Recruit Videos

Highlight videos of most of the recruits in the Dartmouth Class of 2013 have now been posted. Find the videos here. The catchphrase attached to the videos is, "The Time Is Now."

The list, by the way, includes yet another name I hadn't seen before. Shawn Bode is a 6-foot-2, 185-pound wide receiver from Kamehameha Kapalama in Kaneohe, Hawaii. In addition to football, he plays basketball and is on the track team.

Bode is one of two Hawaiians who will suit up for the Big Green next fall, joining defensive lineman Elliot Kastner of Hawaii Prep.

There are always players on Ivy League football teams who could play for so-called big-time programs. They might not be stars – although some might – but they could contribute. Likewise, a great many of those big-time schools have players who could have gone Ivy and contributed on and off the field. The guess here is that Paul Cianciolo is one of them.

A backup quarterback at Penn State, Cianciolo turned to baseball this spring and compiled a 4-1 record as a reliever. That's impressive athleticism, but he's also a pretty good student. In five years Cianciolo earned a BA in finance with a 3.94 grade point average, completed his MBA, made Academic All-District and was rewarded with a job in New York City with a venture capital firm. The Centre Daily Times has a story.

And finally, a regular reader tipped me off to a humorous (and fictional) note about Manny Ramirez in The Onion. Keeping in mind that Dartmouth grad Brad Ausmus is now one of the suspended outfielder's teammates, check out what the Onion wrote:

"If something is really messed up, I didn't do it, okay? It wasn't me. It was probably Brad," said Ramirez, attempting to deflect blame onto Dodgers catcher Brad Ausmus. "He's no good. I do not like him. He should be in trouble, not me."

So Close ...

Call him the big one that got away.

The young Dartmouth offensive line gained some experience last fall. It gained some size and strength since last winter. And it gained a new coach this spring.

It had a chance to gain something else heading into the summer. An "alpha hog."

Darris Sawtelle, a 6-foot-6, 320-pound offensive lineman who didn't fit into new coach Lane Kiffin's plans at Tennessee, apparently thought about transferring to Dartmouth before landing at Division II Grand Valley State according to this story. Now, before you say Grand Valley Who, consider that out of high school the graduate of Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield, Mich., was offered by Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Arizona State as well as Tennessee. And that when he decided to transfer schools like Alabama, Michigan State and Wisconsin were on his radar.

On the other hand, so was Harvard. How serious that dalliance was may never be known. Harvard is supposed to have a moratorium on transfers, although there may be an exception or two for quarterbacks and such.

For a little more background on Sawtelle, find his scout.com profile here.

Yale has released its Class of 2013 recruits and, like Cornell, it has a player coming in from Belen Jesuit in Miami. The Yale and Cornell freshmen will join with Dartmouth co-captain Peter Pidermann and sophomores Athony Diblasi and Diego Fernandez-Soto to swell the number of Belen Jesuit products in the Ivy League to a whopping nine. In addition to the Big Green trio there will be two at Yale, two at Princeton and one each at Columbia and Cornell. For a list of Belen Jesuit players in the college ranks, click here.

Perhaps trailing only Belen Jesuit for most Ivy League players next fall might be Brophy Prep in Phoenix. Dartmouth alone will have three Brophy products in Shane Peterlin, Brock Middleton and incoming freshman Mike Tree. Brown has one and while Columbia is graduating one it is bringing one in.

Former Dartmouth tailback Chad Gaudet is the subject of yet another story for his exploits with the Virginia lacrosse team. A piece that deals a little more with his football background and injury appears in the Washington Times.

Congratulations to the Ivy League champion Dartmouth baseball team for having essentially a full lineup – nine players – recognized by the conference with postseason honors. From a Dartmouth release:

Dartmouth junior outfielder Nick Santomauro (North Caldwell, N.J.) was selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year, headlining a group of nine Big Green student-athletes to earn All-Ivy honors, more than any other school in the league. Also taking home one of the top awards was freshman shortstop Joe Sclafani (Palm City, Fla.), who was tabbed as the conference Rookie of the Year.

Speaking of Dartmouth baseball, Big Green alum Brad Ausmus' work as a Yoda for Los Angeles Dodgers' starting catcher Russell Martin is chronicled in the Los Angeles Times. From the story:

"It's just like doing homework with a buddy," Martin said. "It's brutal when you do it by yourself. But if you have somebody to do it with, it makes it a lot better."

... Especially when that somebody is an honor student who has taken the class before -- which, in baseball terms at least, is a description that fits Ausmus, an Ivy League graduate who has played more than 16 seasons in the major leagues.

The 2009 season is coming and while it's not Dartmouth and not the Ivy League, if you want to feel your blood start to pulse, check out this evocative 1:19 video promo for the upcoming home Penn State football schedule. They played this on the scoreboard at the Blue-White Game last month and the kicker at the end regarding one final opponent was well-received. It's powerful stuff.

And finally, our Little League baseball team, the Green Machine, played last night in the local Three-Pitch Tournament. I mention it only because it's such a great concept and the kids love it. Here are some of the key rules:

• Batters come to the plate with a two-ball, one-strike count and face a maximum of three pitches.
  
• A foul with two strikes is a strikeout. (That one is rough, but it is true to the three-pitch concept.)
• Pitchers can throw two innings per game only.
• Games are five innings or one hour maximum.
• An inning is over when a team scores three runs – except for the bottom of the final inning when a team can score as many runs as it needs to tie or win the game.

Our team is scheduled for four games and if we make it out of pool play we could play as many as eight games.

Teams from up and down the Upper Valley are in the tournament and the games go by in a hurry. Innings are short, games tend to be close and everyone has a blast with non-stop action.

Another Gaudet Story

Lacrosse Magazine has another nice story about former Dartmouth running back Chad Gaudet experiencing success as a long pole faceoff specialist for Virginia.

More Names

Yesterday's post mentioned Indiana high school quarterback Connor Kelley, identified by Scout.com as a potential Dartmouth recruiting target next year. Also on the early list from Scout.com as high school juniors who have received interest from (or expressed interest in) Dartmouth are:

• Wide receiver John Alexander, Arroyo Grande, Calif.
• Wide receiver Dylon Chafin, Lakewood, Colo.
• Offensive tackle Fred Eggert, Santa Ana, Calif.
• Wide receiver John Ferreira, Olympia, Wash.
• Middle linebacker Billy Harmon, Akron, Ohio
• Offensive tackle Shane Moniz, Canyon Country, Calif.
• Running back Mike Read, Barrington, RI
• Safety Wayne Swinson, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Keep in mind that most of those names have other Ivy League schools attached to them at this point, and if the past is any indication of the future, the list will look very different by next November.

Opening-game opponent Colgate has put out its spring football prospectus and a quick look is all that is needed to remind us that the Raiders will have firepower galore next fall. True, all-everything tailback Jordan Scott has graduated, but consider what freshman Nate Eachus accomplished last year. Although he didn't switch from linebacker to tailback until the seventh game, he still ran for 932 yards, including two 200-yard games. Eachus rushing total would be fourth on the all-time Dartmouth list for a single season. And did I mention he didn't start playing tailback until the seventh game?

In addition to Eachus, Colgate brings back quarterback Greg Sullivan, whose 898 yards rushing would be fifth on the all-time Dartmouth list. Also returning is 6-foot-6 receiver Pat Simonds, and all he did is outpoll Scott, Eachus and Sullivan to be the Raiders' offensive MVP last year after catching 65 passes for 1,136 yards. And – you knew this was coming, didn't you? – Simonds' yardage total would be a Dartmouth single-season record.

The real challenge for Colgate will be up front, where the offensive line lost four of five starters, including two who signed NFL contracts.

Dartmouth's other Patriot League foe is also in the news as incoming Holy Cross defensive lineman David Herman has been named to the 2009 United States Football Junior National Team. The 6-3, 230 Herman joins Yale recruit Kurt Stottlemeyer on the squad that will play in the Junior World Championship in Canton, Ohio, from June 27-July 5.

Switching to the diamond, when Dartmouth grad and future big leaguer Mike Remlinger was early in his pro career, he lived with several teammates for a bit in a model home. Each day, they had to get up, make their beds, neaten up and get out of the house for the model to be shown. Good story but former Dartmouth pitcher Josh Faiola's story is better. The independent league pitcher with the Lake Erie Crushers is living in an assisted care facility. No lie. Check out this CNN story.

And finally, a second win in as many days for the previous winless Hanover High softball team, this time over archrival Lebanon. That certain junior catcher had three hits including a double, scored three runs and drove in one, tossed out two runners attempting to steal in the same inning, and made a full-fledged dive to tag a runner out from behind in a rundown between home and third in the last inning of a one-run game.

Better News For Reggie Williams

It's probably an overstatement to say it's good news for Reggie Williams. But the news about the former Dartmouth and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker is clearly better than it was when there was a very real fear that he would lose his leg. This Cincinnati Enquirer story says:

The knee has now stabilized. The crutches are gone. The imminent danger has passed.

Cornell has released its football recruiting for the Class of 2013. Find the list and player bios here.

With this class in the fold, Dartmouth is already looking ahead to next year and has its eye – along with a lot of other schools – on an Indiana quarterback named Connor Kelley. From an Indiana.scout.com story: (T)he list of schools that have shown interest certainly is formidable: Penn, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown. ... "

Another story about the Batesville High School QB that notes he's already been "offered" by Colgate, includes this quote from the young man:

"If I get to play football in the Ivy League and graduate, I am set for life with a great education. There is life after football and if I have a degree from the Ivy League or the Patriot League, it will be a dream come true for me.”

The scout.com profile of the 6-foot-1, 197-pound Kelley can be found here. And when this story was written he's already taken unofficial visits to Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale and was headed to Princeton, Penn and Colgate. Well-traveled kid.

You would think that if any school in the country could afford to still field junior varsity teams it would be Harvard. And yet, as the Harvard Crimson reports, the school is dropping jayvee baseball, men's basketball and men's ice hockey to the club level as part of a $77 million belt tightening at Harvard.

And finally, I made the long trek over to the seacoast yesterday to watch that certain Hanover High School junior's softball team win its first game of the year, albeit against a woeful opponent. I got home before the bus and dutifully reported to that certain mother of hers that she had a double, a single, an RBI, scored three runs, took extra bases in that daring way of hers, and played terrific defense behind the plate.

When I picked up the paper this morning it said she had three hits, which got me thinking.

When I coached that certain Hanover High freshman in his final year of Little League, I always kept the book in the dugout. I'm probably a little tougher on hit-error than most scorekeepers, but when it was my kid it absolutely had to be legitimate to go in the books as a hit. I was compiling season stats during what would be a championship season and there couldn't be any hint of favoritism, so I leaned the other way. He still ended up leading the team with something like a .585 batting average that spring, and every last hit was clean.

There's no way the junior had three hits yesterday, but if that's the way they are keeping the book, so be it. When the all-state voting takes place, an extra hit here and there certainly won't hurt. And others are probably getting similar gifts. But it's another reminder about how tricky the dynamic can be when you are coaching a team with one of your own on it. Which is why when I head out to practice this afternoon with the freshman's old Little League team, it will be a lot easier than it was a few years ago.

One last note: I'm not sure if I've ever seen uglier uniforms than those worn by the opposing softball team yesterday. It started with the Columbia blue-and-white tie-dyed socks and got worse as you went up. No lie, the jerseys looked as if they had smocks pulled over them.

I know what you are thinking. This is the guy who didn't like Dartmouth's green-on-green pants and shirts football uniforms. You are right. I didn't. But trust me, this was ridiculous. I mean, tie-dyed socks?

T-Mac Tribute

Would you rate Dartmouth sophomore Tim McManus among the top five receivers in the Ivy League? Jake Novak down at the Roar Lions Roar blog does, writing:

Tim McManus wasn't just the most valuable players for the Big Green last year, he was one of the most valuable players in the whole league.

Quick, what is the Dartmouth record for most Ivy League championships in one year? And what school holds the record for Ivy titles in one year? Courtesy of the always entertaining TigerBlog, here's a list of the Ivy schools and their record for most Ivy crowns in one school year:

Dartmouth - 5 (five times, last 1992-93)
Columbia - 5 (2006-07)
Brown - 7 (1999-2000)
Yale - 7 (two times, last 1989-90)
Penn - 8 (1983-84)
Cornell - 9 (2005-06)
Harvard - 14 (2004-05)
Princeton - 14 (two times)

TigerBlog writes that only Harvard and Princeton ever won double-digit titles in one year with the Crimson doing it three times. Princeton has turned the trick 17 times including this year, when it won 11.

Dartmouth won Ivy championships this year in men's soccer, women's basketball and baseball.

The New Hampshire Football Report has a bylined story about the Blue-White scrimmage last weekend that includes a scary thought from junior running back Sean Jellison:

"We're going to look to pick up the pace and even play a little faster this year. We're a high-powered offense and we thrive on playing fast and wearing down the defense."

And finally, I was reading a blog written by an old friend from my newspaper days in Pennsylvania and she wrote about a friend who, "did one of those Pick-Your-Five things on Facebook: Five Famous People You've Met."

That got me thinking on my drive up the mountain.

I don't do Facebook but thought I'd have some fun here and recall a few interesting (in my opinion, at least) tidbits from some of the people I've had a chance to meet as a writer.

Being a New Hampshire newspaper, every four years we'd always have politicians coming through the newsroom shaking hands. I distinctly remember Teddy Kennedy and Alexander Haig stopping by the sports desk to say hi. Lots and lots of others came though, so many, in fact, that they've blended together.

Over the years I've interviewed Hale Irwin, Dwight Stones, Mosi Tatupu, Jim Thorpe Jr., Marvin Miller, Vin Baker and on and on, but I don't have stories about them.

I do have stories about a few others that I'll bore you with. ...

In an interview on the day he was to sing locally with his musical group, The Knockouts, I asked heavyweight champion Joe Frazier if he would consider Muhammed Ali a friend. I already knew the answer but was curious how Smokin' Joe would respond. His answer sticks with me to this day: "He's a friend, but he's not the kind of friend you eat with and sleep with. He's the kind of friend you have to watch." Well, OK.

(Frazier's representative, by the way, showed up at the newspaper office the next day to see if he could get a copy of the photo that appeared in the paper. Apparently Joe liked it. We gave it to him.)

I interviewed former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton for a story about his efforts along with a Dartmouth alum to bring a minor league team to Waconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass. One day not long after we were sitting at the dinner table and the phone rang. We usually don't answer it if we are eating, but this time one of the kids did. "It's someone named Jim Burton," whispered whichever kid had answered the phone. I guessed correctly who it was and took the call. I ended up with a cold dinner but two young Yankee fans had a good story to tell at school the next day.

U.S. Olympic coach Herb Brooks was at Thompson Arena scouting a Dartmouth-Sweden exhibition in anticipation of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. I was in my first year at the newspaper and had been sent over to interview Brooks. He was standing behind the railing at the top of the stands near the press box and willing to talk. During our conversation he several times put his hands on my shoulders and gently shifted my position. He said he didn't want the Swedes to know he was there and was using me to screen himself from the Swedish bench. Tongue in cheek I've told people ever since that I did my part to help the U.S. Miracle On Ice team win the gold.

I was in Florida with the Dartmouth men's basketball team one winter and Pete Maravich was the color commentator for the TV broadcast. I was asked to bring him up to speed on the Dartmouth team and had a chance to spend a good 15-20 minutes with him. I came away impressed by The Pistol, but didn't tell him that when I was a kid and he and Calvin Murphy were the two college hotshots, it was Murphy I favored.

I did a long phone interview with Billy Jean King when she was coming to Dartmouth for graduation a few years back. As some of the more prominent athletes do, she asked a little about me and my family as the conversation wound down. When she learned about a certain daughter being a good athlete, she suggested bringing her by the Hanover Inn to say hi when she arrived in town. We ended up meeting her outside the Inn where Billy Jean held up well-wishers and her hosts for a good five minutes to spend time with Kelly. She asked if she liked science and math, gave us a website for girls who do, and signed an old wooden Billy Jean King tennis racket for Kelly. That's one of only two autographs I ever got from people I've interviewed.

The other autograph was from Richard Petty. He was in Barre, Vt., during his farewell tour and I'd been sent up to do a story. Petty is rightly famous for signing autographs for everyone in sight. And as I found out, that means everyone. I spent a little time asking The King questions, after which he signed a photograph that they were giving away at the track and handed it to me unsolicited. I hadn't asked for it any more than I had asked for him to infect me with is unique pronunciation of the word "car." For a good week to 10 days afterward, I annoyed the heck out of my family by referring to any vehicle as a "coar." It just sounded so dang cool the way The King said it.

It is safe to say former North Carolina coach Dean Smith and I are not on each other's Christmas card lists. I've been in interview rooms with everyone from Tiger Woods to Karl Malone to Joe Paterno, but those aren't the kind of "meetings" I'm talking about. While my interaction with Dean Smith was in one of those mass interviews, it was a little different because he spent time addressing me personally. Loudly, aggressively and unhappily. Turns out he was very, very angry at something I wrote, and in a building named after him was completely at home letting me have it. Long story that I'll tell you sometime.

I didn't get a chance to meet Bob Cousy, but a did a pretty good phone interview with him one time. What was neat about that one is it's pretty unusual when you are doing a "phoner" with someone famous to be given their home number. Gotta admit it was pretty cool to dial him up and have him answer the phone. I've still got that number around somewhere and no, you can't have it.

There's always the chance of making a complete fool of yourself when you interview someone famous but that wasn't the case when I met future president George Herbert Walker Bush. Nope, I didn't make a fool of myself interviewing him for one simple reason: I wasn't interviewing him. I made a fool of myself just bumping into him. Bush was running on the Reagan ticket at the time. Or maybe it was during his '80 presidential campaign. I can't remember which. This was back when Dartmouth used to play basketball at Thompson Arena and for some reason, Bush was in the building. There was going to be a reception at Smoyer Lounge after the game and, typical of a young, single, hungry sportswriter, I made a beeline for the Lounge and the food right after the final horn sounded. Being down on the floor I was the first one into Smoyer. Better make that the second. As I walked up to a table to grab some chips or something, a man turned to me, stuck out his hand and introduced himself. "I'm George Bush." My answer (and I honestly can't remember if I was trying to be funny or was just dumbstruck): "I thought you looked familiar."

UNH-Dartmouth Game

Allen Lessels of the Manchester Union Leader has a blog note today about the UNH-Dartmouth football series, which still has two games remaining on the contract between the schools.

He reports that the 2010 and 2011 games might be shifted to 2012 and 2013. Find the blog note here.

There's a story in the print edition that is "teased" with the following: NH Notebook: ‘Cats might drop Dartmouth on gridiron.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's UNH dropping Dartmouth ...

Monday Mishmash

I've always loved this quote by Willie Nelson about one of the perqs that comes with owning your own golf course:

“Par is whatever I say it is. I've got one hole that's a par 23 and yesterday I damn near birdied the sucker.”

What calls that to mind is a Top-20 preseason poll I stumbled across that looks like this:
1. Montana
2. Appalachian State
3. Richmond
4. James Madison
5. N. Iowa
6. Harvard
7. Weber State
8. Yale
9. Villanova
10. New Hampshire
11. Wofford
12. William & Mary
13. Texas State
14. Eastern Kentucky
15. Maine
16. Colgate
17. Elon
18. Liberty
19. Central Arkansas
20. Wild Card

Not one, but two Ivies in the top-10? Including a Yale team that lost its best players on offense and defense? Hey, he's the owner of the site, so the Top 20 is whatever College by Charlie says it is. If you want to quibble, get a computer and buy your own domain.

The Outdoor Heps concluded yesterday with Dartmouth sophomore Muhammad Abdul-Shakoor closing fast to take third in the 100 meters in 10.96 seconds. (Video of the race and results here.) A defensive back for the past two seasons, Abdul-Shakoor ran track this spring instead of playing football. (More from the Heps at the bottom.)

Speaking of track, incoming Dartmouth recruit Elliot Kastner, listed as a 6-foot-2, 250-pound defensive tackle from Hawaii Prep, finished second in the discus and third in the shot in the Big Island track championship and is now headed to the Hawaii states. Kastner is also an accomplished wrestler.

Dartmouth has had a renewed recruiting presence in the Pacific Northwest in the past couple of years and is on the radar of Thomas Gallagher, a 6-4, 295 offensive guard for Washington's Sequim High School. According to a story in his local paper, the junior has "received information from a number of schools, including the University of Oregon, Washington State University, University of Idaho, Dartmouth College, Florida State University and Princeton."

That's an interesting cross-section of schools, to be sure. More from the story:

Faced with a partial scholarship to a big school or a full ride to a smaller school, Gallagher says he’d take the smaller school. Either way, he said he’d like to pursue a major in business communications or public relations.

“I’d like to go to school for free,” he admits.

Umm ...

Former Dartmouth tailback Chad Gaudet is going on with the 14-2 Virginia lacrosse team, which built an 18-0 lead before calling off the dogs and taking an 18-6 win over Villanova in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. From a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Chad Gaudet's supremacy on faceoffs meant Villanova rarely had possession in the first half. Gaudet, a graduate student who transferred to UVa from Dartmouth, won 12 of 15 draws before intermission and 14 of 17 for the game.

"That was pivotal," (UVa coach Dom) Starsia said.

Gaudet and UVa will play Johns Hopkins Sunday at Annapolis Md., as the Wahoos chase their fourth national title under Starsia.

Another former Dartmouth football player in the news is Eddie Lucas '04, who might have been the Big Green's starting quarterback in 2001 after injuries depleted the QB corps. Instead, he turned his full attention to baseball, which in hindsight turned out to be a smart decision. Lucas ended up being chosen the Ivy League player of the year as a senior and being drafted by the Kansas City Royals. Now a third baseman, he was promoted to the Triple-A Omaha Royals last week. Find his Omaha bio here. For an earlier Green Alert blog note about Lucas click here.

Today's Daily Dartmouth notes that a 2 percent drop in the "yield" of admitted students will see 50-60 additions off the waitlist for the Class of 2013. A year ago Dartmouth took 38 waitlisted students. None were taken two years ago.

Two thoughts:

• Might there be a football players in that group?
• Could that lower yield open the door for a transfer if there's one still out there?

And finally, back to the Heps. Word has reached these precincts that Carl Wallin (bio) told his athletes he will be stepping down as head field events coach after four decades in Hanover. Carl's credentials stand on their own but consider these: In addition to former World Champion and Olympic silver medal shotputter Adam Nelson, Wallin has coached 29 All-Americans, 38 New England champions and 87 Heps winners. He's coached internationally and has been chosen NCAA District One coach of the year four times in the past 11 years.

Carl's tireless dedication to the athletes he coached over the years has been obvious to everyone who knows him. If you drive by Memorial Field in the spring and Carl isn't out there giving personal instruction to one of his athletes it's always a surprise, regardless of the hour or day of the week. We should all have the dedication to, and love of our jobs that Carl has demonstrated throughout his career.

On a personal note, the smile and warm greeting I always got from Carl whenever we crossed paths in and around Leverone or Memorial Field did not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Above and beyond being a successful and accomplished coach, Carl is a true gentleman who will be missed by more than just the athletes who were fortunate enough to learn from him.

Doing The ChaCha With Dartmouth

Not being a cellphone or texting kind of person, I'm not sure I ever heard of ChaCha until reading a typically humorous Rick Reilly ESPN column online. Reilly writes:

ChaCha, as most people under 103 know, is the highly addictive mobile answer service that responds to any query you send (text "ChaCha" or "242242") with a real answer from a real person, usually within three minutes, for free.

Funny, I don't feel 104.

But I digress. After reading Reilly's column I decided to check out ChaCha, which can be accessed online. Turns out you can search through questions people have sent in. I thought it would be fun to type in "Dartmouth football" and see what comes up. Eleven questions have been asked that included the words Dartmouth and football. Here are some of them:

• Where Is the Yale/Dartmouth football game scheduled for next season?
• What are the stats for number 41 on dartmouth?
• Who is Kephart in regards to football?
  
• What are the names of the division 1 football schools that don't have university in their schools name?
• Where did FB Casey Cramer of the Miami Dolphins play college football? What is his jersey number in the Pros?

If you are curious about the answers, find them here.

UNH held its Blue-White scrimmage Saturday and the stars came out to shine – even if they weren't out for long. From the official UNH release:

Incumbent starting quarterback R.J. Toman (Mission Viejo, Calif.) completed 7 of 9 passes for 133 yards and one touchdown – a 61-yard strike to All-America tight end Scott Sicko (Stillwater, N.Y.) – in the University of New Hampshire’s annual spring Blue/White scrimmage Saturday afternoon.

Speaking of star-watching, the Seacoastonline website included this:

All three members of UNH's offensive Holy Trinity were on the sidelines for the game: former quarterback Ricky Santos, former wide receiver David Ball and current Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, the team's offensive coordinator in the Santos-Ball years.

I wonder if Kelly was offering ideas or borrowing them ;-)

Here's a curious one. Check out the Ohio State football roster and you'll find Don Matheney, a 6-foot, 307-pound junior defensive lineman from Lancaster, Ohio. Now check out the Holy Cross roster from a year ago and there's Don Matheney a 6-1, 315-pound defensive lineman from Lancaster, Ohio. They might not be exactly the same size, but they are the same fellow. Matheney, who had two tackles against the Big Green last fall, will be suiting up for the Buckeyes in 2009.

Dartmouth has had a few players transfer "up" over the years. The most prominent was defensive lineman Jared Kesler, who ended up having a nice career with a pretty good TCU team. There was a wide receiver who transferred to USC a while back for family reasons but I can't remember his name. Maybe you can.

Happy Mother's Day!