Following Up On Harvard Loss

The Daily Dartmouth follow on the Big Green's loss to Harvard has quotes from one of the surprise playerss of the weekend, lacrosse standout-turned-wide receiver Jimmy Mullen. The speedy senior, playing football for the first time in college, had a huge game Friday for the jayvees and then caught his first three varsity passes on Saturday.

Kudos to the Harvard Crimson for a cute – if painful – headline on one of its three stories: It's Easy Beating Green. ... Another story in the Crimson notes the physical nature of Saturday's game:

Harvard coach Tim Murphy may be a lifelong friend of Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, but on game day their teams don’t hold back. Though the Crimson’s 35-7 drubbing of the Big Green came as little surprise, the physicality of Saturday’s game was palpable.

In a sidebar, the Harvard paper reminds us that even when Dartmouth finally started moving the ball, there an asterisk might be useful: "...(A)s the game got farther and farther out of reach, Murphy dug deeper into his lineup to give the third- and fourth-string guys a shot." ...

Next on tap for Dartmouth: Cornell, which put up a tough fight against Princeton Saturday only to drop to 3-4 with a 31-26 loss in Ithaca. The Ithaca Journal writes about a controversial call after Cornell recovered an onside kick at the end and quarterback Nathan Ford tried a little trickeration:

With no timeouts, Ford took the snap on the next play and faked a clock-stopping spike before looking downfield for a receiver. But referee Tony Marcella blew the play dead and threw a flag for an illegal spike, costing the Big Red five yards and two seconds.

According to Cornell coach Jim Knowles, while there is a penalty for faking a "kneel down," there is no penalty in the book for a fake spike.

Knowles, by the way, shares a similar playbook with Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens when it comes to metaphors. Teevens talks about his team hammering, hammering, hammering at a rock to eventually crack it. Here's the Knowles version, courtesy of the Journal:

“I feel bad for the players. I mean, our players played down to the last play. To have 555 yards of offense and 90 plays and still lose the game shows that you're doing a lot of things right, but you've got to just keep chopping wood.”

So it will be rock vs. wood Saturday in the Finger Lakes. Sounds interesting, but apparently not to everyone. In his weekly conversation-starter about upcoming games in the Ivy League a regular weekly poster on the AnyGivenSaturday.com forum writes:

DUD OF THE WEEK: Dartmouth at Cornell. Really the only game without any realistic title implications. Besides, any game that features woeful Dartmouth has to be a dud.

Ouch No. 1 of the week.

The Cornell Sun has a game story on the Big Red's "comeback bid," and a sidebar on Cornell's struggles/Princeton's success in the red zone. ...

The Sagarin rankings are out and they look like this:
104 New Hampshire
129 Harvard
143 Brown
151 Colgate
155 Holy Cross
170 Pennsylvania
178 Princeton
179 Yale
192 Cornell
217 Columbia
226 Dartmouth

Sagarin has Cornell's strength rating at 43.29 and Dartmouth and 29.17. Giving the Big Red the three points Sagarin assigns a home team, he would have Cornell favored by 17 points Saturday. Curious how the Sagarin numbers have held up? Going back to UNH (I didn't pay Sagarin any attention for the Colgate game because Dartmouth hadn't played) here's how Sagarin's "predictions" fared:

Sagarin: UNH by 18
Result: UNH by 36

Sagarin: Penn by 12
Result: Penn by 13

Sagarin: Yale by 11
Result: Yale by 27

Sagarin: Holy Cross by 14
Result: Holy Cross by 18

Sagarin: Columbia by 5
Result: Columbia by 8

Sagarin: Harvard by 22
Result: Harvard by 28

And once again ...
Sagarin: Cornell by 17
Result: TBD

The Quincy Patriot Ledger has a story that lists Dartmouth among the schools in the running for Milton Academy tailback Josh Scott. From the story:

Scott will most likely play at an Ivy League school next fall, either Princeton or Dartmouth. He said he is also interested in Colgate or Holy Cross.

“I haven’t narrowed it down that much,” he said. “I’m sure that list will be a lot smaller in the next few weeks.”

Scott, who lives five minutes from Boston College, has also been recruited by the Eagles but said hasn’t gotten an offer yet.

Scott, who played through pneumonia early in the season, has 1,572 yards on 178 carries (8.8 yards per carry) with 19 touchdowns this fall. ... Recruiting sites, as they often are, are all over the map on Scott but Rivals has him at 6-1, 197 with a 4.55 time in the 40. ... ESPN's recruiting tracker lists him at 6-2, 190.

In the spirit of the season, the Palm Beach Post canvassed the Miami Dolphins about the election and political leanings. A couple of notes that will surprise nobody who knows former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer:

An informal poll in the Dolphins' locker room points to Cramer, from Dartmouth, as a player teammates envision going into politics someday.

and ...

"Would I love to be in office?" Cramer said. "I would love it. Would I love to have to do the things to get into office? No."

Remember that note yesterday about the seats going up at the new Dartmouth baseball facility as early as today? With the project scrabbling to get back on schedule and having required work done before the snow falls, crews were out yesterday putting the platform on the grandstands. It's astonishing how far the facility has come in the past week. ... They were also cutting in pans around the inside of each of the bases and insetting dirt-colored turf to replicate a traditional infield. (More photos tomorrow if I can hit a couple of deadlines and get into town before it gets dark.)

And finally, that certain Hanover High freshman is taking part in a "jayvee jamboree" today down near Nashua, about 90 minutes away. Because of injuries and a lack of numbers, the jayvees have had two games cancelled this fall. It's a long season to play just 3-4 times, so the jamboree (featuring six teams playing mini-games similar to overtime sessions) is a good idea. Unfortunately for the freshmen who have had little opportunity to play anywhere this fall, a number of younger varsity players are coming down to bulk up the roster. Wish I could be there but deadlines loom.

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Filed from a parked car in front of the Etna Town Library by one angry blogger who had to do two hours of intense Internet research this morning before a very important business call. Argh!