First Notes Up

Greetings from Green Alert mobile, our 1984 VW camper van parked outside of the one-room public library here in downtown metropolitan Etna, pop. 814. (I'm not making that description up: check this Wikipedia entry)

That's right. You guessed it. No Internet up on the mountain once again today so I've cruised on down here, both to get you a posting as well as to make sure anyone who emailed a subscription last night gets up and going ASAP. With the season starting Saturday, service is my business ;-). Speaking of which, if you haven't yet signed up, what's the delay?

Game notes from Dartmouth and Colgate have not yet been posted, but it shouldn't be long. For now, the Ivy League has its introductory weekend report up here and a PDF compilation of its individual game notes here. ...

For a "hometown note" on Colgate's leading receiver, 6-foot-6 inch Pat Simonds, click here.

One of the most intriguing games of the opening weekend for Ivy League teams will pit Princeton against The Citadel in South Carolina. A story in the Post and Courier begins this way:

The Citadel has never played an Ivy League team in football. Princeton has never played a Southern Conference school in football.

So Princeton's visit to Johnson Hagood Stadium on Saturday to face the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs represents something of a clash of football cultures.

Kevin Higgins, head coach at The Citadel, knows something about Princeton having forged a 56-25-1 record as head coach at Lehigh from 1994-2000 and beating Princeton his final season, 20-18. Quipped Higgins in the story:

They will be well-coached, and they are probably going to do a lot more from a scheme standpoint than most of the teams in our league, in all three phases of the game. That's where their advantage is. When your average SAT score is 1,500, you can do a lot more things.

Added Higgins:

I would say they are a lot like us. I'd say they are similar to The Citadel, similar to Elon, similar to Western Carolina — teams in our league that are very competitive and are trying to make that step to the next level.

With the Ivy League almost always playing the same non-conference opponents – and not going to the playoffs – it will be interesting to see how one of the Ancient Eight stacks up to a team from outside of the region. It will be the second game Princeton has played against a non-traditional opponent in as many years and the Tigers have to hope this one turns out differently. Last fall they played host to Hampton and by most accounts never really recovered from a 48-27 loss.

Mark Johnson, the former Dartmouth quarterback, captain and major league baseball player has been inducted into the Holy Name High School Hall of Fame in Worcester, Mass. (link)