Gearing Up For Crusaders

The Holy Cross game notes for Saturday's game have been posted and they include an interesting note. Former Dartmouth offensive defensive coordinator Tom Gilmore is 5-0 against the Big Green while Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens is 0-9 against the Crusaders.

Teevens was 0-5 against Holy Cross in his first stint but keep in mind, nobody did much better. Over those five years, the Crusaders were a combined 50-4-1 with records of 11-0, 9-2, 10-1, 9-1-1 and 11-0.

Speaking of Holy Cross, you might want to check out the HC-Brown game story from the Worcester Telegram. Beating the Crusaders is simple, it turns out. All you have to do is pass for an Ivy League record number of completions and then cross your fingers that it is enough.

In case you are wondering, here are some of the awards Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph has won already this year:

• Sports Network National Offensive Player of the Week
• Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Gold Helmet Award (twice)
• Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week (twice)

Audio from the Ivy League's weekly teleconference is now up on the Ivy football page. Nothing really new to report from the Teevens sound bite. Curious about what Yale coach Tom Williams would have to say in the aftermath of Saturday's game, I listened to his audio as well. As might be expected, it was Yale-centric. Interestingly, neither coach fielded a single phone call from the media.

The New Haven Register has a nice follow piece on Yale tight end/H-back John Sheffield, who might have changed the entire tone of Saturday's game when he dragged a pile of tacklers for a crucial first down to keep the Bulldogs' initial touchdown drive alive. Sheffield's quote to the paper reads as if it were torn from a Buddy Teevens' script:

“It was very frustrating last year, and at the beginning of this year. It is easy to have those thoughts of ‘Oh, is this going to happen again?’ What I said to them is that if you want it to be different, we have to change it. You have to change it individually, and each one of us has to do that. I think people did that. They hustled, and they made plays.”

The Register story also includes this hard-to-swallow fact:

Beating up on Dartmouth is nothing new as the Bulldogs have beaten the Big Green by a combined score of 122-24 over the last three years.

Ouch.

Two more ratings/rankings have been updated. The venerable Dunkel Index list of Dartmouth opponents and future opponents looks like this (number in parentheses is last week's ranking):

4. UNH (9)
28. Harvard (39)
33. Columbia (36)
36. Holy Cross (27)
44. Colgate (32)
46. Brown (51)
49. Yale (56)
51. Penn (48)
61. Cornell (62)
98. Dartmouth (89)
102. Princeton (106)

Future Opponents

97. Sacred Heart (107)
110. Butler (112)
117. Georgetown (114)

The Sagarin ratings from USA Today list all of Division I. New Hampshire is ranked ahead of Louisville, Indiana, Colorado Kansas State, Colorado, Purdue, Maryland and Illinois among others. Sagarin looks like this:

81. New Hampshire
138. Harvard
146. Colgate
151. Holy Cross
160. Brown
161. Columbia
172. Penn
182. Cornell
188. Yale
214. Princeton
216. Dartmouth

Future Opponents
210. Butler
230. Sacred Heart
241. Georgetown

The Trenton Times reports that star Princeton running back Jordan Culbreath, "is being treated at the National Institutes of Health to allow his bone marrow to grow back quickly."

Princeton coach Roger Hughes on the challenge being faced by Culbreath, who ran for 276 yards against Dartmouth last year:

"To see a young man with all of his attributes and as special as he is have to go through this gives all of us a chance to reflect on the priorities in our lives. Understanding how fragile not only the game of football is, but how fragile life is, has been very sobering for our team.''

Extra Point
A guy named Vic owns what is officially called the Etna General Store ("Hikers Welcome," reads the sign on the side.) Although he's a friendly guy who has a few words and a smile for anyone who comes through the door we still call the place, "Dave's," after the previous owner. Whether it's Vic's, Dave's, the Etna General Store or, "The Little Store," as friends call it, I'm glad it's not a 7-11, a Wa-Wa or a Cumbies. Getting your milk or bread from someone you know at a "Dave's," is one of the things that makes living off the beaten path special.