Another Linebacker On The Way

The trickle of recruiting information remains just that -- a trickle -- but add a new name to the Dartmouth list: Spencer Hood of Carlsbad, Calif..

A linebacker and punter in high school, Hood will continue his career at Dartmouth while his fraternal twin brother Gordon will play water polo at Brown according to this story in the North County Times. From the NCT story: "Spencer, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior, has pounded more than a few running backs into the Carlsbad dust, helping the Lancers win two consecutive CIF championships ..." Hood had 64 tackles and 3.5 sacks last fall as he helped powerhouse Carlsbad go 10-0-2. He was a member of the Union-Tribune All-Academic first team after posting a 4.0 grade point average. He was chosen to the Hall of Champions Avocado League first team and the Hall's All-San Diego Section Team. ...

Hood is the second high school linebacker to publicly commit to Dartmouth. Carter Scott of South Carolina is also headed to Hanover. A third recruit said to be coming to Dartmouth is quarterback Will Deevy, according to a story in the Denver Post. ... There are whispers that a prized defensive lineman and placekicker also have committed.

The Dartmouth features another opinion on the mascot issue. It includes this thought: "The bottom line is that we need to choose a mascot and rally behind it." Picking up on yesterday's Green Alert thought, I'd enjoy the opportunity to write something along the lines of:

Coach Buddy Teevens and the BackPackers stomped their third non-league opponent in as many tries last night under the lights in California. The Packers piled up 247 yards on the ground while improving to 4-0."

Sounds good, huh?

Today's tale of woe is that a certain 12-year-old was in line to finish third in a 340-entry Bowl Game pool last night if Ohio State beat Florida. The pool required assigning a point value from 1-32 for each of the 32 bowl games (using each number just once) and earning the number of points assigned to each game correctly predicted. Said 12-year-old had the highest premium on Ohio State, 32 points. Oops. Not coincidentally, his dad also had 32 points on OSU and would have clinched a top-10 finish and been in the money if the Buckeyes weren't the Blackeyes last night. ...

As the game got more and more out of hand, the mind started to wander and I found myself noticing that both teams were wearing traditional uniforms instead of something out of Oregon or Miami. Maybe it's the Penn Stater in me, but I much prefer the traditional white pants and shoulder stripes to the contemporary look Dartmouth has adopted.

I was in the little parking lot behind Memorial Field yesterday at about 4:30 p.m., and saw two things that gave me a start. One was a bumper sticker on the back of a car that said, New Hampshire, Live, Freeze and Die. (A play on the state motto Live Free Or Die.) Perhaps 50 yards away: I saw about 30 football players doing conditioning on Memorial Field. In shorts and T-shirts. There's a disconnect between those two visions that is a little, well, disconcerting.

And finally, for those of you who remember fondly -- or not-so-fondly remember -- the Shower Tower at Dartmouth, click here.