Countdown to Spring
The official news release
Ahhh... Springtime
about Chris Woods joining the CU coaching staff as defensive coordinator is now live on the GoColumbiaLions.com website.
Can you guess the three words I have for Mr. Woods?
You guessed it: “STOP. THE. RUN.”
Spring Numbers
The spring game is just 44 days away, which means spring practice is just about three weeks away.
Here are some key figures on the Lion squad going into the spring sessions:
Total Players: 82 (a nice high number, but it may be more like 79 or 80 once we see the roster updated in the days before spring practice officially begins)
Seniors: 24 (including two 5th year seniors)
Juniors: 30 (a bumper crop, considering that most players who do leave Ivy football teams usually leave between sophomore and junior year)
Sophomores: 28 (a mostly unknown resource right now… a lot of this is spring practice will be about finding some potential contributors from this crew, especially at linebacker, running back, and wide receiver)
About 20 of the returning players have at least some experience as starters, but the offense returns a great deal more experienced starters than the defense.
Thus, the practices and stretches in the spring game that pit the top offense against the top defense will be quite interesting.
posted by Jake @ 8:32:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
My understanding is that there will be three fifth year seniors--Paul Havas, Mike Murphy and Mike Stephens. All three are important players. As to the sophomores, with the exception of the few players who saw varsity action, we really know nothing about the class. I would hope that in the upcoming season the Columbia Sports Information Department provides better coverage of the junior varsity games than it is has in the past.
Below is from a Detroit paper on Greg Mattison, Michigan's new DC who was hired away from his position as the DC for the NFL's Ravens, which just confirms what Jake and others have been repeating:
As for his defensive philosophy, Mattison said the Wolverines will be "highly aggressive" when spring practice begins March 19.
"Our biggest thing will be stopping the run," he said. "Any place I've ever been, your defense starts with not allowing people to run the football. That's going to be a big thing for us. (Also), you can't allow teams to get big plays. I've always had the philosophy if the offense has to go 80 yards (slowly), there's a lot of mistakes that can happen in those 80 yards. Give them 50 yards in a chunk? That's anywhere."
-Dr.V
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