Columbia Lions Prepare for Football Home Opener

As the Columbia Lions geared up for the 2011 season, Football Head Coach Norries Wilson sat down to discuss expectations and team philosophy ahead of the team’s home opener against Albany on Friday, Sept. 24 at the Robert K. Kraft Field at Columbia’s Baker Athletic Complex.

The 2011 Lions return a pair of first team All-Ivy League selections in senior offensive lineman Jeff Adams and junior quarterback Sean Brackett. Junior linebacker Josh Martin , a second-team All-Ivy selection in 2010, also returns to bolster the defensive unit.

Norries Wilson became Columbia’s Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football in December 2005. He is the 18th head coach of Columbia Football.

Wilson, who served as offensive coordinator at UConn for four seasons, was one of five finalists for the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach in 2004, a season in which the Huskies led the Big East in both total and scoring offense. In 2003, he guided UConn’s offense that posted 477.5 yards per game, which ranked eighth in the nation.

In 2002, Wilson was promoted to the Huskies’ offensive coordinator after joining the UConn staff in 1999 as offensive line coach. He continued to work specifically with the Huskies’ centers and guards. In 2004, UConn defeated Toledo to win the Motor City Bowl. Three members of that team’s offense went on to sign National Football League contracts.

Prior to the 2004 season, Wilson was one of 12 coaches selected to participate in the NCAA Expert Coaching Program. The program is designed to teach and reinforce various aspects of securing, managing and excelling in NCAA head coaching positions at the Division I-A level.

Artist Xu Bing talks about the Square Word Calligraphy Classroom exhibition , which features English words resembling Chinese calligraphic characters. (2:40)

Sociology professor David Stark has won the Roger V. Gould Prize and the Viviana Zelizer Distinguished Scholarship Award. He received both honors for “Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups,” a paper on historical network analysis co-authored with colleague and former PhD student Balazs Vedres, associate professor at Central European University.