Mud Season Football Talk

Our road on Moose Mountain gives a clue that mud season has arrived. It's getting a little soft, but it's nothing like it was a few years ago when our four-wheel drive was stuck in mud up to the body of the car and we had to be towed home -- from a mile down the road. For two days that spring not a vehicle could go up and down our road, even town trucks. We couldn't get to work and the kids couldn't go to school, much to their chagrin. (Not.)

I was at Borders yesterday and while flipping through Street & Smith's draft issue I found that Brown linebacker Zack DeOssie is listed among the top-10 linebackers. I can't remember if that was for inside or outside linebackers because a Patriots.com report has me confused. It said he is an inside linebacker but is projected as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme. Either way, this story has him as potentially a fourth-round pick. In case you are wondering, the NFL Draft is April 28-29.

DeOssie was joined by Harvard tailback Clifton Dawson and a bunch of Massachusetts-area players this week in a well-attended pro day at Boston College as reported by the Boston Globe. There's a story in the Boston Herald on the pro-day as well. The lede of the Herald story amuses me: "Boston College is known as O-Line U because of its penchant for producing NFL linemen ..." Hmm. And BC is known as O-Line U by whom? Nebraska has slipped in that regard, but if anyone is "known as O-Line U," its the Cornhuskers not BC. Take it from a graduate of Linebacker-U (and you know who that is). ...

Still on the subject of the draft, a subscriber sent along this link to a mention of New Hampshire's David Ball that is less than optimistic about his chances. Writes the Sports Illustrated columnist: "The record setting I-AA receiver ran poorly and was unable to break 4.7. Most surprisingly, a high jumper on the New Hampshire track team, Ball was only able to reach 33 inches in the vertical jump."

A Newsday story on Stony Brook football joining the Big South perfectly characterizes Athletic Director Jim Fiore, a mover-and-shaker who was formerly an administrator at Dartmouth: "He knows where he wants to go and may have the perfect blend of ambition and impatience to make it work."

And finally this ... that certain Hanover High School freshman learned yesterday she made the cut for the school's varsity softball team (and will be a teammate of Cassie Hodgson, daughter of Dartmouth offensive coordinator Mike, who is headed to UMaine on a softball scholarship next year).

Given that the certain freshman played shortstop and centerfield with the boys baseball team last year it wasn't a huge surprise. But when tryouts are just a week long and indoors you never know. She's determined to return to baseball this summer in league that will allow her to play on a boys team, which is not allowed by the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association. ... After a terrific indoor track season, she's continuing to train with the track team whenever possible. This morning she's practicing with softball -- including the team's first "distance" run -- and then heading over to Lebanon to compete in a 5-K postponed by last week's snow.