Penn Holds Off Big Green

PHILADELPHIA -- The statistics were virtually identical. In fact, they probably favored Dartmouth.

All except the only one that really mattered. Visit Green Alert premium to read the full account along with a sidebar on a story defensive effort by the Big Green.

Ivy League Season Kicking Off Against Penn

If you haven't seen it yet (or even if you have, come to think of it), the official Dartmouth-Penn preview out of the college sports information office can be found here.

For Penn's preview, click here.

The Boston Globe has full coverage of the disposition of former Crimson captain Matthew C. Thomas' legal case, as well as more information on the infamous skit night, here.

A game story and notes sidebar will be posted on Green Alert tonight. ... Also, be sure to check in next week for a very special Green Alert feature out of the 50th anniversary of the Ivy League.

Penn Preview Posted

PHILADELPHIA -- First Colgate. Then New Hampshire. Now Penn.

The first was a co-favorite to win the Patriot League championship. The second a legitimate pick to vie for the I-AA national championship. And Week Three opponent Penn?

The perennial Ivy League powerhouse opened with a 21-11 win over then-No. 22 ranked Lafayette and followed with a 27-20 near-miss against Villanova of the Atlantic 10.

It's a daunting way to start the season, to be sure, but there's a difference this time. A big difference. To find out what that difference is, visit the Green Alert premium site.

Penn, Dartmouth Both See Areas To Attack

The Daily Pennsylvanian offers something less than an endorsement of Dartmouth's defense by quarterback Robert Irvin heading into tomorrow's game: "We've seen them on tape. We've picked out the spots where we can definitely take advantage of them."

The Daily Dartmouth preview quotes receiver Ryan Fuselier talking about Penn's vulnerability: "Their corners are young, so that's an advantage for our receiving team. That's when my experience comes in, having started three times as many games as this corner has, it really opens up a lot of holes."

The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a swipe at Dartmouth in a lighthearted piece about a sister at Penn and a brother in Hanover: "It's hard to understand - they grew up in the same house, ate the same food, drove the same car - and yet somewhere along the line things went terribly terribly wrong for Jacob. He started rock-climbing, he refused to shower or eat anything but granola, and then he insisted on heading out to Hanover to attend a school with the worst sports program in the country."

The Columbia Spectator points a finger at Dartmouth defensive line, a bit of a surprise considering that there are two fifth-year senior starters back up front: "Penn's offense ... is predicated on a strong rushing attack with Joe Sandberg and, against a weak Big Green line, should be able to easily put enough points on the board to bring down Dartmouth at home."

The Daily Pennsylvanian look around the Ivy League suggests that despite Columbia's 2-0 start, the Lions will have their hands full against 2-0 Princeton: "Two weeks in, the Columbia bakery has run out of cream puffs."

The Daily Princetonian doesn't expect this year's game against the Lions to be as easy as last year's 43-3 win over another 2-0 group of New Yorkers.

The Cornell Sun takes on the Big Red's inability to score despite moving the ball: "“It’s the craziest thing in the world,” said head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “I’ve never seen that before. You’ve got to believe the points are going to come. You can’t lose your head. You can’t flinch in the face of adversity. You just got to stick with the system and believe it’s going to happen.”

The Brown Daily Herald quotes coach Phil Estes as he analyzes what when wrong in the loss to Harvard in the paper's preview of the Bears' game against Rhode Island: "The biggest disappointment for us was that we've always been a very physical football team and we were not very physical on Saturday."

The Yale Daily says the Bulldogs are looking to capitalize on the momentum they build in last week's win over Cornell.

The Harvard Crimson reports that former football captain Matthew C. Thomas was placed on probation after being charged with the assault and battery of his ex-girlfriend.

The New Journal's Delaware Online has this amusing quote regarding the bid by UNH receiver David Ball to surpass Jerry Rice's TD mark tomorrow in Newark: ""We were joking around in the secondary, wondering which one of us was going to be on (ESPN's)'SportsCenter' for giving up the record," Delaware senior safety Garrett Schultz said.

Thursday's Practice Story Posted

HANOVER -- Buddy Teevens wants his players to come out for Saturday's Ivy League opener against Penn as if their hair is on fire.

If he's looking for a role model for that kind of attitude he could do worse than point at Justin Cottrell, and not just because the junior linebacker's mane happens to be red.

To read more, visit the Green Alert premium site. While there, be sure to check out the Green Alert guide of what to see and do in and around the Penn campus.

Fuselier Getting Noticed

The disadvantage of playing against UNH, David Ball and Ricky Santos is you are playing against David Ball, UNH and Ricky Santos. An advantage: If you do something special, people notice. Such was the case for Dartmouth receiver Ryan Fuselier, who caught 10 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns. This Yahoo Sports column has good things to say about his NFL prospects.

The Daily Pennsylvanian writes about Fuselier's transition from quarterback to All-Ivy wide receiver.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a piece about the city's new Continental Basketball Association franchise owned by, "Trinity Sports and Entertainment Group, a Florida corporation formed earlier this year by former NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler, five-time NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway and businessman Demetrius Ford. TSEG also owns several other CBA franchises." Fiedler's father, Ken, was a very successful high school basketball coach on Long Island and his brother, Scott, has coached the game at the college level.

The Boston Herald writes not about Harvard tailback Clifton Dawson, but about his possible successor, Cheng Ho, who was born in Taiwan and six years after coming to the United States has run 12 times for 70 yards for the Crimson.

The Columbia Spectator notes that Harvard is unbeaten "despite internal woes."

The Spectator points out that Richard Irvin will be Harvard's fourth starting quarterback in its last four games, dating back to the 2005 finale.

The Sports Network picks Penn over Dartmouth and Rhode Island over Brown without any writeup. There are capsule explanations of these picks: Princeton 31, Columbia 13; Harvard 28, Lehigh 24; Lafayette 23, Yale 17; Albany 17, Cornell 10.

Wednesday's Practice Report

HANOVER -- If the Dartmouth football team needed a reminder that Ivy League play is about to open, an animated Buddy Teevens issued it at the end of Wednesday's practice.

Did he ever.

For more, visit the Green Alert premium site.

Starting QB For Penn Expected To Be Ready For Dartmouth

UPDATE: The Daily Dartmouth has an interview with retiring admissions director Karl Furstenberg.

The Daily Pennsylvanian quotes Penn coach Al Bagnoli as saying his starting quarterback, Robert Irvin, will be able to go against Dartmouth this week after leaving last week's game against Villanova with a "twisted ankle." Of Penn's loss to the Wildcats, Bagnoli said: "Either we made really good plays - 74-yard run, halfback pass, punt return for a touchdown - or we made some disastrous plays - gave up a 60-yard touchdown pass, interception, fumble, fumbled a punt. So it was one of those days ..."

The Boston Globe reports Harvard will be starting still another quarterback in this week's game against Lehigh. From the Globe: "Junior Rich Irvin, Harvard's fourth-string quarterback, will get the call against Lehigh (1-2). Irvin, a junior who transferred from Tulane following the 2004 season, started Harvard's season-opener last year before Liam O'Hagan seized the job."

The Harvard Crimson editorializes on the discipline problems with the school football team.

The Columbia Spectator has a roundup of last week's Ivy games.

The Daily Princetonian published the quote of the week out of the Sprint football team's loss to Cornell, 29-0. After the PU quarterbacks completed just 16-of-54 passes for 128 yards with three interceptions, coach Thomas Cocuzza said of his quarterback and receivers: "They were on different pages of different books within different libraries on separate campuses of two colleges with no Internet to communicate. And ultimately that is my fault." (Thanks to a subscriber for sending along the link)

Also from The Globe: "... (H)istoric Harvard Stadium is under serious consideration as a site for Eastern Mass. playoff games, perhaps including two Super Bowls. The 103-year-old field has not been a site for high school football postseason games." Making the difference: FieldTurf.

Tuesday's Practice

HANOVER -- A 56-14 loss is a 56-14 loss is a 56-14 loss and Buddy Teevens wouldn't disagree.

Still, after watching film of Saturday's loss to No. 1 New Hampshire and letting the contest steep a bit, the Dartmouth coach noticed some things he didn't see the first time around.

To find out what those things were, read Tuesday's practice story on the Green Alert premium site.

Harvard's Troubles, Penn's Woes, Fiedler's Luck

The Harvard Crimson takes a thorough look at the football team's off-the-field troubles.

Six teams (none named Dartmouth) have a shot at the Ivy title according to the Crimson.

The Daily Dartmouth writes about the decision by Admissions Director Karl Furstenberg to retire.

The Daily Pennsylvanian looks into whether the end of early admissions will be a bad thing for athletics at Harvard and Princeton.

A lack of star power is contributing to the Penn football team's struggles, according to this Daily Pennsylvanian writer.

The Penn secondary is allowing almost 17 yards a completion this fall according to this story in the DP.

Princeton's win over Lafayette takes some of the luster off Penn's victory over the Pards, who won't be back in the top-25 anytime soon the way the DP sees it.

Quoted in the Cornell Sun, Ed Marinaro has the perfect spin on Harvard's Clifton Dawson making a run at his career yardage record: "... (T)hose overall records should have been broken a long time ago when you’re playing four years and 40 games as opposed to three years and 27 games. But it certainly doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of this guy."

Jay Fiedler's luck has run out. For the second year in a row the former Dartmouth quarterback signed with a team as its top backup and the starter was lost (probably) for the season due to injury. But for the second year in a row, is shoulder is keeping him from playing. The St. Petersburg Times says he's not an option for the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Optimist-Pessimist Sept. 25

The boys are at each other's throats again. Find it here.

Dean of Admissions to Retire

Breaking news: Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg is retiring as of July 1, 2007. The Class of 2011 will be the last admitted on his watch.

The Daily D Tackles The UNH Football Game

The Daily Dartmouth says the Big Green has to bounce back this week against Penn after absorbing a shellacking by UNH.

From The D's mini-guide to Big Green athletics: "Fan apathy has long persisted at our beloved undergraduate institution, due mostly to the high school-like atmosphere found at Big Green sporting events."

And: "Football games are fun until about halftime. By the second half it is usually clear that our team will have no chance for victory and escaping some increasingly frigid weather tends to outweigh the prospect of staying at Memorial Field for more than an hour."

I'm sure the folks around the athletic department, who have been working hard to change things, loved that.

Warning: what follows is a little weird. No, a lot weird.

I was talking about the east stands at Memorial Field with a Dartmouth administrator late last week and was told something about the "vomitories." I kind of choked on that one, if you'll pardon the pun.

"Uh, excuse me?" I said. Turns out, vomitory is the proper word for what the rest of us might call portals.

I just hope my 12-year-old doesn't read this. I can see it now, a first-person essay for his English class: "I missed the first touchdown because I was still in the vomitory."

Taking A Look Around the League

Welcome to the Monday Land-O-Linkin' ...

The Sports Network: "No. 1 New Hampshire’s 56-14 blowout at Dartmouth was ho-hum on the Wildcats’ victory scale, but the game registered national attention because of the record-setting day by UNH wide receiver David Ball. "

The Manchester Union Leader tells of David Ball and "his ability to leap tall defenders in a single bound."

The Concord Monitor quotes UNH quarterback Ricky Santos on Dartmouth's defense: "They didn't bring the blitz as much as we saw on tape, they were playing more zone. So our offensive coordinator (Chip Kelly) - he's amazing, the best in the nation - once he saw that, he just put the game plan in that we were going to throw the ball more than we did last week and it worked out."

The Harvard Crimson offers a few more details on the Skit Night mess: "Approximately 20 players stood up in protest, with others also about to stand, before (coach Tim) Murphy left the room, according to one witness."

The Columbia Spectator notes that the Lions are 2-0 for the second year in a row, but this time they aren't satisfied: "No one said a word about pride or the team's record, much less how much fun they had or how excited they were to win the game."

The Cornell Sun reports the 0-2 Big Red moved the ball up and down the field -- again -- but is still looking for its first touchdown of the season.

The Daily Princetonian says the key to the Tigers' second win in as many tries is that when they take a hit, they are hitting back, and hitting back harder.

The Brown Daily Herald quotes coach Phil Estes as saying when the defending champions lost to Harvard Saturday they lost to a better team. Or at least one that played better.

The Daily Pennsylvanian reminds us that the Penn-Villanova game has come down to the last play for three years in a row and for three years in a row it has been Villanova coming away with the win.

Finally: Yet another story has popped up blaming Buddy Teevens for Stanford's 0-4 start. Some of the commentary from Pac 10 country has been unbelievably mean-spirited. There's been so much of it, all at once, that it is starting to sound orchestrated. If I didn't know better I'd think there's a Stanford cabal out to protect current coach Walt Harris.

Later today on Green Alert: The Optimist and The Pessimist

Cramer In Action For Titans

Dartmouth graduate Casey Cramer caught his first NFL pass for the Tennessee Titans today, a 6-yard completion from Kerry Collins. Cramer also returned a kickoff 21 yards, made a tackle on special teams and recovered a fumble (apparently his own ... oops).

Fuselier Story Posted

UPDATE: Sunday's follow story out of the Week 2 loss to UNH can be found here.

To read my freelance story on Big Green wide receiver Ryan Fuselier that appeared in Saturday's Dartmouth game program, click here.

Harvard Overcomes Obstacles, Brown

Ivy League and Dartmouth opponent roundup:
Harvard 38, Brown 21
Yale 21, Cornell 9
Columbia 23, Georgetown 21
Villanova 27, Penn 20
Princeton 26, Lafayette 14
Holy Cross 27, Marist 0
Monmouth 17, Colgate 12

Thanks to David Ball's assault on Jerry Rice's TD record, there are a ton of stories out of the Dartmouth-UNH game. Most are Ball-centric and have little Dartmouth angle at all. A couple that do:

The Manchester Union Leader (“I think our guys finally settled in,” Teevens said. “We’re not playing the Patriots. . . . Obviously, that’s a very, very gifted football team that we played. To see a top-ranked team like that, you’d rather watch them on TV than line up against them sometimes, but to see my guys finish the way they did certainly bodes well for the future.”)

The Boston Globe (For Dartmouth, the defeat at least gave it something to build on as it heads into its league schedule. ``Penn and some of the Ivy League teams are going to get a big surprise when they play us," said (wide receiver Ryan) Fuselier.)

The New York Times' Ivy roundup starts with Harvard's big win over Brown.

Memorial Field Opening Day Pictures

Reconfigured Memorial Field looks good against UNH even with 7,023 in the house. (click to enlarge)

UNH Too Much for Dartmouth

UPDATE: Postgame notes are now up on the Green Alert site.

HANOVER -- In a quiet moment, after the video cameras had been shut off, after the microphones had been put away and after the media parade strapped to the New Hampshire bandwagon had filed out of the postgame press conference Saturday, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens allowed himself a candid moment.

Click here to visit the Green Alert premium site and read what Teevens had to say after a 56-14 loss to top-ranked New Hampshire Saturday on refurbished Memorial Field.

Ball Bounced The Right Way

Memorial Field is ready for the 2006 home opener today against UNH. (click on photos to enlarge)


Today's Boston Globe takes a lengthy look at New Hampshire receiver David Ball, who will be at Memorial Field today at noon. The story quotes Jerry Rice as saying he'll be the first to call Ball after the All-American breaks his career receiving touchdowns record. (Ball needs three to tie Rice; four to surpass him.) It's been written many times before, but Ball wasn't exactly a high-profile recruit. The Globe writes:

Ball is the ultimate walk-on at a school that relishes them. Linebacker Dave Rozumek and offensive lineman Ken Kaplan both walked all the way to the NFL from Durham. Over the last decade, half a dozen walk-ons (including Ball) ended up captains.

Over the years I've talked with a great many Dartmouth football players about the UNH game and while they usually say the right thing about the in-state rivalry it usually sounded just a little bit hollow and with good cause. Seldom does Dartmouth have more than a single player on the roster from New Hampshire. (Walk-on safety Nick Danford is the only one this fall.)

While this is often just another game on the Dartmouth side, it's big doings at UNH. And just in case it's not, coach Sean McDonnell goes to great lengths to make sure it is. Take it from quarterback Ricky Santos, who told the Manchester Union Leader a little something about the Granite Bowl trophy, which usually sits in the football office:

“It’s in our locker room right now on display. Coach is very big on that and he wants it back in our locker room. . . . It all stems from the top. When it means a lot to him, it means a lot to us.”

Today's Boston Globe tells of a Harvard football team Skit Night performance that led to wide receiver Keegan Toci being booted off the team. To say things are uncomfortable in the Harvard football program right now is to be guilty of understatement. Coach Tim Murphy, quoted about Toci's situation in the Globe:

He was dismissed because of a mean-spirited attack on the training staff, coaching staff, players, strength coaches and Harvard University in general.

The Globe story also includes this:

After Murphy announced Toci's dismissal, he asked the 110-member team whether it supported his position. An uneasy silence ensued, then one player after another rose from his seat until about 20 stood in protest, with others apparently poised to follow, before Murphy abruptly ended the meeting and left the room, according to one witness.

Even The "Wildcat" Is Confident

A Concord (NH) Monitor columnist had a "conversation" with the new Wildcat sculpture at the University of New Hampshire and here's some of what the Wildcat "told" him:

"Coach McDonnell's a weenie. He doesn't want to stick his foot in his mouth or appear arrogant, but I'm not afraid. I'll take the chance of stuffing my paw in my mouth. This one's over by halftime, like so many other UNH games the past two years. Something like 40-0 after two quarters. That's how good this team is."

The Daily Dartmouth previews the game here.

The Tale of the Tape and Weekend Picks have both been posted on the Green Alert premium site. Check in tonight for the game preview.

Ball Taking Aim At Rice's Record

University of New Hampshire receiver David Ball said he almost gave up football after playing the self-proclaimed worst game of his gridiron career for the Vermont team in the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl against New Hampshire at Dartmouth College. In a Burlington Free Press story, he says: ""It would be nice to go back to that venue where I almost stopped playing football and break one of the biggest records in the game." That record would be the 50 career touchdown passes caught by Jerry Rice. Ball needs four more to break the mark. Uh oh.

Is the UNH-Dartmouth series headed for the scrap heap or will it continue after the current contract expires? As New Hampshire's Seacoast Online says, it depends on who you ask.

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens:

"I would love to branch out, to be honest with you, and I assume UNH would as well. I'd guess their experience at Northwestern was good for the players, the coaches and financially."

UNH coach Sean McDonnell:

"I think it's a rivalry that's got to be played. n the tradition of Villanova playing Penn, Rhode Island playing Brown, New Hampshire playing Dartmouth, Harvard playing Northeastern the past couple years "¦ I think these are games that the Ivy League and the Atlantic 10 should play."

Cornell grad Kevin Booth could be in the starting lineup for the Oakland Raiders this weekend as a rookie offensive lineman according to this story.

The famed Fifth-Down Game between Cornell and Dartmouth has been mentioned in quite a few stories since the Oklahoma fiasco last week. A writer for the Lawrence Journal-World in Kansas thinks Oregon should offer to forfeit the game but, does he think it will happen? He writes: "Get real, but don’t laugh. Such gallantry has occurred in college football at least once." Then he goes on to tell the oft-repeated story of top-ranked Cornell forfeiting a win over Dartmouth when it was discovered the Big Red scored the winning points on a fifth down in the 1940 game.

The citizenship ceremony in Concord this morning was tremendously moving. There were 98 people from 39 countries (but just one from Denmark ;-) sworn in as citizens. More than a few eyes teared up during the playing of a video presentation of Lee Greenwood's, I'm Proud to be an American.

Don't Expect UNH To Look Past Big Green

If you are hoping New Hampshire will look past Dartmouth tomorrow, don't count on it. UNH coach Sean McDonnell makes a point of reminding his team daily that everything can fall apart in a hurry according to this story in the Manchester Union Leader. “Two injuries here, three injuries there,” McDonnell said. “Not concentrating on the task at hand. Not doing the things you’re supposed to do. Thinking you’re better than other people, when you’re not. Believe me, it is a lot closer than people think, and we have to talk to our players about it every day.”

While everyone watches Ricky Ball's assault on Jerry Rice's I-AA touchdown record, his UNH quarterback, Ricky, Santos is 333 yards away from the school's career passing yards mark of 7,742 as a junior according to this story. (Jay Fiedler holds the Dartmouth record of 6,684 yards.)

The Providence Journal picks Brown in its showdown with Harvard and has UNH stomping Dartmouth, 42-14.

The Brown Daily Herald takes a look at the biggest game of the weekend between the Bears and the Crimson. For a look at the game from the Harvard angle, check out the Crimson story.

The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look around the Ivy League in this story.

There's more out there but I've got to run. We're zipping off to Concord, N.H., this morning where the Danish born-and-raised grandmother of a couple of young Hanover athletes is becoming a U.S. citizen at 8 a.m.. I guess I should have been a Viking fan growing up ;-)

Thursday's Practice Story Posted

Thursday's practice roundup has now been posted on the premium Green Alert site. It starts with a look at senior quarterback Mike Fritz and how he's handling preparation for his first career start against top-ranked New Hampshire.

UNH Might Not Be Cocky But Others Are

The Dartmouth football team certainly shouldn't need any bulletin board material to get up for Saturday's televised home opener against the No. 1 team in the nation in Division I-AA. But if coach Buddy Teevens wants to stoke the fire a little bit for the New Hamshire game he could photocopy the following from a column in the Mancester Union Leader:

• "There’s even a chance the ’Cats could have 42 points by halftime."
• "Miracles do happen, just don’t expect one Saturday at Memorial Field."
• "Cocky gets you beat. Confidence gets you 62 points on the board. The ’Cats will be a lot closer to the latter rather than the former Saturday."

Former Dartmouth assistant Rob Talley is the point man in a lengthy Boston Globe story about the difficulty black assistants have trying to land a head coaching position in the college ranks. Talley, now a special assistant to Mike Nolan, head coach of the San Francison 49ers, interviewed for the head coaching position at Holy Cross, Northeastern and Dartmouth. He says his dream remains to be a college head coach.

Ivy League play begins this weekend with Harvard and Brown squaring off in a big early season matchup and Yale visiting Cornell. While the first two are considered strong contenders for the Ivy title, the games are critical for all four teams as this quote from Yale coach Jack Siedlecki in a New Haven Register story emphasizes: "You just feel that in a seven-game schedule, being 0-1 is a tough row to hoe. One loss is the limit, I would say."

You won't often find links to Christian Science Monitor articles here but do check out this story about the HIT helmet monitoring system Dartmouth is one of the first schools in the nation to employ. It helps, of course, that the company that developed the system is in nearby Lebanon.

And finally, the Hanover 7th/8th football team improved to 2-0 yesterday with a 22-0 win over nearby Hartford. A certain 7th grader who played sparingly in the opener got a little more time in the second half of this game. Knowing what to expect, he handled the situation a little better this time although he lamented no plays came his way on defense. He got a couple of carries, gaining a yard or two on the first and making the mistake of trying to break the second run outside and getting dropped for a three-yard loss.

Wednesday's Practice

Wednesday's Practice
HANOVER -- Dartmouth corner John Manning is listed at 5-foot-10, 185 pounds. Take this to the bank: He's no bigger than that.

New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball, who is poised to break Jerry Rice's I-AA career touchdown mark, is listed at 6-2, 200 pounds. Take this to the bank: The Vermont high school record-holder in the high jump (6-8 1/2) plays bigger than that. A lot bigger.

In his second career start Saturday, Manning knows he'll be severely tested by Ball, but guess what? Click here to read the story on the premium Green Alert site.

Exploratory Surgery for Fiedler

Given the lack of news on the Jay Fiedler front the past couple of weeks this should come as no surprise: according to his agent, he's set for exploratory surgery on the throwing shoulder he injured last year.

I've always wondered about announcers revealing "inside" information during TV and radio broadcasts. Apparently, USC feels Brent Musberger did just that during Saturday's broadcast of the USC-Nebraska game according to this story. It reports that, "The university sent a letter to ESPN, which oversees sports programming on ABC, saying Musburger, with less than 10 minutes to play and the Trojans leading 21-10, began describing how USC quarterback John David Booty lets receivers know he has spotted a certain kind of coverage.

I went looking for the original source for the Fiedler note (above) and came up empty before getting a note from a subscriber with the link. While I was looking I stumbled across a story about former Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl coach Sam Wyche and what he's doing now. It's a good read. Here's a snippet:

Wyche is having a blast as a volunteer offensive coordinator at the (high) school where his wife, Jane, was a former Miss Pickens, his fancy NFL playbook shrunken to a single sheet of paper and his viral-infected heart brimming at the sight of the underdog Pickens varsity bursting through a paper banner.

Game two for the Hanover 7th/8th football team this afternoon against local powerhouse Hartford of White River Junction, Vt.. Keep your fingers crossed. Oh, and for those of you keeping score, the Hanover High field hockey team remained undefeated (3-0-2) yesterday with a 1-1 road tie at previously unscored upon Lebanon, its archrival. A certain freshman was in the starting lineup once again for Hanover.

Sports Network, Globe Expect UNH Offensive Explosion

UPDATE: Missed this the first time around. The Daily Dartmouth writes about the Colgate game.

Matt Dougherty, the I-AA guru for The Sports Network, predicts a 49-10 UNH victory over Dartmouth Saturday on Memorial Field. Scroll almost to the bottom of this story for his take on the game. ... The Boston Globe is no kinder to the Big Green, writing: "UNH has averaged 41.4 points per game in the teams' last five meetings, and that figure could go up. ..."

A Minnesota high school quarterback from the same school that produced Heisman winner Chris Wienke and several other top quarterbacks, tells this web site that Dartmouth is one of the schools that has shown interest in him.

A rambling Princetonian story about Division I-AA includes this nugget about the Ivy playoff ban hidden deep inside. The speaker is Princeton Associate Athletic Director Erin McDermott:

"It's a presidential decision that football can't participate in the postseason playoff, even though all of our other NCAA-sponsored sports are allowed to. There are two main issues — concern over missed class time and tradition. Football has the largest traveling squad, so more players would miss class time. Also, there's the tradition of the Ivy League Champion. The season culminates in an Ivy League Champion, it's a tradition."

McDermott adds:

"The issue has sparked more discussion among athletic directors, the presidents, and so forth. There's a possibility for change, but I don't see it happening."

Green Alert Take: McDermott must not have gotten the memo saying it's best not to try to explain the unexplainable. (There was no memo, at least not one that I've heard of, but you get the idea.) That said, at least she had the courage to address the issue.

Jumping on a train Princeton started, Columbia is replacing loans with grants for students from families making less than $50,000 a year as explained in this New York Times story.

You had to know the FieldTurf pr machine was loving it when Harvard chose to install the stuff. Here's a press release celebrating the marriage of the old and the new at Harvard Stadium.

A subscriber tipped me off to this NYT story about lightweight (oops, I mean Sprint) football for players 172 pounds and less (with at least 5 percent body fat). One of the beauties of the sport is that the linemen and the backs can be the same size and speed. In fact, the linemen might be faster. Here's an outtake from the story:

Army coach (Gene) McIntyre described a game against Navy several years ago in which a safety was disrupting his team’s option attack. Army was struggling to account for the safety until McIntyre came up with a solution that would work only in sprint football: He used his center, who could run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds.

“He was able to catch the free safety coming over the top,” McIntyre said with a laugh. “You couldn’t do something like that in any other scheme.”

For more information, check out the league web site.

Looking ahead a week to the Ivy League opener, did you realize the rookie Penn quarterback hit the first 11 passes of his career? The Daily Pennsylvanian included that tidbit in its notes.

Tuesday's Practice Report

The end zone stands go sideline to sideline and the reconfigured east stands have now been painted. (click to enlarge)
The view from the home sideline at Tuesday's practice.

Tuesday's practice report has been posted on the premium Green Alert site.

Tuesday's Musings

A story on the Ivy League web site takes a look at the change in Ivy League football venues, with particular attention paid to the playing surface. Of the work being done at Dartmouth, the story says: "The new building, estimated at $19.5 million, and a synthetic field might detract from the 'White Mountain' feeling, but it should pick up Big Green gridiron spirits."

From the Manchester Union Leader: "Now it's Dartmouth College's turn to take its shot at the No. 1 Wildcats this week. The University of New Hampshire, after its lopsided 62-7 victory against Stony Brook on Saturday in Durham, solidified its lofty standing as the No. 1-ranked team in The Sports Network Division I-AA top 25 poll." Not much more about Dartmouth in the story, but it's a reminder that something special is happening this weekend.

For the full Sports Network release on the voting, click here. Find the poll here. In addition to UNH being No. 1, Harvard is at 26, Penn at 28, Brown at 31 and Colgate at 38. Just an opinion, but I'd buy Colgate at that price. The Raiders' value should be going up. If you have Central Cennecticut at 23, it's time to sell.

Sometimes the need to turn a phrase gets in the way of telling the story accurately. I've seen a many times with young writers I've helped over the years. Here's a perfect example from the Cornell Sun overview of the week in Ivy football: "Colgate took off running and never looked back en route to a 28-7 win over Dartmouth in Hamilton, N.Y., on Saturday." Nice play on words, given Jordan Scott's 65-yard gallop on the Raiders' first play from scrimmage. But Colgate was losing at halftime and clinging to a seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. Never looked back doesn't quite tell the story.

It didn't take long, and it was no great surprise, who answered the challenge after Harvard dropped its early "action" policy. Stepping to the plate: Princeton. Here's a quick story about the New Jersey school's decision to drop its early "decision" program.

Princeton Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye, quoted in the Princetonian: "(W)e're in a position of strength, and it takes courage, but it's the right thing to do." ... A story in the Harvard Crimson included the following, which is revealing: "Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid, William R. Fitzsimmons ’67, said he is encouraged by Princeton’s move and hopes that more schools will follow Harvard’s lead. But he stressed that potential antitrust violations constrained Harvard from consulting with other schools regarding changes to early admissions programs."

Optimist and Pessimist Have At It

Editor's Note: The Optimist and The Pessimist made their debut a few years back when I operated the old Dartmouth football web site for Rivals. The company's grand plan to do something not all that different from Green Alert didn't survive, but The Optimist and The Pessimist feature has. Back for a return engagement, they take a look back at Week One of the 2006 campaign and ahead to Week Two.

The Pessimist wins the coin flip and defers.

The Optimist is feeling pretty good about Dartmouth taking a 7-6 lead into halftime of Saturday's opener at Colgate and being within a touchdown against the perennial Patriot League powerhouse until midway through the fourth quarter.
The Pessimist would like to remind his alter ego that Colgate won the game, 28-7.

The Optimist chooses to point out that in the first half Dartmouth had six first downs to Colgate's five and -- apart from Jordan Scott's 65-yard run on the first play from scrimmage -- outgained the Raiders, 121-119 in total yards.
Trying to stifle a smirk, The Pessimist suggests that not including Scott's long run is a little like saying the Red Sox had a good year against the Yankees -- as long as you don't include those five games in August.

To read more visit the premium Green Alert site.

Reading Around The Ivy League

Even in disappointment, the Dartmouth players and coach Teevens honored their fans with a singing on the Alma Mater Saturday. (Click to enlarge)
The Colgate scoreboard told the story at game's end.

Lots of links this morning after Week One of Ivy League football, starting at Harvard where quarterback Chris Pizzotti was injured in a win over Holy Cross. "Everyone thought the drama was finally over for the Harvard football team." So starts a story in the Crimson. Said coach Tim Murphy of Pizzotti's prognosis in a story about the quarterback situation: "“He’s definitely out, we’re just hoping it’s not a really severe injury that requires surgery. They think it’s an MCL sprain, and he’ll have to get an MRI to see if it’s worse than that.”

Harvard and Brown meet up this week in a critical Ivy League matchup in Providence. The Bears are coming off a win against overmatched Georgetown. Said Brown coach Phil Estes in the Daily Herald: "Any win is a good win, but there's a lot of stuff that we have to clean up."

The third of what might be called the Ivy League's Big Three these days is Penn, and the Quakers opened with an impressive win at Lafayette that resulted in this lede in the Daily Pennsylvanian: "They're back. After a four-game losing streak that put last year's team under .500 in the Ivy League, the Quakers of old have seemingly returned."

Also making some noise in the first week was Princeton, which came from behind to beat Lehigh, a team it hadn't beaten since 1993 as this story in the Princetonian notes.

And how about Columbia? The Lions didn't just beat Fordham; they smoked them. One reason, according to new coach Norries Wilson in the Spectator: "We talk about it at practice, about being physical, about out-competing. I think our team was in better shape than the team we played today. Our kids competed all the way to the end."

While there were a lot of smiles around the rest of the Ivy League, they were in short supply in the Cornell locker room after a disappointing loss to Bucknell. The Sun covered the story.

Even more disappointing was Yale's blowout loss to surprising San Diego. The Yale Daily tells it like it is: It is safe to say Saturday's loss only leaves room for improvement

Dartmouth's final opponent had no trouble dispatching Stony Brook but star UNH receiver David Ball was upset with how he played and sounds as if he wants to make up for it Saturday in the closest game that he'll play to his home in Orange, Vt.. Said Ball in a Manchester Union Leader story: "(I)f you're a competitor and you play poorly, you're going to be upset and I'm very upset with the way I played. . . . It will aggravate me until I get on the field Saturday." Uh oh.

Later today on the premium Green Alert site: The Optimist and the Pessimist get after it in light of Dartmouth's opening loss to Colgate and the other Ivy results.

Junior Varsity Tops Middlebury

Sparked by an opportunistic defense that returned an interception for one score and forced a fumble to set up another, the Dartmouth junior varsity posted a 15-9 win over Middlebury Sunday on Chase Field. A recap and statistics have been posted on the premium Green Alert site.

Looking Back At Week One Picks

Opening-week predictions can be a little tricky but I'm not going to lie to you. My crystal ball was miserable this time around. Sure, I was 4-4, but the four I got right were easy picking. In alphabetical order:

My pick: Brown 35, Georgetown 14
Final: Brown 34, Georgetown 21
I should've quit when I was ahead. The Hoyas hava way to go.

My pick: Columbia 17, Fordham 14
Final: Columbia 37, Fordham 7
Good for the Lions and good for new coach Norries Wilson. But I suspect this says more about how bad Fordham is than how good Columbia might be.

My pick: Cornell 21, Bucknell 7
Final: Bucknell 20, Cornell 5
Don't blame me for this one. Bucknell was picked to finish between Fordham and Georgetown toward the nether regions of the Patriot League basement. Cornell racked up 436 yards of total offense and didn't get a touchdown. That's tough to do. Four turnovers didn't help.

My pick: Harvard 17, Holy Cross 7
Final: Harvard 31, Holy Cross 14
How much difference does a great runner make? Clifton Dawson piled up 170 rushing yards as the Crimson, already down to its second quarterback, lost Chris Pizzotti to a knee injury early in the second period and still racked up almost twice as many points as I expected.

My pick: Lafayette 21, Penn 7
Final: Penn 21, Lafayette 11
Going with the previously unbeaten Pards to defend their home turf in the first game in their renovated stadium made sense. But Joel Sandberg's 166 rushing yards (see Harvard above) and a 17-for-27 passing performance by Robert Irvin in his first game (182 yards) gave the Quakers what had to be a confidence-building win.

My pick: Lehigh 35, Princeton 3
Final: Princeton 14, Lehigh 10
Got part of this one right. I didn't think Princeton would be able to put up many points with an all-new offensive line. But I just didn't think the Tigers would keep the Mountain Hawk offense down the way they did. I should have taken Lehigh's loss to Albany more seriously.

My pick: Yale 42, San Diego 21
Final: San Diego 43, Yale 17
This can mean one of three things. San Diego has officially come of age as a I-AA program. Or Yale, one of my surprise teams this fall, is exactly that, but not in the way I expected. Or both. No matter how you look at it, this was a shocker and not a good result at all for the Ivy League.

My pick: UNH Name that Score, Stony Brook 14
Final: UNH 67-7
Nailed this one but I won't hurt my arm patting myself on the back. Boy George could've picked this one. Hard as it is to believe, the Wildcats showed mercy on the Seawolves with David Ball and Ricky Santos not playing in the second half and Ball catching just three passes.

Season Record: 4-4. Ugh.

The Syracuse Post-Standard story on yesterday's game is understandably light on the Dartmouth angle, but you can find it here. ... The Colgate sports information take on the game: Colgate Rolls Over Dartmouth. I might take a little issue with that characterization. Yes, Jordan Scott piled up his yards and yes, the final score showed a 21-point Colgate win. But this game was anything but a roll over until the Raiders' final two possessions. ...

The Ivy League's "leaders" roundup from Week One can be found here. ...

Casey Cramer may be in for a busy day with the Tennessee Titans according to this from chargers.scout.com: "FB Ahmard Hall (ankle) is likely out of the San Diego game. In his absence the Titans will use their tight ends more, especially Casey Cramer, who is the best blocker of the group."

Off to junior varsity football vs. Middlebury. It will be hard to top last year's game for entertainment. Midd jumped out to leads of 23-0 and 30-6 before Dartmouth made the score a more respectable, 30-20.

Postgame Notes and Quotes

Postgame notes and quotes have been put up on the Green Alert site.

Game Story Posted

As promised, the game story about today's 28-7 loss is now up on Green Alert. Check back later tonight for a notes column. Tomorrow: the jayvee game with Middlebury.

Colgate 28, Dartmouth 7

Pay no attention to the final score. This one was a nailbiter until there were 6 minutes to play. The postgame interview mess is now over and I'm just sitting down to write the regular game story. I'm aiming for 7 p.m. on the regular site.

Welcome to Andy Kerr Stadium

The home stands at Andy Kerr Stadium.
The visiting stands.
Colgate's spanking new video scoreboard. It is enormous.
New end zone stands.

Kicking It Off With Colgate Today

Game day. I'm here in Hamilton early and while the sky is overcast it's not cold and it's not supposed to rain and those are good things. ... Another good thing: an addition to the Dartmouth football family. Say hello to Carolyn Shea Hollis, born yesterday to running backs coach Adam Hollis and wife Laura. She's No. 1 on their roster, weighing in at 8.5 pounds and measuring 19 3/4 inches. ...

Today's game is a homecoming for three Dartmouth players who are graduates of the local Christian Brothers Academy: Rich Cummings, Joe Battaglia and Erik Estabrook. CBA grad Greg Hadley of Colgate will also be in the game. The local Time Warner cable channel that is carrying the game live will interview family members at halftime.

It's hard not to root for Colgate quarterback Mike Saraceno after reading this story in the Syracus paper. An excerpt:

Dedication is something Saraceno has needed a lot of. Five years after starting his Colgate career, he's leading the Raiders at quarterback, injury and distraction-free for the first time. He's been through a separated shoulder, a torn ACL, a broken ankle bone, and hardest of all, the death of his mother, Beth.

Find the Daily Princetonian's 10 Questions With Roger Hughes here. The Princeton head coach and former Dartmouth assistant is a friend but even I learned a little reading the piece. ... There's a nice story about Princeton quarterback Jeff Terrell here.

UNH is hoping to parlay its run in football into a new stadium to replace what the school athletic director readily concedes is one of the worst in the nation. The Union Leader story makes mention of the work being done on Memorial Field.

For a feel-good story out of high school football, read this from the New York Times. An excerpt:

Though closely matched in athletic prowess — last year, Roosevelt beat Cold Spring Harbor in the regular season, but the Seahawks prevailed over the Rough Riders in the playoffs and went on to become the Long Island champions — the teams come from different suburban planets.

More later if they have wireless in the Colgate press box this year. Otherwise, check back this evening for a Dartmouth-Colgate game story and a sidebar.

Colgate Preview posted

The premium Green Alert site has been updated for Friday. Wi-Fi at the Cooperstown campground is slow but it works and so the Colgate game preview has been posted here. Picks for Saturday's games have been posted here.

Dartmouth Not Thinking About Ending Early Admission

A gray morning here in the Upper Valley but the forecast is good for tomorrow in Hamilton. It should be a perfect 72 degrees and sunny.

Before getting to some football, The Daily Dartmouth has a web update in which admissions director Karl Furstenberg suggests the college is not likely to follow Harvard's lead and abandon the early admission program. If you listen carefully, you can hear Dartmouth coaches applauding. Said Furstenberg:

"Every time we've (reviewed our admissions policies) in the recent past, we've come to the conclusion that early decision works well for Dartmouth and its students. There's no immediate need to change."

Green Alert Take: Someone whose name you would know referred to the Harvard move as "grandstanding."

Chris Lincoln, author of the Ivy League recruiting book Playing the Game, is working on an analysis of Harvard's move and it will be posted here and on the paid site soon.

One more link outside of football before we dive in. There's a CSTV story about Dartmouth alum and former Big Green basketball coach Dave Gavitt being inducted into the game's Hall of Fame. It includes this:

"Sure, Charles Barkley and Dominique Wilkins and Joe Dumars might have been the sexier names showcased during Friday's enshrinement ceremonies. But all of their on-court accolades put together don't hold a candle to Gavitt's interminable list of accomplishments both behind and before the scenes, a resume so far-reaching and extensive that it's hard to wrap your arms around."

The Boston Herald runs an Ivy League preview it refers to as "cursory," looking at the teams in the order in which they were projected by the media poll.

OK, here we go. The Harvard Crimson season-opening football preview can't ignore the turmoil in Cambridge during the offseason. It includes this from tailback Clifton Dawson:

“Whatever our capabilities were before the adversity, I think they are still the same. I think all this adversity we’ve dealt with will only make us stronger.”

Speaking of which, a backup wide receiver for Harvard has been dismissed from the team.

A New York Times story out of the Columbia-Fordham game focuses, not surprisingly, on new Lions coach Norries Wilson. I like this very honest quote from Wilson:

“We don’t have anything but a dream to sell right now."

The Columbia Spectator takes a look at the opener with Fordham here.

At Cornell it has been, and will continue to be, all about defense according to this story in the Ithaca Journal.

TONIGHT ON GREEN ALERT premium: A preview of the Colgate game, Ivy League and opponent previews and The Tale of the Tape.

The 2005 championship was fabulous, but it's now history at Brown as it says in this preview in the Brown Daily Herald.

The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look at the Quakers' opener at Lafayette and its new stadium.

Finally, the Yale Daily News has a package of stories indexed here but the links aren't working, at least on my Mac, so it's all you ;-)

Season Preview Posted

Visit the Big Green Alert premium site for a 2,500-word look at the 2006 Dartmouth football team. Thursday's practice capsule is tagged on at the end. Coming tonight to the premium site: the first of a series of hints regarding things to do and places to see when taking in Big Green road games.

Stadium Continues to Take Shape

Each section of the "portable" stands can be erected by one person in 10 minutes. The light green paint on the far wall is primer. The plan is for the wall to be painted Dartmouth green.
Only the north end zone has stands at this point but they will run sideline to sideline at both ends.
A different view: The field from the visiting side. (Dartmouth Football Photo)

The Sports Network's Ivy preview has been posted here. Matt Dougherty's picks:

1. Harvard
2. Brown
3. Yale
4. Penn
5. Cornell
6. Princeton
7. Dartmouth
8. Columbia

Tonight: The full Green Alert Dartmouth preview will be posted on the premium site. And, after hearing from several subscribers who are traveling to Hamilton that they'd like to be able to access my Road Game Travel Guide, I'm going to post that at some point this evening as well. And then ... I've got a freelance piece I have to finish. Hopefully I'll be on the road to Colgate relatively early Friday and will finish all my pregame posting from the campground at which I'll be staying near Cooperstown. (Gotta keep costs down ;-)

Renewing Acquaintances Part II

Sunday's junior varsity football game is expected to find freshman quarterback Alex Jenny on the Dartmouth sideline and Phil Hastings, his favorite receiver from Wayland High in Massachusetts, on the Middlebury side. Jenny and Hastings have been fast friends and teammates together for 12 seasons of football, basketball and baseball. ... Also renewing acquaintances, as blogged yesterday, Dartmouth QB Max Heiges and Middlebury QB Cam Taylor, who have been friendly rivals since grammar school in California.

Dartmouth didn't get much love from old friend Matt Dougherty this week as the former Big Green intern and current I-AA guru for The Sports Network picks Colgate to win, 31-13.

The Columbia Spectator notes that 13 players who were on last year's opening day roster have left the team either because of injury or because they chose to pursue other interests. That's tough when depth is a problem anyway.

The Spectator continues its preview series with a look at Penn.

The Cornell Sun talked with football coach Jim Knowles and got an interesting spin on the text messaging issue. Said Knowles:

“I’m a text freak. If you’re 41 like me, and you don’t know how to text, then you’re out of the loop. You have to be in today’s age. We use it with our players, our staff and our recruits.”

Finally this: I wrote last week about the adjustment high school stars have to make when they may find themselves deep on the depth chart or serving as scout team players as college freshmen. That lesson hit home last night when a certain 7th grader who has played virtually every down since he started in football -- and always has been one of his team's premier players -- got on the field for just a handful of plays in Hanover's 7th/8th grade win over Lebanon, 19-6. It's relatively easy as a parent (and someone who has been around sports for a long time) to understand what is happening. Helping a very, very disappointed boy of 12 understand that is a lot harder.

Teevens Chooses Between His Starting QB's

HANOVER -- Choosing between junior Tom Bennewitz and senior Mike Fritz to start at quarterback for Dartmouth in Saturday's opener at Colgate was so hard that Buddy Teevens dropped back and punted.

"We have two starters," the Dartmouth coach said Wednesday.

OK. But, because only one person can play quarterback at a time, Teevens still had to choose between his two starters. He publicly spoke for the first time about his pick to open the game at the end of Wednesday's practice.

Getting the nod: Bennewitz. Read more about the decision on the Green Alert premium site.

Freshman Heiges To Face Old Friend

Dartmouth freshman Max Heiges and his California friend Cam Tayor -- who have been playing against each other since fifth grade and played quarterback against each other twice last year as high school seniors -- will be on opposite sides of the field again Sunday when the Big Green takes on Middlebury at 1 p.m. in a jayvee game. Check out the Marin Independent Journal story here.

A FieldTurf Primer

If you've walked on the FieldTurf at Memorial Field and wondered about the mostly black, mostly rubber "infill," check out the company website's overview here. A couple of excerpts:

(L)ike its natural grass cousin, FieldTurf’s grass fibers are surrounded and stabilized by a special blend of “synthetic earth” - FieldTurf’s patented mixture of smooth, rounded silica sand, rubber granules, and NIKE GRIND made of re-ground athletic shoe material.

Tire rubber is cryogenically frozen, shattered into smooth, clean, rounded particles, sized and shaped to stay “in suspension” with the sand, which is of a similar size, shape and weight.

I know you are getting a little tired of all the talk about New Hampshire football, but this is too delicious to pass up. The fellow who does the computer rankings for Scripps Howard News Service has UNH No. 6 in the nation. No, not in Division I-AA. In all of college football. Here's the top 10:
1. Notre Dame
2. L.S.U.
3. Southern Cal
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. New Hampshire
7. Florida
8. Auburn
9. Pittsburgh
10. Tennessee

Just in case you want to consult the poll before filling out your newspaper's weekly pick 'em contest, check it out here.

No question, Dartmouth's late start of classes allows players to concentrate on football and just football during most of the preseason. That's an advantage. But in this opening-week story Cornell coach Jim Knowles points out one of the disadvantages of starting classes late. Said Knowles:

“I remember being at some places and you’d have a big game coming up (and) maybe it’s the third game of the year but you haven’t even started class — and that’s the week your players start classes so their heads are spinning.”

In his weekly picks, a Harvard Crimson writer sees the Big Green's opener this way: Colgate 21, Dartmouth 9. ... The Columbia Spectator preview series takes a look at Brown. ... Dartmouth defensive back Corey Goff gets a quick mention in his local paper. ... The Daily Pennsylvanian asks five questions about the Quaker defense and special teams. ... The Yale Daily News looks into text messaging by coaches and the Ivy proposal to ban it.

Time Has Come to Hit Someone Else

Sept. 12 practice

HANOVER -- Under no-nonsense coach Dick Biddle, the Colgate football team has a well-deserved reputation for hitting in practice.

For this week, at least, Dartmouth is taking a very different approach from that of its opening-day foe. Visit the Green Alert subscription site to read more.

Harvard Ending Early Admissions

From this morning's Boston Globe: "Harvard will announce today that it is eliminating early admission, a move that is likely to turn the college admissions system upside down." Click here for the full story. ... The Harvard Crimson has an extensive story on the new policy here. Green Alert Take: I certainly couldn't say it any better than this next takeout from the Crimson story:

“The old adage is, ‘When Harvard sneezes, everyone else gets pneumonia,’” said Bruce Breimer, school principal and director of college relations at the Collegiate School in New York. “It’s going to cause everyone else to re-evaluate.”

I'll be asking Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens what effect he thinks the change in policy might have on Ivy League athletics after today's practice. In the meantime, consider this from the Globe story:

"This is huge; it's a real demonstration of educational leadership," said Lloyd Thacker, founder of the Education Conservancy, a two-year-old nonprofit pushing for admissions reform. "Early decision locks in special-interest groups like full-paying students, legacies, and football players. It distorts the playing field."

Here's the New York Times story that includes the following kicker, which was my first reaction and I suspect the first reaction of a number of coaches around the Ivy League.

"Several educators said only a university with Harvard’s reputation could take the risk involved with eliminating early admission because it will continue to be the first choice for so many top students."

The Ivy League's official weekend football preview has been posted with the Dartmouth-Colgate outlook here.

Is The Penn Quarterback Situation Unresolved Also?

Buddy Teevens, apparently, isn't the only Ivy League coach who has had difficulty settling on a starting quarterback. According to this story in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Quakers coach Al Bagnoli has had trouble as well. ... The Columbia Spectator's preview series takes a look at Cornell and changes in the Big Red offense with the graduation of 1,000-yard rushing quarterback Ryan Kuhn. ... The Spectator also takes a look back at the Columbia-Harvard scrimmage.

A Chicago Tribune columnist after New Hampshire's win over Northwestern Saturday: "A Northwestern grad told me Sunday, "I'd rather lose to Notre Dame 80-0 than lose a game to New Hampshire." No surprise here but UNH quarterback Ricky Santos and cornerback Corey Graham have been named the I-AA national players of the week on offense and defense by The Sports Network.

More later.

UNH Win Reaffirms What Teevens Already Knew

September 11 practice
HANOVER -- If Buddy Teevens was a believer before, he's a true believer now. New Hampshire is for real, the Dartmouth coach stressed at Monday's practice. And so, he added, is I-AA football as a whole. Click to read the full story on Green Alert premium.

No Surprise As UNH Takes Over Top Spot

Barring a letdown of monumental proportions this week, it appears the No. 1 team in the nation will be on Memorial Field one week from Saturday. In what should be a surprise of no one, New Hampshire has moved atop the I-AA polls. To check out the new Sports Network poll, click here. Other Dartmouth opponents receiving votes: Harvard (34th); Brown (37th) and opening-day opponent Colgate (43rd). The Sports Network poll story can be found here.

Also just released: New earned 18 first place votes in the College Sporting
News (CSN) Coaches Poll to supplant Appalachian State in the top spot.

The CSN Coaches Poll

(First place votes in parenthesis, movement from last week)
1. New Hampshire (18), +1
2. Appalachian State (13), -1
3. Furman, NC
4. Cal Poly, +1
5. Montana, +1
6. Illinois State, +3
7. Youngstown State (1), +1
8. Richmond, -1
9. Massachusetts, +1
10. Hampton, +4
11. Delaware, +4
12. McNeese State, +5
13. Southern Illinois, +3
14. James Madison, -1
15. Portland State, +5
16. North Dakota State, +2
17. Northern Iowa, -13
18. Eastern Illinois, +4
19. Eastern Kentucky, +5
20. UC Davis, +1
21. Lafayette, +4
22. Montana State, -11
23. Texas State, -4
24. Georgia Southern, -12
25. Nicholls State, -2

Others receiving votes (minimum of 5 votes): Alabama A&M (12), Central
Connecticut (9), Southern Univ (7).

National Honors Roll in For Upcoming Opponent

No surprise but New Hampshire has been named the I-AA team of the week by The Sports Network after drilling Northwestern of the Big 10. Matt Dougherty points out something that was easy to overlook in the UNH win: "While offensive explosions led by (Ricky) Santos and (David) Ball are commonplace, a terrific effort by the New Hampshire defense against a top I-A offense made the difference in the second half of the 34-17 victory." ... I'm still struck by the parallels between the UNH football team and the Cinderella University of Vermont basketball team that featured TJ Sorrentine in the Ricky Santos role, small-town Vermonter Taylor Coppenrath in the David Ball role and Syracuse in the Northwestern role. ...

Had a chance to chat with former Dartmouth coach Joe Yukica yesterday and he agreed the upcoming visit by UNH will bring arguably the most hyped team to Hanover since Heisman hopeful Ed Marinaro brought an unbeaten Cornell team here in '71. There have been a few other teams come through in the intervening years that might have been just as good, but they certainly didn't have a Big 10 victory on their resumes. ... Speaking of UNH, probably the best thing that could have happened to the Wildcats was Montana State's loss to Division II Chadron State one week after beating Colorado. ... Final UNH note: Santos is one of five USA Today nominees for the national player of the week along with Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis among others. Voting for the award can be done here. ... Final UNH note II: his from the Birmingham News: "How to save the Big East? Let New Hampshire in!" Ouch.

It's Yale preview time in the Columbia Spectator, which writes, "Yale coach Jack Siedlecki will rely on a seasoned group of players on offense and defense to help carry the team early ..."

From a web update of the Daily Dartmouth:

The Dartmouth Board of Trustees voted Saturday to endorse the newest revision to the controversial proposed Alumni Association constitution by a margin of 14 to three. The endorsement, which was reported to alumni in an e-mail Sunday, represents the first official departure from the College's previously neutral stance on the constitution.

Casey Cramer is listed as having played in the Tennessee Titans' opener. He's listed as a tight end.

A friend covering Division I-AA Norfolk State for the first time this year writes about the historically black school's white transfer quarterback. It's an interesting story that's less about color than about the winding road some football players take before they find a home. It's a worthwhile read.

Depth Chart Posted

For an advance look at the depth chart for Saturday's opener at Colgate, subscribers can click here.

UNH Game Should Be Fun

There are stories all over the place about New Hampshire's 34-17 win over Northwestern. Here's a sampler from the Manchester Union Leader. The AP story can be found here. ... As scary as the outcome was, what Northwestern's Kevin Mims had to say about the team that will invade Memorial Field in two weeks was even scarier: "They played really well --as well as any Big Ten team I've played against." For more quotes out of the shocker, click here. (Mims, by the way, is a sophomore who played at The Woodlands in Texas, where Dartmouth freshman tailback Chris Burns played.). ... Surfing the web, one of the better stories I found regarding UNH-Northwestern wasn't a game piece, but rather a preview look at the UNH duo of Ricky Santos and David Ball in the Chicago Sun Times. ... Green Alert Take: As impressive as the win over Northwestern was, it doesn't make playing New Hampshire any more difficult. The Wildcats are what they are. What the big win does is making playing them more fun. And hopefully it will help build up the crowd. Contrary to what a lot of people think, UNH hasn't brought much of a following to Hanover in recent years. Maybe, just maybe, those people who have jumped on the bandwagon in the past two years, and a good number of curious Upper Valley locals will swell the crowd for the opener at Memorial Field. And then, just maybe, a good performace by the Big Green will bring some of them back. Green Alert Take II: This should be a pretty good year for attendance at Dartmouth with the UNH show coming to town, with both Harvard and Yale here, and with Homecoming against a Holy Cross team that usually travels well. Green Alert Take III: It's too bad this schedule won't be played next year when the stadium renovation/building project will be completed.

Speaking of Holy Cross, the Big Green's Week 5 opponent lost to Northeastern yesterday, 24-14. And UMass, which did a pretty good number on opening-day opponent Colgate a week ago, came up just short of an upset of Navy yesterday, falling 21-20. Green Alert Take: Don't let Colgate's 0-1 record fool you. That wasn't Central Connecticut that beat the Raiders this year.

The Allentown (PA) Morning-Call is conducting voting for its area All-Time football team. On the backfield ballot is former Dartmouth standout and coach Jake Crouthamel, who went on to a tremendous career as athletic director at Syracuse. Vote early and vote often.

Oh My. UNH Wraps Up Win Over Northwestern

UPDATE: Here's a link to the story.

A convincing win over the Big 10 team. I knew UNH could score on Northwestern, but this is ridiculous: UNH 34-17. Ricky Santos 19-of-25 for 208 yards. David Ball eight catches for 81 yards and two touchdowns. How does that commercial go? These guys are GOOD.

Week 2 ain't gonna be easy, folks.

Saturday Practice Story Posted

Two minutes to go until Penn State-Notre Dame kickoff and I managed to get the Mock Game story up on the Green Alert site. Hooray.

Tomorrow: The Optimist and the Pessimist.

And for those of you following it closely, the Hanover High varsity field hockey team improved to 2-0 with a 3-0 win that your correspondent was thrilled to see. Scoring the insurance goal was one very happy freshman and her very proud father, who scooted over seconds after the Mock Game on Memorial Field.

As the Green Goes Tearing By

On yesterday's Green Alert site, I wrote about how coach Buddy Teevens changed one word in the classic Dartmouth fight song As the Backs Go Tearing By to make it fit all of the college's teams. He had his players sing, As the 'Green' Goes Tearing By as a way of cheering on the women's soccer team before its 1-0 win over Maryland. (OK, that's two words changed.) If you'd like to hear the music for the song, click here. For a whole slew of Ivy League fight songs, click here.

An aside: As the Backs Go Tearing By always reminds me of the Little Rascals, which I used to watch on TV as a kid. They must have used a very similar soundtrack when Spanky, Alfalfa and Darla were getting into innocent mischief.

The fight songs are sounds I like. Want to hear one that bugs me? It's on the Penn football web site. I was doing my morning blog rounds, checking out a number of different sites and all of a sudden, tick, tick, tick, tick. I found myself looking around my tiny home office wondering what it was. We've had something inside the walls of the house (I'm guessing a few mice) and I wondered if that's what it was. Nope. Turns out there's a clicker on the Penn site ticking off the days, hours, minutes and seconds until kickoff. It's, how do you say it in these politically correct times? Um, it's like 'Quakers' water torture. Tick, tick, tick. Nice idea, but not for me. I closed the page.

Columbia Sports Information has a posting about its scrimmage against Harvard yesterday. (An aside: Columbia has about the most active site in the Ivy League this preseason regarding football information.) Anyway, I found a few sentences interesting in the account of a 37-17 Harvard win. Here's one: "Columbia looked strong against the run, allowing 128 yards on 35 attempts, most of which was gained late in the game." Sounds promising. Then the kicker: "However, Crimson star senior running back Clifton Dawson did not play a down." Ohhh. .... And then there was this not-so-subtle jab: "The Lions had their third quarterback in the game late in the third quarter before Harvard replaced its starting quarterback. Five Lion quarterbacks took snaps in the game."

The Dartmouth-UNH football game is being broadcast on WMUR TV out of Manchester, NH. In order for the signal to get from Hanover to Manchester in southern New Hampshire, it is bounced off a satellite and back down to the station. Lucky for you, if you know someone who has one of those old-fashioned, "steerable" satellite dishes, they can pick off the signal and invite you over to watch the game if they know the coordinates. (You won't be able to get the game with your DirectTV or DISH Network dishes.) Check the regular Green Alert posting after today's Mock Game for the coordinates to watch the game.

Regarding the Mock Game: I'll have a full story out of the event -- which is really a walk-through and not a game -- later today. As a rule, I try to get the stories up on the regular site within two hours of practice each day but today's story will be delayed because I'm going to take advantage of my only semi-free Saturday until Thanksgiving to watch my daughter's first home field hockey game for Hanover High School after practice, and then watch the Penn State Nittany Lions play Notre Dame on NBC. (Roar Lions Roar!)

So check back this evening to read about today's practice. While I'm at it, although there's no practice Sunday, I will have the second edition of the always popular (that's supposed to be funny) The Optimist and The Pessimist column on the site at some point tomorrow. Then we begin the game week madness. Buckle up your chin strap and grab those bifocals because you've got a lot of reading ahead of you.