Saturday's Practice

They Thought Of Everything. Almost.

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreen alert.com

Sept. 8, 2007

HANOVER -- This is the third Mock Game you’ve seen in Buddy Teevens’ second go-around as Dartmouth football coach and while you understand the concept a little better, you still find yourself smirking a tiny bit when you hear an offensive backup shouting “great block,” after a running back picks up a good gain with nary a defensive player on the field of play. The back could keep running all the way to West Lebanon, you muse, if an arbitrary official's whistle doesn't blow the play dead.

The idea, Teevens has explained on several occasions, is to expose the players to anything they are likely to see before, during or after a game over the course of the upcoming season, so that when the hitting begins in earnest nothing catches them by surprise.

That’s why they practiced the coin flip at the start of the game. And at the start of overtime. (They lost that flip.)

It’s why they practiced taking an intentional safety and why they practiced the punt kickoff after the safety. It’s why they practiced where to stand on the sideline during the game and where to run onto the field at halftime. It’s why they practiced knocking down a Hail Mary, returning a fumble on a PAT for two points and singing the Alma Mater to the home stands at the conclusion of the one-hour session.

Yup, they did a dry run of just about everything Saturday morning.

But they couldn’t have practiced everything. You know they must have missed something, but what?

You rack your brain and then, just before cornering Teevens as he walks off the field, you’ve got it.

Click here to find out what it was on Green Alert Premium.