Ian Wilson Finally Gets His Due

Kudos to Dartmouth safety Ian Wilson for earning a berth on the All-New England football team. It's a well-deserved honor for the fifth-year senior, who averaged 9.3 tackles per game this fall while making two interceptions, breaking up four passes and being the rock that the young Big Green defense always looked to. The full All-New England team:

OFFENSE
QB Chris Pizzotti Harvard Sr.
QB Dominic Randolph Holy Cross Sr.
RB Tony Nelson Massachusetts Jr.
RB James Mallory Central Conn. Jr.
WR Bobby Sewall Brown Jr.
WR Mike Boyle New Hampshire Sr.
WR John Brock Holy Cross Sr.
WR Buddy Farnham Brown Jr.
TE Brian Mandeville Northeastern Sr.
OL Darius Dale Yale Sr.
OL Shane Kelley Brown Sr.
OL Ryan Canary Maine Sr.
OL James Williams Harvard Jr.
OL Josh Droesch New Hampshire Sr.

DEFENSE
DL Don Smith Bryant Jr.
DL Matt Curtis Harvard Sr.
DL Jovan Belcher Maine Sr.
DL David Howard Brown Sr.
LB Bobby Abare Yale Sr.
LB Eric Schultz Harvard Sr.
LB Phil Higgins Northeastern Sr.
LB Matt Parent New Hampshire Sr.
LB Matt Hansen Rhode Island So.
DB Ian Wilson Dartmouth Sr.
DB Andre Isla Sacred Heart Jr.
DB Andrew Berry Harvard Sr.
DB Courtney Robinson Massachusetts Sr.

An earlier Green Alert blog posting noted that quarterback, free safety and kicker Billy Ragone of Cheshire, Conn., had an interest in Dartmouth. An updated story in the Hartford Courant says, "his list of interested Ivy League schools is now at four, with Brown and Princeton joining Penn and Dartmouth." ... There's an ESPN evaluation of the 6-1, 187 Ragone here. ... Jake Novak at Roar Lions Roar has Ragone possibly slotted for Columbia or Penn.

Chuck Burton, who does such a fine job with the Lehigh Football Nation blog, is also a contributing columnist on The College Sporting News site. His current column is a fictional letter to Myles Brand explaining to the NCAA President why implementing an FCS-like playoff system would be a mistake for the FBS. It's Burton's way of highlighting how much better the playoff system is than the BCS. A couple of outtakes:

Eight worthy conferences get autobids, eight eligible at-large teams are chosen from the rest of the subdivision, and then the teams play fifteen games to determine a national champion, with fourteen played at home sites across the country.

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It’s a true championship; shown off in an easy-to-read bracket leading up to one national champion. When it’s all done, there’s one undisputed champion that’s earned the title through four of the best teams in football. Paper champions don’t happen in FCS.

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Sounds pretty simple, huh? Too bad the Ivy League presidents don't think so.

On his Lehigh Football Nation site, Burton wrote the other day about Colgate being crushed by Villanova in the playoffs. It's well worth reading the whole article. But if you are in a hurry, read these excerpts and then my addendum:

You almost want to send copies of the game to the Patriot League presidents just to show them what we're up against now.

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Anyone who is against football scholarships in any form for the Patriot League - those that are saying that scholarships are fine for all other sports, but ought not to be used in football since football is what's going to be the tipping point to make Patriot League schools renegade outfits - ought to have to have Richmond and Villanova brought up constantly as a counterargument. If scholarships are so bad, then how come Villanova and Richmond are top schools and yet somehow can field a championship-caliber team?

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Now, the Patriot League has to think about how their teams can be like Villanova and Richmond. Both schools have gone from needing a rescue by the Patriot League to becoming the models upon which the Patriot League will need to look up to in order to be able to be on the same playing field.

Addendum: Now read those thoughts again and substitute the word Ivy for the word Patriot. It works.

The Sports Network picks are up for this week's playoff action and they've got Northern Iowa defeating New Hampshire in the second round of the playoffs, "in a low-scoring game." ... I'll be honest with you. I never thought I'd see the words "New Hampshire" and "low-scoring game" in the same sentence. I thought they were mutually exclusive. But they could just be right. ...

Consider this from a story by UNH beat writer Mike Zhe:

From a defensive line that got bigger and stronger in the offseason, to a secondary that has the team battling for the national lead with 23 interceptions, the 'Cats (10-2) have taken steps across the board.

In the CAA, they've upped their rank from 10th to fifth in points allowed (22.5), 12th to eighth in yards allowed (357) and 11th to third in rushing yards allowed (135). Increasing their number of forced turnovers from 15 to 37 hasn't hurt either.

Uh oh. In looking at next year's Dartmouth opponents the other day on Green Alert premium, I wrote:

And while the Wildcats haven’t been very good on defense over the years, they were better at it last (season) and will be better yet this time around with 19 of their 22 defenders on the two-deep returning.

OK, let's get this straight. UNH is bringing back 19-of-22 players on the two-deep of a defense that is actually turning the corner? Houston, we have a problem.

To borrow an idea from Chuck Burton:

You almost want to send copies of the UNH-UNI game to Dartmouth President Jim Wright just to show him what we're up against now.

And finally, FedEx delivered tickets yesterday for this Saturday's Big East football clash between Connecticut and Pittsburgh down in Hartford. Because I'm always in a press box somewhere on Saturday afternoons and not with them, the kids and I have made it a tradition the past few years of taking a "Daddy Trip," to an FCS playoff game at UNH or UMass where we actually tailgate and I sit in the stands with them.

With the former on the road and the latter not making the field, we were without a game until we discovered there was another left at UConn. A very good boyhood friend who I will not embarrass here pulled a string and, voilà, 50-yard line tickets. Thanks so much, 'Pard'ner. (That's a hint that at least Chuck Burton should recognize.)