See You In A Couple Of Days

After a wall-to-wall weekend, that certain Mrs. BGA (thanks for the idea, TigerBlog) and I are hiding away in the VW bus somewhere near a lake/pond Wednesday night, all day Thursday and most of the day Friday. With the kids both at camp, it's a rare opportunity. This is a primitive campground, so there will be no internet, not that I'd want to interrupt the reverie anyway.

So ... I'll be back at you Saturday a.m.

-bw-

(For those of you curious about how to sign up for BGA premium via check, there's a link on the front page.) Or you can just go here.

It Won't Be (That) Long Now

With signups for Big Green Alert premium kicking off yesterday, it was as good a time as any to get a look at the preseason practice schedule. It shows the first session slated for 3:45 on Aug. 26. There will be single sessions each afternoon until Tuesday, Sept. 1, when the first of five double-session days will kick off, with each separated by a day as mandated by the NCAA.

The preseason will wrap up with the scrimmage on Memorial Field against Harvard on Sept. 11, after which game-week preparation begins in anticipation of the opener against Colgate on Sept. 1819.

Following up on an earlier posting about Phil Steele's College Football Preview Magazine, his full first and second preseason All-Ivy League teams can be found here.

If you'd like to see which Colgate and Holy Cross players were honored on Steele's preseason All-Patriot League team, click here. (Holy Cross, by the way, is in the enviable position of returning not only quarterback Dominic Randolph, the two-time Patriot League offensive player of the year, but also three offensive linemen chosen for the All-Patriot League first-team calibre and another who made the second team.)

An unscientific survey suggests most prognosticators have pegged Harvard and Penn as two of the teams to watch in the Ivy League this fall and Steele is no different. Steele's previews of those two schools and Dartmouth opponent New Hampshire are posted as PDFs on the web.

In its own inimitable, shorthand style, Steele's Harvard preview says: "Despite having their least exp team in 4 years the Crimson must be considered the preseason favorite to win the Ivy."

Steele's Penn preview concludes this way: "I will call for Penn to have its best record since 2004 and they are a true Ivy League contender."

Of New Hampshire, Steele writes: "They should have their 6th straight winning ssn and playoff appearance this year."

The Cornell Sun recently published "The Sun's Sports glos•sa•ry." Scroll down to the entries for the letter "D" and under Dartmouth you'll find this:

Conservative Ivy foe strong in women’s basketball, men’s soccer and ice sculpture. Small school, but with proper nourishment could become a full-grown university like the rest of its Ivy pals. Nicknamed the Big Green, a name stolen from the children’s movie of the same title.

Before Tim Murphy came down from Division I-A Cincinnati and turned Harvard into the football powerhouse it has become, coaches regularly referred to the Crimson as a "sleeping giant." The power of the Harvard name married to a coach with a national reputation is evident in the comments of a highly regarded Northfield Mount Hermon basketball player who has committed to play for the Crimson under coach Tommy Amaker. Matt Brown, who drew recruiting interest from Stanford, Virginia and Notre Dame, is quoted this way in the Harvard Crimson:

"I committed to Harvard because that’s the place where I want to go—to play for Coach Amaker. He’s a big name. When he first came to Harvard, it really opened up my eyes. I wasn’t really considering Ivy League schools in the past.”

Another blue-sky day in Hanover, at least to start. The tomato plants are thankful.

2009 Green Alert Premium Signup Begins

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To sign up for the premium version of Big Green Alert, click here.

Once again, I will be at each practice and post a minimum of one newspaper-length story every day from the start of the cycle on Aug. 11 through the end of the season. The goal is to have stories up by 10 p.m. Eastern the day of the practice or game.

When the season begins there will be 10 or so full-length stories each week including a game story – home or away – featuring coach and player interviews. During the offseason there will be coverage of recruiting and full coverage of spring football.

Thanks to returning subscribers for your support, and to new subscribers for allowing this former daily newspaper beat writer of Dartmouth sports to continue to bring you what I'd like to think is the most comprehensive coverage available for any Ivy League football team.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Read All About It ... Electronically

The first 2009 Ivy League media guide to be released is out ... with a twist.

Cornell's guide is now available for download as a PDF here. According to the website, it will not be available in print form. Cornell joins a growing number of schools that have decided to abandon, or are considering abandoning the printing of guides.

Princeton already has announced its intention to move away from printing. I've been told Dartmouth will print several guides this year (including football), shift others to electronic publication only and make a decision about what way to go with all athletic department materials in time for next year.

A couple of thoughts after downloading Cornell's guide.

First, maybe I did something wrong and didn't have to, but I ended up signing up for something called Issuu before I could download the guide. Good thing I have a junk email address that I could use because I really didn't want to sign up for a service I don't need or want just to get a media guide. And second, although these PDF download links almost always say you need Adobe Acrobat to download the guide that's not necessary if, like me, you use a Mac. Preview works just fine.

As I visited my usual haunts this morning I clicked on a link on the Colgate page called The Biddle Years and up popped a PDF fact sheet on the Raiders' very successful head coach, Dick Biddle. There's lots of good stuff on the sheet, but I found this particularly interesting:

Biddle's record against Patriot League teams since 1996: 63-16
Biddle's record against Ivy League teams since 1996: 31-8

I don't know whether I expected his record to be better against Patriot League teams or against Ivy League teams. Either way, I would have been wrong. It astonishes me how consistent Biddle has been. Go ahead, double the Ivy League wins and losses and see how that compares to his Patriot League record.

And finally, I want to thank all of you who sent along links to Penn State being named the No. 1 party school in the country. It's not a huge surprise, given my intimate knowledge of the Nittany Nation and how votes were collected. I love the spin the Penn State spokeswoman puts on the honor distinction:

"These rankings are not more than popularity contests. ... Nationwide, kids want to pump their schools in these surveys. It's not connected to reality."

And finally there's this, sent with tongue in cheek by one of the emailers who passed along the link and who shall remain anonymous:

Bad enough the days of D Football winning Lambert Trophies, much to Joe Pa's annoyance, are long gone. Now Penn State has taken over Number 1 Party School status.

President Kim's Football Thoughts Redux

If you haven't watched the video of new Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim's remarks about football at a recent dinner meeting, by all means click on yesterday's BGA posting. Here is a transcript of his remarks:

The one really great thing that (retired Dartmouth President Jim Wright) left me was that from here on out, the football team only can get better. (Laughter) And Jim pointed that out to me. (Laughter) Jim said, "You know the biggest thing I am doing for you is having an 0-10 season, so anything you do, it's all yours buddy." (Laughter) So he's that thoughtful of a man, Jim Wright. (Laughter)

You know, football is something that I've been passionate about since I was a very young kid. And Buddy (Teevens) is one of the great heroes in the Dartmouth tradition. And I am very excited about what we can do together.

I think a lot of freshmen and sophomores played last year. I think that putting a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the field is great for the next year.

Now, I plan on being at the first day of practice. And I plan on being out there and encouraging all the other students to be out there to cheer them on.

In my own experience ... . Let me just make a confession. In my senior year in high school we lost all our games, too. (Laughter) So, I got something to prove. (Laughter). But when I was a sophomore and junior we won some football games. I have to tell you, it was the greatest feeling of any sports experience ... to win a football game.

Also, because our most generous donors tell me, "You know, the only score they report in the New York Times is the football score. It doesn't matter that we did so well in baseball and women's basketball."

It's going to be something I pay attention to, but out of joy. I love working with young people. And I hope that we can find a way to execute and win a lot of football games. I can guarantee I'll pay attention to it.

Green Alert Take: It is clear Kim, a former high school quarterback, has done his homework. And it sounds as if he values winning. The quote, "I got something to prove," was hilarious, particularly with the way he said it.

It is open to debate exactly how much a football-friendly Ivy League president can do to help a struggling program win. There can be little debate that an Ivy League president who does not like football can have a negative impact on even the most successful programs. From this clip and from things I've heard around campus from people who have met the new president, I'd put Kim squarely in the "football-friendly" camp.

The guess here is that if President Kim had a do-over on his off-the-cuff remarks, he'd rephrase the bit about, "It doesn't matter that we did so well in baseball and women's basketball." Although I think we all know what he was saying about Dartmouth's two Ivy League championship sports, it's open to misinterpretation.

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A blog poster has tossed up 15 of what he considers the funniest college football quotes here. John McKay was coach of the NFL's then-hapless Tampa Bay Bucs when he gave what I think is one of the funniest football quotes of all time. Asked how he felt about his team's execution, McKay cracked, "I'm all for it."

I received an email from someone with Online College Reviews with a link to a list of "10 Reasons an Ivy-League Degree is Overrated." You can discuss them among yourselves, but I'd still be more than happy if That Certain Hanover High School Senior-to-Be ends up at an Ivy League school.

Speaking of which, the Senior-to-Be has been away at camp all summer (except for a couple of quick trips home) as a counselor and the Sophomore-to-Be joined her yesterday for two weeks as a camper. It's gonna be pretty quiet around here.

President Kim Talks Football

Missed this while I was in Colorado, but the YouTube video above features new Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim being asked about Dartmouth football on June 25, 2009 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. President Kim answers the question marvelously. This is "must-see YT" for everyone, Dartmouth fans and fans of other schools as well.

Green Alert Take: Now if someone can just get him to understand how unfair it is that athletes from every Ivy League sport except football can go on to the playoffs.

Football practice for the 2009 season begins one month from today!

For the past few years Dartmouth has posted short videos of incoming freshmen on its website. Curious about how this year's seniors looked in their high school video clips? Go back and check them out here. (You can also see the 15-minute, 21-second 2005 highlight video on the same page.)

From Dartmouth's Vox newspaper:

In its September 2009 issue, Environmental Design + Construction (ED+C) magazine will recognize Floren Varsity House for its "clear commitment to green building and sustainable design."

Ever wonder what happened to the dynamic New Hampshire football duo who caused Dartmouth so many problems? Quarterback Ricky Santos and wide receiver David Ball are both in the Canadian Football League. Santos was No. 3 on the Montreal Alouettes depth chart in the season's first game behind Florida State porduct Adrian McPherson and former Florida Gator Chris Leak. Ball is on the roster of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The two teams just squared off but neither former UNH star was active. Former UNH star Étienne Boulay is the starting safety for Montreal.

TV Or Not TV, That Is The Question

A little digging pulled up the Versus network college football schedule for 2009, with three Ivy League games have been confirmed. Unlike a year ago, when the Dartmouth-Columbia game was carried on the network – previously known as OLN (Outdoor Life Network) – the Big Green is not on this year's schedule. Games the network has announced are: Sept. 26 Cornell at Yale; Oct. 17 Princeton at Brown and Nov. 21 Harvard at Yale.

Combined with the three games in the Yale on YES package (Oct. 31 at Columbia, Nov. 7 at Brown, Nov. 14 at Princeton) Yale will have no fewer than six games nationally televised.

No word yet on which – if any – Dartmouth games will be broadcast this fall. Traditionally the New Hampshire-Dartmouth game has been carried on WMUR-TV, the ABC affiliate in Manchester, N.H.

It's no secret that Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens would like to see lights on Memorial Field, and not just for late-season practices. More and more FCS teams are starting to play night games in hopes of increasing lagging attendance. The latest to join the trend is Colgate, which will play its first three home games at 6 p.m. Find a story here.

Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph, the 2007 and 2008 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, is one of 106 student-athletes nationwide nominated for the "Allstate AFCA Good Works Team," which honors college football players who make outstanding contributions in the areas of volunteerism and civic involvement."

According to the Holy Cross release, "Randolph has been involved with Big Brothers for the last three years, spending time with his Little Brother at least once a week. For the past two years, he has been a co-liaison between the football team and the Big Brothers coordinator."

Randolph is one of just two Patriot League players on the list. Curiously, there are none from the Ivy League.

Speaking of volunteerism, members of the Harvard football team helped out with AccessSportsAmerica, "a national non-profit organization that inspires higher function and fitness for children and adults living with disabilities through high-challenge sports." Said the director of development for the organization in a release, "(Harvard lineman) Carl Ehrlich and his team were just incredible. They exemplified the very best of sportsmanship, leadership, athleticism, personality, warmth and humor – they each made everyone's day especially our AccessSportsAmerica Athletes."

California Receiver Gets Dartmouth 'Offer'

California high school receiver Trevor Niemann of Palos Verdes Peninsula reports that Dartmouth has "offered" him. Link

From the Scout.com story:

He caught 41 passes for over 700 yards and nine touchdowns and he also returned 17 punts for 546 yards and three scores and intercepted four passes on defense.

Earlier this year, he clocked a 4.57 forty.

Odds Against Casey?

At least one observer of the Tennessee Titans thinks former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer is a longshot to make the NFL team's roster this summer. The writer for Total Titans says:

Despite being listed by ESPN as a running back, Cramer is strictly a blocker who played more H-back during his previous Titans tenure than as a straight fullback, and is more of a special teams player than that. I doubt he has a very good chance of making the team, between Hall's presence and the four TEs-his stiffest competition may actually come from somebody like LB Colin Allred in a special teams role.

With Dartmouth playing at Yale this fall there was a chance the Big Green would have a game broadcast as part of the Bulldogs' Yale on YES TV package. No such luck according to the Yale football site. Instead the games being carried on the Yankees cable network are Yale at Columbia on Oct. 31, Brown at Yale on Nov. 7 and Yale at Princeton on Nov. 14.

Off to Hanover Country Club to serve as media coordinator (for lack of a better term) for the annual Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament. Some of what I'm doing for the tournament can be found here: http://tommykeane.blogspot.com/

And Away From Sports ...

A little news brief of the non-football variety to start the day. ...

PayScale has released its latest report on salaries/salary potential and Dartmouth not only leads the Ivy League in mid-career median salary ($129,000), but it also leads the nation as a New York Times posting shows. The Atlantic has a piece that, while originally mentioning Dartmouth University, also includes this disclaimer on the study:

The pool of respondents is not randomized, but rather self-selected and the statistics are self-reported online. PayScale only included respondents whose highest degree was a bachelors, which counts out lawyers, doctors and other jobs that require a degree.

Green Alert Take: When it comes to rankings like this and the U.S. News & World Report college rakings, as long as you are in the top tier, quibbling about where you fall within that tier is silly. Still, it's always nice to finish at the top in anything.

With the 2009 season around the corner, here's an old College Sporting News reminder of how the 2008 Ivy League season went. (Dartmouth fans read at your own risk.)

Whether Harvard can build on the nation's best winning record this decade is yet to be determined, but the Crimson continues to get respect. When defensive back Matthew Hanson was named a preseason All-American, he became the fourth different Harvard player to be so named this summer. The Crimson now has had a preseason All-American each of the past 10 years. Find a story on the Harvard website.

The Daily Pennsylvanian's look at incoming freshmen in West Philly turns this week to defensive linemen. Find the story here.

Several years ago I suggested Dartmouth add a question on a form it sends to incoming athletes in all varsity sports asking if there's anything about the student-athlete that the media might find really unique or interesting. (We writer-types eat that stuff up.) Don't know if the folks at Lehigh do the same thing (although I suppose I might find out a year from now) but in the case of an incoming football player, they don't need to. The Morning Call has a story about a Mountain Hawk recruit who moonlights as a successful drag racer. Neat story.

This And That

Although injuries have derailed his promising career as a linebacker, Carter Scott is finding another way to contribute to the college. The junior from Columbia, S.C., is one of 12 students appointed to Dartmouth's Committee on Standards, which deals with academic and behavioral cases at the college. Find Scott's football bio here. Background on the Committee on Standards can be found here.

One of the leading candidates in the Atlanta mayoral race is Jesse Spikes '72, who played freshman football at Dartmouth. The Daily Dartmouth has a story.

With attendance at Ivy League football games always a challenge, the conference might get some new ideas from initiatives being employed by Boston College and Old Dominion to drum up interest in their programs.

Boston College has signed on for a viral computer advertising campaign that puts the potential fan almost in the game. From an AP story:

The BC video asks for your name, phone number and e-mail address, then takes you from the locker room to the coaches' box, where (coach Frank) Spaziani is waiting. The other schools use a similar storyboard -- right down to the upperclassmen glaring at you on the elevator.

"There you are. Everybody has been talking about you," Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson says, gesturing to the Sun Devil Stadium field below, where your name is printed in the end zone. "Fans like you inspire our team to play harder."

To see the BC campaign in action, click here. (I can't tell you what it's like because my Internet connection here on the mountain is too slow to make it work without going out to mow the lawn while it loads ;-)

At Old Dominion, which has sold out season tickets for its first year of FCS football, there is pretty neat virtual tour of the game-day experience. Do take a look at it, because it's pretty good. A nod to Jake Novak over at the Roar Lions Roar blog for linking to the video. Find a much higher-quality version of the video on the ODU site, here.

No question, what Old Dominion – and to a greater extent Boston College – is doing is hokey. But it wouldn't hurt the Ivies take a look at what others are trying as it looks for ways to market what is a very good and reasonably priced product.

The NCAA News has a story spun out of the Patriot League's reaction to Fordham adding football scholarships. Will the rest of the league that provides the Ivies with most of its non-conference competition follow suit? Consider this from the story:

(Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn) Femovich imagined that, should the presidents move toward football scholarships, the implementation would be similar to the league’s move toward basketball scholarships: Simply declare the football aid permissible and allow each institution to make decisions on its own.

“That approach allows schools to determine the best approaches on their individual campuses,” Femovich said. “I think if we went that direction, some might work to get up to 58 or 60 equivalencies, and others might say we’ll do scholarships for key athletes and other individuals that might not have the need, but we’ll do a combination, a hybrid model.”

In case you just dropped in from Mars, what you are reading is a blog. Your daily correspondent is a blogger, although as a trained journalist and veteran newspaper writer, not a typical one according to this study out of a school he once called home. From a Penn State research project:

A majority of bloggers who comment daily about college and professional sports online do not see themselves as professional reporters, but they do believe their work fills a void left by mainstream media.

According to a survey of more than 210 bloggers conducted by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, 75 percent said they do not see themselves as rivals of professional journalists.

In fact, just 40 percent have ever applied for a credential to a sporting event and only 30 percent have ever included any "original reporting," such as attending games and news conferences or interviewing athletes or coaches, in their blogs.

While the rebuilding of the home football stands at Memorial Field is on hold, Dartmouth's new Visual Arts Building can go ahead now that town approval for the project has been given. Find a story in our local paper here and a photo and more information on the project on the official Dartmouth site.

And finally, if you have any pull, could you please do what you can to see that the rain stops in these parts? It's getting a little depressing. No, a lot depressing.

We went down to Manchester last night to watch the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Class AA farm team play the Trenton Thunder. Gore-Tex and umbrellas were a good ideas, but a fleece jacket would have been smart.

A Couple of Brendans In Headlines

A current player named Brendan and a former player by the same first name headline the news this Tuesday morning.

The current player is Brendan Murray, a 6-foot, 185/195 (depending on what source you quote) sophomore from Chicago and Note Dame High School. A Niles Herald-Spectator story about local football players in college talks about Murray's conversion from linebacker to fullback with the Big Green. It also includes this quote from Murray:

"We have a different group of guys than last year. Not to put last year's senior class down, but the leadership that we have now and the drive that we have as a team ... we're more focused and harder workers and just more positive than last year."

The story also includes mention of Murray's brother Shane, a 5-8, 195 defensive end at St. Norbert.

The Murray brothers, by the way, have made it easy on family clothing budget. While Brendan Murray (bio) plays for the Big Green, Shane is playing for the Green Knights.

The alum in the news is Brendan O'Neill '72, a two-year letterwinner on the Dartmouth powerhouses of the early '70s. O'Neill is the head of the Office of the Public Defender in Delaware. A Delaware Online story briefly mentions his football background and notes that, "O'Neill now oversees the office of 70 attorneys with an additional 70 support staff, who handle an average of 50,000 cases a year."

If finding out you are a Homecoming opponent stings a little, blame the (formerly) ink-stained wretches of the Fourth Estate. At Dartmouth, Homecoming is not decided by football people but rather the folks in alumni affairs and the suspicion is it works the same way at most schools. Still, the media like nothing more than to portray being tapped as a Homecoming opponent as an insult that means you have been perceived to be an easy win. That said, Dartmouth will be the Holy Cross homecoming opponent on Oct. 17 according to the Crusaders' schedule announcement.

A reminder that the scrimmage against Harvard is set for Sept. 11 at 1 p.m.. Dartmouth and Harvard scrimmaged for the first time in recent memory last September in Cambridge (Allston if you want to get picky) and there was a gatelist to keep the wrong inquiring eyes from the field. Don't be surprised if this year's scrimmage is similarly "closed."

Oregon's Register-Guard newspaper sent a reporter across the country to talk with UNH coach Sean McDonnell and former coach Bill Bowes about Chip Kelly, the new Oregon head coach. To read an interesting story about the man who helped design the quirky New Hampshire offense that regularly gave Dartmouth fits, click here.

And finally, several of you have asked so a quick note about those certain Hanover High student-athletes. The senior-to-be is away as a camp counselor all summer and gearing up for her college search. Track/cross country coaches from two very strong academic Division I schools and several top-notch D-III schools have offered her "official visits," so far. She was home last weekend and the second time she picked up a golf club this year shot a 47 on the back nine at Hanover. Maybe she should add golf to her resume ;-)

The sophomore-to-be is playing Babe Ruth baseball in the evenings and hitting the dimpled white ball every day. After wrestling with his decision, he is going to take the fall off from football and play golf instead. At 5-foot-1, the feeling here is it is the right decision. If he has a growth spurt over the next year, he may return to football – which he has played since fourth grade – but for now he seems happy with his choice and is working extremely hard at golf.

Familiar Faces

The June 2009 issue of Dartmouth Life was on its way to the recycling bin when a photograph featuring a familiar face – two actually – caught my eye. The shot is of former placekicker Andrew Kempler '08 and a classmate posing with Brian Conroy '86.

An undersized nose guard who showed his love for the game playing with the junior varsity, Conroy has demonstrated his love for the college by helping scores of Dartmouth students get their careers started, including a good number of football players. From the Dartmouth Life story accompanying the photograph:

Brian Conroy '86, senior vice president at Fidelity Investments, says that networking is not just good for students; it's good for organizations. "The payback is terrific," says Conroy, who has spoken with hundreds of Dartmouth students over the past 20 years. "It's my way of connecting to the College that I love, and you get close to high performers with a liberal arts background who often have international experience. These are high-caliber applicants."

(The same issue of Dartmouth Life has a story I freelanced on baseball catcher Jack Monahan '09.)

Last week's New York Times had a revealing story about college athletes and their insurance coverage in case of injury. The story begins this way:

After years of concerns about inadequate health coverage for college athletes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association started requiring universities to make sure their athletes had insurance before competing.

But the association never established clear standards for that coverage when it introduced the rule four years ago, leaving colleges to decide for themselves.

The story does not mention Dartmouth, but does include this about a neighboring school:

Some colleges provide for their athletes. At Middlebury College in Vermont, a Division III institution, all varsity athletes and students in club sports have accident insurance paid for by the college, said Tom Corbin, Middlebury’s business manager.

The Daily Dartmouth did a little digging in response to the story and has this brief note:

Parents of Dartmouth athletes will not have to pay for the treatment of many athletic injuries, according to a letter Dartmouth Athletics sent to the families of incoming student-athletes, although they do have a fund which can pay for 80 percent of athletics-related medical care after a $250 deductible, The letter also recommends that students enroll in the Dartmouth-sponsored insurance plan, saying that it provides “excellent coverage for sports medicine care.”

With that soon-to-be Hanover High School senior student-athlete looking at a number of highly selective colleges, another New York Times story suggested by a regular reader was at once enlightening and frightening. Under the headline, Before College, Costly Advice Just on Getting In, the Times writes a sometimes scathing piece about independent college counselors. It begins with look at a "free fashion show at a Greenwich, Conn., boutique in June (that) was billed as a crash course in dressing for a college admissions interview."

The story includes this quote from Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania: "I guess there are snake oil salesman in every field, and they are preying on vulnerable and anxious people."

A NYT blog offers a little background on the story along with reader comment after reader comment.

Michele Hernandez, the former Dartmouth admissions officer who has her own consulting firm, is quoted in the story.

Another link shared by a reader who knows I'm a blue-blood (Penn State blue, not Mayflower blue) points to a story in Pennsylvania's Harrisburg Patriot-News about a job fair to get game-day help for Penn State football games. The story notes that it takes about 3,000 people to put on a Penn State game – not counting the players ;-). Think about that. T-h-r-e-e t-h-o-u-s-a-n-d people just to help.

Open Sunday

Several brief notes Sunday while we await Tom Watson's possible date with history at the (Don't call it British) Open Championship. ...

The Miami Herald has a compilation of what it calls the top 25 quotes in Miami Dolphins history. No. 23 is one from Dave Wannstedt on "why he liked quarterback Jay Fiedler over the available Trent Green in January 2001." Find it and the rest of the quotes here.

Atlanta Braves farmhand Jason Heyward has been called the No. 1 prospect in all of minor league baseball, and if the last name rings a bell it might be because his father was a Dartmouth athlete, although not a baseball or football player. This story explains:

Athleticism is nothing new in Heyward's family. His uncle played college basketball on the 1964 UCLA championship team under John Wooden. Both of his parents are Ivy League graduates (Dartmouth) where his father was a standout basketball player in his own right.

The young Heyward earlier told legendary baseball writer Peter Gammons of ESPN.com why he didn't follow his parents' footsteps to Dartmouth:

"No way with that weather," Heyward said. "If I had gone to college, I would have gone to UCLA, where my uncle Kenny Washington played basketball."

Yesterday's note quoting the local columnist about what he thinks Dartmouth needs in its next athletic director apparently hit a few resonant chords. Check out the comments at the end of the post.

Thoughts On A New Dartmouth AD

My old editor at the local daily has a column about Dartmouth today under this headline – Wanted: An AD Who Can Win. A few excerpts from the column:

Excellence should not be reserved for the classroom. The facility expansion is all well and good, but the program is judged on the scoreboards and playing fields around the league. And right now, the Big Green is lagging behind.

And ...

Get it straight: Dartmouth is not a ski school; it is a football school.

The story suggests that, in order to draw the strongest candidates, President Jim Young Kim should make it clear that the new athletic director will be given "more power, more flexibility and more opportunity to rebuild the programs and bring Dartmouth back to Ivy League athletic supremacy."

The column adds that Kim should be "willing to hire the right, independent person. And finally: Get out of the way. Let the new AD do the job he or she was hired to do."

What's your take?

North Carolina's Mount Airy News has a story about a wide-eyed high school junior and his dad making a camp and recruiting trip to get their first look at the Ivy League. They visited Cornell, Harvard and Brown. Said the potential recruit:

“The campuses were a little more ancient-looking, I guess you could say. They kind of have a Harry Potter feel to them.”

(He should have seen Yale and Princeton.) The story ends with this quote from the young man:

“It was definitely an experience that enlightened me. I’ve never been that far up North. Everywhere we went, they asked us where we were from. And they didn’t have sweet tea. All I drank was water and Coke.”

The Yale football website has a story about the two BCS (I-A) transfers joining the Bulldog program, a quarterback from Nebraska and a lineman who walked on a UCLA. The story offers this piece of interesting triva:

Both new Elis have older brothers who played football at Harvard and were teammates for two seasons. Jeff Witt was a QB for the Crimson who graduated in 2009, while Frank Fernandez '07 was Harvard's starter at center for three seasons.

Turning away potential season-ticket holders in the FCS (I-AA)? Before you've ever played a game? That's the story at Old Dominion, which processed orders for 14,377 season tickets but had to turn down orders for 1,065 more. Find a Virginian-Pilot story here.

And finally, former Dartmouth quarterback-turned-wide receiver Matt Brzica '93 was quoted in the ledge of a Washington Post story last month regarding unsolicited genetic testing of newborns. Find the story here.

Friday Wrapup

From the 1983 Dartmouth press guide.

Lots of tidbits today starting with former Dartmouth assistant coach Joe Moglia making it to the big-time. No, not in finance. He did that a while back when he became CEO of TD Ameritrade. Now hhe's made it to the big-time of football.

CNBC reports that Nebraska's athletic department has recruited Moglia to "help teach life skills to football players."

The story notes that, "Moglia will likely feel comfortable at the athletic department because he coached football for 16 years and served as Dartmouth College's defensive coordinator before joining the business world."

More from the story:

Athletic Director Tom Osborne ... says Moglia was a natural for the unpaid position because of his unique combination of Wall Street and football experience. Osborne says this job will give coach Moglia a chance to re-establish himself in the football world and learn how Nebraska operates.

Find Moglia's Wikipedia bio here.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story about new college president Jim Yong Kim meeting with representatives of every Greek organization Wednesday night. Among those quoted: football players David Johnson and Joe Zimring. I particularly like the way the story ended:

Shortly before Kim left, the conversation turned to the renovations currently being made on the President’s house.

“I can tell you we’re going to get a basketball hoop in the driveway, so you will all be invited to come play basketball,” he said.

Game on.

The D has a couple of other stories about former Dartmouth athletes. One is tells of John Carney '78, Dartmouth's Bob Blackman (MVP) winner in '77 as a defensive back, running for Delaware's seat in the House of Representatives. (link) According to the D, the former Delaware lieutenant governor, "cited his ability to work with a team and bring people together as a strength that will aid him in the election, a skill he credits in part to his years on Dartmouth’s football and lacrosse teams."

The Daily D also has a piece on baseball's Nick Santomauro, the Ivy League Player of the Year, who signed with the New York Mets this spring after helping the Big Green to the Ivy League championship and the NCAA Tournament. (link)

Have you ever wondered why the University of Virginia teams are, in addition to the Cavaliers, sometimes referred to as the Wahoos. Or just the Hoos? And have you wondered if it has anything to do with Dartmouth? Turns out it does. Find the story here.

The New Haven Register has a story about incoming Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, a transfer from Nebraska. From the story:

Witt is anxious for the quarterback competition to begin, but he is taking nothing for granted other than a stated vow he will compete as hard as he can to win the job, much as he expects (junior Brook) Hart and (sophomore Bryan) Farris to do the same.

His political correctness is well taken, but understand that no one transfers from Nebraska to Yale with the thought of being backup quarterback.

Good point.

As reported here earlier, the Ivy League football media day, long held in early August at Yale Golf Course, will be replaced next month by a teleconference on Aug. 11. An Ivy League release reports that the conference, "will feature all eight Ivy head coaches and Jim Maconaghy, the League’s coordinator of football officials, to discuss the major rules changes and points of emphasis for the upcoming season. During the regular season, all eight coaches will be featured on weekly media teleconferences for 10 consecutive weeks beginning Tuesday, September 15 through Tuesday, November 17."

Said new Ivy League executive director Robin Harris: "“We feel this initiative will allow us to expand our coaches’ availability to the media regionally and nationally to a wider audience interested in Ivy League Football throughout the season."

The New Haven Register's Jim Fuller isn't so sure. He writes on the Portal31 blog: "I may be way off on this but I question how many news outlets are going to be jumping in on the weekly conference calls. I think the media day was a chance for the league to get some preseason ink."

Fuller points out that media interest in some Ivy League markets has become so non-existent that, for example, "When Yale played at Brown with a victory giving the Bears at least a share of the Ivy League title, Brown coach Phil Estes wasn't even brought in for interviews because no local media was there to cover the game."

Green Alert Take: As much as I disliked the drive to New Haven early each August, the media day had real advantages. It was a chance to pick up a press guide well before the season began. It was a chance to renew acquaintances with coaches so they could put a face with a name. And it was a chance to trade small talk with, and learn from, sports information personnel from the various schools (and Ivy League) as well as other media.

The weekly teleconference is indeed a chance to, as Robin Harris says, "expand our coaches’ availability to the media regionally and nationally to a wider audience ..." But better to mix and match and have the weekly teleconference in addition to the preseason media day.

Water Wandering And Wondering

It has been suggested more than a few times that I include a picture of myself on Big Green Alert Blog. Here's one I took yesterday on the Connecticut River. If you are trying to find me on the sidelines this football season, look for the flip-flops. (Click photos to seriously supersize them.)

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As you know if you live here, have heard if you have someone at the college, or perhaps have read here or in the newspapers, this has been the soggy summer of soggy summers in our corner of the world. Because there was no rain in yesterday's forecast and the rest of the week looked wet, I impulsively closed up the computer, loaded the kayak on the roof of the car and zipped down to the Connecticut River for a three-hour tour. (Sounds like a TV theme song.)

To be sure, there are a lot of uncertainties associated with being a freelance writer. One of the real rewards is the freedom it allows you to coach your kids in Little League, to share special times with your family, and, yes, to paddle down a river when the mood strikes you.

There was a time when I was a young pup fresh out of journalism school when I thought I'd put in my time at a small newspaper and then steadily make my way to the big-time. I got started in that direction but to borrow a quote from Yogi Berra, there was a fork in the road and I'm glad I took it. I took another one when I left the paper to start BGA and work as a freelancer.

A couple of weeks ago when we were in Denver we ate lunch at a Jimmy John's sandwich shop. (If you have a little extra money sitting around and want to open a Jimmy John's franchise in Hanover, I think you'll make a fortune, but I digress.) Anyway, Jimmy John's is famous for having signs and sayings posted all around the shop. In Denver I saw read one I first noticed at the JJ's in State College, Pa., and it made me smile because it hit home. After shutting things down yesterday, it seems this would be a good time to share it:

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The investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal
Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The investment banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, only a little while.

The investment banker then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The investment banker then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, señor."

The investment banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat.

With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You can leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

But what then, señor?

The American laughed and said that's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.

Millions, señor? Then what?

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Anonymous

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Of course, the freedom to do things like paddle down the river in the middle of a beautiful Upper Valley day comes at a cost. Like the fisherman in the Mexican village I'll never own a gorgeous estate overlooking the water. But I did snap a picture yesterday of a place that might not be completely out of reach if I save and save and save some more. ;-)


Speaking of life in the Upper Valley, Hanover has again been named by Money Magazine as one of the top small towns in the country in which to live. Find a story from WCAX TV here. The Money Magazine capsule on No. 50 Hanover can be found here.

A big one that got away from Dartmouth – in the early 1970s – was a tight end by the name of Joe Smalzer. The Illinois Scout.com website has a story on former Illinois assistant Carl Meyer that includes this:

Another top Meyer recruit was tight end Joe Smalzer out of Chicago Heights Bloom. It was the 6'-6" Smalzer who made the great endzone catch with one foot inbounds that would have defeated Ohio State had there been instant replay.

"I was recruiting Joe Smalzer for Dartmouth because Joe had excellent grades. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns and became quite the player as a tight end. He was All Big 10 as well."

The Daily Pennsylvanian, the rare Ivy paper publishing this summer, continues its look at incoming Quaker freshmen with a analysis of Penn's incoming receivers.

McManus, Abuhoff On Preseason Team

With 42 days until the first Dartmouth practice, the Ivy League's official football page has awakened. In addition to listing the Athlon Top 25 (Harvard is at No. 23) and the Sporting News Ivy League picks (Dartmouth is No. 8), the Ivy page lists Phil Steele's two preseason all-conference teams. Here's how many total players Steele's well-regarded magazine picked for the first team from each school, followed by a breakdown by unit:

Total First Team Picks

• 7 – Penn (3 offense, 3 defense, 1 special teams)
  
• 6 – Brown (3-3-0)
• 6 – Harvard (4-2-0)
• 3 – Columbia (0-2-1)
• 2 – Princeton (1-1-0)
• 1 – Yale (0-0-1)
• 0 – Dartmouth, Cornell

Here's how many total first- and second-team picks each school had, followed by the breakdown:

• 9 – Harvard (6 first team, 3 second team)
• 9 – Penn (7-2)
• 8 – Columbia (3-5)
• 7 – Brown (6-1)
• 7 – Princeton (2-5)
• 5 – Yale (1-4)
• 3 – Cornell (0-3)
• 2 – Dartmouth (0-2)

Dartmouth's picks for the second team? No surprise, really. Junior wide receiver Timmy McManus deserved consideration for a spot on the first unit considering what he accomplished last year starting one game at quarterback and practicing both at wideout and QB. The other Dartmouth player honored is sophomore defensive back Shawn Abuhoff, another smart choice. By the way, although Abuhoff is wearing No. 27 in this year's poster (see yesterday's BGA), look for him in a more stylish No. 8 jersey this fall.

Green Alert Take: Preseason teams are always a guess, but seeing Columbia with almost as many picks as likely preseason favorites Harvard and Penn – and more than the other five schools – suggests one of two things. Either the Lions are ready to pounce, or the excitement around Norries Wilson's rebuilding project has carried the critics away. I'll let you know which is right in November ;-)

Green Alert Take II: As for overlooked Dartmouth candidates based on last year's statistics, senior safety Peter Pidermann had to be right at the cut-line for the team, both as a return specialist (second-leading kickoff returner in the Ivies but hurt because he didn't return punts) and defensive back (ninth among all returning tacklers in the Ivies).

Dartmouth could be in the running for a 6-foot-1, 220-pound true fullback from Massachusetts. Clay Cleveland was a high school teammate of incoming Dartmouth lineman Teddy Reed at Masconomet High School in Massachusetts. Like Reed, who went to Deerfield Academy after graduating, Cleveland is taking a postgrad year. From a story in the Salem News:

Among those that recruited him last winter were Ivy League schools like Princeton and Dartmouth, and upper-echelon Football Championship Subdivision teams such as Delaware.

And ...

"Obviously there are no guarantees, but a lot of the Ivys said I was very close (to getting in) and a year at Phillips might help," the multiple-time Cape Ann League all-star said.

And this:

One of my best friends is Teddy Reed, who PG'd and wound up at Dartmouth. So hopefully it'll be worth it for me."

Cleveland will be in action tonight in the 48th annual Agganis Football Classic at Manning Field in Lynn, Mass.

Dartmouth On Schedule

The 2009 Dartmouth football schedule poster features (clockwise from top left) pictures of junior wide receiver/co-captain Timmy McManus, senior safety/co-captain Peter Pidermann, junior All-Ivy defensive end candidate Charles Bay and sophomore corner Shawn Abuhoff, the Ivy League Rookie of the Week three times in the last four games of the 2008 season.

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The Colgate football team that will provide the opposition in Dartmouth's Sept. 19 opener at Memorial Field will feature four new starters on the offensive line. Among the departed are no fewer than three All-Patriot League first-team selections who paved the way for senior Jordan Scott, one of the most productive runners in FCS/I-AA history.

While there may be questions up front, there aren't any in the backfield where there's no mystery who will take Scott's place. The feature back in Hamilton, N.Y., will be Nate Eachus, a 5-foot-10, 206-pound sophomore with a well-deserved reputation as a battering ram. Eachus began last year as a linebacker, starting three early season games. He was playing linebacker against Cornell when Scott was injured and he was switched over to the other side of the ball. In just over two quarters of action against the Big Red, he ran for 241 yards (and no, that is not a typo). In other words, playing just a little more than a half of his first game as a running back, he surpassed the all-time Dartmouth single-game record of 229 set by Al Rosier in 1991.

Eachus exploded for 214 yards against Bucknell and 171 against Lafayette. Starting just four games at tailback, he ran for 932 yards, which would be fourth on the all-time Dartmouth list for a single season. To read a little more about Eachus, a two-time All-Anthracite running back (and you can't have enough All-Anthracite players if you ask me) check out a story in Pennsylvania's Reading Eagle. Find his bio here.

Another premier player Dartmouth will see on the other side of the field this fall is New Hampshire tight end Scott Sicko. Über-scout Gil Brandt taps him as No. 16 among senior tight ends nationally this fall, the only FCS player on the NFL.com list. Although it hasn't been updated as of this posting, you can find Sicko's bio here.

Record Watching

Here's the view from Moose Mountain this morning. While it was clear up here headlights were needed driving in town as the fog rose up from the Connecticut River. Vermont's Green Mountains are in the background. On exceptionally clear days a shadow of New York's Adirondacks can be seen according to longtime neighbors. (Click to supersize.)

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Updated receiving records on the Dartmouth football website show junior Timmy McManus climbing his way up the Big Green ranks in several categories. McManus is:

• 5th all-time for single-season catches with 60. (Jay Barnard '04 , 83.)
• 11th career receptions with 88. (Barnard, 216)
• 16th in season receiving yards with 637. (John Hyland '94, 1,076)
• 16th in career receiving yards at 1,022. (Craig Morton '89, 2,605).

Senior quarterback Alex Jenny also made it into the record books at:

• 11th for single-game passing yards at 343 vs. Colgate. (Jay Fiedler '94, 419 vs. Yale)
• 19th career passing yardage at 1,793 yards. (Fielder, 6,684)

(Note: Just one spot and 15 yards ahead of Jenny on the list: Buddy Teevens)

Also making the record book after last season was tailback Milan Williams '09:

• 17th for career rushing at 1,320 yards (Al Rosier '91, 2,252)

Team records broken or tied last fall were:

• Most losses, one season, 10
• Most opponent first downs rushing in a game, 23 (ties Navy '86)
• Most opponent rushing touchdowns, 28
• Highest opponent passing percentage game, .838 (Cornell 26-31)
• Highest opponent passing percentage season, .676 (184-272)
• Most yards allowed season, 4,517 (2,310 rush, 2207 pass)
• Highest opponent punting average, 39.5

A 6-foot-5, 315-pound Massachusetts lineman received interest from Dartmouth before making a verbal commitment to play at Boston College according to this Eagle Tribune story.

Fordham's decision to start awarding football scholarships could have a domino effect in the Patriot League, which will bear close watching by the Ivy League. Fordham coach Tom Massella discusses the decision on the Fordham SportsNet site.

The Hartford Courant has a nice story about Dartmouth alum Brad Ausmus, who is now ninth all-time in games by a major league catcher. Ausmus, 40, who is serving as a backup for the Los Angeles Dodgers could have a future as a manager according to a story that begins this way:

You can't fit the profile any better. Brad Ausmus is a longtime major league catcher, a player's player, and he has the ability to laugh at himself.

When measuring managerial timber, those qualities are considered an asset. And he's Ivy League educated, something bound to catch the eye of baseball's new-age GMs.

The story also includes this note:

Drafted by the Yankees in 1987, Ausmus signed only after it was arranged for him to attend Dartmouth in the offseason, and he graduated in 1991.

Their 1:48 (or so) Of Fame

Two Ivy League coaches spoke briefly late last week with ESPN's Erik Kuselias as part of the network's College Football Live program. The short interviews are linked to below.

In this video Brown coach Phil Estes shares his thoughts about what's right in the Ivy League, and isn't afraid to bring up the Ivy League ban on postseason play.
In this video new Yale coach Tom Williams talks about coaching in the Ivies and the rivalry with Harvard.

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Texas high school wide receiver Jordan Leslie is on Dartmouth's radar. From a Houston Chronicle website:

Leslie holds scholarship offers from Arizona, Buffalo, Dartmouth, Houston, Louisiana Tech, Tulsa and UTEP.

Green Alert Take: It won't be long before Dartmouth rules the Ivy League if the Big Green is offering Leslie and other standouts scholarships •(;^)

I stopped by the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon this morning and discovered a few familiar names on a scoresheet for a miniature golf tournament held at the end of June. The names (and nicknames) listed included junior defensive end Alex "Hole-in-One" Johns, junior running back Joey Zimring, junior corner Kevin "Wicketts" de Regt, junior defensive lineman Tyler "Slappy Samuelson" Green and junior linebacker Luke "Tin Cup" Hussey. If I recall correctly there were a couple of DNP's on the list, but medalist honors went, as they should, to "Cup." Gotta love sophomore summer in the Upper Valley!

The final count is done on the poll question about replacing New Hampshire on the football schedule with Sacred Heart for two years starting in 2010. Here's how the voting went:

• 36 percent said they are glad UNH will be gone, but couldn't they have found someone else to play?
• 32 percent said it's better to be playing anyone other than UNH
• 17 percent said they'd prefer to keep playing UNH every year.
• 12 percent said they don't like playing UNH, but better UNH than playing Sacred Heart.

My take is that something – anything – had to be done to the early non-conference schedule until such a time as the Big Green turnaround has gotten traction. I'd prefer to have seen Dartmouth replace one of the non-conference opponents with a manageable out-of-region game, but at least there's change in store, and that's a positive step.

What's your take?

Saturday Stuff

On the subject of scheduling ... a February BGA post quoted a Q&A with Colgate athletic director Dave Roach regarding the end of the Dartmouth-Colgate football series in 2011. What slipped past me – even though I quoted it – was this part of Roach's answer (link):

"We will schedule Dartmouth again after a short break."

As one of the people who actually likes the trip out to Hamilton, N.Y., I hope so. But please, no more 10-year contracts with anyone ;-)

Speaking of which, the poll over there to the left is proving interesting (if a little hard to read depending on your browser). It seems to be suggesting that of visitors to this electronic neighborhood, almost two-thirds of you are pleased to see UNH coming off the schedule. But almost half of you would prefer to play someone other than Sacred Heart. Just my opinion, but I don't think either result is much of a surprise.

Information and opinions about the various Ivy League teams has been unusually hard to come by this spring/summer, but TigerBlog has a quick look at Princeton's strengths and challenges. It includes this:

(O)bviously, all eyes will be on the quarterback position … can Brett Kan work himself into the expected competition between Tommy Wornham and Harrison Daniels; since all three are sophomores, this is a critical camp for the trio. The outright winner could start the next 30 games at Princeton, which hasn't happened in the Roger Hughes era.

Kan is the son of former Dartmouth quarterback Darryl Wong '82, who had tryouts with the San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers after graduation. Find Brett Kan's bio here. If he wins the job he'll be the second progeny of a former Big Green player to start under center at Princeton in the past few years. Jeff Terrell, who won Ivy League player of the year honors in 2006, is the son of Steve Terrell, a three-year Dartmouth punter and classmate of current Big Green head coach Buddy Teevens.

Among the coaches who volunteered at Lauren's First & Goal Football Camp at Lafayette college was former Big Green assistant Pat O'Leary, now on the staff at Holy Cross. (link)

Missed this the first time but the new Harvard website is supposed to include up-to-the-minute career statistics among its other offerings. Neat. (link)

And finally, the Mystic Times has a story about Art Quirk, the former Dartmouth pitcher who went on to spend time in the big leagues with the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Senators in the early '60s. He will be inducted into the Cape Cod Hall of Fame.

More On Suspension Of UNH Series

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a followup on the suspension of the Dartmouth-UNH football series. Nothing really new in the piece. Interim AD Bob Ceplikas tells the paper:

“UNH is currently one of the strongest teams in the country, in division I-AA, and the game hasn’t been as competitive as we would like it to be,” he said. “We feel confident that our program will get stronger and stronger over the next few years and we’ll be excited about the opportunity to play them a few years down the road.”

Green Alert Take: A line from the story got me thinking. There probably aren't very many schools in the country where the school paper could write, "The change is the first alteration made to the ... football schedule since 2000."

(If you haven't voted in the poll over to the left, let us know what you think. A lot of Dartmouth administrators check this page out. ;-)

The D also has a story about now-retired AD Josie Harper. Her legacy, the story suggests, is the improvement in facilities at the College.

The Sports Network preseason All-America team features one Ivy Leaguer on the first unit, players from six different Dartmouth opponents on its three teams, and a first-team fullback who at one time wanted to play in Hanover.

Dartmouth opponents on the TSN All-America team
First Team Offense
James Williams, 6-5, 295 tackle, Harvard
Scott Sicko, 6-3, 230 tight end, UNH
Second Team Offense
Dominic Randolph, 6-3, 223 quarterback, Holy Cross
Pat Simonds, 6-6, 223 wide receiver, Colgate
Third Team Offense
Buddy Farnham, 6-, 200, wide receiver, Brown

Second Team Defense
Chris Wynn, 5-9, 190 safety, Penn
Pat Simonds, 6-6, 223 wide receiver, Colgate
Third Team Defense
David Howard, 6-3, 270 tackle, Brown

First Team Special Teams
Andrew Samson, 6-1, 180 kicker, Brown
Austin Knowlin, 5-10, 190 punt returner, Columbia

Named to the first team as a fullback was 6-2, 232 Maine sophomore Jared Turcotte, who flirted with Dartmouth. From a Maine Today story back when he was looking at schools:

Because he ranks in the top 10 percent of his class and carries a 93.6 grade-point average, every Ivy League school also is interested. Turcotte is looking at a number of schools but is learning toward Dartmouth, coached by Buddy Teevens, a former UMaine coach.

"I like the school and Coach Teevens a lot," said Turcotte.

Here's Turcotte's bio from last fall. What might have been ...

Manning Passing Academy's Dartmouth Connection

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has a story about the famed Manning Passing Academy that includes this:

Neither (Archie) Manning, nor sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli, had any inkling of what lay ahead when they joined forces with then-Tulane coach Buddy Teevens and his assistant, Jeff Hawkins, to stage the first Manning Passing Academy for about 180 campers on Tulane's campus in the summer of 1996.

Buddy Teevens is once again listed on the camp website as one of two associate directors of the camp along with Jeff Hawkins. Teevens' schoolboy friend, "Hawk" worked for him for a short while at Dartmouth and is now at Oregon.

Of Teevens, the MPA site says:

At the Manning Passing Academy, coach Teevens oversees all aspects of the on-field operation and coaching staff.

Dartmouth assistants Mike Hodgson and Joe Scola and former Big Green receiving great David Shula are listed as "Anticipated 2009 Coaches," for the camp. No other Ivy League coaches are listed. Among the other coaches expected to attend is former Dartmouth assistant KiJuan Ware, now at Miami University.

Tentative Dartmouth junior varsity schedule for 2009:
Sun., Sept. 20 vs. Middlebury 1 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 27 vs. Vermont 1 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 30 at Harvard 2 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 8 vs. Bridgton noon

Cornell sports information has debuted its 2009 Cornell Football Information Center, a clearinghouse for info on next year's Big Red.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has an open letter to new Ivy League executive director Robin Harris, encouraging her to maintain the status quo that has the Ivy League the only conference in the country without a postseason basketball tournament, but to allow the league to go to the NCAA football playoffs. Green Alert Take: The football prohibition is patently unfair and Harris has to recognize that. But I also think it's unfair to hold most of the rest of the Ivy League basketball teams hostage while vainly searching for that long-awaited upset of a higher seed by the regular-season Ivy champion each March. Waiting for Godot, anyone?

Sacred Knowledge

Pictures of Sacred Heart's Campus Field, which opened in 1993 in Fairfield, Conn., are hard to come by. This one is from Google Earth. Capacity is variously listed at 3,500 or 4,000. Last year the Pioneers averaged 2,178 for their six home games. Dartmouth will entertain SHU in 2010 and play at Campus Field the next fall to complete a home-and-home that will replace New Hampshire on the Big Green schedule.

A few facts about Sacred Heart football:

• The school was founded in 1963 and the football program began in 1991.
• The Pioneers were Division III in 1991-92, DII from 1993-98 and have been I-AA/FCS since 1999.
• The all-time football record is 81-103-0.
• The Pioneers are members of the Northeast Conference along with Albany, Monmouth, Central Connecticut State, Robert Morris, Duquesne, Wagner and St. Francis (Pa.).
• The Northeast Conference will receive an automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs starting in 2010.
  
• The Pioneers won their first six games before finishing 8-3 last fall, their first winning record since 2004.
  
• Their first three wins were over Division II Assumption, D-II Bentley and Iona, which dropped the sport after the season.
• They have never played an Ivy League team.
• Their only game against a Patriot League team was a 56-21 loss to Holy Cross in 2005.
• Head coach Paul Gorham coached receivers at New Hampshire in 1986-87 and was on the staff at Brown from 1994-98.
  
• This year's roster includes a transfer running back who lettered two times at Central Michigan, where he ran for 69 yards against Kentucky and led the team in with seven rushing TD's as a freshman.
• The Pioneers' preseason roster for 2009 includes several junior college products and two players who prepped at noted football factory Milford Academy.

Find Sacred Heart's 2009 prospectus here and and another picture of its field here.

A few assorted facts about Sacred Heart University culled from last year's media guide: Famous alums include Kevin Nealon '75 of Saturday Night Live and John Ratzenberger '72 of Cheers. ... Enrollment was listed at 3,465 fulltime undergrads and total enrollment of more than 6,000. ... The top for states sending freshmen to SHU were New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

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The well-regarded Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine handicaps the 2009 Ivy League race this way:

1. Harvard
2. Penn
3. Princeton
4. Columbia
5. Brown
6. Yale
7. Cornell
8. Dartmouth

Green Alert Take: Dartmouth aside, while most would agree that Columbia is improving, to project a first-division finish for the Lions is a real roll of the dice. Princeton might be overvalued a bit and Brown undervalued.

The USA Today Sports Weekly Top 25 features three Dartmouth opponents:

6. UNH
20. Colgate
21. Harvard

Green Alert Take: Given Colgate's losses up front and the graduation of star tailback Jordan Scott, it's a surprise to see the Raiders picked that high. UNH also took a serious enough hit up front that No. 6 might be a tad optimistic. Also deserving of consideration would be Holy Cross.

Sacred Heart: It's Official

Dartmouth press release (my highlighting):

HANOVER, N.H. -- Dartmouth College announced game times for all 10 of its football
contests this fall, including the five home dates beginning with the season opener
on Sept. 19 against Colgate. The first three home games will kick off at 1:30
p.m., while the final two will begin at 12:30 p.m., to allow for more daylight
as the length of the day grows shorter.

In addition, the Big Green have added an opponent for the 2010 and 2011 seasons
with Sacred Heart University. Dartmouth will host the Pioneers for the 2010 season
before playing the following season in Fairfield, Conn. Sacred Heart replaces
the University of New Hampshire on the schedule; the final two years of the contracted
series with the Wildcats have been suspended.

2009 Schedule
Sept. 19–Colgate, 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 26–at New Hampshire, noon
Oct. 3–Penn, 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 10–at Yale, 12:30 p.m.
Oct. 17 –at Holy Cross, 1 p.m.
Oct. 24–Columbia, 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 31–at Harvard, noon
Nov. 7–Cornell, 12:30 p.m.
Nov. 14–at Brown, 12:30 p.m.
Nov. 21–Princeton, 12:30 p.m.

Green Alert Take: Sacred Who?
Green Alert Take II: I will miss the 12:30 starts for the first three home games. Starting at 1:30 is like getting married at 6 p.m. The waiting around isn't much fun. (And if anyone thinks the extra hour will make a significant difference in the paltry student attendance, I've got a bridge they might want to take a look at.)

BGA Jeopardy

The answer: 50 Days
The question: How long is it until the first Dartmouth football practice?

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Long a fixture of early August, the Ivy League preseason football media day is now a thing of the past. At least for this year.

Instead of the annual lunch-and-golf gathering at Yale Golf Club, the Ivy League will conduct a teleconference early next month.

Green Alert Take: Not many people I ever spoke to actually enjoyed the media day. For the coaches, it was an interruption to their routine just as preparations were ramping up for the preseason. For the sports information contacts, it was a nailbiting deadline for getting media guides done and enough of them printed to lug to the event. And for the media it was a day that had become increasingly easy to ignore. Fewer and fewer working media representatives seemed to show up each year.

As for me, the recent format of parading from one coach to another trying to avoid asking a question that had already been asked – and would be asked again by the next questioner – was irritating. Then again, I probably had no one to blame but myself. After a few years of boring answers to boilerplate questions in a group Q&A format, I tossed a couple of hot ones out in consecutive years, including one about the ban on postseason play. I asked for each coach's opinion on the ban and whether they thought it was fair.

The silence that political football was met with was deafening. At last the coaches nominated then-Princeton coach Steve Tosches, who I believe headed up the Ivy coaches group at the time, to answer the question for the group. As I recall he did a pretty good job of trying to get his point across without offending the Ivy presidents, who ultimately are responsible for enforcing or overturning the ban. But it was awkward enough that when I ran into Tosches in the men's room after the session was over, I apologized for putting him on the spot. A good and decent man, he shrugged his shoulders and said it was OK. A year later he was gone and so was the group Q&A format.

The Consensus Draft Services lists 20 Ivy Leaguers in its 2010 NFL Draft Prospect Database. Here's the number from each school:

• Brown 6
• Penn 4
• Columbia 3
• Harvard 3
• Cornell 2
• Yale 2
• Princeton 0
• Dartmouth 0

These things are always pretty sketchy (to use a term that certain Hanover High soph loves) but how Princeton running back Jordan Culbreath could be missing from a list that long is unfathomable. That's not to say he's going to be drafted; Ivy League running backs seldom are and there's a good chance none of the players on the list will be picked. But if Culbreath isn't in the top 20 players in the Ivy League there's something wrong.

For that matter, you can also make a case that with his size and speed Dartmouth safety Peter Pidermann at least deserves consideration for the list.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story largely about a cutback in hours at the Alumni Gym fitness center, a result of budget constraints on the athletic department and in the college as a whole. The story also mentions work on football's Memorial Field, which would have debuted a whole new home grandstand and press box this fall if not for the economic downturn that sabotaged that project:

Maintenance work on the stands remains on its original schedule and should be completed by early September, before the start of football season, according to Matt Purcell, associate director for construction at the College Office of Planning, Design and Construction.

The project involves sealing the concrete components of the stands, as well as repairing and repainting the steel supports beneath the structure’s seating, Purcell said.

Most of the work is routine maintenance that should prolong the life of the facility for another five to seven years, he said, rather than a complete renovation.

Back Home

I had this great idea. At least I thought it was a great idea. I was going to post a picture of the little sign humorously welcoming passersby to "metropolitan downtown Etna" (population 814 give or take a few folks) as a way of letting visitors to this electronic neighborhood know that we were back from our Colorado vacation.

Unfortunately, although we were in our rental car to the Denver airport at 4:07 a.m., and on the first plane by just at 6 a.m., it was dark by the time we got back to Etna. One canceled flight, one flight that we couldn't get on, and almost eight hours of waiting at O'Hare for a flight to Hartford, Conn., contributed mightily to an 18 1/2-hour door-to-door trip.

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Cruising around my usual haunts this morning, I found something of interest going on at Princeton. The school that traditionally turned out what I thought were among the very best press guides in the Ivy League is going to stop printing them. Period. They will still be produced, but instead of being printed they will be posted on the school website as PDFs. From a Princeton release:

“The state of the economy has forced every segment of intercollegiate athletics to evaluate their priorities,” says Director of Athletics Gary Walters. “We feel that we have found the right direction for our players, fans, coaches, supporters and prospective athletes.”

Princeton will not be creating guides and then posting them to the Web in pdf form as solely a cost-cutting measure. Princeton will have all of the information that would have been contained in its guides available on-line, though in a more easily accessible format.

There's a column about the move on the TigerBlog site.

Green Alert Take: I don't disagree with the varied reasons for the decision to go electronic, as explained thoroughly in the column. But I do have a couple of concerns.

First, as a media member I don't need a media guide printed on glossy stock with four-color covers. Never have. But I do need something I can hold in my hands, peruse when I'm not at a computer, and mark up with a highlighter. I suppose I could print 10 opposing guides at home, but that could run upwards of $20 of ink per guide, not to mention wear and tear on the printer. So my first suggestion for Princeton or any school thinking of going in the same direction would be to print up a number of guides on regular copy paper and make them available to media members. Somehow I just don't see writers for the AP or ESPN.com sending PDFs off to the office printer for every school that goes electronic. But I can see them filing away something for later reference that arrives in the mail.

I'm also concerned whether schools that go electronic will keep older guides available online. I have every Dartmouth football media guide dating back to 1980 sitting on a shelf five feet from where I am typing this. If I have a question, I turn to my right and can find an answer. I know those guides will always be there, but will the 2009 media guide PDF still be online in 2020? I don't know.

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In a similar vein, it used to be that every school compiled and mailed out a spring/summer football prospectus. Now they are all electronic, if they are done at all. Perhaps I simply haven't been able to find them online, but this year I've only been able to dig up a prospectus for four of Dartmouth's 10 opponents: Yale, Penn, Holy Cross and Colgate.

And finally, three Dartmouth opponents have debuted new and cleaner designs for their websites. Check out the football websites for Brown, Harvard and Colgate.