Heading for Harvard

The weekly Ivy League teleconference was conducted yesterday and it can be heard here. The Harvard sports information website saved us all some listening and one of us some typing by transcribing coach Tim Murphy's quotes here. Specifically relating to Dartmouth, Murphy said:

Looking to Dartmouth, I said at the beginning of the season, from the bottom to the top of the league is not a very long climb. Dartmouth's decisive win shows they believe in themselves and their coaches. It's going to be a great game.

About Dartmouth sophomore Nick Schwieger and the Dartmouth offense, Murphy had this to say:

Nick is one of the two best backs in the league. We are very familiar with him - he is extremely strong, has excellent instincts and plays with emotion. They do an excellent job of play action pass. They have a QB who was highly recruited, so they have legitimate weapons for the first time in a long time and I think the league is starting to see that.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a nice look at Schwieger, the national offensive player of the week and Ivy League offensive player of the week after rushing for a school-record 242 yards in the streak-busting win over Columbia Saturday. Schwieger broke the record of 229 set by Al Rosier '91 in a 45-13 win over Brown at Memorial Field when Rosier was a fifth-year senior.

The writer from the Daily D tracked down Rosier, who finished the year leading the nation in rushing yards per game that fall with 143.2, for a comment:

“I was excited that (the team was) able to have such a good running back and a nice strong running game,” Rosier said. “It was obviously a career day for Schwieger, and hopefully (the team) can use that as a springboard for the rest of the year.”

On award that got away from Schwieger was the The College Sporting News FCS national offensive player of the week. Actually, they actually named two and one was someone the Big Green got a close-up look at already this fall: Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph. From the College Sporting News release:

Randolph threw four touchdowns and ran for two more and set a career-high with 116 rushing yards to lead No. 22 Holy Cross past No. 17 Colgate, 42-28, on Saturday. He completed 20-of-31 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns while carrying 14 times for 116 yards and the two scores.

Randolph, by the way, broke Steve McNair's FCS record by throwing a TD pass for the 37th consecutive game and now tops the country in passing, total offense and the awkward-sounding, "points responsible for."

Back to the Ivies and Dartmouth, the Daily Pennsylvanian weekend roundup includes this:

On the one hand, the Big Green won for the first time in 18 games, but on the other, the Lions experienced yet another setback in their sad history as Ivy League bottom dwellers.

Like several other stories, this one ascribes a quote about Dartmouth's excessive celebration penalty to Charles Bay. It was actually Eddie Smith who explained his thinking during the celebration tis way:

“Honestly, at that point I really didn’t care whether they called it or not. I really didn’t care. It was, 'Oh, if they are going to call it all right, let’s just celebrate some more.' ”

Missed this last week, but in light of Lafayette beating, Penn (20-17), Harvard (35-18), Yale (31-14) and Columbia (24-21) to boast a 4-0 record against the Ancient Eight, Penn coach Al Bagnoli told David Coulson of The Sports Network:

"They ought to just go ahead and give Lafayette the trophy as the Ivy League champion. They've earned it. They beat everybody."

Speaking of Penn, I meant to mention this the last time I noticed but forgot. Whether it is the ongoing (hate that word) confusion between Penn and Penn State or the fact that Nittany Lion-wear is a whole lot more in demand than Quaker-wear, it's hilarious that when you visit the Daily Pennsylvanian there's an ad for football shirts and such from Lions Pride, a Penn STATE merchandise store.

And finally, the video of Dartmouth's end-of-streak celebration (below) now has been viewed more than 1,100 times. That may not be much compared to clips of puppies playing with kittens, but apparently a fair number of people have taken a peek and seen a little pure joy.



And while I missed it, I have been told that Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim (seen throwing footballs at a Dartmouth practice in this video) did a pretty good sprint down the sidelines Saturday with one arm raised as he celebrated Nick Schwieger's 66-yard touchdown gallop.