“It’s good to be home.” This was head coach Jim Engles’ main takeaway from the Lions’ home opener for the 2019-2020 season.

Eight weeks into a season that has primarily felt like a disappointment, the Lions may have finally found a rhythm in last week’s thrilling 17-10 overtime victory against Harvard.

This was the game the Lions have been waiting for all season.

While the Columbia football team has not played up to expectations this season, you would never be able to tell by talking to them. Injuries to key players combined with shaky quarterback play have led the Light Blue to its worst record at Game 7 since 2016. Despite this, the Lions’ confidence remains unwavering.

While football has struggled to win games all season long, the Lions have been able to find some silver lining in each of their losses. In the resiliency Columbia showed against Dartmouth and the solid 45 minutes of defense against Princeton, the coaching staff had something positive to focus on after the game. However, it will be a tall task for the coaching staff to find anything positive to focus on after the Lions’ 45-10 loss to Yale (6-1, 3-1 Ivy).

Nobody could use an extra day off like the Columbia football team. After a season that looked so promising at the start, the Lions currently sit at 2-4 with a 1-2 record in the Ivy League. While some of these losses have come at the hands of formidable opponents, it is difficult to call a team successful when it has 0.333 winning percentage.

The Lions knew going into the game that it would be a tough matchup with the current Ivy League-leading Dartmouth Big Green, so Columbia put up a competitive effort—for the first 21 minutes. Over the last 39 minutes of the game, Dartmouth scored 42 points before the Lions were able to get back on the board in the closing minutes of a 52-24 loss.

Despite being only five games into the season, the performance of the 2019 Lions has varied so much that one might wonder whether head coach Al Bagnoli is trotting out the same squad each week. Despite the wide spectrum of performances from the Lions over the course of the season, the roster has remained almost identical since September, outside of a few injuries here and there. Now, the main question heading into the team’s week six matchup against the 16th ranked Dartmouth Big Green is not so much who will be playing, but rather which version of the Light Blue will turn up in New Hampshire this Friday?

After three straight losses, football reclaimed an offensive prowess it has lacked all season, dominating on both sides of the ball en route to a 44-6 blowout Homecoming victory over Penn on Saturday at Wien Stadium.

After a 1-3 start to the season, the Lions are hoping they can turn their season around when they face against Penn in front of what will be a raucous homecoming crowd.