Harvard and USC: A Common Thread

Today's Daily Pennsylvanian has a story looking at the Penn recruiting class. It's no doubt another solid group, although from this story it doesn't appear there's anyone who jumps off the page. Then again, anyone who thinks they can grade an Ivy League recruiting class before the kids report for preseason camp is fooling himself (or herself ;-). Penn coach Al Bagnoli on recruiting in the same league as Harvard:

"USC may be one of the few schools that can say 'I want you, you and you, and I don't want you and you.' In our league Harvard is as close as we have to that."

Did you know that Dartmouth leads the all-time series with Tennessee? A subscriber sent in a link about this column that briefly mentions the Big Green-Volunteers history. ... Hank Paulson, the former offensive lineman and soon to be Treasury Secretary, is remembered fondly by an early neighbor who says in this story:

"There is no ostentatiousness on his part. He's probably the smartest person I've ever met, and probably has the highest integrity."

Our friend over at the Colgate football blog has his Division I-AA Top-20 posted. He has UNH No. 1 in the nation and the Colgate Raiders (don't call them the Red Raiders) at No. 20.

Long-snapper Ryan Danehy, chosen with the third-to-last pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft, told the morning paper he was watching the draft online but nodded off before his name was called and woke up to a pleasant surprise. Lax teammate Jamie Coffin, also picked by the Boston Cannons in the draft, will put off joining the team for at least a year to work on his Internet site, collegepostings.com.

And finally this: I got an email from '94 captain and subscriber Josh Bloom updating the situation with former assistant coach Doug Johnson and his wife, Gloria, who is battling cancer. If you missed the earlier post on someone who coached for the love of it (and anyone who knew him realized that) click here.

(When I was at the newspaper, I always meant to write a story about Coach J, a local guy who would be out on the practice field each afternoon wearing his workboots and an enormous smile. When practice finished he'd climb in his dump truck -- could there ever have been another Ivy football coach who showed at the field up in a dump truck? -- and head over to his duties at AJ's restaurant in White River Junction, where he fed -- and sometimes employed -- countless players and coaches over the years.)

Gloria's illness has put a tremendous strain on the family finances and former players and friends of the program have been doing what they can to ease the burden by raising money for the Johnsons. Mark Abel '97, Bobby Corso '98 and Michele Robinson have helped spearhead the effort which continues. If you would like to send a check or a note to Coach J and his wife, the address is: Doug and Gloria Johnson, 140 Neal Road, White River Jct, VT 05001.