Kind of a Big Deal
Wells Childress
6”4, 263-pound Texas A&M defensive lineman Wells Childress, (son of NFL great Ray Childress ), is transferring to Columbia.
This is mostly thanks to a well-meaning professor at A&M who saw some academic promise in Childress, (you see, I don't hate ALL professors!), and a few of the CU players who hosted him last weekend. He also liked Coach John Gutekunst, (and this leads me to believe that Coach Gutey will be the D-Coordinator soon)
Wells actually walked on at A&M, but he was a preferred walk on and the CU people think he will be a serious impact player.
He should have three years of eligibility left after being redshirted in 2009.
Childress attended Kinkaid high school where he starred as an OL and DL for the football team. I have no documented Kinkaid grads coming to play football at Columbia on my Lionfeeders site. So Childress could be the first.
Wells' dad Ray... big guy
Schedule Clarity?
All this back and forth about Columbia’s future schedules lately could have been solved if I had just bothered to look through the voluminous Ivy League Sports Football Media Guide.
It turns out there was a “future schedules” page on that site all along!
Is it official? Is it authoritative?
Who knows?
But here’s what the media guide says about the next two years of Columbia football:
2011
S17 at Fordham
S24 Albany
O1 at Princeton
O8 Sacred Heart
O15 Penn
O22 at Dartmouth
O29 Yale
N5 Harvard
N12 at Cornell
N19 Brown
2012
S15 Marist
S22 Fordham
S29 Princeton
O6 at Lehigh
O13 at Penn
O20 Dartmouth
O27 at Yale
N3 at Harvard
N10 Cornell
N17 at Brown
posted by Jake @ 1:58:00 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
Outstanding development! Bags must be fuming.
Actually, the choice was between us and Yale.
Terrific news! Go Lions!
schedule is correct with the exception of Sacred Heart being replaced by Georgetown.
I heard that some very promising high school linemen will be visiting Columbia the next few weekends. Has anyone committed yet from the Great Southern States of Alabama, Florida and Georgia?
Check out Vinny Pugilese's video on voyforums. A big stud LB and FB who looks great on both sides of the ball. An impact kid from a big Ohio Catholic HS.
I hope a preferred walk on is more meaningful than a preferred bank customer
An impact player of some size for the D-Line. A clear need now being addressed. Good stuff
Chen 82
Two terrific pick-ups for the Lions! A real energy booster for the Columbia defense. Childress will help Columbia in the middle of the line and Pugliese could be a very worthy successor to Alex Gross. I love the fact that all three of our incoming linebackers, so far, are listed at 6'2" or better and at least 210. Nice also, that Childress and Pugliese come from great football states (Texas and Ohio).
I agree. It seems HS football is played at its highest level in TX, OH, PA, CA and FL and to have (from the video I have seen) two proven defensive pickups from these states makes me believe these kids could have a real impact on this team as early as next season. Now if we only knew who was going to grab the defensive reins and coach these kids as the new D coordinator
Because he is transferring from another program, will he have to sit out a year?
No. Transfers from FBS to FCS are eligible to play right away.
If he gets up to speed quickly, he should make a good counterpart to Fraser (if he stays healthy and in game shape) and Groth (could have been a preferred at UofM?) which should give us a strong "big" middle DL. This is especially good since Fraser and Groth will be seniors and Wells more importantly could be a key player after that.
Owen Fraser's name comes up a lot in these posts, but without sounding negative, he hasn't played in 2 years, basically. Does anyone really know if he intends to come back and what his updated status is.
Ben Popeck is another outstanding interior lineman who has excellent range and mobility. If Popeck can add some weight, he could become a standout Ivy League player. I also liked Shad Sommers' play towards the end of the season. In fact, I think the Lions are going to be very strong up front next year with or without Owen Fraser, although, it would be great if he can return to his freshman year form.
Hunter Little looks like a very promising prospect at defensive end.
I apologize, I forgot about Chad and there was also a Freshman I can’t recall that played in the first couple of games that has potential.
Popeck is very talented, but, his size hurt us after we started play the bigger lines. Maybe they will consider moving him to an end position assuming the "big" guys are getting the job done.
As far as the comment on Fraser, even if he stays health and gets back in game shape, just like everyone else on the team he will need to prove himself.
Not Columbia football, but two other outstanding student-athletes from Houston, Texas have recently committed to Columbia, namely Ashok Narayana, the 49th highest ranked men's tennis player in the United States (5th in Texas) and Crystal Leung, the 62nd highest ranked women's tennis player in the United States (3rd in Texas). Columbia's defending Ivy League Champion men's tennis team, also has commitments from the 31st, 70th and 71st highest ranked tennis players in the United States. Seems that all our spring sports teams are having very good recruiting seasons.
To the poster on Tennis thanks. That is really cool information. I know this is mostly a football Blog but a little news on other sports would be nice to see on a regular basis. Just a thought.
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