Bird Dogging

We're Watching the Competition



Sad News

Scott Anderson '82 has passed away. I am sorry that I don't know that much about him other than he came to Columbia from Hamburg, HS in Hamburg, NY.

Those of you with memories of Scott's time at CU please feel free to write them in the comments section.

Waiting Game

With training camp still in progress and 11 days to wait until the season finally starts, Columbia fans are pretty much forced to focus on news coming out of their non-league opponents.

Lafayette

At least week four opponent Lafayette is sort of in the same board. The Leopards had a bye week while most of the rest of the Patriot League kicked off the season.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better and more navigable Internet site than the Lafayette football web page.

The video box to the right includes the Lafayette TV broadcast team previewing the season and the big news is that the starting QB decision has been made and the job is going to junior Ryan O’Neil, (and it’s good to see him moving ahead with his life after the death of Farrah Fawcett and his terrible acting job in Love Story. Sorry, had to do that joke).

Anyhoo, another good part of the preview is listening to the announcers bemoan the fact that Lafayette has to wait an additional week to begin its season. Of course Columbia and the rest of the Ivies have another week to wait after that!

The Leopards open their season this Saturday at home against Georgetown and then take on four Ivies in a row beginning with Penn at Penn, Princeton at Princeton, Harvard at home and then Columbia at Wien Stadium on Oct. 9th.

Lafayette will be a heavy favorite against Georgetown, so a close game in that opener would be very telling.

Fordham

One of the bright spots in Fordham’s 44-30 loss to Bryant Saturday was the punting of sophomore Patrick Murray. That’s something for Columbia to watch as the Lions will have to field a new punt returner this season after the graduation of Austin Knowlin. Mike Stephens did do some punt returning in 2008, but I doubt he’ll be called upon to do that this season.


Towson

After a predictable 51-17 loss to Indiana Thursday night, week two opponent Towson looks to have a great chance to break into the victory column against Coastal Carolina this Saturday night at home.

After that, the Tigers will take on a team that could be better than Indiana when they play the Villanova Wildcats on 9/18.

Then it’s on to New York to face our Lions.


Penn

There is actually some intriguing news coming out of one of our Ivy opponents. It’s apparently not 100% who will be starting at QB in week one for Penn as Keiffer Garton is being handled with kid gloves by the Quaker coaching staff. Garton is coming off multiple knee injuries, the latest suffered in spring practice.

Can Penn win without a healthy Keiffer Garton at the helm?

They did last year, mostly due to one of the best defensive units in recent Ivy history.

This time around, the Quakers have other weapons. Sophomore Billy Ragone is back from a collarbone break in the Dartmouth game last season and figures to give Penn’s offense a better shot in the arm than Kyle Olson provided much of last year when Garton was hurt.

(Incidentally, Garton was relatively healthy for the Columbia game last year and despite throwing two bad INT’s, it was his most important overall performance of the year, natch. I was particularly awed by the bulls eye he threw to Matt Hamscher in very tight coverage for the go-ahead TD).

Based on last year’s results, Penn certainly could win the title without a healthy Garton for 3-4 games. But this is a new year and the Quakers will be hard pressed to be as good on defense as they were in 2009.

Columbia travels to Penn to face the Quakers on October 16th.