Ivy League coaching legend Al Bagnoli and his Columbia Lions travel to the Bowl this Saturday for a showdown at noon. The game will be aired on ESPN+. It will be perfect fall football weather at the Bowl with a temperature of 50 degrees at kickoff.
Columbia enters the contest with a 2-4 record, however, the Lions dominated Penn in a 44-6 beatdown and played very well defensively versus Princeton in a 21-10 loss. Bagnoli’s squads at Penn and Columbia have historically been difficult for the Elis to beat. In a battle of injury plagued teams last season, Columbia prevailed in a 17-10 victory as the Bulldogs struggled to tackle and couldn’t move the ball effectively on offense. Sophomore quarterback Ty Lenhart commands the Columbia offense, although junior quarterback Josh Bean played extensively earlier in the season. Lenhart has completed 64.9% of his passes for 518 yards, 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He is also a threat in the ground game as he averages 4.0 yards per carry and has scored 3 rushing touchdowns. Sophomore running back Ryan Young (5’9”, 225 lbs.) leads the team in rushing yards and was tough for the Bulldogs to bring down last season with his deadly combination of size and speed. Senior wide receiver Josh Wainwright is a dangerous playmaker that possess more talent than any wideout we have faced this season including Dartmouth’s Estrada. The Lions’ offensive line play has been up and down all season struggling versus Dartmouth (as most teams including Yale have as well), but clearly overpowering Penn’s defensive line. Tight end Rory Schlagerty hasn’t been a huge factor for the Columbia offense with just 12 receptions, but we expect to see Bagnoli try to get him more touches as the Bulldogs focus on shutting down Wainwright.
Columbia’s defense is likely the third best unit in the league behind Dartmouth and Princeton. Senior defensive end Daniel Delorenzi was a headache for our offensive line last year and has only improved this season posting 4 tackles for losses and 3 sacks. Senior outside linebacker Michael Murphy is a solid tackler with a knack for finding the ball. Senior middle linebacker Jalen Williams is a physical defender that has really stepped up this season in place of the injured Justin Woodley. Junior safety Ben Mathiasmeier leads the defense in total tackles with 40. Preseason 1st Team All-Ivy cornerback Will Allen is a shutdown defensive back that can play on an island. This is a game that will be won or lost in the trenches, so we will need tremendous intensity out of our offensive line for the full sixty minutes. If Rawlings absorbs hits like he did against Richmond, it will spell doom for the Elis.
Freshman kicker Alex Felkins is 5 for 8 on field goal attempts this season with two successful attempts over 50 yards. Punter Drew Schmid averages 37.4 yards per punt and has placed 9 punts inside opponents’ 20 yard line. Punt returner and kick returner Mike Roussos has been a momentum changer for the Lions averaging 19.4 yards per punt return and 23.1 yards per kickoff return. Roussos is currently ranked second nationally in yards per punt return.
Go Bulldogs!
15 replies on “Columbia Preview”
Gentlemen; just my two cents here the grim reality is our blue needs to put more pressure on the quarterback plain and simple. The Ben Franklin quarterback had all day to throw on third And 22 and 16 respectively. Our linebackers just are not fast enough on the blitz up the middle and any blitz is through a defensive back off the corner to be successful. Regarding our defensive backfield numbers 21 and seven can cover but can’t tackle numbers 29 and 48 as safeties can’t tackle and are chronically out of position in coverage Leaving receivers wide open. Unless our blue coaches are blind they should be able to figure out the obvious and hopefully will make corrections before the game with the Lions otherwise the secondary will once again make the next signal caller an all ivy candidate.
Old Blue, I believe we agree on some facets of the game and others we disagree. The penn QB was hit 17 times on 43 attempts last saturday, either immediately after he threw passes or before resulting in a sack. The defensive line is getting to the quarterback, the secondary just has to keep things under control for roughly 4 seconds, and last saTURDAY they failed to do this on multiple 3rd downs. When the bulldogs rush 3 however, your statement is extremely true. We simply don’t have the coverage ability to drop 8 defenders and wait for the QB to throw the ball. When yale rushes 3 defensive linemen vs 5 offensive linemen yale’s pass rush efficency drops drastically thus allowing the QB to wait for his receivers to elude yale’s mediocre at best pass coverage. Yale must rush at least 4 to avoid getting torched. SOme designed pass blitzes or line games could not hurt. With dathan hickeys 37 and rodney thomas 26 return this saturday (hopefully?) I feel our pass coverage will be improved.
to put the QB hits statistic in perspective, the san francisco 49ers have 27 QB hits throughout 7 games and are 7-0
Secondary needs to cover point blank period
Old Blue is on the money the first half will tell the story. They run the QB a lot and have good WR.If we have trouble covering there WR it could be a long day. There running game is not bad either.Our offense and defense lines have to be on top of there game Sat to win this game.The running game showed some spark last weekend they have to get better every game. Good play calling last Sat have to keep it up. Good luck .
We beat Columbia two years ago at the Bowl with the strong running of Dudek. He had an outstanding game. For some reason, perhaps a lingering injury, he doesn’t seem to have that same elusiveness as two seasons ago. For that matter our other talented rb, Lamar hasn’t seen many carries after 6 games. He had an amazing and important reception against Penn but other than that he didn’t play much. This was the pair of runners I was hoping would be the best tandem since Al Ward and Dennis McGill; or Rudy Green and Tyrell Hennings. We are going to need a solid rushing performance against the Lions as their pass defense was solid against us two years ago and is even stronger this season.
For two seasons now we have been hoping to see a measurable improvement in our own pass defense. Pass coverage was not a strong point in our 2017 championship team but the pass rush with Oplinger and Mullen was outstanding. Our success in the remaining games looks like it will depend largely on the superb trio of seniors Rawlings, Klubnik and Shofi.
Remember It Well speaks the truth about the 2017 pass coverage not being awesome, BUT a) those guys were generally covering solo as we focused on blitzing, b) they came up with many huge INT’s and fumbles, the ’17 D was awesome at winning the turnover battle.
I feel this game is key to the whole year. We have 100% chance of whipping a horrible Brown squad, and, sorry to say, a very poor chance of upsetting Princeton. Their O is awesome, our D pretty weak. Only shot at a win would be a shootout, I doubt it will happen on the road.
As for THE GAME, that will be a universe unto itself. Beat the Lions and we’ll be 7-2 heading into it, albeit with no title shot.
The defense of backs need to play with an intensity that they have not done yet this year with the exception of a few places here or there. This should be a very good game but I do believe that our bulldogs will prevail. Coming down the stretch if they play with the tenacity and heart they will be in contention for a title hopefully if someone can take care of Dartmouth.
Let’s go MEN of blue Take command and own up to your responsibility take care of your 20 yards.
Gentlemen; Mr. McGill and Mr. Ward a dynamic duo on offense were also excellent defensive backs who could cover a receiver and tackle.
To J-
In re OLs: Who besides Leone and Anderson have we signed up so far who has been pursued by others? I’m sure we have prospects waiting in the wings, but have any of them gotten offers from those we need to out- bid?
Are you in a position to post an updated list of recruits?
GABRIEL STEENHOF, OL, 6′ 4 ” , 260 LBS . RAVENSWOOD H.S.,
BRENTWOOD, TN.
KIRAN AMEGADJIE , OL , 6 “5 ” , 275 LBS . HINSDALE CENTRAL H.S.,, HINSDALE , IL.
Not when it’s that close.
Ray:
Not a biggie, but it’s Sleenhof.
Then why bring it up..?!!!!
The reason, Come on Man, as someone might have guessed is so that he can be found and his tapes looked at, if one’s interested in trying to figure out what we’ve landed. And your next question is…
No biggie but, it’s close enough