Of Air Bags And Football Helmets

If you've been out at Dartmouth practices or scrimmages, you may have seen a large brown box with an antenna atop it under the scoreboard. It's a radio receiver pulling in signals from Big Green helmets. A company from neighboring Lebanon, N.H., called Simbex has pioneered the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT™) technology system that could make a huge difference as football tries to understand the concussion problem. It's cutting-edge stuff and Dartmouth has been fortunate to be involved from the early days of the project. Time's web site has a blurb about the helmet and the program that descibes it succinctly:

Eight colleges, including three Big Ten schools, are using the team version of Riddell's high-tech helmets, which wirelessly relay real-time data--gleaned from the same sensors found in car air bags--to a sideline computer that can send a pager alert if a player receives a hit or a series of hits that exceed a certain magnitude.

The Boston Globe has a nice story about popular former Dartmouth assistant Rob Talley, who most recently was on the staff of the San Francisco 49ers and is about to start his first season as head coach at Division II Stonehill. Talley spent eight years as a defensive assistant and then defensive coordinator in Hanover through the 2004 season. The Stonehill athletic director says:

We were looking to find the best football coach for our program and it was Rob Talley, and he happens to be an African-American. We didn't start looking for an African-American who happened to be a football coach.

Dartmouth coaches will be featured each week on a new call-in radio show called Coach's Corner. Football coach Buddy Teevens will be heard each week on the show, to be carried by WNTK radio from 7 - 8 p.m. every Wednesday through the fall and winter. Read the release here. The release doesn't mention if the show will be streamed on the Internet, but WNTK does do streaming. (Update: It will be on wntk.com)

First-week opponent Colgate is also doing the radio thing with theDick Biddle Coach's Show. Understand, I'm a big fan of Biddle, a no-nonsense guy who has always been great with me. But having interviewed him quite a few times, I'll be interested in how the show comes off because it's not an exaggeration to say that when it comes to the media he can be a man of few words. ... Speaking of coach shows, did you know Dartmouth had a weekly TV show when Joe Yukica was head coach in the early '80s? True story.

And while on the subject of Colgate ... Dartmouth's game against the Raiders is at Memorial Field next Saturday. If the game were being played out in Hamilton the Big Green would find something interesting attached to the goal post -- an adjustable wrench. Find out why here.

Our friends over at College Sporting News were more swayed by Colgate's struggle in a 13-11 win over Albany than by Patriot League compadre Holy Cross's relatively strong showing against No. 2 UMass. The CSN prediction when the UMass and Colgate meet this week: UMass 49-3. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I'm not picking an upset, but it's not going to be that lopsided. Not in Hamilton. CSN also picks UNH to come up on the short end of its opener: James Madison 35, New Hampshire 23. A running back injury and the defection of David Ball to the Chicago Bears' practice squad are cited. Here's a hint: There's another very fine running back on the UNH roster and if he's healthy, Michael Boyle will put up Ball-like numbers. This one could go either way. Duh, huh?

The Journal News writes about a high school quarterback in Suffern, N.Y., who has drawn the attention of Duke, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Princeton and ... Dartmouth.

The Dartmouth Trustees War hit the Wall Street Journal in a big way with an ad thrown up on the web by Joe Malchow over at Joe's Dartblog. View a PDF of the ad here. A quick look revealed at least one former football player among the signees.