WATCH | Live Stats | Game Notes
New York, NY – The Wagner College football team will make the short trip to Manhattan to take on Ivy League member Columbia on Saturday at 1:00 pm.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Staying Disciplined
With 126 yards in penalties this season, the Seahawks lead the Northeast Conference (NEC) and are fifth nationally in penalty yards. Their 18 total penalties rank eighth nationally and first in the conference.
Wagner has had fewer penalty yards than its opponent in all four contests this season.
Ball Security
Wagner is one of just 13 teams in all of FCS football without a fumble lost this season. The Seahawks sit 26
th nationally in turnovers lost.
Palmer-Smith Gives Backfield A Boost
With eight carries for 31 yards on Saturday, freshman
Zachary Palmer-Smith led the Seahawks offensively against Syracuse.
The freshman appeared in just his second game of the season, with all of his carries on the year coming against FBS opponents.
Leo Continues To Impress
Graduate student
Titus Leo is second in the NEC and 37
th in the country with 1.4 tackles for loss per game.
Leo has been the recipient of numerous preseason awards, taking home HERO Sports First Team Preseason All-America, STATS Perform Second Team Preseason All-America, and Preseason All-NEC honors. Leo also earned a spot on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List, which Stats Perform presents to the national defensive player of the year in college football's Division I subdivision. Most recently, Leo was named to the watch list for the 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl. Leo joins an elite list comprised of the best seniors and graduate students across all of college football.
Following the 2021 season, Leo was named a Stats Perform FCS Third All-American, First Team FCS All-American by HERO Sports, and Third Team All-American by Phil Steele.
After earning his Bachelor's Degree in Sociology in May, Leo has re-enrolled at Wagner, where he is pursuing a Master's Degree in Business Administration.
Leo was also named the Northeast Conference (NEC) Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. No player has ever won the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award three times.
This marked the fourth straight season a Seahawk has won the highest honor for a defensive player in the NEC, as Leo follows Super Bowl LV Champion and former All-American
Cam Gill, who won the award in 2018 and 2019 and was a HERO Sports FCS Second Team All-American in 2019.
Wagner is the first school in NEC history to win four consecutive NEC Defensive Player of the Year awards. Leo, Gill and defensive lineman Bill Sommers, who earned the distinction in 1996, are the only Wagner players to earn NEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Simmons Makes Plays
Wide receiver
Naiem Simmons is first in the NEC and in the top-50 nationally with 18.08 yards per reception.
Simmons is tied with
Jayvin Little for the team lead with two touchdown catches.
Scouting The Lions
Columbia enters Saturday's matchup with a 2-1 record after earning wins over Marist and Georgetown earlier this season. Last Saturday, the Lions fell 24-6 against Princeton in their Ivy League opener.
The Series
The Seahawks and Lions will meet for the fourth time ever on Saturday, with Columbia having won all three previous matchups.
Wagner's lone win against an Ivy League opponent came on September 11, 2010, when the Green & White earned a 41-7 home win over Cornell.
Wagner College and Wien Stadium, located in upper Manhattan, are separated by just 29 miles and travel time between the schools is estimated at 47 minutes. Columbia has been playing football since 1870 while Wagner took up the sport in 1927.
The Schedule
Six conference games will round out the 2022 schedule, with home contests against LIU (October 21) and Sacred Heart (November 12) and road games at Merrimack (October 15), Central Connecticut (October 29), Stonehill (November 5), and Duquesne (November 19).
