Just a Couple of Time-Killers...
Yale's second-guessing will last a lifetime
... but good ones to think about as we wait the announcement of the All Ivy team:
1) Brown Head Coach Phil Estes hugged Lou Miller after the game Saturday and said: "thank you for graduating!"
Discuss...
2) Most of the football world, including people who never think about Ivy ball, are still talking about that incredible decision by Yale Head Coach Tom Williams to fake a punt from his own 25 with less than three minutes to go. It didn't work. Yale fans are still fuming... everyone else is still incredulous.
Discuss...
3) In addition to posting their best Ivy record in six years, the Lions outscored all their opponents this season for the first time in 13 years! Interestingly, Columbia outscored its opposition by five points overall and by five points in Ivy play. There was rare symmetry there.
Discuss...
4) Buddy Teevens will be back for another year.
Discuss...
5) There's a Columbia Women's and Men's basketball doubleheader starting at 5:30 this evening. Catch both games on SideLion Pass.
Discuss...
posted by Jake @ 8:28:00 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Phil Estes is a very classy guy. PS, the final Sagarin ratings are out; we are ranked fourth in the Ivies, which sounds about right. Penn, Harvard and Brown are above us and the rest of the league is below us. Onward and upward in'10!
Another post-game hug of note: Rangel by several Lions. It was so sad to see him on crutches after his outstanding career. I can only guess how frustrating it must have been for him not to play out his last year.
Jake's Discussion Points: 1. Phil Estes is indeed a very classy guy and a very smart football coach. You have to be impressed by his record at Brown. 2. Tom Williams made an idiotic decision that resulted in Yale losing their big game to Harvard. Sounds like he also had difficulty getting along with his players--public criticism of quarterback transfer Witt. Why any parent of a high school football player would want his son to play for Willims beats me. 3. Buddy Teevens deserved to remain at Dartmouth for at least another year. He has recruited well using early admission effectively to snare some very good players. 4. Sagarin Ratings. I agree with the poster who said they sounded right to him. Too bad we didn't defeat Yale and Dartmouth, which are ranked below us by Sagarin. Overall, we were a much better football team this season than Yale and Dartmouth, but all those key mid-season injuries killed us.
Does anyone know how Frazer, Gross, Otis and the other key injured players are doing? If they all come back next year and we pick up a couple more studs at the skill positions, the Lions will compete with Penn and Harvard for the Ivy League Championship.
Unless something changes based on what little was said about the injuries, I am expecting the 3 players mentioned in a previous post to be back next fall. Gross I believe was the worse, but, surgey and rehab and his dads comments is a past Jke article makes me think he will be back if possible.
Alex Gross is doing great. Off crutches and anxious to be back next year. As you might expect he is motivated to rehab and make up for playing time he lost this year. Having known Alex for 20 years I can assure you he will be playing better than ever next Sept. Dr. Levine, Jim Gossett, and their team have been fantastic. Very happy we had surgery done in NYC and that it is over with.
Anyone know who are the leading candidates to take Austin Knowlin's place on punt and kickoff returns next year? Who returned punts and kickoffs for the j.v.? Have the Lions used Craig Hamilton to return punts as well as kickoffs?
When he got a chance to return kicks this year, Craig Hamilton was stellar. He's definitely the leading candidate to return kicks and punts next year.
supsilTo Alex's Dad,
As a long time supporter of the program and a loyal alum, it did my heart good to see you at the games this year, after Alex was injured. You and your son are both a credit to the program. Have a great holiday.
All Ivy is out; three first teamers--Knowlin, Adams and Miller; Miller is unanimous; Mehrer and Kennedy second team; Shalbrack and MA HM
Cameeron also HM
Adams making first team OL as a sophomore is a very big deal and well deserved. He was a monster all year, and absolutely flattened the Brown guys line dup in front of him last Saturday, no mean feat.
Both the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune had full articles about the Yale decision to go for it since it occurred on the same weekend Bill Belichick gambled and lost making the same decisions. It's easy to call both of these guys "idiots" but the reality is that probabilistically speaking, they made each made the right call. This has been modeled by several mathematicians. Given the quantitative analysis that has been done, and the more scientific approach of modern coaching, I am frankly surprised that it's not done more often. For an interesting story about probabilities and baseball, read "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis.
The mathematicians the last poster mentioned must have attended Harvard. Believe me any mathematician who graduated from Yale would not agree with Williams' bone headed decision to call a fake punt on a fourth and 22 from the Yale 25 yard line with less than three minutes left in the game.
Congratulations to all the Columbia players who made All-Ivy. Congratulations to the entire team for the exciting victory over Brown.
Mathematical models developed by various economists predicted that the housing boom would go on forever and that the derivatives market was OK. . . . If there's a math model that recommends running a fake punt on your own 25 with 4th and 22 when you have a good punter and good D, and when you're in the lead with 2 and a half minutes to go, I'd like to see that.
Dr.V
Regarding the mathematical models of the two fourth down conversion attempts, The New York Times football blog analyzed both and came to this conclusion:
Belichick: Because probability of converting on fourth-and-two is high with Brady at quarterback and probability of stopping the Colts is low with Manning at quarterback, going for it is mathematically justified.
Williams: Are you out of your ever-loving mind?!
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