Columbia Aiming To Topple Reigning Ivy League Co-Champion Dartmouth

Upper West Side NY

22 October, 2021

11:43 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY BERNARD WANG OCTOBER 21, 2021 After a shortened practice week, Columbia football will travel to Hanover, New Hampshire on Thursday evening for its upcoming game against Dartmouth. The Light Blue will try to knock off the defending Ivy League co-champion in its only Friday night game of the season and its second of six consecutive Ivy League games to close the season. The Lions (4-1, 1-1 Ivy) are looking to build on their strong start to the conference gauntlet after their Homecoming victory over Penn (2-3, 0-2 Ivy) last Saturday in the program's 400th win. However, Columbia has dropped two games in a row against Dartmouth (5-0, 2-0 Ivy)—most recently suffering a 59-24 blowout in 2019—and will face a team of a similar caliber on Friday. The Big Green remains undefeated this season after a 38-21 statement win on Saturday over the University of New Hampshire (3-3), which was ranked No. 23 in the Football Championship Subdivision entering the game, earning Dartmouth the No. 25 ranking and Stats Perform FCS national team of the week honors. Head coach Al Bagnoli attributed the Big Green's undefeated record to strong showings across all three of its units. "They're good on offense where they run and throw the ball well, with a lot of shifts and motions, and give you some schematic headaches with a really solid defense," he said. "They're really sound in the kicking game. … 'Complete' is the word I would use, from top to bottom." The Dartmouth defense is led by reigning Ivy League defensive player of the week and linebacker Jalen Mackie, whose 10-tackle performance against New Hampshire earned him the award for the second time this season. Mackie's 41 tackles lead the Ivy League, and he headlines a stingy Dartmouth defense that is only letting up 13.2 points per game, good for second in the Ancient Eight. The rest of the Big Green's defense is similarly formidable, according to quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Ryan Larsen. In addition to Mackie, Dartmouth boasts an impressive secondary, which has only conceded 155.8 yards per game. Rather than depending on a handful of stars, Dartmouth has a "really solid cast of guys" who play mistake-free football, according to Larsen. "They're very, very, very fundamentally sound. They're extremely well coached and they're extremely disciplined," he said. "So the good thing is you know where they're going to be, but you also know you're going to get a heck of a battle." However, sophomore quarterback Joe Green will look to challenge Dartmouth's shutdown defense on Friday. Green will continue throwing to sophomore wide receivers Marcus Libman and Wills Meyer, with senior wide receiver Mike Roussos completing the starting trio. Libman and Meyers have turned into Green's favorite targets this season, leading the team in receptions with 17 and 14, respectively. "The three were the new guys … in the summer," Larsen said about Green, Libman, and Meyers. "I think that they gravitated toward each other, and it's been really cool to see that turn into production in the game." While the passing game faces a steep challenge, Columbia should have an easier time running the ball against Dartmouth's rushing defense, which ranks third worst in the conference. Seniors Ryan Young and Dante Miller are once again listed as dual starters, but Miller has been on fire recently, exploding for 187 and 136 rushing yards in the past two weeks. Averaging 8.0 yards per carry en route to 550 yards on the season, Miller is the engine for Columbia's third-ranked rushing attack. On the other side of the ball, the Lions will face an offense that has applied equal pressure through the air and on the ground, with upwards of 200 yards per game in each category. The Big Green is led by a dynamic quarterback tandem of Derek Kyler and Nick Howard. Kyler is coming off a career game against New Hampshire, where his 325-yard, two-touchdown performance nabbed him the New England Football Writers Association Gold Helmet Award. Columbia will have the unique challenge of slowing down Dartmouth's unconventional rushing attack, which has pounded opponents for 200.6 yards per game. Howard, who has only thrown 11 times this season, leads the team with 449 rushing yards on 67 attempts. While the Lions had no film on Howard prior to this season, fifth-year strong safety Ben Mathiasmeier noted that Friday will not be the first time the Lions have seen a rush-heavy quarterback on Dartmouth's roster. "He does a similar job to what [former Dartmouth quarterback Jared Gerbino] did," Mathiasmeier said. "He runs hard—he definitely lowers his shoulder and runs like a big running back in a sense." The Lions do not want a repeat of their earlier game against Princeton, in which quarterback Cole Smith gashed them up on the ground with 64 rushing yards and handed the Lions their first and only loss of the season. However, the Dartmouth quarterback rushing strategy employs a different style. According to Bagnoli, Dartmouth uses a power downhill attack, as opposed to the read-option plays used by the Tigers. Mathiasmeier, junior Bryan Bell-Anderson, and seniors Will Allen and Jordan Colbert will start for a secondary that limited Penn quarterback John Quinnelly to 6 of 25 for a meager 83 yards last week. They will have help from a linebacker unit that will be starting sophomore CJ Brown, senior Cam Dillon, and junior Scott Valentas. The Lions are dealing with the injury bug on defense, playing without senior safety Fara'ad McCombs and fifth-year linebacker Justin Woodley. Luckily, one of Columbia's strengths is its depth in the linebacker and secondary units. Linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Justin Stovall said that when faced with injuries, the team can "really lean in on their experience to always end up with the best two linebackers that are going to give us a chance to win each down on the field." The Lions are also facing some uncertainty regarding the Big Green lineup, as starting running back Zack Bair sat out against New Hampshire, and it is unknown to the Lions whether he will return for Friday's game. However, Bair's backup Noah Roper filled in admirably, rushing for 108 yards on 6.8 yards per carry. Stovall gave credit to every Dartmouth skill position, and said "their personnel is as good as it gets." Between game-planning for two quarterbacks and an offense equally effective in the air and on the ground, the defense found studying film from two and three seasons ago especially useful for this matchup. "[They have the] same offensive coordinator, so [they use] a lot of the same schemes that we've seen in 2019 and 2018," Mathiasmeier said. Despite the looming pressure to put together a conference winning streak, Bagnoli said the team is solely focused on the task at hand. "We're trying to go 1-0 this week," he said. "You can't look forward; you can't look back. The cast of characters changes every week; your opponent changes every week. You try to do the best you can to isolate that one game." Kickoff is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPNU and ESPN+. Staff writer Bernard Wang can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator Sports on Twitter @CUSpecSports. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.