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!