Odds And Ends

You guessed it. More internet woes on the mountain. Just in time for preseason. I'm on campus using Dartmouth's wireless. ...

Some interesting stuff this morning including an Ivy League preview in the New York Times blog. The lede, not surprisingly, is about Yale's Mike McLeod. Regarding Dartmouth, the piece says Buddy Teevens, "plans to use two quarterbacks: the junior Alex Jenny and the sophomore Tim McManus, who started at wide receiver last year."

I'm sure that's what is sounded like to the writer, but trust me, the plan heading into camp is not a platoon system at quarterback, so don't worry. Jenny and McManus will be battling for the job along with several others. But don't look for the QBs to alternate series.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an in-depth look at what it means to play football in the Ivy League. Here's a quote the story uses from Teevens, who returned to Dartmouth after a stint at Stanford:

"I have a better appreciation for it the second time around. When I was coming up the first time, I was focused on going to the next level. But after you go through it and come back, you really can't take this for granted, what this level of football is about. These kids work just as hard, but you have to find the right kids for your program, guys who fit in academically as well as athletically."

The story has a list of Ivy Leaguers currently in NFL camps and it misses at least one. Brown grad Paul Raymond caught the winning 24-yard TD pass for the New York Jets against the New York Giants this weekend. He gets a mention in this capsule. For more on Raymond check out this short Newark Star-Ledger profile. Of coming from the Ivy League, the speedster had this to say:

"I've felt it (the stigma) a little. I'm short and I come from the Ivy League. But once I did a couple of things on the field I starting feeling a lot more comfortable."

The Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., has a story about prominent Dartmouth grad Mike Slive, who once worked in the college athletic department. It starts this way:

Mike Slive has just completed a 15-year television contract with CBS, one that will give the Southeastern Conference tremendous exposure and increase its prestige as a premier athletic entity.

Some think that will be his legacy as commissioner of the SEC, which numbers some of the nation’s top athletic programs among its members.

Maybe, but Slive, a former Utica Free Academy football quarterback, is much prouder of having helped clean up the conference’s image while enhancing its competitive edge since he became the boss in 2002.

And finally, that certain Hanover High freshman-to-be had his first scrimmage yesterday. It was at Plymouth, a traditional New Hampshire powerhouse. He got in with the other freshmen at the end, playing fullback, and got one carry. He was stopped at the line, but got that first hit out of the way. At just 5 feet (on his tippy toes) he wasn't going to be confused with the 6-foot-5 freshman running back Plymouth had ;-)