Camp Damp

It's Rainy in NYC

It figures that after one of the hottest and driest summers I can ever remember here in New York City, the first few days of training camp have been cool and rainy.

So be it.

That’s the kind of weather the Lions will be facing for much of the real season and we don’t have one of those indoor practice facilities like Harvard to make us soft!

The big update so far is that the weight figures for the players have been updated on the roster. I'm not 100% sure if the updating process is complete, but here are a few headlines so far:

-Sophomore DL Seyi Adebayo has gained 30 pounds and is now 260 lbs.

-Freshman DL Hunter Coleman with a 32-pound gain to 232 lbs.

-1st Team All Ivy LT Jeff Adams has gained 15 pounds to pass the 300 mark at 305 lbs.

-Team co-captain WR Mike Stephens gains 18 pounds to 206 lbs.

-Junior QB Jerry Bell is up 18 pounds to 230 lbs. (That'll be a tougher sack I think!)

-Sophomore DL Greg Lee down 30 pounds to 250 lbs.

-Junior LB Will Claunch down 20 pounds to 220 lbs.

There were a couple of trends I noticed in the weight changes overall:

1) Offensive tackles got heavier, while the guards got lighter.

2) Just about all the WR's got at least a little bigger

These two major trends tell me that Columbia seems even more committed to the option offense than ever. I think that's a wise choice with the speedy Sean Brackett at QB. He showed incredible ability handling the option keepers and tosses last season. So speedier pulling guards along with beefier WR's ready to mae blocks downfield seem like good ingredients to execute the option even better in 2010.


Opponent Watch


Week one opponent Fordham has already begun its third week of training camp. The big question in Ram camp is who will get the QB job to replace John Skelton. So far, it looks like an undersized sophomore named Blake Wayne has the lead in the race.

Week two opponent Towson is also in week three of camp and there’s a QB competition in Baltimore as well. One of the competitors is a grad student who transferred from the Citadel! The Tigers travel to Indiana, yes THAT Indiana, to start the season against the Big 10 team on Thursday, September 2.

The Sports Network's Craig Haley, (who covered Princeton for years), is picking Towson to come in 9th out 10 teams in the CAA. But Haley provides bulletin board material for the Lions as well as he describes Towson’s game against Columbia as an “excellent opportunity for a win.”


Shane Sighting!

Getting back to grad students, former Lion Shane Kelly is looking to play QB for Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University as he is an MBA student there. Best of luck to Shane!

Week four opponent Lafayette has, by far, the most comprehensive preseason web page I’ve ever seen. But just like Fordham and Towson, Lafayette is looking for a definite answer at the QB position after Rob Curley graduated in May. Junior Ryan O’Neil (thankfully, not the sleazebag actor), seems to have the inside track.

Cornell has been providing photo updates of its first week of camp, but not much other content. The “headline” so far from those pics is the fact that the Big Red have changed their helmet design to just a single, plain white stripe down the middle instead of the three stripe design the team has used the last few seasons. Some Ivy fans mistakenly thought the helmet was a replica of the design used during the Ed Marinaro years, but as you can see from this link to the Helmet Project, the Big Red in the late 60’s-early 70’s used a “C” design similar to the Chicago Bears’ font.

Scrimmage News

Columbia will return the favor with Brown and travel to Providence for a preseason scrimmage on Saturday September 4th.

Last year’s scrimmage was well… BAD. The Lions looked sloppy compared to an impressive Bear squad.

It turned out that the Brown coaches had completely “game-planned” the scrimmage while the Columbia staff just tried out some different looks in practice mode. It was a totally different story 12 weeks later when the Lions beat Brown 28-14 in the season finale.