Monday Monday

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens takes a look back at Saturday's Green-White scrimmage, offers a few comments on Monday's practice and looks ahead to Green-White The Rematch in Monday's practice report. Click here to read it on Green Alert premium.

Gargiulo Set For CFL's Stampeders

Update: Princeton quarterback Jeff Terrell, the Ivy League player of the year last fall, has signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. ... New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball is expected to sign with the Chicago Bears, who already drafted UNH safety Corey Graham.

Former Dartmouth defensive end Anthony Gargiulo '06 is heading north, although the border crossing will be a little farther west than he originally anticipated.

The two-time member of the All-Ivy League first team said Sunday that he has been tendered and expects to sign a one-year contract with the Calgary Stampeders later this week after a well-received tryout with the Canadian Football League team. The 6-foot-3, 254-pound Gargiulo returns to football after a one-year sabbatical from the game following his graduation from college.

Gargiulo, who decided only last summer to actively pursue a pro career, had been mulling a two-year offer from the Montreal Alouettes that followed a successful tryout in Albany. He opted instead for a one-year deal with Calgary that will allow him to move to the NFL sooner should a team be interested in his services.

"I'm more relieved than excited at this point," said Gargiulo. "It's been a while since I played. I am really excited just to get pads on and play again."

Gargiulo was one of 65 players getting a long look at Calgary's most recent camp. "They invited me up and it went well," he said. "We had meetings Wednesday, two practices a day Thursday and Friday and then more meetings on Saturday before going home.

"It was fun to do football stuff as opposed to just working out, running around and doing drills. I was pretty confident going in that this would be the outcome."

While Gargiulo felt well-prepared for the tryout after working hard on his strength, speed and conditioning for the past nine months, his competition certainly had impressive credentials. "There was nobody there I recognized or talked to from an Ivy League or Patriot League team," he said. "The guys they brought in for defensive end were from Florida State, from USC, one guy was from Miami. One guy was from Oklahoma. They were from all over.

"I was the only guy from a non-big time program, but I knew what I could do. Going through the drills I could see my speed was as good or better than all of them. I didn't feel like I was outmatched in that respect."

This web site reports Gargiulo has been clocked in 4.58 in the 40, done 30 reps at 225 pounds, had his vertical measured at 37.5 inches and run as fast as 6.42 in the three-cone drill.

The Stampeders camp opens June 3. To learn more about the team, click here.

(Gargiulo photo courtesy Dartmouth Sports Information)

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As expected, Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie, taken by the New York Giants in the fourth round, was the only Ivy Leaguer chosen in the NFL draft. Bloomberg.com has a story about DeOssie and the Ivy hopefuls here. ... The Boston Herald writes about DeOssie here. ... A smug New York Times blogger wrote this after DeOssie's selection:

With the 17th pick in the fourth round (116th over all), the Giants drafted Zak DeOssie, an outside linebacker from Brown. Brown? Does the school really have a football team?

Click here for a list of the 17 FCS players taken in this year's draft as well as a list of those taken dating back to 2000.

The Crimson reports Harvard tailback Clifton Dawson has agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts. ... (Check out this Toronto Star story for a predraft look at Dawson.) ...

New Hampshire receiver David Ball wasn't picked, failing in his bid to become the first Vermonter ever taken in the draft. ... While Ball's name wasn't called, teammate Corey Graham was chosen as a defensive back, in no small part because of his 4.39 clocking in the 40 according to the Manchester Union Leader. ...

Next on tap is the Canadian Football League draft and Columbia safety Tad Crawford is considered by this site as one of the players "considered most likely to have significant CFL careers." Columbia defensive end Jeff Oke is listed as a potential sleeper in the CFL. ... Crawford also gets a nice mention here.

For the Harvard Crimson's wrap of spring football and life after Clifton Dawson, click here.

Dartmouth Football Making All Kinds Of Progress

The Dartmouth football squad is one of 24 Dartmouth teams recognized by the NCAA for its Academic Progress Rate score. ...

Saturday was a Spring Game bonanza in the Ivy League. Game recaps:
Brown
Cornell
Harvard
Yale

Princeton's football coaches will be holding their annual Women's Football Clinic to benefit the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Brown's Zak DeOssie and Harvard's Clifton Dawson are two of the five New Englanders with the best chance of hearing their names called today in rounds 4-7 of the NFL draft according to the Boston Globe.

New Hampshire's record-setting wide receiver David Ball could end up being Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick in the draft, according to this Fox site. ... Dartmouth assistant coach and Manchester Wolves player Jarrail Jackson is quoted in this draft story in the Manchester Union Leader.

Green Holds Off White ... Barely

HANOVER -- This Green-White thing seems to agree with Phil Galligan.

The sophomore wide receiver who caught six passes for 83 yards and one touchdown as one of the stars of last year's spring game topped himself Saturday with seven catches for 106 yards* and a highlight-reel touchdown in the White team's 16-13 loss to the Green in a spirited contest on Memorial Field.

To read the full recap, visit Green Alert premium.

Green-White Is A Go!

It's Green-White I day here in Hanover and the weather could be worse. The temperature is in the mid-40's this morning and the anticipated rainstorm has been downgraded to a drizzle. (Side note: Last night's drizzle washed away the last of the snow up here on our little piece of Moose Mountain. Mark down April 28 as this year's "snow out.")

Check Green Alert premium tonight for a full recap of Green-White I.

Yale holds its spring game today and the New Haven Register notes the starting quarterback position that was up in the air at this time last year is not in question this time around for the co-champions. ... The Georgia Southern FCS spring game, by the way, drew 5,400. It's not the 71,000 we saw at Penn State last week or the 95,000 at Alabama, but for a school at what used to be called the I-AA level, that's pretty impressive.

It's the first day of the NFL draft and there can't be many states that have never had a player selected. That will change this weekend if Vermont native David Ball of UNH is chosen according to the Burlington Free Press. Don't count on it. A better bet is Brown's Zak DeOssie hearing his name called around the 4th or 5th round.

An NFL.com columnist writing about NFL Europe, now officially (and regrettably called NFL Europa) includes a mention of Jay Fiedler in his latest offering. I've written about this in the past as well. Here's what the columnist wrote:

Jay Fiedler had two shots in Europe, and one of his coaches told me flatly "he can't play." Jay had a pretty good NFL career after he proved he could play under pressure in Europe.

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens is a little more than a week away from departing on his cross country bicycle ride (see link to the right) and the pieces are falling into place. Because Teevens is hoping to use the 3,600-mile ride to help raise awareness of breast cancer and a number of people have asked where they could make a contribution in honor of his effort. While he's not an official entrant in the 26th annual Prouty Century Bike Ride and Challenge Walk the Prouty, which supports "ground-breaking cancer research and important patient services at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center," has created a page to welcome donations in his name. If you'd like to join the effort, click on this Prouty page. Enter the name Buddy Teevens and you'll be guided the rest of the way.

The other day the blog had a link to trustee candidate Sandy Alderson's home page and an excerpt from the page that details some of his thinking about athletics. Today, a link to a Dartmouth Review interview with candidate Stephen Smith and some of his thinking about athletics:

We need to recognize that athletics is an important part of the Dartmouth experience. Karl Furstenberg was exactly wrong when he said that football has no place at a school like Dartmouth; it has a vital place at a school like Dartmouth, as do other sports. We need to respect that not just with funding but also at the admissions stage. When coaches come to the admissions office asking for help in admitting academically qualified recruits.

Busy, busy day. My Little League team opens play at 10 but I'll have to leave by 10:45 to get to the Green-White in time for the 11 a.m. start. Thank goodness there are two of us coaching. The 7th grader has a game starting at the same time and I might catch the end of it. Then at 1 the 9th grader has a softball game.

Friday's Green-White Advance

HANOVER -- At the end of Friday's final spring practice before the first of two Green-White games, the two rising seniors charged with drafting the teams that will square off Saturday were encouraged to engage in some good-natured trash talking.

We're going to crush them, or something similarly outrageous said one.

We're going to win, or something similarly controversial the other said.

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens has enough to worry about heading into next season. When it comes to his players trash talking, he can relax.

To read more, visit Green Alert premium.

Text Messaging Recruits Ban Wins

Oops. Forgot to include the ban on text messaging recruits in this morning's links. There's an exhaustive look at the ban here. ... Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News wasn't sure about the initiative but now thinks it is a good idea. From DeCourcy's column:

There are reasons to be concerned ... when coaches are heading to practice or other engagements and leaving their phones in the office so grad assistants and administrative types can use them to text recruits.

What DeCourcy may not know (and many coaches might not) is that it doesn't have to be a GA sitting in a corner pecking away on a phone sending one message at a time. It's a relatively simple process to plop yourself down at the computer and send text messages. Which means, of course, that if your GA happens to be computer savvy, you could probably send text messages to as many recruits as you want, as frequently as you want, automatically while playing 18 holes at the local country club.

A Wednesday Sports Illustrated.com column by Stewart Mandel takes a shot at the Ivy League for proposing the ban. From that column:

Take a guess which conference initially sponsored this controversial piece of legislation that could drastically impact recruiting methods at the highest level of college football. The Big Ten? Nope. The SEC? Nada. Try the Ivy League.

That's right, folks. In the bizarre, convoluted process that is NCAA rule-making, a non-scholarship, Division I-AA conference can dictate legislation for the nation's biggest football programs.

While Mandel makes some valid points, his reference to a "Division I-AA conference" illustrates why the NCAA changed nomenclature with regard to the football divisions, and the fact that the name change hasn't taken hold.

First, there's never been any such thing as a "Division I-AA conference." Division I-AA is about football only. The NCAA made the FBS-FCS name change to stop the basketball and soccer and other programs at FCS schools from being incorrectly labeled I-AA. They are Division I period. (And the ban, by the way, isn't just for football coaches.)

As for Mandel's use of the now-defunct I-AA terminology, here's what he should have written:

In the bizarre, convoluted process that is NCAA rule-making, a non-scholarship conference that competes in Division I's Football Championship Subdivision can dictate legislation for the nation's biggest football programs.

Championship Teams To Be Honored

Most of you know that Dartmouth has captured more Ivy League football championships than any school in Ivy League history. But did you know that Dartmouth won the title 15, 25, 35 and 45 years ago? If you didn't, you will this fall.

The Dartmouth Friends of Football sent out an email yesterday announcing that the 1962, 1972, 1982 and 1992 teams will each be honored on a home weekend during the 2007 season.

From the Friends email:

If you were a member of one of these teams or just want to relive the memories, mark the date(s) indicated below and plan to be in Hanover for these celebrations while supporting the 2007 team as it strives to add its name to Dartmouth’s long list of Ivy League champions.

1972 Team
September 29, 2007---Dartmouth vs. Penn
1962 Team
October 20, 2007---Dartmouth vs. Columbia (Homecoming)
1982 Team
November 3, 2007---Dartmouth vs. Cornell
1992 Team
November 17, 2007---Dartmouth vs. Princeton

More from the email:

The program for the weekend is still being developed, but the festivities will begin with a post-practice reception and dinner on Friday followed by a full day of activities on Saturday featuring the introduction of the team at half-time and a team dinner in the evening. Details will follow in the months ahead including information regarding blocks of hotel rooms and the full slate of activities that are being planned.

The Harvard Crimson has a story about the draft prospects of several Harvard players including tailback Clifton Dawson. The story notes that his most recent time in the 40 is a pedestrian 4.63.

In a story about improvements in Yale's athletic facilities, the Yale Daily reports that the second phase of renovations at the Bowl will begin at the end of the 2007 season. The story notes that a new scoreboard will be in place prior to this season. I believe I read somewhere that the old scoreboard will remain in place for historic purposes. I hope that's true. (As an aside, I asked again last week about whether there was any news on the new Dartmouth scoreboard -- which may or may not have a video component -- and was told nothing has been decided yet.)

The news side of the Yale Daily has an interesting (and long) story about academic likely letters. You've got to love this excerpt from the story:

Vivek Raman, a senior at the public Libertyville High School in Illinois, said he first received a phone call from his Yale admissions officer in February, and then received a likely letter.

“He said ‘Don’t commit a murder and don’t flunk out of school, and you’ll be in by April first,’ ” Raman said.

By now you've probably heard about the MIT admissions director falsifying her resume. Here's the New York Times story on it. I almost linked to another story simply for the headline: "MIT Dean Resigns For Resume Padding." Um, no. Padding is saying you graduated with a 3.75 when you graduated with a 3.5. When you say you have degrees from Union College, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College and took a few classes as part-time, unmatriculated student at one of the schools and didn't attend the others at all, that's not padding. That's lying.

Athletics On Alderson's Agenda

Milan Williams (3) squeezes through the middle for a gain Wednesday.

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Sandy Alderson '69, the CEO of the San Diego Padres and the parent of Dartmouth grad Bryn Alderson '03, has a pretty slick web site up promoting his candidacy as a Dartmouth trustee. Find it here.

Here's part of what Alderson has to say about athletics on the site:

Admissions is always an issue with respect to athletics. Coaches must live with Dartmouth standards, but they have a right to know the standards will be consistently and predictably applied. A Trustee can help ensure that coaches have a set of clear and reliable recruiting parameters, which would go a long way toward eliminating unpredictable admissions decisions. It is demoralizing for coaches and athletes to see student-athletes competing successfully for other Ivies who were, inexplicably, denied admission to Dartmouth.

A decision on the initiative introduced by the Ivy League to ban text messaging in recruiting is expected today according to this story. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti's sentiments in the Oregonian might pertain to Dartmouth as well:

"(A ban) hurts every program from a non-highly populated area. When you're not in a populated area, you have to find some way to bridge the gap and create relationships with young people, with their parents and with everybody. When you limit the number of contacts, limit the number of communication opportunities, then yes, it's going to hurt us."

Roger Hughes, the former Dartmouth assistant who guided Princeton to a share of the Ivy League title last fall, offers up the first part of his annual spring "chat." He discusses last year's success and the coming season's defense.

There weren't any Ivy League head coaching changes since last year but Matt Dougherty's look at the FCS schools that made changes is worth checking out on the Sports Network page.

The Providence Journal offers the definitive look at Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie in the run-up to the NFL draft. ... I agree with this Maryland newspaper writer who says that New Hampshire wide receiver and NFL hopeful David Ball, "... plays the game like a real receiver should. He doesn’t get by on athletic ability. Instead, he utilizes fundamentals to be such a force. You want your son or player to be a great wide receiver? Watch Ball, he puts on a clinic every time he plays."

Yesterday was opening day for the softball and baseball teams of a couple of certain Hanover schoolkids. They enjoyed different results. The 7th-grader celebrated his first game on the 90-foot bases by lashing a walk-off double to help his team to victory and then getting mobbed by his teammates coming off the field. The Hanover High freshman hit leadoff and played center field but struggled against the fastest (softball) pitching she's ever seen and then, after playing well in the field, muffed a couple of balls in the final inning. It took a lot of consoling for a kid who I can't recall ever making a miscue in the field playing baseball with the boys right through last year.

Doing Whatever It Takes

HANOVER -- Commitment was on prominent display Wednesday when the Dartmouth football team reached the midway point of its 12-session spring practice schedule on chilly Memorial Field.

• Sprinter Brian Evans and hurdler Peter Pidermann were doing what they've done since spring practice started: somehow finding the time and the energy to go all out on the football field at the end of a long day that also included track practice.
• Defensive back Nick Danford, who walked onto the team a year ago and doesn't figure to see much time in the fall, nevertheless continued to give at least as good as he got, thereby helping the front-line players become better.
• And Will Deevy, a high school senior who could have been on a beach somewhere, instead traveled halfway across the country to observe practice and put himself in a position to better help the team when he arrives on campus for good next fall.

"That's the kind of commitment it takes to be a successful program," Coach Buddy Teevens said after a spirited practice. "It's what we need to have and like to see."

For the full roundup of Wednesday's practice, check out Green Alert Premium.

Fuselier, Fritz, Bly Honored

Ryan Fuselier, Mike Fritz and Don Bly have been named to the The National Football Foundation 2007 Honor Society for their achievements in the classroom. Find the NFF release about the inaugural class here.

Gibalski Mentioned On Draft Site

Former Dartmouth linebacker Joe Gibalski gets a little attention in advance of the NFL draft on this page put up by "NFL Draft Scout; Premium NFL Draft Information." Without a subscription you can't read what -- if anything -- the site has to say about Gibalski, who recorded 86 tackles last fall, but if nothing else he can one day tell his grandkids he got mentioned in connection with the NFL Draft.

Gibalski is one of 19 Ivy League players included this year on the site that introduces its compilation of potential prospects this way:

The following is a list of players The SportsXchange & NFL Draft Scout are covering for the Draft, viewable by College. In June of each new season our master list provided by scouts is compiled to reflect the best possible senior pro prospects for all divisions combined. Player news, notes, college bios, press releases, photos and stats are updated for the prospects during the season, then tracked and replaced with professional scout biographies, all-star, combine and key analysis heading into the draft, making NFL Draft Scout a unique yearly evolving process of college football news topped off by college-to-pro dynamics.

To see which players are mentioned from what schools, click here.

The list of Ivy players who made the exhaustive list of potential future pros:

Brown
LB Zak DeOssie
QB Joe DiGiacomo
WR Lonnie Hill

Columbia
FS Tad Crawford

Cornell
OLB Jonathan Lucas

Dartmouth
OLB Joe Gibalski

Harvard
TB Clifton Dawson
TE Matt Farbotko
C Frank Fernandez
DE Michael Berg
WR Corey Mazza

Penn
OT Marko Grzan
OLB Kory Gedin
DE Brian Fairbanks

Princeton
P Colin McDonough
QB Jeff Terrell
FS Tim Strickland

Yale
OT Ed McCarthy
WR Ashley Wright

What's fun is that you can go back and check out the list from seasons dating back to 1999. For example, here's Casey Cramer's page in 2004.

The Burlington Free Press tapped into the site and has its analysis of native Vermonter David Ball of UNH here. The kicker about Ball is how the analysis ends: "If he only had speed, he'd rank among the position's elite." That's almost painful to read. ...

The New York Post leads a story about wide receiver hopefuls with a look at Ball, who then doesn't merit inclusion in the list. ... The Minneapolis Star Tribune profiles him here. The paper quotes Ball: "They got me at 6-foot and 7/8 ths," Ball said with a smile. "Can I get a 6-1? Can I just get 6-1?" ...

The Daily Pennsylvanian looks at Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie's draft chances. ... If you haven't read enough on him already, DeOssie is the subject of a Q&A pulled together for ScoutNFLExperts.com ... This Q&A with DeOssie is hilarious and talks about his love of skiing. Hmmm. Maybe he would have enjoyed Hanover ;-)

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler is doing a good turn for an old buddy in Hanover according to this story. It notes that Fiedler and Junior Seau are going to appear at fundraiser for the athletic department at the North Carolina high school where onetime Big Green basketball player Stan Kowalewski coaches basketball.

First Person With The Sports Network Guru

Matt Dougherty, SportsNetwork Football Championship Series guru, took the time out recently to talk with Green Alert about the Ivy League, the FCS-FBS dynamic and the national football landscape. To read what Dougherty had to say ...

• about whether the Ivy League presidents' decision not to allow teams to go to the playoffs has an impact on Top-20 voting,
• about the FCS and the NFL draft,
• about whether the country appreciates how good FCS football is,
• about his favorite FCS venues,
• about his FCS top five to start 2007,
• about what game he will open the 2007 season watching in person ...

.. and more, click here. (No subscription required)

Tuesday's Notes

Be sure to come back later today for a free Green Alert exclusive: an interview with Matt Dougherty, the Sports Network's national guru for the football division formerly known as I-AA. Matt will share thoughts on whether the Ivies get enough respect around the country, on whether top-20 voters give the Ivies a fair shake and about Zak DeOssie's draft prospects. You'll be able to read his thoughts on the I-AA/FCS nomenclature change and on how FCS football stacks up against FBS (nee I-A) football.

Say this for Dartmouth's recruiting: The Big Green isn't afraid to mix it up with the big guys. This story on Scout.com tells of a high school junior visiting UConn but being recruited by the Huskies, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Dartmouth. The 5-foot-11 safety plays at Immaculata High in Somerville, N.J., the alma mater of former Big Green defensive end Anthony Gargiulo.

For the official word out of Columbia sports information on the Lions' spring game (with stats), click here. ... To get a sense of how the Holy Cross spring game went, click here.

Clark Judge, a Dartmouth grad and senior writer for CBSsportsline.com has become a big fan of former Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie in the days leading up to the NFL draft. Find out why here. ... Harvard tailback Clifton Dawson gets a little love from an MSNBC columnist in anticipation of the draft here.

A certain Hanover 7th grader who is in love with baseball history of the 1950's didn't believe it when he was told Willie Mays would be receiving an honorary degree at Dartmouth's commencement. Maybe he will if he clicks here. ...

While I'm at it, if you visit the link mentioned above about Columbia's spring football, I hope your clicking-finger reflexes are up to par. The Columbia sports information page is one of those annoying sites that rotates the lead story while you are on the index page. There you are reading down a descriptive paragraph about a story and just about when you are ready to click on the "more," the story changes in front of your eyes. It's like one of those advertising thingies at the top of some pages where you try to hit the gopher over the head with a sledgehammer. Dartmouth's "new" site had the same technology when it first came up and fortunately the web people listened when the complaints started. (The Princeton and Penn pages change while you are looking at them also.)

Monday's Practice; Friday Review

HANOVER -- Before evaluating what he felt was a so-so Monday practice, Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens took a look back at Friday's session, the first of the spring with pads and full contact.

"It was controlled and (the hitting) was very limited, but it was nice to see the guys bang around," Teevens said. "We are definitely more physical. It's pretty obvious.

"It was pretty spirited overall. The guys tackled well and offensively it was productive. I've told the guys that to be competitive on Saturdays this fall we have to be good on both sides, so it was good to see that."

To read more about Friday's practice and view a play-by-play of Monday's scrimmage component, visit Green Alert premium.

Photo: Mark Brogna runs the gantlet on a kickoff coverage drill Monday.

Buddy Bikes: An Early Itinerary

Here's a first look at the tentative first half (or so) of Buddy Teevens' cross country bicycle ride. (Click to map to enlarge.) The cities and towns on this first draft of the route follow. If you are along the route and would like to join up with Buddy for a bit, or have some "local knowledge" about the geography or roads to send along, you can touch base with him by emailing buddybikes@gmail.com. Keep in mind, the route is fluid; it can and will change by bits and pieces. Once again, the trip will begin in San Diego on May 7 and end in New Hampshire at the start of June.

California
Descanso
Julian
Kane Spring
Westmorland
Brawley
Palo Verde
Blythe

Arizona
Ehrenberg
Quartzsite
Brenda
Pioneer
Desert Wells
Harcuvar
Salome
Wenden
Gladden
Aguila
Wickenburg
Congress
Glen llah
Peoples Valley
Kirkland Junction
Prescott
Whipple
Potato Patch
Jerome
Clarkdale
Cottonwood
Bridgeport
Sedona
Indian Gardens
Mountainaire
Flagstaff
Winona
Darling
Two Guns
Rimmy Jims
Winslow
Hibbard
Holbrook
Chambers
Allentown

New Mexico
Gallup
Coolidge
Blue Water
Milan
Harrisburg
Casa Blanca
Laguna
Mesita
Albuquerque
Cedar Crest
Sandia Park
Madrid
Cerrillos
Santa Fe
Glorieta
Pecos
Ribera
Las Vegas
Tucumcari
Logan
Nara Visa

Texas
Dalhart
Stratford
Texhoma

Oklahoma
Goodwell
Guymon
Optima
Hooker
Tyrone

Kansas
Liberal
Sublettle
Copeland
Montezuma
Ensign
Dodge City
Wright
Spearville
Offerle
Kinsley
Garfield
Larned
Pawnee Rock
Great Bend
Claflin
Holyrood
Ellsworth
Carneiro
Brookville
Salina
New Cambria
Solomon
Abilene
Chapman
Junction City
Manhattan
Wamego
Belvue
St. Marys
Rossville
Silver Lake
Menoken
Topeka
Lawrence
Reno
Tonganoxie
Kansas City

Connection Helped Lead To Commitment

Patrick Lahey, the 6-foot-3, 285 high school junior who recently made a verbal commitment to Dartmouth, is a student at the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass. He's quoted by a recruiting analyst as saying, "I’ve always had a connection with (Dartmouth) because an assistant coach of mine at the high school level played there and has talked about them since I was a freshman." That got me wondering so I Googled my way over to the Brooks School football page and checked out the coaching roster. I couldn't find a former Dartmouth player among the listed coaches but I did find: "Dan A. Rorke -- Consultant: Quarterbacks, Offense, Defense." Rorke, the former Brooks head coach, is the father of Chris Rorke '89, a Dartmouth quarterback under Buddy Teevens and a Brooks grad. Chris, by the way, is now an assistant coach at Trinity. Find his bio here.

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UPDATE: Just got an email reminding me that former wide receiver Mike Bobo '92 has worked with the Brooks team in recent years. I knew that but didn't make the connection when I didn't see his name listed with the Brooks coaches. Mike remains close to the Dartmouth program and played a significant role in promoting Dartmouth to Dallas-area players while serving as the offensive coordinator at Greenhill School in Dallas.

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Also of note in the story about Lahey, he is said to have received recruiting interest from Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Virginia, Boston College Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. He attended Dartmouth's summer camp last year. The story goes on to say he's an accomplished wrestler who "hasn’t mentioned if he’ll continue that at the collegiate level." Hmmm. If he's going to wrestle collegiately it won't be at Dartmouth, which dropped the sport some years ago.

Former Dartmouth running back and coach Jake Crouthamel, later the acclaimed athletic director at Syracuse, was super scout Gil Brandt's first free agent signing with the Dallas Cowboys according to this story in the Star-Telegram.

Brown's Zak DeOssie is profiled in this Kansas City Star story about the NFL hopeful. I like this quote he offered about being in the position he's in:

“Going into college, you can’t expect to be here. My education and my degree were the most important things to me. You can’t predict being here in four years. If you’re good enough, you can make it. They’ll find you. I don’t think it’s been an imposition on my NFL aspirations whatsoever.”

The scoreboard at Penn State Saturday. Check out this Centre Daily Times story for more about the outporing of support for Virginia Tech during our visit to the Penn State spring game.

A subscriber sent over this link to a story about the inventor of Gatorade making it into the University of Florida Hall of Fame. Find it here.

Gatorade might come in handy today. One week after we got close to eight inches of snow up here on the mountain the forecast is for 85 degrees today. The usually shadowed half of our yard is still covered in snow so the golden retriever better get out there and enjoy rolling in it while he can. The high temperatures are supposed to be back to the normal mid-50's for the rest of the week. ...

While spring football is on the mind, baseball is in the air. That certain Hanover High freshman will have her first varsity softball game Wednesday, the 7th grader will have his first 90-foot baseball game the same afternoon (his first practice is today) and yours truly will be running a Little League practice the same afternoon. I hope to catch a little softball before heading over to Memorial Field for practice.

Note: After missing Friday's practice while we were at Penn State, a full practice report will be posted on the Green Alert premium site after each remaining spring session.

More Reflections On Friday's Hitting

Just about to jump in the car for the 8 1/2-hour drive from Happy Valley back to the Upper Valley and there are two kids who aren't excited about leaving. Before we go, a few more random thoughts from two subscribers ...

Friday's first full-pads/contact session marked by 1) conspicuous energy, 2) a spring day when the sun finally bathed Memorial Field and made it feel like spring.

Observations: Primarily situation work that included one 11-on-11 segment of ground game that was most notable for the play when Milan Williams popped through line, was wrapped up by Cullen Gilchrist, a play that neither seemed to want to concede until it was broken up after 3-5 seconds and neither player went to the ground.

Conspicuous to someone who's not there every day:

* Four QBs (Tom Bennewitz, Josh Cohen, Max Heiges, Alex Jenny) did variety of good things but Josh Cohen has a monster arm among them all...the guy can go for distance.

* Many able receivers but concentration on catches is why they have spring practice.

* Live punt drill: Brian Scullin got off kicks but looked shaky, mostly because there's work to be done on long snaps (many as off mark as Nuke Laloosh's fast ball). Sans pressure later: Max Heiges had good distance.

The boys were flying around pretty good." Whatever that means. I can't think of anything or anyone that stood out except that I enjoy watching Coach Smiley run special teams practice.

None of the above surprises me ...

Columbia's spring game is analyzed in the Roar Lions Roar blog.

Time to jump in the car and see if a certain Hanover High freshman can finish Robinson Crusoe on the drive. She's got a ways to go ...

71,000 At PSU; Virginia Tech Honored

A record Blue-White crowd of 71,000 turned out on a picture-perfect day in Happy Valley to watch the Penn State football team wrap up spring drills. In the photo at top, the student section managed to pull together a pretty fair VT with orange and maroon shirts sold to honor those at Virginia Tech. (Click to supersize.) In the photo below, five students painted the front of their bodies with Penn State and the back with VTECH. Prior to the game a Penn State player read a moving statement to the crowd. During a moment of silence Blue Band -- dressed this day in Virginia Tech orange T-shirts -- quietly played Amazing Grace. Tears flowed all around. The Penn State cheerleaders and dance team all dressed in Virginia Tech maroon and a number of players wore orange wristbands and had orange towels hanging from their waists. It would probably be an overstatement to say there were as many Virginia Tech T-shirts as Penn State shirts in the stands, but it was closer than you'd ever imagine. I bought a maroon shirt that has a Nittany Lion logo, a black ribbon outlined in white and the words, "We Remember 04.16.07"

Maroon And Orange At Blue And White

Another chilly morning in Happy Valley with temperatures in the high 30s. That may not sound cold but it is a bit brisk in a tent ;-)

While it's a little cold out, what we saw in State College yesterday was heartwarming: thousands of Penn State students lined up at a number of shops in town buying maroon and orange T-shirts that they will be wearing at today's Blue and White game. The lines were long and the wait was going to be long but there they were. There could be 45,000 at the game today and it's clear a great many will be honoring Virginia Tech by wearing the school colors. From a story in the Centre Daily Times: "Retail managers in State College said the demand for maroon-and-orange apparel has been overwhelming."

Scout.com is reporting the first commitment to Dartmouth from the class of 2008. (Didn't meant to confuse you. That's the high school class of 2008.) It's Patrick Lahey, a 6-3, 285 offensive guard from Brooks School. For a quick note and picture, click here. Yikes.

Being out of town I don't have much on the first day of hitting in Hanover. A subscriber with a sense of humor shared this report:

Great day for football in Hanover. Sunny, blue skies and temps in the upper 60s.

Team didn't get onto the field until around 4:40 as track practice concluded. A bunch of guys in green shirts went to the south end, and alot of guys in white shirts stayed at the north end.

Then a guy with a megaphone made a loud noise and everybody ran to the middle of the field.

Then they split into groups and did stuff.

Apparently somebody had a flight they had to get to because they kept yelling 19-Tucson.

For a look at Princeton's spring game, click here. ... Jake Novak of Roar Lions Roar has a thorough look at what he'll be checking for at the Columbia spring game today. An aside: good luck in the booth today, Jake.

The Boston Globe has a short piece about Hank Paulson '68, serving as commencement speaker at Dartmouth in June.

It Feels Like Football Weather

It is no exaggeration to say it was plenty cold in the tent here on the outskirts of Happy Valley this a.m. The heavy frost on the windshield of the car this morning and the two kids who kept inching their sleeping bags closer to mine during the night told the story.

The hitting starts this afternoon in Hanover as Day 4 of spring football practice takes place. It's supposed to be a beautiful day. I'll have a wrap on the session Monday after returning from the Penn State Blue-White game, which could draw in excess of 40,000 fans given a very good weather forecast. (If anyone has any insights on what happens today, feel free to send them along.)

Let's see what we have today. Hank Paulson '68, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former Big Green gridder will give the 2007 Commencement address on June 10. That's pretty special. So is one of the recipients of an honorary degree. Fellow by the name of Willie Mays. Used to play a little baseball, I think. Say hey!

A play with an interesting storyline will be developed this summer at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference according to this release out of Waterford, Conn. Straight from the release:

Good Boys and True by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (July 18 and 20)
"Prep school senior Brandon Hardy is every parents' dream: captain of the football team, straight-A student, accepted to Dartmouth, Early Decision. But when a disturbing video tape is found on campus, the 17-year-old's world starts to crumble and his mother is forced to question everything she believed about her son..."

The New Haven Register writes about Yale's spring football drills. ... Sydney Johnson appears to be Princeton's pick as the next head basketball coach, but there's still nothing official according to the Star-Ledger.

New Roles For Familiar Names

Greetings from the outskirts of Happy Valley! It took us 8 1/2 hours to get here with a quick stop for Burger King breakfast-to-go and a fillup of $3.19 a gallon regular! The tent is set up, the rain has held off (and looks as if that will continue) and the forecast is great. A far cry from last year when we got drenched.

Not much in the news today but a couple or three personnel updates on Dartmouth. ...

Senior Joe Scola, who added toughness -- as well as a key interception and runback at UNH two years ago -- has run out of eligibility but found a way to say close to the program as a student-assistant.

"I like what he's doing and how he's doing it," Coach Buddy Teevens said. "I talked with him about continuing in the spring. He is thinking about being a coach and will be back as an undergraduate assistant while he's finishing up his courses in the fall."

Don Jennings, who coordinates video and pulls together the recruiting clips that will be on the school's official site in the spring, has a well-earned new title: director of football operations.

"Don has done a nice job for us," said Teevens. "He came in and learned the film editing process very effectively. He's good with the computer and whatnot. He's very meticulous, very organized and detailed. He's quiet and unassuming but he's very thorough. So we put the tag director of football operations on him and we are glad to have him."

Also wearing a new hat this spring is Matthew Smiley, the hard-to-miss special teams coach. He's working with the running backs while also handling the special units.

One more note. Please, please, please, if you see something on the blog or the regular site that I got wrong, let me know. I try hard, believe me, but I don't always get it right. When I don't it's very important to help me make it right. So rather than worry that you are being a bother, if you drop me a note and point out something I messed up, I'll consider it a favor from a friend. (Also send an email this way if there's something you'd like to see here. No promises, but I'm all ears and want this to be your site in addition to mine.)

Off the field and away from Dartmouth, the Daily Princetonian is reporting that Princeton has offered its head basketball coaching position to Sydney Johnson, an assistant on John Thompson's staff the past three years. Johnson, who had a severely unorthodox but highly effective 3-point shot while playing for the Tigers, won out over a field of candidates that included former Dartmouth assistant Mike Maker. No word yet on whether Johnson has accepted the position.

Ready To Starting Hitting? Ayuh!

It was no stretch Wednesday to say the Big Green looked ready to hit.

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HANOVER -- You can take it from the owner of the only two Big Green Alert baseball caps in the free world or you can take it from Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens.

Better yet, take it from All-Ivy League linebacker Justin Cottrell: After three days of practice players on the Dartmouth football team are ready to start hitting. More than ready, actually.

"If you were out here the last three days it's kind of obvious we are ready to go," the junior standout said Wednesday. "I mean, there's been a lot of talking. A lot of little side comments between each other in the locker room. It's all good-natured but we've been sitting around all winter and it's time to get a little frustration out. You can feel it in the air."

And you could see it on the field. Teevens certainly could. After the second mini-tussle of an 11-on-11 drill he blew his whistle and called the team together at the midfield "D" to issue a warning.

To find out what that warning was, visit Green Alert premium.

NOTE: The Green Alert "home office" will be in State College, Pa., this weekend while yours truly and a certain pair of Hanover students take in Penn State's Blue-White game and give their mother three days without them in her hair. Blogging will continue from our campground but don't look for the Thursday blog until early afternoon. We'll be up and on the road by 4:30 a.m., and won't arrive in the Happy Valley area until noon or so. ... Friday's Dartmouth football practice will be recapped Monday unless a subscriber emails along a first-person account to be shared here.

HRU GLNG WISP TTYAFN

Brendan Holm hauls in a pass Tuesday afternoon.

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Wondering about that headline up there? If this web site is accurate, that's a text message that says: "How are you? Good luck next game. Winning is so pleasurable. Talk to you awhile from now." (Not being a cellphone kind of guy, I don't have a clue, so YMMV -- your mileage may vary -- but you get the idea.)

Now why, you may be wondering, is this Green Alert guy bringing this up? Because the NCAA is looking into text messaging and recruiting at the invitation of the Ivy League, which considers it a growing problem. Carolyn Campbell-McGovern, associate director of the Ivy League, told the Lexington Herald-Leader:

"Hearing from coaches all hours of the day and night is intrusive. Then there is the cost of the phone bill when prospects send return text messages."

Campbell-McGovern, who once worked in administration at Dartmouth, told the paper that athletes -- Ivy and non-Ivy -- have pushed for the ban. She said:

"This is clearly the way high school students want to communicate with each other. It's not clear this is really the way they want to communicate with adults."

Not everyone agrees text messaging is a bad idea. This columnist from Sportsline.com wrote that "...(T)he NCAA -- thanks to apparently out-of-touch Ivy League schools proposing a ban on text messaging -- will spend two days exploring the issue."

The column says, "The Ivy League has already implemented a similar policy against text-messaging to its coaches." Didn't know that.

The Lexington Herald-Leader story includes this:

The National Association of Basketball Coaches has not taken a position. Reggie Minton, the NABC Deputy Executive Director, said his organization's surveys show the proposal divides coaches.

"I don't want to say it's 50/50, but that's close enough," he said. "Some like it the way it is. Others want it more regulated."

Minton is a former head men's basketball coach at Dartmouth.

Another Columbia Spectator column is getting some play on an Ivy message board. From the column:

"Organizations that make students feel uncomfortable on campus contribute toward this school's image problem, which in turn keeps Columbia from bringing in talent. Such groups, for example, have contributed to the destruction of Columbia's athletic programs since their upheaval of the Morningside Park gym."

The Yale Daily has a column suggesting that a college's athletic program isn't just a boon to the athletes. It can also bring the student community together. From the column:

Sports have played a huge part in my four years at Yale. First, sports have been an amazing social experience. I remember the first time I sat in the Pierson section of the Yale Bowl. I have pictures of me and my friends going absolutely nuts on the Harvard 50-yard line last November. I also have pictures of me and people I don’t even know watching football games together. There’s something special about going to Yale sports events as a Yale student: Everyone’s your friend, at least on the right side of the court/stadium/rink.

(Warning: Dartmouth men's basketball takes a bit of a hit in that column.)

Cornell has scheduled a summer clinic for rising seniors interested in playing college football. ... Holy Cross will have internet audio coverage of its spring game Saturday.

TTFN (ta-ta for now).

Tuesday's Practice Story ... Big Play Push

Defensive linemen go through a drill Tuesday on Memorial Field. (Click photo to enlarge)

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HANOVER -- Last fall the Dartmouth football team had just three touchdown plays that covered more than 20 yards, with the longest being a 30-yard run by graduating quarterback Mike Fritz.

On the other side of the ball, the Big Green had just three interceptions while finishing 92nd (of 116 teams) in turnover ratio.

Changing those woeful numbers is a point of emphasis this year.

"One of the thoughts we've had is to make the big play," coach Buddy Teevens said after the second practice session of the spring. "We haven't done that for two years. On the flip side, we are pushing takeaways. We've got to do a better job with that."

Judging by Tuesday's practice, it's so far, so good.

Continued on the Green Alert premium site

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Josh Cohen spirals a pass toward Corey Goff on the first day of spring practice.

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From the end of Monday night's Big Green Alert premium practice report:

Click on the results page for the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon & Family Fitness Weekend and you'll see a familiar name: Teevens. And you'll see it twice.

That's because Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens and daughter Lindsay, a junior at the University of Florida, both ran in the event.

"Being in the the coaching profession I haven't spent a lot of time with my family over the years," Teevens said. "My daughter got into running a little bit and seven or eight months ago she said she wanted to run a marathon.

"I said, 'Great but you know my time-frame. I'm not available a lot so try to find one that works.' She came back with St. Louis. It was the day before spring practice started. ... So we registered and flew out on Friday. We spent Saturday getting the lay of the land, ran on Sunday and I flew back last night."

Buddy Teevens, who has run the Boston Marathon, ran side-by-side with his daughter, with both crossing the line in 4:02.58.

"It was her day," he said. "It was fun just to go out and do it with her. I was very proud of her. She did a great job. At 17 or 18 miles she got a little sideways and she just kind of muscled through.

"I'd been doing a whole bunch of running so to just go out and run for four hours was great, but this was about her."

Maybe that bike ride won't be so tough after all ;-) ...

Speaking of Teevens' May bicycle ride from San Diego to New Hampshire, I hope to have a more detailed look at his route within several days. If you happen to be along that route and want to ride along or offer help, send an email to buddybikes@gmail.com and it will be forwarded to him. And remember, daily (or as close to daily as Teevens can make them) updates will appear right here on the Green Alert blog once the ride begins.

Anyone who thinks the Ivy League's position on the playoffs doesn't have an impact on recruiting ought to check out this "exit interview" with former USC tight end Nick Vanderboom. From the WeAreSC feature:

You had the opportunity to go to Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale. What made you choose USC over those schools?

"Football was definitely part of it. It’s still competitive at those schools, but there are no playoffs. It’s you and the Ivy League, and that’s it. I thought I could compete at this level. Also, USC has a good undergraduate business school, which is what I wanted to do."

Thanks to a subscriber for sharing this: If you don't think football is taken seriously in parts of this country, check out this appeal in an Oklahoma case about the right of Christian schools to play football against public schools. Here's how it starts: "The plaintiff's name may suggest this case is about religion, and in a sense that is true. It is about Oklahoma high school football."

The Dartmouth ski team isn't the only squad on campus to win a national championship this year. The figuring skating club claimed its fourth national title in a row over the weekend at Thompson Arena. Hmm. Skiing and skating. Do I sense a theme? As I look out my window this morning at the gently falling snow, I think I do.

No word yet on whether there will be practice today. I doubt it's snowing in the valley so while a session isn't slated, to steal a phrase from World War I, maybe they will decide they should, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

By the way, I saw probably three dozen trees blown down on my drive to campus yesterday and a different drive back home. The only good that came of the storm is it washed away most of the snow in the valley (although not up here). With a few days of sun and some gentle wind the ballfields may be playable. I can think of two Hanover schoolkids and a lot of area high school athletic directors who will be relieved if that happens.

April 16--First Spring Practice Report

HANOVER -- On the first day of Dartmouth's spring football practice it was cold, wet and windy on Memorial Field -- but it sure beat the alternative.

A year ago, before FieldTurf was installed on Memorial Field, the Big Green would have had no choice but to practice on the hard and cramped Leverone Fieldhouse AstroTurf -- if the schedule-makers could even shoehorn the team in, which would have been no sure thing. That being the case, coach Buddy Teevens wasn't about to complain about the less-than-ideal weather on Memorial Field.

"Without this field we wouldn't be able to practice," Teevens said. "Really, it's been a godsend for more than just us. Every field sport has used this thing this spring. So it has saved everybody."

Everybody except the baseball team, which hasn't yet played a home game, but that's a story for another day. The story Monday was the first of the 12 days of spring practice permitted by the Ivy League, a day that ended with a chilled Teevens being warmed by what he saw.

"I thought there was a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm and pretty good recall," he said. "I was impressed. Guys were flying around. They thought we were scrimmaging, I believe. They kept bumping into each other and wrapping each other up."

Teevens got similar reports from his assistants. "I felt greater enthusiasm in what the guys saw," he said. "It was just a very encouraging first day out, to see guys flying around."

To read the full report, visit Big Green Alert premium.

Game On. Oops. Practice On

Just got off the phone with the football office. Practice is on! The guys will be on the field -- as long as it's still there -- at 4:45. There will be a blurb here and a full practice report on the premium Green Alert site tonight.

The word is that there's almost no snow down in the valley. Lots of trees down, but no snow. Our yard, meanwhile, looks like a debris field with pine bows, branches, twigs and all sorts of blow-down material littering the snow. We're about 1,200 feet above Hanover and that makes all the difference.

A Nor'easter By Any Other Name

All-Ivy safety Ian Wilson runs with the ball against Harvard in the Ivy League Tournament. Dartmouth lost to the Crimson in overtime in the finals. (Anthony Gargiulo photograph)

Today is slated to be the first day of spring practice and the weather couldn't be much worse. The wind has been absolutely howling since yesterday afternoon, enough so that we have an enormous tree down in our backyard. No traffic has come down our dirt road (not that we get much anyway) but it has me thinking the road might be blocked by blowdowns. If so, we would likely be one of the last places in Hanover that the public works people get to because there just aren't many of us out here on the side of Moose Mountain. We got about eight more inches of snow up here although I suspect they got less down in the valley. It's half rain, half snow right now.

I just talked to the Dartmouth football office and they didn't have any word yet on whether today's first session of spring ball will take place. If it does, and if I can get off the mountain, check back tonight for a story.

Penn had its spring game yesterday, taking the (wet) wraps off its new no-huddle offense. Check out what the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Penn sports information office had to say. Here's what coach Al Bagnoli said: "If we have to play any games in the rain this year we’ll be all set." No kidding.

For a sense of how spring ball is going at Week 2 opponent UNH, check out the Manchester Union Leader story here.

Brown sports information has a brief note about prodigal son James Perry returning as quarterbacks coach while Cornell sports info reports about three new assistants in Ithaca.

Jay Fiedler's name has come up in Cleveland, but not in a good way. Check out this story. Here's an excerpt: "...(H)elp almost has to come from the draft because to sign any of the free agent quarterbacks is to go garbage picking in a heap that includes Aaron Brooks, Jay Fiedler, Tim Rattay, Anthony Wright, Rob Johnson and Rohan Davey." A sentence like that is yet another reminder of why I chose to stay at a small-town paper covering Ivy League football for as long as I did.

In a story about the hiring of Tommy Amaker as Harvard's new basketball coach, the Crimsonquotes Athletic Director Robert Scalise: “One of the people who was mentioned was Tommy Amaker. I told the team, ‘If you would like me to, I would be happy to call Tommy.' " Maybe if the team knew it would be that easy they would have mentioned Coach K's name instead.

(Yikes: As I was typing the wind just now the blew so hard for about 20 seconds that I could feel our entire house shake. Holy #$&@! I saw a handful of shingles fly by. We just had an estimate for replacing the roof and I'm hoping it didn't come in too high :-( Oh man. There's another explosion of wind. I think I'm going to head downstairs in case a tree comes down onto the house. This is a little scary.)

Someone found the blog and Googled it this way. Go ahead. Click that link and check out what comes up. The Internet really is amazing.

Finally, thanks to Anthony Gargiulo for sharing the terrific photo at the top of today's blog. Anthony sent along some others he shot as well and I'll toss one or two more up on the blog in days to come.

Success After Football

Someone stumbled across the blog in the past couple of days by Googling the name Nick Mourlas. I recognized his name immediately and Googled him myself to see why it might be that someone had been searching out information on this former defensive lineman. Turns out, Nick is yet another former Big Green football player who has shown that you really can combine hard work on the Dartmouth football field with tremendous accomplishment in school and thereafter. Check out this dated bio on the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program web page:

Nick Mourlas graduated with high honors in 1992 with a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College, and in 1996 he received an MS in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He ... completed a PhD in EE at Stanford, which focused on microfluidic couplers, sensors and dynamic chemical processing, he has a patent pending for fluidic channel processing and has also disclosed an invention for fluidic coupling ... to Stanford's technology licensing office (OTL). Mourlas plans to pursue an MD degree

Mourlas, who had 30 tackles as a 5-11, 225 senior nose guard for the Big Green in 1991, co-founded Acumen Medical and has been an Industry Mentor for Stanford's Biodesign Program since 2003. ...

Enrique Salem's '87 Dartmouth football career was more brief and less distinguished, but he hasn't done badly for himself either, serving as Group President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Symantec. Check out this recent New York Times piece he co-wrote. He is the former president & CEO of Brightmail, Inc. ...

I had a chance to watch Dartmouth take on the top-ranked Cornell men's lacrosse team yesterday in Hanover and while Cornell was having its way, 17-3, I was keeping a close eye on a solid-looking junior midfielder for the Big Green. Chad Gaudet, the promising tailback who has missed two years of football after a freak knee injury, is playing lacrosse for the first time since high school and considering a return to football next fall. I can't attest to how his knee is feeling and if there is any pain, but I saw all I needed to see in one series. The player he was defending made a couple of quick juke steps left and right and, like a defensive back, Gaudet mirrored each one. Whether his knee can stand up to the rigors of football or whether he'll even play is to be determined, but from what he showed yesterday he appears to have regained the agility he would need to play.

Defending champion Princeton has named its co-captains for the 2007 season according to this release.

In case you missed it the first time around -- and I must admit I did -- the end of the Ithaca Journal article about Cornell spring football mentioned that the AstroTurf at Schoellkopf Field is slated to be replaced by FieldTurf within the next year to year-and-a-half (listen and you can hear the cheering). The story also mentions that Cornell is looking at a bubble for offseason use of Schoellkopf. The facility arms race continues.

Top off your Sunday by reading this inspiring -- if perhaps apocryphal -- story about onetime Columbia coach Lou Little and a "teddy bear" defensive tackle at Georgetown as recounted on the Roar Lions Roar blog. This one would make a fabulous pregame speech.

If you are getting a little tired of these snow updates rest assured, so am I. It's coming down pretty good right now and the forecast is for anywhere from 8-12 inches of the stuff before it stops tomorrow morning. Hopefully this time the weather wonks got it wrong. If they didn't, the plow will be out on Memorial Field again tomorrow in anticipation of Monday's start of, ahem, spring football.

More On Gargiulo

Former defensive end standout Anthony Gargiulo '06 is wisely hedging his bet. Although he's hoping the Montreal Alouettes will eventually budge from their offer of a two-year contract and give him a one year deal with an option for the second (see Big Green Alert premium story) he's not standing pat. He now has a workout scheduled in a couple of weeks with the CFL's Calgary Stampeders. Of note: Calgary has just two defensive ends listed on its roster.

Speaking of the 6-foot-3, 254-pound Gargiulo, check out what this web site has to say about him:

Despite adding over 10% to his weight, his measurables and quickness are still unreal. I personally witnessed him running a 3-cone at 6.48 seconds, which is scary quick.

and this ...

I liken him to a Javon (sic) Kearse type player who can put his hand down or stand up and play like a linebacker in coverage, able to run with TEs or RBs stride for stride. Another current player comparison – again, this is potential – would be Jason Taylor. Yes, Garguilo has that kind of athleticism.

Some of the numbers quoted on the site: 4.58 in the 40; 37.5 vertical; 30 reps at 225 pounds; 10-foot standing broad jump; 3.96 short shuttle and as fast as 6.42 in the three-cone.

Two things of note about Anthony:

• For someone who has been out of school for a year he's young. He began school early. If he'd started when other kids born in late October started, he would be just graduating this spring. And if he'd gone to a scholarship school, he'd likely have redshirted and would be playing his redshirt college season in the coming fall.
• A former Dartmouth coach told me about a circle drill he used to have the players run. He said in all the years he'd been coaching, he'd never seen what happened when Anthony's feet started moving. The coach told me the grass turf actually ripped as me made his cuts around the circle. The coach said he couldn't believe what he was seeing but that's how quick Anthony cut and it happened all the time.
  

Green Alert Take: Hyperbole (and misspelling) aside, Gargiulo is an intriguing prospect. While any of the numbers might be off a tick (including his weight), the overall picture they paint is hard to ignore. He was a dominant force in the Ivy League who was considered a potential draft pick a year ago. The knock on him is that he's probably not big enough to be an NFL defensive end and doesn't have experience at outside linebacker. He's been working hard at getting his shot since the summer and the feeling here is that if someone takes a chance on him they won't be disappointed.

From today's story in the New York Post about the New York Giants looking at quarterback Anthony Wright as a possible veteran backup to Eli Manning: "Wright, 31, is arguably the last proven quarterback remaining on the market." I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when Jay Fiedler saw that comment.

Cornell coach Jim Knowles after the first day of spring ball as quoted in the Ithaca Journal: "... (W)e have to grow that passing attack. Going on 12-13 play drives is great, but it is so easy to make a mistake. You need to have some quick strikes.”

And finally, a clarification. Harvard Sports Information Director Chuck Sullivan is one of the good ones in the business, not afraid to answer the hard question when called upon. Unfortunately, Chuck's comment about Tommy Amaker's salary and how it would be received among his new Harvard coaching colleagues this week was misunderstood by the school paper. What Sullivan was trying to convey, he shared with me in an email, was was why the school doesn't "disclose salary numbers for any coach. It wasn't given as an explanation of Amaker's contract, primarily because I know exactly one detail of his deal -- that it is a multi-year contract."

Sorry, one more thing. The weather forecast is calling for 3-5 MORE inches of snow tomorrow. ARGH!!!

Gargiulo Weighing Offer North Of Border

D-End Has Successful Tryout With CFL Team

HANOVER -- O Canada.

There are no guarantees -- in pro sports there rarely if ever are -- but when the Montreal Alouettes visit the Toronto Argonauts in an exhibition game on June 9 there could be former Dartmouth teammates on opposite sidelines.

It was back on February 8 that defensive tackle Derham Cato '05 signed with the Argonauts.

Now, thanks to a late-February tryout in Albany, N.Y., two-time, All-Ivy League defensive end Anthony Gargiulo '06 is weighing an offer from the Alouettes. He expects to make a decision regarding the Canadian Football League team within the next 10 days or so.

To read the full story, visit the premium Green Alert site.

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NOTE: Spring football coverage will begin Monday, pending the start of spring ball. A brief synopsis will appear here after most practices but the full stories will be available only on the premium site. Because subscriptions won't open until late July/early August, non-subscribers who would like to have access to the site during the spring should email me via the link at the right.

James Jones Lands At Kentucky State

James Jones, a Dartmouth assistant two years ago under Buddy Teevens, is joining the staff at Kentucky State after one year at Kansas State according to this note in the Capital-Journal. Jones will coach the defensive line for the Division II Thorobreds in Frankfort. ...

The NCAA is rolling back several of the rules that shortened college football games last fall. From a story on ESPN.com:

On Thursday, the rules oversight panel approved two major timing changes that would revert the rules to what they were in 2005 -- stopping the clock on possession changes and not starting it on kickoffs until the receiving team touches the ball.

Cornell has brought cycling's yellow jersey to the football field. Read about it in the Sun.

Yale is posting the audio play-by-play of last November's win over Harvard in The Game on iTunes for a free download. According to the Yale Daily, the school is looking at more ways to marry podcasting with athletics.

College Sporting News has a nice story about former quarterback Jim Gregory -- "Grambling's White Tiger" -- returning to Louisiana to mourn former coach Eddie Robinson. It's a particularly timely story given the anniversary of Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. Eddie Robinson, like Jackie Robinson, was a pioneer, deciding to bring in the first white player ever to play at one of the historically black colleges. From the story:

In the late 1960s, Robinson had decided he was ready to integrate Grambling at a time when most mainstream, southern universities had never fielded a black player on any of their rosters.

It's not about football, but this New York Times story about a switch-throwing pitcher at Creighton University is too good to miss. Harvard had a switch-throwing pitcher several years ago as well.

Still on baseball, this weekend's Dartmouth doubleheaders against Brown have been moved to Providence thanks in no small part to 6-8 inches of snow in these parts yesterday. That means the entire home Ivy League slate this "spring" will consist of a doubleheader against Harvard on April 28. Add it up and Dartmouth will play two out of its 20 Ivy League games on Red Rolfe Field. If Tuesday's game against Vermont can't be played -- and the snow on the field combined with a dicey forecast makes it highly unlikely -- the first 32 games of the season will be played somewhere other than on Red Rolfe.

If the UVM game is postponed and not made up, Dartmouth's home season will consist of three games: The Harvard twinbill and a subsequent single game with Hartford.

Barring a change, spring football is slated to start Monday at 5 p.m., on Memorial Field. Here are the "highlights" of the upcoming forecast:

Sunday: Rain and snow showers
Monday: Snow and wind
Tuesday: Rain and snow showers
Wednesday: Few showers
Thursday: Few showers
Friday: Showers

Bring your umbrella!

2007 Big Green Outlook Up

The 2007 Big Green football outlook has been posted on the Dartmouth football website. One of the more interesting bits in the story is how they might be handling the running back slots, "almost morphing the tailback and fullback positions." ... There's a lot of interesting stuff here, but little or no mention of the freshmen because the college can't officially comment on the regular-decision recruits and it wouldn't be wise to talk about some of the class (early decision) and not about others.

One place the freshmen could come into play is at the quarterback position where the returnees (including 2005 starter Josh Cohen) will be joined by a pair of well-regarded recruits: 6-5 Will Deevy of Colorado's Kent Denver School and 6-1 Tim McManus of St. Thomas Academy in Minnesota. A friend of the family let me get a peek at video of Deevy and while highlight films are always tricky to parse, he's clearly a talented quarterback (and a pretty good basketball player as well). I haven't seen McManus, but someone I spoke to in Minnesota who knows Dartmouth football and has seen him play on a number of occasions raves about his ability to make things happen with his legs and his arm. Expect both to jump into a wide-open quarterback derby with two feet.

Cornell coach Jim Knowles is the A in a Q&A about the Big Red centered around spring ball. Find it here.

Former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker made it official yesterday, confirming he will be the next head basketball coach at Harvard. The Boston Globe, the Harvard Crimson and the Daily Pennsylvanian all have stories. Green Alert Take: No doubt, Harvard basketball and Ivy League basketball get a real PR bump out of the hiring. But I agree with those who say the Ivy League is a coach's league and Amaker will have to prove he can match up, which is no slam dunk. Ultimately, of course, it will come down to whether he can recruit and whether Harvard is willing to give him the help he needs. ... One thing is for certain: Harvard has at least given the appearance that it wants to win in a program that has been to the NCAA's just one time, in 1946. Check out what the Harvard SID told the Crimson newspaper regarding Amaker's contract:

"You'd have 31 head coaches running in for raises if numbers were disclosed."

For the record, the Boston Globe said it is believed to be a multi-year contract at $225,000 a year.

ESPN.com has a wonderful piece about San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young -- the former Princeton baseball/basketball standout -- writing his senior thesis largely on Jackie Robinson. Young's thesis was titled, "The Integration of Professional Baseball and Racial Attitudes in America: A Study in Sterotype Change." Young tracked the correlation between Robinson and how race was portrayed in the New York Times over periods of time. I found his topic particularly interesting because I wrote my journalism Masters on Muhammad Ali, race and the Vietnam War, similarly using a handful of newspapers to track how perceptions of Ali changed as acceptance of the war changed.

William F. Buckley has written a column headlined, The High Cost of Loving Dartmouth centered around the trustee race and candidates Sandy Alderson and Stephen Smith.

That heavy snow forecast for this area started to fall at 7 a.m., and up here on the mountain it is coming down as hard as any snow we've had all year. The basketball hoop is still out in the driveway so the plow will have to work around it. It was a lot easier to move the pitchback back into the garage. The weather folks are now saying eight inches or more are expected. A month ago, a certain Hanover High freshman and her 7th grade brother would be dancing at the prospect of a storm like this but now that the bats and balls are out of winter storage, they are disappointed. The freshman, by the way, was elected to the high school council as well as to class committee on Monday, so kudos to her.

Heavy Snow Headed This Way

I just checked the weather forecast and thought it worth sharing. The italics are mine:

Tomorrow: Periods of snow and gusty winds. Some sleet may mix in. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds ESE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulating 10 to 15 inches.

Tomorrow night: Cloudy with rain and snow in the evening, light snow late. Low 29F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 70%.

A few years ago Dartmouth baseball didn't play on Red Rolfe Field until its final regularly scheduled home game of the season. (To the credit of coach Bob Whalen and his squad, Dartmouth won the Red Rolfe Division that, uh, spring.)

Even before this impending storm the schedule was in disarray. A home doubleheader against Siena was canceled a week ago today. Last week's "home" doubleheaders against Cornell and Princeton were played at Princeton. The odds against this weekends doubleheaders against Brown being played at home are astronomical.

And should the predicted snows come, Tuesday's home game against Vermont would be in serious jeopardy, meaning there's a very good chance that the entire home schedule would consist of an April 28 doubleheader against Harvard and a May 1 game against Hartford.

As a baseball fan, I'm hugely disappointed. I can only imagine how tough it is on the team. That FieldTurf for Red Rolfe can't arrive soon enough. ...

And don't get me started about my Little League schedule ;-(

Windows Over Memorial Field

Windows are installed on the front of Floren Varsity House Tuesday. (Click photos to supersize)

A closer look at the installation.

Next door, meanwhile, the Dartmouth baseball team works snow off of the infield tarp. Today is supposed to be 45 degrees and sunny but anywhere from 2-10 inches of snow may fall overnight and tomorrow.

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Gary Emanuel, a Dartmouth assistant under Buddy Teevens the first time around, has joined the coaching staff at San Jose State after serving as the San Francisco 49ers defensive line coach the past two years.

Jay Fiedler is listed in a group of nine quarterbacks in Scout.com's "Best Available Free Agents - Offense." ... Although Fiedler recently worked out for the Atlanta Falcons, the team signed Joey Harrington. He's rumored to be in line for a look by the New York Giants, but the team is expected to be talking with former Dallas Cowboy Anthony Wright as well according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Missed this the first time but in the final round of cuts the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe waived former Princeton secondary star Jay McCareins. ... Check out the Roar Lions Roar blog for "The Freshman" & the "Old Alum" Talk Spring Practice!

There's been no formal announcement out of Harvard yet -- perhaps today -- but the Crimson is expected to hire former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker to lead its basketball program. Amaker's interview energized the players according to this quote from guard Andrew Pusar in today's Harvard Crimson:

"When he was in that room, he got everyone motivated right away. Numerous people said if he was the coach, they would want to step out on the court and play for him from day one. I’m psyched about it, I know the team is psyched about it.”

And finally this -- Columbia is in line to receive a $400 million gift from "media mogul" John Kluge, a 1937 graduate who already gave the school $110 million between 1987 and 1993 according to a Wikipedia bio that lists his net worth at $11 billion. The headline from today's Columbia Spectator:

Kluge To Donate $400 Million
Alum's Donation Is Largest in University's History, Will Be Dedicated to Financial Aid

According to the Associated Press, the gift will be one of the largest ever made to American higher education. ... For frame of reference, Henry and Betty Rowan gave $100 million to Glassboro State College in 1992 and they named the school after them! It's now Rowan University. Perhaps the least Columbia could do is rename the athletic teams the Columbia Klugers. It's got a ring to it, don't you think?