Buy High and Sell Low?

Don't even look Josue Ortiz in the eye... ahhhh!!!!


The best thing to do in investing is to grab assets when they are underpriced and sell them when they’re up.

But by unlucky coincidence, Columbia seems to be doing the exact opposite when it comes to playing Harvard this season.

The Crimson were limping around the field just a couple of weeks ago. They lost to Brown badly. They lost at home to Lehigh. They had some bad injuries.

But now, 2009 2nd Team All Ivy QB Collier Winters is back from injury and back in the groove. His return was a big reason why Harvard simply embarrassed Dartmouth on the Big Green’s Homecoming field last Saturday, 30-14.

Two Crimson strength has been riding consistent 52-week highs all season long. One is the play of the defensive line. Josue Ortiz is a very scary customer who can disrupt opposing offenses all day long. In this regard, Harvard is once again showing its long-running strength on the front line. Many Ivy coaches talk about how recruiting quality D-linemen is the hardest part of their job. It’s probably hard because the Crimson are getting all of them. They’re that good and that deep and it seems to be the case every year.

The other strength that’s been there all year is the running game. Gino Gordon and Treavor Scales comprise a very frightening one-two punch that’s totaled 1,254 yards and averaged seven yards per carry so far this year.

The other aspects of the Harvard team have had their ups and downs. The passing game hasn’t been consistent and pass protection is not exactly great. But with Winters back at the helm and playing as well as he did last week, both of those problems seem to be getting solved.

One problem that isn’t going to be solved right away is the loss of super WR Chris Lorditch to injury.

Some of the really scary stats show just how efficient Harvard can be when it counts. The Crimson are converting a healthy 41% of third down opportunities. They have 22 sacks, (more than three per game), and are winning the turnover battle week after week.

But for all the talk about Winters and the defense, Harvard is all about Gino Gordon and his ability to control games. He's a bruiser and he's making the overal Crimson offensive line look better than it actually is. Columbia didn’t do a terrible job against Dartmouth’s Nick Schwieger two weeks ago, but the Lions will have to do even better against Gordon if they hope to win the game.

Gordon is now a strong candidate for the Bushnell Cup, something he may win if he keeps his numbers up and Harvard either gets a share of the title or at least a 5-2 league record.

So considering that, can Harvard be beaten?

Brown and Lehigh did it by getting after the Crimson QB’s and making them pay.

But they also neutralized the running game somewhat, either by getting a big lead, or, (in Lehigh’s case), keeping close enough to be able to win with a late burst. The still somewhat gimpy Winters may be vulnerable to a furious rush and the Lions should come out more intense than Harvard as this game means a lot more to Columbia than it does to the Crimson.

Allowing Gordon to get his yards here and there won’t be so bad as long as he’s not converting every 3rd down or running for 42-yard touchdowns.

But defeating Harvard on the road will take nothing short of shock and awe from the Lions.

That’s the way it is now that the Crimson are riding an upward trend in their season.

Columbia has to prove that Harvard’s stock is at least a bit overpriced.