He Will Survive
Jordan Culbreath (CREDIT: Princeton Athletics)
We don’t usually cheer good news for our Ivy opponents, but you have to be made of stone not to be happy to learn that Princeton’s Jordan Culbreath has been cleared to return to the Tigers for the 2010 season.
This is great news because a little less than a year ago, Culbreath was fighting for his life. I am proud to say that the Roar Lions Roar blog and its readers have been pulling for him ever since.
Whether Culbreath, the last man in the Ivies to rush for 1,000 yards, will be truly effective on the field this season is a major question. I would have to say that I’d be very surprised if he gets any significant playing time. But he’s already beaten a deadly disease, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
Shea Goodbye
A quick check of the Lion roster now shows that defensive lineman Shea Selsor is no longer on the team. He will be missed by me at least. I thought he had a great game in the season finale against Brown last year.
A couple of other changes I noticed are the fact that DB's-turned-WR's Brian DeVeau and Kurt Williams are now listed as WR's, and 2009 kicker Dean Perfetti is now listed as a punter only.
Facts about the Fallacies
The new Inside The Pride web site has a new feature clearly aimed at recruits and their families called “Facts about the Fallacies.” The feature refutes three of what I thought were very old and long-discredited assertions about Columbia football.
1) Columbia is in Harlem
2) Players take the Subway to practice
3) The bus ride from campus is an hour to the stadium/practice facility
Call me a crazy optimist, but I thought these claims were solely the fodder for internet chat boards and jeering fans in the stands, not something rival recruiters were still saying about the Columbia program.
But this response to the slanders leads me to believe that some supposedly “credible” people in this league are still saying these things.
So while I’m very happy with the official responses you can see on the “Inside the Pride” site, I’m saddened that trashing our city and program is still a recruiting tool for at least some of our Ivy rivals.
Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I shop for a car or another big ticket item I never ever buy from a salesman who takes any time to trash the competition. To me, it’s a tell-tale sign that something’s wrong with his product.
Camp Damp… Continued
It remains rainy and unseasonably cool here in New York today as training camp continues. I always wonder how the freshmen players from dry locales like Southern California or Arizona adjust to playing in the rain. It’s very likely that none of them has ever had to do that.
But this season, there are really only two new Lions hailing from dry areas. They are Marquel Carter and Jimmy Yukevich, both from Southern California. It really doesn’t rain that much here in New York, but I hope they’re getting used to it.
posted by Jake @ 8:50:00 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Jake, most of the bad mouthing and spreading of the Protocols of Columbia Football comes from Bags and his henchmen. I couldn't see a classy guy like Estes, for example, engaging in that sort of nonsense. But I put nothing past the Quaker staff.
Those assertions about CU never die. I live in the Philadelphia area. Many people from Eastern PA have an inferiority complex about anything that has to do with NYC to the point they want nothing to do with it.
It amazes me how many people to this day still believe that CU is basically in a war zone. When I ask them if they've ever been to our campus most say no, and when I then tell them that our campus is as safe as Harvard and much safer than Penn or Yale they laugh increduously out of ignorance.
Must get frustrating sometimes recruting against that pre-concieved notion, but wins will change the perception very quickly.
WC Fields said it all: first prize one week in Philly; second prize two weeks.
What other blogs or chat rooms are available for Columbia and/or Ivy football? I can't get enough of this stuff. As for disparaging comments on the campus environment, those folks are all wet. Dropped off the boy on Sunday and am still infused with New York energy. Everytime we are there we find more things to like.
Bruce Fleming also gone from roster. DL lost a couple good ones. Ouch.
Unfortunately many of the programs at Columbia (and other Ivys) have limited class times which makes it exceedingly hard to give the team full effort. I am actually suprised we haven't lost more players.
Andrew Heinrich, a 5-11, 175 freshman quarterback from the Dalton School in New York City is now listed on the roster. Heinrich played in the same prep league as offensive lineman Dan Cohen.
Hopefully some of those issues will be eased a bit by the new student athlete center being built at Baker Field. They should also try to institute some sort of training table for athletes that have to travel to Baker Field and often have to come back to the campus late after practice and the bus ride.
You heard it here first...Jimmy Yukevich has the potential to be an "All-Everything" lineman at Columbia. He's coming in at 6-7, 275lbs.
That is what i'm talking about.
Some of the incoming LBs seem small: around 200 or so. But then again, Alex Gross wasn't very big as a freshman, and the roster shows that he's now 225! As far as the poster on Yukevich and his great size, we can't really tell much from what looks like all star physical attributes, especially with linemen.
All four of the freshman linebackers come from outstanding high school football programs and are reputed to be excellent athletes. Any one or more of them could be standouts at Columbia. I rather have four very talented 190-200 pound freshman linebackers than a group of bigger linebackers who are not as talented.
Yukevich could be a good one, no question about that, but he will have to take his turn as Columbia has several excellent 6'7" offensive linemen returning who are ahead of him. There's going to be plenty of competition the next few years at the position Sandra Bullock made famous
Hey, Nick Gerst is up to 190 which could make him an even more dangerous runner than before.
The Lions' second opponent, Towson, will play Indiana on Sept 2 at 7:30ET, apparently to be televised on BTNA (Big Ten Alternative?), replayed on the regular Big Ten channel at 9:30PM that day.
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