Thursday's Practice Story Posted

THURSDAY, Nov. 8
Practice Story in Advance of Brown Game ......

Editor's Note: The full Green Alert Thursday, Nov. 8 practice story is posted here because of Internet problems. Sorry for the inconvenience.

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreenalert.com

HANOVER -- The Dartmouth football team is an overtime away from being undefeated at home this year with wins over Penn, Columbia and Cornell. The only blemish on the 3-1 home slate is a 31-28 loss in the opener to Colgate in a game the Big Green had well in hand.

Dartmouth is 3-5 overall and you don’t have to be Norman Einstein to be able to see the Big Green is 0-4 on the road heading into Saturday’s game at Brown.

“I talked with the guys before practice about that specifically,” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said after Thursday’s practice. “You look at the Patriots and it doesn't matter where they are playing. Whether it's 3,000 miles away, down south, north, east, it makes no difference. They just go out and they execute. That's what we need to do.

“There is no reason it should be different than at home. It's a short trip, three hours. You've got a nice place to say. You are fed well. Just go out and do your job. That's got to be the mindset. We have to be professionals in that regard. Go out, take care of your business.”

Dartmouth’s last road victory was a 20-7 win at Columbia on Oct. 21, 2006. That’s the only road victory the Big Green has had -- so far -- in Teevens’ three years back at the helm. With an 0-5 road record from 2004 factored in, Dartmouth’s graduating seniors are just 1-18 away from home in their four years.

Asked if there might be mental hurdle to overcome Saturday, Teevens shook his head.

“I don't think so,” he said. “We played well at UNH. We did a bunch of things but yeah, they beat us pretty soundly. The Yale game and the Holy Cross games were somewhat of aberrations. We went down too hyped for the Yale game. I made it an everything game and we weren't ready for that. Holy Cross game, yup, they got us and we'll leave it at that.

“The Harvard game we played. That was a solid 60-minute game for us, and I expect this game to be no different. I think we are at the point where I expect that. We talk openly about it. We've got to be a great team anywhere we play and not just show up at home.”

That will be even more important next year. Whereas every road game this fall was in New England, not one is in the region next year. Also, where the schedule had Dartmouth playing four home Ivy League games to three conference road games this year, that ratio will flip-flop in 2008.

Given the mother-of-all road schedules next year, you might think getting a win at Brown to set the tone for what lies ahead would be on Teevens’ mind. He very much wants the win, but not for that reason.

“I don't really look at it that way with the guys,” he said. “This is our second-to-last opportunity with this team. And it's our last opportunity on the road with this team.

“(Winning on the road is) one thing from a programmatic standpoint we haven't done that this year. That's pretty much been the focus.

“We have a winning record at home and that was one of our goals. We need to learn to win on the road and this is our next opportunity.”

Since pounding the Bears in Providence in 1992, Dartmouth has won just once at Brown Stadium. That was was posted by the undefeated 1996 team, which squeaked out a 27-24 victory thanks to a dropped touchdown pass with 15 seconds remaining. The Big Green is 1-5 at Brown since the 1992 victory.

Teevens is confident Dartmouth can get over the hump against the Bears, who claimed a 24-14 win over the Big Green in the coach’s first game there since returning to the Ivy League.

“We played well against those guys” last time, Teevens said. “We had them down there and fumbled, but we had an opportunity. And they were a better football team than we were. We just kind of let it slip away. I don't think there's any reason" not to play well.

“In my mind this team feels like we ought to beat them. Now we just have to go out and do it.”

Although the first road victory evaded them two weeks ago, Teevens thinks the Big Green proved something to itself.

“We didn't get the win at Harvard, but we went down there and played a solid football game,” he said. “We turned the ball over and that killed us. But to go down and execute, and do what you are capable of doing, that was a step. Now we need to go do it and get a win.”

The Bears will bring a 3-5 overall record and a 2-3 league mark into the game. They’ve beaten Princeton (33-24) and Penn (31-17) in their last two games at Brown Stadium.

“ They will be all fired up,” Teevens said. “They are a good football team. They are solid. They've won a championship recently, so we just need to go down and play. We have every opportunity to win as long as we take care of our business.”

ON PRACTICE Teevens was pleased by another high-energy, high-enthusiasm practice on Blackman Fields.

“I think they are having fun and they are competing hard,” he said. “They've learned to do that. It's been a developmental process. They are maturing. The senior leadership has made a huge difference.

“The guys come out and they have fun together but they are all business when they come out and practice. There's a lot of enthusiasm and there's some good emotion in a very positive sense. It's fun to be in a situation like this for a change.”

FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE Perhaps it is gamesmanship -- Teevens wouldn’t say one way or another -- but if Brown offered time for a walkthrough on the stadium field it didn’t work in Dartmouth’s schedule. That being the case, the Big Green will have a light workout in Hanover early Friday before making the trip to Rhode Island where a light rain is in the forecast for gametime Saturday.