Notes On A Quiet Thursday

No idea how long it will be up because of rights issues, but for those of us who have YouTube TV and might not have been able to watch the Dartmouth-Harvard game, here's the full broadcast (with former Crimson coach Tim Murphy on color commentary):

On a very quiet day in the blogosphere, here are a few comments from Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle from yesterday's weekly media call. First he addresses part of what went wrong Saturday, and then he goes on to talk about the fix. (Comments are gently edited for clarity):

"Obviously you don't want to fall down 17 points against a team of the caliber of Harvard. I thought our guys did a good job coming out at halftime and really battled and put ourselves right back in the game, in a situation to make some noise.

"But they just out-executed us, and we just didn't make enough plays. When we did get that momentum going, unfortunately we couldn't keep the momentum. We just weren't able to keep that going. I just think it was just a couple plays here and there. Every time we got it going, something (happened and we) couldn't keep it. We couldn't execute well enough."

And on the response in practice this week:

"Good energy, really good energy. The guys came out, and I think that's the one thing we talked about on Sunday, was just execution. We want to make sure we go out and execute at our best. You don't want to be in a situation where that your opponent executes better than you. That's been our biggest message this week. And I tell you what our guys have responded. We tell them, 'Hey, take one snap at a time and let's lock in and focus and execute that.' And they've done a good job to date."

I'll be at practice later today and will have a Dartmouth-Princeton preview on BGA Overtime tomorrow.

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Here's something most of us would have paid no attention to a year ago:

The FCS playoff selection committee’s second released Top 10 ranking of contenders. The 24-team playoff pairings will be announced on Nov. 23. pic.twitter.com/egkdwYOQDt

— Opta FCS Football (@OptaAnalystFCS) November 5, 2025

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With the rankings out, HERO Sports posted its playoff predictions again and the good news for those who follow Dartmouth is the Big Green got a mention. The bad news is where. From the column (LINK):

Bubble Teams Left Out
Ordered from the best chance to make the bracket out of this group to the worst chance.

25. Northern Arizona
26. Dartmouth
27. William & Mary
28. Presbyterian
29. Austin Peay
30. Southern Illinois

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Former Brown standout Michael Hoecht did the Ivy League proud with his response after an Achilles injury during the Buffalo Bills' win over the Kansas City Chiefs:

Unbillievable. ❤️ ❤️ pic.twitter.com/lTrlj437nv

— Pay The Bills | A Trainwreck Sports Production (@PayTheBillsPod) November 6, 2025

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EXTRA POINT

Hiked in a drizzle late yesterday afternoon and woke this morning to a little more rain, which is a good thing. After a very dry summer, wells and ponds in Northern New England are starting to slowly recover. The Dartmouth today has a story headlined New Hampshire lifts statewide fire ban (which actually happened last week).

I've got to admit, this line in the story made me snicker:

While citizens can make fires after 5 p.m., Hanover fire chief Michael Gilbert said students should still be “really cautious of when and where (they are) burning. You don’t want to be too close to anything combustible  … or too close to your home."

I'm just not sure a fire chief would need to warn students at Harvard or Columbia about when and whereto do their burning. On second thought, I'm not really sure he needed to warn Dartmouth students  ;-)

Another Look Back

Dartmouth highlights drawn from the TV broadcast of Saturday's game at Harvard:

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SI veteran Dick Friedman takes a look at last week's game in Cambridge in Harvard Magazine HERE:

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The Big Green drops in Jake Novak's Ivy League Power Rankings:

1 Harvard 

2 Yale 

3 Dartmouth 

4 Penn 

5 Cornell 

6 Princeton 

7 Brown 

8 Columbia 

Listen to Jake's reasoning HERE. 

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This week's Sagarin Ratings among all DI teams with last week's rating in parentheses:

91 Harvard (96)

138 Yale (131)

152 Dartmouth (140)

177 Penn (172)

196 Princeton (190)

213 Brown (213)

220 Cornell (224)

234 Columbia (241)

165 New Hampshire (164)

212 Central Connecticut (211)

239 Fordham (244)

Sagarin has Dartmouth favored over Princeton by 10 points.

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Massey Ratings of only FCS teams:

7 Harvard 

27 Yale

28 Dartmouth 

39 Penn 

68 Princeton 

71 Brown 

74 Cornell 

89 Columbia 

Looking ahead, Massey sees:

Dartmouth 28, Princeton 20 with 76 percent confidence

Dartmouth 31, Cornell 17 with 88 percent confidence

Dartmouth 31 at Brown 24 with 72 percent confidence

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EXTRA POINT

Unfortunately, the internet here at our Vermont hillside home is delivered via DSL and as you can see from this screenshot from yesterday's upgrade of my Mac system, it's not particularly fast. ;-)

For what it's worth, it did not take 11-plus hours to finish the rest of the 14.32 GB upload, but it did take a very l-o-n-g time, finishing sometime after I hit the sack.

The good news is fiber-optic finally came up our dirt road last spring. The bad news is the end user is required to "pull a string" through the conduit that runs from the street to the house before the company will install the fiber. The worse news is that yours truly isn't equipped to do the groundwork for the fiber-optic folks and they couldn't recommend someone who we could pay to do it.

We could always try Starlink, but that's just not going to happen.

A Quiet Tuesday

Week Seven of the Ivy League season marks the first time Dartmouth has not had anyone chosen even to the conference's weekly honor roll. Without benefit of seeing the game film, my nominees would have been wide receiver Ky’Dric Fisher with a career-high five catches for 51 yards – including four that brought first downs – and Zyion Freer-Brown, who matched his career high with 12 tackles for the second week in a row.

Not surprisingly, Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig's was named the Ivy League offensive player of the week. (LINK)

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BGA Overtime went up last night with a few thoughts and observations coming out of the Harvard game (LINK). The Optimist and The Pessimist will be stopping by the site tonight. It will be interesting to get their take.

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Dartmouth is still getting some love in the FCS Coaches Poll:

	FCS Coaches	W-L	Pts	Prev
1	North Dakota St. (25)	9-0	625	1
2	Montana	9-0	598	3
3	Montana St.	7-2	567	4
4	Lehigh	9-0	521	7
5	Tennessee Tech	9-0	488	8
6	Monmouth (N.J.)	8-1	485	9
7	Tarleton St.	9-1	474	2
8	Villanova	6-2	417	11
9	South Dakota St.	7-2	389	5
T10	Mercer	7-1	378	13
T10	Rhode Island	7-2	378	12
12	UC Davis	6-2	367	6
13	HARVARD	7-0	310	15
14	Southeastern Louisiana	7-2	298	16
15	North Dakota	6-3	263	10
16	Southern Illinois	6-3	243	17
17	Illinois St.	6-3	240	18
18	Lamar	7-2	173	14
19	Jackson St.	6-2	157	20
20	ACU	5-4	156	25
21	Stephen F. Austin	7-2	148	23
22	Youngstown St.	5-4	120	19
23	Presbyterian	8-1	115	22
24	Western Carolina	6-3	51	NR
25	South Dakota	6-4	36	NR
	Dropped Out:  None
	Others Receiving Votes: Lafayette, 29; West Georgia, 27; Alabama St., 12; Sacramento St., 12; Northern Arizona, 10; UT Rio Grande Valley, 10; DARTMOUTH, 8; Gardner-Webb, 7; North Carolina Central, 4; Austin Peay, 3; South Carolina St., 2; YALE, 2; Central Connecticut St., 1; Delaware St., 1.

	Stats Perform	W-L	Pts	Prev
1	North Dakota State	9-0	1400	1
2	Montana	9-0	1336	3
3	Montana State	7-2	1289	T4
4	Lehigh	9-0	1183	7
5	Tennessee Tech	9-0	1141	9
6	Tarleton State	9-1	1118	2
7	Monmouth	8-1	1062	10
8	South Dakota State	7-2	879	T4
9	HARVARD	7-0	854	12
10	Villanova	6-2	798	11
11	UC Davis	6-2	794	6
12	Mercer	7-1	759	15
13	North Dakota	6-3	758	8
14	Rhode Island	7-2	728	13
15	Southern Illinois	6-3	580	16
16	Illinois State	6-3	552	17
17	Stephen F. Austin	7-2	463	20
18	Abilene Christian	5-4	459	24
19	Southeastern Louisiana	7-2	441	21
20	Lamar	7-2	317	14
21	Youngstown State	5-4	303	18
22	South Dakota	6-4	259	NR
23	Jackson State	6-2	212	23
24	Western Carolina	6-3	174	NR
25	Presbyterian	8-1	113	25
	Dropped Out of Top 25: Northern Arizona (19), Austin Peay (22)
	Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots):  Northern Arizona (5-4, 2-3 Big Sky), 70;  Alabama State (6-2, 4-1 SWAC), 48; Delaware State (6-3, 2-0 MEAC), 23; Austin Peay (5-4, 3-3 UAC), 19; West Georgia (6-3, 3-3 UAC), 18; Lafayette (6-3, 4-0 Patriot), 15; YALE (5-2, 3-1 Ivy), 8; Sacramento State (5-4, 3-2 Big Sky), 7; New Hampshire (5-4, 3-2 CAA), 6

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With yesterday's addition of safety Kiyanté Ingram, the list of publicly committed Dartmouth football recruits now stands at 22:

• WR Blake Betette, 5-1, 185, Richard Northeast HS/South Carolina

• LB JJ Bolz, 6-2, 220, Bishop Verot HS/Florida

• DB Taiga Briskey, 6-1, 180, West Boca Raton HS/Florida

• DB David Brown III, 6-1, 162, Cypress Woods HS/Texas

• QB Jack Cannon, 6-2, 210, Holmdel HS/New Jersey 

• OL Tim Church, 6-5, 300, Buckingham Browne & Nichols/Massachusetts

• LB/WR George Duggins, 6-3, 200, Mona Shores HS/ Michigan

• DL August Dupree, 6-3, 215/Folson HS/California

• DE/TE Quinn Enguita, 6-4, 215, Bishop Verot HS/Florida.

• WR Kareem Fisher, 6-2, 180, St. Vincent Pallotti/Maryland

• RB/DB Jacob Henry, 5-11, 190, Maumelle HS/Arkansas

• S Kiyanté Ingram, 6-0, 195, McEachem HS/Georgia

• LB Gavin King, 6-4, 230, Loyola Academy/Illinois

• DL/TE Will Maloof, 6-5, 210, St. Peter's Prep/New Jersey

• WR George Loop, 5-11, 170, Isidore Newman/Louisiana

• LB Parker Maiers, 6-1, 220, Brebeuf Jesuit HS/Indianapolis

• OL Brody McLeod, 6-4, 280, Ponte Vedra HS/Florida

• OL Mikey McMahon, 6-4, 290, Bergen Catholic HS/New Jersey

• OL Jake Namnum, 6-2, 292, St. Josephs Prep/Pennsylvania

• K/P Tanner Pidwell, 6-2, 175, Park City HS/Utah

• OL Nick Schenkel, 6-4, 270, Liberty HS/Pennsylvania

• DL Roman Sosnovyy, 6-3, 245, Lyons Township HS/Illinois

Green Alert Take: It could get a little confusing next year with Dartmouth having wide receivers named Ky'Dric Fisher and Kareem Fisher. And how many times do you think Nick Schenkel's name will be confused with that of Nico Schwikal, the current Dartmouth linebacker?

As always, additions and corrections to the list are encouraged using the contact form over there to the right. ;-)

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From The Analyst in a story headlined FCS Football: With Something to Prove, These Postseason Hopefuls Demand a Closer Look (LINK):

Something to Prove (Ivy): Harvard is rolling at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League. Yale and Penn are tied for second place, but Yale won the head-to-head meeting 35-13, so the best-case scenario for the new (but old) kid on the block to gain multiple playoff bids is for the Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1) to win out and claim the automatic bid in a two-team tie for first place with Harvard, and the Crimson remaining unbeaten until that final rivalry game. They will probably have done enough by then to secure an at-large bid.

Green Alert Take: Amazing how things can change in one week. Beat Harvard and Dartmouth is in the driver's seat for the postseason. Lose to Harvard and the drum is beating for a Yale team the Big Green defeated.

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EXTRA POINT

For at least the 25th year in a row we had no trick-or-treaters at our house. It's completely understandable, of course. There's just not enough bang for the buck for kids to hit up houses spread far apart on dirt roads.

But as we do each year, we had candy ready – just in case. The pick this year was peanut M&M's because, well, because if you are going to lay in candy knowing there weren't going to be any trick-or-treaters you might as well lay in something you like.

So we had two bags of the M&M's that each contained four little "fun size" bags.

Let me ask you, how many times have you put together a child's toy or a bookcase or something else and when you finish the package was missing that last nut or bolt? Frustrating, right?

Last night we opened the bag containing the four "fun size" bags and nope, there weren't four bags of M&M's. Nor were there three. There were five. He shoots, he scores!

It doesn't make up for those missing nuts and bolts, but it did make me smile.