Early Commit And A Walk-On

A couple of recruiting notes, more on Reggie Williams and a bizarre opponent note all on today's docket.

First, the recruiting. A high school senior-to-be has committed to Dartmouth. A Chicago Sun-Times publication has this note about 6-3, 205 linebacker Tom Patek, who has decided he's heading to Hanover in the fall of 2009. Talk about early decision ...

Coach Buddy Teevens has a newish walk-on headed this way according to this story. Derek Fish is a Connecticut high school graduate who hopes to do some placekicking for the Big Green. From the story:

In the fall, Derek will call Dartmouth College his home. He is thinking of majoring in psychology and hoping to do club wrestling as well as join the football team this upcoming fall.

“Going down the line of people I know, it was made possible for me to be able to talk to the Dartmouth football coach and I might be a place kicker for them in the fall,” says Derek. “To play on Division I, I would need to be at the peak of my mental abilities because it’s a competitive school like that.”

The Orlando Sentinel chimes in on Reggie Williams as his College Football Hall of Fame induction nears. Sentences like this one are pure recruiting gold:

Williams is so indebted to Dartmouth that he would have crawled the 700 miles to Indiana.

"Everything I learned helped me in taking on the challenges of life," he said.

Here's a head-scratcher from the story:

He had two scholarship offers -- Dartmouth and Albion College. One look at the idyllic campus in Hanover, N.H., and he knew he'd found a home. Well, he still needed one thing.

"Once I passed the etiquette class and got to know all my forks and knives, I felt a lot better," Williams said.

Um, must've been an academic scholarship. Like the fork and knife bit, though.

Here's a sad truth from the story:

Williams will probably be the last Ivy League All-American to make the Hall of Fame, since the Ivy League doesn't make many All-Americans anymore.

The story is right, unless it's in the "Divisional" class, which features FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA players.

In case you missed it – I did – Colgate tailback Jordan Scott and wide receiver David Morgan are spending 21 days in jail this summer, but will miss just one game after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of second-degree criminal trespass in a Colgate dorm room. There's a short story in the Syracuse Post Standard. According to the story, the teammates "walked in and Scott began rifling through a drawer looking for money when the two women inside the room woke up and shouted, Scott told police." The pair also will be on probation for a year.

Anything you can do I can do better ... Yesterday we reported here that Colgate had eight players honored as preseason Patriot League all-stars by Phil Steele's football magazine. This morning brings a note on the Holy Cross site that there are 10 Crusaders honored by the same publication.