“The best way to fix the economy is to stop trying to force-fix it!”
Duncan Dickerson
Wiser words have rarely been spoken by an 18-year-old.
Wiser words have rarely been spoken by anyone in the White House for that matter.
They are the words of incoming freshman OL and long snapping specialist Duncan Dickerson.
Looking at Duncan's bio and hearing his thoughts, it's nice to know that we already have one member of the class of 2014 who shows a better understanding of the economy than most of the Columbia faculty.
But sticking to football here, I shouldn't have to tell any longtime Lions fans about all the long snapping woes Columbia has faced on and off over the years.
Last season, WR Taylor Joseph was pressed into service as the long snapper due to an injury. He did about as well as you can expect a wide receiver to do. But there were games where this was a serious liability.
So, if Dickerson isn't too busy helping to deprogram most of the professors in Columbia's political science and economics departments, he should be able to help us out very soon on the field.
Good Data
I have a standing strong recommendation for all my readers to check out Bruce Wood's Big Green Alert blog on a daily basis.
There are some great non-Dartmouth centered reasons to read the blog lately as Bruce has categorized all the announced incoming Ivy schools' football freshmen by state and position.
Based on Bruce's tabulations, the incoming Lions are right at, or slightly above, the league-wide average at the following positions:
-Offensive Linemen, (Columbia has 5 incoming OL's vs. a 4.6 per team average)
-Wide Receivers, (Columbia has 4 incoming WR's vs. a 3.5 per team average)
-Running Backs, (Columbia has 3 incoming RB's vs. a 2.6 per team average)
-Defensive Backs, (Columbia has 4 incoming DB's compared to the league average of 4)
The Lions are a little more ahead of the curve with 3 incoming Tight Ends compared to the league average of an even 2. And we also have four incoming Linbackers as opposed to a 3.3 per team average across the league.
Columbia is bringing in fewer QB's than the league average with just one incoming frosh compared to a 1.6 league average.
Interior Defensive Linemen are also coming in at a little lower rate with two new Lion frosh compared to a 2.5 per team average. But they make up for it with two incoming Defensive Ends which is just ahead of the 1.1 per team average in the Ivies.
Also, only four incoming Ivy freshmen are being listed as fullbacks or H-backs across the entire league and not one of them are coming to the Lions.
The REAL difference is on special teams, where Columbia is bringing in two kicker/punters and another pure punter compared to most of the other teams in the Ivies that aren't even adding one new kicker, (at least not right now).
The fact that Columbia could afford to bring in that many more specialists and still meet or exceed the rest of the league's average position by position intake seems like a good case of recruiting management by the coaches.
One thing the Lions don't seem to be in danger of is falling into a situation that Princeton has suffered with recently with very thin numbers at key positions like QB and RB.
Len Genova
A New Genova at CU
Jerome Genova is coming to Columbia to join the heavyweight rowing crew. Genova is the son of former Columbia offensive guard Len Genova, who made 1st Team All Ivy for the Lions in the very lean season of 1984.
Len must be happy to see his son attend his college Alma Mater after young Jerome went to his high school's rival, Chaminade. Len graduated from Saint Anthony's.
The elder Genova is now of counsel at the Long Island law firm of Schroder & Strom. But he briefly coached at Columbia after graduation and he remains active in the National Football Foundation.
posted by Jake @ 12:19:00 AM
30 comments
30 Comments:
... it's nice to know that we already have one member of the class of 2014 who shows a better understanding of the economy than most of the Columbia faculty.
Nice comment
Jake, from what I can tell we have to have one of the better recruiting classes in the Ivies, especially in the skill positions. Kudos to our staff!
Wasn't FDR's New Deal a force-fix?
Jake, you should leave your teabags in your cup and off this board, or you might lose some of your otherwise devoted fans, most of whom would fall into the liberal-progressive category as befits the great Columbia tradition, including our distinguished and people-centered alum Obama.
Liberal seems to be such a misnomer, they all seem so intolerant of other opinions.
Anyone who would abandon this blog based on the opinions of the moderator is probably not a real fan of Columbia football or Columbia University.
I'd rather find common cause with a fellow Columbian than a Penn Quaker that shares my political sensibilities.
That's the big problem with our alma mater - too many people get charged up over the wrong things.
Stand Columbia.
Jake, your blog is the greatest, and I love you for it, but let's not promote nonsense. The issue is not conservatives or liberals, it's some semblance of sober rationality v. I don't know what to call it. Read, for example, the Financial Times--the finest and most thoughtful pro-market analysis anywhere. No one there thinks we should not have intervened to prevent us from flying off of the cliff.
-Dr.V
"That's the big problem with our alma mater - too many people get charged up over the wrong things. "
Right on, brother
I think it's time for CU to break through and put together a winning season, overall and in the Ivy League. Lots of positive momentum, time to capitalize on it.
Dr. V:
The TARP I agreed with mostly... The Stimulus not so much.
As for FDR, the WPA did not work. As soon as the programd ran out, we went back into recession in 1937. The govt. cannot create a job.
Jake, time is flying by for me also, but you seem to have your years mixing together. Two seasons ago Taylor Joseph was pushed into long snapping duties. Last yr we had 2 lineman do the long snapping, #94 and #64 if I remember.
The WPA worked, Jake! Not only were millions employed during the depth of the Great Depression (this one is a sleigh ride in comparison, of course), but many public projects were constructed (check out some bridges, parks and schools around NYC for examples),children ate at least marginally. I think the arts and media also benefited, but am not sure. Even now it would still be hard to find a community that doesn't have a WPA-constructed public building, bridge.
My personal knowledge comes from long-gone relatives who learned skills and drew paychecks when the economy hit bottom.
It was renamed at one point, ending in the early '40s when the war became the majorsupete job source, as it were.
Okay, now it's getting interesting, gotta fill the void somehow so why not a little politics. Jake said, "...government cannot create jobs." Anyone else in on this?
Thank goodness someone at Columbia still believes in the reliance on facts and open-mindeness that were the touchstones of the genuine intellectual inquiry at Columbia before the 1960s. That liberal-progressive stuff is a state of mind, and you cannot create a job or feed your children with a state of mind.
I'm bombarded with leftist propaganda everywhere I turn, so Jake's occasional remarks from another viewpoint are no bother to me
I'm happy hoowever that we can all agree on supporting CU football.
I think the WPA played an important psychological role in helping to ease the nation's fears. And I don't deny the tangible results like the bridges and roads. But economically it was a costly pep talk. Read "The Last Man" by Amity Schlaes to get a good idea of what the WPA really accomplished economically... because it wasn't much.
Great stuff Jake, keep it up!
I always found/find it ironic at how extremely intolerant CU liberals were/are as a group.
I blame the entire financial melt-down on the lack of business ethics by Wharton graduates. How's that for an ice-breaker! Go Lions! We didn't cause the melt-down, and hopefully our Columbia man in the WH can fix it.
There's no doubt that Penn, and Bagnoli in particular, are responsible for all of our nation's economic woes. Let's give 'em some payback in October! GO LIONS!!
CU liberals are not "extremely intolerant." It's just that we're right, and you're wrong!
Back to business...for those of you who may not have seen this new and incredible Marcorous Garrett highlight tape, posted again here -- "I'm gonna knock you out!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1x3_09Gq-U
Whatever the WPA accomplished economically overall, it provided paychecks and opportunities to learn skills for people in dire need of both.
I'd guess many of us use the public works projects almost every day, too. Plaques and engraved stones on buildings and bridges note how they were built.
Clearly, the football season cannot come too quickly.
As for politics, I think both the Dems and Repub politicians are crooks and only interested in their own power. If Repubs don't like spending, why did debt to GDP double under W? If the Dems/bleeding hearts hate terrorist torture, then they must accept weaker intel and potentially successful acts of terror in the USA. But instead of doing anything about any of this, they bicker and jockey for the next election. I say we line them all up in front of our O-line and yell "hike"
We need a third party to represent the sane middle of this country that probably accounts for 60% of the voters. It is clear to me that when either extreme runs wild, we get screwed. I think the 8 years of unchecked and unregulated free market approach demonstrates the inherent flaws and dangers, both to the financial system and to the ecosystem. But the answer is not to double the tax rate and debt and let government run our industries or artificially prop them up. Let failing businesses fail and then use government funds to invest in retaining/new private sectors. Regulate assertively the ones that are viable and otherwise stay out of the way.
In my view, this off season political discourse is a great way to kill time prior to that which we cherish more which is CU Football
Cheers
CU '82 Grad
A comment involving WPA and look at how many posts you get.
As far as WPA is concerned, if you research it, it was extremely costly with no real pure economic benefit. That said, the boost it provided to the national moral at the time was the true factor in stimulate the economy in years to follow. If WWII hadn’t happened things probably would have been perceived differently in the long run.
Football - long snapping had issues at times last year, but, based on the spring game don't see that as major concern anymore.
Finally- some good give-and-take on this blog, albeit political. Would be even better if most posts weren't "Anonymous." C'mon people, lets come out of the closet!
Friend 12: "...it (WPA) it was extremely costly with no real pure economic benefit."
The people who worked, earned money would disagree.
from Wikki: Until ended by Congress and war employment during 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in the country. Most people who needed a job were eligible for at least some of its jobs.[3] Hourly wages were the prevailing wages in each area; the rules said workers could not work more than 30 hours a week, but many projects included months in the field, with workers eating and sleeping on worksites. Before 1940, there was some training involved to teach new skills and the project's original legislation had a strong emphasis on training.
Total expenditures on WPA projects through June 1941, totaled approximately $11.4 billion. Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings, including the iconic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, the Griffth Observatory in Los Angeles, and the Timberline Lodge on Oregon's Mt. Hood;[8] more than $1 billion on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities and school lunch projects. One construction project was the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the bridges of which were each designed as architecturally unique.
Richard l. everything you said is true and in my opinion the billions were well spent, but, from a purely economical basis the debit it created still hasn't been fully recovered. The jobs created were a short term solution that wouldn't have been sustainable if WW2 hadn’t happened.
This is "CU 82 Grad" coming out of the closet, DOC!!!!
Further to my idea about a Third Party, I say let's have a TV Show called Presidential Idol formatted like a cross between Apprentice and Am Idol. Each week the contestants would deal with an issue/crisis or be interviewed in such a way as to show their beliefs/character/executive skills. The winner is given some of the proceeds of the show to run his/her campaign....
I bet we would come to know alot more about these people than we do about any other of our elected officials. 20 weeks of 40 million viewers a week seeing the eventual winner.
Initial selection of contestants would have to be non Dem or Repub. Panel judges could be a mixture of ideologies.
Kinda zany I know, but I just think we need to think of a fundamentally different way to identify our Presidential candidates than what cuurently exists.
Curtis Chen '82
Having seen some of the political blogs out there littered with such dim whits, I am proud to see such an in-depth analytical discourse on a Columbia Football blog!
Curtis Chen '82
Jake, you should run for public office. Along with the Fairway billboard on the West Side Highway, you would do more to publicize Columbia athletics than the current occupant of the WH, who has done el zippo for his alma mater to date.
Back to football....Dickerson pulls all the way to the end and picks up a key block to help the QB avoid a sack during an all-star game earlier this month.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1366603723038
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