Former Dartmouth Assistant In Championship Game

UMass and head coach Don Brown -- a former Dartmouth assistant under Joe Yukica -- are headed to the Division I-AA (sic) national championship game after a 19-17 win at Montana last night on ESPN. From a 1985 Dartmouth football press guide that I just so happen to have sitting on my bookshelf (along with every other one since 1983 ;-):

Don Brown was appointed to the Dartmouth football staff in March, 1984, afte spending one season as the defensive secondary coach at Mansfield (Pa.) State College.

Brown's appointment was a Cinderella story. He resigned from his teaching and coaching duties at nearby Hartford High in White River Junction, Vt., in 1982 to take a part-time Dartmouth football job with hopes of landing a fulltime coaching position.

Brown, 29, graduated from Norwich University with a bachelor's degree in 1977. He was captain and MVP of the 1976 Norwich football team. At Hartford High, he served as defensive coordinator for five seasons from 1977-81 and also coached the varsity baseball team from 1978-82.

I wrote stories for the newspaper about Don on each step of his way to UMass. If I recall correctly, he had two children when he gave up his fulltime job at Hartford to chase his dream. To make ends meet, while he was spending his days working football, he was working at the Hanover Inn at night. It certainly worked out. ... I started wondering, after learning that Tom O'Brien would be leaving Boston College, how long it would be until Don's name came up regarding the BC job. I can stop wondering; there have been several mentions including a story in the Hampshire Gazette headlined: "Brown denies interest in BC head coaching job."

Brown's isn't the only name that has surfaced. From The Sporting News:

Early names include ex-New York Giants coach Jim Fassel, Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Mike Kruczek, New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell and UMass coach Don Brown.

Fassel's son was a placekicker at Boston College. I covered Stanford's game at Boston College in Buddy Teevens' first season and remember getting out of my car in the media parking area and doing a double-take when I recognized the fellow getting out of the Lincoln Navigator (or Escalade, I forget which) right next to me. Yup, Jim Fassel. That sent me to the media guide to figure out why.

The Boston Herald has floated the name of one current and one former Ivy League head coach who might deserve a look from BC:

At the moment, some of the names making the rounds are former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie, Steelers quarterbacks coach and former UMass coach Mark Whipple, and Harvard coach Tim Murphy.

Whipple, you might recall, is the former Brown QB and architect of the "Whiplash" offense that put his alma mater back on the football map. He guided UMass to its national championship in 1998 and is the quarterback coach who helped Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl.

If I'm BC and I have a shot at Whipple, it's a done deal. As for Murphy, he just signed an extension with Harvard. That doesn't rule anything out -- Brown had done the same thing at Northeastern before bolting for UMass -- but it would be a surprise.

Nothing in the news today about recruits. Be sure to check back because some news will be breaking in the next few days ... I think.

Finally, winter has come to Moose Mountain. We got five inches of snow two nights ago (the Dartmouth campus seven miles away got a dusting) and the temperature when I went to bed after the UMass win was a brisk 4 degrees. ...