Gearing Up For Columbia

The Columbia Spectator quotes Lions coach Norries Wilson sharing what he thinks the Dartmouth mindset will be for tomorrow's Homecoming game:

“I think that they’re going to look at this as their opportunity to get off the losing track. I think ... they’re going to look to this week as a week that they (are) going to feel like they should win the football game.”

With all due respect, I think the Columbia coach has it wrong. Having been around this team a fair bit, it seems to me that a great many of the players – and it wouldn't surprise me if it were most of them – have felt that way every Saturday. As daunting as a Colgate, a UNH or a Holy Cross might have been, the sense here is that, for better or for worse, the Dartmouth players went into those games believing they were going to win. Good for them.

Another Wilson quote in the same story:

“If we don’t show up to play Dartmouth, they’ll beat us—bottom line.”

If you listen closely you can hear those who remember Dartmouth going 50 years without losing to Columbia in Hanover (a streak that ended in 1998) grinding their teeth, particularly in light of the fact that the Lions have dropped their last two games and are 2-3 on the season.

Columbia football blogger (and radio commentator) Jake Novak offers his take on the game and makes an interesting point in his Roar Lions Roar blog:

There are a number of intangibles to discuss here, especially the feeling in Hanover that this may be the Big Green's best chance to get a win and end their current losing streak at 17.

In reality, it isn't. The upcoming home games against Cornell and Princeton will provide better opportunities for Dartmouth to grab a victory, especially because the Lions can run the ball a lot better than either of those teams.

Given the Columbia put a 38-0 hurt on Princeton in New Jersey and Cornell has dropped its last three, he may be right. Which means if Dartmouth can pick this one off the confidence should increase exponentially for the final two home games against the Big Red and the Tigers.

The Daily Dartmouth preview quotes Big Green tailback Nick Schwieger:

“We’re looking to run the ball early and often, which we’re hoping will soften up the Columbia defense. We just need to keep attacking and we’ll be fine.”

Schwieger is the subject of this week's opposing player feature in the Columbia Spectator.

The Harvard Crimson, which never misses a chance to take a poke at Dartmouth in its weekly "picks" column, manages to stick it to both schools in tomorrow's game:

My sleeper pick for Ivy League champion is just plain sleeping. The Lions’ long road back from their winless Ivy slate in ’07 brought them to the neighborhood of contending. But well-armed Penn was on the neighborhood watch and banished Columbia, 27-13.

Luckily for the Lions this week, they get Dartmouth.

Prediction: Columbia 38, Dartmouth 10.

Back to the Daily Dartmouth where a columnist makes a prediction I fear will be wrong:

We, for once, are going to have a huge crowd ...

Larger than usual, probably. But huge? Depends on your definition but it would be a surprise, unfortunately. A perfect storm is agitating against anything approaching a five-figure crowd: a winless season, a Homecoming opponent not named Harvard or Yale, and a miserable and rainy forecast. Hopefully I'm wrong because a big crowd is fun for everyone, players on both teams and the media alike.

The Daily Dartmouth editorial board has added its voice to those clamoring for good news on the gridiron front. From an editorial in today's edition:

...(T)o be fair, Dartmouth has yet to lose a game this season that it “should” have won — although it is unclear whether a team that has gone 5-30 since the members of the Class of 2010 arrived at the College “should” win anything.

And then the hammer:

Coach Teevens, we do not want the story of your time at Dartmouth to end with another winless season. We won’t resort to ultimatums, but the writing is on the wall: You need to win a game, and you need to win one soon.

Extra Point
Walking out of the Hanover Co-Op the other day I marveled at the number of people who joined me in carrying their groceries in reusable cloth bags. A simple idea that we should have embraced long before we did.