Game Week!

When a coach holds up a diagram of an opponent's play for the scout team to study, you know the games are about to begin. Dartmouth opens at home Saturday against 1-1 Colgate. Check back tonight to see how Monday's preparation went.

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The innovative helmet Dartmouth is using again this year that is designed to help understand head injuries is the subject of a story in MIT's Technology Review. The story notes that the helmet is "arrayed with six accelerometers built into its liner that measure the acceleration of the player's head, not the helmet." ... If you wonder what all the fuss is about, check out this long and worrisome Men's Journal story, "Casualties of the NFL," passed along by a subscriber.

Missed this one last week but former Dartmouth assistant Robert Talley won his opener as head coach at Stonehill College. From a sports information report:

Robert Talley built his reputation on the defensive side of the ball. In his first game as head coach at Stonehill, Talley got two goal line stands in the final eight minutes to preserve a dramatic 20-14 win over host Assumption at Multi-Sport Stadium Friday night.

Penn and Yale both have transfer defensive ends this year from FBS programs. Josh Neubert is a 6-3, 250 freshman D-end at Penn who spent one year at Boston College. The Daily Pennsylvanian writes about him here. Find his bio on the Penn web site here and a recruiting service look at him as a high schooler here. ... A late addition to the Yale program is Sean Williams, a 6-3, 220 defensive end who comes to New Haven from the Naval Academy. His Yale bio is here. There's some good information on his recruitment out of high school at the Scout.com site. Prior to his senior season at his Oregon high school it reported: "Second team all-state tight end as a junior...first team all-state defensive end as a junior...only junior to make the 2005 4A all-state defense first team."

For a feel-good story, check out this blog report (with great photos) on the new blue and gold turf field christened in Barrow, Alaska. The football field is 340 miles above the Arctic Circle. From the looks of one of the pictures, an errant punt could end up in the Arctic, which is where some of the players ended up after the inaugural game.

Bloomberg.com reports on the Trustee developments at Dartmouth. From the story:

"Since 1891, the number of trustees elected by alumni equaled the number of appointed members."

The Daily Dartmouth, on break now, has a special report.