Walking down to Memorial Field after covering the ribbon cutting for the college's new fitness center, it was surprising to see the portable north goal post centered behind the end zone exactly where the permanent post is during the fall. (Because that goal post stands directly in front of the track team's discus circle, the post had been offset a little closer to the visiting stands for Monday's practice.)
Despite the presence of the goal post, Dartmouth throwing coach Carl Wallin was working with two woman discus throwers at the start of practice. When it was time for them to actually start heaving the discus, football coach Buddy Teevens asked Wallin how far the women could throw and then proceeded to reposition his team in an appropriate safe zone down the field. With that, the posts were moved and the women started firing away.
While the women were throwing, Teevens gave new meaning to the word "safety," standing between his players and the landing area, watching his players with one eye and the discus with the other.
When the throwing session was over, Teevens had his players roll the goal posts back into position. Green Alert Take: It's a good thing the football-track overlap is only 12 practices long. Giving the Blackman Practice Fields the spring off to recover is a good idea. Whether it's a good idea to practice amidst flying discuses (discii?) is another matter.
After individual drills, Teevens had the Big Green go 11-on-11 (no pads, no tackling, no regular line play). ... Incumbent starting quarterback Josh Cohen, still battling an ankle and wearing a yellow vest, took part in throwing drills before and after the 11-v-11 but sat out the closest thing to live action so far. That left the QB scrimmaging duties to Tom Bennewitz, Mike Fritz and Casey Frost. ... At the end of practice, Teevens had the quarterbacks throwing long balls to receivers running a flag pattern. Bennewitz' tight spiral seemed to hit the mark most regularly. ... Not that Teevens was that happy with the quarterbacks all day. At one point after a third, consecutive bad "read," he shouted out, "You must have the worst quarterback coach in America." Teevens, by the way, is the QB coach. ...
Defensive back Michael Cure had an interception that might have been a touchdown in the "scrimmage" and followed it up seconds later with a pass breakup. ... John Pircon also had a nice pic. ...
Among those helping out on the field as student-coaches were graduating seniors Dan Shula (who will be a graduate assistant coach with his Uncle Mike at Alabama next year) and Brooks Goff. ... Watching from the sidelines were graduating seniors Jason Raiti and Dan Tootoo.
Also on the sidelines were a couple of potential walk-ons for next fall and a possible recruit for the year after. The walk-ons are a 260-pound offensive lineman from Fairbanks, Alaska, who is deciding between Dartmouth and a Division III school on the West Coast, and a player from Massachusetts. ... The potential recruit is a junior quarterback from Milwaukee who has already taken a look at Princeton, Amherst and Williams on an Eastern swing and will also be visting Harvard. ...
After a day off, practice resumes Friday and Saturday. ... Look for a story about a player who could be Dartmouth's X-factor on the Green Alert home page Friday.
Philip Galligan shows soft hands pulling in a pass during Wednesday's drills. (Click on photos to supersize)
O-line coach Cyril Brockmeier puts his guys through their paces Wednesday.
Steve Hunt (11) and Michael Cure (27) work Wednesday on a defensive back drill.
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