It is the kind of job that used to be offered on tapes that self-destructed seconds after the task was described. Talk about your impossible missions.
If you had a choice between turning Columbia`s football program into a winner or, say, stopping the flow of drugs from Colombia, which would you choose?
Hello, Bogota?
But Ray Tellier, coach at Rochester for the last five years, decided to lead the Lions.
”There were some people who told me I was crazy, who said I could never win at Columbia,” said Tellier. ”But I believe Columbia can and will win. If I didn`t, I wouldn`t have taken the job.”
Tellier, 37, replaced Larry McElreavy, who resigned after amid heavy controversy after a strange season. The Lions stopped a 44-game losing streak- an NCAA-record-and won another game. It was their most successful season in 10 years.
Once possessing a proud football tradition featuring such legends as Sid Luckman, Lou Little and Bill Swiacki, the Lions and losing have been synonymous for 18 years. Columbia`s last winning season was 1971, when it was 5-2 in the Ivy League and 6-3 overall. Before last year, the Lions hadn`t won two games in a season since 1978. From 1984 through 1987, they didn`t win a game.
Despite last year`s wildly successful-hey, everything`s relative-2-8 season, McElreavy resigned after accusations by his backfield coach, Doug Jackson, that he drank excessively and was overtly friendly with a female member of the athletic staff.
Enter Tellier. His first three teams at Rochester, a Division III school, won only four games. Tellier went 17-3 his last two years. In one of the most dramatic reversals in NCAA history, the Yellowjackets went from 1-7-1 in 1986 to 9-1 and the NCAA playoffs.
Rochester was 8-2 last season, lifting Tellier`s record to 21-26-1. He`s hoping for a similar turnaround at Columbia.
”I feel my background has prepared me for this. I`m excited about it. I`m confident Columbia can win.”
