reason. Our run game would be more effective if we were playing with a lead in some games. Our line has had competitive size every week this year. For our offense, we need guys with reasonable size that can work as a unit, We don't run a road grader offense. We've seen the best of the D lines in Penn and Yale, so maybe we can run the ball this week. I like Stoll's style and maybe platooning the backs would make all of them better. Rangel blocks well and Davis has our best YPC. If we could sustain some drives we'll take a ton of pressure off of the defense.
We were definately stronger against the run with 4 down, but I think we still gave up a lot of ground yards last week. The defense has got to find a way to get off the field, better results on first down would go a long way here. Hopefully, we'll improve in this phase as well this week as well.
Harvard has survived some tough games this year and may be riding for a fall. Win the toss, score first, beat Harvard!
Wit ran up his numbers in three years. He had great vision and a rocket arm; he could throw a rope, and he had a very quick release. He had two excellent WRs who never dropped catchable balls. We have excellent young WRs but haven't gotten any production from the TEs. We also haven't had a great pass catrching FB like Bondi, for example. I remember Bondi catching something like 12 balls out of the backfield against Cornell one year. As for the size of our OL, that's not the issue. We aren't strong enough, and it shows. Maybe we need better weigh training. OUr big guys just don't look strong enough to me. Without naming names, our #1 priority is to get stronger up front.
I wonder if the good folks that read this blog realize how fast Pete Stoll reall is???
When seeing him take a screen pass or break away, he can flat out fly.
As a parent, I would love to see him in the mix more often. It will pay dividends
Stoll has to be used! Wake up,coaches!
THE '03 GAME VS. HARVARD WAS THE GREATEST GAME IN RECENT LIONS HISTORY! (hail mary vs. princeton was on the road) chilly day? it was maybe 35 degrees on that november day. Columbia was hanging with Harvard. We were all freezing, and out of nowhere when the crimson were about to run out the game, THEY PASSED. (just after that amazing mlb postseaon in '03) it was 3rd and 6 on there own 43 with 1:06 and the lions had no timeouts left. (9-6 Harvard) I remember it like it was yesterday. Prosper picked it off. we got a td and he picked off another one!! LIONS WIN 13-9!
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