Cottrell Honored

Dartmouth senior Justin Cottrell has been chosen as an honorable-mention pick to the the Sports Network FCS All-America team. Cottrell led the Ivy League and was 18th nationally with 10.8 tackles per game last fall. He had five tackles for loss and led the Big Green with three interceptions.

Ivy Leaguers chosen to the Sports Network All-America team:

Second Team

• RB Mike McLeod Yale Junior
• CB Steve Williams Harvard Senior

Honorable Mention

• WR Buddy Farnham, Brown
• WR Paul Raymond, Brown
• WR Austin Knowlin, Columbia
• WR Corey Mazza, Harvard
• OT Andrew Brecher, Harvard
• OT James Williams, Harvard
• OG Jeff Monaco, Yale
• DT Brandt Hollander, Yale
• LB Justin Cottrell, Dartmouth
• LB: Bobby Abare, Yale
• S Chris Wynn, Penn

A few notes on the team. ... Cottrell was called James in the Sports Network posting, but we know who they meant ;-) ... While I'm sure Howard is a fine school, wide receiver Jarahn Williams got a nice resume boost when he was listed as being from Harvard instead of the university in Washington, D.C., where he actually starred. ... New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos made only the honorable-mention team. ... Chosen to the second team was UNH sophomore tight end Scott Sicko. With a name like that, you just know he'd be a first-team pick if he played linebacker. ... Among the Holy Cross choices was quarterback Dominic Randolph on the HM team. ... Colgate had three second-team picks: linebacker Mike Gallihugh, defensive tackle Pat Nolan and tailback Jordan Scott.

The Boston Globe has a piece on former Dartmouth offensive coordinator John Perry being named head coach at Merrimack.

That certain Hanover High sophomore and I went to Boston yesterday where we watched the Dartmouth men's basketball get pummeled by Harvard in the afternoon and watched the Big Green women's basketball team stun overwhelming Ivy League favorite Harvard in the early evening. While we were there, we ambled by the football stadium to check out the inflatable bubble over the field. (Harvard Crimson story on the bubble)

A history lesson: Shortly after graduating from college I was an occasional ringer on an intramural basketball team at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Games were played in an early bubble. I remember being amazed that bubbles could actually cover basketball courts the way they did.

Folks, what Harvard has is a completely different ballgame, literally and figuratively. There was youth soccer going on inside when we wandered in for a look. I thought I knew what to expect, given my background at The Hall, but I was shocked. The place was absolutely cavernous. It was bright, and comfortable and stretched from beyond one end zone to the other, the full width of the field. You could honestly play a football game inside the facility.

It was a really, really strange sensation because once you were in the bubble you lost all sense of place. You knew you were inside the stadium, but it just didn't compute.

It's no secret that Buddy Teevens longs for a bubble in Hanover. Driving by Memorial Field and watching the crews try to keep up with the snow you can understand why. To be sure, it was a dramatic improvement when FieldTurf went down at Memorial Field. But no matter how hard they work at clearing the field, it's still going to be cold and windy there most of the time. And it's going to be too dark to use by 4:45 this time of year. Meanwhile in Cambridge they can have unofficial and informal football workouts, baseball, softball and lacrosse practices, and even youth soccer scrimmages in comfortable surroundings at all hours.

Doubtful that the fine burghers of Hanover would look kindly on a bubble like Harvard's looming over the landscape at Memorial Field, but one might fit in nicely out of the public eye over the new FieldTurf at Scully-Fahey. That might require early season lacrosse games moved from Scully-Fahey to Memorial Field, but that's a tradeoff that would be worth considering.

And finally, if you are watching the NFL playoffs today and happen to tune in the Tennessee Titans game against the San Diego Chargers (4:30 p.m. on CBS) keep an eye out for former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer. He'll be wearing No. 48. While he's mostly been a special teams player, he could see time at fullback or tight end today because of injuries.