Let There Be Lights

Andrew von Kuhn, who was enjoying a banner preseason before being hurt, makes a catch and a move Tuesday. His return will bolster the depleted Big Green receiving corps.

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Memorial Field was getting darker and darker as the Dartmouth football team wrapped up practice Tuesday evening under heavily overcast skies. It was a reminder that as the season wears on the gloaming will creep steadily earlier, forcing the Big Green to move back across the road to the lighted Blackman Fields. Or to try to improve on last year's portable lighting experiment. It's no secret that Dartmouth is looking into lights for Memorial Field but if/when that will come to pass is anybody's guess. ...

Almost taunting Dartmouth last night: a glow over the southern end zone where one tower from Hanover High School's new lighted FieldTurf facility was visible. ... There are probably too many hurdles to cross, but wouldn't it be neat if Dartmouth and Hanover High could arrange some kind of tradeoff of facilities for the final couple of weeks of football season? Imagine this conversation: "We'll let you use Leede Arena, or our softball or lacrosse field for a big game next spring if we can use your field for a couple of days of practices ending by 6 p.m." As I said, there are probably plenty of reasons why it might never happen, but it sure would be neat if a town-gown tradeoff could work.

Dartmouth sports information has posted its release on this Saturday's game: Football Faces Holy Cross in a Non-Conference Showdown.

Mike McLeod is having a great season and he looked awfully good against Dartmouth. Still, the writer for the Yale Daily who offered the following thought might be getting a little carried away:

And after potentially breaking every Ivy League mark kept for running backs, what else might McLeod have to do to find himself on the final Heisman Trophy ballot? He would be the first FCS (formerly 1-AA) player to garner such recognition since Alcorn State alum McNair in 1994. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

Um, do you think?

Others are getting a little carried away as well. Consider this from the Columbia Spectator about the Bulldogs:

They are poised to establish themselves not only as the best team in the league this year, but also as one of the best teams that the Ivy League has ever seen.

Whoa, Nellie. It's a tad early for that.

Speaking of Yale, captain Brandt Hollander said after Saturday's win over Dartmouth:

"(O)ur newfound physicality has enabled us to have the success that we’re now enjoying. Our schemes aren’t complicated on either side of the ball, but we’ve developed the type of strength and conditioning base where we can now wear down opposing teams.”

The quote is from this story in the Yale Daily News. The story goes on to say:

After both victories against Cornell and Dartmouth, the opposing coaches commented on how their teams were physically dominated by the Bulldogs.

I don't know what Cornell coach Jim Knowles said but Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens most assuredly did not say that. Two of us pressed him on whether he saw it that way, and both times he made it very clear he did not feel the Big Green was physically overmatched.

Tough sports town, Philadelphia is. Today's Daily Pennsylvanian has a front-page poll: "With a 1-3 record this season, should head football coach Al Bagnoli be fired?" ... Speaking of Penn, former starting quarterback Robert Irvin might be on the shelf for the season according to this DP story.

To get a sense about what the rest of the college football-watching world thinks about the Ivy League, check out a thread on the AnyGivenSaturday.com message board. The post that started the thread:

I was watching the LSU game Saturday night on CBS. The score ticker showed the usual I-A stuff, plus Ivy League scores.

My question is not why they didn't show other I-AA scores, but rather why they showed the Ivy scores at all. Did the network think the audience watching LSU and Florida would be interested? Does CBS think the Ivy is the top league in I-AA?

My theory is there are a lot of Ivy Leaguers at CBS. Also, perhaps the Ivy is still considered quasi I-A to some people, since the Ivy never, ever bought into the I-AA concept. Any thoughts?

And finally ... tonight's practice report will be late because I'll be at the lighted Hanover High field to watch a certain 8th grade cornerback/running back in action. Unless he tacks on a few inches between now and next fall he may be switching to golf in high school, so this is a rare chance to watch him play a game he loves when it doesn't conflict directly with a Dartmouth practice. I'll finish up at Memorial Field, cross the street for the 7th-8th grade game and then head up the mountain to get to work on today's practice report.