Coaches don’t put a lot of stock in preseason poll.

Accentuating the formidable nature of new coach Kent Austin’s rebuilding project at Cornell, the Big Red was picked to finish last in the 2010 Ivy League preseason football poll, voted on by media members across the eight-team league.

The poll was announced Tuesday, in conjunction with a conference call in which all eight head coaches addressed their teams and the status of the league heading into 2010.

For Austin, that meant addressing questions focusing on how to improve a program that went 2-8 in 2009 and ranked at or near the bottom of the league in average points per game allowed (26.8), rushing yards allowed (198.9) and turnovers (a league-high 21 interceptions), among numerous other categories.

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Cornell opens its season on Sept. 18 at Wagner College.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to build a real program, a championship program,” Austin said. “Our expectations are really simple. You play sports for one thing, and that’s to be a champion.”

Harvard was picked to win the league with 10 first-place votes, ahead of defending champion Penn (six first-place votes), Brown and Yale (one first-place vote). Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth and Cornell round out the poll, which isn’t exactly taken seriously by the eight schools’ coaching staffs.

“A, I don’t pay attention to it; and B, they haven’t been right,” said Penn coach Al Bagnoli, when asked about his team’s spot on the poll. “I think we were picked third last year (Penn was picked second).”

Cornell appeared an easy pick for last place after a woeful 2009 season. The Big Red opened with wins over Bucknell and Yale before ending the year with eight straight losses. Coach Jim Knowles left for the defensive coordinator position at Duke, and Austin was hired after an exhaustive search by Cornell director of athletics Andy Noel.

Austin said he’s attempting to instill a culture of accountability. He overhauled Cornell’s coaching staff, brought in new coordinators and, during spring practice, made “several moves” to rearrange personnel pieces that he believes will better suit the team.

Austin expects to have open competitions across the board, with a trio of players competing to replace the graduated Ben Ganter as starting quarterback: 6-foot-1 junior Adam Currie, 6-3 sophomore Chris Amrhein and 6-4 freshman Jeff Mathews. Quarterback Josh Vick, a transfer from New Hampshire, would have been in the mix but suffered a torn ACL during spring practice and is not expected to return for the 2010 season.

“It was real disappointing,” Austin said. “(Vick is) a tremendous quarterback.”

Brown coach Phil Estes said Austin and first-year Princeton coach Bob Surace will have to adjust to the high level of coaching in the Ivy League.

“Sometimes you get at big-time schools and you can be very basic in offense and defense,” Estes said. “In the Ivy League, you have coaches who really do their homework and they need to be prepared each and every week for something new, some kind of new wrinkle. But these guys know that.”

Austin said he picked up on those traits, among others, while watching film of the 2009 season.

“I think outsiders that haven’t watched a lot of Ivy League football would be surprised at the level of talent,” he said.

Cornell opens training camp at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Cornell picked to finish last in Ivy League football poll
By Brian Delaney, The Ithaca Journal (NY)
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100810/SPORTS03/8100347/Cornell+picked+to+finish+last+in+Ivy+League+football+poll