QB Issues!
See you next year?
We got issues people.
At the beginning of the season, the chatter in the Ivies was that Columbia's QB Sean Brackett was very good but his running game would make him too likely an injury victim.
Well, now the best purely passing QB in the Ivies is out for the season.
Brown's Kyle Newhall Caballero broke his wrist late in the game against URI last week. (Thanks Bruce Wood for alerting me to that).
Another top QB in the league with injury issues, Penn's Keiffer Garton, saw limited action yesteday. Garton was five of seven for 32 yards and an interception. Penn's other QB and co-Ivy offensive player of the Week last week, Billy Ragone, was suspended for the game yesterday for undisclosed reasons! Ryan Becker got most of the snaps at QB for the Quakers and he was a decent 14-22 for 194 yards, one TD and one INT.
And Harvard's Andrew Hatch was held out of the game against Cornell yesterday as a continuing precaution after his concussion against Brown in week 2. Harvard already lost 2009 starter Collier Winters to an injury in training camp.
Clearly, Columbia has been very lucky to keep Brackett healthy so far and will have to work hard to keep him that way without abandoning what has worked so well for them through the first four weeks of 2010.
And, just a little complaint here:
The two or three weeks, there has been MAJOR injury news from several teams that no coach in the weekly Ivy media teleconference has bothered to mention.
Harvard's Tim Murphy decided to hold Hatch out of last week's game at Lafayette at least 24 hours before the call on 9/27. But there was no mention of that. Brown's Phil Estes must have known Caballero was done for the year by last Tuesday.
I like having the conference call, and I realize that injury news is not a right in college football, (let alone the secretive Ivies), but this is getting a little silly.
posted by Jake @ 6:19:00 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
At this time, Columbia clearly has the best quarterback in the Ivy League in Sean Brackett whose play has been near flawless. However, the Lions obviously needs to make certain that they have two players behind him that can step and help direct the team to an Ivy League Championship. That's one of the reasons why the junior varsity games coming up with Wagner and Army are so important.
Jake, may I ask whether you believe that next weekend's game between Columbia and Penn will determine the 2010 Ivy League Championship?
There's no doubt next week's game will have big championship implications. It's also the biggest game for Columbia in 7 years. More on that later.
Saw a nice little in interview with Penn coach Al Bagnoli on the Penn atheletcs website. It is a regular feature on the website before each game. How about a similar weekly sit down interview feature with N. Wilson--call it the "Fairway Market Norries Wilson Show" (?)
It's very sad when a senior, who's put in so much time, effort, is out for the season, especially this early in his last year. Rangel's situation comes to mind, of course.
If poster #5 is referring to Mike Stephens, it may be that he can return for a fifth year. Can you confirm, Jake? (and maybe Gutierrez also?)
I can confirm that there is a very good chance Mike Stephens will apply for.5th year status.
I can confirm that there is a very good chance Mike Stephens will apply for.5th year status.
Having Stephens back would be phenomenal...The winner of the Columbia-Penn game would still have to play Brown, Yale, and Harvard. It is a long way to go. We must have a better defensive scheme if we are to compete with the first division. The talent is clearly there.
oops, the "very sad" comment was about the Brown QB, forgetting Stephens for the moment for whom I have great sympathy. I sure hope he'll come back for his 5tgh.
Difficult to believe that Lafayette is 0-5 given that it has an excellent offensive line, a fairly good defense, a decent quarterback in Ryan O'Neill and some very fast runnomg backs and wide receivers. Keep in mind that the Leopards nearly defeated Penn in a game where O'Neill only played a minor role due to injury. Incidentally, there are some nice photos of the Columbia-Lafayette game on the Lafayette athletics website,
I assume that Ragone will be back for our game. He can run. We'll ned to play better defense this Saturday.
Thanks for the heads up on the injuries, Jake.
Not knowing almost cost me last week. We need to know this info before making our selections.
For Lafayette to attack us well they had to deal with two situations. First, the youth of their OL. Second, the speed and gang tackling of our D. They schemed for both. First, they used misdirection and counter-action, using the strength of our speed against us. All of their big gainers came on deception and/or misdirection. Our safeties bit up and our DE's crashed down. Also, they ran quick, short routes so their line didn't have to hold their blocks long, and we couldn't apply pressure effectively when the ball is out so quick. But, we had to adjust, which we did. Yet, you saw how other O's can attack us. Use our strength - quickness and gang tackling - against us. And don't keep the QB in the pocket with the ball, for very long.
Shame for Brown about their QB...seems like a decent kid and a good coach.
Regarding Penn....was looking at the stats thru 4 weeks....pretty clear that our wins are no flukes and that we know how to score points. But when was the last time we beat Penn at Franklin field?@#!? We have to expect a tough D and an offense that is regaining steam. They will have seen our D's weak spots and will try to exploit.
I think they will need to score 24 points to beat us as I cannot see Brackett/Kennedy/Gerst/Guttierez/Ivery/Kouruma/Hamilton et al being held down to fewer than 3 TDs. We let a TD in Princeton game and a TD in Lafayette game because of broken coverage. If we can fix that then we'll improve our chances greatly.
I think this will be a neck and neck game where each team scores three offensive TDs and it is decided by special teams and defense.
24-21 Columbia!
It's great to see so much enthusiasm for the Lions this season. I left the ISB board because of all the constant,uncalled for degrading of our team and the fact that the 'so called' moderator allowed it to continue while censoring criticism of other teams.
Let's hope the NYC press starts recognizing how good this team and its QB really are this year.
GO LIONS!
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