Monday Morning Look-Back

The Daily Dartmouth game story for the romp over Cornell can be found here. ... For the Cornell perspective, check out the Cornell Sun game story here. ...

For a look at how Dartmouth's next opponent fared over the weekend, check out the Brown-Yale game story in the Brown Daily Herald.

There's a piece in the Daily Dartmouth about the school's revitalized cheerleading squad. When I first met a few freshman parents at the start of preseason -- particularly those from areas where high school football is big -- I told them they were in for a surprise when they saw the Dartmouth cheerleaders and "precision marching band." As it turns out, the cheerleaders have come a long way. There are more of them and they are, well, cheering. The band? It is what it is.

For what it's worth, I love this from the Daily D cheerleading story (italics are mine):

“All of those stereotypes stem from high school,” the president of the Dartmouth cheerleading squad said, asking to remain anonymous out of concern for her future career. “It’s just not the same.”

There's an interesting Q&A with Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky in the Daily Pennsylvanian. He puts to bed any thoughts that football coach Al Bagnoli is in any trouble after a third disappointing (by Penn standards) season in a row. From the story:

DP: Given Bagnoli's past success, has he earned the right to sort it out on his own?

SB: Absolutely. He's one of the best coaches the Ivy League has ever had. And there's no question … I mean, this is not the proverbial vote of confidence. He's an excellent coach. And if I sensed at all that he wasn't as committed, or wasn't as dedicated, then I would have concerns. But he will figure it out.

The Worcester Telegram has a very nice story about former Dartmouth defensive back Matt Burke, now an assistant coach with the Tennessee Titans. Find that story here. ... Speaking of the Titans, the box score from yesterday's win shows Casey Cramer as the starting fullback. He had no stats but the Titans won, 20-7. ...

The stat of the week comes from New Hampshire's surprising loss to Northeastern. UNH had the ball for 11 minutes and 47 seconds. That's it. Northeastern held the ball for 48 minutes, 13 seconds and folks, it's hard to score when the other team has the ball. (Although Dartmouth proved it can be done -- twice -- against Cornell. ;-)

Back to Saturday's overtime win for Navy against Notre Dame. I've always had a soft spot for Navy because my grandfather graduated from the Naval Academy and my father was a Navy man. I remember hearing when I was little that if Navy was losing in the annual Army-Navy game my grandfather would turn his hearing aid off. I think Army-Navy was the first football game I ever really paid any attention to and so it was great to see the Midshipmen pull that one off.

And finally, for a longtime watcher of Dartmouth football it was jarring to see players in white and red uniforms coming out of Davis Varsity House Saturday. With Dartmouth moving into the Floren Varsity House locker room, it made sense to move the visitors from the bowels of Alumni Gym, but that didn't make it seem any less bizarre.