The true stars of the Columbia football team are no longer secrets. At least not to opposing Ancient Eight coordinators, who surely spent the summer planning a way around the Lions’ two defensive standouts, Alex Gross and Lou Miller.
Any good coordinator would, as the pair emerged as the two most dominant defensive players in the Ivy League last season while leading an upstart Light Blue defense whose obvious potential has many Columbia fans eager for opening day.
However, this is not the first time in recent years that a Columbia defense has been hyped entering the season. Just three years ago, the Lions excited supporters by finishing second in the Ivy League in total defense, due in large part to an adventurous and innovative 3-3-5 formation. Big things were expected for the following season, but Columbia’s 2007 defensive performance failed to match the hype, as the Lions allowed nearly a hundred yards per game more than the previous season and finished the year with a total defense ranking of sixth in the league.
The weakness of the 2007 Light Blue defense was stopping the run. The Lions were last in the league in rush defense by a large margin, a fact that forced head coach Norries Wilson to consider a major defensive overhaul.
The 3-3-5 defense was designed to utilize an undersized defense through frequent blitzing and complex coverage schemes. Ultimately, the plan in such a formation is to avoid a smash mouth battle against an oversized offensive line by creating chaos with added defensive backs.
What Wilson realized after the 2007 season was that he no longer needed to attempt to organize chaos. Consecutive solid recruiting classes had evolved the Lions roster by the start of the 2008 season and now gave Wilson a defensive group with added talent, depth, size, and options.
Thus, the switch was made to a more traditional 4-3 setup for the 2008 season, a move that immediately paid off for the Lions. Columbia’s D managed to shave 72 yards per game off of the total from the previous season, and its stars shined in the new system.
Then-sophomore Alex Gross led the Ancient Eight in tackles by nearly a full tackle per game last term while junior Lou Miller held the league lead in sacks and tackles for loss by season’s end. Together, they form the core of a Columbia defense which expects to make headlines in 2009.
Yet, there is more to the highly touted defense than its two stars. Take, for instance, junior Adam Mehrer, the playmaking free safety who led the team in interceptions with four last season. “We definitely want to be the best defense in the Ivy League. … We’re going to set the bar high,” Mehrer stated on Media Day last Saturday. Hardly the only Lion with such lofty goals, Mehrer is part of a secondary led by fourth year starter Andy Shalbrack that will face much scrutiny in the season’s opening weeks.
The secondary weathered some criticism last season for its propensity to allow big plays, as was highlighted in the homecoming loss to Princeton. Much of these troubles were blamed on a lack of experience, as Calvin Otis, a sophomore, was featured alongside Kalasi Huggins, a freshman, as the starting cornerbacks last season.
This year, experience will play a positive role for this group, or at least that is the hope of strong safety Andy Shalbrack, who explained last Saturday that “experience is something that’s invaluable going into the season.” Good thing the Columbia secondary now has plenty.
All four starters are back this year, as Otis and Huggins showed much improvement over the course of the 2008 season and Mehrer and Shalbrack return to their roles as the starting safeties. The safeties will be backed up by two talented and experienced juniors, Augie Williams and Dan Myers, who exemplify the impressive new depth of this Columbia defense.
Another position in which the Lions seem to be particularly deep is the linebacking core, a group led by the ever-present junior Alex Gross, Columbia’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Like Shalbrack, Gross voiced his confidence in the Lions’ experience last Saturday, saying, “When you look around the league and look at the experience this team has, this has got to be the year that Columbia football really turns things around.” To make that turn around happen, Gross has to demonstrate his own experience, as he gets set to replace graduated senior Drew Quinn as the leader of the linebackers.
Despite the loss of Quinn, the Lions still have multiple legitimate options to line up alongside Gross. Junior Matt Moretto returns from injury this season and should compete with senior Corey Cameron for time on the outside, while fellow junior Marc Holloway made a sizable impression on the coaching staff this summer and could earn a starting spot at middle linebacker over senior Josh Williams. Add senior Clark Koury to the mix and you have six veteran players to fill three positions.
Despite the plentiful depth and talent among the seven rear positions of the defense, the real key to the Lions’ success lies up front on the defensive line. Two seasons ago, Columbia’s rush defense ranked eighth in the league as the Light Blue allowed a staggering 231.1 yards per game on the ground.
In 2008, a defense rededicated to stopping the run finished third in the Ancient Eight in rush defense and allowed only 104.3 yards on the ground, a remarkable improvement over the previous campaign. Much of this turnaround could be accredited to Owen Fraser, the 280 pound super-recruit whose size at nose tackle gave the Lions a legitimate defensive anchor on the line. His presence coupled with the lightning-quick pass rushes of All-Ivy defensive end Lou Miller gave the Lions a successful dynamic in the trenches last season, a dynamic the Lions will look to keep intact this year.
Unfortunately, opposing coaching staffs will be looking to ensure just the opposite, as this season, Columbia’s aggressive new defense will no longer be the Ivy League’s best kept secret.
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