"A Game For The History Books" ... In Hanover

The 2007 Dartmouth football team has a bouquet tossed its way from an unlikely source -- the Columbia Spectator. The lede to the story:

While the majority of the Ivy League’s attention will be focused on New Haven for this weekend’s title clash between Harvard and Yale, Dartmouth’s Saturday matchup against Princeton could prove to be a football game for the history books. A win over the Tigers would give the Big Green a 4-3 record in Ivy League play, the team’s first record over .500 in the conference since the Big Green went 4-3 in 2003.

The column goes on to say:

... (T)he improvement that this program has undergone in the last season should make the Big Green a team to watch in the years to come.

Charles Grant is a freshman linebacker at Dartmouth. His brother, Rob, is starting at nose guard as a sophomore for former Dartmouth coach John Lyons at Kimball Union Academy. While dad Bob Grant '79, would love to be in two places Saturday, the former ice hockey teammate of Buddy Teevens had to choose and will be ... at Phillips Exeter Academy where Rob and the 8-0 KUA team will be taking on 7-1 Lawrence Academy in the NEPSAC Austin Bowl. Rob has helped a stingy KUA defense allow just 6 points per game. ...

Harvard-Yale dominates the Ivy sports pages and rightfully so. ... A columnist for the Daily Princetonian surveyed students and found that in general they are an unhappy bunch because either H or Y is going to win and P isn't. The column ends this way:

In that final game of the 1968 season, the outcome was an astounding 29-29 tie, and the Ivy League was forced to declare Harvard and Yale co-champions.

I'm not saying a similar result is likely in this year's game, but as a Princeton student, it's the only hope I have left.

As we used to say when we were kids, he's got no hope and Bob Hope, and Bob Hope has left town. Overtime, of course, has done away with ties.

Even if Yale blows Harvard out to finish its first undefeated, untied season since 1960, the 11th-ranked Bulldogs won't be going to the NCAA Playoffs, which doesn't sit well with Yale captain Brandt Hollander. He told the Yale Daily:

“Players dedicate themselves to representing their school to the best of their abilities. I think the decision to prevent these players who have sacrificed so much in the service of their school from being able to test themselves against the highest available level of competition is a disservice, not only to the players, but the schools as well."

Missed this the first time around but while ESPN's GameDay will be at Ohio State-Michigan State, the Yale Daily reports Harvard-Yale is not being ignored:

ESPN staff were on the Yale campus yesterday conducting interviews with players and recording audio from head coach Jack Siedlecki during practice.

An aside: Ever notice how it's almost always the "Harvard-Yale"game? Not "Yale-Harvard." I wonder if it's that way in New Haven. Then again, I wonder if it's the Navy-Army game in Annapolis? Nah.

Yale, by the way, is ranked ahead of Notre Dame in the venerable Sagarin Ratings, as this New York Sun story notes.

From Boston.com:

If Saturday's game attracts a crowd of around 60,000, as expected, it'll be the fullest the Bowl has been since 1983, when 70,600 turned out for the 100th meeting of the schools.

The story notes that there were 53,000 at the Bowl two years ago. ... If you aren't a little tired of reading about Yale tailback Mike McLeod yet, check out this story in Boston.com. ...

While Yale won't be going to the playoffs, neither will UNH and nonpareil quarterback Ricky Santos. That's too bad because he's been a joy to watch -- if not to play against. This story notes that the roots of the offense Santos has run so successfully stretch from LSU -- where the offensive coordinator is a former UNH assistant -- to Oregon, where former UNH coordinator Chip Kelly heads up the offense. That's right. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country have offensive coordinators out of tiny Durham, N.H.

How about this? "UNH, the Cradle of Coordinators." ... Can you tell I watched a little of Miami-Akron last night? Speaking of Miami, do you know who the sixth-leading tackler is on the team? A 5-11, 230 redshirt junior named Chris Shula. His dad David '81, of course, was a record-setting Dartmouth receiver and brother Dan '06 was a Dartmouth quarterback. A third brother, Matt Shula, is a 6-2, 235 defensive lineman at Lafayette.