Columbia Football: Option on the Opttion

Olawale scores vs. Dartmouth (credit: Columbia Athletics)


A few days ago, I wrote about the Ivy League's apparent shift back to running quarterbacks. It's not the whole league, by any stretch, but the trend is catching on.

Of course, no discussion of Ivy League football and running quarterbacks in the modern era can exclude the name of Mike Cavanaugh. For all of the 1994 season and most of the 1995 campaign, Cavanaugh was at the helm of a potent Columbia offense that made historic strides and played a consistently exciting style of football.

In the 1994 season, Cavanaugh and a very talented passer named Jamie Schwalbe shared duties. While the Lions defense was evolving into a strong force (this was Marcellus Wiley and Rory Wilfork's breakout year as well), it was the shuttle offense Columbia used that season that kept them in games week after week.

The high point of the year was a two-week stretch when the Lions first whipped Yale at the Yale Bowl 30-9, and then edged Princeton 17-10 at Homecoming. Columbia was inconsistent in the twilight of the season, but the Week Nine 38-33 win over Cornell, in which both Cavanaugh and Schwalbe played flawlessly, clinched the first winning season for the Lions since 1971.

After Schwalbe graduated and Wiley suffered an injury that ruled him out of the 1995 campaign, many predicted that Cavanaugh and Columbia would suffer a terrible year. But the Lions came out strong with a thrilling 28-24 win over Harvard to start the year, and followed it with a 24-14 win over Penn a few weeks later, ending the Quakers' winning streak.

But a broken leg in the Week Seven loss to eventual Ivy champ Princeton ended Cavanaugh's career and Columbia's hopes for another winning season. Ironically, Cavanaugh injured himself on a passing play, not during one of his gutsy runs that made people worry so much about potential injury.

That history has to be on a lot of Lions fans' minds as we head into the 2009 season with a quarterback like Millie Olawale, who is definitely the most talented option QB that we've seen since Cavanaugh.

Olawale's injury in the Brown game has to make everyone who wants him to take all the snaps week after week to at least take pause. Another consideration is Austin Knowlin, who may have to fight harder to make an impact as he competes against a dual-threat rather than a down-the-field passer.

On the other hand, who can deny that the Lions offense seemed to come to life from the moment Olawale came into the Dartmouth game and helped seal that victory? And it does seem like the coaches are still finding lots of ways to get Knowlin's hands on the ball, whether it's with direct snaps, screen passes, shovel passes, and, of course, punt and kick returning.

So what would be your call if you were in charge of this offense?

Let Olawale take all the snaps, run like crazy and see if anyone can stop him?

Have Olawale and Shane Kelly, Jerry Bell, Paul Havas, or any of the other QBs use a shuttle system and resurrect the magic of 1994?

Or would you choose some other option?


None of us is actually a coach, yet it's still an agonizing decision. If I had to choose, I'd say I'd like to try the second to see if it works, but I'd be ready to go back to the first if it doesn't.

The problem with that is it takes a while for Ivy teams to get used to new systems, and it might be very unfair to ditch a shuttle system before Week Five, when things really settle in.

It's questions like these that should make the spring game even more interesting to watch this season than usual.

Just 40 days to go...