UNH Perspective On Deferred Games

New Hampshire football coach Sean McDonnell is disappointed by the suspension of the UNH-Dartmouth series for several years. From a Manchester Union Leader story:

If he had his druthers, McDonnell would play Dartmouth each year.

He ranks the Big Green as one of UNH's major rivals, along with Maine and Massachusetts.

"I think rivalries like this are important for I-AA football and especially for the state of New Hampshire," McDonnell said. "But I understand they have to make their decisions. They have their reasons they don't want to play and they want to get their program going in the right direction."

Green Alert Take: While McDonnell feels strongly this is a rivalry game, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens feels just as strongly that it isn't. With just one Big Green player from New Hampshire on the roster (junior defensive tackle Tyler Green of Amherst, N.H.) it's easy to see why Teevens feels that way. On the other hand, whether players are from in-state or not, New Hampshire is where the school is located. The feeling here is that if/when Dartmouth is competitive against UNH again, a feeling for the "rivalry" aspect of the series will be reborn on the Connecticut River.

The Union Leader story also has this odd note about last year's backup quarterback at UNH:

Sophomore quarterback Kevin Decker decided to transfer out of UNH last winter and had been accepted at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. He has changed his mind and will be back at UNH.

The story says Decker will begin camp at the bottom of the depth chart.

Speaking of UNH, the Portsmouth Herald doesn't seem to think Dartmouth will be much of an impediment to the Wildcats' postseason hopes this fall. From a story yesterday:

UNH has a clear road map to get back to the playoffs, which if it did would be its sixth straight trip.

It figures to handle non-conference teams like St. Francis and Dartmouth, and will likely be able to absorb up to three losses from a group of strong opponents that includes Ball State, Villanova, UMass, William and Mary, and Maine.

Hard to argue with the sentiment. Dartmouth and St. Francis were a combined 0-21 last year.

Still on UNH, the Colonial Athletic Association has a terrific series of videos from its preseason media extravaganza. Head coach Sean McDonnell can be seen here. He offers a telling remark:

"We have a saying in our program, 'Nobody rises to low expectations.' "

There are also interviews with UNH's All-America tight end Scott Sicko and linebacker Sean Ware.

The preseason CAA All-Offensive team video begins with UNH quarterback RJ Toman, the league's preseason offensive player of the year. But be sure to pull up that video and stick with it until you see the preseason fullback, Jared Turcotte of Maine. Watch and wonder what might have been as the big guy who so wanted to come to Dartmouth absolutely bulls over would-be tacklers.

Green Alert Take: The Ivy League media day teleconference may draw more interest than the traditional gathering at Yale Golf Club. But the Ivies would do well to name their own preseason teams and get a bit of a splash that way. And they might think about tapping some of their connections to pull together a preseason video of their own to toss up on YouTube with links on the conference and school home pages.

Dartmouth nose guard Lane Shipley gets a mention in this Steamboat Pilot story about the little school that could: Steamboat Springs High School. In addition to Shipley, Steamboat Springs has two players bidding for spots at Colorado, a kicker at Colorado State, a player at Kansas State, a quarterback who has committed to Cal, another D-I prospect on this year's team. Impressive.

The Penn website has a look at the 2009 Quakers that begins with a statement that probably sounds jarring to close followers of the Dartmouth program:

For the program with the most outright Ivy titles in League history, expectations are always high in Philadelphia.

Sure enough, Penn has won 10 outright titles while Dartmouth has nine. (Harvard and Yale have six each, Princeton three and Brown 1. Cornell and Columbia have never won the title outright.)

Dartmouth still leads in overall Ivy League championships with 17. Yale has 14, Harvard and Penn 13 each, Princeton nine, Brown 4, Cornell 3 and Columbia one.

Columbia, by the way, has a nice splash ad for its season ticket package here.

Always a terrific quote, former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer has picked up where he left off with the start of camp with the Tennessee Titans. From a Tennesseean article:

Cornerback Cortland Finnegan delivered the big hit of the day, laying out tight end Casey Cramer during 7-on-7 drills.

In the locker room, Cramer gave Finnegan some good-natured grief.

“What happened? Did you have a bad night? Did you not get enough hugs as a kid?’’ Cramer asked Finnegan. “I’m sorry I was in your way. I should know better.’’

Green Alert Take: You can tell Casey is a veteran now. He was always the one delivering those blows in drills ... and taking heat from the veterans about it.