No Show in New Haven

Just go ahead and golf without me


I will not be able to attend the Ivy League football media day in New Haven tomorrow. I enjoyed going last year, even though I do not play golf, (tennis is my game when I visit country clubs at someone else's invitation only... I don't think I'm the country club type exactly). I'm saving my time off to cover the actual football games this coming season and I can't spare the day.

I really regret not getting a chance to talk one-on-one with the Ivy coaches like I did last year. Everyone was very forthcoming and nice, and I think it's a shame that the head football coach is no longer the kind of asset the Ivy schools trot out publicly more often. I can think of at least one or two prominent professors at EACH Ivy school who is a basically an international embarrassment. That's not the case with our coaches.

The big story most of us focus on from media day is the preseason poll, which for the second year in a row I was honored by being able to participate in.

Let me cushion a blow for any readers with high hopes for the poll. Columbia will surely be picked last. But take that for what it's worth. It's just a poll, and you can't blame a group of people looking at last year's 0-7 league record as their guide as to where to place the Lions.

I also see this season as a rebuilding year for Columbia, as the Lions break in a new QB, and possibly a number of other new starters. BUT, if the injuries that plagued this team and probably cost of 2-3 games last season remain in check, 2008 could be a season with some dramatic wins.

But that's just my opinion.

I'd like to honor the exclusivity agreement with the Ivy League, so I will not reveal my 2008 predictions here before the poll is released tomorrow. But just to prove how much my opinion is worth, let's look at my great predictions from this time last year compared to the real final standings:


Jake's 2007 Predictions

1. Yale

2. Penn

3. Princeton

4. Columbia

5. Harvard

6. Cornell

7. Dartmouth

8. Brown



Actual 2007 Final Standings


1. Harvard

2. Yale

3. Brown

4. Dartmouth

4. Penn

4. Princeton

7. Cornell

8. Columbia


I sure hope nobody bet their house on my picks.

Here are the key mistakes I made in last year prognostications:

1) I didn't realize that Harvard coach Tim Murphy was grooming an outstanding offensive line that would become the best in the league by season's end. It's amazing that a coach can keep so many great players happy... even as they wait to get onto the field when they could start for almost any other team.

I also didn't realize that the "Ewing Theory" would apply to an Ivy team. But Harvard DID play better without superstar runner Clifton Dawson, who graduated after the 2006 season. I thought Harvard would crumble without Dawson, and while replacement Cheung Ho was not unstoppable, he didn't waste his blocking either.


2) I thought Princeton could survive losing Jeff Terrell. In fact, the Tigers were very erratic all year, and the cool-under-pressure factor they got from Terrell in 2006 was really missing in 2007.


3) I didn't expect the Brown offense to wake up so quickly. But it did, thanks to a great season from the offensive line, (as least with pass blocking), and new QB Michael Dougherty. I should have known Coach Phil Estes would go back to a pass-happy attack, and sophomore Bobby Sewall was just the guy to help him do it.


4) I overestimate Penn's ability to win without a strong QB. I figured all the hard luck losses Penn suffered in 2005 and 2006 would even out in 2007, but the Quakers laid some real eggs during the season. Of course, they played their best game against Columbia, but I could swear Coach Bagnoli threatens to send his team to a North Korean dirt farm if they don't beat Columbia every year.


5) And of course, I was wrong about the Lions. I'm sure my personal biases clouded my judgment, but the injury bug was rampant in 2007 as well. And as I've written many times here before, I underestimated the loss of strength up the middle of the defense with the graduations of Todd Abrams, Adam Brekke and Tad Crawford.


Will I get it more right this year? Who knows, but I am trying to learn from my mistakes. I only promise to be honest and I can't tell you how many bribes I turn down from all the Ivy schools every year just to talk up their teams. ;)




Game of the Day (Day 40)

October 12, 1991

Columbia 20 Penn 14


Long-time Ivy fans are pretty shocked that Penn Head Coach Al Bagnoli has "allowed" his team to suffer three straight losing seasons. The last time that's happened to a Penn team it was 1989-91, and the Head Coach was Bagnoli's immediate predecessor, Gary Steele. And while Steele was allowed to finish out that 1991 season, I always thought the loss to Columbia on a glorious Homecoming Day at Wien Stadium sealed his fate.

The game began with a little luck as Lion QB John Tribolet lost the ball on a sack, but a face-mask penalty gave the ball back to the Lions. Tribolet then hit a 16-yard screen pass to Greg Abbruzzese. Another penalty helped move the Lions to the 1, and the senior Abbruzzese took it in for the score from there.

Penn quickly answered with their own TD, but missed the extra point. Then a running into the kicker penalty gave Lion kicker Tom Boccafola, (who can forget the great: "Boccafola! Field Goala! Make that Kick!" cheer?), a second chance and he converted for the 10-6 lead.

Penn marched all the way down to the Lion 9 in the closing minutes of the first half, but the Quakers fumbled and Columbia got a last second field goal for the 13-6 halftime lead.

Running back Solomon Johnson broke free for a 49-yard TD to make it 20-6 and the Lions looked like they had it made.

But Penn had one more shot. After a TD and a 2-point conversion, the Quakers tried an onsides kick that ended up going out of bounds and the refs gave the ball to Columbia. The Lions ran out the clock from there.

Ater the game, Penn's star linebacker Joe Kopcha had this to say:

"I've been playing since I was 8 years old," he said. "It's the lowest I've ever felt as a football player. Getting beat by Columbia? I don't believe it."

The Quakers finished that season 2-8 and Gary Steele was out.

For Columbia, it was the only win in a year filled with super-close losses. But Head Coach Ray Tellier was on the rise.