Rough Neighborhood

There will be scrimmaging action in Hanover this afternoon. Intrasquad, limited, but officiated.

Jake Novak over at the Roar Lions Roar Columbia football blog breaks his 2009 Ivy League football predictions down into three blocks: The Penthouse, the Townhouse and the Outhouse. Suffice it to say the block he has Dartmouth (and Cornell) in is not the one you'd want to spend much time in.

Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens is quoted in a Tuscaloosa News story about new Alabama starting quarterback Greg McElroy. What's that all about? This excerpt explains:

When McElroy received an invitation to the Manning Passing Academy this summer, he accepted immediately, joining a prestigious field of quarterbacks, receivers and running backs in Thibodaux, La., for a four-day experience under the watchful eyes of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning.

The staff placed McElroy in a dormitory suite with last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and Minnesota’s Adam Weber, who ranked second in the Big Ten in passing yards last season.

“He fit right in with the whole crew,” said Buddy Teevens, head coach at Dartmouth and former head coach at Tulane and Stanford, who heads up the coaching staff at the Manning camp. “He had what it took to compete at that level. It really struck me that he was a competitor. He melded and meshed with all of them.”

Senior safety Tony Pastoors has patiently awaited his chance to be a mainstream contributor for the Big Green. His progression has gone from a freshman season with the jayvees to a sophomore year lost to a hip injury to hip surgery and recovery that slowed him somewhat last fall. He figures to be a key factor this year as the only Division I player among 26 graduates of Minnesota's Totino-Grace playing college football. He's part of a note in a Star Tribune story about one of his high school's games.

Dartmouth gets an unfortunate mention in a University of Minnesota Daily article headlined Handshakes, punches, and consequences that was spun out of the punch thrown by an Oregon running back at the end of the Ducks' loss to Boise State. The article ends this way:

There is, though, a recent history of college football fights: In October, 2006, the University of Miami and Florida International University had an on-field brawl which resulted in 31 suspensions, and almost certainly contributed to Miami coach Larry Coker's later firing. As if to prove that tempers run high regardless of who's playing, the very same day saw a fight between players from Dartmouth and Holy Cross.

Not quite sure what to make of the wording, "regardless of who's playing," but here's the bottom line on the fracas at the end of the Dartmouth-Holy Cross game: It wasn't what writers around the country occasionally portray it as, and if what happened here didn't take place on the same day that Miami and FIU brawled, no one would have brought it up a week later, let alone three years after the fact.

Some interesting numbers in USA Today about the payouts small schools get for serving as cannon fodder for the big boys on Saturday afternoons in the fall. Arkansas State, for example, will earn $1 million each for games at Auburn next year and at Virginia Tech the next year. The same school is taking home $900,000 for losing to Iowa this year and $750,000 for falling down in front of Nebraska.

And for those of you wondering, Hanover High football lost to Laconia last night, 48-26. For what it's worth, the Laconia teams are call the Sachems, a name familiar to many a Dartmouth alum.

Point After
On the wall over the desk here in my home office is a sheet of paper with something that came across the wires when I worked at the newspaper. It never fails to make me smile. It says:

Former pro wrestler Paul Ellering is making his mushing debut in the Iditarod. What he has learned: "Never trust a dog to guard your food."

Have a great day.