Revisiting Kemper

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jeff Kemp '81 played in the NFL for 11 years with the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles. Among other things, he is now a motivational speaker. The clip above is from one of his speeches, apparently at Hillsdale College. During the clip he gets a laugh when he says, "If my kids couldn't get into Hillsdale, I'd have to send them to Dartmouth." For more on Kemp, son of former NFL quarterback, onetime vice presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp, click here.

The UNH athletic director tells Foster's Daily Democrat the suspect charged with murder is not the same person he knows as a third-string New Hampshire quarterback. ... Surprisingly (to me as a former sports information assistant) Henri "Hank" Hendrick's bio is still up on the UNH site.

There's a very nice story about UNH starting quarterback and 2006 I-AA offensive player of the year Ricky Santos in the Daily News Record of Harrisonburg, Va. Santos and UNH open at James Madison today in one of the marquee FCS games of the day. From the story:

If Santos’ moves within the pocket are reminiscent of Marino, his on-field demeanor matches Green Bay’s Brett Favre. JMU free safety Tony LeZotte said Santos clearly also enjoys the game and doesn’t come off as arrogant — despite his considerable success.

“He just finds ways to win,” LeZotte said. “It’s amazing, some of the stuff you see him do. He pulls stuff out you could only dream about doing, and he’s done it for the past three years.”

Harvard pounced on Columbia when the two teams scrimmage at Harvard Stadium yesterday, 48-6. The Lions bussed up on game day and traffic stretched their trip to seven hours, so don't put too much weight on the final. When Dartmouth and Columbia used to scrimmage, they met halfway at a prep school in Connecticut. Dartmouth and Brown also scrimmaged midway between the schools. I'm surprised, given the distance from Harvard to Columbia, that they didn't work out a similar arrangement.

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer is listed as doubtful with a knee injury for the Tennessee Titans opener against Jacksonville.

Did you see that in light of Appalachian State's win over Michigan the Associated Press is going to allow teams from lower divisions to be included in its weekly poll? "The sports editor of the news service announced that there 'should be no rule against ranking a lower-division school, as long as that team competed against a I-A opponent.' "

Two problems with that. First, there is no I-A or I-AA anymore.

Second, App State -- and Dartmouth for that matter -- are not in a lower division than Michigan or Penn State or USC. All are Division I. That was the point of the changing of nomenclature this year. They are in different subdivisions only.

I'll be off to the Mock Game in a few minutes. Check back later today for coverage on BGA Premium.

And finally, the first-ever Friday Night Lights in Hanover was a mixed success last evening. A terrific crowd (by Upper Valley standards), a great ambience but a poor second half led to a 24-7 loss.