Alumni Notes Headline the Day

Starting the day with a few alumni notes before zipping back from Maine for today's practice ...

Being a big Mac fan, I was checking out a new freeware program when I noticed a familiar name had written the program. Clicking on a link or two I discovered the author was indeed Erik Hinterbichler '06, the former Dartmouth placekicker and 2001 USA Today first-team All-American.

In addition to his Apple mail notification program Herald, Erik has a humorous PDF with instructions on how to kick a football. Find it here.

Thanks to a regular reader for sharing a link about former offensive lineman Taylor Layman. The 2007 Big Green co-captain is one of five first-year University of Tennessee College of Law students awarded UT Athletic Department Graduate Student Awards for their "excellence as student-athletes at their respective alma maters before they enrolled in law school for Fall Semester 2009."

Former quarterback Jay Fiedler gets a humorous nod in this story about good Dartmouth friend Greg Frame being selected to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Dartmouth safety and co-captain Peter Pidermann has been named to the Ivy League honor roll for his 11-tackle (nine solos) game at Yale. (link)

A newspaper blog note on a hard-luck high school football player from New Jersey named Mike Banaciski mentions his strong interest in Dartmouth:

Mike broke his fibula during a summer camp at Dartmouth College in the summer. ...

Dartmouth is one of the schools that has expressed interest in him and Banaciski said the feeling is mutual.

Conor McFadden, a 6-foot-3, 260-pound center at Minnesota's St. Thomas Academy, has his eyes on Cornell and Princeton after considering Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross, Georgetown and Yale according to this note. St. Thomas Academy is the alma mater of Dartmouth co-captain Timmy McManus and placekicker Foley Schmidt.

Brown's starting quarterback has been named the national offensive player of the year by the College Sporting News after breaking the Ivy League record for completions in a game against Holy Cross. From the CSN release:

Brown junior quarterback Kyle Newhall (Gilbert, Ariz.) out-dueled Holy Cross’ All-American quarterback Dominic Randolph and established a new Ivy League record with 46 completions on 61 attempts, while accumulating 431 passing yards in the Bears’ 34-31 upset win over the Crusaders. His 46 completions broke the previous Ivy League mark of 44 completions by Brown’s Kyle Slager against Rhode Island on October 5, 2002.

The Dartmouth-Yale game gets a second look and a little commentary in Ivy weekend reviews in the Columbia Spectator and the Daily Pennsylvanian. The Roar Lions Roar blog writes of the game:

It's not clear if this game is splash for Yale or confirmation that things are a lot worse than we thought for Dartmouth.

The Gridiron Power Index (the compilation of various polls and rankings) has Dartmouth and its opponents (current and future) ranked this way:

4. UNH
27. Colgate
29. Harvard
37. Holy Cross
46. Brown
57. Columbia
60. Penn
72. Cornell
75. Yale
98. Princeton
105. Dartmouth

Future Opponents
80. Butler
106. Sacred Heart
122. Georgetown