5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...

One day left until the first practice of the 2008 season. Here's a look at the schedule for the first couple of weeks of practice:

Wednesday, August 27
3:45 Practice #1

Thursday, August 28
3:45 Practice #2

Friday, August 29
3:45 Practice #3

Saturday, August 30
3:45 Practice #4

Sunday, August 31
3:15 Practice #5

Monday, September 1
3:45 Practice #6

Tuesday, September 2
8:15 Practice #7
3:45 Practice #8

Wednesday, September 3
3:45 Practice #9

Thursday, September 4
8:15 Practice #10
3:45 Practice #11

Friday, September 5
3:45 Practice #12

Saturday, September 6
8:15 Practice #13
3:45 Practice #14

Monday, September 8
8:15 Practice #15
3:45 Practice #16

Tuesday, September 9
3:45 Practice #17

Wednesday, September 10
8:45 Practice #18
3:45 Practice #19

Thursday, September 11
3:45 Practice #20

Friday, September 12
1 Scrimmage at Harvard

Saturday, September 13
Colgate game week begins

While Dartmouth is just getting going, first-game opponent Colgate opens up the regular season this weekend against Stony Brook. The Colgate game notes have been posted here. As expected, tailback Jordan Scott is not on the depth chart for the opener. He is serving a one-game suspension for an on-campus incident that resulted in a 21-day jail sentence this summer.

Like Dartmouth and the rest of the Ivy League teams, Harvard still has 25 days until its first game, but a former Crimson quarterback won't have to wait that long. In fact, he may not only play, but be starting under center in the LSU opener according to this story.

We've linked a number of times over the past year to stories about North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson, whose father Harry Wilson '77, was a three-year letterwinner for Dartmouth. The latest story reports that the former Dartmouth player and proud dad suffered a stroke several weeks ago and will not be at his son's first start against South Carolina, which will be televised Thursday night on ESPN.

Dartmouth, Yale and Stanford were among the first schools to have a Baton Rouge quarterback on its radar. According to this story, Barrett Bailey, now ranked No. 23 in the country among dual-threat high school quarterbacks, is getting a lot more attention these days.

The sometimes hilarious, often outrageous Deadspin site has a piece about walking around wearing football jerseys. Dartmouth gets a mention it might not want in this column. From the link (and I plead guilty to sanitizing this outtake):

I have owned two football jerseys in my time. The first was an old Phil Simms jersey (my mom got it for me one year without realizing I was a Vikings fan). The second was a free jersey I got at Dartmouth football camp that said WEARERS OF THE GREEN across the chest and stomach, with no numbers on the back or front. The jersey itself was green, so the caption seems extraordinarily redundant in retrospect.

I wore both of these jerseys. I looked like a colossal #&!X#% in both of them, especially that idiotic Dartmouth one. Who puts a slogan on a jersey?

And finally, scrimmage No. 2 this evening for that certain Hanover High freshman to be. He's gearing up for it by, well, by playing golf this morning. School starts tomorrow for the two of 'em and, that annual Staples commercial aside (The most wonderful time, of the year ...) I feel badly for them. I don't think you ever really forget what that last day of summer felt like when you were a kid.