First Mention

First story on the upcoming Dartmouth-Penn Ivy opener is up on the Penn website.

McManus, Scullin Honored

The Ivy League's weekly honors are in. Sophomore receiver/quarterback Tim McManus has been named to the Ivy honor roll after making seven catches for 35 yards and completing a pass on a reverse to quarterback Alex Jenny for 15 yards against UNH. Senior punter Brian Scullin was chosen for the honor roll after punting seven times for a 37.7-yard average with two of the boots inside the 20.

I missed the Ivy League's official preview last week entirely because it didn't get the same play on the website as it has in the past. I just found this week's preview here. ... A reminder that the Ivy League opener against Penn this week is available on the CN8 Network as well as on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Channel 130.

The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look back at the Quakers' loss to Lafayette over the weekend. From the story:

From the moment the squad burst through the giant inflatable leopard's head during pre-game introductions, Team Tavani looked crisp and focused on offense, performing admirably in front of the Homecoming crowd.

On the other hand, the Quakers' defense - their most potent asset on paper - trudged sluggishly through the game's opening frames.

There's nothing of major import to be learned from that excerpt except this: Lafayette has a giant inflatable leopard's head.

The DP has notes from around the league including this one from last Saturday that I hadn't realized:

Yale and Harvard's losses on Saturday - at Cornell and at Brown, respectively - weren't just notable because those squads were pegged as the Ivy League's top two teams heading into the season.

It was also the first time since Nov. 11, 2006, that the Elis and Crimson lost Ancient Eight games on the same day."

The FCS poll from The Sports Network is up. Dartmouth opponents in the voting:

5. UNH
25. Brown
29. Harvard
30. Holy Cross
40. Cornell
47. Colgate

The lesson: Don't lose to Cornell. Harvard fell to Brown in a close contest and is still lurking around the top 25. Yale lost to the Big Red and disappeared completely.

The latest FCS Coaches poll:

5. UNH
35. Holy Cross
39. Colgate
44. Harvard

David Shribman '76, may be the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette but the old Dartmouth sports information worker occasionally sneaks out. The Bloomberg.com site carries his review of three recent football books under the headline, "Football's Classy Giants, Hard-Partying Cowboys, Ivy History." His comments on Sports Illustrated's The College Football Book include this:

Nobody does a lot of things anymore that they used to do in college football, like group Yale, Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard and Michigan together in anything except maybe the U.S. News poll of top national universities. They once were football dynasties together, which is worth remembering, and why this book is worth having.

Shrib's comment gives me a chance to remind you that the Ivies were grouped with the big boys several years ago in ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game. From the description on the Amazon.com page where the book – which sold for $49.95 when it first came out – is now available for $32.97:

"Essays by the game’s top wordsmiths, including Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, Chris Fowler, Bruce Wood and more."

OK, I made part of that up. But I did write the extensive Ivy League section and an essay for the ESPN book. (You can find it in the bookstore and check for yourself. ) I can't imagine why, but for some reason the Amazon folks mentioned Dan, Beano and Chris ... but left me out. It was an oversight, I'm sure ;-)

Ivy Rankings Updated

Noon update: Another Foster's story on the UNH-Dartmouth game.

A couple of the computerized rankings are in after week two of the Ivy League season. These tend to be much more volatile than voting polls. They also tend to become more accurate as the season progresses.

The Dunkel FCS index of 125 teams looks like this (Dartmouth's non-league opponents included):

10. UNH
29. Holy Cross
31. Yale
33. Harvard
35. Brown
48. Penn
51. Colgate
56. Princeton
67. Cornell
87. Dartmouth
92. Columbia

The Sagarin ratings are in listing all Division I teams. It looks like this:

102. New Hampshire
144. Brown
153. Harvard
154. Cornell
155. Holy Cross
158. Princeton
163. Yale
169. Colgate
178. Penn
208. Dartmouth
217. Columbia

Sagarin's ratings set Penn up as almost a 12-point favorite this weekend.

Backs Against The Wall

Losses by Harvard and Yale Saturday afternoon leave the two co-favorites with their backs against the wall. Quoted in the Yale Daily News, Bulldog quarterback Ryan Fodor said as much:

“We know that in order to win a championship we need to win out, but our goal from the start was to win every game, so nothing changes. We need to go win the next eight, starting this Saturday with Holy Cross.”

Fodor's analysis isn't completely accurate, but it's close. Yale or Harvard (or anyone else) could win the title with a second loss, but it isn't likely. Since the start of Ivy League play in 1956:

* 20 times the champions were undefeated (18 were 7-0 and two were 6-0-1)
* 30 times the champions had one loss (27 were 6-1, three were 5-1-1)
* 2 times the champions had two losses (1963 and 1982)

(For more on what it means, see last night's Green Alert premium story.)

The Boston Herald takes a look at the Ivy League race here. The story includes this quote from Yale coach Jack Siedlecki:

“The top two teams in the league are 0-1. We’re still in it as well as anybody else.”

He may be right but consider that five of the last seven years have seen the Ivy League champion go unbeaten. And of the 20 undefeated championship seasons, nine have come in the past 15 years.

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the Big Green's loss to No. 7 New Hampshire Saturday. One clarification from that story: The loss was Dartmouth's 10th in a row to its in-state rival. The teams tied in 1990 and 1979.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has its weekend roundup here.

Dartmouth (0-2) will open Ivy League play Saturday against Penn (0-2), which hasn't played an easy schedule either, falling to Villanova and Lafayette. Quakers coach Al Bagnoli in the Daily Pennsylvanian:

"These are two teams that, between them, have a total of one loss, and that's to West Virginia at West Virginia."

Bagnoli in another DP story:

"We're still just a play or two, an assignment or two, from being a pretty good football team. We've played two really good football teams in two weeks, and unfortunately we came up short in both of them."

He's not kidding. Villanova – which needed overtime to get by Penn a week ago – just upended No. 1 Richmond, 26-20. Find The Sports Nework's story on that game here.

For a recap of Brown's big win over Harvard, check out the Brown Daily Herald. The Harvard Crimson manages to take a shot at Dartmouth in its story:

That double-overtime Crimson victory two years ago kicked off Brown’s last Ivy title season, so all is not lost for Harvard, nor for Yale, nor for any team for that matter—except perhaps for Dartmouth, who gave up 367 rushing (yes, rushing) yards to first-week opponent Colgate and more recently fell 42-6 against No. 7 New Hampshire.

The Cornell Daily Sun writes about the Big Red's stunner over Yale.

And finally, a photographer at the Manchester Nike Invitational Cross Country Classic Saturday has posted pictures of the Hanover High cross country team that won the race's elite division. To see a picture of that certain junior with her teammates, click here. She's third from the right in the blue hoodie.

The Day After

I knew UNH was missing three starters in Saturday's 42-6 win but Foster's Daily Democrat updates that number in its game story:

The University of New Hampshire football team entered Saturday's Granite Bowl against Dartmouth with injury issues. The Wildcats then put a hurt on the Big Green at Memorial Field.

Seventh-ranked UNH, which extended its win streak against intra-state rival Dartmouth to 11 despite missing five starters, improved to 4-0 entering its bye week with a 42-6 romp over the Big Green, who fell to 0-2.

There were also game stories in the Concord Monitor, in the Union Leader and the Nashua Telegraph.

Elsewhere in what might be called Shocking Saturday in the Ivy League, it was:

Brown 24, Harvard 22

Cornell 17, Yale 14

Towson 31, Columbia 24

Lafayette 24, Penn 17

Princeton 10, Lehigh 7

And in games featuring Dartmouth's Patriot League foes:

Holy Cross 38, Georgetown 14

Colgate 31, Fordham 24

Do check out this New York Times story about more strange goings on with Tommy Amaker and the Harvard basketball team.

And finally, that certain Hanover High junior and her cross country team won the Elite division of that huge race in Manchester yesterday. She was the 12th scorer and 13th finisher in the race, running the entire way with, and crossing the line with, a teammate as Hanover's final two scorers.

UNH Game Day

It's overcast this morning and the forecast could be better, but as of this writing it's not raining. Not here on the mountain overlooking Hanover, at least.

The hourly forecast predicts that at noon there's a 20 percent chance of rain, at 1 p.m., it is 40 percent and at 2 p.m. it's 50 percent.

There's a preview of today's Granite Bowl game between Dartmouth and UNH on the Dartmouth football website. ... If you are curious how the game sounds from the UNH perspective, you can find the visitor's audio (along with links to live stats and game notes) here.

From today's Seacoast Online site:

For all the accolades the University of New Hampshire football team has received for beating four Division I-A teams since 2004, the flip side is that it's also done a pretty good job taking care of business against opponents it's expected to beat.

"It doesn't matter who we play, Division I-A or I-AA," said defensive back John Clements. "We come into every game thinking it's going to be a game. Out of conference, conference, it doesn't matter."

Which brings us to today's annual Granite Bowl game at Dartmouth College (noon, Ch. 9), which lately hasn't been much of a game.

Ouch.

The Nashua Telegraph quotes Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens this way:

"Our biggest challenge is to limit their big plays. Nobody has stopped them. We've just got to make them work for their points."

You might say he's got, well, a point ;-)

A Dartmouth note that I missed the first time around, courtesy of new SID Rick Bender's game notes: Against Colgate Alex Jenny "completed more passes (29) without an interception than anyone in Dartmouth history."

Being honored at halftime of today's game: The 1978 Dartmouth Ivy League championship football team quarterbacked by one Eugene F. Teevens.

Deadspin has picked up the story of Keggy's latest adventure, which came to a peaceful conclusion recently:

Order has only begun to be be restored to the peaceful tree-lined streets of Hanover, New Hampshire today after the shocking kidnapping ordeal suffered by Keggy, the popular Dartmouth College beer keg. The quasi-official school mascot was ruthlessly abducted and held for ransom over the weekend, and then rescued by campus police today.

Hofstra pummeled Stony Brook, 43-3, last night (link). That's the same Stony Brook team that destroyed Colgate (42-26) but lost to Brown (17-7). What does it all mean? Not much as you'll see if you keep reading ...

The next time you are playing a parlour game (love that expression) with fans of other Ivy League schools, you can tell them that while Dartmouth did not have as much success as it would have liked a year ago, at least it would have beaten Penn State. And then you can offer this from last fall as proof:

Dartmouth beat
Cornell who beat
Colgate who beat
Towson who beat
Richmond who beat
Wofford who beat
Appalachian St who beat
Michigan who beat
Penn State

What you don't want to do is share this website, which will show that Columbia would have beaten USC last year:

Columbia beat
Marist who beat
Georgetown who beat
Bucknell who beat
Fordham who beat
Rhode Island who beat
Massachusetts who beat
Villanova who beat
Delaware who beat
Navy who beat
Notre Dame who beat
Stanford who beat
Southern Cal

And finally, it was a tough first Homecoming for that certain Hanover High freshman fullback/linebacker as his team got whomped, 31-0, last night. He was flawless on the water bottles. ... That certain Hanover junior will be in Manchester, N.H., running at 12:30 or so today.

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.

Buckle Up That Chinstrap (And Raincoat)

When the Friends of Football tent is up you know the home season is about to begin.
Linemen hit the new sled in the north end zone Wednesday.
Youth football players from Newport, N.H., about 45 minutes away, take in practice Wednesday.

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The forecast has gone from possibility of a shower to sloppy for Saturday's game against No. 7 New Hampshire so be sure to bring your mackintosh and brolly and be thankful for FieldTurf.

Dave Coulson over at The Sports Network has his weekend picks in and it's no surprise that he went with UNH. The surprise is the final score: New Hampshire, 35-17. The teams combined for 83 points last year, 70 the year before and 69 each of the two years before that. In fact, the TSN's FCS guru is predicting the lowest aggregate score since the series was resumed with an annual game in 2000. He has the teams combining for 52 points. The lowest-scoring game of the past eight was the 2002 game when UNH survived the Big Green, 29-26, a total of 55 points. What do you think? Vote in the poll off to the left.

Not that I'm a big believer in the Sagarin Ratings, but this week's numbers give UNH an 18.1-point advantage in Saturday's game.

Two outlets that regularly cover UNH have stories about the spread offense that the University of New Hampshire adopted after having difficulty finding power fullbacks and tight ends (although they currently have a terrific tight end in Scott Sicko). Both stories quote UNH coach Sean McDonnell. The Seacoast Online story includes a thought from Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens. The Concord Monitor story includes the following from UNH's McDonnell, although it pertains to both teams:

"We see it every day so we have an idea of how we want to defend it and we get to try new things against it. If you're trying to do something the day of the game or one week against an offense like that, it becomes tough."

Allen Lessels' Manchester Union Leader blog reports that UNH tailback Chad Kackert (knee) and corner John Clements (hamstring) would not have played if the game were on Tuesday.

Cornell players are getting the "C" back on their helmets one class at a time after a road victory over Bucknell in their opener. The Cornell Sun reports.

For a balanced look at the Princeton band story, check out a Newark Star-Ledger story that includes this:

That brand of humor might draw laughs at Harvard or Columbia, but it doesn't play well at The Citadel, especially when it's accompanied by an unintended slight.

Looking Ahead To UNH

The New Hampshire game notes for Saturday's contest against Dartmouth have been posted. Find an abbreviated version here and a full PDF of the notes here.

What jumps off the page is that UNH can tie the series for the first time since 1901 with a victory this weekend. Dartmouth won the first 16 games between the teams but New Hampshire has answered almost in kind, going 16-0-2 since 1979 and winning the last 10 meetings.

Dartmouth holds a 17-16-2 lead in the series, outscoring UNH, 760-704.

The all-time series results:
1901 Dartmouth 51-0
1907 Dartmouth 10-0
1916 Dartmouth 33-0
1917 Dartmouth 21-6
1921 Dartmouth 24-0
1932 Dartmouth 25-0
1934 Dartmouth 21-7
1956 Dartmouth 13-0
1957 Dartmouth 27-0
1960 Dartmouth 7-6
1961 Dartmouth 28-3
1964 Dartmouth 40-0
1965 Dartmouth 56-6
1968 Dartmouth 21-0
1969 Dartmouth 31-0
1972 Dartmouth 24-14
1973 UNH 10-9
1976 Dartmouth 24-13
1979 Tie 10-10
1980 UNH 24-7
1984 UNH 38-10
1985 UNH 23-7
1986 UNH 66-12
1987 UNH 41-3
1990 Tie 21-21
1992 UNH 45-27
1993 UNH 14-7
2000 UNH 42-21
2001 UNH 42-38
2002 UNH 29-26
2003 UNH 42-17
2004 UNH 45-24
2005 UNH 49-20
2006 UNH 56-14
2007 UNH 52-31

One of the players to keep an eye out for Saturday is speedy UNH tailback Chad Kackert, who is third in the nation in all-purpose running and 12th in rushing. He's the focus of this Concord Monitor story.

Curious what Colgate fans expected last Saturday out in Hamilton? It turns out they expected just about what they got, a 34-20 victory. Check out their surprisingly accurate predictions on a Colgate message board here.

The Daily Dartmouth has finally come online for the fall and has a story about the Colgate game. The Big Green contest with the Raiders also gets a brief mention in a Columbia Spectator roundup of the weekend.

I have to be careful with this one because I'm not a big fan of the Ivy League "scramble band" concept. To be sure, there's blame to share all the way around for what happened with the Princeton band when it traveled to The Citadel last weekend.

A column headlined, "Shame on the Princeton Band," in the Post and Courier in Charleston paper pinned the blame squarely on the Ivy Leaguers. It suggested that, "... instead of a tongue lashing, the entire Corps of Cadets should be given a medal for standing up for their school." And, the columnist wrote, "The Princeton Band, meanwhile, should be ashamed. All those pseudo-intellectuals and not a single brain among them."

Columnists can write pretty much what they believe. That's what columnist do. The shocker to me was finding that column reproduced on The Citadel's official football website.

This YouTube audio report is a radio interview with a member of the Princeton band.

There's a poll question and discussion on the Pioneer Football League fan board regarding whether the Ivy League should replace the departing Northeast Conference in the postseason Gridiron Classic that has pitted the champion of the PFL against the NEC champion. Interesting idea. Never happen. If an Ivy team is going to go on and play in the postseason, it's going to be in the NCAAs. Period.

It's probably no surprise that Colgate running back Jordan Scott was named a College Sporting News national all-star after running for 239 yards Saturday against Dartmouth. More surprising – but as you'll see perhaps not that surprising – is Brown defensive end James Develin being named national defensive player of the year by The Sports Network after anchoring a terrific Brown effort in a 17-7 win over Stony Brook. Develin had 3.5 tackles for loss (two sacks) and forced a fumble.

From the TSN release: "(James) Develin and his teammates held the Sea Wolves to 36 yards rushing and 147 yards of total offense."

At the Ivy League media day last month Brown coach Phil Estes told me, "You are going to look at me a little bit cross-eyed but I think defense would be the strength of our football team ..." And, "I've never coached a football team that is that big and that strong. I think if we keep those guys healthy people are going to have to pay attention to the defensive line ..."

There's still a long, long way to go, but one week in and Estes is sounding like the Prophet Phil. We'll learn more this week when the Bears play host to Harvard.

Sean Barker's Portal 31 Yale football blog (a supplement to his fine New Haven Register coverage of the team) reports that Bulldog safety Larry Abare "who was knocked out of the Georgetown game with a concussion, was examined on Sunday and Abare tested at nearly 100 percent on his baseline test, an examination used to clear any players with head injuries."

That's good news, but also a little scary in light of another New York Times story about concussions in football and other sports. The story says, "On Thursday, the center will announce that a fifth deceased N.F.L. player, the former Houston Oilers linebacker John Grimsley, was found to have brain damage commonly associated with boxers."

Dartmouth held its convocation yesterday. Find a story and pictures here. One of the speakers was Dr. Thomas Clark '92 (he still refers to himself as Tommy) founder of Grassroot Soccer, a pioneering effort to use what soccer folks like to call "the beautiful game," for AIDs education and prevention in Africa.

Tommy starred at Hanover High School before going on to play for his father, Bobby, at Dartmouth. He briefly considered a career in sportswriting, even writing a story or two for the newspaper when I worked there. I'd have to say he made the right career choice ;-)

Dartmouth announced yesterday that, "Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones, Class of 1973, of Dallas have committed $10 million for need-based scholarships, with first preference given to students with demonstrated need from Texas to attend the College." (link) Hmmm. Wonder if any of them might play a little football?

Ivy Honors

Dartmouth freshman kicker Foley Schmidt is the Ivy League rookie of the week while junior quarterback Alex Jenny (29-for-48, 343 yds., 1 TD) and junior free safety Peter Pidermann (12 tackles) have been named to the Ivy League honor roll. Find the Ivy League release here. Schmidt gets a quick mention in his hometown Star-Tribune.

Senior defensive lineman Max Copello writes for the Dartmouth Review and has an insider's preview of a team he refers to as the Indians here.

I've heard Princeton coach Roger Hughes – a former Dartmouth offensive coordinator – make the interesting analogy that shows up on a New York Times blog before. Hughes says:

“The N.F.L. has a salary cap. We have, quote, an education cap. We have very strict guidelines as to who we can recruit and how many we can recruit at different academic levels. And so, much like the N.F.L. they have to decide who to give all the money to, we have to decide who’s going to get those lower academic slots, and there’s only so many of those for each team, which means every team gets good players."

Saturday opponent New Hampshire is ranked either No. 7 (The Sports Network poll) or No. 8 (FCS Coaches poll) in the nation. The Wildcats improved to 3-0 with a win over Albany last week. Dartmouth opponents on The Sports Network poll:
7. UNH
26. Harvard
29. Yale
35. Brown
37. Holy Cross
38. Penn
48. Princeton

The beauty of the Internet is that when you make a mistake you can go back in and fix it. Believe me, I've done it a ton of times myself. Here's one from the Columbia Spectator that snuck past the editors and will probably be fixed by the time you click the link:

The 2008 football season did not start as planned for Columbia. Though the team scored 22 points in the second quarter and took a 22-14 lead into the final quarter, the defense and offense both slipped in the fourth quarter as Rutgers scored 15 unanswered points to win 29-22.

Columbia, of course, played Fordham, not Rutgers.

I can relate. I still grimace at the 48-point headline I wrote morning for the newspaper in Pennsylvania where I was sports editor. It said something like: Dodgers Win On Venezuela 2-Hitter. Of course it should have been Dodgers Win On Valenzuela 2-Hitter, but no one noticed until the paper went out the door because Venezuela was spelled right. Ditto for Rutgers.

Missed this the first time around but the Cornell Sun put together a full football supplement, like Penn did. The Cornell supplement can be found here. Stories from Penn's football supplement can be found here.

Speaking of Penn, the Quakers will be a more formidable team this fall if quarterback Robert Irvin is back to form and this Daily Pennsylvanian story suggests that is the case.

On the subject of quarterbacking, the Yale Daily News follow on Saturday's rout of Georgetown begins with this "lede:"

The football team did something in its opener that many undergrads have not seen in their time in New Haven — it threw the pigskin all over the field and threw it well.

That's right, the team that saddled up and rode tailback Mike McLeod until he just about broke down last year is going to keep him fresh as long as possible by throwing the ball. In case you missed it, here are the numbers Yale's QB tandem posted against an admittedly weak Georgetown team:

• Brook Hart 14-of-18 for 176 yards, 3 TDs
• Ryan Fodor 10-of-15 for 185 yards, 1 TD

If you check the stats, the Yalies are the top two quarterbacks in the nation in passer efficiency after one game.

Surfing my usual Ivy League haunts I saw a quick note about the Brown water polo team and clicked through to find a Daily Herald mention of Gordon Hood scoring a couple of goals for the Bears. Gordon is the twin brother of Dartmouth linebacker Spencer Hood. You can find Gordon's head shot here and Spencer's head shot here. Yup, they're twins ;-)

While I try to track down Internet confirmation of a promising recruit who has committed to the Big Green (according to an emailer), there's still another Arizona lineman who has been hearing from Dartmouth. Michael Munsil is a 6-1, 255-pound senior at Phoenix Scottsdale Christian who told the Arizona Republic, "I've been talking with several schools, Dartmouth, Air Force, Army. Those are the top ones."

Kicker Schmidt Honored

Dartmouth freshman placekicker Foley Schmidt has been chosen Ivy League Rookie of the Week after kicking field goals of 39 and 26 yards and making both of his PATs. (link)

More From Colgate

Dartmouth In The DesertIn honor of UNH week, former Dartmouth quarterback Mike Fritz '07 shared this photo of a ticket from the 2006 Granite Bowl game taken in Jordan. Fritz, on a five-month work assignment in Dubai, spent the weekend in Jordan with a Dartmouth friend. (click to enlarge)

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The PA announcer, media, fans and Dartmouth defenders apparently weren't the only ones having occasional trouble figuring out whether Colgate quarterback Greg Sullivan had the ball or handed it off to Jordan Scott during Saturday's game. Check out what Colgate coach Dick Biddle had to say in a Syracuse.com story:

"I didn't know who had the ball half the time. I couldn't tell, to be honest with you."

More from the story:

Eventually, Big Green defenders started leveling anyone who could have the ball, as Scott often found himself flattened while serving as a decoy.

"Whether I have the ball or not, I think the coaches are telling them just to hit me," Scott said. "I really do believe that. And that's fine with me, because he's (Sullivan) five, seven, eight, 20 yards down the field."

Scott, of course, finished with 239 yards rushing while Sullivan finished with 136 in Colgate's 34-20 win.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has a roundup of Ivy games here. ...

Here's a headline you never thought you'd see in the Brown Daily Herald: Defense helps football to victory over Stony Brook. If Brown is playing tough defense – for you Ivy League newbies, Brown has long been more WAC than Big Ten – the Bears are going to be, well, bears to beat. At media day last month Brown coach Phil Estes spoke very highly of his defense and the D-line in particular. Saturday did nothing to change his opinion. From the Herald story:

"Against a team that was big and physical, that had some great running backs and a big offensive line, we physically dominated the line of scrimmage," said Head Coach Phil Estes. "Today was one of the great efforts by a whole group of inspired defenders, and this was, since I've been here, one of the best defensive efforts."

The comeback of the weekend took place before 20,462 at Harvard Stadium where Harvard erased a 24-12 deficit in the final nine minutes to win, 25-24 against a very good Holy Cross team. Find the game story in the Harvard Crimson. ... The Princeton band did not exactly enjoy southern hospitality Saturday at The Citadel as the Daily Princetonian reports. ...

Back to the New Hampshire game ... Dartmouth will be facing a team that can both run and throw this weekend when UNH comes to town. Allan Lessels writes in the Manchester Union Leader that the Wildcats are simply taking care of business.

Time and distance have given Jay Fiedler a little more perspective on following Dan Marino as Miami Dolphins' quarterback. In this story from an ABC TV station, he opens up a little more than he seemed to in the past. Fiedler says:

"There were a lot of people who appreciated me at the time, but there was always that certain group on the talk radio, in certain papers, certain fans at games that would boo pretty loudly. I'm sure they're still wearing 13 jerseys in Miami. That's not going to change."

Did you catch the ceremonies from the final game at Yankee Stadium last night? Our TV has been out for about three weeks so I didn't get to watch it, but we listened to festivities on the Yankee radio broadcast. For a kid who grew up idolizing Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson and Clete Boyer, it was pretty touching stuff. One of my boyhood friends called last week to tell me he had two tickets and invited me to go, but it would have been too much on a busy weekend and there was that little matter of yesterday's jayvee game. Besides, I got choked up in Montreal when I went to the Expos' last game. I can't imagine how it would have felt to be at the last game in the stadium where I saw my first big league game as a young boy.

And finally, that certain Hanover High School junior finished 20th of 182 runners as her team ran away with the 26-team Black Bear Invitational Saturday. Hanover had 60 points to the next team's 109, and the third-place team's 149. Although she's still getting the hang of cross country – she said her first mile was ridiculously fast – she covered the 5K course in 19:50. They have an even bigger invitational this weekend in Manchester with schools from as far away as Rhode Island coming in. ... That certain Hanover High freshman will be on the field this afternoon when traditional rival Lebanon visits for a junior varsity game.

Tonight on Green Alert Premium: The first weekly installment of The Optimist and The Pessimist.

Scenes From The Opener

A parachutist lands in Andy Kerr Stadium before the game.
The coin flip on Wounded Warrior Day included Dartmouth junior Brendan Hart (brown shirt), a Marine veteran.
Alex Jenny got rid of this pass before the defense could get to him. (click photos to enlarge)

Opponent Roundup

Back from Colgate, a few links and then on to the jayvee game against Vermont ...

Here are yesterday's games, starting with next week's opponent. ... Albany gave UNH the expected tussle but the Wildcats outlasted the Danes as RJ Toman threw four more touchdown passes, giving him nine in the last two weeks. ... Elsewhere, not a bad day for the Ivies. ... Brown's win was a stunner from the point of few of allowing just seven points to a team that had torched Colgate for 42. ... Columbia's showing against a Fordham team picked to win the Patriot League hints at good things for the Lions. ... Yale's walkover against Georgetown was surprising only in that the Bulldogs did so much damage through the air. ... Princeton got off to a strong start before fading against The Citadel, but there are positives for the Tigers, to be sure. ... Ditto for Penn, which seems to have brought the hard luck of the past several years along into 2008. ... Cornell's win over Bucknell was by the skin of its teeth, but for a team with such a poor history on the road in recent years, that was a good win. ... Harvard's comeback win was impressive.

UNH 32, Albany 24
Game story
Box Score

Brown 17, Stony Brook 7
Game story
Box Score

Fordham 29, Columbia 22
Game story
Box Score

Yale 47, Georgetown 7
Game story
Box Score

The Citadel 37, Princeton 24
Game story
Box Score

Villanova 20, Penn 14 (ot)
Game story
Box Score

Cornell 21, Bucknell 20
Game story
Box Score

FRIDAY
Harvard 25, Holy Cross 24
Game story
Box Score

For an interesting look at how the what the rest of the football playing world thinks of the Ivy League, check out this Post & Courier story prior to Princeton's game at The Citadel.

Colgate game story coming

Hopefully by 8:30 or so. Sidebar an hour or so later.

Pretty good game despite final score.

-b-

Game Day

The weather looks beautiful this a.m. in central New York.

Not much time this morning. A reminder (from a regular reader) that the game can be watched for $5.95 on Colgate's all-access. Get info and/or sign up here.

There's a note here that Jordan Scott needs just 59 yards to break the Patriot League rushing record.

More (hopefully) when I arrive in Hamilton and find a wi-fi hotspot.

Wounded Warrior Day

Saturday will be "Wounded Warrior Day," at Colgate's Andy Kerr Stadium. Slated to represent Dartmouth in the pregame coin flip (with another veteran representing Colgate) will be junior Brendan Hart. An ABC news report told the story of the U.S. Marine brought to Dartmouth by college President James Wright. That report included this:

Hart's road to an Ivy League education was by no means easy. In 2006, while a member of the 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team, he was exposed to a contaminated dose of the small pox vaccine, which caused all his internal systems to shut down, effectively rendering his immune system defunct. While receiving treatment at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Hart met American Council on Education representative Heather Bernard, who put him in touch with Wright and, consequently, changed the course of his life.

Gearing Up On Diamond As Well As Gridiron

Each day on the way to football practice I walk past the Dartmouth baseball field and watch the construction progress. Now, with the first concrete poured for Biondi Park at Red Rolfe Field, the drawings for the new facility are coming to life. The two circles in fourth picture down will be the pitcher's mound and batter's box. The bottom picture shows the new configuration of the outfield fence, which will eliminate the triangle in deep center. (Click photos to enlarge)

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Dartmouth's game notes have been posted here. (A word of warning: Don't take the depth chart too literally.) ... Cornell's notes have been up for a while but there's now an introduction that leads into the notes here. ... The Utica paper has a roundup of area college football that includes a capsule on Colgate-Dartmouth here.

All Dartmouth games will be carried on WFRD with veteran sportscaster Bob Lipman (voice of the New Hamshire Fisher Cats minor league baseball team) doing play-by-play and former Big Green captain Wayne Young '72 handling color commentary. The Dartmouth Sports Network home page is here.

Dartmouth takes a couple of shots in other school newspapers as football coverage kicks off. The Columbia Spectator writes, "(I)t’ll again be a struggle for Dartmouth to get out of the Ivy League cellar." The Spec writes of the Big Green's, "history of week offenses." (Dartmouth was actually third in the Ivies in scoring ast year at 27.0 points per game.)

A Cornell Sun story includes this about last year's Cornell game in Hanover: "There were the seven turnovers — five of them fumbles — and 59 points given up to Dartmouth, a team the Red usually dominates."

That didn't sound right to me so I went back and checked. While Cornell has indeed won five of the last seven games, the Big Red hasn't really dominated on the scoreboard. The scores of those five games: 21-19, 28-25, 28-24, 14-7, 21-10. That's a winning margin of 2, 3, 4, 7 and 11 points for the Big Red. The average: 5.4 points.

The Sun writes a little about Cornell coach Jim Knowles' decision to remove the C from the sides of the Big Red Helmets until the team earns it back: "So, the coaches took away the C and went back to the basics. Full pads, full scrimmage, full contact, every day. For once, this was your father’s football."

It will be interesting to see how the full-contact approach works. Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens took the opposite tack this preseason with really limited contact. How that will turn out remains to be seen but there was certainly one advantage in Hanover: no one was seriously hurt during camp. I fact, I'm not sure I can remember more than one or two trips by the trainers onto the field to help a player.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has a full football supplement today that includes a story about transfer quarterback Kyle Olson, who may or may not – no one seems to know – start in the Quakers' opener. The story includes this surprising nugget:

Unconvinced by the throwing options he had at hand, (Penn coach Al) Bagnoli made a specific effort last year to recruit a junior college quarterback.

"We wanted someone with preferably game experience playing last season," he said. "That's why we went the JC route. We wanted to get a kid that played at a high level, that actually has 20 games under his belt.

Now, to steal a line from a certain former NBC sitcom, "Not that there's anything wrong with that," (as long as the transfer is academically qualified, which I'm sure he is), but it really is refreshing to hear an Ivy League coach who's not afraid to sound like, well, like a football coach.

Maybe it's something in the water in West Philly, but while a number of his contemporaries won't say boo about the financial aid issue facing the Ivy League, Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky isn't afraid to speak up. He's quoted in this DP story that confirms there's no league-wide policy change on tap.

Reggie Williams as head of the NFL Players Association? This Yahoo column makes the case for the former Dartmouth and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker.

Twins from the Tampa area have heard from Dartmouth recruiters. They are referred to in this story as, "speedsters who can play any of the skills positions." Sounds good to me ;-)

Remember the posting a while back that Dartmouth will be giving football programs away for the first time this fall? UNH is taking a completely different approach. From the school website:

The program features two parts. First, fans can buy the football yearbook for $7 which includes bios on top players, feature stories, a record section and much more. This will be sold at every game as long as supplies last.

In addition, an insert will be printed that includes rosters and game notes specific to that day’s contest. The insert will be included free when a fan buys a yearbook, or fans may purchase just the insert only at any home game for just $3.

I'm not sure I'd pay $7 for a program but I'm absolutely sure I wouldn't buy one this week and buy another the next.

And finally, that certain Hanover High School junior will be running tomorrow in something called The Black Bear Invitational. It's been a while since she's been in a race and it's safe to say she's champing at the bit.

That certain freshman, meanwhile, will be on the sidelines in uniform tonight when Hanover football takes on archrival Lebanon. The Hanover team photo has been posted online and you can find it here. I asked that certain frosh why he was standing off to the side (top row, far right) and he confirmed what I suspected: the photographer moved him over so they could see him.

Opinions On Dartmouth, Ivies

The Daily Pennsylvanian has previews up for the Ivy teams, including a look at Dartmouth. It includes this:

No, the Big Green, often written off as the bottom-feeders of the Ivy League, no longer serve only as a practice squad for the rest of the conference. They may not be title contenders, but their opponents can no longer look to trips to Hanover as guaranteed wins.

The Daily Dartmouth has a comprehensive look at the college's fall sports team including football here.

Oh, and The D also has a story about Beta rising from the ashes. It quotes safety Tony Pastoors talking about Beta this way:

“We will not just be a football house — we wanted to get rid of that stereotype right away. The 17 of us right now are primarily made up of athletes, but there are kids on the debate team and in the (Dartmouth Outing Club) and things like that. It’s a wide, diverse look at the Dartmouth community and that’s what we’re looking for with the sophomores also.”

The Boston Herald has its Ivy League preseason story up and, surprise surprise, it predicts The Game between Harvard and Yale should determine the championship. There's a sentence on each of the other teams.

Speaking of predictions, Dave Coulson over at The Sports Network has his picks for the weekend up and largely because Ivy teams are playing a number of ranked opponents there are Ancient Eight games in his column. The picks he made were:

• Harvard 38, Holy Cross 35
• The Citadel 38 Princeton 17
• Villanova 42 Penn 21
• New Hampshire 42 Albany 38

Defense? What defense?

Like it's neighbor Princeton, Penn is going with the Gameday Central format on its web page. Find it here.

You've got to respect Colgate coach Dick Biddle. I've said it before, but the man tells it like it is. In a Q&A with the Utica Observe-Dispatch he is asked, "Going forward, what goals do you have for the rest of your career?"

His answer: "To someday be a head coach at a scholarship school."

As much as I hate that oh-so-trendy "going forward" expression, I love the honesty of the answer.

By the way, here's the Utica paper's story about Colgate's loss to Furman last week.

The Capital Times out in Wisconsin has a short column about Casey Cramer hooking up with the Miami Dolphins.

And finally, the Daily Princetonian has a story about a woman playing football for the Tigers. Not the team that will travel to The Citadel this weekend, but the school's sprint (nee lightweight) football team.

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I hit a wrong key working on the paid website yesterday and had to rebuild all the links to the 2008 archive. Argh.

If you haven't subscribed yet, I've posted the index of that archive below to show you what you've missed about this year's team already: 30 full-length stories since the start of practice (including in-person reports on every practice), a total of 44 stories since the Ivy League media day on Aug. 12, and 63 newspaper-length stories on the 2008 Dartmouth football team. There will be at least nine stories a week – including at least one every day – between now and the end of the season. For more information on subscribing, visit Green Alert Premium.

2008 Green Alert Archives
Sept. 17 p.m.--Over Before You Knew It
Sept. 17 a.m--Eight On Offense
Sept. 16 --A Look At Special Teams With Sammy McCorkle
Sept. 15 --Jump Day
Sept. 14 --Points To Ponder
Sept. 13 --Harvard Preseason Follow
Sept. 13 --Jayvees Fall To Middlebury In Opener
Sept. 12 --Dartmouth-Harvard Preseason Game Story
Sept. 12 --Dartmouth-Harvard Preseason Drive Chart
Sept. 12 --Random Preseason Game Observations
Sept. 11 --Prelude To A Big Scrimmage
Sept. 10 p.m. --A Look At The Defense With Chris Wilkerson
Sept. 10 a.m. --A Look At The Offense With Mike Hodgson
Sept. 9 --The Pieces Come Together
Sept. 8 p.m.--Freshmen Back After 'Dogging It"
Sept. 8 a.m.--Fresh Legs, Fresh Opinion
Sept. 6--Saturday Scrimmage
Sept. 5--Quiet Before The Storm
Sept. 4 p.m--A Dog Day Afternoon
Sept. 4 a.m--No One Is Going To Catch Those Guys
Sept. 3--The Hitting Resumes
Sept. 2 p.m.--Ground Game Gets It In Gear
Sept. 2 a.m.--Offense Comes To Life
Sept. 1--Let The Hitting Begin
Aug. 31--Taking A Close Look At The Freshman Class And Practice Report
Aug. 30--Finish The Sentence Part 2 And Practice Report
Aug. 29--Media Day: Finish The Sentence Part 1 And Practice Report
Aug. 28--Practice Report: Defense Rules The Day
Aug. 27--Practice Report: Increased Depth 'Almost' Everywhere
Aug. 26--UNH Preview
Aug. 25--Holy Cross Preview
Aug. 22--Colgate Preview
Aug. 21--Added Points Total Projection
Aug. 21--Yale Preview
Aug. 20--Princeton Preview
Aug. 19--Penn Preview
Aug. 18--Harvard Preview
Aug. 15--Cornell Preview
Aug. 14--Columbia Preview
Aug. 14--11th Game Or Playoffs?
Aug. 13--Brown Preview
Aug. 13--Toughest Position To Fill
Aug. 12--The Great Financial Aid Divide
Aug. 12--Poll Positions
July 30--Buddy Teevens First Person
May 7--A Look At Regular Decision Recruits
May 3--Freshman Quarterbacks, Offense Impress
May 2--Time To Play Name Those X-Factors
May 1--Summing Up The Spring
April 30--Freshman Kicker And Receiver Opening Eyes
April 29--From The War Room
April 28--First Scrimmage Play-By-Play
April 26--Offense Sharp In First Scrimmage
April 25--Anything But A Yawner
April 23--Observations Midway Through The Spring
April 21--Teevens Sees The Bright Side Of O-Line Issue
April 15--Ian Wilson's Return A Boost For The Defense
April 14--Spring Has Sprung In Hanover
April 11--Spring 2008 Q&A With Buddy Teevens
Jan. 23--Compiled Jayvee Stats
Dec. 21--Early Decision Recruits
Dec. 10--More Athleticism, More Questions In 2008

Sports Network Picks Big Green 7th

David Coulson over at The Sports Network, has posted his Ivy League preview with an intro that touches on financial aid issues in the league as well as the prohibition against the playoffs. Coulson's season prediction:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Penn
4. Brown
5. Princeton
6. Cornell
7. Dartmouth
8. Columbia

The Forecast Is ... Perfect

It used to be that when I did phone interviews with coaches from visiting teams during the week, they would always have one question for me: "What's the forecast?" Dartmouth coaches, knowing I'd spoken with their colleagues, would ask the same thing before road games. Thanks to the Internet, no one asks that question anymore.

But in case you are wondering, the forecast for Saturday in the village of Hamilton, NY, is drop-dead perfect. Sunny and 72 degrees. Don't forget the SPF 30!

Speaking of Saturday, the Dartmouth football family will be tailgating at Colgate's Blue public lot at Colgate, beginning at 10 a.m.

Admit it. You think I've been overdoing this Jordan Scott-Mike McLeod thing. Sure, the Colgate and Yale tailbacks are good, but they can't be that good, right? Well, check out the following, purloined from Colgate's game notes:

NCAA Active Career Rushing Leaders
1. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 4,776
2. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 3,672
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Rushing Yards Per Game
1. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 136.5
2. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 122.4
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Carries
1. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 1081
2. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 817
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Carries Per Game
1. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 30.9
2. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 27.2
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Rushing Touchdowns
1. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale –48
2. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 45
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Total Points
1. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 294
2. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 286
3. JT Rogan, Sr., San Diego – 282
NCAA Active Career Leaders - Scoring Touchdowns
1. Mike McLeod, Sr., Yale – 49
2. Jordan Scott, Sr., Colgate – 47
JT Rogan, Sr., San Diego – 47

The Manchester Union Leader has a well-done preview of the Dartmouth football team. It includes this "lede:"

Since Buddy Teevens returned as Dartmouth's football coach in 2005, the program has enjoyed tremendous change.

The new Floren Varsity House, artificial turf and renovated grandstand are among the improvements, yet there is much work to be done in Hanover.

Like restoring Dartmouth into an Ivy League power.

The Patriot League's weekly release is up here. Scroll down for a few sentences about Colgate-Dartmouth. (It's Dartmouth-Colgate in the Ivy release ;-)

Senior tailback Hudson Smythe and sophomore defensive end Buddy Benaderet get a mention in this Palo Alto Online story about area players in the Ivy League. Not surprisingly, the focus is on Cornell quarterback Nathan Ford.

A columnist in the Columbia Spectator is making a call for an 11th game. Good luck.

It's a story that's been told more than a few times this preseason, but LSU quarterback Andrew Hatch is a Harvard transfer. This story reminds us, as he looks ahead to leading No. 6 LSU into Jordan-Hare Stadium to play No. 9 Auburn, that the last road game he played in was at ... the Yale Bowl, where he helped quarterback the Harvard jayvees against the Bulldog javvers. Said Hatch:

It’s going to be a little different crowd in terms of numbers. Same game, I guess.

I'm not sure everyone in the SEC would agree ...

I'm no web expert, but I know what I like and I really like Princeton's Gameday Central layout. This is one-stop shopping with links to helpful information presented in a clear and unconfusing way. Kudos to the folks at Princeton for a gem.

And finally, I'm still getting used to this cross country stuff. That certain Hanover High junior's team had an away meet yesterday and finished second. That would be an absolute stunner if they had brought the varsity team, but they didn't and I know of one first-year runner who was disappointed to be doing a very tough workout instead. The varsity will be in action Saturday morning in something called the Black Bear Invitational. ... That certain Hanover freshman, meanwhile, saw his second football game of the season cancelled Monday afternoon because injuries left the jayvees without enough players to field a competitive team against a squad from a higher division.

Colgate's Notes Posted

Colgate's game notes for Saturday are posted here. Alex Relph, the Raiders' starting quarterback last year and in this fall's opener, is still missing from the depth chart after suffering an ankle injury midway through the first quarter of the opener at Stony Brook.

First Notes Up

Greetings from Green Alert mobile, our 1984 VW camper van parked outside of the one-room public library here in downtown metropolitan Etna, pop. 814. (I'm not making that description up: check this Wikipedia entry)

That's right. You guessed it. No Internet up on the mountain once again today so I've cruised on down here, both to get you a posting as well as to make sure anyone who emailed a subscription last night gets up and going ASAP. With the season starting Saturday, service is my business ;-). Speaking of which, if you haven't yet signed up, what's the delay?

Game notes from Dartmouth and Colgate have not yet been posted, but it shouldn't be long. For now, the Ivy League has its introductory weekend report up here and a PDF compilation of its individual game notes here. ...

For a "hometown note" on Colgate's leading receiver, 6-foot-6 inch Pat Simonds, click here.

One of the most intriguing games of the opening weekend for Ivy League teams will pit Princeton against The Citadel in South Carolina. A story in the Post and Courier begins this way:

The Citadel has never played an Ivy League team in football. Princeton has never played a Southern Conference school in football.

So Princeton's visit to Johnson Hagood Stadium on Saturday to face the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs represents something of a clash of football cultures.

Kevin Higgins, head coach at The Citadel, knows something about Princeton having forged a 56-25-1 record as head coach at Lehigh from 1994-2000 and beating Princeton his final season, 20-18. Quipped Higgins in the story:

They will be well-coached, and they are probably going to do a lot more from a scheme standpoint than most of the teams in our league, in all three phases of the game. That's where their advantage is. When your average SAT score is 1,500, you can do a lot more things.

Added Higgins:

I would say they are a lot like us. I'd say they are similar to The Citadel, similar to Elon, similar to Western Carolina — teams in our league that are very competitive and are trying to make that step to the next level.

With the Ivy League almost always playing the same non-conference opponents – and not going to the playoffs – it will be interesting to see how one of the Ancient Eight stacks up to a team from outside of the region. It will be the second game Princeton has played against a non-traditional opponent in as many years and the Tigers have to hope this one turns out differently. Last fall they played host to Hampton and by most accounts never really recovered from a 48-27 loss.

Mark Johnson, the former Dartmouth quarterback, captain and major league baseball player has been inducted into the Holy Name High School Hall of Fame in Worcester, Mass. (link)

Quick Turnaround This Weekend

It's hardly a secret that the Dartmouth football schedule is out of kilter.

All road games in New England in odd-numbered years. No games in New England in even-numbered years. Not a one.

Making matters worse: Those five games in even-numbered years happen to be the five longest road trips Dartmouth ever makes. All in the same year.

Here's the kicker for yours truly. Two of this year's four jayvee games (all are at home) are on the Sundays after varsity contests at Colgate and Cornell. Because I write two stories on game nights and don't finish the second until perhaps 9 p.m., I usually choose to spend Saturday night in Upstate New York and then make the long drive home in a leisurely fashion the next morning. Once back here I sit down and get to work on a follow story to the previous day's varsity game.

But jayvee games at 1 p.m. against Vermont this Sunday and at noon against Bridgton the Sunday after Cornell mean I'm going to have to call a couple of audibles this fall. I suppose I'll either be getting up awful early or be getting home awful late ;-)

Live stats from Saturday's opener at Colgate will be available here.

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Recognize the name George Darlington? He spent one year as a Dartmouth assistant under Bob Blackman and eventually ended up being a fixture on Tom Osborne's staff at Nebaska. He's now at San Diego and was the featured in this story. It notes that Darlington:

... became the first assistant in Division I-A history to be part of more than 300 wins at one institution. From 1973-85, he coached defensive ends and outside linebackers for the "Blackshirt" defense. From 1986-2002, he was the defensive backfield coach. He helped Nebraska to three national titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997 as well as numerous conference championships.

Find Darlington's bio here.

And finally, Dartmouth football – make that futbol – is off to a terrific start. In its second game of the year, the Big Green soccer team put a 4-0 hurt on Indiana, ranked No. 3 or No. 6 depending on which poll you prefer. (The PR guy in me will go with No. 3). There's a story here. Senior Craig Henderson of New Zealand was named Soccer America's National Player of the Week after the upset. (link) And Jeff Cook's squad, ranked No. 25 with a bullet, just won its own tournament with a victory over Colgate yesterday. (link)

Your Morning Fix Delayed

9:15 a.m. Our electricity has been off until moments ago, so your morning "fix" will be delayed. Check back in a bit.

Middlebury Jayvee Photos

Here ware a few pictures taken from the press box while working as a one-person statistics "crew" during Saturday's jayvee game against Middlebury. (Click on the individual pictures to enlarge.)
A diving defender has the Middlebury quarterback under pressure.

Royce Egeolu (36) and Aaron Limonthas (15) close in.
Dan Rooney runs for a first down.
Conner Kempe drives Dartmouth for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
The defensive line awaits a snap.The linebacker corps sets up.JB Andreassi had a big game returning kicks.Big Eddie Smith gets a hand up on a Middlebury pass.

Dartmouth Will Face 1-2 Colgate

It's now officially game week and Saturday's season-opening opponent, Colgate, will bring a 1-2 record into the contest after dropping a 42-21 decision to Furman. Find the recap here, the statistics here and a Syracuse.com story here. Colgate played again without standout quarterback Alex Relph. Starter Greg Sullivan wasn't too shabby, completing 17-of-21 passes for 183 yards without an interception. Jordan Scott ran 19 times for 113 yards for 'Gate and is now 61 yards from becoming the all-time leading rusher in Patriot League annals. It was his 15th consecutive game topping the century mark.

New Hampshire won a wild one over Rhode Island, 51-43, probably putting to rest talk about the Wildcats finally having a defense to match their high-flying offense. There's a recap here and the box score here. Ricky who? In his second start after replacing the graduated Ricky Santos, RJ Toman threw five touchdown passes, completing 29-of-40 passes for 309 yards. Speedster Chad Kackert ran 11 times for 164 yards.

Casey Cramer should see time today in his first game with the Miami Dolphins. For the team's story on his signing (with a picture), click here. The Dolphin PR people have done good work getting an updated bio of Casey (with head and shoulders pic) on their website here. From that site:

During the 2008 offseason Cramer participated in a PSA campaign entitled "Raise Your Glasses" for the Nashville Opera, a program that featured 15 Nashville celebrities and personalities ... Was raised with an appreciation for the arts and was interested in the opportunity in part because of his family's experience in the performing arts ... The campaign was part of an effort to raise $12 million for educational outreach through the Fund for Artistic Excellence and the Noah Liff Opera Center, the company’s first ever permanent headquarters.

Former lineman Evan Nogay, who will intern with Sen. Jay Rockefeller this fall instead of playing football, has been awarded a grant for that internship from Dartmouth's School of Public Policy. He's also a McSpadden Intern. There's a story here.

Another son of a former Dartmouth player is making a big name for himself in recruiting circles. Ra'Shede Hageman is a 6-foot-6, 260-pound tight end from Minneapolis who is ranked among the top 10 high school players in the nation at his position. Ra'Shede and his brother were adopted by Eric Hageman '90 when they were 7 and 6. There's a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story here.

JV Game On Tap

With the preseason game against Harvard in the books – and having seen it, that's what it was, a preseason game, not a scrimmage – Dartmouth now turns its attention to Middlebury for a junior varsity game this afternoon against the Midd varsity. Visit Green Alert Premium for full coverage of the Middlebury game tonight.

I remember clearly marveling at the leg of the Panthers' kicker during the game against Middlebury several years ago. Turns out, Steve Hauschka graduated, played at North Carolina State as a grad student, and was a late cut by the Minnesota Vikings. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens (link) only to be cut last week.

The Yale Daily News earlier this week had a quick look at ballyhooed freshman running back Alex Thomas, who ran for 518 yards and seven touchdowns in one game at his tiny Connecticut high school and finished with state records of 8,279 rushing yards, 114 touchdowns and 747 points.

Game 2 opponent UNH opens league play today against Rhode Island. The Sports Network predicts a 45-13 win for the Wildcats, who had no trouble with Army last week. ... The Manchester Union Leader also has a preview. ... Opening-game foe Colgate plays host to Furman this afternoon in what should be a tough game.

Late sports information director Kathy Slattery Phillips will be honored posthumously with the ECAC Commissioners Award in Albany. (link) She worked in the college sports information office from 1977 until her passing last November at age 55.

And finally, if you want to buy tickets for Dartmouth wrestling and golf, click here. (OK, I'm kind of kidding but they aren't ;-)