Our New NEC of the Woods

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Thanks to Big Green Alert’s Bruce Wood for noticing that our week 4, (and Dartmouth’s week two), opponent Sacred Heard has released a preseason prospectus with projected starters and lots of other goodies Ivy teams just don’t seem interested in releasing these days.



As Bruce points out, Sacred Heart had a top notch QB last year in Dale Fink. But “had” is the operative word, because Fink has graduated along with a lot of the optimism surrounding the program last season.



This will be the first-ever meeting between Columbia and Sacred Heart and it begs the queston: will Sacred Heart’s NEC football conference become the new Patriot League for Ivy teams?



That’s possible if the pro-scholarship forces in the Patriot League win out in the end.



In some ways, the NEC has already replaced the Patriot League for Columbia in ever-increasing fashion.



The NEC is made up by Sacred Heart, Albany (our week two opponent), Central Connecticut State, (a team we played and lost to in 2009), Duquesne, (a team we played and defeated in 2005), Monmouth, Robert Morris, St. Francis and Wagner.



Five of the above teams are within one hour trips from the Columbia campus, making them inviting home or road games for both sides.



But is that what the fans want?



Let me know…





Top 100 Moments of 2010







#89: Towson’s Ground Attack




After Fordham just kept testing and testing Columbia’s run defense in week one, (see moment #93), other teams followed suit week after week.



For Towson, that moment came on the Tigers first possession of the second quarter.



Taking over at their own 20, Towson ran the ball six straight times getting all the way to the Columbia 46 before a two yard loss on the sixth attempt pushed them back to the CU 48.



From that point on, the Tigers mixed the pass and the run more often and eventually made a 28 yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.



But for the second time in 2010, it was obvious that Columbia would need to shore up its run defense in order to win games, especially against the better teams coming up on the schedule.