Homecoming

Lots of stories in the Homecoming Edition of The Dartmouth but unless I missed it, there's no nuts-and-bolts football preview. The closest I could find is a story headlined, Big Green Football: A Hard Hitting Tradition, that concludes with this quote from head coach Buddy Teevens:

“The guys, they’re working so hard to develop a good program. Though there may be a little more pressure because there are more people (attending for Homecoming), the guys try hard and work hard, so now is the time to play smart and play with a great deal of pride.”

There's a story about rushing the field, which is referred to as a "tradition," although I steadfastly refuse to accept anything that started after I began covering Dartmouth football to be a tradition. ;-) ... There's also a piece about the mysterious disappearance of Keggy the Keg.

Getting back to football, the Worcester Telegram has a story about Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph that touches on his pro potential. From the story:

Georgetown coach Kevin Kelly, a former Marshall assistant, compared Randolph to Chad Pennington. Gilmore, who spent eight seasons on the staff at Dartmouth, said Randolph reminds him a lot of former Big Green QB Jay Fiedler, who played 10 seasons in the NFL, most notably with the Dolphins (2000-04).

The Harvard Crimson and Daily Pennsylvanian remain the only school papers that do an Ivy League preview each week. The Crimson usually has a bit of a poison pen and that's the case again this week while predicting a 28-10 Holy Cross win. From the column:

Somebody needs to remind Dartmouth that there is no draft in college football and tanking every game will not result in a No. 1 pick stud prospect that will ride into Hanover on a white horse and save a pitiful program. The Big Green has lost each of its four games by at least 13 points and, even if there were such a thing, a 34-7 loss last week to Yale would not count as a moral victory. At least Columbia looks like it’s trying.

The Daily Pennsylvanian writes:

It's Dartmouth's homecoming weekend, but other than that, not much looks good for the Ivy League's smallest school.

Two dramatic stories are well worth taking time out of your day to read. First, the Los Angeles Daily News has a lengthy piece about former Harvard wide receiver Corey Mazza – who wrote those entertaining stories last summer about playing pro football in Italy – joining the Marines. It begins this way:

Corey Mazza wants you to understand something, and he wants to make it clear and he wants to leave no doubt:

He is nothing special.

If he could tell it to each of you, break down his decision to forgo a professional football career, forget a burgeoning modeling and acting career, ignore a budding financial career after a Harvard education, he would.

He would love to pull you aside and explain why his decision to abandon the dozens of opportunities at his fingertips to enlist in the U.S. Marines is nothing extraordinary.

And Sports Illustrated has a story about the Division II football player who had the last two joints of his pinky amputated so he could finish out his senior season. After reading a blurb about what 280-pound guard Trevor Wikre had done and catching part of a brief TV report about it I shuddered at what he did. Agree or disagree with his choice, the SI story will at least help you understand why he made the choice that he did.

From the story:

Dismiss football as "just sports" if you like, but try asking former college athletes -- any level, not just Division I -- about their playing days and see if they don't admit to treasuring the memories more each year, carefully lifting them from some internal drawer to be revisited as waistlines expand, knees stiffen and life presses on. It is a rare thing for a 21-year-old to understand, in the surge of the moment, how indelible the games of his youth will eventually be.