Signing Day Thoughts

Wednesday is national signing day and this morning brings a reminder that this new holiday for college football fans can be a two-edged sword for Ivy League schools. It's a day when a few promising kids fall through the cracks and decide to go Ivy, and it's a day when the occasional promising "oral commit" kid decides to go elsewhere. Will the latter happen to Dartmouth Wednesday? It could according to this note from Inside Carolina that says Jonathan Conner, a defensive back from Louisiana, may back off a commitment to Dartmouth and sign with North Carolina after being impressed on a visit to Chapel Hill.

With Coach Buddy Teevens' ties in Louisiana from being head coach at Tulane and directing the Manning Passing Academy, it made sense that Dartmouth would have a bit of a pipeline to Louisiana. That hasn't really happened but those connections certainly didn't hurt in recruiting Conner, a 6-1, 178 safety with 4.5 speed and a 36-inch vertical. Conner, from Dutchdown High School and Geismar, LA, was an All-District, All-Metro and Academic All-State pick and a selection to the Redstick Bowl after making 95 tackles, five interceptions, six fumble recoveries and three kick blocks this year. Check out his highlight video here.

Former Dartmouth wide receiver Brian Evans won the 60 meters (picture) at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic in 7.0, his fastest time of the season. Defensive back Muhammad Abdul Shakoor ran 7.26 to narrowly miss qualifying for the finals. Evans was second in the 200 in 22.71...

Speaking of Dartmouth winter sports teams, it was a tough weekend for both men's hockey and men's basketball. The young hockey team dropped to the bottom of the ECAC standings with a pair of losses while the men's basketball team traveled to Princeton and Penn with probably its best-ever chance to sweep the P's in an Ivy weekend (something it has never done) but instead was swept once again. For as much success as the women's basketball and hockey teams have had -- they enjoyed good weekends and are title contenders once again -- it can make for a long winter when the men's teams are struggling.

Speaking of winter, according to the Daily Dartmouth, work is lagging once again on the 20,000 Leagues Under The Snow sculpture for the Winter Carnival. The good news from the story: "Athletic teams are always eager to help ..." The bad news: At a school where they lament old traditions failing, this one clearly is on life support.

So, did you enjoy that Super Bowl? Great game, great storylines. For weeks our local paper has been running a regular headline in eye-popping type that said, "Pursuit of Perfection." I fully expected the headline today to say, "Imperfection." Instead it said, "One Giant Loss." ... Not that New York ran the ball terribly well, but New England's inability to run caught up to the Pats. It would have been a shock to see a Super Bowl champion with 45 rushing yards on the game.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore (warning: proud parent link) blew past two runners while making the last lap her fastest of the race to place second in the state in the 3000 meters yesterday at Leverone Field House. By taking 12 seconds off her previous best, she qualified for New Englands at the end of the month at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. She also ran the first leg on the 4x400 relay that placed fifth in the state. As for the 1500, when she pushed the button and nothing happened after using everything up in the 3000 (she would have been seventh at the Dartmouth Indoor Classic one day earlier) she ran the last three laps with an enormous smile on her face.