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Columbia Preview

The Yale Bulldogs travel to New York City tonight to face the 3-3 Columbia Lions. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 PM and the game will air on ESPNU.

The Lions began their season with convincing wins over Marist and Georgetown before running into a buzzsaw versus Princeton in a 24-6 loss. Columbia bounced back the following week with a big win over Wagner and then fell to both Penn (34-14) and Dartmouth (27-24). Junior QB Joe Green (6’4”, 225 lbs.) leads the Lions in passing with 947 yards, 7 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Senior QB Caden Bell (6’0”, 200 lbs.) replaced Green in the Dartmouth contest following Green’s disastrous performance against Penn (5 of 21 for 159 yards and 2 INTs). Bell completed 69.6% of his passes versus Dartmouth for 102 yards and a touchdown but was unable to really stretch the Dartmouth defense vertically. Senior RB Ryan Young (5’9”, 230 lbs.) is one of the best power running backs in the Ivy League. Young is averaging 5.0 yards per carry and racked up 120 rushing yards versus Dartmouth. Columbia has a deep stable of talented backs behind Young such as juniors Joey Giorgi (5’10”, 195 lbs.) and Ty’son Edwards (5’11”, 210 lbs.) and sophomore Malcolm Terry (5’9”, 200 lbs.). Sophomore WR Bryson Canty (6’2”, 200 lbs.) has had a dominating start to the season with 482 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns. Senior WR JJ Jenkins (6’2”, 195 lbs.) and junior WR Marcus Libman (6’0”, 185 lbs.) are favorite targets behind Canty combining for 51 receptions and 3 touchdowns. Senior TE Luke Painton (6’6”, 270 lbs.) is a huge target that hauled in a touchdown reception versus Dartmouth last week. The Columbia offensive line averages 298.0 lbs. across the board and features 4 returning starters including 3 starters that have been mainstays since 2019 in seniors Zach Minch (6’4”, 325 lbs.), Stew Newblatt (6’3”, 295 lbs.), and Will Hamilton (6’1”, 295 lbs.). 

Columbia’s defense is one of the stoutest units across the league limiting opposing teams to just 2.1 yards per carry in the ground game and a total 3rd down efficiency of just 33.3%. The Lions’ pass rush has been very effective with 15 sacks on the season. Sophomore DL Justin Townsend (6’1, 245 lbs.) has been one of the most impressive defensive linemen in the conference this season with 21 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 6 sacks and a forced fumble. Senior LB Scott Valentas (6’3”, 230 lbs.) was a 2nd Team All-Ivy honoree last season and is currently the leading tackler for Columbia with 48 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack and an interception. Senior DB Fara’ad McCombs (5’11”, 190 lbs.) leads the secondary with 39 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a pass breakup. Sophomore Aaron Brebnor (6’1”, 190 lbs.), junior Seth Park (5’10”, 180 lbs.) and senior Bryan Bell-Anderson (5’10”, 170 lbs.) are all returning starters at defensive back that will challenge Yale’s passing game.

Senior K Alex Felkins (6’3”, 200 lbs.) is 6 of 9 on field goal attempts with a long of 53 yards. Senior P (and WR) Cameron Burt is averaging 37.2 yards per punt, while senior P Andrew Donovan (6’0”, 190 lbs.) handled the majority of the punts versus Dartmouth for an average of 35.5 yards.

Go Bulldogs! Beat the Lions!

64 replies on “Columbia Preview”

I’ll tell ya I miss Carm and Seb LaSpina, They knew how to evaluate and use their players.

Maybe. But much as I love Carm there were several games that Yale lost in those first 15 years that I thought they should have won, just like Reno. And Siedlecki for that matter.

Having said that Carm did more with the best talent in the league until 1982 when the talent level fell off a cliff. Reno shares the best talent with P and H

Different eras, you can’t apples and oranges. When Carm , didn’t have a QB he Darin Kehler, from the baseball team to play football . Nuf said.
Reno, has head and shoulders more talent. Now. But he has a hard time on evaluating and using them to perform at their peak level. Forget Cahill.
Utilization is key, at this time. The coaching is suspect. POOR is being kind

Of course you can compare eras. What did Carm do with his talent which was the best in the league for the most part from 1967 to 1981 vs. what Reno does with his which is very good, but not always the best in the league.

Love Carm but last decade plus of his career sucked. Complaining about AI was weak. He and Seb got stale on offense and never really replaced Buddy on d. Definitely stayed on way too long. Beckett forced him out too late.

Stop. In Carm’s last 15 years, he won 1 Ivy Title. You pick out 1 year…what happened the other 14 years

Cozza, did a better job. He got hog tied by Bart Giamettis decision to Deemphasize college football at Yale.
Renos great recruiter, a good position coach . He is not a good head coach. As shown against holy cross, Harvard, Dartmouth last year. And so far this year against Penn. Glaringly shown in these games . Out coached

A depressing stat that for some reason came to my mind this week. From 1956-1981, the first 26 years of the Ivy League, Yale won 11 titles. From 1982-2021, 40 years, Yale has won only 5.

Yale isn’t Humpty Dumpty, As Bill Parcells said. I’m here to put my players in the best possible position to win games.
Yale has the talent, but be who you are if your ugly be ugly. But win the game. Not by mental mistakes. Taking a timeout and the play that’s called is mundane . Why even bother to take that time out for that play. We drew up better plays in high school for crying out loud.!!

Didn’t we already see this game last week. Defense gets tough inside the red zone, offense inept.

Time of possession right now

Columbia 14 minutes Yale 3

And we are a run the ball team. Can’t wear them down like that.

Good Job, get those points. Grooms , is doing a good job. Wr’s. Need to hold to those throws 4 drops.

This really is disgusting.

Do we have any kind of blitz package for obvious passing downs. Like 3rd and 12

Let’s see what Yale does to open the 2nd half since they get the ball first. So far, twice as many passes as runs.

HORRIBLE just horrible is this high school football. Where winning the game now lets see what happens in the second half. Grooms will throw the football to columbia during the game it will hurt us someway.Can we please throw the ball to the running back coming out of the back field please.Cahill has no clue on offense very disappointing he should not be a offensive coordinator in this league.I think they left the play book on the bus. Here we go second half time to start drinking.

Maybe more pathetic than embarrassing. This team has had every opportunity to put this game away. I see a last minute Columbia win.

Fortunately, the only thing less-existant than Yale’s running game is…Columbia’s running game.

Why? Columbia is stacking the line daring Grooms to beat them with the pass which is what he is doing. Doesn’t’ Columbia had best rushing d in FCa?

Not sure it was a good idea to pass the ball or kick a FG with a 22 point lead. Is it just me?

Good 2nd half, especially the D.

Boola Boola Boola Boola
Boola Boola Boola Eli Yale
(Second verse same as the first)
(Third verse same as the second)
Etc.

Sluggish start, nice finish. 5 minutes left, up by 22, please take the starters out. Why risk injury?!?!

Very nice win. Excellent performance by Grooms which could have been even better without the dropped passes. Defense played a great game, especially in the 2nd half.

Again I say, don’t despair
They’re hard to watch at times but that was a solid second half.
I see good things coming at the end of the season

OK, Granberry lording over the guy he took out he got taken out. Stop the BS . Why did he keep Grooms in for so long.? Gonna get that kid hurt. They were already late in the 3rd qtr

I don’t think Yale had an unsportsmanlike or a pass interference penalty. Unless I missed one. That’s would be a major positive.

This blog turns quick…first half wanted Grooms pulled because he can’t pass…by q4 wanted him pulled so he doesn’t get hurt. Love the lack of intellectual consistency in the Internet

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