Perfect

As head coach, Buddy Teevens used to grab a shovel after snowstorms and clear the block "D" in the middle of the stadium now named after him. The tradition continues at Buddy Teevens Stadium.

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Yale visits second-seeded Montana State today at 2 p.m. Eastern in the second round of the FCS Playoffs. There's a good chance of "snow showers" during the game, which will be streamed on ESPN+. Montana State is a 28½-point favorite. Yale advanced in the tournament by reeling off the final 29 points in a 43-42 comeback win over Youngstown State last week.

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EXTRA POINT

Depending on which service you believe, the temperature here could reach double-digits below zero Monday night. We've learned there's good news and there's bad news that comes with owning an EV when it's that cold.

First, the bad news. Range drops significantly when it gets cold. It's not a big problem unless you drive 100 miles each way back-and-forth to work every day, but it's a fact.

Now the good news. You know how frustrating it is to go out to your car, turn the key and crank and crank and crank the engine only to have to get a jump when you run the battery down? That isn't going to happen with your EV. You turn the key and, like a light switch, the car turns on. It's that dependable.

Stacking Honors

Xwitter Signing Day photos

Dartmouth quarterback commit Jack Cannon of Holmdel has been named the MaxPreps New Jersey High School Football Player of the Year. Find stories HERE and HERE.

Cannon also was named yesterday to the All-New Jersey first team HERE.

And finally, the High School on SI site posted a piece headlined, Vote: Which was the single-best individual performance of the 2025 New Jersey high school football season? Cannon is one of the candidates. From that story (LINK): 

On November 7, Holmdel High School senior quarterback Jack Cannon — Dartmouth- bound and long recognized as a steady leader for the Hornets — delivered one of the most productive performances in school history during a Central Jersey Group 3 semifinal against rival Neptune. In a 65-42 win, Cannon accounted for nine total touchdowns, throwing six and rushing for three, in a game that firmly established his place among the program's most accomplished players.

And . . .

Cannon was efficient from the start, completing 12 of 14 passes (85.7%) for 250 yards. His six touchdown throws demonstrated control and accuracy. … In addition to his passing output, Cannon added 175 rushing yards on 12 carries, averaging 14.6 yards per attempt. His three rushing touchdowns came on runs of 38, 25, and 18 yards, each contributing to Holmdel's ability to stay ahead throughout the night.

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A follow on yesterday's post about nonconference schedules. Harvard released its out-of-conference slate later in the day and it features the previously reported game at New Hampshire as well as games against Colgate and Holy Cross. (LINK) 

Green Alert Take: Harvard has been criticized the past few years for playing relatively easy nonconference schedules, and that subject came after the Crimson was thrashed by Villanova in the FCS Playoffs. That being the case, the Harvard release goes to great lengths to suggest next year's schedule is more competitive than this year's records would lead you to believe. It addresses Colgate's 5-7 record this year by noting that "three of its losses (came) to nationally ranked teams by a combined 30 points, including two by single digits." Also from the release: "An FCS tournament finalist in 2003, the Raiders have earned a spot in the postseason 11 times and advanced past the first round in their last two appearances (2015, 2018)." Regarding Holy Cross, the release says the team "finished with a 3-4 record in the Patriot League in 2025, and ended its season by splitting its last six games, with wins in its last two outings, to post a 3-9 overall record. Three of the Crusaders' defeats came against nationally ranked opposition. . . . Holy Cross has advanced to the postseason four times since 2019 (six times overall), and was a quarterfinalist in 2022."

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HERO Sports picks Montana State to defeat Yale on Saturday, 38-17, the same score Craig Haley had in his prediction on the Stats Perform site. From HERO (LINK):

“How cool would it be to see the Ivy League champ go to one of the Dakotas or Montana teams for a game?”

What was once wishful thinking has turned into reality.

Yale’s epic comeback win at Youngstown State was quite the debut for the Ivy League in the FCS playoffs. It at least helped get people’s minds off of Harvard’s woeful performance at Villanova. 

The Bulldogs may run into a buzzsaw Saturday, though, getting a glimpse of what it takes to compete at a top-tier FCS level.

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The Ivy League went all-out in its promotion of the Yale-Montana State playoff game. The league office posted . . . wait for it . . .  all of 135 words before rehashing some league-wide news. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: Seriously?

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EXTRA POINT

That forecast predicting the temperature to drop last night to minus-2 degrees here in West Newbury, Vt., was off by a bit. When I headed downstairs at about 6 this morning it was minus-7.9.

By the way, the Cold Moon was impressive last night. (LINK)

Schedule Musings

With Dartmouth's nonconference opponents now revealed, it's a good time to take a look at who else is on Ivy League schedules in 2026. Games listed below are not necessarily in the order in which they will be played. (Aiding in the compiling of this incomplete list is the FBSchedules site.)

Brown

at New Haven

at Rhode Island

Bryant

Columbia 

Lafayette

at Georgetown

at Marist

Cornell

at Colgate

at Georgetown 

Lehigh

Dartmouth

Lehigh

Merrimack 

Monmouth

Harvard

at New Hampshire 

TBA

TBA

Penn

Lehigh

TBA

TBA

Princeton

at Bryant

Lafayette

At Wagner

Yale

at Holy Cross

TBA

TBA

Green Alert Take: A good number of these games were scheduled before the Ivy League OK'd sending teams to the FCS playoffs. It will be interesting in coming years to see how scheduling philosophies change – or don't change – as Ivy teams try to balance playing a competitive schedule and building a good record.

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With yesterday being national signing day, the algorithm in my searches brought up a 247Sports listing of Dartmouth recruits HERE.

Green Alert Take: Anyone who uses those services as a way to compare recruiting classes should know 247Sports identifies just nine committed Dartmouth players. The list, for example, does not include the record-setting quarterback coming this way. As noted here yesterday, the Big Green already has at least 24 commits. Last year's 247Sports list for Dartmouth had just eight players on it while there were 26 recruits. Incomplete list like that make any comparison between schools faulty.

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Not surprisingly, no incoming commits or their families sent along photos or links. My algorithm did bring up this from the WXYZ TV web page (LINK):

Green Alert Take: I'm sure there were more stories out there on the incoming players. Anyone?

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EXTRA POINT

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but part-time neighbors have planted hundreds of Christmas trees in the field across from our house. Here's how they looked yesterday with new-fallen snow and a dramatic sunset over a shoulder of the mountain I had just finished hiking. And yes, the color is accurate.

Click photo to enlarge.

National Signing Day Becomes national signing day

The local Valley News has about 10 minutes of postseason talk with Dartmouth football coach Sammy McCorkle HERE. McCorkle touches on the biggest takeaways from the season-ending loss at Brown, about what this year's seniors meant to the program, on improvements he's hoping to see on offense, defense and special teams next year, and what is on tap for the coaching staff and players with the season in the books.

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National Signing Day used to be the Christmas Day of college football recruiting. BGA used to update all day long on the old Signing Day, posting pictures shared by incoming player families, from social media and other sources. That's largely gone by the wayside with the new signing day.

If anyone cares to send along photos or links from today's ceremonies, I'll post 'em here. To send along a photo or link, email BGA by CLICKING HERE. That will address an email with the subject line, Recruit. And if in case you are wondering, it's all fine and good with the NCAA.

I'm not optimistic I'll be hearing from anyone given how the day has changed. While I won't hold my breath, here's the recruiting class as we (think we) know it:

• 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/DB Emory Jones, 6-1, 180, Cass Tech/Michigan

• DB/WR 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

• TE Ayden Sadler, 6-5, 215, Green Hill HS/Tennessee

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

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

As always, additions and clarifications are encouraged in the Contract Form over there to the right or via the email link a couple of paragraphs back. 

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I was able to pull up a page from NJ.com headlined National Signing Day, 2025: Where are N.J. D1 football prospects signing to play? and it included the the three New Jersey players listed above: OL Mikey McMahon, DL/TE Will Maloof and QB Jack Cannon.

The accompanying profile of Cannon includes these final statistics from 2025:

Passing: 160-224 (71.4 percent), 2,747 yards, 30 touchdowns, seven interceptions

Rushing: 212 carries for 1,673 yards and 33 touchdowns

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They come and they go. Graduating and moving on with hopes of playing elsewhere are a Dartmouth wide receiver and an offensive lineman:

I am excited to announce that I will be entering the transfer portal as a mid-year graduate, ready to enroll in January, with 2 years of eligibility remaining. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/HAPsT5aFJj

— Grayson OBara (@GraysonObara) November 24, 2025

Thank you to @DartmouthFTBL for a great 4 seasons. I plan to enter the portal on Jan 2 as a March Grad with 1 year of eligibility remaining.

Senior Yr: 0 sacks allowed
2x Ivy league champion
6’5 295 OL pic.twitter.com/st9BudExVt

— Vasean Washington (@VaseanW) November 30, 2025

Also looking for a new home is 2025 grad Micah Green, who was listed on the St. Thomas roster this. year but did not play:

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I plan to enter transfer portal on January 2 with 1 year of eligibility left. An extremely hungry, hard worker looking for a place to call home and an opportunity to compete. Can play multiple positions.

5’ 11” 230lb LB
All-Ivy Player
AFCA… pic.twitter.com/GkzR3tcaKf

— Micah Green (@mgreeneryyy) December 2, 2025

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Craig Haley's prediction on the Stats Perform site for the second round of the FCS Playoffs: Montana State 38, Yale 17. Find a writeup HERE.

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EXTRA POINT

The final count for the first measurable snowfall of the season here at our Vermont hillside home was six inches. Continuing on the weather front, our first really cold nights of the year are on the way. Overnight lows for the five nights starting tomorrow: minus-2, 6, 19, 2, minus-2. Brrrr.

Out-Of-Conference

It's now official. Dartmouth's three nonconference games next fall will be against Lehigh, Monmouth and Merrimack. Dates for those games have not yet been announced.

Here's what we know of the schedule:

Sept. 19 at Lehigh

Sept. 26 TBA (Monmouth or Merrimack)

Oct. 3 vs. Penn

Oct. 10 at Yale

Oct. 17 TBA (Monmouth or Merrimack)

Oct. 24 at Columbia

Oct. 31 Harvard

Nov. 7 at Princeton

Nov. 14 at Cornell

Nov. 21 Brown

With just three home Ivy League games (Penn, Harvard and Brown) the expectation is two of the three nonconference games will be at Buddy Teevens Stadium.

Lehigh's visit to Hanover in 2023 suggests the Big Green will be returning the favor and playing the Mountain Hawks in Bethlehem, Pa. That game will be either the Sept. 20 opener or Sept. 27 given that Lehigh has a scheduled game against Cornell on Oct. 17.

With games at Columbia, at Princeton, at Cornell and likely at Lehigh the Big Green will be putting in a lot of miles regardless of who the final road game is against.

Here's a little background on each of the nonconference opponents:

Lehigh is currently 12-0 and ranked third in the country by the FCS Coaches Poll and fourth by Stats Perform. The Mountain Hawks had a bye in the first round of the playoffs and host Villanova Saturday. The Patriot League champions are 21-4 over the last two years. The most recent meeting with Dartmouth was in 2023 when the Big Green came away with a 34-17 victory.

Monmouth finished this season with a 9-3 record that included a 51-33 win over Villanova and a late-season 34-13 loss to New Hampshire. The Hawks are 15-9 over the past two seasons. They are ranked 16th in the Coaches poll and 21st by Stats Perform. They won their first eight FCS games this fall. Dartmouth and Monmouth have never played.

Merrimack went 4-8 this year with a 16-14 win over Central Connecticut and a 31-7 loss at Harvard. The Warriors played a competitive schedule that featured a 21-17 loss at FBS Kent State, a 27-13 loss at 9-3 Kennesaw State and a one-score loss to Maine. The Big Green used a 32-yard field goal with three seconds left to earn a 16-14 win at Merrimack in 2024.

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Dartmouth athletics graphic

Tight end Chris Corbo, offensive tackle Delby Lemieux and running back DJ Crowther have been named to the All-New England team chosen by the New England Football Writers Association. Find a Dartmouth release HERE.

Other Ivy Leaguers named to the team on offense were Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig, Yale tailback Josh Pitsenberger, Yale receiver Nico Brown and Yale offensive lineman Michael Bennett.

Named to the team on defense were defensive linemen Alex DeGreick of Harvard and Ezekiel Larry of Yale, and defensive backs Tr\y Bartrum of Harvard and Abu Kamara of Yale.

Yale's Joshua Tarver was named the kick return specialist.

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EXTRA POINT

Watching the news last night the ticker across the bottom of the screen announced that a bunch of local schools would be closed today because of impending snow. I suppose it's a sign of how much better forecasting has become that school systems will go out on a limb and make the call the night before. At it turns out, the forecast was right and the show has been falling all morning.

But I've got to say, I'm glad schools didn't announce they would be closed like that when I was a kid. There was nothing, and I mean nothing, as exciting as sitting by the radio with fingers crossed in the morning while the announcer went through a long list of closings and finally hearing your school would be one of them. It was the absolute best!

Welcome To December

Dartmouth linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown has joined the growing list of Big Green seniors hoping to grad transfer. The All-Ivy League second-teamer’s  highlights are impressive:

I will be entering the Transfer Portal on Jan. 2 as a Mid-Year grad transfer with 1-2 years of eligibility. Thank you

Middle Linebacker
6’0 235
82 Tackles(this season)
2 Sacks
1 Int
5 TFL
9 QBP
5 games with 10+ tackles
1 FR
2nd Team All-Ivy pic.twitter.com/wFsylexIM0

— Zyion Brown (@Zyionbrown0) November 30, 2025 

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If you have recovered from your food coma you should know by now that Yale advanced in the playoffs with a remarkable comeback against Youngstown State. Here’s the winning touchdown run by Yale tailback Josh Pitsenberger. Do check out the hole the Bulldogs created for him:

#FCSPlayoffs final:

Yale 43
#15 Youngstown State 42

Yale with an incredible comeback, erasing a 42-14 deficit midway through the 3rd to beat YSU in its FCS playoff debutpic.twitter.com/VGFHv8AkIG

— HERO Sports FCS (@HEROSports_FCS) November 29, 2025

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For a roundup of how the rest of the first round of the playoffs went, click HERE. 

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The Any Given Saturday message board has a thread headlined, FCS Bowl Games -- Time to Make It Happen!!! From the posting (LINK):

Eligibility requirements: all teams with 6 DI wins that aren't in the FCS playoffs, Celebration Bowl or SWAC Championship Game. Rules for matchups: no regular season re-matches. Conference match-ups allowed if they didn't play in regular season.

One proposed matchup: Maine (6-6) @ Dartmouth (7-3).

Green Alert Take: Sounds like fun, but given the paltry attendance at actual playoff games, it’s hard to believe there would be much of an appetite for pseudo bowl games.

Green Alert Take II: I do kind of like a later post suggesting Maine-Dartmouth be called the Ben & Jerry’s Bowl. ;-)

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EXTRA POINT

One of the great appeals of this house when we were moving was all of the windows looking out over the incredible views of the White Mountains. In our kitchen alone there are seven huge windows. Our living room has five more similarly sized windows and a set of French doors that also brighten the downstairs.

I bring all that up because on Friday afternoon I noticed a nightlight in our kitchen, despite all of those glorious windows, had come on before 4 p.m. – and it wasn’t a particularly overcast day. That’s how early darkness is setting in. Yuck.

 I just checked and sunset here today is at 4:13:03. It is going to keep moving earlier and earlier until we bottom out on Dec. 9 with sunset at 4:11:41.

The good news? On Dec. 10 sunset will be at 4:11:42, one second later than the day before. ;-)

Yale Moves On

Round One playoff recap:

Yale 43, Youngstown State 42

Trailing 43-14 with 7:37 remaining, Yale’s chance of rallying to defeat 15-seed Youngstown State was 0.4 percent per ESPN. So much for analytics.

Ivy League offensive player of the year Josh Pitsenberger reeled off a 56-yard touchdown run to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game before intentionally going down just shy of the goal line on his final run of the game as Yale completed what might be the greatest comeback in the history of the FCS playoffs.

Trailing at the half, 35-7, Yale scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions after the break and would have finished 6-for-6 if not for Pitsenberger wisely stopping on the one, allowing the Bulldogs to run out the clock.

Dante Reno, who suffered two interceptions in the first half, rebounded to complete 21-of-38 passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns for the Bulldogs. Pitsenberger carried 32 times for a career-high 209 yards and three touchdowns. Lucius Anderson, who had just five catches all season coming into the game, had 138 yards and one touchdown on eight receptions, with Jaxton Santiago chipping in nine catches for 104 yards.

The game drew 4,869 on a cloudy, windy day in Youngstown. Yale now heads to second-seeded Montana State for a 2 p.m. game.

Villanova 52, Harvard 7

Like Yale, the Crimson would need to stage a dramatic comeback if it were to advance in its first FCS playoff appearance after falling behind, 31-0, at the half. But while Harvard drove 68 yards for a touchdown to open the second-half scoring, that would be all the Crimson could muster as the 12th-seeded Wildcats won going away.

Crimson quarterback Jaden Craig had a long afternoon, completing just 9-of-21 passes for 107 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown. The Harvard run game also struggled with just 106 yards while Nova was gashing the Ivy Leaguers with 319 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Add it up and Villanova outgained Harvard, 512 yards to 213.

Villanova improved to 10-2 in front of a disappointing crowd of 2,125 in Pennsylvania. Harvard, which allowed 45.7 points per game over its last three contests, finished at 9-2.

South Dakota State 41, New Hampshire 3

UNH quarterback Matt Vezza struggled to throw the ball in blowing snow, completing 10-of-22 passes for just 48 yards as the 14th-seeded Jackrabbits cruised to a convincing win.

South Dakota State never punted, scoring touchdowns on six of eight possessions, with one ending on an interception and one consisting of just one play at the end of the first half. Julius Loughlin, a transfer from Fordham, led the Jack attack with 100 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries, but the bigger damage was done by quarterback Chase Mason, who completed 16-of-20 throws for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Denzell Gibson led UNH with 101 yards on 19 carries. The only Wildcat points came on a 30-yard Nick Reed field goal. UNH saw its season end at 8-5 while South Dakota State improved to 9-4 in front of 3,843 in Brookings. The Jackrabbits will now travel to third-seed Montana.

Rhode Island 27, Central Connecticut 19

Central Connecticut lost a one-possession playoff game at Rhode Island for the second year in a row.

URI built a 24-7 halftime lead and it stayed that way until the fourth quarter when the Blue Devils battled back. First,, CCSU made it 24-13 on a Brady Olson touchdown pass. Although the PAT was blocked, the Blue Devils then pulled within eight points on a field goal three minutes later. After the teams traded field goals CCSU forced a three-and-out and got the ball back with 1:36 remaining at its own five. 

The Blue Devils ran off 11 plays to get to the URI 40 before a fourth-down Hail Mary was knocked down. CU, which got 311 yards and two touchdowns from Brady Olson on 62 attempts, finished the season 8-5. Rhode Island, improved to 11-2 in front of a home crowd of 2,680. The ninth-seeded Rams now travel to UC Davis.

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EXTRA POINT

I honestly don’t mind hiking in the cold that much. What I mind is not being able to simply pull on a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt and then head out. Yesterday it was a long-sleeved dri-fit T-shirt, a fleece vest, a “dad” jacket and a blaze orange vest that makes me look like I should be on the side of a highway  stopping traffic. Hiking pants (that today will have rain pants over them), a blaze-orange knitted beanie and insulated mittens complete the kit unless I also have to throw on spikes to deal with ice on the trail. I miss summer . . . .