2007 Big Green Outlook Up

The 2007 Big Green football outlook has been posted on the Dartmouth football website. One of the more interesting bits in the story is how they might be handling the running back slots, "almost morphing the tailback and fullback positions." ... There's a lot of interesting stuff here, but little or no mention of the freshmen because the college can't officially comment on the regular-decision recruits and it wouldn't be wise to talk about some of the class (early decision) and not about others.

One place the freshmen could come into play is at the quarterback position where the returnees (including 2005 starter Josh Cohen) will be joined by a pair of well-regarded recruits: 6-5 Will Deevy of Colorado's Kent Denver School and 6-1 Tim McManus of St. Thomas Academy in Minnesota. A friend of the family let me get a peek at video of Deevy and while highlight films are always tricky to parse, he's clearly a talented quarterback (and a pretty good basketball player as well). I haven't seen McManus, but someone I spoke to in Minnesota who knows Dartmouth football and has seen him play on a number of occasions raves about his ability to make things happen with his legs and his arm. Expect both to jump into a wide-open quarterback derby with two feet.

Cornell coach Jim Knowles is the A in a Q&A about the Big Red centered around spring ball. Find it here.

Former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker made it official yesterday, confirming he will be the next head basketball coach at Harvard. The Boston Globe, the Harvard Crimson and the Daily Pennsylvanian all have stories. Green Alert Take: No doubt, Harvard basketball and Ivy League basketball get a real PR bump out of the hiring. But I agree with those who say the Ivy League is a coach's league and Amaker will have to prove he can match up, which is no slam dunk. Ultimately, of course, it will come down to whether he can recruit and whether Harvard is willing to give him the help he needs. ... One thing is for certain: Harvard has at least given the appearance that it wants to win in a program that has been to the NCAA's just one time, in 1946. Check out what the Harvard SID told the Crimson newspaper regarding Amaker's contract:

"You'd have 31 head coaches running in for raises if numbers were disclosed."

For the record, the Boston Globe said it is believed to be a multi-year contract at $225,000 a year.

ESPN.com has a wonderful piece about San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young -- the former Princeton baseball/basketball standout -- writing his senior thesis largely on Jackie Robinson. Young's thesis was titled, "The Integration of Professional Baseball and Racial Attitudes in America: A Study in Sterotype Change." Young tracked the correlation between Robinson and how race was portrayed in the New York Times over periods of time. I found his topic particularly interesting because I wrote my journalism Masters on Muhammad Ali, race and the Vietnam War, similarly using a handful of newspapers to track how perceptions of Ali changed as acceptance of the war changed.

William F. Buckley has written a column headlined, The High Cost of Loving Dartmouth centered around the trustee race and candidates Sandy Alderson and Stephen Smith.

That heavy snow forecast for this area started to fall at 7 a.m., and up here on the mountain it is coming down as hard as any snow we've had all year. The basketball hoop is still out in the driveway so the plow will have to work around it. It was a lot easier to move the pitchback back into the garage. The weather folks are now saying eight inches or more are expected. A month ago, a certain Hanover High freshman and her 7th grade brother would be dancing at the prospect of a storm like this but now that the bats and balls are out of winter storage, they are disappointed. The freshman, by the way, was elected to the high school council as well as to class committee on Monday, so kudos to her.