CU football schedule preview

I think about Columbia football a little more than I should. What can I say? I just can’t help it. Even though I can’t attend the Spring Game this coming weekend, I’m graduating in a month, and the first game of the 2010 season is just under five months away. Columbia football is the first and only topic that crossed my mind for my final column—my senior column notwithstanding.

Since my co-beat writer Holly MacDonald covered the upcoming NFL Draft in one of her recent columns and beat me to the punch by blogging about the Spring Game on Spectrum despite knowing my plans to write about it today, I’ve decided to take on a different topic in this column. As I’ve already mentioned, the season is still about five months away, but I don’t think that should stop anyone from looking ahead to what the 2010 slate of games might have in store for the Lions.

The first and most important thing that jumps out when looking at the upcoming schedule is the abundance of home games, especially at the start of the season. Columbia will play six of its 10 games at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, with its opening four games all at home. For a team that will be relatively inexperienced compared to this year’s squad, it will be good for them to be able to work out the kinks in the first few weeks without having to worry about playing in a hostile environment.

As usual, the Lions will kick off their season against Fordham in the annual battle for the Liberty Cup. The Light Blue took home the cup for the first time since 2006 with a 40-28 win in the Bronx this past season, and the Rams will be out for revenge. This season-opening game is a must-see, not only because it will be the first chance to check out the Lions, but also because it marks the first Liberty Cup game in which Fordham will compete using scholarship players after the school decided to begin giving scholarships to football players beginning in the 2010 season. Will that sway more talent Fordham’s way and help them take the cup back? We’ll have to wait and see.

Week two brings back a familiar foe, as Towson will complete a home-and-home series that started in 2008. That year, the Lions went down to Maryland and lost a close one to the Tigers in a rain-soaked game at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Not much to say about this game, though if 2008 was any indication, these teams should be evenly matched.

With the third week of the season comes the Ivy League opener against Princeton. It will also be the first Ivy matchup for Princeton head coach Bob Surace, who played for the Tigers in the late 1980s and took over the head coaching position after Roger Hughes was fired at the end of last season. The Tigers, who had strong contributions from underclassmen in 2009, will be out to make a statement to the rest of the league that last year was an aberration.

The next two games feature teams against which Columbia currently has lengthy losing streaks. Lafayette will come to the Big Apple to end the Lions’ homestand, and the Leopards will, as usual, give the Lions a major test before they head into Ivy League play for the rest of the season. The last time the Light Blue beat the Leopards was in 2000—seven losses in that span—but that losing streak pales in comparison to the fact that Columbia has not beaten its week five opponent, Penn, since 1997. Penn is coming off an Ivy League championship season in which its defense, as we’ve come to expect from Penn, dominated the rest of the league. The Quakers won’t have co-Ivy Player of the Year Jake Lewko or first-team all-Ivy defenders Joe Goniprow and Jonathan Moore, but I think it’s safe to say defense will still be their strong suit in 2010. This is anything but an easy first road game for the Light Blue.

Dartmouth is chock-full of young talent, but the Lions will be out for revenge when the Big Green comes down for Homecoming in week six. The Light Blue put forth an uninspired effort against winless Dartmouth in Hanover last season and took home a well-deserved loss. No one’s going to look at the Big Green as an easy win this year.

After taking on Dartmouth, the Lions will embark on their longest road trip of the season—two games—as they take on Yale and Harvard. At this point in the season, the wear and tear of six weeks of games will begin to take its toll, but this road trip—whether the Lions are in contention or not—can serve as a statement to the rest of the league as to the future of the program. Taking down Yale and/or Harvard is usually something not easily done, so the Lions will have their work cut out for them.

The final two weeks of the season bring Cornell and Brown. Cornell, like Princeton, will be interesting to watch because it too has a new head coach—Kent Austin. The Big Red struggled in Jim Knowles’ final year at the helm, but with a solid crop of young players and a new coach, it could be on the rise. After having one of the best offenses in the Ivy League over the past four years, Brown will be looking to rebuild after the graduation of co-Ivy Player of the Year Buddy Farnham and the do-it-all WR/RB Bobby Sewall. Kyle Newhall-Caballero will still be under center, but with significantly fewer weapons in his arsenal.

That’s a quick look at the 2010 schedule from my perspective. If you want to get an idea of what the Lions will bring to the table, I suggest checking out the Spring Game on Friday night.

Matt Velazquez is a Columbia College senior majoring in history.
sports@columbiaspectator.com