Storylines remain for football on final weekend

Despite the fact that the Columbia football team sits at a disappointing 3-6 (2-4 Ivy) entering the last game of the season, there will still be plenty of drama for Norries Wilson and his troops in the final weekend, and there is much to talk about this week.

Like Wilson’s job security. The head coach looked like a dead man walking just a week and a half ago. Columbia had lost five straight games during a season that was supposed to bring respect back to the program, and strange sideline behavior in the second half of the Harvard loss culminated in a penalty and jeers from the home crowd. It looked like he had one foot out the door.

But a week and a half later, things no longer look so certain. The Lions grabbed a respectable 30-20 win in Ithaca on Saturday to put them in a four-way tie for fourth place in the Ancient Eight, and this week’s game at home against Brown will give Wilson an opportunity to steer his own fate. A win over the 6-3 (4-2 Ivy) Bears would clinch a share of fourth place in the league and would serve as a strong statement about the stability of the program going forward.

However, a loss on Saturday would certainly make the future a bit hazier. Due to the nature of college sports, not having a coach can be scary for a program, especially in terms of recruiting. In order to minimize the damage of a change, the decision should be made quickly in order to give the new regime a legitimate shot at salvaging a recruiting class for the year.

Even if the athletic department plays its cards right and does make a decision in the next few weeks, and even if that decision is to move in a new direction, Columbia will face an uphill battle in finding a new head coach. The Lions graduate their three biggest offensive weapons this year, as well as most of the offensive line, and there is little proven depth behind these seniors. Recruiting football players to Columbia has never been easy (for reasons I will never understand), and doing it after the program’s potential “poster season” went south will be even more difficult.

Interestingly, Wilson’s strength during his Columbia tenure has been recruiting. Whatever class he is preparing to line up for next year will likely be better than anything a new replacement could muster. Which begs the question: how can the Lions maintain continuity and recruit through a coaching change in addition to making the decision quickly?

Your simple answer: promote an assistant.

Now I know promoting a Wilson staff member to take his position seems less like a concerted effort to change the direction of Columbia football and more like a lazy, cheap, quick fix. And I am not usually a proponent of elevating an assistant on a team that has had problems with consistency in energy and effort. In those situations, someone fresh is often the best way to go. But I believe that there is a Columbia assistant who deserves consideration.

Enter Aaron Kelton. The second-year defensive coordinator has coached the team’s best unit over the past two seasons, and his defenses at Virginia State, where he spent five years as defensive coordinator prior to joining the Lions, were consistently good as well. He is also a solid recruiter since he has experience as the recruiting coordinator at both Virginia State and Concord College. He preaches defense, is enormously respected by the players, and would best achieve continuity for the football program going forward. His lack of head coaching experience is a concern, but his familiarity with the program would likely make the transition to head man easier.

It will certainly be understandable if the athletic department decides to go in a completely new direction, though. The only advice I could offer in commencing the chaos of a coach hunt is that money talks.

Of course, this whole rant could be rendered irrelevant if Columbia can steal a huge win against Brown this week. The defending Ivy co-champs will come into Baker Field as favorites, but the Lions generated some momentum of their own last Saturday.

Quarterback Millicent Olawale grabbed his job back from freshman Sean Brackett and woke the offense in the second half against Cornell, leading his team to an Ivy victory in relief for the second time in his career. The defense was terrific in that game, and the rush offense is coping with the loss of Ray Rangel relatively well. Big Senior Day performances from Olawale and Austin Knowlin, a competent special teams display (a possibility now after the emergence of Dean Perfetti at placekicker this past Saturday), and another confident defensive effort could lead to one more twist in this wild season on Saturday afternoon.

Tom Di Benedetto is a Columbia College junior majoring in history.
sports@columbiaspectator.com