Read All About It

The official Brown press release and a PDF of Brown's full game notes have now been posted.

The official Dartmouth press release and a PDF of Dartmouth's full game notes are also available.

The Dartmouth press release notes, and you can double-check this if you don't believe it because I'll admit I had to, the Big Green can move into a tie for third place in the Ivy League with a win Saturday.

The game notes include these nuggets:

• Only one player in the country has topped Greg Patton’s 243 rushing yards this fall.
• Patton is one of only two FCS freshmen this year to run for 200 or more yards.
• Patton is the first freshman to have a 100-yard rushing game since Chad Guadet did it twice in 2004.

Patton and Brown running back Spiro Theodosi are featured in a Daily Pennsylvanian story headlined, "Unusual suspect keys wins."

The Dartmouth win over Cornell brought movie scenes and lines to mind for a Daily Dartmouth columnist.

With starting quarteback Alex Jenny and record-breaking tailback Nick Schwieger out for the year, Dartmouth has had its share of bad luck with injuries this fall. But it's not alone. The Trenton Times has a story about the plague of injuries surrounding next week's opponent, Princeton. Tigers coach Roger Hughes:

We've had six ACL tears on our team. We've had nine linebackers (who) last week were out. Three strong safeties out. Obviously, we've had three running backs hurt.

Speaking of injuries, thanks to a regular reader for sending along a link to a Wall Street Journal story that asks this question:

Why do football players wear helmets in the first place? And more important, could the helmets be part of the problem?

In light of the many scary findings about concussions in the past several years, the story considers whether helmets actually cause more injuries than they prevent. It includes a few interesting thoughts out of Australian rules football, where helmets are not worn.

And finally, while there are some great football games in New England this weekend (Havard-Penn and Holy Cross-Fordham) to name a couple not being played in Providence ;-), one of the best will be in Williamstown, Mass., where 7-0 Amherst faces 6-1 Williams at Williamstown in a game to be broadcast live on the New England Sports Network with Doug Flutie doing color commentary.

The Amherst-Williams game has drawn the two largest crowds in Division III history with the 1993 game attracting 13,671 to Williams and the '96 game bringing 12,449 to Amherst. Next year's game will be the 125th, so the guess here is the record could be in jeopardy.

How intense is the rivalry? Consider this from a pep talk a former Williams assistant used to give before the game (link):

"If you wish to be happy for an hour, get intoxicated. If you wish to be happy for three days, get married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. If you wish to be happy forever, beat Amherst."

If you want to read something sweet, check out this story about the Williams tradition of The Walk, with players walking up the street from the field in full uniform after winning their Homecoming game and pouring into St. Pierre's barber shop. From the story:

The barber shop pulsates to the singing of the Williams fight song and various cheers, while Eph fans gather outside to cheer along and await the scene that is unveiled when the team exits the shop and is greeted by another load roar.

Old friend Stephen Dravis has a touching story in the Advocate about The Walk and its originator, a former player who died last year at age 58.