More Ouch

The offense can’t be any worse than it was last year, averaging a league-worst 14.7 points per game.

The offensive line is still atrocious ...

It's going to be another hard season in Hanover. The stadium renovations will be an upgrade, but that's about all.

The worst pass efficiency defense in the league returns all four starters after forcing just three interceptions last season; however, opposing quarterbacks had plenty of time to throw, since the Big Green’s defensive line only managed 15 sacks on the year, 7th in the league. Giving up 4.5 yards per carry, by far the worst mark in the Ivies, doesn't do much to inspire confidence in the same old guys, either.

So sayeth the Harvard sports blog in the first installment of its Two-A-Days look at Ivy League football teams. Ouch. The Harvard blog looks at Cornell and Columbia here.

While I was out of town -- heck, out of the country -- I missed the Harvard Crimson's look at the media day poll etc., which can be found here.

Also while I was away, the Dartmouth football web site posted a story on changes in the Big Green football staff. The addition of Lance Cleland as tight ends coach and Jake Kirkendall as manager of football operations and videography coordinator had been previously announced. This release notes that defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Chris Wilkerson has been promoted to assistant head coach, offensive coordinator Mike Hodgson takes over as recruiting coordinator and running backs coach, and defensive backs coach Sammy McCorkle will head up special teams this year.

The Princeton web site doesn't show it yet, but former Dartmouth assistant Adam Hollis has, in fact, landed at Old Nassau as tight ends coach. His bio is in the press guide along with the other assistants. To download a PDF of just the coaching bios, click here. That staff, by the way, really has a Dartmouth reunion look to it now. Head coach Roger Hughes, offensive coordinator/running backs coach Dave Rackovan, wide receivers coach Scott Sallach and Hollis are all former Dartmouth assistants who were on the same staff in the late 1990's.

Dave Coulson, who succeeded Matt Dougherty as the FCS (nee I-AA) editor at The Sports Network made a visit to the Ivy League media day. Find a column about his visit there and to other media days here.

Casey Cramer's ability to do a lot of different things on the football field gives him added value as this story notes. The Tennessee Titans' jack-of-all-trades tells the writer:

I know that I don't have a specialty that's just amazing, I don't stand out at anything in particular. But roster spots are always hard to fill and a guy that can do more than one thing is a little bit more valuable because he can be a couple different pegs and fit in more than one hole.

This photo that accompanies the story is supposed to be Casey, but I honestly can't tell.

Cramer, by the way, had a 26-yard reception down the middle in the fourth quarter and made two tackles in yesterday's exhibition loss to the Washington Redskins.

Cramer isn't the only former Dartmouth player collecting a paycheck from the Titans. Work your way down this Boston Globe football notes story for a nice look at Matt Burke '98, now an assistant coach with the Tennessee team. Find Matt's Tennessee bio here.