Are You Ready For Some Football? And Baseball?

Big day in Hanover with the Green-White scrimmage at 10 a.m., on Memorial Field and an Ivy League Championship Series baseball doubleheader against Cornell starting a noon on adjacent Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Check Big Green Alert premium tonight for a wrapup of the Green-White. (BGA will also be filing a capsule report this afternoon on the scrimmage for the official Dartmouth website.)

Yale football recruit Kurt Stottlemyer of Bothell, Wash., a 5-foot-10, 165-pound safety, has been named to the U.S. team that will play in the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championships that are slated for Canton, Ohio, between June 27 and July 5. In addition to the United States, there will be teams from Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Japan, New Zealand and Mexico competing.

Speaking of exhibition football, how about the Gatorade Replay game noted on the BGA blog a while back? In 1993 the archrival Easton Red Rovers of Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg State Liners of New Jersey played to a 7-7 tie in a high school game. Sponsored by Gatorade, the same teams resumed training and met against last week to finally decide a winner. A crowd of 14,000 filled Lafayette's football stadium to watch Phillipsburg take a 27-12 victory in a full-fledged tackle football game. More than 10,000 tickets were sold in the first 90 minutes they were available. Peyton and Eli Manning were honorary captains for the novel game. Find a Morning Call story here and an Express-Times story here. There's video with the Express-Times story.

The Princeton website has the first of a two-part interview with head coach Roger Hughes looking back at the 2008 Tiger season and ahead to 2009.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

When I was at the newspaper, we once ran three of our best stories of the year all on one day. The managing editor of the paper tsk-tsk'd us, suggesting we would be well-advised to spread top feature stories that aren't timely around a little more. He was right, of course, but there's something about sitting on something really good that is difficult.

I've thought often about what the managing editor said since starting the blog. While he was right, so was the wise person who first said, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

So here's some dessert, courtesy of emails from several friends out in hyperspace. Enjoy and keep your fingers crossed that I can come up with something – anything – for tomorrow since I couldn't sit on these any longer. ;-)

Impact Transfers

While there is no guarantee that the transfer of quarterback Patrick Witt from Nebaska to Yale is going to make the Bulldogs an immediate contender for the Ivy League championship next year, a few high-profile transfers from BCS programs have had a huge impact in the Ivies over the past decade or so.

When Penn won the 1998 Ivy League title, the quarterback was 6-foot-4 Matt Rader, a former starter at Duke. After two years with Rader at the helm, 6-6 Gavin Hoffman – who had starting experience at Northwestern – moved under center. He guided the Quakers to the 2000 Ivy League title, started for three years and still holds Penn career records for passing yards, completions and touchdowns.

Harvard also had a notable transfer from Northwestern in tailback Clifton Dawson. All he did was make the All-Ivy first team four times, graduate as the Ivy League's leading all-time rusher and help the Crimson to the 2004 Ivy championship.

At Yale Witt follows in the footsteps of tailback Rashad Bartholomew and safety Than Merrill, who helped the Bulldogs to the 1999 Ivy crown. Bartholomew, who graduated as Yale's career rushing leader, transferred from Air Force while Merrill, who had been in Stanford's camp as a quarterback, turned into a two-time, All-Ivy safety and an NFL player.

Dartmouth also has benefited from BCS transfers in the not-too-distant past. The leading rusher on the undefeated 1996 team was tailback Greg Smith, a transfer from Missouri. The fullback was Pete Oberle, who originally attended Colorado State. Oberle led Dartmouth in rushing in '93 and '94 while Smith led the Green ground game in '95 and '96.

Not all transfers from big-time schools pan out, of course. In 2002 Dartmouth welcomed a transfer quarterback from the Big Ten, but he threw just three passes that fall and left the team the next year after appearing in just two games and being replaced as starter by Charlie Rittgers.

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The Yale Daily News has a story about new Yale quarterback Patrick Witt here. In an interesting accident of timing, the Harvard Crimson Magazine has a lengthy piece about athletes deciding to, as the cliche says, "pursue other options," that starts with the story of Witt's brother Jeff, a former Crimson quarterback. From the article:

Some, like Witt, cannot accustom themselves to the fact that they are putting in a Division I level of commitment while receiving paltry payoffs in appreciation and success.

The Dartmouth football website has a feature on Kyle Cavanaugh, the talented but hard-luck senior safety who is finally healthy this spring and looking forward to returning to the gridiron next fall as a fifth-year senior.

The 2009 class of the College Football Hall of Fame was announced yesterday and center William Henry Lewis, who played at Harvard in 1892-93, was elected. Lewis was the first black ever to be named a first-team All-American. Find a release here.

There are a couple of stories this morning about the Ivy League Championship baseball series between Dartmouth and Cornell slated for this weekend. The Cornell Sun does a very nice job analyzing Dartmouth's team. The Daily Dartmouth also looks mostly at the Big Green's season.

If you are in town for Saturday's Green-White scrimmage (Memorial Field at 10 a.m.) and cross over to watch the baseball game, you'll come across a familiar name. The third baseman for Cornell is none other than Nathan Ford, the Ivy League's leading passer last fall. A potential pro prospect, Ford has understandably been named the Cornell Sun's Athlete of the Year.

On Dartmouth-UNH

If you kept your ears open over the past few months, you heard a lot of whispers about the Dartmouth-New Hampshire football series. They are whispers no more.

Speaking at Wednesday's Rotary meeting, outgoing Dartmouth Athletic Director Josie Harper told the group that there are three games left on the contract between Dartmouth and UNH. One will be played this fall. The other two? They will be played, but not necessarily in 2010 and 2011 as orginally scheduled. Instead, they will be played at dates still to be determined.

UNH, by the way, is the latest football program to head up a bone marrow testing drive. Find a release here.

Curious which FCS players are headed to NFL camps? The College Sporting News has an exhaustive list here.

Harvard defensive back Andrew Berry is one of two recipients of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association (FCS ADA) Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. Along with South Dakota State quarterback Ryan Berry (no relation), he will receive a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Want to be impressed? Check out this from the NACDA release, keeping in mind that Harvard's Berry was a three-time member of the All-Ivy League first team:

Andrew Berry is set to do something that is unprecedented at Harvard for a student-athlete - graduate in four years with both a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in computer science.

Wow.

Red Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth will be playing host to Cornell Saturday in an Ivy League Championship Series baseball doubleheader. The Big Red won a Gehrig Division playoff against Princeton yesterday, 9-0. The games will be preceded by the Green-White scrimmage on Memorial Field at 10 a.m. (Dartmouth softball will also be playing the Big Red for the Ivy title, at Cornell.)

And finally, they probably won't be making these with Dartmouth colors and logo, which can only be described as a crying shame. From CNBC:

If you go to the big sports schools like Michigan, North Carolina and Texas, you’ll be able to buy a Snuggie with your school’s logo on it this Fall. The price will be $19.95 and will be sold on television, in drug stores and, in some cases, campus stores, according to Crystal Sims, director in non-apparel marketing of the Collegiate Licensing Company, the IMG firm that represents nearly 200 schools on licensing endeavors.

Dartmouth Angle On Nebraska QB

Did Nebraska QB Patrick Witt consider Dartmouth before choosing Yale? First I've heard of it, but Lincoln Journal Star suggests he did. From the paper's Husker Extra:

Witt chose Yale after considering options such as Duke, Dartmouth, Virginia and UCLA, according to the source.

New Haven Register On Nebraska Transfer QB

The New Haven Register story on Nebraska quarterback Patrick Witt transferring to Yale can be found here.

Green Loses Expected Recruit

Knoxville's News Sentinel is reporting that Tennessee all-state Sam Thompson, who had been accepted at Dartmouth and thought to be part of the next recruiting class, will instead be attending Carnegie Mellon. From the story:

"It's one of the top engineering schools in the country," said Thompson, who'll graduate sixth in his class. "They haven't had a losing season in 30 years. They're pretty consistent winners."

and ...

Thompson won four Class 2A state championships at Alcoa. He was first-team PrepXtra and all-state this past season. He made 87 tackles and broke up 16 passes. He also caught 31 passes for 668 yards and nine touchdowns.

Keep in mind that Dartmouth and the Ivy League do not use the National Letter of Intent. So until a recruit has sent in his final paperwork, there is no assurance that he will be coming. Even then, as a recruit in another sport demonstrated some years ago when a late scholarship offer came, there's no guarantee they will be on campus in the fall until, well, until they are on campus in the fall.

Nice News For A Recruit

Incoming Dartmouth recruit Garrett Waggoner (YouTube '07 highlights) of Sarasota, Fla., has been awarded a Coach Bud Carson Memorial Scholarship as one of three defensive football players from his county, "who have shown outstanding leadership and dedication and are also standouts in the classroom, but won't get a football scholarship to a major college." Find a short story and head shot on mysuncoast.com.

It's official. A 6-foot-4, 225-pound quarterback expected to vie for the starting job at Nebraska this year will instead be headed to Yale. Patrick Witt's decision was reported on the New Haven Register's Portal 31 blog. Witt offered a statement to the Omaha World-Herald about his decision to transfer here. For a December story in the Omaha paper where Witt is projected as the likely starter this fall, click here.

Witt graduated from high school in January of 2007 in order to go through spring football with the Huskers and then redshirted that fall. He saw action in five games in 2008, completing 6-of-8 passes for 98 yards and running four times for 21 yards. Find his Nebraska bio here.

Easy to miss at the end of the Portal 31 entry about Witt was a throw-away line by the writer:

"I'm hoping to hear about another transfer from a BCS school soon."

It appears new Yale coach Tom Williams might be getting the same kind of housewarming gifts that former coach Jack Siedlecki received back when he took over for Carm Cozza in the late '90s. After a 1-9 debut season, Siedlecki welcomed Stanford transfer Than Merrill and Air Force transfer Rashad Bartholomew.

The bruising Bartholomew ended up rushing for a then school-record 3,015 yards in three years (Dartmouth's career record is 2,252) before going to camp with the Tennessee Titans. Merrill ended up being a two-time, All-Ivy League safety and played in the NFL before becoming a house-flipping real estate celebrity.

Oh, and while they were at it, Merrill and Bartholomew helped Yale go 6-4 in their first season and go 9-1 while winning the Ivy League championship the next fall.

Dartmouth's early season schedule has been daunting for the past decade or so. Should Witt be the real deal and another impact BCS transfer be in the cards, that schedule just got a little more daunting.

Speaking of transfer quarterbacks, the million dollar question in the Ivy League has been whether Andrew Hatch, he of the Harvard-to-LSU-to-Harvard itinerary (with a Mormon mission mixed in) would be eligible for the Crimson next fall. A Harvard Crimson column somewhat buried this curious comment from Harvard coach Tim Murphy:

"There’s usually a small chance that when you transfer and then come back to the same school, I’m sure someone’s been made eligible for it, but most times it never happens.”

The columnist followed with this thought:

In all likelihood, Winters and Simpson will get one year to prove themselves, as NCAA transfer rules will likely prevent any immediate return by Hatch. That would set up an entertaining battle for the starting spot in 2010, when Hatch, Winters, and Simpson could all be in the mix for the starting job as seniors.

Hatch is apparently back at Harvard despite a moratorium on transfers this year.

In the aftermath of the draft, the Harvard Crimson has a story about the Ivy League impact in the NFL.

The Colonial Athletic Association has been putting blog posts on its site from CAA football players and with New Hampshire finally in action, speedy tailback Chad Kackert has joined the conversation here. Among other thoughts, he offers these:

I have been impressed with the way the defense has been flying around. They are making plays on the ball with more speed than I have seen in my four years. The defensive front is showing tenacity in each snap, giving our young offensive line a good chance to get some real experience.

In the midst of its spring practice sessions, UNH took time out to do a community service project cleaning up debris from a December ice storm. Find a story here.

For a follow on the Ivy League championship run of a Dartmouth rugby team that features a number of former football players, check out a story in the Daily Dartmouth.

Tuesday Notes

Dartmouth has a new release up on the hiring of offensive line coach Keith Clark, formerly of Yale and Columbia. Find the release here.

Today's practice has been rescheduled to Thursday. The Big Green will now conclude spring drills with three sessions in a row: Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Green-White scrimmage at 10 a.m.).

Free Agent Signings

As part of the Penn State Blue-White game festivities in State College, Pa., over the weekend there was a charity dunking booth that featured, among others, star Nittany Lion tailback Evan Royster. Here that certain Hanover High School junior takes a shot at soaking the PSU standout.

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While no Ivy Leaguers were taken in the NFL draft, at least four have signed with teams as free agents. Harvard quarterback Chris Pizzotti has signed with the New York Jets and teammate Desmond Bryant, a defensive end, signed with the Oakland Raiders. The Indianapolis Colts signed Brown tight end Colin Cloherty while the Kansas City Chiefs signed Yale linebacker Bobby Abare.

Patriot Leaguers Dartmouth faced who inked contracts included Colgate offensive linemen Nick Hennessey with the Buffalo Bills and Steve Jonas with the Detroit Lions, and Holy Cross wide receiver Brett McDermott with the Colts.

Former Dartmouth football players Andrew Dete, Phil Galligan, Erik Estabrook, Anthony Arch and Charlie Grant helped the Dartmouth Rugby "A" side take the Ivy League title in a walkover. On the first day of the competition, the Big Green outscored its two opponent 213-0. (112-0 vs. Cornell, 101-0 vs. Princeton). From an eRugby news release:

As one eRugbyNews wag noted, the competition could have been re-titled: “Big Green and the seven doormats.”

Over the two days Dartmouth outscored its opposition, 275-13. The Big Green now has won the Ivy League title in nine of the past 12 years, often with help from former football players. Coach Alex Magleby:

"There’s a long tradition of rugby attracting crossover athletes from other sports and we get a lot of those guys. They come to rugby because it presents an opportunity for them to remain competitive at the collegiate level."

Earlier this month Dartmouth went 1-1 at the Collegiate National Championships Round of 16 in Atlanta, falling to top-seeded BYU, 26-5, before beating Navy, 53-26.

Pop quiz: What two schools in the same city are tied for fielding the most NCAA sports in the country, and how many sports do they field? If you answered Harvard and MIT with 41, you were right.

And now you are wrong.

The New York Times reports that financial concerns have led MIT to drop eight sports: alpine skiing, competitive pistol, golf, wrestling, and men and women’s ice hockey and men's and women's gymnastics. A Letter to the MIT Community on Sport Reduction can be found here. It reports the cut from 41 to 33 varsity sports will save $485,000. (MIT athletic director Julie Soriero is the former women's basketball coach at Penn.)

And finally, for those of you who pay attention to these things, the debate over the Fighting Sioux nickname at the University of North Dakota has taken an interesting turn with the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe voting in favor of allowing the school to keep the name.

Draft Dodgers

Thanks to the New Haven Register's Portal 31 blog for saving me the headache of looking up this information on the NFL draft and the Ivy League:

For the second year in a row and just the third time since 1997, no Ivy Leaguers were taken in the NFL draft.

Dartmouth freshman Austen Fletcher's brother Alex, a center at Stanford, also was passed over in the draft.

The Harvard Crimson has a look at the Crimson-White scrimmage that includes coach Tim Murphy's interesting spin on spring games after his finished with a 42-14 score:

“We weren’t going one versus one. If it was one versus one, it could have been a pretty boring spring game. This was for recruits, this was for the scoreboard, this was for whatever fans we had up there.”

Another interesting comment from the Harvard mentor on his quarterback situation:

"It’s not going to be like it was the last two years, with such veteran quarterbacks, with Chris Pizzotti. On the other hand, both kids are more Liam-like in that they’re very athletic guys, they’re guys that can beat you with their feet.”

That would be Liam as in Liam O'Hagan. Gotta like that. "Liam-like."

Brown's Brown-White game ended 7-0 with the only score on an interception return, but before you opine that the other defending co-champion's offense is toast, consider what Brown sports info wrote: Last year's Brown-White game had the same final score on the same kind of touchdown.

Cornell's Red-White game is recapped by the Cornell Sun.

Kudos to Dartmouth baseball and softball for winning their divisions. While softball will travel to Ithaca to face a 40-win Cornell Juggernaut (the Big Green split with the Red earlier), the baseball team will be home to take on the winner of the Princeton-Cornell playoff. Find the baseball story from the Daily Dartmouth here.

The alcohol policy among individual Dartmouth teams is the subject of this Daily D story.

And finally, it was the '84 pop-top VW camper with the Penn State helmet perched above the windshield that got the photographer's attention at the annual Blue-White scrimmage at PSU Saturday. After she snapped a few pictures, she came back and asked if she could shoot a little video. If you check out the short clip at the end of this story, that's your trusty blogger sharing a quick thought about making the 1,000-mile, round trip to PSU for the fourth year in a row. (And yes, it took us 11 hours down, counting a stop for lunch, visits to every uphill, slow-vehicle lane we saw, and a loop down to visit Bucknell.)

Tonight on BGA premium, a full look at last Friday's first scrimmaging of the spring by the Big Green.

Catching Up

Just back from Penn State. Left at 7:30 this morning and got back to Etna at 4:35. That's pretty good time, but a long, hard drive in an '84 VW bus. ...

Several quick posts. First, congratulations to the Dartmouth baseball team for clinching the Red Rolfe Division title with a win over Harvard in the opener of Sunday's twinbill. The Big Green will host the Ivy League championship series this weekend.

Harvard held it's Crimson and White scrimmage Saturday night with Cheng Ho exploding for 113 yards and two touchdowns in one half of action. Elusive quarterback Collier Winters completed 21 of 40 pass for 201 yards and ran for another 32 yards on seven carries. Find the Harvard football website recap here.

The New Haven Register's Portal 31 blog has a recap of Yale's spring day with three bullet points:

1. Yale's defense is stifling and aggressive
2. Yale can not run the ball
3. Gio Christodoulou is a threat to break it every time he fields a punt or kickoff.

In case you were wondering, there were 76,500 at Penn State's Blue-White Game yesterday. We'd like to correct that to 76,503. ;-)

The quote of the day was from Jay Paterno regarding efforts to make sure starting quarterback Darryl Clark – the only real experienced QB on the roster – did not get hurt. Said Paterno on his Twitter site:

Clark will play in a red jersey-if we could borrow the Vatican's Popemobile he'd play in that.

Check in tomorrow for a full recap on Dartmouth's first scrimmage of the spring.