At Columbia, transfer athletes fill crucial roles

Last Thursday night, I interviewed Brian Grimes moments after his 21 points propelled the Lions to a 75-70 win over Lehigh. I used the opportunity to ask Grimes, a front-court player for the Lions, about his perimeter jump shot, a weapon he showcased that night, going 9 for 16 from the field.

Interestingly, Grimes told me that the outside jumper has always been a part of his game and that the perimeter shot attempts will continue as he regains his touch and confidence over the course of the season.

The statement should come as good news for Columbia fans, who saw Grimes play home at Levien for just the third time of his career that night against Lehigh. But the fact that the junior forward’s jump shot is news at all highlights a peculiar dynamic of college sports particularly prevalent lately in Morningside Heights.

Grimes, a transfer from LaSalle, sat out the 2007-2008 season and missed all of 2008-2009 due to injury leading up to this year. His potential has been a talking point amongst Columbia fans for years now, and he has flashed that talent early this season, averaging 10.6 points and 7.7 rebounds so far. Grimes recently started the first game of his CU career, and is already an integral performer and leader on the team.

Yet we know so little about his game, and there are many questions left to find out. Will the jumper still be around during Ivy play? How will the body (especially the surgically repaired knee) hold up over the course of the schedule? Will fellow junior transfer Max Craig make an impact when healthy?

Craig, a seven-foot center from Montreal, has not played yet this season due to injury, but is expected to be healthy in time for Ivy play. His transfer from Loyola Marymount was not as hyped as Grimes’ arrival, but I think he could very well become a factor down the stretch this year.

I just don’t know. Such is life right now for the Lions, who are not alone at Columbia when it comes using transfer players in crucial roles.

Last season, then-junior and Temple transfer Shane Kelly was given the nod at quarterback over M.A. Olawale in the football team’s training camp. Kelly, a first time starter, went 0-5 before Olawale replaced him and led the Lions to their first win of the season over Dartmouth. Needless to say, Columbia fans are hoping Grimes has slightly more success.

The baseball team also welcomes in a potentially important transfer this season in junior Alex Godshall. Last season, Godshall played at Sante Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, where his Saints captured the Florida State Junior College championship. If head coach Brett Boretti decides to move strong-armed Alex Ferrera to third base to replace the graduated Mike Roberts, Godshall could very well become the next Lions shortstop despite the fact that no one on campus has seen him field a ground ball.

I am not suggesting that transfers are unique to Columbia. Off the top of my head, I know that two of the starting quarterbacks in the SEC this season were transfers (Mallett, Snead). Transfers actually have particular potential at a school like Columbia, where disgruntled players from bigger programs could, in theory, dominate the Ancient Eight at a school that often has trouble recruiting size and skill at vital positions. This is why we see have recently seen transfer players brought in at meaningful spots like quarterback, power forward, and middle infield.

Unfortunately, placing a new player at a crucial position is not a refined science. Grimes has looked solid to start the season, and has seven more games to get his health, rhythm, and confidence fully restored before the start of the Ivy League slate. But he is clearly not quite all the way back yet, as he shot just 1-12 from the field in Saturday’s frustrating loss at Stony Brook which sent the team to 3-4. Columbia scored only 60 points in that game, making them 0-4 when failing to score at least 65 points this season. Last year, the Lions went 8-2 when they scored 65 or more, and have scored over 70 in all three wins so far this campaign.

With Grimes averaging just over ten points per game, the Lions are at a turning point in their season. His scoring output has effectively replaced the presence of graduated big man Jason Miller, and Noruwa Agho’s bump in point production has the Lion offense looking lively. Columbia is already scoring about four points per game more than the squad did last season, and this collective scoring average is indicative of where the Lions currently sit.

The team is averaging exactly 64 points per game so far this year, just shy of a mark that, according to history, could lead to increased success for the Lions. Come Ivy season, Columbia may need only to find a few baskets more per game to challenge the cream of the league, and they need to look no farther than their two transfer big men.

Grimes has already shown the ability to get quality looks in the post, and he should get more comfortable scoring as the season continues. Then there’s Craig, a giant still mostly unknown to the Columbia sports community, but somebody who looks clearly physically capable of finishing two to three lay-ups, or even dunks, per game.

If Columbia gets the most out of its transfer forwards down the stretch, the Lions could finally eclipse the .500 mark in the Ivy League. But with just three career home games between Grimes and Craig to date, a more specific prediction is, at this point, too difficult to make.

In Defense of Student Media

Last Friday, an interesting column from the Columbia Daily Spectator caught my eye titled “In defense of blue and white.” It ran in the Editorial section but was actually a sports column about the football team.

About three paragraphs in, just as I was about to quit reading, I came across this bombshell: “The Columbia University football team has often received criticism for what ignorant observers see reflected in the scoreboard at the end of the fourth quarter or in the sports column the Monday after a game.”

Ahiza Garcia, the author of this article, goes on to say, “What they don’t see, because they are blinded by numbers and end results, are the private struggles that each member of the team undergoes.”

Because I have a sports column, and because I am often a critic of the football program, I found these comments to be particularly strange and off base. But I was ultimately too focused on preparations for the Saturday football broadcast to stay mad for long.

About thirty hours later, I found myself sitting in the backseat of a rented car, making my way up the NJ Turnpike after witnessing a painful second half collapse by the football team in Lafayette, and wondering what to write in the Spectator or say on WKCR this week. Then, I remembered the oddly placed column I had read the day before.

In the column, Garcia did a wonderful job pointing out the fact that Columbia football players work hard and sacrifice much for their sport. Unfortunately, he failed to mention the equally important second part of that statement: so do the players on opposing sidelines.

This is what makes Ivy League sports so great; the same pressures apply to every single athlete. Columbia football players are not special or unique in their off-field responsibilities when it comes to Ancient Eight play, so why treat them like they are?

Am I saying that the football players shouldn’t be admired for their commitment and dedication? Of course not. It’s just not an excuse for losing, and it never has been for any sport in this league.

Yet some, such as Garcia, demand and expect nothing from this football team because its members are just students who work really hard. We have a name for this mentality at WCKR: the “atmosphere of acceptance,” and it is one of the oldest traditions at Columbia. Only in this atmosphere could a sports section get attacked from within its own paper for accurately calling bad performances bad. It seems that far too many, including most within athletic department itself, have become more invested in the censorship of the student media than the success of the athletic program. Athletic failures have grown to be the norm here, and many folks around Morningside Heights truly believe it to be more productive to pity the football players rather than expect them to win. This mentality goes against everything I know and love about sports, and quite frankly, after reading Friday’s editorial and watching Saturday’s game, I’m tired of it.

Criticizing the football team is not “effortless” either, as Mr. Garcia claims. Talking Columbia football for an hour every Wednesday is hard to do without saying anything critical, as is pumping out a relevant column every two weeks. But who would try to talk about Saturday night’s game without being critical?

Honestly, would I be doing my job if I failed to mention that M.A. Olawale ran the ball six times on first down in the second half against Lafayette, despite averaging just 1.3 yards on those carries? As a result, the Lions faced second and long five times in that second half, and converted just one of the five for first down. Olawale’s other first down carry resulted in a lost fumble.

And wouldn’t I be remiss in my responsibilities if I did not bring up the fact that Ray Rangel, the Ivy League’s leading rusher by over 100 yards, ran the ball just twice in the second half, despite averaging 6.6 yards per carry in the first two quarters? Or the fact that the best player on the defense, junior captain and linebacker Alex Gross, may be out for the season after injuring himself on a special teams play?

None of these things reflect well upon a coaching staff that was thoroughly humiliated on Saturday night. But I do not level this criticism to be mean or indict the ability of the coaches. Norries Wilson and his staff just had a bad day, and he was the first to admit that at the post game press conference. I bring up these points because this football team cannot afford another coaching debacle this season, and putting pressure on the staff in my column or on the radio, no matter how little it may matter, just could change something come next week.

That’s the best part about being a member of the student media: I can be a fan. As a fan, I want nothing more than to see another Ivy League championship in a “major” sport (I jumped up and down on my bed in Carman when the baseball team finished off Dartmouth to capture the 2008 title), and I believe that my criticisms of the athletic program are always in pursuit of this goal. The athletic department has never understood this about student media groups, and they probably never will. The student population, on the other hand, is a different story.

There are still too many students who apathetically buy into the “atmosphere of acceptance” toward sports that permeates this university. But I also believe there are a growing number of students who are ready for a new era in Columbia athletics.

I’m just trying to make sure it gets here.

Around the League: Week 3

Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, and Lafayette survived to grab wins during a tense weekend around the league, while #6 New Hampshire rolled over Dartmouth.

Harvard and Brown led off a mostly tight Ivy League weekend with a thriller in Cambridge last Friday night. Trailing by ten with under a minute left in the fourth quarter, Brown began a furious comeback attempt when versatile wideout Bobby Sewall caught an eight yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero. The Bears (0-2, 0-1) were able to recover the ensuing onsides kick, eventually setting up three failed passes to the end zone from the Harvard 25 on the game’s final three plays. Junior quarterback and first year starter Collier Winters was the standout for the Crimson (1-1, 1-0), accounting for all three Harvard touchdowns in the 24-21 win and earning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors.

There was more late game drama on Saturday in the Yale Bowl, as Cornell held off Yale on the road for a win in a game that aired nationally on Versus. Cornell (2-0, 1-0) scored on their first offensive play of the game with a trick play, as senior wide receiver Stephen Liuzza hit Bryan Walters for an 81 yard touchdown pass. Yale (1-1, 0-1) dominated the rest of the game statistically, completing 15 first downs to Cornell’s 3, and running 35 more offensive plays than did the Big Red. Yet, Yale quarterback Patrick Witt’s first of three fourth quarter interceptions was returned for a touchdown by Ivy League defender of the week Anthony Ambrosi, stretching Cornell’s second half cushion to 14-6.

Witt was almost able to make amends in the final moments, as Yale gained possession with 1:37 remaining in the fourth quarter. The sophomore quarterback marched the Bulldogs into the red zone, and scored on a third and goal run with no time remaining. But the two point conversion try to tie the game fell incomplete, ruining the home debut for Yale head coach Tom Williams, and sending the Bulldogs to a 14-12 defeat.

Penn also nearly succeeded in their comeback effort Saturday, scoring two unanswered third quarter touchdowns to force overtime against Lafayette in Easton, Pa. Penn senior Kyle Olson threw for 83 yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter to lead the response while junior linebacker Zach Heller had 13 tackles (3.0 for a loss) and 1 sack to hold the Leopards.

In overtime, Penn (0-2, 0-0) kicker Andrew Samson missed his second 42 yard field goal of the game, allowing Lafayette (2-1) to convert on their first OT possession with a 28 yarder to seal a 20-17 victory.

Princeton also visited a Patriot League opponent this weekend in Bethlehem as the Tigers picked up their first win of the year against Lehigh. Despite losing reigning Ivy League rushing champion Jordan Culbreath early with an injury, Princeton was able to hold an early lead to edge out a 17-14 victory.

Lehigh (0-3) starting quarterback JB Clark was replaced after two interceptions, as the Mountain Hawks’ sloppy play prevented them from capitalizing on their possession advantage. Lehigh out-possessed Princeton (1-1, 0-0) by over twelve minutes and ran 28 more offensive plays in the losing effort.

The game was decided for Princeton on two big first half plays: quarterback Tommy Wornham’s 67 yard touchdown dash and linebacker Steven Cody’s 77 yard interception return for a touchdown.

The only game on the Ivy slate that ended in a rout was Dartmouth’s matchup with #6 New Hampshire. The Big Green (0-2, 0-0) stayed in the game early, out-possessing nationally ranked New Hampshire (3-0) by four and a half minutes in the first half and trailing by just six at half time.

However, 3 fumbles lost and 2 interceptions caught up with Dartmouth, who faced a second half onslaught and were outscored 24-0 over the final two quarters en route to a 44-14 loss.

Sophomore tail back Nick Schwieger rushed for 119 yards and senior quarterback Alex Jenny was 20-29 with 166 yards and two touchdowns for Dartmouth in the loss.

Culbreath Questionable

The Columbia Spectator's Matt Velazquez is reporting that Princeton's standout running back, senior Jordan Culbreath, sustained an injury in Saturday's win at Lehigh and is questionable for this weekend.

The reigning Ivy League rushing champ's absence would significantly lighten the load on the Columbia defense, which allowed 325 yards rushing against Central Connecticut State this weekend.

Rush defense, specifically containing scrambling quarterbacks, has been an early weakness for the Lions, who will encounter another mobile signal caller in Tommy Wornham this Saturday in Princeton.

Culbreath's status could be an x-factor for the Tigers, who would carry a dangerous advantage in the ground game with a fully healthy backfield.

Princeton and Columbia will do battle at 3 PM this Saturday. Coverage can be found at 89.9 FM in New York, and online at WKCR.org, where yours truly will provide the play by play.

My Special Teams Meltdown

You have to feel sorry for the Columbia defense this week. After allowing 325 yards rushing en route to a home-opening loss against Central Connecticut State, the Light Blue defensive unit now feels the pressure of a second underwhelming week despite high expectations.

But honestly, who could blame them? Just look at the first quarter they had to endure on Saturday.

It actually started out well, as the unit first jogged onto the field with a 7-0 lead and plenty of positive momentum still abuzz from the Liberty Cup victory. The energy was evident as the Lions defense held the Blue Devils on their opening drive after just 4 plays.

On the ensuing offensive possession, Ray Rangel broke a 49 yard run and the Lions looked set to put the game away early. However, the drive stalled and, in a disappointing turn of events, Columbia’s field goal attempt was blocked.

By the time the Lions defense jogged onto the field for the second time, CCSU had been rejuvenated by the stop and blocked kick.

But the defensive unit held strong and forced CCSU into a three-and-out.

On the proceeding punt, a Lion was charged with holding before the punter had kicked the ball, and thus the Blue Devils were awarded with ten yards and kept possession for a first down. It was another momentum shift for the defense to fight, and come through they did, getting another stop to force yet another punt.

Upon receiving the punt, the Light Blue offense failed to move the ball, and was forced to kick it again, this time from a dangerous position inside the Columbia ten. The kick was easily blocked by the Blue Devils, who recovered at the two yard line.

Junior Marc Holloway then stepped up, getting in on three of the four consecutive goal line stops that kept the score at 7-0 heading into the second quarter. To cap it off, the Lions defense opened the second frame by dramatically stopping star Blue Devil James Mallory again on fourth down to force a turnover.

Despite the blame this week, the Columbia defense was terrific to start the game. Unfortunately, the energy expended to minimize the early special teams damage would prove to have severe consequences in the second half.

Switching gears away from Saturday, there are certain things sports fans expect when rooting for their high-level athletic teams. One expects his pitchers to throw strikes, the same way he expects his star forward to convert a penalty kick during a soccer game, or his starting point guard to hit a majority of his free throws. Using this same progression, a football fan expects not to have to hold his breath every time his team attempts a point after or a punt.

This is because the special teams unit carries with it the minimum expectation of executing critical plays with consistency. Because this minimum expectation exists for all competing football teams, a squad finds itself at a true advantage when special teams play exceeds expectation. Think back to the excitement that surrounded Dante Hall’s kick returning abilities for the Chiefs in the early part of the decade and his appropriate nickname: “the x-factor.”

In much of the same way that a special teams threat can dramatically enhance one team’s chances, a special teams deficiency can have the opposite effect. This was evidenced during the Lion’s home-opener on Saturday.

In fact, poor special teams play has been a common theme for the Columbia football team for the past two seasons. Last week, a missed extra point had the Lions holding on to a vulnerable six point lead at Fordham when freshman punter Matt Williamson saved the game by scooping up a bad snap inside his own thirty yard line and still delivering a solid punt.

On Saturday, the Lions had a punt blocked, a thirty yard field goal blocked, an extra point blocked (and returned for two points), and a first down given up for a penalty while receiving a punt.

Aside from the possible six point swing these mistakes cost Columbia, the special teams meltdown hindered the Light Blue in a less hypothetical way. Mistakes in kicking and punting killed the offensive momentum in the first half while overexerting a defense intent on keeping the Blue Devils off the scoreboard.

In the second half, the offense continued to be out of rhythm despite the hot start, and the special teams unit continued to struggle. When all was said and done, the Light Blue were out-possessed 21:23 to 8:37 in the second half, as efficient CCSU coaching continued to call run plays against a battered defense, who never got a rest of more than two minutes and fifty six seconds of game time in the final two quarters.

I never said I was going to be an optimist every week, and sometimes the factors of a loss need to be thoroughly scrutinized to yield improvement. Last week, special teams unacceptably cost Columbia a victory, an experience that will hopefully prove beneficial to an up-and-coming team seeking to learn how to win.

On Saturday, they learned their first lesson: you cannot win if you beat yourself.

The Columbia D prepares for another big season

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.

The Long Road to Optimism

Somehow, I find myself feeling optimistic about the upcoming year in Columbia athletics. I say somehow because the horrific taste left in the mouths of Lions fans by the football, basketball, and baseball squads still lingers. And for good reason, as Columbia fans were treated to three of the most comically brutal season conclusions imaginable last year.

The fat lady made her first proverbial appearance last year in Providence to announce the end of the football campaign. I remember the game well, as I was sitting in the press box on that frigid afternoon doing color commentary for WKCR. In my pregame analysis, I excitedly pointed out the fact that the Lions were 2-2 with M.A. Olawale at the helm, and played up the fact that his big-play ability gave the Lions a chance to end Brown’s bid to capture their share of the Ivy League title.

Just as I optimistically predicted, Olawale broke a seventy yard run in the first quarter to tie the game at seven, and Columbia looked set to play spoiler. Then I watched in horror as it all fell apart. Three straight scores gave Brown a comfortable 24-7 lead. Then, Olawale was knocked out of the game with an injury at the same time that his backup quarterback forgot which team he was on, leading to two prompt turnovers to start the second half. As the game ended and Brown celebrated another conference championship, I remember thinking to myself, “What did we do to deserve such a devastating end to this season?” Unfortunately, the worst had yet to come.

Many more Columbia fans were in attendance for the second season-ending shocker of the year in Levien Gymnasium. The back-story for this one was even more intriguing, as the Lions had emerged during the course of the season to become perhaps the best home team in the Ivy League, sitting at 5-1 in Manhattan entering the final day of the season. Excited fans packed Levien that night, as they had all year, ready for the completion of an epic Princeton-Penn sweep that would give the basketball program its first season above .500 since the late seventies.

Now let’s fast forward to 0:03 of the second half. Noruwa Agho is at the line with one free throw attempt left and the Lions lead by 2. Agho misses, allowing Penn to gain possession and call timeout with 1.9 ticks left. The ensuing inbounds pass finds Penn senior Kevin Egee who proceeds to launch the last jump shot of his collegiate career from 35 feet out and SWOOSH! The crowd watches in shock as the Quakers celebrate and the silence in the gym is filled by the incessant moans of some overweight woman, sitting behind the Penn bench, belting Fight on, Pennsylvania. Apparently, the fat lady does not always sing opera.

Yet, perhaps the most disappointing of all the anticlimactic season conclusions occurred on the final weekend of the baseball season. Columbia, the defending champs of the Ancient Eight, actually had a chance at gaining a birth to the Ivy League Championship Series entering their four game set with lowly Penn despite underperforming for most of the year. The Lions needed to take all four games from the Quakers and to have Cornell and Princeton split their series, a scenario that seemed extremely possible. After confidently taking the first game of the set, however, the Lions tanked, losing the second game of the home doubleheader and getting swept in Philadelphia the following day. Interestingly, the Quakers won more Ivy games that weekend (3) than they had during the entire rest of the season (2). To add insult to injury, Princeton and Cornell split, making this season-ending catastrophe the first of the year to have championship implications for the Lions.

Agony aside, looking back on the past athletic season has allowed me to see why it was so uniquely painful: the presence of hope. The football team was transformed when Olawale took over at quarterback, and the team was 2-1 at home in the league this past year. The basketball squad was a miracle away from its best season in thirty years, and the baseball team could have (and honestly should have) secured a chance to play for its second consecutive Ivy League Championship with a strong performance on the final weekend. Now how many Columbia classes have witnessed such promise in a single athletic year?

This brings me back to my excitement toward this year’s athletic endeavors, beginning with the imminent football season. The Lions have an advantage this season over their four toughest Ivy opponents (Penn, Yale, Harvard, Brown), as they get all four at home. Combine this with the fact that Columbia’s three league road trips will all be winnable games (Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth), and you are potentially looking at a full slate of competitive Ancient Eight contests for the Lions.

Am I predicting an Ivy League championship? Of course not. But with M.A. Olawale, a favorable schedule, and perhaps the most talented defense in the league, four league wins are certainly within reach. Now that is something to get excited about.