Cramer Back With Titans

Released by the Miami Dolphins, Casey Cramer is headed back to the Tennessee Titans for the postseason. The Tennessean has a story. Cramer spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons with Tennessee. From the story:

Agent Joe Linta said Cramer was on the verge of signing with the Broncos when Coach Jeff Fisher called. The Titans need help at special teams following the groin injury to linebacker Josh Stamer, who was placed on injured reserve.

"Casey is excited,'' Linta said. "Timing is everything. If Jeff Fisher had called two hours later it would have been too late.''

Jay, We Hardly Knew Ye

A Miami Herald story about Chad Pennington offers the latest chapter in the revisionist history of Jay Fiedler's days as starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. From the story:

''Leadership'' tops the short list of the few NFL assets not quantified by any clock, tape or Byzantine formula.

But it's the quality -- above a rocket arm, pinpoint accuracy or Second City improvisational ability -- that coaches and scouts consider a requisite in quarterbacks. It's why Bobby Layne is in the Hall of Fame and Jeff George, whose passing talent still gets scouts misty-eyed, couldn't keep a starting job.

It's what the Dolphins instantly knew they had with Pennington.

LIFE AFTER MARINO
From 1983-99, the Dolphins had Dan Marino, one of the few quarterbacks with George's talent and Layne's leadership skills. Since Marino's retirement, it has been Jay Fiedler, who bore many similarities to Pennington but was unappreciated by fans because he bore few physical similarities to Marino; A.J. Feeley, a backup miscast as a starter when team veterans preferred Fiedler; and Gus Frerotte, a nomadic fill-in throughout his career.

Yale's apparent lack of success (so far) in the search for a new head coach has drawn the attention of Sports Illustrated On Campus. Under a headline, "Will Pay Handsomely For Football Coach," and a photo of the Yale football mascot, there is this:

Yale attracts lots of students. But attracting a football coach is proving to be a significant challenge. Last week new Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio became the third candidate to remove his name from consideration for the Yale head coaching job. I've got two words for Yale. Romeo Crennel.

Letters to the Yale Daily in response to the search have included these pointed thoughts:

Rule One. If your (sic) going to fire someone, especially if that person has been successful, One should have a replacement ready to go.

and ...

(T)his process reflects poorly on Yale's athletic director but is consistent with his record over 15 years of being long on talk and short on championships.

Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, while the Dartmouth men's ice hockey team just won the Ledyard Bank Classic (once known by the wonderful name the Auld Lang Syne) to improve to 8-4, the struggles continue for the Big Green in the two sports to which the rest of the country pays the most attention. After an 0-10 football season, the men's basketball team is now 2-9, with one of the wins over Division III Plymouth State. The dismal record notwithstanding, Dartmouth is in good company. Perennial powers Princeton (2-8) and Penn (2-7) are also struggling badly in the early going.

Like the football team, Dartmouth men's basketball is playing a lot of young kids. The Big Green fell to UC Davis last night, 72-41.

I should have mentioned the hockey team won its tournament with a 4-2 victory over Bemidji State.

And finally, be safe tonight and best wishes for the New Year.

Many Happy Returns

Jake Novak over at the Columbia football blog, Roar Lions Roar, reports that if linebacker Corey Cameron is awarded a fifth-year of eligibility, Columbia (2-8 overall, 2-5 Ivy League) will have eight starters returning on each side of the football, including four players who received All-Ivy recognition.

Those are solid numbers, although obviously they do not guarantee either success or improvement. Dartmouth in 2008 was a case in point. The Big Green listed a healthy seven starters back on offense and an equal number back on defense last fall (albeit none with All-Ivy on their resumes) and the team slid back.

To quote Thomas Magnum, PI, I know what you are thinking: "How many starters does Dartmouth have back for next year?"

That, my friends, is a matter of semantics because defining a "returning starter" is a tricky proposition when you are coming off a season dotted with injuries and/or instability in the lineup.

Is the linebacker who started the first two games before being hurt (Zech Glaize) the returning starter? Or is it whoever started the most games in his place (Casey Frost)? If it's Glaize, add one to the tally of returning starters because he's a junior. If you go with Frost, a senior, that's a graduated starter.

Even at a position where no one is graduating and so by definition you can say a starter is returning, you may not be able to name him. In Dartmouth's case, is the starter the quarterback who was under center the first five games (junior Alex Jenny) and then finished the last one, or the quarterback who came on to start the last three (freshman Conner Kempe)?

Perhaps the best way to gauge the 2009 Dartmouth team, then, is by looking at the number of clear-cut starters who have been lost. They are:

Offense
Tackle Alex Rapp
Wide receiver Eric Paul
Wide receiver Phil Galligan
Tailback Milan Williams

Defense
Interior lineman Rehan Mutalib
Defensive end Malcolm Freberg
Linebacker Andrew Dete
Linebacker Joe Battaglia
Strong safety Ian Wilson

Given those numbers, you can extrapolate seven starters back on offense and six on defense. But again, I wish you good luck naming some of them.

The good news is that the easiest place to do that is on the offensive line, where experience is so critical. Left guard John O'Sullivan (five consecutive starts to end the season), center Austin Fletcher (eight starts, including the last six), right guard Alex Wodka (10 starts), right tackle Alex Toth (10 starts) all return.

On the other hand, with coach Buddy Teevens promising a complete review of every aspect of the program, tapping anyone as a returning starter at this point might be considered foolhardy.

Don't Count Out Six-Man Players

Missed this the first time around, but a story aboutsix-man football on ESPN.com last fall included a mention about, and quote from, a former Dartmouth linebacker. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is quoted in the story saying it's unlikely he'll give a scholarship to a six-man player. From the story:

"It's too hard to project them," Leach said. "They might look good, but it's harder to tell if they're playing against a good team or a bad team. You can't tell how they'd do with a lot more players on the field."

Such observations are frustrating to Lyle Campbell, who starred in six-man at Gordon in the late 1990s and became an honorable mention All-Ivy League linebacker at Dartmouth in 2003.

"Football is football," Campbell said. "Blocking. Tackling. If you have football instincts, you'll pick it up."

I remember being introduced to Lyle by then-Dartmouth assistant Pat O'Leary, who later told me that he didn't know quite where the Texan would play, only that he was such a good athlete he'd play somewhere. Turns out he was right.

Ever wonder what it's like for a high school kid waiting for his phone to ring with a scholarship offer while also weighing his Ivy League possibilities? The Milford Daily News in Massachusetts has an interesting piece about quarterback Dan Guadagnoli. From the story:

Guadagnoli reports that he is getting serious interest from schools such as UMass, Northeastern, the University of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Lafeyette, Fordham and Maine. A National Honor Society student, Guadagnoli would love to play at Penn and receive the Ivy League education that comes along with it. But that decision won't be so cut and dry if a Northeastern or UMass offers him a full scholarship, something that Penn won't be able to do no matter how much the Quaker coaching staff wants him.

"You want to use sports to get you into the best possible position academically," said Guadagnoli. "But financially it becomes a problem. The (Colonial Athletic Association) schools can offer scholarships, but in the Patriot and Ivy League they can't. It puts you in a weird spot. ... It's definitely a family decision that has to be made.

And The New Coach Is ...

It has taken a while but the New Haven Register reports that, "UConn offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Rob Ambrose will be named head football coach at ..."

... wait for it ...

... wait for it ...

... Towson University.

Yale, like the legendary Jeopardy contestant who can't get the buzzer to work, is "just watching," as announcements are being made around the rest of college football. Not that the folks in New Haven aren't trying because they are. They just don't appear to be having much luck, if the Register has it right.

Remember when the Tampa Bay Bucs fired Tony Dungy as head coach after his teams went 11-5, 10-7 and 9-7 in consecutive years? The search that followed reminds me a little of what appears to be happening in New Haven. It's one thing to hire a coach to replace one who was fired because of a lack of success. It's another thing all together to hire a coach to replace one who has enjoyed success. That's the case at Yale, where Jack Siedlecki was 23-7 over the past three years and it wasn't good enough.

First Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore, then UMass coach Don Brown and now Florida assistant Steve Addazio have each tasted the waters in New Haven and chosen to stay where they are. The Portal 31 Yale football blog reported last night: "Former Cheshire High coach Steve Addazio is the latest candidate to decide to stay where he is rather than remain in contention for the vacant Yale football job."

The good news for Yale: After a bumbling search at Tampa Bay the Bucs hit gold with Jon Gruden.

And finally, that certain Hanover High School junior won the 3,000 and qualified for states in a big meet at Leverone Field House yesterday. It wasn't her best time but she took the lead with 200 meters to go and won by six seconds, so it was a solid showing. Her freshman brother was disappointed by his performance in the 1,500, but the kid who hates running and is doing it just to get in shape for his other sports still managed to take several seconds off the time he posted in his first 1,500 a week ago.

By The Book

I was wandering around the Dartmouth Bookstore the other day and stumbled across a new book about relationships called, Finding the Doorbell. Because I'd written a magazine story about the local author, Cindy Pierce, I flipped through the pages of the book and lo-and-behold, there were a handful of Dartmouth football players from a few years back mentioned in the author's notes.

Pierce, whose father Reg '46, ran the popular Pierce's Inn here in Etna for many years, wrote of her "gratitude to Brooks Goff and the Class of 2006 football team members." She wrote that, "Their respectful questions and openness launched this book idea."

Mentioned in addition to Goff (the author's nephew) were Charles Ganske, Josh Dooley and Daniel Tootoo.

(For the magazine story I wrote on the author, click here.)

Our local paper has a column today entitled, "Dan Mackie Knows all, tells all! 2009 predictions." Be forewarned, it's all tongue-in-cheek. Dan's sixth prediction:

Dartmouth College's embattled football team wins Ivy League title. Buddy Teevens leaves to coach Notre Dame.

An astonishing note in a story about a placekicker headed to Harvard next fall caught my eye and sent me back to the Harvard press guide to see if it could be true. It is, with one clarification. The note:

... (I)n the 15 years with coach Tim Murphy at the helm, every Crimson four-year player has had at least one league championship and undefeated season.

That every four-year player at Harvard since Murphy took over has graduated with at least one Ivy League championship during their career is absolutely correct. And each of those four-year players has been on an undefeated team, although the story should have said undefeated in the Ivy League.

The championship streak will continue at least through the Class of 2012, which was part of an Ivy title team this fall as freshmen.

How successful has Murphy's run at Harvard been? In the six years before he arrived, the Crimson did not enjoy a single winning season overall. After going 4-6, 2-8 and 4-6 in his first three years, Murphy led his fourth Harvard team to the Ivy League championship with a 7-0 conference record and a 9-1 overall mark.

Harvard's record since 2001: 64-15 overall and 46-10 with four Ivy League championships.

Another Target?

A Denver Post story about something called the Jack & Jill Beautillion includes the mention of a potential Dartmouth recruiting target. It's not clear if he's being looked at for football or basketball, but the guess here would be the former. From the story:

A senior at Cherry Creek High School, Terrance (Walker) was on the High Honor Roll for each of his four years and is an AP Scholar and Tribute to Black Youth honoree. Terrance also is a CHSAA Academic All-State first team member, a three-year varsity football letterman and two-year varsity basketball letterman. He is being actively recruited by Harvard Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton, and hopes to earn an undergraduate degree in biology before attending medical school and becoming a surgeon.

Walker, who is 6-foot, 180 pounds, had 21 catches for 352 yards and four touchdowns last fall to go along with 24 tackles and two interceptions in the secondary. ... Cherry Creek is a traditional football powerhouse that has been extremely kind to Dartmouth in the past, sending along 1995 co-captains Taran Lent and Pete Oberle among others.

Curious about what the "goodie bags," players receiver from the various BCS Bowl Games? Some version of this story is written every year and it's always entertaining. From the story:

Bowls are permitted to give players $500 worth of bowl gifts. They range from standard-issue bowl souvenirs such as hooded sweatshirts and mini-helmets to nifty electronics such as iPods and Nintendo Wiis.

Electronics seem to rule the day, which is hardly a surprise.

And finally, we had a wonderful Christmas here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain. There will be some "returns" today, the second high school track meet of the winter tomorrow at Leverone (that certain Hanover High junior will be running the 3,000 while her brother the certain freshman will be running the 1,500) and then it's off to Massachusetts for two days for a second Christmas with the other side of the family.

Best Wishes

Please tell me you are visiting this electronic precinct today because you got a new iPhone or Blackberry. Maybe a new MacBook?

Not much to report except best wishes and a quick note or two that you may have missed.

From a college release:

Dartmouth's Floren Varsity House has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmental sustainability, winning the Leadership in Energy and Environmental (LEED) 2.2 Silver Certification. The facility has also won the Design Award of Honor from the Society of American Registered Architects.

Do check out the above release, which has more information as well as several photographs.

With a daughter who will be applying to colleges in another year, we are paying attention to things like, well, like the return on the investment of your tuition dollar. Smart Money magazine recently ... "came up with a 'payback' ratio between the cost of attending an institution and the average salary earned by a graduate, and applied it to a sample of 50 schools."

Fifty schools is a small sample, but you'll be glad to know Dartmouth finished high in the Ivies, although the Ivies didn't finish particularly high overall. Here's an excerpt:

Public schools with the highest ratio: University of Georgia with an average payback of 338%; Texas A&M (315%); University of Texas, Austin (306%); Georgia Tech (263%); and University of Washington (225%). The winners in the Liberal Arts category were Washington and Lee (165%), University of Richmond (130%), Lafayette College (115%), College of the Holy Cross (114%), and Bucknell (114%). The top five Ivies: Princeton (132%), Dartmouth (131%), Yale (127%), Harvard (124%), and University of Pennsylvania (124%).

And in case you were wondering, I wrote this yesterday and rigged it to get posted this morning. The kids are growing up fast – too fast – but trust me, they didn't want to sit around this morning waiting for this blog. They have a lot of patience with Green Alert throughout the late summer and fall, but that might be pushing the envelope a little too much this morning ;-)

Small Early Decision Class Is Big. ... Huh?

HANOVER – Admit it. You’ve been wondering just how much damage a winless season has meant to Dartmouth’s recruiting, haven’t you?

The answer, according to Big Green coach Buddy Teevens: Not much.

The proof, he feels, is in an early-decision class that is small in size (eight players) but seriously large in stature. It includes a 6-foot-8, 295-pound offensive lineman, a 6-6 tight end with eyes on reaching 250 pounds by the time he arrives on campus, a well-matched, pitch-and-catch set of 6-5 quarterback and receiver, a 6-4 defensive end and no one under 6-2.

“The won-loss record overall really has not been an issue anyplace we've gone,” Teevens said Monday afternoon. “People are aware of it. We talk about it straight up. Then they hear about how many young players we had playing, and at what position some of them played. What’s encouraging to me is, we are bringing in guys who want to compete with guys who have played as freshmen and sophomores.

“People are very excited by what they see and the sense they get from our players about what is happening. They want to be part of a turnaround situation.”

Continued on Green Alert premium

Dartmouth Early Decision Admits

Rob Bathe, 6-3, 265 guard/center
Wayzata HS, Minnesota

Sam Clancy, 6-5, 200 quarterback
Cascia Hall, Tulsa, Okla.

Jackson Floyd, 6-6, 223 tight end
Loyola HS, Willmette, Ill.

Danny Husband, 6-3, 210 defensive end
Cascia Hall, Tulsa, Okla.

Brian Kosnik, 6-5, 185 wide receiver
Darien HS, Darien, Conn.

Tom Patek, 6-3, 205 linebacker
Carmel HS, Mundelein, Ill.

Teddy Reed, 6-4, 256 defensive end
Deerfield Academy, Boxford, Mass.

John Scheve, 6-8, 295 offensive tackle
Boys Latin, Baltimore, Md.

Early Decision Lacrosse Admits Playing Football

RC Willenrock, 5-11, 170 kicker
Cherry Creek HS, Englewood, Colo.

Anthony Fulham, 6-3, 190, wide receiver
Canisius HS, Buffalo, N.Y.

Florida assistant head coach Steve Addazio may be the next Yale head coach, according to the New Haven Register which writes that he, "is trying to determine if Yale fits his — and his family’s —lifestyle as well or better than the higher paying job as offensive coordinator at either Florida or Mississippi State."

Athletic DE In Early Decision Class

Add Deerfield Academy's Teddy Reed to the list of Dartmouth's early decision recruits. Reed is an athletic 6-foot-4, 256-pound defensive end who made the Boston Globe's All-Scholastics team a year ago as a senior at Masconomet High School. Recruited by Delaware, New Hampshire and Northeastern, among others, he is instead chose to prep this year at Deerfield with an eye toward playing at Dartmouth.

For another quick glimpse at Reed, who helped Masconomet rush for more than 2,500 yards as an offensive lineman and also had the opportunity to play college lacrosse, click here.

An action photo of Reed from a Deerfield game this fall makes it look as if even at 255-or-so pounds, he might be able to carry a little more.

Tomorrow: a 6-foot-8, 295-pound offensive tackle is headed to Hanover next fall.

In case you are curious, The Sports Network released its final poll of the year at the conclusion of the FCS playoffs. Dartmouth opponents finished eighth, 15th, 16th, 31st and 37th. The full poll with Dartmouth opponents italicized:

1. Richmond
2. Montana Grizzlies
3. James Madison
4. Northern Iowa
5. Appalachian State
6. Villanova
7. Weber State
8. New Hampshire
9. Wofford
10. Cal Poly
11. Southern Illinois
12. Central Arkansas
13. South Carolina State
14. Liberty
15. Harvard
16. Colgate
17. Elon
18. Maine
19. Eastern Kentucky
20. William
21. McNeese State
22. Texas State
23. Jacksonville State
24. Grambling State
25. Prairie View A&M

Others receiving votes: Tennessee-Martin 124, Albany 116, South Dakota State 91, Furman 55, Tennessee State 43 Brown 40, Massachusetts 32, Florida A&M 24, Jacksonville 19, Eastern Washington 17, Western Illinois 14, Holy Cross 13, Georgia Southern 12, North Dakota State 11, Northwestern State 7, Montana State 5, San Diego 4, Bethune-Cookman.

In case you are wondering, the temperature in Etna at 8:05 a.m. according to the Internet is minus-12, but our thermometer shows it a balmy 5 below up here ;-)

Monday Montage

If you are looking for all the Ivy League statistical leaders (individual and team) in one place, check out this stats page at The Sports Network. ...

With the Arizona Cardinals in New England to play the Patriots, former Brown wide receiver Sean Morey got a nice writeup in the Providence Journal as a Pro Bowl-special teamer with the Cardinals. The story included a bit that every high school and college player should note:

When he was playing for Marshfield High (Mass.), he attended a camp at Harvard and took to heart words spoken by Dick MacPherson, who had been coach of the Patriots and, before that, at Syracuse.

“He said you could make yourself a football player,” Morey recalled. “He said that if you want to be faster, run. If you want to be stronger, lift. If you want to be a better receiver, go out and catch more balls.”

There's another story about Morey earning a Pro Bowl slot here.

There was an interesting story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch prior to the FCS national championship game about a Richmond captain writing a computer program to predict opponent playcalling.

Want to see a gorgeous night-time picture of Hanover? Check this out.

And finally, the snow has stopped. After back-to-back storms, we've got about 2.5 feet at our snow stick and the fellow that plows our driveway has his Christmas presents paid for ;-)

Cramer Cut Again

No one has to tell Casey Cramer '04 the NFL is a business. He found out anew yesterday when he was waived by the Miami Dolphins. The Sun-Sentinel reports the tight end-fullback hybrid, who saw his playing time decrease after the Fins signed Lousaka Polite, was released when the team promoted a linebacker from the practice squad.

Dartmouth's most recent All-American (as a tight end), Cramer was drafted and then cut by the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2004. He then spent a little time with the New York Jets (not appearing in any games) before being picked up by the Tennessee Titans. From there it was to the Carolina Panthers, the fourth organization of his rookie year. He stuck in Carolina into the 2005 season and then was back with the Titans for a couple of seasons before landing in Miami this year.

Cramer has played in 36 games over a five-year NFL career. He got into nine games with the Dolphins this year, the most he's played other than a 15-game stretch with the Titans in 2006.

Iowa State has hired Paul Rhodes as its new football coach. If you are an Ivy League football fan, that isn't news. What is news is that the Iowa State search has informed us, despite all his success, that Harvard coach Tim Murphy is still keeping his eyes open regarding other positions. From a GoCylones, a website operated by the Tribune in Ames, Iowa comes this:

Harvard coach Tim Murphy has contacted the ISU athletic department about the vacancy, a source close to the coach said.

Paul Sheehy, Murphy’s agent, confirmed that his client would be interested in the ISU job, but would not comment about any communication between Murphy and the Cyclones.

To borrow and butcher Saturday Night Live's signature line from a long time ago ("Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead") we offer this:

Yale is still looking for a head football coach.

For those of you who are wondering, the high school indoor track season started yesterday at Leverone Field House for not one, but two of those certain Hanover High School student-athletes.

The junior accomplished what she wanted to accomplish by qualifying for states in the 1500 with a third-place finish, and 15 minutes later ran the third leg on the 4x400 relay that placed second. The freshman also ran the 1500. Although running track only to be in shape for baseball this spring and not intending to compete, he gamely went out there, beating three runners and lapping one, which took away some of the pain for a kid who considers distance running a form of torture.

Finally, the snow just keeps on a-comin'. The forecast today is for 10-16 inches of the stuff. We've got 16 inches at our snow stick from the previous two storms, so it's building up pretty good. If we get the full 16 inches, Cooper, that certain golden retriever, will be tunneling his way into the woods each morning to, um, take care of bidness.

Dete A National Finalist

Kudos to senior linebacker Andrew Dete, chosen to the Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association Academic All-Star Team and one of six national finalists for the eighth annual FCS ADA’s postgraduate scholarship. (Release) From the release:

The finalists are Pierre Banks, Appalachian State, linebacker, 3.91; Andrew Berry, Harvard, defensive back, 3.78; Ryan Berry, South Dakota State, quarterback, 3.89; Andrew Dete, Dartmouth, linebacker, 3.74; Jim Verlanic, Montana State, offensive lineman, 3.71; and Justin Witzmann, Charleston Southern, defensive lineman, 3.80.

In a posting about former Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, a columnist for the New Haven Register writes on the Portal 31 blog:

I know that he struggled to beat Harvard, a no-no for any Yale coach in any sport, but still if Siedlecki was the coach at Columbia, Cornell or Dartmouth and had a 70-49 record with two Ivy League titles in the last 12 years including a 23-7 mark over the last three seasons, the Yale search committee would be doing cartwheels if he said he was interested in the Yale job.

Good point.

The College Sporting News has another in its series of Top 30players at difference positions in 30 years of I-AA/FCS football (earlier post). This time there's a look at the Top 30 quarterbacks.

The list is curious because it can seem to decide whether the most important criteria is how a player performed in college, or how the player performed in the NFL. Given the Kurt Warner is listed as the No. 1 quarterback and he didn't even start at Northern Iowa until he's a senior, it must be how players performed after college. That would explain UNH's Ricky Santos, a three-time All-America who is third all-time in FCS in passing yards and touchdowns finishing down at No. 11.

But how then, to explain, Dartmouth's Jay Fiedler being left off the list when Arena League players like Russ Michna of Western Illinois and Michael Payton of Marshall were chosen? Or Casey Printers of Florida A&M, who the writeup said, "had a tryout with the Kansas City Chiefs?"

Either way, do look at the list. You'll be impressed by the number of well-known NFL quarterbacks who came out of I-AA/FCS.

And the national champion in the FCS is ... Richmond. From the Chattanoogan about last night's national championship final:

Josh Vaughan ran for 162 yards, Lawrence Sidbury had four sacks and the Spiders dominated Montana, 24-7, Friday night at Finley Stadium for the school's first-ever NCAA Championship in any sport.

Richmond, by the way, finished third in the CAA South. If you are wondering, New Hampshire won the CAA North.

Snow. Did someone say snow?

We've got it, 14 inches worth with more on the way tomorrow if the forecast is correct. Fortunately, the first indoor track meet for a certain pair of Hanover High School athletes will be taking place as scheduled. That's a good thing because the window of opportunity for the high schools to get in Leverone Field House is small and if the meet were canceled it would not be made up. Whether schools from the southern part of the state, which was supposed to receive even more snow, make the 90-minute or two-hour drive north is in question. But with just two indoor tracks in the state and precious few meets, some probably will.

Before The Snow Falls ...

Just a quick blog this morning with upwards of a foot of snow headed this way and a lot to get to before the white stuff starts to come down. (And there's another big one expected Sunday, so you can be pretty sure it's gonna be a white Christmas in these parts.) ...

Former Dartmouth assistant Don Brown has followed in the footsteps of Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore and withdrawn his name from the list of candidates to replace Jack Siedlecki at Yale. No explanation as to why the current UMass coach opted out, but is it possible Yale is the latter-day Nebraska, where potential coaches worry that very good won't be good enough?

Remember Frank Solich, who went 58-19 at Nebraska without ever having a losing record only to be let go after a 9-3 season? His biggest mistake was not being Tom Osborne. Now read what the New Haven Register wrote about Siedlecki, who wasn't Carm Cozza:

Siedlecki had a 70-49 record, won two Ivy League championships and led the Bulldogs to a 23-7 record over the last three seasons. Despite that success — which included 17 wins in 18 games over one stretch — Siedlecki’s Bulldogs beat Harvard only once in the last eight years, leading to some high anxiety for certain influential alumni.

Granted, there was that little issue of losing to Harvard, but it's still hard to believe the pressure Siedlecki apparently was under with that kind of record. Could it be that the coaches who withdrew wondered if there was enough support to top the 23-7 benchmark that wasn't enough to save Siedlecki?

The 2009 Dartmouth-UNH game, rumored to be on the ropes a few times, is the New Hampshire opener until the Wildcats fill in the front end of their schedule according to Allen Lessels' story in the Manchester Union Leader. UNH is on the lookout for a BCS "money game," but between Appalachian State's very costly victory over Michigan and the Wildcat's own success in guarantee games, landing a payday is proving to be tricky. Maybe they'll find a game on Sept. 26 and have to beg out against Dartmouth. ;-)

New York Times George Vecsey writes about the courage shown by former Dartmouth and Cincinnati Bengal linebacker Reggie Williams, who has had the fight of his life trying to save his leg. He writes:

Williams was sustained by a network of great friends, many of them African-Americans of talent and character who had been recruited to Dartmouth College in the tumultuous but idealistic ’60s and ’70s — the generation that led to our new president, to new hope.

The Pioneer Press has a brief note about Dartmouth co-captain elect, Timmy McManus:

For just the second time in Dartmouth football history, a junior — former St. Thomas Academy star Tim McManus — has been named captain for next season. McManus, who set several passing records at St. Thomas, was a District Academic All-American this past season at Dartmouth.

A small correction. McManus is actually the third junior captain in the Ivy League era. He was preceded by Caleb Moore (1999 and then again in 2000) and Clayton Smith (2003 and again in 2004). Moore was the first two-year captain since James Robertson in 1920 and 1921.

Dartmouth played against three coaches that earned votes in the Eddie Robinson balloting for FCS coach of the year. Colgate's Dick Biddle was 16th, Brown's Phil Estes was 19th and UNH's Sean McDonnell was 22nd.

Receiving votes for the Buck Buchanan Award as the nation's top defensive player in the FCS were Yale's Bobby Abare and Harvard's Matt Curtis.

Tough Just Officially Got Tougher

It was something of a throw-away line in a story about Holy Cross football coach Tom Gilmore, but it was bad news for Dartmouth and Patriot League football teams. From the Worcester Telegram:

Gilmore will be back with the Crusaders in 2009 and so will star quarterback Dominic Randolph. The Patriot League approved the player’s application for a medical redshirt and the Holy Cross record-setter will return for a fifth season.

Gilmore, of course, is the former Dartmouth defensive coordinator who was believed to be one of the finalists for the vacant head coaching position at Yale. Word broke yesterday that he has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job, which remains unfilled.

Randolph is Gilmore's senior quarterback, who injured an ankle in the first half of his first junior varsity game and didn't play again that season.

With the Patriot League approving his petition for a final year, Dartmouth's traditionally tough first half of the season just got that much tougher.

How has Randolph fared against Dartmouth the past three years?

• 2006 20-32, 259 yards, 1 TD, 0 int in a 24-21 win
  
• 2007 24-35, 298 yards, 2 TD, 0 int. in a 41-15 win
• 2008 33-45, 391 yards, 2 TD, 2 int. in a 44-26 win
  

Add it up and he's completed 77-of-112 passes (68.8 percent) for 948 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions against the Big Green. Randolph, by the way, just won the George “Bulger” Lowe Award as the Division I Player of the Year in New England. He finished ninth in the balloting for the Walter Payton Award as the nation's top offensive player in the FCS.

With Colgate having taken the wraps off of Patriot League Rookie of the Year Nate Eachus (872 rushing yards and 10 TDs after moving over from linebacker), New Hampshire being New Hampshire and Penn having the most All-Ivy players in the league returning those first three games next fall will certainly be a challenge. What Yale will look like in Game 4 is anybody's guess (but the game is at New Haven, which won't help the Dartmouth cause) and then it's off to Holy Cross for another look at Randolph.

There are Dartmouth bashers who think Big Green sympathizers talk too much about the difficulty of the early season schedule but no matter how you slice it, that's clearly not an easy first five games.

Returning star players is no guarantee of success, of course, something Dartmouth fans should know. The Big Green won a share of the title in 1992 with Jay Fiedler completing 64.1 percent of his passes. He came back as a senior and saw his completion percentage plummet to 49.8 as the Big Green finished a strong second in the Ivy but did not repeat.

Still, it's better to have star players returning than not have them returning and clearly, Colgate, UNH (quarterback RJ Toman, tight end Scott Sicko) and Penn have plenty of firepower back in the fold.

Sicko, by the way, was named to the Associated Press All-America first team. Other players Dartmouth faced this year who were honored by the AP included second-teamers Bobby Abare (Yale linebacker) and Nick Hennessey (Colgate offensive line) and third-teamers James Williams (Harvard offensive line) and Andrew Samson (Penn kicker).

This is kind of silly. Someone on eBay is offering a "vintage 70's" Dartmouth football jersey starting at $29.99. Before you bid on it (which no one has as of this morning) take a good look. Unless I'm mistaken, that's not a game jersey at all, but one of the "class numeral" shirts that freshmen wear to the first football game. And if that's the case, this "70's" jersey is from 1987 because that's the numeral.

And finally, I'm working on a freelance story about Dartmouth basketball forward Alex Barnett, a truly remarkable player who last night went over 1,000 points in his career. The silky 6-6 senior is averaging 21.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game for the 2-6 Big Green. (Those numbers would have been even higher if he'd played more than 23 minutes in Sunday's win over Division III Plymouth State.) But the reason I mention this isn't Barnett. It's because there were 317 people at the men's basketball game against Quinnipiac at Leede Arena and 807 for the women's ice hockey game against Harvard. Granted, the women's hockey team is No. 3 in the nation and Harvard, is Harvard. That's great for the women's hockey team. But are you kidding me?

Yale Narrows In On Coach

If the New Haven Register has it right, UMass head coach Don Brown, the former Dartmouth assistant who got his coaching start at Hartford High School right here in the Upper Valley, is the leading contender to become the next head football coach at Yale. From the Register, which said there's still an outside chance an announcement could be forthcoming as early as Friday:

Brown, 53, has a 43-19 record in five seasons at UMass. He guided the Minutemen into the 2006 and 2007 Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, reaching the championship game in 2006. In his previous head coaching stops at Plymouth State and Northeastern, he led his teams into postseason play within three years. In 12 years as a collegiate head coach, he has a 95-45 record. Brown has also spent 12 seasons as an assistant coach in the Ivy League, including defensive coordinator gigs at Dartmouth, Brown and Yale.

Brown, who was a candidate for the Yale job when Carm Cozza retired following the 1996 season, did hold a head coaching job at Yale when he was the interim baseball coach for the Bulldogs before current Yale coach John Stuper was hired in 1993.

According to the Register, Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore (like Brown a former Dartmouth defensive coordinator) interviewed Monday and Brown was in town on Tuesday. Other candidates who have "met with Yale officials" according to the paper include Florida offensive line coach Steve Addazio (a former Connecticut high school coach), former Sacred Heard coach Jim Fleming and Stanford offensive coordinator Dave Shaw.

Speaking of Yale, The Register writes the following under the headline, "Yale endowment takes $6B hit:"

Yale University is not immune from major losses in the economic downturn, with President Richard C. Levin Tuesday reporting an estimated 25 percent drop in its endowment to $17 billion over the last six months.

It is expected to cause a budget shortfall of $100 million next year, and $300 million by 2013-14, spurring the university president to order budget cuts and a hold on new positions without prior approval.

Have you finished your shopping yet? Better question if you are like me: Have you started?

Here's an idea for some of you. There are lots of photos around from the varsity games; jayvee shots are rarer but available. If you know someone who played jv football at Dartmouth, there's still time to order up a shot and have it delivered by, oh, Dec. 25.

Click here for the Dartmouth photo store that has pictures of jayvee players Aaron Limonthas, Zach Wodka, AJ Houston, Alex Johns, Alex Shulman, Anthony Diblasi, Brad Dornak, Brendan Murray, Brock Middleton, Carter Scott, Chad Hollis, Chris Hardy, Connor Phillips, Dan Rooney, Diego Fernandez-Soto, Joey Casey, Kevin Estrada, Mark Dwyer, Max Heiges, Michael Reilly, Tanner Scott, Tim Vanderet and Tyler Melancon to name, um, a few.

Snow is falling this morning with about five inches so far up here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain. We're not expected to get much more in this storm, but another is supposed to hit here Friday and a potential biggie is on tap for Sunday. As they say, "It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas."

Dartmouth Is OK With Oklahoma Pair

Add Oklahoma high school teammates Danny Husband and Sam Clancy to the Dartmouth recruiting class as a posting on the Cascia Hall web page (scroll to bottom) confirms.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Husband was a key member of the Cascia Hall "Blue Swarm" defense while 6-5, 200 quarterback Clancy has been the trigger man for back-to-back state championship teams.

Husband was ranked No. 4 on the Tulsa World's Top 10 Defensive Linemen in the Metro Area List prior to last season. Here's what that story had to say about him:

Had a pivotal interception return in the 2A state title game last year and made a key block for a TD on the next play. Recorded 86 tackles and 13 sacks last season.

Cascia Hall (13-0) had two shutouts and eight games in which it held an opponent to one touchdown or less. The Commandos allowed just 9.1 points per game.

For a 2007 YouTube highlight video of Husband, click here.

Clancy was the subject of an Oklahoman story that began this way:

Cascia Hall football coach Joe Medina has his own nickname for his quarterback, Sam Clancy.

"I call him my Peyton Manning,” Medina said. "He's always wanted to be a quarterback, and he's been programmed to be a quarterback ever since he came to Cascia Hall in the sixth grade.”

Tulsa World statistics have Clancy completed 118-of-202 passes (58.4 percent) for 1,957 yards with 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions as Cascia Hall won the 3A championship this year. He completed 84-of-130 throws (64.6 percent) with 25 touchdowns and four interceptions last year on the team that won the 2A title.

For a YouTube highlight video of the pro style quarterback, click here.

Husband and Clancy have helped Cascia Hall win 28 consecutive games. For a TV news clip featuring a few highlights and a quick interview with Clancy in advance of the state championship game, click here.

Interestingly, Cascia Hall's trip to the state finals included a 13-10 semifinal win over previously unbeaten Tuttle, the alma mater of former Dartmouth captain Josh Dooley, who was at the game.

The Harvard Crimson has a story about what might be called the clustering of majors among athletes at the school and the lack of athletes studying anything in the sciences. From the story:

Harvard athletes in science, although existent, are a relative rarity. When looking at declared juniors and seniors, the football team has only five athletes combined in the sciences concentrations, which number over a dozen. In comparison, there are 23 members of their ranks in economics alone.

That sent me scurrying off to the 2008 Dartmouth media guide to see what it reveals. A total of 35 players have majors listed (with so many freshmen and sophomores on the roster there are a great many still "undeclared"). They break down this way:

• Economics: 8
• History, Religion/History: 8
• Psychology: 5
• Government: 4
• Geography: 2
• Computer Science: 2
• English: 2
• Enginerring Sciences: 1
• Environmental Students: 1
• Philosophy: 1
• Studio Art: 1

Football Scoop is reporting that two former Dartmouth defensive coordinators are the finalists to replace Jack Siedlecki at Yale. The site, which is generally pretty accurate, lists current head coaches Tom Gilmore (Holy Cross) and Don Brown (Massachusetts) as the final two. Brown was at Dartmouth in 1982 and again from 1984-86. He's a former Yale assistant. Gilmore was at Dartmouth from 1992-99.

The Sports Network has a listing of the status of the search process at the 25 Division I schools that made coaching changes this year. Yale is one of 11 schools that has not yet named a new coach.

Dartmouth And Michigan Go Bowling

Thanks to a subscriber for sending along a link to the pregame show for a 2010 bowl game pitting No. 2 Dartmouth (11-0) against No. 1 Michigan (11-0). Commentator Kirk Herbstreit thinks J. Barton, standout Dartmouth receiver (59 catches for 1,078 yards and 11 touchdowns) will make a difference in the game. Interestingly, Dartmouth has opted to go back to its black pants against the Wolverines. No word on how the game turned out. We may have to wait until a year from January to learn the result.

There are no mentions of the mysterious J. Barton (although to go by just his first initial he must be something special), but Internet recruiting buzz on others continues. This link on Scout.com says California linebacker Brent Seals visited Dartmouth on Dec. 5 and Harvard on Friday and another link says he's already had "offers" from the Big Green, the Crimson and Columbia. Seals is 6-1, 184.

Perhaps J. Barton has a Facebook page. If he does, he may want to read a story in the New Haven Register that reminds us:

Post a photo of yourself on your own or someone else’s Facebook page holding a beer at a party or engaging in some other objectionable behavior and you could find yourself a star on badjocks.com — not to mention suspended or kicked off your team, even expelled from school.

There's some interesting stuff in the story including a look at just how fast the phenomenon has grown:

When Ed Peters, a senior offensive lineman on the Southern Connecticut State football team, arrived on campus four years ago, Facebook wasn’t even available at the school.

Today?

“I’d say everybody on our football team has Facebook,” Peters said.

Did you ever see the inflatable moose mascot that used to show up at Dartmouth football, basketball and hockey games? It had a Dr. Seuss hat on its head and was popular with kids, even if some of them made fun of it. Before the moose there was a short-lived "tree" costume that a student used to wear. I don't recall ever seeing it in use but for a long time it was mothballed in a closet in the sports information office.

A mascot – not a nickname, but a mascot – can be a good thing if it's done right. The New York Times has a detailed story about where mascots are born and what they can do for a school or a team. The story focuses on the East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University Warriors mascot "Burgy." From the story:

Burgy has a decaled Honda CR-V, donated by a local dealer. A second costume is on the way, and a third performer is being hired to meet demand. Community appearances have been scheduled into April.

The money and time “were so worth it,” said Brenda Friday, the associate director for university relations, who oversaw the mascot effort.

“And we’ve only just begun to see the benefit of this,” she added.

Of note: that's at a school playing Division II sports. ... For those who worry whether a mascot would play nice with those who are protective of team nicknames – current and past – at Division I Dartmouth, Dave Raymond would argue they are different beasts. Raymond, the original Philly Phanatic and owner of a company that creates mascots, "said that many of the best mascots — the Phanatic, the San Diego Chicken, the Phoenix Suns Gorilla — have nothing to do with the team nickname."

The Way It Was

The Orlando Sentinel has a story about the "tight-knit band of brothers who won the 2003 Class 5A state football championship at Florida Field in Gainesville." Tragically, three players on the championship team died young. Another member of the team was Dartmouth senior offensive lineman Eddie Tabasky, described as a "brainiac," and someone "who made time to tutor struggling teammates." Find the Sentinel story about the team here.

If you have top-level grades and are a pretty good football player chances are your name is showing up on an Internet website somewhere suggesting either you have interest in an Ivy League school or an Ivy League school has an interest in you. Such is the case with Jack Templeton, a 6-foot-3, 255-pound offensive guard from New Jersey's Don Bosco Prep, who has been, "talking to Ivy League schools like Princeton, Penn, Dartmouth and Columbia a lot."

Richmond drove the length of the field at the end of yesterday's FCS semifinal to cap a comeback from a 20-7 deficit and win a thriller over Northern Iowa, 21-20, to advance to Friday's national championship game. The Spiders will play Montana, which outlasted James Madison Friday, 35-27.

The West Stands project at Dartmouth has been put off because of the economic downturn but the local newspaper reported last week that the $52 million Visual Arts Center project is going on as planned. The paper quoted John Scherding of the Dartmouth Planning, Design and Construction Office as saying the college "intend(s) to keep moving forward," on the project. For a street-side view of the building, click here. For November renderings of the VAC, click here. It's possible to enlarge the frames to get a better look.

Did you watch ESPN's colorized version of The Greatest Game Ever Played, the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants? That certain Hanover High School freshman is really into sports from the '50s and '60s and was excited all week at the prospect of watching a game he'd read so much about. We sat down to view it together after the Heisman presentation and it quickly became clear we were confused, if not misled, by ESPN.

I'd have to go back and re-watch the ESPN hype to see if there's any "fine print" we missed, but both of us were led to believe from all the commercials and hype that this was going to be a digitally improved, colorized "rebroadcast" of the famous game. We thought we were going to sit down and watch the 50-year-old game much like we would watch any other NFL game.

It wasn't until the introduction began that we learned that the film of the original broadcast had been lost and that the game would be recreated with other footage, paired with the original radio broadcast. And rather than play it straight through, conversations between some of the players who were on the field that day and current players and coaches would be interwoven between film clips.

Whether it was to fit the "show" into the time slot, or because film of all the plays wasn't available, or more likely a combination of both, whole series were replaced by, "The Giants failed to move the ball," or some such comment.

That certain Hanover High football player who had been so looking forward to the "rebroadcast" of the game picked up and left after 15 minutes or so and I couldn't blame him.

By the end I came around to thinking ESPN had pulled off what it tried to do. Honestly, I wouldn't have been disappointed if I had known what was coming. I just wouldn't have watched it.

One Coming, One Offered

Heading Dartmouth's way next fall will be 6-foot-3, 210-pound outside linebacker Tommy Patek of Long Grove, Ill., and Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Ill. For a YouTube highlight video of the linebacker, click here.

Patek, who attended camp at Dartmouth last spring, struggled with injuries this fall but still started 10 games for Carmel, which allowed just one rushing touchdown until the final game. He helped Carmel go 10-2 and advance to the state quarterfinals. (Courtesy photograph)

On Dartmouth's radar screen is a 6-1, 194 quarterback from Stony Point High School in Round Rock, Texas named Nyk McKissic. From a story in the Austin American-Statesman prior to Stony Point putting a 13-1 record on the line today:

"This has been nothing short of amazing," says McKissic, who carries a 3.80 GPA and has an offer from Dartmouth. "Other guys weren't committed to the program. It was like picking the rotten apples from the bunch. People called us Stony Stepchild Point, saying we were the stepchild of Round Rock. They made us feel like we were a second-class program."

There's an earlier American-Statesman story about the young quarterback tragically losing his father a couple of years ago. The story includes this:

He once proclaimed he would someday be an attorney. Now he wants to be a pediatrician.

"To give back," he said, "like my mom and dad have taught me."

While McKissic is on Dartmouth's screen, he's also on a lot of others as this Rivals.com page suggests.

The Walter Camp All-America Team is out and three players Dartmouth saw last fall were chosen. All are well-deserving of the honor. Selected were Yale linebacker Bobby Abare, UNH tight end Scott Sicko, and Colgate offensive lineman Nick Hennessey.

I'll be headed outside in a few minutes to start work cleaning up our yard after the ice and snow that hit yesterday. How bad was it? CNN.com reports that more than 300,000 New Hampshire residents lost power as a result of the storm. That may not sound like much if you are from New York or California, but that's about 25 percent of the Granite State's population.

And finally, in another illustration of the impact of the economic downturn, Dartmouth announced that will offer a voluntary "incentive" retirement program for college employees age 55 and over with 10 years of continuous service. Those who meet the criteria, "will receive a payment equal to an additional six months of salary or wages beyond the date they end their Dartmouth employment, less required deductions."

The release goes on to say:

The value of Dartmouth’s endowment dropped 6 percent (or $262 million) during the last quarter, to an ending value of $3.39 billion as of Sept. 30. More than a third of the College's $420 million operating budget (excluding grants) is supported by distributions from the endowment.

There's also a podcast in which Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Adam Keller talks about efforts to cut the Dartmouth budget.

Welcome To Winter

"Let's see. This Green Alert guy has the blog updated every day by, oh, 9:30 or so. I wonder what's up?"

If you've been following the weather in the Northeast you probably know. That winter storm warning? They got it right. Only a few inches of snow fell, but then the temperature rose just enough for the precipitation to turn to rain. Unfortunately, it didn't rise enough to keep the rain from freezing whenever it came into contact with anything. The results:

• Ice has coated everything. As I look out my window, even the skinniest tree branch is now encased in ice the diameter of my index finger. Weighted down that way, trees are trying their hardest to touch their toes. Uh, make that their roots.
  
• Schools are closed. (Whether wearing pajamas inside out and putting a spoon under the pillow had anything to do with that is open to debate, but I know two kids who didn't take any chances when they hit the sack last night.)
• One large tree and two smaller trees fell into our yard. (Not to worry, we have hundreds and hundreds of trees on our heavily wooded nine acres. To worry: I don't have a chainsaw, which is a good thing, given my mechanical abilities. And while I can saw/section two of the fallen trees, the big one is going to be a bear to clean up.)
• Power lines are down.
• Power was out until about a half hour ago, which made finding out that school was off a little tricky until I was able to dig out a battery-powered radio.
  
• And finally, no power, no blog.

Astonishingly, when the power came on the Internet worked. Those of you who have been along for the ride for a while know why that's astonishing.

And now for the reason you visit this electronic neighborhood ...

---

The Dartmouth baseball team is in the Dominican, men's ice hockey is in Scandinavia and women's lacrosse is in Australia. Once every four years teams are allowed to go "overseas" during or, in the case of lacrosse and baseball, before their seasons. All money spent on these trips, I've been told, was raised by the programs themselves. Thanks to assistant baseball coach Nick Enriquez for sharing this photo from the complex where the Big Green will be playing and practicing.

There was a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that should be mandatory reading for every Ivy League president. Most of you probably already know this, but Richmond is a terrific academic institution. Despite that, the school isn't afraid to have real success in football. Nor is it afraid that going to the playoffs will tarnish the school's image.

In a story headlined, "Spiders show real students can win games," coach Mike Long says:

"A lot of kids can't go to UNC or Virginia or Virginia Tech or Notre Dame. But they want to get a good education and be involved with a team that has a chance to win championships.

"We've got the best of both worlds."

Yes, I guess they do.

Speaking of Richmond, Dave Clawson helped get that program going as head coach before taking a job at Tennessee. The Williams grad who did such a terrific job turning around a struggling Fordham program before leaving for Richmond had been rumored to be a possible candidate at Yale. Not going to happen.

Clawson is the new coach at Bowling Green. How big a "get" would Clawson have been at Yale? Here's an excerpt from the Bowling Green release announcing his hiring:

Clawson twice has been named national Division I-AA Coach of the Year, winning once at Fordham and once at Richmond, and was named his league's coach of the year four times in a seven-year span. In 2005 and 2007, the Richmond Touchdown Club selected him College Coach of the Year, and he was an Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Finalist in 2002 and 2005.

Another coach in the news is New Hampshire's Sean McDonnell. A UNH release notes he was to be honored by the New England Football Writers last night after a season in which he ...

...led his Wildcats to their fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA FCS Championships and advanced to the quarterfinals for the fourth time during that five-year span. McDonnell led UNH to a 10-3 campaign in 2008 and the CAA North Division title, just one victory shy of the school record 11 wins his Wildcats posted in 2005.

Word has reached this precinct that sophomore tight end Michael Cummings had a three-hour surgery on his balky shoulder yesterday at Johns Hopkins. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Cummings played through the problem during the fall, even moving inside when needed.

From a Dartmouth release:

Dartmouth has accepted 401 students into the Class of 2013 through the early decision admissions program. Students admitted in the early decision program will comprise approximately 35 percent of the class that matriculates in the fall of 2009. A total of 1,550 early decision applications were received, the most ever, an increase of 9 percent over last year.

I'll have a capsule look at the early admission football recruits as soon as soon as they've all returned the proper paperwork. That could be as early as one week from today, although it might taken another couple of days depending on how quickly they get to the post office ;-). ... Keep in mind that while the college can't/won't say anything officially (or unofficially, because they play by the rules) recruits are free to share their own information and intentions. So if you are out there reading this – and I know you are ;-) – feel free to drop me a note.

And finally, when I stopped by the football office yesterday to inquire about when the early decision announcement could be released, Dartmouth video coordinator Chris Feller gave me a "Big Green Bundle," the collection of DVD's from the past season. I probably spent more than an hour last night looking through a few of the games.

Listen, it was a tough season, no question. And it's easy to wonder why in the world you'd ever want to watch it again. Well, guess what? The final scores aside, it really was a lot of fun watching bits and pieces of those games. I can't imagine anyone who played this year not getting the DVD package. I'm sure it might take a little while longer for some to be ready to watch them, but honestly, the Big Green Bundle would be a terrific Christmas present. And no, Chris didn't ask me to write that. It's something I found myself thinking while I was watching. For more information, look over there to the left.

30 At 30

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the formation of the I-AA, College Sporting News compiled a Top 30 list at a number of different positions prior to this season. One Dartmouth player and a number of Ivy League and non-conference opponents were recognized. (Given that a lot of importance – probably too much – was put on how the players who went on did in the NFL, I originally thought it crazy that Reggie Williams wasn't on the list, but then realized the players honored were only those who played after the I-A/I-AA split.)

Which brings us to the only Dartmouth player listed among the positions posted so far (wide receiver, linebacker, defensive back, offensive line, defensive line, kicker running back). That would be ... linebacker Zack Walz '98, ranked the No. 26 linebacker in 30 years of I-AA football. Here's what TCN had to say about Walz in its write-up about linebackers:

Three time All-Ivy League performer (1995, 1996, 1997) and was an All-American in 1997. Played in 46 games, starting 16 in 4-year NFL career, all with Arizona.

Interestingly, Walz was one slot ahead of Harvard's Isaiah Kacyvenski (No. 27) and two ahead of Brown's Zak DeOssie (No. 29).

Five running backs Dartmouth played against were listed, with Princeton's Keith Elias surprisingly overlooked. The ranking of running backs included:

7. Jerry Azumah, New Hampshire
11. Kenny Gamble, Colgate
14. Jim Finn, Pennsylvania
19. Jamaal Branch, Colgate
21. Gill Fenerty, Holy Cross

Two Ivies and one non-Ivy opponent landed in the offensive line rankings:

1. Matt Birk, Harvard
17. Bruce Kozerski, Holy Cross
28. Kevin Boothe, Cornell

The defensive line had two Ivies honored:

6. Marcellus Wiley, Columbia
27. Seth Payne, Cornell

Just one wide receiver Dartmouth played against made the list. That he made the list is no surprise, but he's shockingly low:

20. David Ball, New Hampshire

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler – who would probably belong in the CSN listing if pro career is indeed one of the points of emphasis – has retired, but he still has his fans, including a brave 8-year-old boy who lost his hands and feet to a bacteria in October. As this Miami Herald story notes, Jay was one of the athletes who visited the young boy in the hospital.

Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar has some thoughts on the longevity of Ivy League football coaches. ...

Speaking of Ivy League football coaches, former Yale defensive back Casey Gerald isn't reading from quite the same "retirement" playbook as everyone else with regard to the end of Bulldogs' coach Jack Siedlecki's tenure in New Haven. In a New Haven Register story that touches on the search for a successor, Gerald says:

Obviously, he and the administration came to an agreement that what was best for the program was for him to move on.

I wonder what Tommy Tuberville's mother would say about that?

The Register's Portal 31 blog, meanwhile, has a little more on the search. Writer Jim Fuller tsk-tsk's the Internet chat that has raised names like Tuberville, Ty Willingham, New York Giants assistant Chris Palmer, UMass coach Donny Brown and former Fordham/Richmond coach Dave Clawson. He does, however, say that highly regarded Yale defensive coordinator Rick Flanders is not interested in the position.

Curious about how rumors like those start? I can recall working at the local newspaper back when Buddy Teevens was being hired the first time.

A reporter from another newspaper – a larger one that shall remain nameless – called us out of the blue one night while we were taking high school basketball calls, to ask if we had any names we could share. A co-worker, who was reading a story about a national coaching search while waiting for high school coaches to call, answered the phone and, annoyed at the laziness of the other reporter, simply reeled off several names from the story in the fellow's own newspaper. The next morning there was a hot scoop with those exact names said to be involved with Dartmouth. Now, I'd never do anything like that (and the writer who did isn't in the business anymore) but it was pretty funny.

That's how the rumor mill can get started. I saw an old friend last weekend who was mentioned in stories in national newspapers as a candidate for a high-profile job that he didn't get. When I asked him how strongly he went for the job, he laughed. He hadn't applied or interviewed for the position. But a major newspaper in New Jersey thought he was a natural candidate and floated his name. That got picked up elsewhere and the story snowballed.

So the next time you see names out there, take 'em with a grain of salt. No, a full shaker.

I saw a brief note about Penn State quarterback Pat Devlin deciding to transfer and, being a Nittany Lion type, went off to learn a little more. Lo and behold, I stumbled across a Philadelphia Inquirer column that mentioned Dartmouth, at least in a fictional way. Written by Frank Fitzpatrick, it was spawned, apparently, by an email from Penn State SID Jeff Nelson about a pre-Rose Bowl media deal planned for Disneyland.

The Disneyland mention led Fitzpatrick to create an imaginary conversation between Paterno and Nelson. The conversation included JoePa, the old Brown grad, saying:

Did I ever tell you we'd have licked Dartmouth if that referee, who was from Brooklyn too, hadn't fouled up that call on the onside kick?

Jeff Nelson, by the way, is a former Dartmouth sports information intern who later was SID at Holy Cross.

It's not football, but it's Ivy League with a Dartmouth mention, so ...

Can you imagine a basketball team having all five starters heading to Division I ball, with three of them going to the Ivy League? Such is the case with the Detroit Country Day women's basketball team as this MLive.com story notes. One starter is going to Illinois and another to Georgia Tech. Harvard and Cornell are each getting one. And Fazieh Steen will be heading to Dartmouth. DCD, by the way, has been very good to the powerhouse Dartmouth women's program over the years.

And finally, there's snow forecast "in them thar hills." It's supposed to start later today and pile up pretty good overnight. The kids are keeping their fingers crossed for a snow day.

Me? I'm just glad for yesterday's warm rain, which melted enough snow for me to finally get almost everything that had been locked in snow and ice since before Thanksgiving put away for the winter.

Now the only hassle is our '84 VW camper, which has a date to be oil-undercoated next Tuesday. I usually have it tucked into the woods and wrapped in green tarps by now, but our VW guru pleaded with us to have the undercoating done before putting it up for the winter. If we get enough snow and the plow does the driveway, there will be hours of shoveling to clear a path to get the camper put away. Ah, life in the north country ;-)

A Towering Tight End And Thinking Ahead

According to the Chicago Tribune's Who's going where column, Jackson Floyd, a towering 6-foot-6, 223-pound tight end/defensive lineman from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., is headed for Dartmouth. Floyd caught seven balls for 52 yards this fall for the Ramblers, who play in the powerhouse Chicago Catholic League.

(The Trib column also lists soccer player Sean Donovan of Hinsdale Central and softball player Hillary Hubert of Grant Park as picking Dartmouth.)

It's no secret that football coach Buddy Teevens is eager to change the Big Green's non-conference schedule. While the troika of Colgate, New Hampshire and Holy Cross is set to go bye-bye after the 2011 season (see future schedules) there are murmurs if you listen closely that there may, that's may, be a change before then.

That got me thinking about potential non-league opponents, which in turn got me looking around for who might be available on the dates that Dartmouth could possibly have an opening.

I can't say whether the following schools still have openings, but they were reported at one point this fall to be looking for games on dates that match up with Dartmouth's non-league openings.

Sept. 19, 2009
Dartmouth Opponent: Colgate
Others With Possible Openings: Cal Poly, Central Connecticut State, Liberty, Morehead State, NC Central, Sam Houston

Sept. 26, 2009
Dartmouth Opponent: UNH
Others With Possible Openings: Maine, Cal Poly, Central Connecticut, Liberty, Nicholls State, McNeese State, Morehead State, North Carolina Central, Sacred Heart, St. Francis, Sam Houston

Oct. 17, 2009
Dartmouth Opponent: Holy Cross
Others With Possible Openings: Liberty, North Carolina Central, North Dakota, Old Dominnion, UC-Davis

Sept. 18, 2010
Dartmouth Opponent: Colgate
Others With Possible Openings: Lamar, Liberty, Maine, McNeese State, Morehead State, Sam Houston, Southeastern Louisiana, South Dakota

Sept. 25, 2010
Dartmouth Opponent: UNH
Others With Possible Openings: Coastal Carolina, Lamar, Liberty, McNeese State, North Carolina Central, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, South Dakota

Oct. 16, 2009
Dartmouth Opponent: Holy Cross
Others With Possible Openings: Liberty, North Carolina Central, North Dakota, Old Dominion, South Dakota, Stony Brook

Thoughts, anyone?

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer is still with the Miami Dolphins and played in Saturday's win over Buffalo. But the NFL is a business; Get hurt and there's someone waiting to take your job. After Cramer hurt his ankle and was sidelined for several weeks, Lousaka Polite won favor at fullback, as this Palm Beach Post blog posting notes.

Ivy League Football Film Available On DVD

It's no exaggeration to say it's been a thrash for producers Erik Anjou and Mark Bernstein to get to this point, but I just heard from Erik that sales of the documentary 8: Ivy League Football and America will begin tomorrow at the film website. From the site:

“8: Ivy League Football and America” will be ready for purchase on December 10, 2008 for $24.95. This Special Features edition DVD includes the 96-minute Director’s Cut along with additional interview footage featuring Joe Paterno, Brian Dennehy, Ed Marinaro and others.

By the way, if you saw the film on NESN you saw a 70-minute version. This is the original, uncut version that has an additional 26 minutes of Ivy League history to share.

With the holidays coming this is, well, a slam dunk. A home run. An ... um ... is there a football equivalent? Whatever it might be, this is it.

Erik also reports that a limited number of the DVDs will be available at the Dartmouth Coop Bookstore as early as this week. So between the DVD, those Ivy League calendars off to the left (see 'em over there?) and the Big Green Bundle, all your gift-giving is taken care of. OK, maybe not all, but it's a start!

Oh yeah, one more thing from the 8 website:

The Princeton Club of New England will host a screening of the film on Thursday, December 11 at the Harvard Club of Boston: 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Mass. Dick Kazmaier and other Tiger football greats will be in attendance. For more information, please contact Andrew Hoffman at ahoffman@publiccounsel.net.

Captains Release

Dartmouth's official release on 2009 captains Peter Pidermann '10 and Tim McManus '11 has been posted here. The release all recaps the season-ending awardwinners.

Tuesday Musings

The college has issued an official release on the status of the Memorial Field building project. Nothing new, but here's the official wording:

Dartmouth has decided to defer the full renovation of the West Stands of Memorial Field, home of the Dartmouth track and football programs. The College will address immediate maintenance needs of the stands during the spring and summer of 2009 so the West Stands will be ready for next fall’s season.

The Sagarin Ratings were updated following Saturday's playoff games and among other things they show the Patriot League one slot higher than the Ivy League. They also show the CAA, of which New Hampshire is a member, being ranked higher than the FCS Sun Belt Conference.

Here are the Sagarin Ratings for the Ivy League, all of the Patriot League teams and UNH. (Dartmouth opponents are in bold):

79 New Hampshire
111 Harvard
135 Brown
132 Holy Cross
137 Lafayette
139 Colgate
143 Penn
146 Yale
159 Lehigh
175 Princeton
179 Fordham
194 Cornell
202 Bucknell
204 Columbia
223 Dartmouth
227 Georgetown

For Sagarin's conference breakdown, click here.

Wonder about the Sagarin neighborhood in which Dartmouth ended the year? Here are the five teams rated ahead of the Big Green and the five rated below (schedule-makers take note):

218 SE Missouri State (4-8)
219 Austin Peay (2-9)
220 Butler (6-5)
221 Drake (6-5)
222 Morehead State (6-6)
223 Dartmouth (0-10)
224 Jackson State (7-4)
225 Tennessee Tech (3-9)
226 Marist (4-7)
227 Georgetown (2-8)
228 Davidson (4-7)

One thing is clear: The level of competition Dartmouth played didn't do much for the Big Green record, but it certainly helps in this kind of power rating.

And who is last in the nation? Coming in at No. 245, the 1-10 Campbell Camels of Buies Creek, N.C., whose lone win in their first season of varsity football in 58 years was a 36-26 victory at Carthage College.

A couple of coaching notes. Among the names that have popped up on an Internet coaching site regarding the Yale search are UMass head coach (and former Dartmouth/Brown/Yale assistant) Don Brown as well as former Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington coach Ty Willingham.

Donny Brown, a friend since his high school coaching days here in the Upper Valley, would be a terrific "get" for Yale, but it seems unlikely from this perspective that he'd make such a move. Then again, he did once go from being defensive coordinator at Yale to head coach at DIII Plymouth State.

As for Willingham, Yale would certainly get a lot of attention if it could convince him to come to New Haven, and he did have success at Stanford.

Finally, with apologies to Sports Illustrated, a Sign of the Ivy League Apocalypse:

A blogger unhappy with the state of the Penn basketball program has started a site called fireglenmiller.blogspot.com. Miller, of course, is the former Brown head coach who two years ago led the Quakers to the Ivy League championship. His team was third in the Ivies with an 8-6 record last winter. Penn is 1-6 this season.

McManus, Pidermann To Be Co-Captains

Since he's been back in Hanover, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens has waited until the end of spring football to hold the vote for football captains. But with an important offseason of strength training and conditioning ahead, Teevens has opted to have captains and leaders in place over the winter.

Elected by their teammates were:

• Offensive Captain: Receiver/quarterback Tim McManus, a junior next fall
• Defensive Captain: Safety/returner Pete Pidermann, a senior next fall

The captains will be joined by a "Leadership Group," from each class. Chosen were:

• Juniors: Safety Tony Pastoors, quarterback Alex Jenny, tight end Carroll Papajohn, (senior) safety Kyle Cavanaugh
• Sophomores: Defensive end Alex Charles Bay, offense lineman Alex Wodka, linebacker Matt Oh (Sorry Charles. Too many Alexes on the brain ;-)
  
• Freshmen: Corner Shawn Abuhoff, linebacker Aaron Limonthas

Green Alert Take: The choices for co-captains are terrific. The decision to choose captains (and the Leadership Group) at this point can only help the team during a long and critically important offseason for the Big Green.

Lacrosse Brings In Another High School FB Standout

It's still a little early to get a read on how Dartmouth football's early decision recruiting class is shaping up, but the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team is starting to look as if it could field a pretty talented football squad.

On the heels of last week's Green Alert blog note on two-way lineman Pat Flynn of New Jersey heading to Hanover to play lacrosse comes this Stamford Advocate story about the previously unbeaten Darien, Conn., football team having to play a game without injured all-purpose back Nikki Dysenchuk, "also an outstanding lacrosse player who has already committed to playing the sport next year at Dartmouth."

Dysenchuk led his team with 1,047 yards rushing and was second on the Darien squad with 28 catches for 533 yards this fall. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry with 17 rushing touchdowns and four receiving. In his best game he ran for 204 yards and four touchdowns, caught a 27-yard pass and had an interception.

Note to readers: I can't find them all because some papers, like our local daily, are very stingy about what they put up on the web. If you see a note in your local paper about a football player headed Dartmouth's way, drop me an email and I'll get it posted here.

From the Dolphins Digest after yesterday's Miami win over Buffalo:

With 181 passing yards, QB Chad Pennington now has 3,062 on the year, the third 3,000-yard passing season of his career (3,120 in 2002; 3,352 in 2006). It is the first time a Dolphin has put together a 3,000-yard campaign since Jay Fiedler threw for 3,290 yards in 2001. Overall, it is the 15th 3,000-yard season in Dolphins history and Pennington is just the third player to do it (Dan Marino, 13 times; Jay Fiedler, 1 time).

If you were around in Buddy Teevens' first incarnation as Dartmouth football coach you may remember Jeff Hawkins. "Hawk," a jack-of-all-trades for Dartmouth football in the late 1980's, was a high school teammate of Teevens and Harvard coach Tim Murphy and went to Tulane with Teevens in 1992. Now the director of football operations and assistant AD for football operations at Oregon, Hawkins (Oregon bio) is quoted in a Daily Emerald article with the subhead: "Student-athletes given training on how to successfully navigate turning pro."

Saw a note elsewhere that Columbia led the nation in "First-Year Enrollment of African Amercians at the Highest-Rated Universities, Fall 2008" and wondered where Dartmouth fell on that list. In case you were wondering:

• Columbia 12.1 percent
• Yale 10.0
• Penn 9.4
• Dartmouth 9.2
• Harvard 8.4
• Princeton 7.7
• Brown 6.7
• Cornell 4.5

North Carolina was second at 10.8 percent, followed by Stanford (10.5) and Duke (10.1). Find the complete list from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education here.

And finally this: It was -2.5 degrees this morning when I walked out to the school bus with the kids this morning. For the uninitiated, that's 2.5 "below," or perhaps "minus" 2.5 degrees. You'll reveal yourself as a "flatlander" immediately if you refer to it as "negative" 2.5 degrees. ... That certain Hanover High junior and her freshman brother will be running outside today with the "indoor" track team, and it figures to be a bit, um, brisk. With Dartmouth going on break, they get inside Leverone tomorrow and will have the luxury of running inside for the rest of the month before hitting the streets again in January.