Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Some Solace


The news has just come out that Alex Gross has won Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and Austin Knowlin made 1st team All-Ivy at wide receiver.



Alex Gross (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics/Ben Shyman)



Gross becomes the fourth Lion to win the Rookie of the Year award and the second in a row. Last year's winner was of course, Austin Knowlin. It can't be too optimistic to say that a team with two consecutive rookie of the year award winners has a bright future.

But Columbia's 0-7 Ivy season this year showed in the All-Ivy voting. Jon Rocholl was the second team punter, but nobody else could do better than honorable mention.

Again, the key is to retain these talented youngsters and also make sure they improve year over year.

13 Comments:

At Tue Nov 20, 05:40:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who else was honored?

 
At Tue Nov 20, 05:45:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hormann and Mitchell were honorable mention as well.

 
At Tue Nov 20, 05:46:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Craig Hormannn and Phillip Mitchell

 
At Tue Nov 20, 02:54:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No solace at all--just reinforces how weak we were again this year. Happy for Mitchell,AK etc. Hormann was given a gift on his hyperinflated stats and Senior status-mostly all from games out of reach or deficits his int's and ability to not get rid of the ball caused. If it was done on QB rating vs his peers he would havew finished 6th out of 8. Sorry, still bitter Kelly didn't get at least the last 3 starts after season was long gone.

 
At Tue Nov 20, 06:50:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

to 11:54:00

Please start rooting for an NFL franchise. We don't need bitter people like you around.

 
At Tue Nov 20, 11:37:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with the last poster. No room for bitterness on this site because it is basically a forum for Columbia fans who want to assist in building a winning program and understand that our opponents are the other seven Ivy League League Schools and not the Columbia Coaches. It will take time to build a successful program because all seven other Ivy League School have a head start over us because they have been more serious about winning than Columbia for more than 40 years. However, the very good news is that we finally have a Board of Trustees, University President and Athletic Administration who wholeheartedly support Columbia Football. In addition, alums and friends of Columbia (many of whom are very involved in the football program) have already pledged an extraordinary amount of money--$47,000,000.00--to the improvement of Columbia athletics. I think it's exciting to be involved with the Football Program at this time and hope that this Forum will be used positively to get things accomplished like forming asap the Football Parents Organization that several people proposed and also coming up with some dynamic ideas for promoting attendance at the games.

 
At Wed Nov 21, 01:31:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Much as I agree with the necessity of a forward-upbeat-supportive-change-the-culture focus, we lose something on this board if the permissible posts from CU football fans are restricted to those that are deemed fittingly upbeat.

Leonlion

 
At Wed Nov 21, 02:06:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Agree, there is merit in all the posts, and hoping that the team gels in the next couple of years. Here is a different aspect of the Columbia program that you should all know about. Im sure there are other stories to be told, but I personally know a player who has developed a positive, strong bond with the coaching staff, deep friendships with other players, an incredible work ethic, time management skills, a new appreciation for his hometown and family, and is becoming connected with the church and the football community outreach program-all in 4 months!
Thank you Coach Wilson! Thank you Columbia Football!!

Proud parent of freshman player

 
At Wed Nov 21, 02:13:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And my freshman son told me at the end of the Brown game that his Senior Day will be the saddest day of his life. Something must be working right even if it hasn't translated to the win column yet.

 
At Wed Nov 21, 03:15:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you LeonLion for your support of both sides of the fence. Having played all four years of CU football during some rough times--my senior class had 6 who made it all the way through out of 30 some odd recruits-and being a diehard fan for 20 yrs, I think i can post my feelings here truthfully. We are going in the right direction but I stand by my comments that if we had used different options at QB, we would have had more success this year on the offensive side of the ball. We have had a ton of immobile QB's play successfully here-Wit is exhibit A-decision making, quick release and the ability to get rid of the ball were things we didn't do well at that position this year. Let's hope that changes going forward.

 
At Wed Nov 21, 05:19:00 AM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

to 12:15:00

Thank you for your frank, honest post.
If one can't write your honest observations and opinions on this blog, then there is a problem with this PC society. Your posts reflect honesty and reality, not bitterness. Who would know more about Columbia football than a former player?
I applaud the freshmen parents for their upbeat posts. We hope their feelings are the same in 2 or 3 years.

 
At Wed Nov 21, 08:11:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For Nov 20, 11:30 post
Let,s hope your son is only SAD for a little while and gets a WIN for Columbia and himself on that day.
"san souci"

 
At Thu Nov 22, 11:17:00 PM GMT+7, Anonymous Anonymous said...

NW has more charisma in his little finger than Bags, Jack, etc. have in their entire bodies. He has been tasked with building a program up from scratch. Shoop was an unmitigated disaster; how he fooled Reeves into hiring him is beyond me. But Ray and Dianne found the right guy in NW. Just give him patience and support. As for the honors, Mitchell was hurt by having to move from DE to NT, which he did for the team. He should have been honored. As for the future, AK will be POY as a senior; that's how good he is. If he continues to work on his conditioning and his speed, and avoids the opccasional drop, he can play on sundays.

 

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