Football Faces Cornell in Ithaca

Last season, Columbia’s first Ivy win came against Cornell. With only two games left, this year’s Lions (1-7, 0-5 Ivy) are looking for a repeat.

“The talent differential isn’t as big coming into Cornell as it is between us and Yale or us and Harvard,” head coach Norries Wilson said. “So we’re going out with some teams we should be able to compete better against, although we didn’t compete badly against our last two opponents.”

Cornell’s offense features two quarterbacks, junior Nathan Ford and sophomore Stephen Liuzza. Liuzza, who came in as relief when Ford was injured earlier in the season, is, as Wilson said, “running wild all over the place, like he’s playing sandlot football.” As a mobile quarterback, Liuzza poses a huge threat for the Lions, who have struggled to contain mobile quarterbacks all season.

The Lions will have to be especially conscious of where the line of scrimmage is, and to come out of their coverage only when the quarterback crosses the line—a mistake the team paid for against Dartmouth a couple of weeks ago.

After Harvard, Wilson said he felt senior quarterback Craig Hormann tried to win the game by himself, which led to costly sacks. This week, Wilson talked to Hormann about getting the ball out earlier and throwing it away to avoid the oncoming pressure.
“I just talked to him about playing confidently,” Wilson said. “Cutting loose and having fun, playing football and enjoying his last two opportunities to play.”

Establishing the run game, a major struggle for the team this season, will be difficult against the Big Red, as it likes to put an extra man in the box to shut down its opponents’ running game. But while the Lions main offensive weapon is the passing game, Wilson stressed the need to make the most of any and all opportunities on offense.

“I think that they [Cornell] feel like we’re a team that they can come out and beat because we haven’t had a lot of success this year,” Wilson said. “So we’re going to have to go out and play, and to get it to the fourth quarter we’re going to have to contain their quarterback and we’re going to have to score with the football with as many opportunities as we have.”