Spotlight On The Granite Bowl

When it comes to media attention, the Dartmouth-New Hampshire game – better make it the UNH-Dartmouth game – is the highlight of the year for the Big Green.

The Manchester Union Leader has a preview in which UNH coach Sean McDonnell advocates for the Granite Bowl game between his team and Dartmouth. From the story:

McDonnell calls the Dartmouth game one of his team's three rivalry games, putting it up there with Maine and Massachusetts.

The Dartmouth folks have been less enamored of the game and do not seem inclined to continue it on an annual basis after 2011, the last year in the current contract. This is the ninth straight year the teams have met. They had never met more than four years in a row before that and usually games were scheduled in two-year increments.

The Concord Monitor discusses the differences between the UNH spread offense and the version of the spread that Dartmouth unveiled last week. The story quotes Matt Parent, UNH linebacker:

"They probably haven't opened up half their playbook. There's probably a lot of stuff they have in store for us. We don't really know what they're going to do."

The Laconia Citizen has posted the Foster's Daily Democrat preview, which makes it clear UNH is banged up.

In the UNH school newspaper Wildcats' coach McDonnell has this to say about Dartmouth quarterback Alex Jenny:

"I am very impressed with Jenny. I think he is the most athletic and best all-around quarterback that they have had pulling the trigger since Buddy has been there. He's the best quarterback I have seen them had there."

The story in The New Hampshire also includes this fact that slipped under a lot of radar:

Twice so far this season opposing quarterbacks have thrown for their career-high in passing yards against UNH. First was URI quarterback Derek Cassidy who threw for 436 yards against the Wildcats on Sept. 13. And last week Albany quarterback Vinny Esposito recorded 283 passing yards.

College Sporting News has a lengthy column on the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), the league in which UNH plays. Scroll down and there's a discussion of just how good UNH might be (synopsis: hard to tell because of the level of opposition to date). Scroll down farther and there's this:

While the Wildcats are 3-0 they have struggled at times, but I think they just have too much firepower on offense for Dartmouth to handle.

Jake Novak of the Roar Lions Roar blog expects the Big Green and the weather to keep Saturday's game close, with tailback Milan Williams getting a lot of work because of the weather.

A couple of Ivy League papers have weekend picks posted. The Harvard Crimson thinks it will be UNH 41, Dartmouth 24. ... The Daily Pennsylvanian usually livens up its picks and has this to say:

Between 1901 and 1972, the Big Green went 14-0 against UNH, winning by a combined score of 367-22.

But this isn't 1916. Given recent results - Dartmouth is 0-15-1 in their last 16 meetings - the Big Green will be lucky if they don't lose the game by 367-22.

The Daily Dartmouth? In advance of the first home football game of the season you have your choice. You can read about a field hockey game that took place Wednesday or about the polls for ice hockey season, which begins late next month.

Dartmouth's football notes have been posted on the sports publicity web site. Find a PDF of the notes here.

Check out the Colonial Athletic Association Game Day page.

For a little more on last week's loss to Colgate, check out that school's Maroon News.

The new clock rules in college football have been in effect for four weeks or so, and the sample is big enough to tell us this: Games have been shortened by an average of 14 minutes and eight plays. Read the USA Today story.

Bill Sjogren '67, who played right guard on the same Dartmouth line with Hank Paulson, will offer a few thoughts about his old teammate and the current secretary of the treasury today on the Fox Business Network. He's slated to be on in the 1:45-1:55 range according to FBN producer Jake Novak, he of the Columbia football blog.

And finally, it's Homecoming for Hanover High School where that certain freshman football player will be on the sidelines tonight in front of a large and probably soaked crowd. His sister will be there watching, but will be in the southern part of the state tomorrow morning running with the Hanover harriers (that's what we used to call them at the newspaper) in the Nike Elite division of the huge 2008 Manchester Invitational Cross Country Classic featuring teams from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont as well as New Hampshire.