This is the year for Columbia

At least according to this Spectator column.

The author does make some good points, specifically that the offense is senior-laden. So's the defense. In fact except for the special teams unit -- "the kicker can’t make PATs and the punter had an 11-yard punt against Princeton" -- the team appears to be the strongest in the Norries Wilson era. Add in a home schedule that includes games against four of the top five Ivy teams, and the author thinks Columbia can stay in contention until the last week, if not win the whole thing.

In short, if the hapless Ivy squad doesn't breakthrough this year and at least compete for its first Ivy title since a split championship in 1961 then Wilson should probably be fired. At least according to the author.

That same year the Lions last won some hardware, they also shut out an Ivy opponent on the road (Yale). The next time the Lions accomplished that feat? This past Saturday at Princeton, winning 38-0. So clearly Columbia is capable of both putting points on the board and shutting down an opponent's offense during Ivy games.

So how does this affect Penn (which the column describes as the only Ivy team that "has good kickers")? The Quakers can't waltz into Baker Field a week from Saturday and expect to win big, like the 2007 59-28 victory. Just last year at Franklin Field it was 15-10. And as commenter "'96" said on Neil's column from Monday, "We've got a test in two weeks with an improved Lions squad in NY (their homecoming) that will not be a gimme. They've got a huge offensive line to complement Olawale. Lose that one, and the rest of the season becomes academic."

At the least the game on the 17th should be competitive. And maybe by the end Roar Lions Roar will finally have something to um roar about.

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In other football news, The Inquirer is saying sophomore John Hurley will start at quarterback for Penn Saturday versus Bucknell (HT SPL twitter). When Eli asked some questions for my football notebook, Lyle Marsh told him "John Hurley is the starting quarterback right now." However, Bagnoli did say it wasn't completely settled, so hence my notebook says it's still up in the air. My feeling is that Hurley is slated to start, but Bagnoli would prefer Olson if he improves his knee by then. At the least, I'd be quite surprised if Olson still doesn't see a decent amount of action.

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In personal news, I'm sorry I haven't been able to contribute that much in the past couple of weeks on The Buzz (outside of comments). I've been much busier than in past semesters, so hence the lack of posts. But after Noah posted at 6 a.m. last night, I thought, hey why can't I do the same?