Monday, October 29, 2007

Dartmouth Gets A Kick Out Of This

Rivals.com is reporting that well-regarded placekicker Foley Schmidt of Minnesota's St. Thomas Academy is going Ivy ... and that Ivy is Dartmouth. (The 5-foot-8, 180-pound Schmidt is a former teammate of exciting Big Green freshman Tim McManus, whom he succeeded as quarterback at STA.)

From the Minnesota preps Rivals site:
The 2006 season was a historic one for the St. Thomas Academy program. A big part of their success was the excellent play of their special teams. Often overlooked, a good high school kicking and punting game can mean victory. Cadet senior kicker/punter prospect Foley Schmidt was a difference maker last season. He is again this season.
Kicking guru Chris Sailer lists Schmidt as the No. 43 kicking recruit in this year's senior class. Sailer writes:
He is strong and has a fast leg. Gets great height on his ball and is very consistent.
Sailer listed Notre Dame, Stanford, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Virginia and Ivy League as "high interest" schools for the kicker.

Schmidt's 2007-08 season statistics (though not completely up-to-date) can be found here on Maxpreps. His 2006-07 stats can be found here. Schmidt is reported to be 114-of-119 on extra points in three years as a varsity kicker and 15-of-20 on field goals. On kickoffs he has recorded 82 touchbacks including a run of 11 in a row last year during the playoffs.

Though his first eight games Schmidt had completed 64 percent of his passes for 899 yards and rushed for another 298 as a quarterback. He had 10 rushing touchdowns and three through the air. STA is now 9-1.

A talented athlete, Schmidt also has played ice hockey and has drawn Division I recruiting interest in soccer.
***
The Dartmouth-Harvard game is covered in today's Daily Dartmouth. ... In a story headlined, Ground Game Punishes Weak Big Green Defense, Harvard Crimson refers to Dartmouth as:
... a team that has struggled since current—and former—head coach Buddy Teevens departed for Stanford after a stint in Hanover from 1987 to 1991. The Big Green hasn’t won an Ivy championship since his initial departure, and hasn’t sniffed the top of the league since Teevens’ return in 2005.
Actually, Teevens left for Tulane after the 1991 season and the Big Green won two Ivy titles after his departure. It went undefeated in 1996 and ran off a 22-game unbeaten streak between 1995 and 1997, one of the longest in what was then called I-AA. ...

Tied for the Ivy League lead with Yale, Harvard has a streak on the line similar to the one that Penn has had broken this year. The Crimson writes:
Every graduating class has earned at least one title since (head coach Tim) Murphy came to Cambridge in 1993, and if that trend is to continue, it’s either now or next year for the Crimson.
Dartmouth plays host to Cornell this Saturday. To read about the Big Red's narrow loss at Princeton Friday, night read the Cornell Sun story.

And finally, if you missed the 15-lateral, 46-second touchdown play with seven players touching the ball that helped Trinity University pull out a 28-24 win over Millsaps, you can read about it and watch the video here. This one has to be seen to be believed and even then you won't believe it.



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