fordham beat columbia for the fifth straight season on saturday, but the last two of that handful of whippings have been real doozies . the defeat this time, by 49 -7 was, in fact, slightly more entire than last year’s 52 -7 homicide. by every statistical measure, other than points given up, the lions were worse than in the 2013 game. only the fact that the boys in blue suffered no terrible injuries made the loss at all bearable.
head coach pete mangurian has been interviewed in the most recent edition of columbia college today and has voiced his sense that the complete reconstruction of the program is moving forward and that the current team enthusiastically embraces his system and appreciates the holistic approach to their improvement. a few words from the horse’s mouth seem appropriate. “i can sit here and spend every hour i have with the players talking about ‘who do you block, who do you tackle,’ all those kinds of things. that doesn’t help them be successful here . . . . if you can communicate, be unselfish, be disciplined, be accountable . . . all those things are going to make you a good football player, too.” the results of this enlightened approach – 12 consecutive defeats. may we suggest that coach spend more time talking about blocking and tackling.
allgame is not cracking wise here, and it should be pointed out that we, along with the faithful hundreds who, five times an autumn, make the climb to our preferred perches in the underpopulated expanses of one of this country’s loveliest college football venues, hardly believe that winning is the only thing. a brief, bitter reminder of what we have endured is not out of place here.
twelve straight losses would reduce most fans to whimpering schoolkids. the lion rooter mans up and asks, ‘please sir, may i have another?” those of you familiar with the reagan administration will recollect that the lions dropped 44 in a row , a record for gridiron futility at the time, during those dark years. in retrospect, that wasn’t so hard to take as what we currently endure. those four plus seasons of perfect failure at least had suggestions of competitive equality. a blown tackle here, a dropped pass in the end zone there, a totally unnecessary holding penalty over here and one might specifically explain the general, unending indignity of our plight. the lions of that era always found a way to lose. but at least they left their supporters with the feeling that they were competing. not well perhaps, but still . . . .
these days, though, and we hope you hear our bitterness, the lions seem utterly overmatched. and we aren’t writing here merely of the 33 points per game by which they lost last season. i should pause, though, and let that number sink in. every week last year, the lions lost by six and one half touchdowns. of course, the loss on last saturday was by seven td’s. it was not the spread that drove us muttering from baker field, however. the deal breaker was the lions’ last play of the third quarter when with a minute twenty, more or less, left in the period, the boys faced a fourth and one at their own 42 yard line and called time out. trailing 28 – 0, and running out of time, the lions’ coaching staff seemed to have little choice but to go for it and we shrieked our approval when the offensive unit returned to the field. our joyful anticipation at the snap, though, turned to utter disgust at the ensuing pusillanimity. rather than try forcing a breach in the fordham defensive front for a quarterback sneak or throw a quick hitter across the middle for a few yards or, heart be still, run a play action fake and go for the long td, mangurian settled for the stale tactic of trying to draw fordham offside. having failed at that, the lions pitifully took a five yard delay of game penalty and tamely kicked the ball away. the faux play reinforced allgame’s quibbles with mangurian’s general approach to play calling but we’ll just say here that the vote of no confidence in the squad seemed to break the kids’ spirit. a general rout was on as fordham pushed another three touchdowns into the lions’ faces in that final, heart broken, period.
on the 27th, the team travels to the state capital for a meaningless game against the great danes of suny albany. a victory there, bereft of historical resonance, will be empty and a loss humiliating. that is the state of the program as the 2014 season gets under way making coach mangurian’s statement that his first years are “the strongest class we’ve had,” all the more lamentable. these newbies and their elders return to the banks of the spuyten duyvil to tangle with the always to be hated princeton tigers. these same tigers, we might add, dropped 50 on the blue last year. allgame will be in the stands on the first saturday of october, and it will be another opportunity to judge this work in progress. until then, we can only stand on our soap box and bellow, “let the boys play, coach.”
peace out and d up,
paulie b
Interesting that the nadir of the recent vintage Columbia football fortunes has led you to write one of your best blog posts in the AGNG era.
An antonym for Nadir is “Slough of Despond” from The Pilgrims Progress. I quote the phrase where this occurs and find a similarity to the state we find ourselves iu when at Baker Field:
‘This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.'[1]
But, just as the Pilgrim seeks helpmates to find his way out of the Slough (a nod to John Thomas of Seattle himself), I will join you for the Princeton game when the Young Lions of the freshman class of 2014 and the Stanford transfer QB look to set us on the path to deliverance.
I have to say that this post had me laughing out loud—-the comment from Rick A? Well, could it have been more erudite or appropos?
Winning is of course a beautiful thing—but being out there on the field of play is bigger than winning in my humble opinion. A crisp fall day—the sound of the band—cheerleaders prancing and yelling “Go, Lions!”—and of course the acrobatic fluidity of a completed pass …when it happens… Does it need to get any better?
Mark me down for the Princeton game, too, on October 4th…in fact, my bride, Denise might like to join in the fun.
Columbia football and the Mets? How much pain can you love? A question that quickly wanders into the more general morass of living.
Here in KY, we have UK football, which, our version of Stoops assures us, is getting better, getting better, every day, every game. So they almost beat a really mediocre Florida team and are actually favored !! against Vandy even though they’ve lost for the last 3 years. Huh. How about a matchup? The SEC-Ivy Challenge!
And yes, it was a painful year for this fan’s beloved Yanks. And likely to be more painful for about the next ten years. Our next third baseman is a petty criminal and possibly the most obnoxious figure in baseball, when he is remembered at all. The first baseman hit .219. One of the second basemen hit .179. Criminy. I might be able to hit that with a little batting practice. My mother maybe could. Can’t wait for next year, and the next one, and the next one.
Don’t you get this feeling about CU football?
Thanks. Take care, bro.
d