POY Clarity

Nick Schwieger in 2009


The final weekend of 2010 helped clarify, for me at least, the tough race for the Bushnell Cup.

That’s what happens when one of the leading candidates for the Ivy player of the year award runs for over a 100 yards and scorews three TD’s in the last game of the season.

That candidate would be Dartmouth’s Nick Schwieger, who finished the year with an impressive 1,133 yards and an even more impressive 14 TD’s. He also averaged 4.7 yards per carry.

It’s true that Columbia’s Sean Brackett injected more life into his team than any other player this season, but Schwieger really got more consistent results and wins.

I don’t know if the Ivy coaches will vote for Schwiegger, especially because the Big Green finished 5th in the league. But I think they will, because he managed to play strongly even in most of Dartmouth’s Ivy losses.

I still think it would be even better if they just gave the award to the entire Penn offensive line, but that’s not going to happen.

Either way, we won’t learn the winner of the Bushnell Cup until the special new ceremony set for December 6th. I don’t know if they will announce finalists like they do for the Heisman Trophy, but I haven’t heard anything about that.

The All Ivy honorees should be announced sometime tomorrow.

Here are the three big questions I have that will be answered when that news is released:

1) Will Brackett be the 1st Team All Ivy QB? I think he was clearly the best QB in the league this year, but will the coaches reward a 6th place team in this way?

2) Will Alex Gross be a 1st Team All Ivy linebacker? No doubt. Will he be a unanimous choice? He deserves to be, but I’m not sure.


3) Will any other Lions make the 1st team? I think Andrew Kennedy deserves it at TE, but I am also not sure about the voters.

Tune in again in about 24 hours for the answers.


Sad Loss

I don’t know if there is a more appropriate place to make this announcement, but here goes:

Elizabeth Ann Dwyer, (nee Deruiter), A classmate and friend of mine from the class of 1992, and a great friend of athletics and Columbia financially and emotionally, died late last week.

She was 40 years old.

Beth came to Columbia because of athletics and rose to great successes in life after graduation.

Even though she left the swim team after her sophomore year, she remained a strong advocate for CU athletics for the rest of her life.

She had a lot of personal reasons to not be such a big supporter for Columbia sports, but she remained a big contributor and mentor for years.

She died Thursday of a cancer they caught too late.

She leaves behind a husband and two sons ages eight and five.

I am saddened and scared.

And yes, her loss has put the 2010 season into some perspective on my end.