Speaking of Saturday

The 10th and final weekly teleconference call featuring the Ivy League's head football coaches can be heard here. A few comments from Princeton coach Roger Hughes in advance of Saturday's finale at Dartmouth:

On last week's 24-17 win over Yale:

Obviously Yale was a big win for our program and for our kids, especially our seniors being their last home game. You know we've been through a little adversity this season and I think it was great to see our kids rise to the challenge to beat what I think is a good Yale team and a well-coached Yale team. So from that standpoint we were pleased with our efforts.

We didn't always play correctly but I thought we played with a lot of emotion, a lot of inspiration and played as hard as we could for the whole 60 minutes.

On this week:

We would love to close out the season with a win. Having coached at Dartmouth for eight years and watching numerous films on them we know what kind of challenge that's going to be. They are like we were last week. Their seniors have their last home game. It's an emotional time for them. I know they are going to be flying around. I know how hard those kids play. I know that Coach Teevens and his staff are going to have them flying around and I think it's going to be an atmosphere like others have said, to sound cliche, I don't think records mean that much.

We all have one game left and this game is going to be an emotional setter for the rest of the offseason and carry you over into next season. And so for all those reasons we understand the challenge that we are going to face at Dartmouth and clearly are looking forward to that opportunity.

On the running of Kenny Gunter against Yale (23 carries, 119 yards) and what it means to his team:

It's been kind of a little bit of a tragedy from the standpoint that Kenny's been banged up off and on all year. He missed most of preseason with a hamstring pull, finally got back into things during the Columbia game, got hurt again in the Brown game. So he's kind of been in and out of our plans. It was very satisfying and I know very rewarding for Kenny to come out and have the kind of game that he had last week.

It's a whole lot easier to call a game from the standpoint where you are coming off a second-and-four as opposed to second-and-10. Clearly having the pressure taken off our quarterback even allowed him to be more flexible in what he did. Tommy Wornham, our quarterback didn't feel like he had to win the game, that other parts of or offense were working very well. And so it had a very compounding effect. Also the fact, time of possession, all the things that are benefits of running the football effectively, started to help and show through during that Yale game.

My hope is that Kenny can play with the same type of emotion and passion that he had last week. The results remain to be seen against a pretty good Dartmouth defense. Any time you have the ball and you are running the ball effectively certainly as a coach it makes the play calls much easier.

Brown coach Phil Estes had these remarks about Dartmouth in light of his team's 14-7 double-overtime win against the Big Green:

I thought they were extremely motivated. Well-coached. I think (Harvard coach Tim) Murphy had said it when he played them: The biggest difference between the two teams is that we have a senior team and they have a very young team that is up and coming. So they are going to be a very dangerous football team in the future. And my hat's off to them.

Speaking of the future for the Dartmouth football team, Joe Asch over at Dartblog follows up yesterday's support for coach Buddy Teevens with several responses to his piece.

Back to Princeton, the Daily Princetonian has a story about Tiger co-captain Mark Paski, who will be starting a record 40th consecutive game on the offensive line Saturday. That's quite an accomplishment for anyone and truly amazing on the offensive line where no one starts their first collegiate game.

The well-regarded Gridiron Power Index compiled by College Sporting News is out and, in addition to ranking teams, it also ranks conferences for overall strength. Interestingly, the Ivy League and Patriot League are neck-and-neck each week. Here's how the FCS shapes up this week:

1. Colonial Athletic Association (25.40)
2. Big Sky Conference (30.29)
3. Great West Conference (31.15)
4. Southern Conference (31.72)
5. Missouri Valley Football Conference (33.40)
6. Southland Conference (40.50)
7. Big South Conference (49.95)
8. Ohio Valley Conference (50.70)
9. Patriot League (51.40)
10. Ivy League (51.75)
11. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (60.14)
12. Southwestern Athletic Conference (64.23)
13. Northeast Conference (66.22)
14. Pioneer Football League (73.40)
15. Independents (75.21)

Dartmouth and its opponents (current and future) are ranked this way in the GPI:

9. New Hampshire
21. Holy Cross
24. Penn
T-37. Harvard
T-37. Harvard
T-44. Brown
71. Yale
74. Columbia
T-87. Dartmouth
95. Princeton
104. Cornell

Future Opponents
91. Butler
T-113. Sacred Heart
120. Georgetown

And finally, that regular reader who is an enthusiast for trick plays offers up video of yet another one at the high school level in this short clip from YouTube.