Shoop the pick for Columbia football
Bob Shoop was hired as Columbia's new football coach last week according to officials at both Columbia and Boston College -- where Shoop was employed as the defensive backs coach. The 36-year-old is now the youngest coach in the Ivy League, after replacing Ray Tellier, who was fired last month after going 42-96-2 in his 14-year tenure. Shoop will be asked to turn around a team that has traditionally lingered at the bottom of the Ivy League. Shoop is no stranger to the Ivy League, having played wide receiver at Yale before graduating in 1996. He later served as defensive coordinator of the Elis from 1994-1996. After not receiving the Yale head coaching job, for which he was a finalist in 1996, Shoop moved on to become defensive coordinator at Villanova. Two years later, Shoop made the leap to Division I-A, being hired as Army's defensive backs coach before going to B.C. in 1999. In an Ivy League that leans increasingly on passing offenses, Shoops' specialty -- designing nickel defenses -- was a likely reason for his hire. Shoop was asked by the American Football Coaches Association to write two pages on Boston College's nickel defense for its summer 2001 manual. --Andrew DeLaneyThe Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
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