Injury-Riddled Columbia Visits Football in Saturday Matchup

Columbia is in dire straits.

In last week’s come-from-behind victory over Yale — the team’s first division win this season — Lions medical personnel wheeled senior quarterback Ryan Suitt off the field after he landed on his head.

Columbia is no stranger to injuries. Entering last weekend’s contest, 20 starters have been sidelined. Suitt, after all, is Columbia’s fourth-string quarterback. Junior running back Lynnard Rose joined his teammate on the medical table in the first quarter of play against the Bulldogs.

At last count, injuries sidelined four of Columbia’s quarterbacks, a running back, two wideouts, the team’s top rushing threat, and various other starters.

“They’ve had some tough teams on their schedule and they’ve fought through them,” captain Zach Miller said. “They’ve fought through some injuries facing those teams, coming up short a little bit, but based on their schedule I think they fight like us. They’re above .500 so they’re doing a great job adapting to those injuries and battling through their schedule.”

The team is being led by its backups, and — discounting the end result in the contest with Yale — it’s playing like it. Even against the Bulldogs, looking at everything but the score would’ve predicted a Columbia loss.

Yale led in total yards (428-157), first downs (21-11), possession time, and sacks. Columbia led in penalties, yards lost, and fumbles.

While he was in, Suitt went 3-for-16 for 32 yards through the air, fumbling twice as he escaped pressure. In his first piece of game action, fifth-string junior quarterback Matt Dame tossed the ball three times, completing one pass for 19 yards. Freshman Ryan Young led the team’s rushing effort with 98 yards and a touchdown.

If Dame gets the start this week, it will be the first of his career. That does not mean much though. Harvard first-string quarterback, senior Tom Stewart, started his second career game this season and picked up a victory over Holy Cross. The senior’s first-ever start was a 10-point loss to the same team two seasons prior.

“They have athletes. They’re going to fight hard. They’re a good program, coached by great coaches,” Miller said. “So we’re going to get their best shot. We have to prepare for anything, we have to over prepare because we don’t know what’s going to come at us.”

In Saturday’s contest, the two teams in blue completed a total of 22 passes and punted 20 times — a testament to their offensive ineptitude but also plenty of practice for the punters. Columbia’s punter, sophomore Drew Schmid, was the lone highlight of the team’s last contest. In a school record seven times, Schmid pinned Yale within its 20-yard line.

The name Schmid should sound familiar to anyone who has been keeping up with Harvard football. He is the younger brother of Harvard’s previous punter, Zach Schmid.

Since senior wide receiver and punt returner Justice Shelton-Mosley’s injury, it’s been his classmate, wide receiver Henry Taylor that’s been flagging down the boots.

“Really, we don’t have that complicated of punt schemes,” Taylor said. “We’re just going to man up and try to block you. I believe in our guys up front. We’ve done a great job all year. We haven’t returned a ton of punts but I believe this year we’re going to break one one of these days.”

Despite Columbia’s troubles this season, its record is so far on par with Harvard’s. Both team enter 2018’s last contest in Harvard Stadium with a single division win and three Ivy League losses.

So far this season, Harvard has yet to lose by more than eight points. Of the team’s three division losses, two came to Princeton and Dartmouth. Cornell dealt the third blow. The Tigers and Big Green consist of half the remaining undefeated teams in the FCS currently.

Princeton and Dartmouth similarly downed Columbia. Penn accounted for the team’s third loss.

Harvard takes the field for the last time at the Stadium this season, as The Game will be hosted at Fenway Park. Harvard has chosen this weekend as its Senior Day.

“I’m savoring every moment out here,” Miller said. “We only have about seven practices left. [It] feels like it’s flying by, but I’m just really going to enjoy it and have a good time with these guys out here.”

—Staff writer Cade Palmer can be reached at cade.palmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @THC_CadePalmer.