Ouch ... Again

The folks out in Washington can't get enough of Dartmouth, apparently. Or maybe they can. Following up on yesterday's note in the Seattle Times (Monday's blog), there's this in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Fact: Versus showed the whole nation Dartmouth vs. Columbia last weekend. Live! Hasn't our nation suffered enough?

OK, given that the game pitted two winless teams against each other it's not a bad line. But that doesn't make it nice.

A year ago Harvard's veteran secondary picked off four Dartmouth passes. With graduation claiming the two players who made those interceptions the secondary was a question area for the Crimson coming into the season. Six games in, the question has been largely answered. Harvard is third in the league with nine interceptions, with a freshman corner named Matt Hanson making three of them. Hanson is the subject of this Harvard Crimson story that quotes coach Tim Murphy saying of the freshman:

"The kids love him, he’s one of the top five most sincerely humble guys on the team. Schultzy, correct me if I’m wrong, but every time you see him you just want to hug him.”

Hanson's response:

“I don’t even know what to say to that, I guess I’m just cuddly.”

I can only imagine what the Duke basketball fans would do with quotes like that if Hanson were a hoopster visiting Cameron Indoor Stadium. ;-)

Dartmouth's game notes for Harvard have been posted here, and the official college release on the Harvard game have been posted here. The release includes this thought:

One encouraging item for Dartmouth is the fact that last year’s game in Cambridge, Mass., was decided by just seven points in a 28-21 loss to the Crimson. Harvard won the Ivy title last year with a perfect 7-0 record, and no other conference team played a closer game.

Remember that blog note last week about Bryant University in Rhode Island moving from Division II to FCS (I-AA football)? Anyone looking to break up a rugged early season schedule might want to give the Bulldogs' scheduling office a call – if they can get through. From a Masslive.com story about a 42-7 UMass win that wasn't remotely that close:

Quarterback Liam Coen tied his career-high in touchdowns with five in just a little over two quarters of playing time and UMass played 67 players in routing the Bulldogs 42-7 Saturday before 12,521 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

Coen led UMass (5-3) to a record-setting passing performance. The senior quarterback needed just 11 completions in 18 attempts for 389 yards and the five scores. Three others quarterbacks saw playing time as well and set the school's single-game passing record with 448 yards.

In case you were skimming, let me repeat: The UMass starter had 11 completions for 389 yards and five touchdowns in just over a half. That either tells me I don't want to play UMass or I want to find out when Bryant has an opening so I can schedule my Homecoming. Or both.

Roger A. Antaya Sr. '44, a three-year letterwinner at Dartmouth who later coached at Georgetown and Army, has died at age 87 in Maryland. Find a story here.

The text of Dartmouth President Jim Wright's final State of the College address and a podcast of his speech can be found here. From a Dartmouth release:

"Let us understand up front that the state of the College is good and strong," said President Wright during his final State of the College address to faculty on October 27. In this podcast, he touches on the highlights of his remarks and reminisces about his 40 years at Dartmouth.

And away from football, there's a move afoot at Brown to stop celebrating Columbus Day. From the Brown Daily Herald:

Observing Columbus Day, (Reiko Koyama '11) said in her presentation, is "in effect condoning the atrocities that (Columbus) was responsible for" and "at odds with Brown's reputation."

The students also proposed that the University designate a week in October as "Indigenous Week" for discussions, events and lectures about Native American history.

Discuss among yourselves.