Big Green Adds Another Linebacker

Add Ryan Hrabak, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound linebacker from Carmel Catholic in Mundelein, Ill., to the list of incoming players. Hrabak was an honorable-mention picked by the Daily Herald in his first year as a linebacker, posting 67 tackles and two interceptions through the Corsairs' first 11 games.

According to this story, Hrbak played running back as a freshman and was in the secondary for the past two years before moving to linebacker.

Hrbak joins high school classmate Tom Patek, a 6-3, 205 linebacker, in Dartmouth's Class of 2013.

Kevin Demoff '99, has been hired as the St. Louis Rams' executive president of football operations and chief operating officer. The Rams website says Demoff "will handle all player contract negotations for the Rams, and he'll serve as a liason to ownership on football and business operations." ... At Dartmouth Demoff wrote for the school newspaper and did color commentary for Big Green football radio broadcasts. It was Demoff, when he was general manager of the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, who helped former Dartmouth quarterback Brian Mann '02 get his pro football career started.

Bloomberg has a story about Sean Morey, the former Brown receiver who will appear in his second Super Bowl tomorrow as a special teams standout for the Arizona Cardinals. The story begins this way:

Sean Morey of the Arizona Cardinals has never made much use of his degree from Brown University. That’s by design.

An ABC News video shares the story of Milton '04 and Fred Ochieng '05, former Dartmouth soccer players who never forgot where they came from. Perhaps the splash page for the film Sons of Lwala summarizes their dramatic story best ...

"Milton and Fred Ochieng are two brothers from Kenya whose village sent them to America to become doctors. But after losing both parents to AIDS they are left with a heartbreaking task: to return home and finish the health clinic their father started before getting sick. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers are joined by students, politicians, and a rock band who launch a fund raising drive among young people across the United States. Sons of Lwala follows Milton and Fred on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first hospital."

More On Recruiting Front

An email from Florida arrived yesterday with information that safety/outside linebacker Garrett Waggoner, a 6-2, 210 safety from Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., has committed to Dartmouth. Waggoner was a defensive captain for Riverview this year and had an interception in the Brad Price Memorial PAL Bowl game between the Sarasota and Manatee County all-stars. He was Florida Academic All-State and a Sarasota Herald-Tribune honorable mention choice. For highlight videos, click here and here.

For an ESPN.com evaluation of safety recruit Cole Pembroke of Arizona, click here.

The Houston Chronicle had story late last month about Pasadena, Texas runnning back Bo Snelson, who is said to be considering Dartmouth. The 5-8, 185 Snelson ran for 1,904 yards this fall. From the story:

“When I was in eighth grade, my dad sat me down to talk about my goals,” said Snelson, who averaged 7 yards a carry this season. “He said I would never be the tallest and probably not the fastest or the strongest. So I had to work the hardest and be the toughest. That’s the mentality that I’ve always had.”

There's a lot of buzz on the message boards right now about Dartmouth and Butler either talking about a game in 2011 or 2012, or already having it scheduled. A member of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, Butler went 6-5 last year and was ranked No. 220 in the nation in the Sagarin ratings. Dartmouth was ranked No. 223.

Butler registered both its most wins and its first winning record since 1997 as recounted on the Butler web site. To get an idea about who Butler usually plays, here's the 2009 schedule:

Sept. 5 Albion College
Sept. 12 at Franklin College
Sept. 19 Hanover College
Sept. 26 at Morehead State
Oct. 3 San Diego
Oct. 17 Valparaiso
Oct. 24 at Campbell
Oct. 31 Davidson
Nov. 7 at Dayton
Nov. 14 at Jacksonville
Nov. 21 Drake

Interestingly, Dartmouth was rumored at one point to have a tentative game set with Drake, also of the Pioneer League. I'm not sure what happened with that one, but supposedly it was going to be played in Chicago.

Surfing around for more whispers about a possible game with Butler led somehow to a fun discovery about Dan Piening '00. The former Dartmouth linebacker from Cincinnati returned to football in 2007 as a graduate student on the Xavier University club football team. (roster). For someone who still has the football bug but no eligibility left, club football is a nice outlet. There's an article about club football at Xavier here.

The Yale Daily News has a story about new football coach Tom Williams. It includes this on his novel morning practices:

As for Williams’ practice plan, football players may or may not like the possible practice schedule for next fall.

“I plan to hold practices in the morning next fall — students may have to wake up between 5 and 5:30 in the morning,” Williams said.

When asked about the reason for the possible change, Williams echoed his sentiments about his coaching position being about more than just football, stating: “It gives the players a chance to really enjoy campus life and all of the activities. Everyone gets a chance to get more out of their day.”

And finally, the Brown Daily Herald has a story about former wide receiver Sean Morey, who will be playing in his second Super Bowl Sunday as a special teams Pro Bowler for the Arizona Cardinals. I still remember former Dartmouth coach John Lyons returning from the Ivy League all-star game in Japan and raving about Morey. James Perry, the former Brown quarterback who coached briefly at Dartmouth, is another fan. He told the Herald:

"In my years as a player and as a coach, Sean is the hardest-working guy that I've ever seen. Obviously, his talent was a prerequisite for what he's accomplished, but he's battled through a lot of adversity, and nobody works harder than Sean."

Another From The Desert

The Dartmouth recruiting class already had one member of Arizona's 2008 Class 5A first team. Now it has two as Cole Pembroke will join Brophy Prep lineman Mike Tree in Hanover next fall. From Scout.com:

Desert Vista safety Cole Pembroke has informed Scout.com that he has ended his recruitment. He says, "I committed to Dartmouth ..."

Pembroke is a 6-foot, 190-pound safety who showed his athleticism by playing quarterback as a junior before concentrating on the other side of the ball this year. From the Arizona Republic:

The big change was the switch at quarterback, which was the idea of former quarterback Cole Pembroke.

Pembroke, a senior, told (coach Dan) Hinds after the Week 1 loss that he thought he'd best serve the team concentrating on defense with Cody Sokol inserted as the No. 1 signal caller.

"That's why I love Cole Pembroke, so unselfish," Hinds said. "He stepped in front of pass for a big interception (against Chandler). There was no conflict or controversy. Cole led us last year, and Cody has stepped in. The offensive line said he is a real commander in the huddle."

Pembroke was credited with 49 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception last fall. He was the Central Region defensive player of the year.

Dartmouth punter Brian Scullin is drawing some NFL interest after a successful senior year according to the Daily Dartmouth. The honorable-mention All-American averaged a career-high 40.8 yards per punt this year with 19 of his 55 boots inside the 20 and nine going for 50-plus yards. Dartmouth led the nation in net punting this year. From The Dartmouth:

“If you look at my statistics from my freshman through junior seasons, [they] weren’t there,” said Scullin, who was recently named an honorable mention All-American by The Sports Network. “I just didn’t have the confidence and the belief that I could do it.”

Recently, however, scouts from various National Football League teams, such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, have been requesting Scullin’s tapes and statistics.
“[Scouts] have contacted the coaches, who then relay the information to me,” he said.

For an exhaustive look at new Yale head football coach Tom Williams check out a story in the Columbia Spectator.

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the college's Mean Green program, intended to develop student support at athletic contests. From the story:

Students who have enrolled in the Mean Green program sign in when they arrive at designated Dartmouth sporting events, and can receive rewards for attending a certain number of games in a term. “Mean Greeners” get a winter hat after six games, a travel mug after ten and a hoodie after 16 games. The top 20 members — those who attend the most games — each receive two tickets to a Boston Red Sox home game.

(If the program were retroactive and open to the public, the guess here is that two certain Hanover kids would be eligible for season tickets to the Boston Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. If there are two schoolchildren who have seen more basketball, football, baseball and hockey games at Dartmouth (and elsewhere) I'd be shocked.)

I did get a chuckle out of this nugget from the story: "Among all of the ways to earn physical education credit at Dartmouth, Mean Green was one of just a handful of programs that offered PE credit without physical activity."

While the Memorial Field home grandstand will not be rebuilt this year as previously planned, some other projects are continuing according to this story in the Daily Dartmouth.

College rankings are a little like the BCS. They give people something to argue about. Such is the case with the U.S. News popularity ranking, which is based on what percentage of admittees actually go to a particular college. From a Brown Daily Herald story:

In U.S. News' popularity ranking, Brown's 56 percent yield placed it ahead of both Dartmouth and Cornell. Harvard - which saw 79 percent of the students it admitted matriculate - topped the list. It also topped U.S. News' more prominent list in 2008.

Now, before you get in too much of a huff, the story also included this:

(Brown) Dean of Admissions James Miller '73 said he did not give too much weight to the list, characterizing it as a "silly survey" that was "not representative of much of anything."

But, he added, "Any survey where we're among the best colleges in the country - I'm delighted to be there."

Not that anyone is counting, but the US News listing based on the 2007 "yield," had Stanford fourth, Yale sixth, Princeton seventh, Penn eighth, Columbia 11th, Brown 12th, Dartmouth 18th (between Texas and Virginia) and Cornell 28th.

And finally, yesterday's email brought the following note from Roger Brown, editor/publisher of the New Hampshire Football Report. If you are local and would like to help a good cause ...

A breakfast fundraiser to benefit Milford (NH) High School football coach Keith Jones and his family will be held at the Black Recreation Center in Hanover on Feb. 8 from 8:30 to 11 a.m.

Three-year-old Harris Jones, Keith's son, was injured when he was hit by a snowmobile earlier this month and is currently being treated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Donations in any amount will be accepted at the breakfast, and all proceeds will go to the family.

Hanover football coach Mike Ivanoski is asking for donations (food or money) to help pay for the breakfast. He's also hoping the New Hampshire football community will provide items that can be raffled off to raise money for the Jones family.

Anyone with donations or questions can contact Ivanoski at 298-7495 (home), 491-9777 (cell) or Coach_I@yahoo.com.

Those unable to attend the breakfast can send donations to the following address:

The Harris Jones Fund
TD Banknorth
PO Box 783
Amherst, N.H.
03031

Going Green

The plows have been at work on Memorial Field in the past week. Depending on how this storm turns out, Big Green players will be able to add running on the FieldTurf to their winter conditioning drills. They might even be throwing a few passes. (Click to supersize)

Tight End Set For Dartmouth

Snow day in the Upper Valley with 12-16 inches predicted by the forecasters this morning. We'll see ...

Another day, another recruit announces for Dartmouth. This time it is Justin Foley, a tight end from Harrison, Ohio, who is listed as 6-foot-2, 211 pounds on one site and 6-4, 215 on another. Foley caught 33 passes for 574 yards and seven touchdowns last year and 58 balls for 927 yards and 10 touchdowns over his four years as a Harrison starter according to this Cincinnati.com article. ...

For a couple of photos of Foley click here and here.

There's a brief story about quarterback Nyk McKissic choosing Dartmouth (see next post) in the Austin American-Statesman.

With signing day next week all kinds of recruiting news will be breaking soon, some of it good for the Ivies and some of it not so good. News of the latter variety at Yale is reported on the Portal 31 blog which writes:

Rivals.com is reporting that Chris Wade, a linebacker from Northshore High in Slidell, La., has committed to Miami (Ohio). Wade was one of the 11 players who were accepted early into Yale and until Miami got involved with him in the recent weeks, Wade was expected to be a cornerstone of Yale's incoming freshman class.

Speaking of recruiting, the Ivy League was at the forefront of the news regulations on text messaging young athletes. One of the first to run afoul of the new rules is the University at Albany. The NCAA writes of the up-and-coming New York school's program:

On 36 occasions during the 2007 fall semester, following the effective date of NCAA rules eliminating text-message communication with prospective student-athletes, several assistant football coaches sent impermissible text messages to prospective student-athletes. The majority of the text messages were sent using a recruiting software program that enabled a coach to type a single message and send it to several prospective student-athletes at once. As a result, the 36 occasions when football coaches sent text messages resulted in 331 messages sent and 220 prospective student-athletes contacted. Further, during the summer of 2008, the head baseball coach sent 56 impermissible text messages to five prospects.

Former Brown quarterback and head coach Mark Whipple has made it official. He's leaving the Philadelphia Eagles' coaching staff to become the offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes. Whipple has had success everywhere he's coached, leading UMass to the national championship as head coach and guiding Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to his first Super Bowl. The Miami Herald writes:

His UMass teams set more than 40 offensive team records. His 1997 Brown team set Ivy League and school records for total offense (474.3 yards per game). While at New Haven, his 1992 squad led all NCAA divisions in scoring offense (50.5 points per game) and total offense (587.7 ypg).

There have been a couple of truly sobering stories about head trauma, concussions and brain damage in the past several days. A New York Times story leads with findings about a former Cornell standout who went on to the NFL:

Doctors at Boston University’s School of Medicine found a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brain of Tom McHale, an N.F.L. lineman from 1987 to 1995 who died in May at 45. Known as C.T.E., the progressive condition results from repetitive head trauma and can bring on dementia in people in their 40s or 50s.

A couple of related takeouts from the story:

Brain damage commonly associated with boxers has been found in a sixth deceased former N.F.L. player age 50 or younger, further stoking the debate between many doctors and the league over the significance of such findings.

And ...

“This is a medically significant finding,” said Dr. Daniel P. Perl, the director of neuropathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York who is not affiliated with the Boston University group. “I think with a sixth case identified, out of six, for a condition that is incredibly rare in the general population, there is more than enough evidence that football is clearly strongly related to the presence of this pathology.”

From a Boston Globe story:

In a discovery bound to reverberate through the nation's youth football community, clinical researchers reported Tuesday that the brain of a recently deceased 18-year-old high school football player showed the earliest signs of an incurable, debilitating disease caused by the kind of repetitive head trauma he experienced on the field.

Had the teenager lived, neurologists said, he eventually would have developed early-onset dementia that would have advanced unabated until his death.

The story includes this:

Rick White, football coach at Dartmouth High School in Massachusetts, believes more precautions will be taken when a player has a concussion.

"The time a player takes off, the time they're allowed to come back, has changed dramatically over the years," said White. "As this research keeps coming out, you're going to see kids have to sit out longer. Some of these injuries could be season-ending, and even career-ending.

We are fortunate in our community that Hanover High School, like Dartmouth, is part of the Centers for Disease Control research study "focusing on the effects of biomechanical force exposure (eg. head acceleration) on cognition in student athletes." From a newsletter we just received:

This study includes a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), genotyping, ImPACT online cognitive assessment testing, and the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System. The HIT System, developed and manufactured by Simbex, utilizes an array of six accelerometers that fit inside the athletes' helmets to collect real-time data on the sequence, magnitude (g force) and direction of hits taken. By combining the onfield data with state-of-the-art brain imaging technology and neurocognitive assessments, we aim to further the understanding of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of sports-related concussion in high school athletes. A similar study is being conducted with the Dartmouth College football and hockey teams.

Simbex is headquarted in nearby Lebanon.

More from the newsletter:

According to the American Journal of Sports Medicine, "a 50-player high school football team can expect three or four concussions a year."

Hanover high, which had 29 student-athletes take part in the study, had four concussed participants this year according to the newsletter.

That certain Hanover High freshman was part of the study last fall, although he couldn't complete the MRI because of his braces.

Several more notes before I let you go today ...

The Brown Daily Herald reports the school's endowment, "stands to lose $800m."

I've been wondering when I would read something like this. The Yale Daily reports that, "In an attempt to encourage students to pay attention to lectures and to facilitate class discussions, at least two dozen professors and teaching assistants have banned, or at least discouraged, laptop use since classrooms were outfitted with wireless in 2006."

And finally, the Daily Dartmouth has a story that certainly tops the one I freelanced recently on Dartmouth hockey coach Bob Gaudet coaching sons Jimmy and Joey this winter. The D piece is about one of the incoming freshmen assistant squash coach Hansi Wiens will work with next year.

That would be his wife Valaria, 22, an early decision admit. From the story:

Originally from Russia, Wiens finished her final years of high school in Germany, where she first began playing squash. Even with only six years of playing experience, Wiens is expected to be the star of next year’s team ...

Three-Star QB Commits To Dartmouth

Rivals three-star quarterback Nyk McKissic of Round Rock Stony Point High School in Texas has verbally committed to Dartmouth. From a Rivals.com story:

“I am planning on signing with Dartmouth,” McKissic said. “That’s where I plan on going. I’ve been talking to them since the football season, I guess since the middle of the season. I’m waiting on my whole admissions deal. I think I need to get one more point on my ACT.”

McKissic chose Dartmouth over some interest from a few mid-level programs like Toledo.

“A few schools talked to me about coming up for visits,” he said. “Toledo came by and had a home visit with me and (teammate) Kenny Browder. (Kenny) said he was going to stick with Wyoming and I decided to stick with Dartmouth.”

Listed at 6-foot-1, 194 pounds, McKissic completed 156-of-264 passes (59.1 percent) for 2,216 yards and 18 touchdowns with four interceptions last fall. He also rushed for 413 yards and nine touchdowns.

For a nice action shot of the QB, click here. ... For a scout.com critique of his performance at a Baylor University camp last summer, click here. From that report:

Of the QBs in attendance, Nyk McKissic of Stony Point emerged as the top signal caller on the day. McKissic throws a tight spiral with nice touch. He is a smart football player that really showed his coach ability during the zone read drills.

In a story about how the Stony Point coach helped turn the school into a power, the Austin American-Statesman quoted McKissic, who it reported lost his 37-year-old father in a car accident on Christmas 2006:

"This has been nothing short of amazing. Other guys weren't committed to the program. It was like picking the rotten apples from the bunch. People called us Stony Stepchild Point, saying we were the stepchild of Round Rock. They made us feel like we were a second-class program."

There's more information about McKissic in this American-Statesman story, which says he played the final eight games of the year with a broken leg, and in the comment section that follows the story.

Lion Lloyd?

Former Dartmouth safety Lloyd Lee '98, let go as linebackers coach with the Chicago Bears after the season, might be resurfacing with the Detroit Lions according to this report.

And now for a series of posts about ... money.

New Hampshire football coach Sean McDonnell earned $182,404 last year according to a Manchester Union Leader story looking at compensation for all state and University System workers. While that sounds like – and is – a lot of money, it pales in comparison to the $382,000 (in salary and deferred income) that makes UNH hockey coach Dick Umile the highest paid state or University System worker in New Hampshire. By way of comparison, Umile earned $78,759 more than the president of UNH last year. (New Hampshire governor John Lynch made $113,537.88.) ... It's hard to say someone making $180,000-plus deserves a raise, but I think a pretty strong case can be made that compared to other football coaches McDonnell is underpaid.

Not sure quite how much the UMaine coach makes, but his Black Bears could be in for a pretty nice bonus. They have a signed contract to play Florida State next fall for $450,000. Nice money, but it gets better. The Seminoles are reportedly looking to drop the game in favor of a nationally televised game against Miami. Here's the kicker: To get out of the Maine game, FSU is obligated either to buy out of the contract with Maine for $900,000 or find the Black Bears a comparable payday. Check out the story in the Bangor Daily News.

Onward we go. To borrow a line from Sports Illustrated, here's one more Sign of the Apocalypse from the Daily Pennsylvanian. Thanks to a regular reader for the link to a DP story that says:

A new Web site, Ultrinsic.com, allows students to enter a contest where earning an A in a course wins them money. The deadline for entrance is Wednesday.

A $20-per-class bet plus a $2 entrance fee allows students to enter a pool which they can win outright or split with others if they earn an A or A+ in a class.

Man, I could have made a fortune in college betting against getting an A.

The regular reader who shared the UNH pay link offers up another from the New York Times that shows the financial difficulty at some colleges is taking more of a toll than it is at Dartmouth. Brandeis University, the story notes, will be closing its art museum and selling its collection to help in the face of a $10 million budget shortfall.

By the way, if you are a fan of SI's Signs of the Apocalypse, check out this compilation of some good ones. (Or bad ones, to be more accurate.) These are some oldies but goodies.

Zack Walz On Pat Tillman

Sunday's Los Angeles Times carried a moving story about Pat Tillman, who gave up a promising career with the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army only to die in Afghanistan in April of 2004. From Bill Plaschke's story in advance of the Cardinals facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl:

The NFL loves to wrap itself in the flag, yet the league has no plans to remember him.

The Cardinals have a statue and reflecting pool dedicated to Tillman outside their stadium, but nothing on their jerseys.

Tillman's foundation has no knowledge of any involvement. A Tillman family member said he was unsure of any family plans to attend.

An NFL spokesman said there may be something about Tillman on the NBC television broadcast, but there were no guarantees.

The photo at the top of the story is of Zack Walz '98, the former Dartmouth and Cardinals linebacker, holding aloft his friend's dog tags at a Tillman memorial service in May of 2004. From the story:

If anyone knows of the whereabouts of two dog tags that once adorned the neck of a former NFL star who was killed while fighting for his country in Afghanistan, please come forward.

His former team, the Arizona Cardinals, play Sunday in the Super Bowl.

His former Cardinals roommate, Zack Walz, is desperate to wear them again.

Walz was given the tags by Tillman as a gift shortly before his death. With trembling hands, he held them aloft during his eulogy at Tillman's nationally televised memorial service.

Several months later, he says, they were ripped from his neck.

I spoke with Zack last night and for as much as he hopes to get the dog tags back, that's not why he was glad to talk to Plaschke. Here's some of what Zack said to me last night:

"I think he needed to put it out there and raise awareness again. He needed to remind people kind of what the NFL ... has failed to do. They put a Gene Upshaw sticker on the back of their helmets for an entire year. And they let players wear a Pat Tillman No. 40 number for one week and then fined Jake Plummer for wearing it any week past that."

For a video interview with Zack regarding Tillman, click here.

Walz, by the way, reports that Student-Athlete Showcase – the business he co-founded that helps "maximize the collegiate opportunities for our qualified athletes," – continues to grow and have success getting high school athletes onto college coaches' radar. To read a little more about Zack, find his bio here. And if you have a potential college athlete in the family, do check out the SAS blog, which right now has a posting about the "7 Myths of College Recruiting."

Finally, in talking with Zack last year he expressed interest in coming east to help out with Dartmouth spring football. While for one reason or another that didn't come about in 2008, he'd like nothing more than to be in Hanover this spring sharing some of the lessons that helped him spend a handful of years as an undersized linebacker with the Cardinals.

Now lots more links ...

A Daily Dartmouth columnist writing about the Ivy League's curious and uneven approach to postseason tournament action:

If the Ivy presidents contend that the postseason football ban is largely about preserving academic integrity, why not extend this to the other sports?

Another Daily D columnist says the Ivy League is missing the boat both in football and basketball:

I agree ... that the Ivy League football champion should be able to compete for a national championship, but there is no way to get around the fact that the Ivy League completely misses out on the greatest month in college sports.

A columnist from the Columbia Spectator writes:

If lacrosse has been given a tournament on the basis that its teams have been successful and could use a boost to get into the national tournament, I think that the Ivy League needs to realize that success is fleeting, and decisions that shape the future of the league should not rest on past or present success. These decisions should be based on what is best for the league and for the players within it. If a postseason tournament works for lacrosse, why can’t it work for other team sports?

Shouldn’t basketball, soccer, and other team sports—including football, but that’s a column on its own—be offered the same opportunity?
The only fair answer is yes.

Former Dartmouth safety Matt Burke, a coach with the Tennessee Titans, might be headed to the Detroit Lions' staff according to the Detroit Free Press.

The Daily Dartmouth, writing about athletes and fraternities, has this interesting nugget. It quotes Andrew von Kuhn, the former wide receiver whose career was ended by injury but was a volunteer coach this fall:

Beta’s largest athletic presence comes from the football team, including some senior transfers from GDX, the organization which, in recent history, has been viewed by many as the “football house” on campus.

Speculation about this movement led some to claim that varsity football head coach Buddy Teevens ‘79, who is a Beta alumnus, encouraged his players to become Beta members.

According to von Kuhn, however, there is no truth to this rumor.

“Coach Teevens never pushed or encouraged it,” he said. “There were other factors involved, but coach actually encouraged guys to try to pledge many different houses around campus, so that football players could be more widely involved.”

The University of New Hampshire has found its next possible football victim. No, not another Ivy League team silly enough to schedule the Wildcats. Another FBS team silly enough to schedule them. From the Manchester Union Leader:

UNH will travel to Muncie, Ind., on Saturday, Sept. 12, to play Ball State. Ball State went undefeated during the regular season last fall and advanced as high as No. 12 in the national polls.

The Wildcats have beaten the last four FBS teams they have played -- including Army in 2008 -- and that success, along with their going to the FCS playoffs each of the last five years, has made it more and more difficult to find teams willing to play them.

"No question, this was the toughest time we've ever had," (Steve Metcalf, the senior associate athletic director for internal relations) said. "I talked to a half dozen teams who had open dates who simply said they weren't interested in playing us."

UNH already has contracts for games with Pittsburgh in 2010 and Boston College in 2014.

A couple of notes out of Yale. First, new coach Tom Williams has taken the Buddy Teevens approach to discipline in meetings. From the New Haven Register:

The first order of business for Williams was to instruct his players to take off their hats and sit up straight.

“We just wanted to set some ground rules ... my expectations of them, and what they can expect from me,” Williams said. “I think you listen with your eyes, so I told them I wanted all eyes at attention. We’ll get into more specifics as we get closer to playing football, but I just wanted them to have some idea of the parameters that are going to be set and the direction we’re going in."

And this about Yale's new captain, Paul Rice. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound corner (he'll probably be moved this year) is the son of a former Harvard player, which makes things interesting on one Saturday afternoon each November. From the Register:

Talk about interesting family dynamics. You have a dad, Lou, who has promised to root for Yale for four years and not a minute longer; who will sit on the Yale side of the field during The Game, but won’t wear a stitch of Yale regalia.

Then you have Paul Rice, the highly productive cornerback/monster back, who doesn’t regret for a day his choice of Yale, even knowing how his dad “must have been grinding his teeth in the background when he was watching (the recruiting process) happen,” Rice said. Rice also vowed to get his dad into a Yale hat or sweater or scarf for the big game, 2009.

“I’m afraid I’m going to be bullied into doing it,” Lou Rice said. “I guess I’ll just have to live with the recriminations from my classmates at Harvard.

Click here for video of potential Dartmouth running back recruit Bo Snelson from Pasadena Memorial in Texas.

Dartmouth doesn't have anyone playing in the Super Bowl this year, but there's one sure connection and another that fell through.

The sure connection is the Pittsburgh Steeler Rooney family, which has sent freshman quarterback Dan Rooney to Hanover...

The one that fell through was mentioned briefly in the St. Petersburg Times. The temptation is to make you read the whole story under the headline, "Tampa's adults-only businesses hope to cash in on Super Bowl," but I'll save you the trouble. The story – which included a photo caption reading, "As the Super Bowl approaches, dancers at clubs such as Deja Vu in Tampa hope to draw big crowds and make big bucks," – includes this:

About two dozen tried out, including one who Romagna said is a student at Dartmouth College. The dancer said she wanted to "get away" and didn't care how much money she made. She brought a suitcase full of makeup, 6-inch heels and high hopes.

In the end, she decided not to come back for game week.

And no, I didn't go looking for that story. Someone sent me a link ;-)

The New Yorker has a piece about last week's Ivy Football Association dinner that begins this way:

If the election of President Obama was supposed to signal the end of clubby, fraternity-style rule and usher in a new, thin-necked, cerebral era, you wouldn’t have known it from the Ivy Football Association Dinner, which, like a congressman’s reëlection bid, occurs every two years.

And finally, being someone who usually did sports that included a ball, I've always had a little bit of trouble understanding the nuances of track. I got a lesson yesterday on why runners are held out of races. That certain Hanover High School junior, like her dad in his day, just wants to get out there and compete. Is there a game? Let's play. A race? Let's run. That sore leg? Who cares? A cough? No problem.

Um, problem.

Battling a nasty cough all week, "tossing cookies" during training Thursday (something that hadn't happened before), that certain distance runner decided to run the 3,000 anyway yesterday at UNH. Less than a quarter mile in it was clear she'd made a mistake. A kid whose face never reddens when she runs was bright red from ear to ear. The usual placid look was replaced by a grimace and, eventually, a fight to hold back tears.

To her credit, she came back at the end of the meet and ran a leg on the 4x400 relay team so the team wouldn't forfeit, but it wasn't easy.

She was extremely unhappy with her time yesterday and still in the dumps this morning. The easy answer is to remind her that it's better to be fighting a bug now than in two weeks when states roll around. But it's easier to say than it is to hear.

Big OL Headed To Hanover

One who is coming, who who might be coming and one who got away lead today's blog.

Coming to Dartmouth is 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive lineman John Hanna of San Diego's Torrey Pines High School. From a story in the North County Times:

Offensive lineman John Hanna of Torrey Pines High has verbally committed to play football next season at Dartmouth, according to Falcons head coach Scott Ashby.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder, who played left tackle for the Falcons this season, cancelled a recruiting trip to Brown after his visit to Dartmouth.

Hanna is expected to start out playing either guard or center.

Hanna was an All-Avocado League honorable mention pick this year.

To see video of Hanna in action, check out this link from when he was inducted into something called "Shack's Pig Pen," a TV commentator's collection of the best interior linemen in San Diego County.

The one who might be coming is Bo Snelson, a 5-9, 180 running back from Houston-area Pasadena Memorial, who ran for about 2,000 yards and 24 touchdowns this fall while also passing for 714 yards while being pressed into service as a quarterback.

Snelson is reported to have been in Hanover for a Jan. 16 visit. His coach, who happens to be his father John, said in a Nov. 3 story:

“He really likes the Naval Academy and Dartmouth. Someone is going to get a heck of a football player. He’s a prideful guy and wants to go somewhere that wants him.”

That story went on to say: "The entire Ivy League has offered him, while Air Force, Army, Houston and Rice are also sincerely recruiting him."

From a recent Scout.com posting:

I spoke with the Snelson's recently (Bo and dad John) and Bo has visited Colombia and Dartmouth recently. He does still hold the offer from Navy, and will also visit Texas Tech this coming weekend and Northwester State over in Louisiana the following weekend.

Bo says Tech has been talking a lot to him recently but are talking more about a preferred walk-on than a free ride.

He will likely wait just about to the end to sign.

Snelson was chosen to the All-Greater Houston football first team offense and named the District 22-5A MVP. He ran for 2,134 yards and 31 touchdowns as a junior when he was one of 50 national finalists for the Old Spice Red Zone Player of the Year. (link) ... This scout.com story says he runs a 4.5 40, benches 300 ounds, squats 460 and has a 34-inch vertical. ... He run track and also pole vaults in the spring.

The one who got away is 6-4, 233 tight end Cameron Moss, another San Diegan who is headed to Colorado State. The Denver Post reports that he, "picked the Rams from a top three that included Dartmouth and Cal Poly."

Today's Boston Globe has a lengthy story about new Yale football coach Tom Williams. (In newspaperese, I'm going to "bury the lede," on this story, so stick with me.) The Globe writes that:

... (I)f the school's tradition is any guide, Williams's first head coaching job will be his last. Since 1952, there have been 11 US presidents, six popes, and 17 Red Sox managers (not counting multiple interims) but only four Yale football coaches. "The decision to come to Yale is not a four-year decision," says athletic director Tom Beckett. "It's a lifetime decision."

Green Alert Take: Only time will tell. Then again, I think times are changing, or have changed. I can remember an athletic director who said the coach he wanted is one who has goals and aspirations beyond the Ivy League, because that's the coach who will be most driven. The guess here is that if Williams has success at Yale, there will be people beating down his door that are very hard to say no to.

Also from the story:

The Bulldogs have won 23 of their last 30 games, including a 9-1 record and an Ivy crown. Last season, they shut out Princeton for the first time in more than 70 years and handed cochampion Brown its only league loss. Yet that didn't keep Old Blues, disgruntled by seven losses in eight years to archrival Harvard, from calling for Siedlecki's scalp. Winning nine games matters little if you lose The Game. "It's our bowl game," says Harvard coach Tim Murphy, who's won 10 of 15. "End of sentence."

Green Alert Take: Williams has gone from the Big Game to The Game. He's good with words. It will be interesting to hear him finesse the differences in the two ;-)

And buried within the Globe piece this mention of Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens: "Teevens, who hired Williams when he was at Stanford, wouldn't comment on him for this story."

Green Alert Take: Hmmm.

Off the gridiron, terrific news for the Dartmouth men's basketball team, which rode 30 points from forward Alex Barnett to a 75-66 win over Harvard and coach Tommy Amaker last night in Cambridge. (For a story I freelanced on Barnett, who might just be the best player in the Ivy League, click here.)

And finally, we are off to UNH shortly for another indoor track meet. That certain Hanover High junior will be running the 3,000 on the school's renovated track. She's hoping for a PR with two weeks to go until states.

Pacific Northwest Running Back Set For Dartmouth

From the Bellingham (Wash) Herald:

RICK DECIDES ON DARTMOUTH
Bellingham High School football standout Jeremy Rick has verbally committed to play at Dartmouth College next season, Bellingham coach Doug Trainor wrote in an e-mail.
Rick rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of the last two seasons, including 1,150 last season and 12 touchdowns. Rick made his decision to play for the Ivy League school after a recent visit to the campus.

The 5-foot-10 Rick was an All-Northwest Conference choice and honorable-mention all-state Class 2A. Find his photo on the school's roster page here and his career stats here. Here's what his coach had this to say about him in the All-Whatcom County story in the Bellingham Herald:

"Jeremy is just an electric player. He battled injuries all season and still really carried the load for us down the stretch. He's the type of high school football player who can carry the ball 25 or 30 times a game and still break a big play."

The story says he ran for at least 100 yards in eight of 10 games.

He's also a sprinter on the track team (results).

Taking Shots

I was cruising my usual Internet haunts this morning and came across a message board discussion regarding the Fordham football program's future in the Patriot League. The original poster suggests that there is a conspiracy "to have Fordham as the Columbia of the PL (perennial bottom feeders)."

I kept reading, in part because there was occasionally interesting speculation about reorganizing leagues in the Northeast and New England. And then, there it was. A response mentioning the Big Green:

Columbia? Does that make Georgetown the Dartmouth of the league?
If so, Dartmouth's due for a big comeback.

If nothing else, when the "big comeback" starts it will put an end to the pot shots the Big Green has taking the past few years.

Speaking of message boards, I was over at a Colgate board (I get around ;-) and came across a discussion of Raiders coach Dick Biddle. While the "thread" eventually spun out of control (threads usually do if they go on long enough) the early postings do a good job of describing a coach I've come to respect greatly over the years.

And speaking of coaches, former Brown (and UMass) coach Mark Whipple has been under consideration as offensive coordinator at the University of Miami. The only thing missing from this look at Whipple is the wonderful nickname that he could bring to the Canes' attack: The Whiplash.

Said to be choosing between Penn and Dartmouth is 6-foot-4, 259-pound offensive lineman Zach Vrtis of Kennesaw Mountain, Ga., according to the Marietta Daily Journal. Vritis has been nominated as an Old Spice Red Zone Player of the Year. He was an All-Cobb County Offensive Lineman and All-Cobb County Scholar Athlete.

Notes And Quotes For A Friday

A new New Haven Register/Portal 31 Q&A with new Yale football coach Tom Williams is worth taking a look at. Williams is asked about his relationship with Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, for whom he worked at Stanford. His response:

Our relationship is fine. There were some things that went on when we were at Stanford that we both regret but I don't have any issues with Buddy Teevens whatsoever.

Not much new in the Q&A, although Williams did say he will be holding morning practices. It will be interesting to see how that works out. I do wish he'd been asked about the Ivy League prohibition on going to the NCAA playoffs.

Former Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie of the New York Giants is headed to the Pro Bowl as a longsnapper, joining former Brown receiver-turned-special teams demon Sean Morey of the Arizona Cardinals. ... Harvard product Matt Birk of the Minnesota Vikings is a finalist for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. ... Morey, of course, will be playing in his second Super Bowl after appearing in Super Bowl XL with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Dartmouth's endowment has dropped $700 million and layoffs are ahead according to the Daily Dartmouth. The D goes on to report that "more than 70 staff members" to the "enhanced retirement," that offered six months pay for employees over 55 who had 10 years of continuous service. One of those: athletic director Josie Harper, who will step down at the end of the school year.

The new senator from New York will be Dartmouth alum Kirsten Gillibrand '88. Find a story here.

Ivy Football Celebration

NOON UPDATE
Check out the Boston Globe for a look at Harvard applications for the class of 2013.

Former Dartmouth rushing leader and football coach Jake Crouthamel will be honored tonight at the fifth annual Ivy Football Association dinner at the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Read about the dinner here. ...

Recruiting tidbits keep floating over the transom. The latest from scout.com is that Denver's Mario Conte, a defensive back at Mullen High School is getting the most "interest" from Dartmouth, Lehigh and the University of North Dakota. Conte is listed at 5-11, 190 with a 4.55 time in the 40.

The FCS title game for the 2010 season is being moved from its traditional December date to the night before the BCS national championship game. The date of the game, played in Chattanooga for the past 11 years, is being changed to allow for the expansion of the field from 16 to 20 teams in 2010 according to the Chattanoogan. And no, the Ivy League champion will not be one of the 20.

Want to improve your chances of making it into the field of 20 in a hurry? Rhode Island coach Darren Rizzi has taken a step in that direction by tapping Rutgers, where he previously served as associate head coach, for not one, but four transfers. (link) It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Speaking of recruiting, a regular reader sent along this link to a Sports Illustrated article purporting to show that BCS schools that "draw at least 50 percent of their players from within 200 miles or from within their home state stand a far better chance of winning consistently than those that did not." From the article:

The model found that a school's academic standing -- whether it's in the top 50 of the US News and World Report rankings -- provides a miniscule bump. So does the final poll ranking of the school the previous season. What didn't matter to players shocked the economists more. According to the data, the players weren't, on the whole, worried about the depth chart, how many national titles schools had won or how many players the school put in the NFL.

"Recruits tend to have short memories," said DuMond, who works for a private economics firm in Tallahassee, Fla. In general, DuMond says, the top recruits are looking for "a place that is in a BCS conference with a big stadium that is close enough that they can be seen by family and friends."

It would be interesting to see if the same holds true in the FCS.

There's a neat interactive map on the site that allows visitors to click on a state and see where BCS players come from, and go to school.

With the Dartmouth men's basketball team headed to Harvard Saturday, today's Daily Dartmouth has a column about the Ivy League race. It begins this way:

It’s a testament to the sad state of Dartmouth’s major sports teams when the most exciting news in the sports world comes from Cambridge.

Ouch.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has a story about the early decision acceptance at the school rising from an all-time low of 28 percent to 32 percent this year. A decline in applications is the cause, according to the dean of admissions. Interestingly, while the acceptance rate has gone up, it has been joined by a rise in the SAT and GPA of the students admitted.

If you check out the story there's an interactive chart that, by rolling your cursor over the names of the different Ivy schools, brings up a chart tracking the acceptance rate at the various schools over a seven-year period. Dartmouth's rate has been gradually declining for the past five years. Princeton and Harvard, of course, have ended early decision.

Paulson Heads To Hopkins

It wasn't long after Dartmouth president Jim Wright announced he was stepping down this spring that I first heard someone say they would like to see former Dartmouth football player Hank Paulson named the next Dartmouth president. Others have since chimed in with the same thought.

Well, Paulson is heading to the academic world, all right. But not at Dartmouth. And not as a college/university president. Not yet, at least.

This just in from Bloomberg.com:

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson joined Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington, to work on a program centered on globalization.

Fullback Headed To Hanover

Add fullback Jason Lawrence of Guilderland High School in the Albany, N.Y., suburbs to the list of incoming freshman football players next fall. At 5-10 1/2, 232 pounds, Lawrence has been hand-timed at 4.73 in the 40. For a terrific action shot of him hurdling a tackler, click here. There are several videos on the web that show him in action. Find one here from his junior year and another here. He is No. 45.

A three-year starter at linebacker, Lawrence was an all-section pick at nose guard as a junior. As a senior he carried 70 times for more than 400 yards, scoring five touchdowns.

Air Force and Dartmouth are among the schools recruiting Darius Jones of Chamblee High School in Georgia. The 5-8, 170 Jones told scout.com, "Dartmouth has expressed a lot of
interest and wants me as a running back." Jones' brother Roddy ran for 690 yards and an eye-catching 8.5 yards per carry at Georgia Tech last fall. Find a highlight reel of Darius Jones here.

Another high school senior with Dartmouth on his radar is Heath Mayo, a corner/wide receiver from Whitehouse High School in Texas. Mayo is reported to have "offers" from Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn and Army.

How crazy is the National Signing Day buzz in the south? The Atlanta Journal Constitution has a countdown clock on its College Sports Recruiting page and as I write this there are 13 days, 22 hours, three minutes and 33 seconds to go. ...

Sites like Scout.com and Rivals.com make a living reporting recruiting "news," much of which is excerpted here. But do they get it right? Pretty often, I'd guess, at the game's highest level. But this forum posting on the AnyGivenSaturday.com FCS site offers a sobering assessment of how the recruiting services do with regard to players at "the division formerly known as I-AA."

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story that begins this way:

Athletes from various Big Green teams gathered on Monday to offer their opinions on what programs and policies of the athletic department can see reduction as part of the College’s planned budget cuts, in a discussion sponsored by the Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

The story includes this nugget, which you may have known about, but which somehow slipped past me:

The athletic department plans to implement a permanent 15 percent budget cut, which will contribute to the total $40 million College-wide cut, according to Budget Committee member and former varsity tennis player Jennifer Murray ‘09.

Tough decisions are ahead. That's no surprise, of course. The toughest of all might be whether to cut from the budget of each sport, at the risk of damaging their competitive posture, or to drop a sport or sports. It's not a decision I'd want to have to make.

The Columbia Spectator has an opinion piece in response to a December call by several students for "canning" the football program. It includes this defense of Columbia's football players/athletes:

These athletes come to Columbia sans scholarship to take this abuse, and yet they still try their hardest to perform and represent their team and their school.

The athletes represent the school where the student body shuns their existence and then have to compete in the classroom with other students who don’t have to dedicate up to 40 hours of their weeks to sports.

Athletes are dedicated to the University, have the most school spirit, and because of their bonds to the school, are likely to make donations back to Alma. So before you try to stun the world with your ingenious budget-cut ideas, girls, make sure not to bite the hands that feed.

The Harvard Crimson reports that, "A record-breaking number of more than 29,000 students have applied for spots in Harvard’s class of 2013 ..." The story goes on to say:

There are several possible reasons for the increase in applicants, including last year’s expansion of financial aid and recruiting programs like the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative.

Harvard's freshman class, if I read the story right, will be 1,660 students strong.

And finally, did you know there's a Dartmouth men's basketball message board? Apparently you aren't the only one who didn't know it. Find it here.

Desert Gold

It appears you can add Mike Tree of Brophy College Prep in Phoenix to the list of Dartmouth regular-decision recruits. A defensive tackle/linebacker type, Tree visited Princeton two weeks ago and was in Hanover last week before making Dartmouth his choice. A scout.com "two-star" pick, Tree was a a first-team, all-state 5A choice by the Arizona Coaches Association who is reported to have had "offers" from Air Force, Brown, Columbia and Holy Cross in addition to Dartmouth and Princeton. No word on whether he was offered by Saturday Night Live, although this earlier post explains why he might deserve one.

For a story about how Tree spent last summer, click here. ... Brophy, by the way, is a perennial Arizona powerhouse that in recent years sent offensive linemen Shane Peterlin '11 and Brock Middleton '12 to Dartmouth.

A message board that carried news of Tree's commitment says safety Cole Pembroke of Desert Vista High School in Phoenix will be in Hanover for a recruiting visit this weekend although remember, it's just a message board.

The Palm Beach Post reports that 5-11, 185 De-Andres Jackson of Glades Day, "has offers or interest from Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Arkansas State and Air Force." For a story about Jackson, a tailback/receiver, click here. For video of Jackson, click here.

Something to ponder: If, as the Harvard Crimson writes, Harvard may not allow quarterback Andrew Hatch to transfer back from LSU, could he end up at another Ivy League school? He's clearly a talented quarterback and a very good student.

There was an interesting Q&A in the Cornell Sun yesterday with Doris Davis, Cornell's associate provost for admissions and enrollment, regarding the "changing admission process." The Q&A included this:

Sun: It has been said that one reason Cornell announced its second phase of the new financial aid plan in October is because it was losing many of its athletes to schools with bigger financial aid programs. Is the newest plan helping in the recruitment of athletes?

DD: We’ll see. (One phase is) to reduce parental contribution for select students whose incomes are above $60,000 a year. And those students may include students who are of an enrollment priority. Some of those students may be athletes and some may be mathematicians and physicists. So there are a range of students who are going to qualify for those enhanced initiatives. And that piece, we will see, because those students (effected by the new plan) come in fall 2009.

That almost sounds like scholarships, or at least merit aid. Discuss among yourselves.

And here's something I completely missed last spring. Although Wake Forest became the first "top 30 national university in the U.S. News & World Report ranking," to drop SAT and ACT test scores as admission requirements, incoming freshman athletes at the school are still, "required to present a valid SAT or ACT score to the NCAA Eligibility Center in order to practice, compete or receive an athletic grant-in-aid at Wake Forest University." ESPN ran an interesting blog piece last spring on "Wake Forest's Testing Dilemma." Bruce Feldman, the writer of the blog, is author of the book Meat Market. His research for the book gives him an interesting perspective:

The biggest academic dilemma I observed stemmed from something that is relevant to the Wake Forest story and the standardized tests. In the case of many borderline recruits, schools needed to determine who was a safer pick: the kid who had a solid GPA but a low ACT score, or the kid with the shaky GPA but a respectable ACT?

The evidence I saw indicated that you're probably better off with the former rather than the latter. For regular students that might not be the case, but for student-athletes, who are afforded additional academic support systems, it was. The kid who had a solid GPA had at least shown that he will be diligent, meaning he'll be more likely to go to all his tutoring sessions and study-halls and be on time for class (and position meetings and practice too).

Meanwhile, the other kid might have been conditioned to think he's always smart enough to just get by. Maybe he is, or maybe, when things get tougher, he won't be.

While he makes it clear he's talking about "borderline recruits," I've heard the same thing over and over again from Dartmouth coaches who believe the work ethic that allows a kid with substandard scores to achieve a high GPA is what will make that student-athlete a success both in the classroom and in athletics.

In case you missed it (as I obviously did) find a News & Observer story about Wake Forest dropping the standardized tests here.

And finally, it's exam week at Hanover High School and that certain junior and her freshman brother seem to have been studying harder than I ever did for college exams. (Please don't tell them I said that ;-) Kudos to them, particularly the freshman who would much, much rather be throwing a ball somewhere but has been studying hard for a full week. Both kids are still training with the track team, a good break from the books, although only the junior reached the qualifying standards to keep competing at the two upcoming meets at UNH and states one week later.

A Look At Stadiums

After posting a link yesterday to an artist's rendition of what improvements to Cowell Stadium at the University of New Hampshire might look like, I got an email asking about other stadiums (stadia ;-) in the CAA. Here are links to photos that will give you an idea of what they look like:

Delaware
Hofstra
James Madison
Maine
Massachusetts
Northeastern
Richmond
Rhode Island
Towson
Villanova
William & Mary

I can't vouch for how up-to-date those photos are. Most are from the same site that still features this picture of Memorial Field. (Editor's note: It's interesting to see the old Memorial Field through the lens of the current Memorial Field. I have a new appreciation for how lopsided it was.)

The only CAA schools where I've seen games are Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and UNH is clearly bringing up the end of that parade. I've been there four times I think, and I still can't make up my mind about the walls at the ends of the UMass stadium.

While I was at it I thought I'd post links to some of the Patriot League stadiums Dartmouth hasn't played in for a few years:

Bucknell
Fordham
Georgetown
Lafayette
Lehigh (Another Lehigh)

I really like Bucknell's field and how they wisely filled in the end of the horseshoe. ... Fordham's field works when you look back at the home stands. Unfortunately, when you look across the way there are no stands at all, or at least there weren't when Dartmouth last played there, and that ruins it. ... Good luck finding a decent picture of Georgetown's current field. ... Lafayette has done an unbelievable job of renovating their stadium. By all means check out this slide show of their new football varsity house. If it hasn't won design awards there is something wrong. ... Lehigh's stadium is gorgeous and nicely situated. My only quibble would be that because of the bowl shape, seats on the 50-yard line are surprisingly far from the field.

A blogger has put up a site with 2009 FCS schedules by league:
Ivy League
Patriot League
CAA

Something I hadn't noted before is that while Dartmouth's opener was Colgate's fourth game a year ago, the Big Green will be the Raiders' third game next fall. Instead of playing at Stony Brook, at Coast Carolina (at game delayed by hurricane) and at home against Furman before hosting Dartmouth, Colgate will be at home against Monmouth and Stony Brook before traveling to Hanover. Given strength of schedule and travel problems last fall, Colgate will be a little less tested but should be a lot fresher against the Big Green this year.

Playing The Recruiting Lottery

Say this for Dartmouth: It's getting mail into some interesting hands. There's a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about Michael Dyer, a 5-9, 190-pound running back timed at 4.37 for the 40. How good is the high school junior? From the story:

CBS College Sports national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who hosts the weekly Max Preps Lemming Report and helps pick players for the annual U.S. All-American game in San Antonio, rates Dyer as one of the top three junior running backs in the nation.

The story goes on to say:

He already has scholarship offers from Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tulsa and Stanford and has drawn interest from Oregon, Florida, LSU, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Oklahoma and others.

Kansas State sent him nine letters. In one day!

Why is he mentioned here? Because Dyer lives with an uncle who told the newspaper:

... what makes him the most proud in the recruiting process, though, isn't the letters Dyer has received from big-time football programs, but those he's gotten from Ivy League schools Harvard, Dartmouth and Princeton.

Will a kid like that come to Harvard, Dartmouth or Princeton in this day and age? Probably not. But for the cost of a stamp the three schools got noticed, and then you never know. Think of the lottery. You probably aren't going to win but you definitely won't win if you don't play the game. (Which I don't, but you get the idea ... ;-)

Gordon Morton, the former assistant sports information director at Dartmouth and a Brown alum, has a profile of Bear football coach Phil Estes in the Brown Alumni Magazine. The story begins this way:

One of these seasons the pundits are going to figure it out. Last fall, they chose the Brown football team to finish third in the league. Instead, the Bears won their second Ivy championship in four years and their third since 1999. What did all these teams have in common? Head Coach Phil Estes, who has been gradually putting up numbers that make him arguably the best football coach in the school's history.

Morton writes about Estes ...

... winning fifty games more quickly than any coach in Brown history, even the legendary John Anderson, who led the Bears from 1973 to 1983 and coached them to their first Ivy title in 1976.

In addition, thanks to Estes's versatile offensive approach, his teams scored 1,000 points faster than those of any coach in Ivy League football history. In Estes's first thirty-two games as head coach, his teams scored 1,022 points, for an average of 31.9 points per game. Overall, Estes has posted a 66–43 record (a .605 winning percentage) and an Ivy League mark of 47–29 (.618). No one in modern Brown football history has been able to approach this level of success.

A case can be made that five of the 10 schools Dartmouth plays have the best coach they've had in the modern age. I'm not saying they are the best, but you can at least make the argument for the following coaches:

• Tim Murphy, Harvard (15 years, 97-52, .650, 5 Ivy titles)
  
• Phil Estes, Brown (11 years, 66-43, .606, 3 Ivy titles)
  
• Al Bagnoli, Penn (17 years, 114-54, .679, 6 Ivy titles)
  
• Dick Biddle, Colgate (13 years, 104-49, .679, most wins in school history)
  
• Sean McDonnell, UNH (10 years, 70-50, .583, five consecutive NCAA appearances)
  

McDonnell's career record isn't on a par with the others, or even with predecessor Bill Bowes (175-106, .621), but he's certainly brought the Wildcats to previously unattained heights.

Speaking of UNH, if you haven't seen Cowell Stadium where the Wildcats play, you haven't missed much. While UNH has grown into a national powerhouse, its 8,000-seat home hasn't kept pace. The addition of FieldTurf helps, but its hard to imagine how McDonnell and his staff recruit players who look on one side of the street and see ice hockey's fabulous Whittemore Center and on the other side of the street see a glorified New Hampshire high school football field. (That's a glorified New Hampshire high school field.)

There's been talk since UNH football became a regular visitor to the NCAA playoffs and started winning at places like Northwestern, Rutgers, Marshall and Army of building a new stadium. Unfortunately for UNH, there's that little problem of money and not enough of it. If you are curious about what they might build if the money comes available, check out these UNH football stadium expansion drawings.

Someone whose opinion I respect has wondered if UNH might do what UConn did and build a stadium where the people live – in Manchester. It's an interesting thought. While an off-campus venue might be problematic for students, the majority of fans at a UNH game are not students. If you are wondering what such a facility might do for attendance, consider that when Dartmouth and UNH men's hockey teams skated against each other in the Riverstone Cup at Manchester's Verizone Wireless Arena last night (a 6-4 UNH win) there were 8,001 in the stands. Last year the game drew 8,654. Two years ago it was 9,640. In 2004 there were 10,104 at the game. A football stadium in Manchester – built in concert with a corporate sponsor or perhaps the city – could be used by high schools on Friday nights, for concerts and community events in the summer, and might just work.

It was noted here last week that Columbia would be playing Central Connecticut in football next fall. Chuck Burton over at the College Sporting News had a recap of the CCSU season with a factoid that I found interesting. He wrote that the NAACP Harmony Classic game between Central Connecticut and North Carolina Center was "the best attended game in NEC history (announced attendance: 8,522 fans)..."

There's no doubt that schools like Albany (9-3), Sacred Heart (8-3), Monmouth (7-4) and CCSU (7-4) are making strides on the field since the introduction of scholarships. Still, it was shocking to learn that a crowd of 8,522 was the largest in conference history when Harvard, Penn, Yale and Princeton averaged more than that per game this year.

Green Adds RB From California

Add running back Billy Bradshaw of Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego County to Dartmouth's list of commitments. The 6-foot-2, 203-pound Bradshaw was an all-league choice for the Broncos. Find a brief mention of his choice of Dartmouth in the North County Times and his game-by-game stats here. For a photo of Bradshaw, who also played outside linebacker in high school, click here.

Harvard-LSU-Harvard for quarterback Andrew Hatch? As Lee Corso might say on ESPN, not so fast, my friend. According to the Harvard Crimson, Hatch's return to Harvard is no sure thing given the school's moratorium on transfers. From the Crimson:

... (A)ccording to Harvard's admissions office, the well-traveled athlete might not have a spot reserved for him back in Cambridge.

“Transfer admissions has been suspended, therefore no candidates, regardless of previous admission, are eligible to transfer to Harvard College at this time,” director of transfer admissions E. Marlene Vergara Rotner wrote in an e-mail today.

Not much news of local interest in this tennessean.com story about what the Titans should do at various positions during the offseason except for a tidbit at the end (italics are mine) regarding Dartmouth's Casey Cramer:

Key stat: Bo Scaife had a team-leading 58 receptions, also his career best.
Status report: Scaife’s contract is up. He was a force early in the season, but not as much down the stretch. Veteran Alge Crumpler has a year remaining on his deal, but he was invisible at times this season. Rookie Craig Stevens contributed on special teams and as a blocker in the run game, and improved when it came to catching the ball. Casey Cramer has a year left on his contract.

USA Today reports the welcomed news that the NCAA is going to put 7th and 8th graders off limits for college basketball coaches. From the story:

The NCAA has officially designated those youngsters "prospective student-athletes," a move designed to insulate them from aggressive recruiters by making many of the camps they attend off-limits to college coaches.

A proposal that might have forced the Ivy League's hand with regard to the letter of intent was turned down. From USA Today:

Conference commissioners, who oversee the colleges' letter-of-intent program, elected Thursday not to add a second earlier signing period for football recruits. Coaches and the Big Ten had sought the third Wednesday in December date to allow schools to wrap up recruits ready to commit in writing before February.

Harvard Hatches A QB

If you watched the Harvard jayvee football team in a shaky performance at Dartmouth last fall, you might have found yourself wondering who would replace the two fifth-year quarterbacks who finished up their eligibility this year.

If you spent any time at all on the Internet in the last 24 hours, you've got a pretty good idea of one strong candidate for the opening.

Andrew Hatch began his college career with the Harvard jayvees in 2005, took a Mormon mission after his freshman year and then enrolled at LSU. He was the third-team quarterback on the 2007 LSU national championship team and won the starting job at the SEC powerhouse last fall. Platooning early in the season and injured in the second half, he played in six games, completing 26-of-47 passes and ran for 129 yards.

Now Hatch is transferring back to Harvard. The Las Vegas Sun writes about the Nevadan's decision to return to Cambridge and says:

He will start classes at Harvard later this month and expects to have two years of eligibility remaining.

I'd assume how much eligibility he has will still have to be determined by the Ivy League, which has its own set of occasionally arcane rules.

Hatch wasn't a star at LSU, but coach Les Miles had this to say in a canned quote:

“Don’t underestimate what Andrew Hatch did for our football team in 2008. He filled a void for us at quarterback in 2008 and his play on the field allowed us to start the season off on a positive note. Even though an injury kept him out of action for the last half of the season, he still played a tremendous role in the success of our team. Andrew has a bright future and we wish him continued success both on the field and in the classroom."”

The Associated Press notes: "LSU won its first four games, with Hatch playing in the first three, but wound up 8-5."

The Harvard Crimson had a lengthy story about Hatch playing at LSU a year ago.

The Hatch story is surprising, but not without some precedent. Their stories aren't exactly parallel, but Penn running back Joe Sandberg was a freshman with the Quakers in 2003, transferred to Rutgers, where he practiced but did not play in 2004, and transferred back to Penn the next year. He played went on to play for the Quakers in 2005, '06 and '07, earning first-team, All-Ivy honors his last two years. (Editor's note: It's been explained to me that while Sandberg did in fact leave for a year at Rutgers, because he was in good academic standing he was not considered a transfer upon returning.) The Daily Pennsylvanian wrote about him when he transferred back from Rutgers. ... Spencer Gloger was a fine basketball player at Princeton who transferred to UCLA, sat out the required year and then transferred back to Princeton. The Daily Bruin wrote about him when he left LA. It was never publicly known whether Gloger intended to play again at Princeton after returning. He did not, but given that he's still playing professionally in Europe it's clear he still had the basketball bug.

Another high schooler coming to Dartmouth on a recruiting trip according to media reports is Cole Pembroke, a safety at Desert Vista High School. Pembroke had 49 tackles last fall. The Ahwatukee Foothills News reports he has visits scheduled to Dartmouth, Holy Cross and Trinity. Scoutcombines.com has a page on the 5-11 1/2, 190-pound Pembroke.

Columbia has announced its 2009 schedule and in addition to Fordham and Lafayette, the Lions' nonconference schedule will feature a game against Central Connecticut State of the up-and-coming Northeast Conference. CCSU had a 7-4 record last fall, earning some Top-25 votes early in the year.

There was a note here Saturday on the Jan. 22 Ivy Football Association dinner. Find a direct link to the dinner registration here. The page notes the alums being honored this year, a list that includes Donald Rumsfeld, Princeton '54; Stone Phillips, Yale '77; Robert Kraft, Columbia '63; Ed Marinaro, Cornell '72, and Jake Crouthamel, Dartmouth '60. There's a page on Crouthamel here.

The Ivy League has announced that it will be holding postseason tournaments for four teams in men's and women's lacrosse. Good for lacrosse, but it seems the ultimate hypocrisy that a sport that already sends more teams deep into the postseason than any other Ivy sport now has added a second layer of postseason play. Football, meanwhile, continues to be the only sport not allowed to go to the postseason

A couple of basketball notes before signing off. On Saturday the Penn men's team will play NJIT, which is 0-17 this winter and on a 50-game losing streak that includes losses this month to Yale (80-51) and Columbia (73-50). Asked about the game, Penn coach Glen Miller told the Daily Pennsylvanian, "I'm not going to say they're as good as Temple, because everyone knows they're not. But they're a team we've got to take seriously."

And today's Daily Princetonian reprises one of the best college basketball pictures you will ever see. It's the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all in one perfect picture after Princeton upset defending national champion UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament.

Recruiting News Warms Up As Temperature Cools Down

Chilly enough for you today? It's 13-below zero here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain as I write this and it's supposed to get c-o-l-d tonight. Our last digital thermometer used to bottom out at 24.9 below (something about the batteries according to the manufacturer) and I'm hoping if we top (bottom?) that tonight our newer thermometer will report just how low we go. Bragging rights are important when it comes to cold!

Cold weather aside, the hot stove topic this morning is recruiting. There's news of an interesting recruit coming in for a visit this weekend from a warmer clime (remember the flannels) and another recruit who has received a Dartmouth "offer."

Reported to be coming to town is Mike Tree, a 6-1, 216 middle linebacker/defensive tackle from Arizona's Brophy College Prep, a school that has been kind to Dartmouth the past few years. Scout.com had him listed as visiting Princeton last week and has him visiting Hanover this week. Tree is the star of a series of humorous, short videos promoting Brophy games on YouTube.

Said to be sitting on an offer from Dartmouth according to his coach is Akil Sharp, a running back from Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas. According to his profile on Rivals.com, the 5-9, 189 Nevadan ran for 1,646 yards and 20 touchdowns last fall and also made 67 tackles. Rivals lists him as running a 4.4 40 while Scout.com has him running a 4.49. A very detailed evaluation of Sharp is available on the ESPN site which listed Stanford and UNLV among his earlier choices. ESPN says he, "won't wow you on film but consistently hits it up hard inside and possesses workhorse type qualities in a small package. Potential high-carry back at a mid-major school." Find a junior year highlight video here and video of him at the Long Beach Nike Combine here. You might also want to check out akilsharp.com.

A couple of other recruiting notes. "Signing Day," is Feb. 4, and the Ivy League, of course, doesn't use the Letter of Intent that a great many high school seniors will be signing that day. (When you see pictures of Ivy League athletes "signing," what they are signing is provided mostly to give them something to be part of the festivities.) If you are curious about exactly what the LOI is, check out a detailed primer from the College Sporting News.

Recruiting, by the way, is taking a hit at some schools in these tough economic times. The New York Times has a story headlined, "Athletes and Colleges Feel a Recruiting Pinch; Tighter Budgets Affect College Sports Recruiting."

While it may be tough times for recruiting, it hasn't had much of an impact on Dartmouth's applications. According to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris in a Daily Dartmouth story, the college received 17,768 applications for the class of 2013, a record. From the story:

Laskaris, in an interview with The Dartmouth, placed schools into three categories with respect to the ongoing economic crisis: public universities; Dartmouth and other members of the Ivy League that have “all significantly enhanced (their) financial aid institutions” and colleges that have tuitions similar to those in the Ivy League, “but don’t have the strength of our financial aid.”

Note: The numbers mentioned in this space earlier today on the size of the freshman class, taken from The Daily Dartmouth, were in error. As noted earlier, there will be about 2,200 students accepted with designs on a class of 1,09-1,100.