Dartmouth-Harvard On Tap Today

Dartmouth and Harvard play a preseason game on Memorial Field this afternoon. The game will be four quarters with the only readily apparent differences from a regular game being that the quarterbacks will not be "live," and the stands will be relatively empty. The contest is not open to the public except those on the gatelist.

Sophomore quarterback Dan Rooney won't be playing today. He hasn't been involved in any contact drills with the Big Green so far in camp as he battles injury, but to a few eyes, he's throwing the ball better than ever. That would be good news to his dad, Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the subject of a lengthy Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profile.

To listen to the Dartmouth players and coaches, the morning lift sessions last winter have dramatically increased the size and strength of the team. But Dartmouth isn't the only Ivy League school to restructure its offseason workouts. Cornell enrolled the help of Lieutenant Colonel Jerome Rizzo to institute a program called Standards of Excellence that addressed not only workouts, but everything "from how to conduct yourselves on campus to what the locker room should look like." Find a story and video on the Cornell football website.

Down at Yale, approximately 90 football players made phone calls to season ticketholders thanking them for their support. From the football website:

The 450 calls took 20 minutes. Jeremy Makins, Yale's Director of Ticket Operations, had asked Tom Williams, the Joel E. Smilow'54 Head Coach of Yale Football, for 15 or 20 players to make the calls. The Yale head coach told Makins that the players do everything as a team, so every available Eli took part.

Green Alert Take: Interesting idea but I was shocked to find out 450 calls took just 20 minutes. I get phone calls from students at Penn State a couple of times a year raising money for the college fund. I usually keep the callers on the phone for at least 10-15 minutes, learning a little about what they are studying, where they are from, what's new in State College etc. before I make my pledge. I can't imagine how long I'd keep a football player on the line ;-)

New Hampshire will be bidding for its fifth consecutive win over an FBS team when it faces Ball State Saturday. The Sports Network writes about the streak. Here are the results and highlights:

• 2004: UNH 35, Rutgers 24. Ricky Santos goes 30-of-40 for 385 yards and five TDs.
• 2006: UNH 34, Northwestern 17. Santos goes 18-of-23 for 206 yards and two TDs.
• 2007: UNH 48, Marshall 35. Santos throws for 289 yards and three TDs.
• 2008: UNH 28, Army 10. RJ Toman goes 12-of-17 for 138 yards.

If UNH is going to extend the streak, however, it may have to do it without one of its most dangerous weapons. From Seascoastonline:

Chad Kackert is fast. The question this week is whether he can heal fast enough to be on the football field Saturday night.

The status of the speedy tailback is perhaps the biggest question mark for the University of New Hampshire as it prepares for its game against Division I FBS Ball State in Muncie, Ind. UNH coach Sean McDonnell said earlier in the week he won't use Kackert unless he's satisfied his hamstring is completely healed.

And then the kicker:

Also factoring into the equation is that UNH is idle next weekend, which would give Kackert an extra week to heal before the Sept. 26 game against Dartmouth.

Kackert, by the way, did not play against Dartmouth last year.

Extra Point
It's easy to get a little blasé about NASA and the space shuttle. But taking advantage of the neighbor's field, we had a fabulous view of the shuttle and the international space station tracking identical orbits over our heads the other night and the sight was breathtaking.