Behind Enemy Lines with WKCR Sports director Miles Johnson

Normally on Behind Enemy Lines, we interview a player or coach from one of Penn’s upcoming opponents. This is one of the exceptions as I spoke with Miles Johnson who is the sports director for WKCR, Columbia’s student radio station. Johnson covers all of Columbia’s football games and we spoke about Columbia’s quarterback situation, the Lions’ struggling secondary and whether Columbia can pick up a win this season.

Daily Pennsylvanian: Starting with week one and Brett Nottingham getting hurt, how can you describe the quarterback situation?

Miles Johnson: It has been tough, including from my standpoint trying to predict what the team will look like week to week. Nottingham went down week one with a wrist injury against Fordham after he had really been pressured a lot during the game. The offensive line has had issues all season and he was forced out of the pocket from a blitz on his left side, so he rolled out and tried to make a play and fell on his wrist.

Going from there, knowing he wasn’t going to make it back for the rest of the season, they have been in flux because that is a huge question mark now with who is going to be at quarterback. I actually just got finished talking with coach [Pete] Mangurian who has now named Kelly Hilinski, who is a 6-foot-6 true freshman, to be the starter until further notice.

Before then, it had been [Trevor McDonagh] the game after [Nottingham got hurt] against Monmouth and since then, they have been doing trial runs for each player, Hilinski and McDonagh, both at Princeton and at Lehigh.

For me, I don’t think it really matters who plays quarterback for this football team. For this incarnation of the Columbia Lions, that isn’t their biggest problem. McDonagh and Hilinski are about the same in terms of ability at this stage in their careers, although Hilinski obviously has a lot more upside.

DP: With the struggles at quarterback, the Lions’ security blanket has been Marcorus Garrett at running back. What can you say about the performance of Garrett so far this year?

MJ: I think Marcorus has been a beast all year. In the first three games, we were all clamoring for him to get more touches since I believe the game at Monmouth was the one where he had 15 carries for over 150 yards and there are some games where he is averaging near that from the first time he touches the ball.

Some of that is the offensive line because they are better at run blocking but some of that is because he is just an explosive back. With [Penn senior Brandon Colavita] being out, I look around the Ivy League and it looks like Marcorus Garrett is one of the best backs in the league. A lot of that is because his ball-carrying vision is just so incredible. He makes holes where they absolutely don’t exist and he has a lot of quickness laterally.

I don’t think this team has relied on him enough if that is even fair to say. He got a few more carries last week but I feel like he should be getting 30-35 touches every game because they have had so many issues at quarterback. Part of that is because when you watch these games, Columbia gets down early and you can’t run the ball if you want to stay competitive.

DP: Moving on from the offense, the defense has put up some pretty bad numbers, including giving up 52 points to Fordham and 53 points to Princeton. Where have been the major holes on the defense?

MJ: I think you pointing out Fordham is a little weird but the 53 points against Princeton is fair. I think it is the secondary. I am much more satisfied with the way the front seven have handled the defensive side of things, especially with some teams coming in and struggling at first to run the football.

Part of that is also due to injury. We talked about Nottingham being out but Seyi Adebayo who was a captain of the team and was really the lynchpin. He and [Zach Olinger] really held that front seven together. I like the linebacking core a lot. I think Olinger and Vinny Pugliese have done a pretty good job, but it has really been the secondary that has been abysmal.

Outside of Travis Reim – who did a really good job against Monmouth facing a receiver that was much bigger than he was – [Jeremy] Mingo has really struggled. So has Malcolm Thaxton at the other corner position. And with the exception of one hit that Marquel Carter put on [Lehigh receiver] Lee Kurfis in the third quarter of that game – knocking the ball loose on what would have been at touchdown – he has struggled, too.

It has been a lot of blown assignments. And I hesitate at this point blaming it all on the players because the way that the defense have been scheming, it has not been working. You go one week where you let Roman Wilson of Princeton get a ton of yards receiving and then you go the next week and let Kurfis go for 14 catches, 130 yards and two touchdowns.

It seems like the other team’s best receiver really does play well against Columbia and sure, part of that is because our defense blows an assignment but at some point, they have to sit down and say if we are going to be beat, it isn’t going to be by Lee Kurfis or whomever. I don’t care if you have to put the entire team on that one guy, he’s not going to beat you. But that’s not what we’ve seen so far.

DP: With some of these blowouts and tough losses, how do you go about covering these games and filling air space on the radio?

MJ: It is definitely tougher for the games that are blowouts, but this team is never boring. Even if it is the coach bringing in the true freshman in at quarterback that no one expected or whether it is commenting on the brilliance of Marcorus Garrett so far, this team is really not ever boring.

It is tough when the games are blowouts, but there are flashes of hope in some places. I think we kind of comment on that and we just try to have fun with it. Columbia is certainly interesting in terms of its football history and we talk about that a lot. And we just try and capitalize on your opportunities so every time we see Zach Olinger make a nice read, we are sure to go ahead and talk about that.

And the thing too is that we are not here to serve Columbia athletics so if we are going to be on the air for two hours during a game and we see objectively that they are doing something wrong, we are going to talk about that. And that is true whether they are down three points or down 300 points. If Malcolm Thaxton gets burned on a corner route, then he gets burned on a corner route and that’s what we are talking about. If Marcorus Garrett rushes for a 65-yard gain, then that’s what we’ll talk about, too.

As long as there is a game going, that’s what we’ll be talking about it … and as objective journalists, we are literally calling it as we see it.

DP: Two years ago, the team waited until the last game of the year to pick up its first win. Do you think that this team is fated to go 0-10 or do you see a win on the horizon for this Columbia team?

MJ: I don’t know. It is really hard to say and I’ll preface all of this by saying that this schedule is tough for anybody. It is a tough schedule no matter who is playing it. You’ve got Dartmouth on the road for their homecoming which is always tough. And the schedule they’ve had so far – seeing Princeton on the road – is tough. You never want to open against Fordham with the way Fordham has been playing. You’ve got Yale on the road.

Honestly, I don’t see them winning more than one game and it seems like it may be another “win or go winless” Saturday against Brown. Going into the season, I thought Yale might be the one weak spot where you could potentially see a win but Yale has played really awesome football so far and I don’t see them beating Cornell. If it was Cornell at home for the Lions, I could see them coming out with a win, because besides [senior quarterback Jeff Matthews], Cornell doesn’t have a lot going for them.

But that being said, Cornell up at Ithaca is going to be tough. And Lehigh didn’t really have all that much going for them except [quarterback Brandon Bialkowski] and he eviscerated them for 320 yards. With the way that this secondary has been playing, it doesn’t seem like you need much more than a decent passing game. And with someone like Jeff Matthews back there, it is really hard.

So that’s why I’m hesitant in picking Cornell [to lose to Columbia]. I have a tough time seeing Columbia coming away with more than one win. Two wins would be a huge success.

Part of that, if we are being completely fair, is injuries. We were talking about it on [WKCR sports radio show] “The Firing Lion” last week about how many wins does Brett Nottingham make up for individually. I think it is kind of weird to think about in football because it is not like basketball or baseball because it is so much harder to calculate.

But at the same time, there are some games that Columbia would have been able to be competitive in if their defense hadn’t been on the field for so long and that is symptomatic of not having Nottingham. This is a Lions team that has been in the red zone five times all season. A Columbia team that is absolutely atrocious on third down, looking at the statistics they are 9-for-53, and Mangurian talked about that, too.

Against Lehigh, the defense all things being equal, did a pretty decent job, considering the line in Vegas was over what the Broncos-Jaguars game was. And I think that is a testament to how well the defense played and they would have had a chance if the offense had been able to move the ball. And they can’t do that right now since they don’t have anyone to do it at quarterback.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, maybe they’ve got a shot against Cornell if the offense really shapes up and is able to hang in the game but at this point, Columbia is reliant on the defense to win games. And it is really tough to rely on the defense to win individual football games, so it is looking like we might have another “win or go winless” Saturday at the end of the year.