A False Messiah Named Tommy
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Once again, I HAVE to start my post today with a push to buy Columbia football tickets and also donate to the team.
Somebody has to do it, and these young men playing for us deserve so much more.
SO, BUY TICKETS NOW!!!
Seriously, buy your tickets NOW for the Columbia home games and BUY EXTRA! Get your friends and family to come and make it an outing.
DONATE
You can do that by clicking here, and tell them Roar Lions Roar sent you!
Seriously, PLEASE do that by adding a note if you can if you send a snail mail donation or online in the comments section, (if there is one).
I don't get a commission, so this is a charitable request.
Tommy Wornham
Princeton Pride
Princeton's athletic website has some preseason preview videos including a look at the Tiger offense with Offensive Coordinator James Perry.
As I reported many times last year before and during the season, Perry has been toxic to the Princeton program and his inability to get the existing players he inherited to band behind him last year was the #1 reason why the Tigers finished 0-7 in the league.
For some reason, Craig Haley and the rest of the Princeton apologists never seemed to notice.
And the pundits this year are making another mistake this year when it comes to how optimistic they are about the return of QB Tommy Wornham.
To hear Haley and the rest of them tell it, Princeton's woes last season were ALL because of Wornham's mid-season injury.
One problem: they weren't.
Wornham played EVERY down of the Tigers' humiliating 42-14 defeat at Columbia.
And he played EVERY down of Princeton's 44-10 loss to Colgate.
Wornham is a talented kid, but... please.
Please.
Princeton's best case for optimism lies on the other side of the ball where LB Steven Cody returns for a fifth year after missing almost all of last season to injury.
I don't expect James Perry and the offense to really improve until all of the previous coaching administration's kids have graduated out of the program, and that won't be for another year or two.
Idle Day
All of Columbia's non-conference opponents are off today, so this is the perfect weekend to first enjoy some big-time BCS-level football, (you know, if enough of the players haven't been arrested yet), and the beginning of the NFL season.
I'd be going out of my mind to get Columbia started by now if I didn't know that the Lions and just about every other Ivy team needs every one of the remaining seven days before their openers to get prepared.
The long layoffs and the distractions of classes starting make shaking off the rust very difficult. I expect the offenses to be rustier as usual once things get started.
GET READY!!!
That said, get ready for my complete Ivy season preview and predictions set to publish this Monday.
Each day after that until the season's opener on Saturday will be dedicated to in depth analysis and player profiles for our Lions.
Be sure to check it out as I introduce "The Killer M's Defense," (do you think that nickname will stick?), talk about the promising freshmen, release my projected two-deep, profile the PLAYERS with a special focus on our TEAM CAPTAINS,... and a whole lot of stuff you won't get anywhere else!
It'll be like that ancient relic, the published media guide... which the Ivy League in all its wisdom decided to eliminate, to cut costs and er... save a tree.
Of course, that was because we know all our players get PLENTY of promotion and coverage in the general news media, so who needs home-grown coverage and promotion?
(Psst... the above sentence was supposed to be sarcastic).
Top 100 Moments of 2010
#7: Cummins' Incredible Catch
With 2:37 left in the game and trailing Cornell 17-13, Columbia got the ball back to begin one last chance to win.
Three times previously that season, against Fordham, Dartmouth and Yale, Columbia had been in virtually the same position and failed to score.
Would it happen again?
The final drive didn't start out well with an incomplete pass and a run for no gain by Nick Gerst.
But then QB Sean Brackett ripped off a 16 yard run and the Lions were in business.
Four plays later came one of the most athletic plays of the 2010 season.
On 2nd and four from the Big Red 27, Brackett threw a pass a bit low into the middle of the field but WR Ian Cummins went horizontal to make the incredible grab at the 12.
The catch eliminated any doubts or lack of confidence that may have been lingering in the huddle.
The pay off was coming just moments later.
posted by Jake @ 6:51:00 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
I note 24 seniors on the roster. Good retention/morale.
Retention has generally been a great achievement for this staff. But the loss of TE Chris Mooney last year and DL-turned-OL Joe Raimondi this year sting right now.
On the Wornham thing.
If Princeton are banking on his return to turn things around, it's an empty tank. We all watched him in the Columbia beat down. I saw nothing spectacular there at all. Good enough to be a starter...but that's it.
What is the back story on Mooney and Raimondi?
It's not right to get into any personal stories of the departing players in this forum, (I don't know them anyway), but they are gone and that's a shame.
Yes, on the Wornham thing: virtually no Princeton fan said "ALL" (your original emphasis) of Princeton's woes were due to Wornham's injury. Any objective observer of the League last year knows Princeton was hit hard by injuries on both sides of the ball, including one of the League's leading returning defenders in Cody, a top DL in Reid, and an experienced DB in Wakulchik to start with, as well as Wornham. Princeton fans noted those losses, and some also questioned playcalling and strategies (And Haley, whatever he said, was a reporter not Princeton apologist.) Wornham was the one experienced QB on the roster, so his was significant. But virtually no one pinned the season's results solely on any one player loss.
The lack of depth at QB last year is a separate story, as is the relative wisdom of playcalling and schemes, but this is incorrect blogging about what Princeton fans were saying about Wornham and Princeton's woes.
Princeton's "apologists?" If that term is appropriate for Princeton fans, how much better does it fit the fans of some other schools in the League?
I was not referring to fans... but the coaches and yes, people like Haley who were making too much of Wornham's injury. The cool video Princeton posts with Perry is all about the injury and nothing about the other problems his offense had which pre-dated that injury and had nothing to do with the defensive players lost.
looks like we have a Princetonian on the site....cool. I would love nothing more than for Columbia to beat you guys down three years in a row!
Chen '82
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