Change 'Up Street'

The Dartmouth campus and alumni community are abuzz with the surprising news that Dean of the College Tom Crady is resigning after just 20 months on the job. The Daily Dartmouth has a story about Crady's abrupt resignation and another story explaining that Sylvia Spears, director of the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and acting senior associate Dean of the College will, "oversee the Dean of the College's Office for the next two years while its structure is reevaluated and a permanent dean is chosen ..."

Green Alert Take: It will be interesting to learn what the change "up street" means for athletics and the search for a new athletic director. When the last search was conducted, Dean of the College Jim Larimore was front and center throughout.

The Tennesseean had an interesting concept for a story out of Titans camp. While the frontline players should be set for life, it's certainly not so for those who have to scrap each year just to make the roster. How are they preparing for their post-football days? Not surprisingly, one of the players the story focuses on is tight end/fullback/special teamer Casey Cramer '04, who has had five years in the league but hasn't yet made mega-contract money. The story says: "Cramer is one of the rare types that might make more outside of football than while he's playing." But Cramer made it clear that's not what drives him. He told the writer:

"I've been blessed with an ability to impact kids' lives and I know I'm going to use this platform after football for that. I've enjoyed teaching boys what it really means to be young men because so many times, society and our culture — through media, music and movies — teaches them that the way to be a man is by athletic ability, sexual conquest and money.

"Really it's not about that. It's about relationships, how you are as a brother, how you will be as a father, how you will be as a husband. That's something I'm extremely passionate about.''

The Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia has a story about a 6-foot-4, 178-pound receiver/safety/returner who could play two sports at a lower level or perhaps football at some level of Division I. From the story:

Ivy League schools Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale also are after Rollo, who has a 3.5 grade point average in honors classes and scored a 22 the first time he took the ACT.

Yale kicks off practice Friday. Find a brief story here. The story notes that practices will be in the afternoon through the end of the month and then from 7:30-9:15 a.m., from Sept. 1 through the end of the season.

Green Alert Take: Yikes. When Yale coach Tom Williams first talked about morning practices a lot of people who have been around Ivy League football expected him to back off and go with afternoon sessions after weighing the pros and cons. Guess not. As someone who goes to practice every day, I'd love morning sessions from a purely selfish perspective. No more missed dinners with the family and I could make it to all of my kids' athletic events. But for the players' sake, I'm sure glad Dartmouth won't be going a.m. practice. Unless, of course, the players wanted it.

Columbia football players recently did a shoot for GQ Magazine with ESPN's Erin Andrews. Find a story on the Columbia website and more (with pictures) at the Roar Lions Roar blog. Green Alert Take: The line between journalist and personality blurs even more.

The Daily D has another story about The Young Cons, the two Dartmouth basketball teammates (Josh Riddle '12 and David Rufful '12) whose rap video seeks to, "spread the love and logic surrounding true conservatism ..." Find their channel here.

And finally, back to football. If things don't work out at Cornell, coach Jim Knowles may have a future as a host with HGTV. Just kidding. But Knowles does a pretty good job in an 8-minute, 43-second video tour of the Cornell football facilities. It's a terrific recruiting piece for the Big Red and a reminder that each school has facilities that they can rightly take pride in.