Monitoring The Merrimack Job

John Perry, Dartmouth's offensive coordinator from 2000-2004, has been named head football coach at Merrimack College, near his Andover, Mass., hometown. Perry was the associate head coach at New Hampshire last year. From the press release announcing his hiring:

At Dartmouth, Perry immediately transformed the offense when he joined the team in 2000 and helped the Big Green rank eighth in passing and tenth in total offense nationally at the end of the 2002 campaign. Two Dartmouth quarterbacks under Perry’s tutelage, Brian Mann and Greg Smith, ended their careers ranked among the Big Green’s all-time passing and total offense leaders.

Perry becomes the second former Dartmouth coordinator to take a head coaching position in the Northeast 10 in as many years. Onetime defensive coordinator Rob Talley took over the Stonehill program last year and guided the team to a 5-5 record in his first season. (Thanks, JD, for alerting me to this story.)

There isn't a lot that's new in this New York Times column about Harvard's innovative financial aid changes, but I loved the headline a Vermont paper put on the piece:

Harvard: Never having to say 'Too expensive'

I suppose you have to be a certain age to appreciate that one. ...

I stumbled across this mention of a transfer quarterback being "heavily recruited" by Penn. Being a former newspaper person, I reserve the right to question the accuracy of everything I read in the newspaper, but I found this note interesting for three reasons:

• Given Penn's struggles the past several years and the Quakers' success with transfer quarterbacks in the past, I fully expected Penn would at least consider taking a transfer QB.
• If the Quakers did bring in a transfer, I thought he would come from Duke or Northwestern (both of which sent transfer QB's to Penn in the past). For some strange reason, Minnesota's Rochester Community and Technical College wasn't on my radar.
• The quarterback in question, Henry Lau, was listed at 6-5, 256 in one publication and 6-5, 238 in another. Either way, he's a big boy. (There's a head shot of him here from when he was named an NJCAA Football Player of the Week.)
  

In case you are wondering, the snow continues to fall here in Hanover. This storm is supposed to leave us with six inches and we could have another nine inches to a foot tomorrow.

With a recruiting weekend or two coming shortly, all the snow we've been getting has set me to wondering: Is having a lot of snow when recruits come to town a good thing or a bad thing?

I'm a big believer that you don't run away from what you are. Instead you celebrate it. So put me down on the side of those who think it's a good thing, get those snow shoes and sleds out, and beware a few 280-pound guys from down south barreling down at you with unbelievable smiles on their faces in one of the next few weekends. Hey, I wonder if Rochester Community and Technical College has any linemen to spare? They'd feel right at home ;-)

And finally this ... That certain Hanover High sophomore finished a strong second behind only her Stanford-bound teammate in the 1500 meters in yesterday's track meet at Leverone Field House. She was 11 seconds behind the winner, but six seconds ahead of the third-place finisher while qualifying for states in a second event. Although she posted another PR she realized she still had too much left at the finish and that's a good thing.