The Waiting Is Over ... Almost

Dartmouth players queue up as they await the end of track practice and the chance to take the field for the first session of the spring Monday afternoon.

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Buddy Teevens promised after last fall's 0-10 disaster – a rough word, but the right word – that every aspect of the program would be reviewed and changes would be forthcoming. If the first day of spring practice is any indication, the Big Green coach has followed through on his promise.

While there was only one new coach on the field (former Yale assistant Keith Clark, hired to replace Cyril Brockmeier, who is getting married) most of the other coaches had new responsibilities. Foremost among them, Sammy McCorkle, who takes over as defensive coordinator after distinguishing himself heading up Dartmouth's special teams that past few years. There will be a new offensive coordinator as well with Teevens holding off for the time being on making that announcement. Don't rule out the possibility that he'll eventually wear the title himself.

Teevens made it clear after practice that he is rededicating himself to his on-field responsibilities after spending a good deal of time in the past few years overseeing different off-field facets of the program. "I got splattered in a lot of different areas," he admitted.
“Really, the most important thing right now is to do a better job coaching football and so I've tried to push off, delegate, and say we're not doing certain things in the future. I'm going to concentrate on the football squad.”

Between the lines there have been a significant number of positional changes with one of the most interesting being the shift of freshman Royce Egeolu from defensive line to linebacker. Though outsized on the D-line, Egeolu showed himself to be a promising playmaker in the second half of the season. Junior defensive end Marlon Alebiosu and freshman safety Tyler Melancon have moved back to linebacker as well.

Notable on the offensive side: sophomore receiver/quarterback Timmy McManus was wearing green yesterday, not quarterback red. He and elusive deep threat Niles Murphy, a junior returning to the program after a year away, could give Dartmouth a very potent one-two touch at receiver. Defensive backs Matt Dornak and Michael Dearwester are getting a look in the offensive backfield and, in one of the position switches that seems to happen about as often as any, freshman Brendan Murray has moved over from linebacker to fullback.

Why those changes and more? Check out the analysis of the Big Green by Jake Novak over at the Roar Lions Roar blog. Accurately, if a little harshly headlined, View from the Bottom, the piece gives a good look at what the rest of the league might see when it looks at Dartmouth. Jake writes:

...(T)his is not about what going 0-10 feels like. It's about whether Dartmouth was really that much worse than all of its opponents in 2008.

The rough answer is: yes.

The numbers don't lie. Dartmouth's points allowed total was almost three times as much as the Big Green scored all season. That's something very reminiscent of the losing streak years at Columbia when the Lions' opponents tripled, or almost tripled the Columbia output in '85, '86, and '87 -- those were all 0-10 seasons. Compare that to the last 0-10 team in Ivy history, the 1992 Brown Bears, who were "only" outscored by a little more than double their offensive output that year. In other words, this was just a very overmatched Big Green team week in and week out.

Ouch.

Jake's bottom line: "I just don't see how 2009 can be anything but another rebuilding year in Hanover."

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At practice yesterday I was asked whether I thought any Ivy League players would be drafted this year. I first said I didn't think so, but then waffled a bit on Harvard quarterback Chris Pizzotti. Big, strong and smart, he'll definitely end up in someone's camp and could very well make a team if it is the right camp. Will he be drafted? According to David Coulson of The Sports Network, he's the Ivy League's best hope.

In a column about potential FCS draft picks, Coulson has Pizzotti slotted as the No. 23 player overall and the third quarterback. He is behind No. 3 Rhett Bomar, the former Oklahoma QB who ended up at Sam Houston State, and No. 22 Nathan Brown of Central Arkansas. Coulson projects him as "7th round, or priority free agent."

Ivy players in Coulson's list of the "Best of the Rest" prospects are:

Harvard
Offensive tackle Ryan Pilconis (HM All-Ivy)
Defensive tackle Desmond Bryant (2nd All-Ivy)

Brown
Tight end Colin Cloherty (1st All-Ivy)
Defensive tackle Joe McPhee

Penn
Inside linebacker Jason Colabella (2nd All-Ivy)

Yale
Offensive guard Darius Dale (1st All-Ivy)

For a full recap of Day 2 of spring practice check out Big Green Alert tonight.