Columbia "Reunion"

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Joe White



A Columbia "reunion" of sorts will take place this season at Bowdoin, where former freshman football and running backs coach Joe White is teaming up with another former CU assistant, Andrew Cohen as assistants on the Bowdoin staff.

It was White who developed so many great Lion freshman teams and RB's.

Cohen had a good run at Bucknell, for which he is best known.

Good luck Joe and Andrew!






My Own Horn

I don’t do this much, but I have to crow a little bit about my day job: senior producer of Varney & Co. on FOX Business.





This week, our top competitor, CNBC, made it clear it was aware and afraid of the Varney & Co express. The same CNBC network that is in nearly TWICE the homes as FOX Business, and has a 20 year head start, decided to throw the kitchen sink at us with a new Squawk Box show featuring almost every one of their well-known anchors.



That includes Joe "I really belong on FOX Business" Kernan. Jim "50.0001% of my stock picks are almost decent" Cramer. Carl "Stay at La" Quinta-Nilla." David "I'm so boring, I don't need to tell you I went to Harvard, but I will anyway," Faber. And many more.



And yet, on Tuesday in the 10am hour, Varney & Co BEAT CNBC in the all-important 25-54 age demo by a 28% margin!



Did I mention they're in almost twice the homes?



We've beaten them in the demo a few times before, but not with this kind of firepower aimed straight at us.



We beat them with our issue-based focus on the markets.



We beat them with a debate on taxes and charity.



We beat them with a priest, a judge and an Englishman.





There is a parallel here with what I do on FOX Business and what I hope to do on this blog and my Columbia coverage in general.



I believe in being as REAL as possible. I like stimulating respectful debate and not hiding behind too much data, bullet points, and other soul-less items that abound in sports and general news reporting and blogging today.



My show will eventually start beating CNBC every day because viewers will see that the raw data they need is right on the screen and there’s no need to waste everyone’s time reading numbers for our very literate viewers. They will stick with us because we will debate the issues behind those numbers – the things that affect their money – rather than just offering empty stock picks or “tips.”



There are some viewers who also like my propensity to feature guests who are Columbia football alums turned business giants!



And we always ask the key question to all athletes who come on the show, like Yankee great Bernie Williams who stopped by today.



I suspect this blog succeeds for the same reason. You come here for editorials, debate, and a chance to really sound off.



You can’t do that anywhere else.



No one else has the guts.









Top 100 Moments of 2010





#64: The Short Field Fiasco





How many times in recent years have we seen Columbia get a big score, only to lose the momentum with a bad ensuing kickoff?



The good news is that kind of thing happened a lot less in 2010 than just about any year I can remember. (In fact, in week nine against Cornell, the Lions pulled off a perfect squib kick at the end of the game that ended in a Big Red turnover and sealed the win… but more on that much later this summer).



The bad news is early in the second quarter against Lafayette last year, Columbia followed the spectacular 69 yard pick six by Alex Gross with a Greg Guttas kickoff out of bounds giving the Leopards the ball at their own 40.



Lafayette went right to work, completing a 19 yard pass on first down before stalling a bit and needing to convert a 4th and 2 at the CU 33 with a short little five yard pass.



Two plays later, the Leopards faced a 3rd and six at the CU 24. Leopard QB Ryan O’Neill then abused the same player who had embarrassed him moments earlier –Alex Gross – with a pass into the left side of the south end zone for a TD. Gross had missed his coverage of the receiver, Jerome Rudolph, on the play.



Just like that, Lafayette was back ahead by a 17-14 after a drive that took barely over three minutes.