Day 73: Chris Carey

Chris Carey in 2001


Just a little bit of news again today before we continue with the countdown:

1) The real recruiting highlight of the year is just two days away. Columbia's football camp for high school students is at Wien Stadium this Friday and Saturday. A big number of incoming freshmen started participating in these camps when Coach Wilson came to Columbia. This is where we find and truly test our future stars.


2) Two big questions on two other Ivy teams are still unanswered. Harvard to LSU and then back to Harvard QB Andrew Hatch is still not on the roster for the Crimson. With 73 days until kickoff, one has wonder when the cutoff date would be for someone who has already been back on campus for months.

The other big transfer, Stanford's Fred Craig, is still expected to join the Penn Quakers, but his name is also not yet on Penn's roster. I will keep checking.


3) One thing I neglected to mention about Dartmouth yesterday is that the Big Green are pushing back the start times for most of their home games to 1:30 pm. This might allow me to stay home on the Friday night before the game and then hit the road at about 6:30 am on game day. It's another night at home, which is nice...but it also means returning home at about 10:00 or 10:30 on Saturday night. I'll have to weigh this one as will some of the CU fans who plan to make the trip in week 6.


Captain Carey

It seems like linebackers have become a font for underclassmen captains at Columbia in recent years. First Rory Wilfork in 1995, then Drew Quinn in 2007, and in between them we had middle linebacker Chris Carey '04 who was elected captain for both 2002 and then 2003.

Carey was a shoo-in for the job after recording 102 tackles in his sophomore year, third-highest in the league for 2001. 80 of those stops came when he posted double figures in six consecutive games against Lafayette, Penn, Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, and Cornell.

Carey came to Columbia from New Jersey's Pingry School, and he had a lot of Ivy football pedigree from day one.

Carey’s grandfather Bill attended Columbia and commuted from Connecticut for classes. His uncle Max was a star cornerback and kick returner for the Lions, setting several records as a returner in the mid- to late-1960s.

Carey’s father, Chris Sr., wrestled for Princeton in the 1970s.

Carey was a big part of the exciting 2003 season for the Lions, but only for half of it. A concussion kept him out of the lineup for the second half of the season. But before that, he was a big contributor in the heart-stopping 33-27 Hail Mary win over Princeton at Princeton Stadium. That had to be a mixed emotional night for the family.

Something tells me that game is Carey's No. 1 college football memory.

But I could be wrong.