Teeing It Up At Harvard Stadium

As the song says, "Dartmouth's in town again," the town being Cambridge, or Allston or more properly on this stadium side of the Charles River, Boston. Whatever you call it, when the Big Green is playing at Harvard it's always a party. If you'd like to join in, there's this from the local alums:

The Dartmouth Club of Greater Boston invites all alumni and parents to the Dartmouth-Harvard Tailgate starting at 10 AM on Webster Field outside of the closed end of Harvard Stadium. Alumni and guests are encouraged to bring their own food and drink to this gathering. Look for the Dartmouth banner and join us for the pre-game festivities.

Harvard Radio's WHRB blog has an advance on the Dartmouth-Harvard clash here.

The New Hampshire Football Report offers a capsule preview of the game here.

Jake Novak at Roar Lions Roar goes with Harvard, writing:

The Big Green's win over Columbia last week should serve as a big boost... but not this week. Harvard could be caught napping a little bit, but that's not likely.

Dartmouth-Harvard is the SIRIUS game of the week and it can be heard on channel 130.

A player from a current Dartmouth opponent and a future opponent are in the news. ESPN.com has a nice piece on Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph, who has gone from high school backup to NFL prospect.

The Indianapolis Star has a story on the Butler football team, which will try to improve to 8-0 today. The Star points out that despite being undefeated, Butler is 231st in the Sagarin Ratings with virtually no chance at making the NCAA playoffs. Dartmouth (17 slots ahead of the Bulldogs in the Sagarin Ratings despite a 1-5 record) is slated to play host to Butler in 2012 and to visit the Indianapolis team in 2013.

Find Dartmouth's future schedules here. (In case you are wondering, both of those seasons begin with games against Butler in Week One and Holy Cross the next Saturday before kicking off Ivy play against Penn.)

Extra Point
That certain Hanover High sophomore is dressing up as a famous football coach for Halloween. Rolled up khakis, white socks, black shoes and this.

Hype for Harvard Picks Up

It's been some time since the Boston Globe has written as extensive a story on Dartmouth football as John Powers has here in a look at where the Dartmouth program is and where it has been.

It helps, of course, that the Big Green is visiting Harvard tomorrow. And that Massachusetts native Nick Schwieger broke the school's single-season rushing record last week. But most importantly, it helps that Dartmouth stopped its 17-game losing streak last Saturday. Powers writes:

Beating Columbia, which hasn’t had a winning season since 1996, normally doesn’t call for confetti hereabouts, but this was no normal victory.

The story, which runs three "takes" on the Globe site, includes quotes from co-captains Peter Pidermann and Timmy McManus as well as coach Buddy Teevens and Harvard coach Tim Murphy. The accompanying photo from the Holy Cross game is mislabeled, but no one on the Dartmouth side is complaining when one of the best sports sections in America gives the Big Green that kind of coverage.

While the Globe was more than happy to toss a bouquet Dartmouth's way, the Harvard Crimson was more than happy to toss another stink bomb. Here's the paper's weekly shot at the Big Green:

Dartmouth beat Columbia, 28-6, last week, giving the Big Green its first win since the Bush administration. Apparently Dartmouth sophomore running back Nick Schweiger is still young enough to not know that the Big Green is never, under any circumstances, supposed to be impressive.

The Crimson writer predicts a 42-13 Harvard win with this thought:

Harvard is second in the league in total offense, with 1,034 rushing yards and 1,097 passing yards. Dartmouth also mixes up the run and the pass, in that the Big Green allows almost as many yards in the air as it does on the ground and is dead last in the Ivies in total defense.

It’s the perfect storm for a blowout. Expect the Crimson to haunt Dartmouth at every turn tomorrow, turning the Big Green’s dream week into a nightmare.

It's been written here before, but former Harvard coach Joe Restic once memorably said of playing at Dartmouth, "They secrete something up there." Current coach Tim Murphy is good with words, but not that good. In a Crimson preview he said:

“We’re Dartmouth’s biggest game. They go crazy to play Harvard. We will get their very best shot.”

The Daily Dartmouth preview can be found here.

The Daily Pennsylvanian Ivy preview under the headline, "Not So Fast My Green Friend," starts this way:

Dartmouth just ended its 17-game losing streak.

It’ll probably start a new one tomorrow.

Ouch.

Check Big Green Alert premium tonight for stats and a capsule story on today's junior varsity game at Harvard.

More on Schwieger

A Boston Globe blog had a nice lede to a story on this week's New England Gold Helmet award presentation:

Dartmouth students rushed Memorial Field in Hanover on Saturday afternoon after the Big Green halted a 17-game losing streak with a commanding 28-6 Ivy League victory over Columbia.

They were just following the lead of Dartmouth sophomore back Nick Schwieger, who ran through, around and over the visiting Lions for a school-record 242 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries.

The same Globe blog included this high praise:

Harvard coach Tim Murphy, whose 4-2 Crimson host 1-5 Dartmouth at the Stadium, called Schwieger "arguably, the best back in the Ivy." He is averaging an Ivy-best 101.3 yards rushing per game.

Not surprisingly, Schwieger was named Dartmouth's male Athlete of the Week. The accompanying story is a Q&A that includes this:

Besides winning every game the rest of the way, do you have any personal goals for the remainder of the season?

I would love to hit the 1,000-yard mark, and I think it's something we can do. It would be a great accomplishment not just for me but the offensive line and the entire offense as well. As an offense, we need to keep the pressure on our opponents by running right at them. We're showing a balanced offense, which will help us continue to score. You can win a lot of games by scoring 28 points.

Dartmouth's official preview of the Harvard game is here and the game notes can be found here.

For Harvard's game notes, click here.

It didn't take long after the first win of the season for the discussion to return to the coaching situation in Hanover. The Daily Dartmouth has a column that includes these thoughts:

It probably felt great to win this past weekend, but if Dartmouth does anything short of running the table for the rest of the season, all signs indicate that his prospects of coaching next year aren’t too good. (Buddy) Teevens might have survived the week, but in the long run, it doesn’t seem too likely that people will want him to keep coaching.

and ...

The evidence is there that this team could be good under Teevens, and I think that switching up the coaching staff might ruin the chances for a group that actually has a lot of potential.

I’m just saying, I’m not sure that jumping on the “Buddy Teevens has to go” bandwagon is a good idea. The team is clearly improving, and until it stops improving, I don’t think it’s a good idea to change things up.

And finally, a story about Princeton tailback Jordan Culbreath on the New Jersey.com site reminds us that football, in the end, is just a game.

Schwieger Good as Gold

From a Dartmouth release (I'd excerpt and just throw the link up but I can't find the story so here's the whole release):

HANOVER, N.H. -- Dartmouth sophomore running back Nick Schwieger (Norton, Mass.)

received another accolade today when he was given the Gridiron Club of Boston
Gold Helmet Award as the outstanding player in New England last week. The award
was announced at the New England Football Writers Weekly Luncheon today.

Schwieger was also named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week as well as
the National FCS Offensive Player of the Week by The Sports Network for setting
a Dartmouth school record with 242 rushing yards in a 28-6 homecoming victory
over Columbia on Oct. 24. The win snapped a 17-game Big Green losing streak that
dated back to 2007.

The previous record was 229 yards set by Al Rosier '91 during the 1991 season
against Brown, and Schwieger's total is just the sixth 200-yard rushing game in
the Dartmouth annals. Schwieger also had a 66-yard touchdown run to clinch the
game in the fourth quarter, the longest run by a Big Green rusher since Shon Page
'90 broke a 79-yard run against Harvard in 1990.

Schwieger had 69 yards in the first quarter to help set up both Dartmouth touchdowns
as the Green built a 14-0 lead. By halftime, he had his second career 100-yard
game and a new personal high of 128 yards.

Dartmouth (1-5, 1-2 Ivy) next plays at Ivy co-leader Harvard (4-2, 3-0 Ivy) on
Saturday at noon.

A Chance to Help a Friend

Here's a link to the CaringBridge page for Princeton senior Jordan Culbreath shared by Jake Novak at Roar Lions Roar.

A senior captain and running back for the Tigers, Culbreath was diagnosed on Oct. 5 with Aplastic Anemia. Jordan writes of his diagnosis:

It is a rare disease in which my immune system is attacking my bone marrow and is preventing it from making neccessary blood cells.

There were two treatment options: a bone marrow transplant and immuno suppressant therapy.

Unfortunately, his sister was not a match and Culbreath began immuno suppressant therapy on Oct. 13.

The CaringBridge site has links to share a tribute in honor of Culbreath, to help out CaringBridge, and to sign his guest book. It would be great to see Dartmouth (and other Ivy) players, coaches, fans and families sending along thoughts about someone who Princeton coach Roger Hughes told the Daily Princetonian:

“...is a poster boy for everything that’s right in college athletics and everything that’s right at Princeton University, including Princeton football. Aerospace engineer. Walk-on kid. Made himself into a good football player through hard work. Clearly he gained the respect of his teammates to the point where they voted him a captain.”

The Trenton Times wrote about Culbreath's fight on Oct. 14.

Heading for Harvard

The weekly Ivy League teleconference was conducted yesterday and it can be heard here. The Harvard sports information website saved us all some listening and one of us some typing by transcribing coach Tim Murphy's quotes here. Specifically relating to Dartmouth, Murphy said:

Looking to Dartmouth, I said at the beginning of the season, from the bottom to the top of the league is not a very long climb. Dartmouth's decisive win shows they believe in themselves and their coaches. It's going to be a great game.

About Dartmouth sophomore Nick Schwieger and the Dartmouth offense, Murphy had this to say:

Nick is one of the two best backs in the league. We are very familiar with him - he is extremely strong, has excellent instincts and plays with emotion. They do an excellent job of play action pass. They have a QB who was highly recruited, so they have legitimate weapons for the first time in a long time and I think the league is starting to see that.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a nice look at Schwieger, the national offensive player of the week and Ivy League offensive player of the week after rushing for a school-record 242 yards in the streak-busting win over Columbia Saturday. Schwieger broke the record of 229 set by Al Rosier '91 in a 45-13 win over Brown at Memorial Field when Rosier was a fifth-year senior.

The writer from the Daily D tracked down Rosier, who finished the year leading the nation in rushing yards per game that fall with 143.2, for a comment:

“I was excited that (the team was) able to have such a good running back and a nice strong running game,” Rosier said. “It was obviously a career day for Schwieger, and hopefully (the team) can use that as a springboard for the rest of the year.”

On award that got away from Schwieger was the The College Sporting News FCS national offensive player of the week. Actually, they actually named two and one was someone the Big Green got a close-up look at already this fall: Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph. From the College Sporting News release:

Randolph threw four touchdowns and ran for two more and set a career-high with 116 rushing yards to lead No. 22 Holy Cross past No. 17 Colgate, 42-28, on Saturday. He completed 20-of-31 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns while carrying 14 times for 116 yards and the two scores.

Randolph, by the way, broke Steve McNair's FCS record by throwing a TD pass for the 37th consecutive game and now tops the country in passing, total offense and the awkward-sounding, "points responsible for."

Back to the Ivies and Dartmouth, the Daily Pennsylvanian weekend roundup includes this:

On the one hand, the Big Green won for the first time in 18 games, but on the other, the Lions experienced yet another setback in their sad history as Ivy League bottom dwellers.

Like several other stories, this one ascribes a quote about Dartmouth's excessive celebration penalty to Charles Bay. It was actually Eddie Smith who explained his thinking during the celebration tis way:

“Honestly, at that point I really didn’t care whether they called it or not. I really didn’t care. It was, 'Oh, if they are going to call it all right, let’s just celebrate some more.' ”

Missed this last week, but in light of Lafayette beating, Penn (20-17), Harvard (35-18), Yale (31-14) and Columbia (24-21) to boast a 4-0 record against the Ancient Eight, Penn coach Al Bagnoli told David Coulson of The Sports Network:

"They ought to just go ahead and give Lafayette the trophy as the Ivy League champion. They've earned it. They beat everybody."

Speaking of Penn, I meant to mention this the last time I noticed but forgot. Whether it is the ongoing (hate that word) confusion between Penn and Penn State or the fact that Nittany Lion-wear is a whole lot more in demand than Quaker-wear, it's hilarious that when you visit the Daily Pennsylvanian there's an ad for football shirts and such from Lions Pride, a Penn STATE merchandise store.

And finally, the video of Dartmouth's end-of-streak celebration (below) now has been viewed more than 1,100 times. That may not be much compared to clips of puppies playing with kittens, but apparently a fair number of people have taken a peek and seen a little pure joy.



And while I missed it, I have been told that Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim (seen throwing footballs at a Dartmouth practice in this video) did a pretty good sprint down the sidelines Saturday with one arm raised as he celebrated Nick Schwieger's 66-yard touchdown gallop.

Most Unfair Rule In Sports? Color it Ivy

A columnist on the Delaware News Journal web site writes about the "dumbest, most unfair rule in sports."

And that rule is? The Ivy League rule forbidding football teams from competing in the NCAA playoffs. He writes:

... (T)he Ivy League field hockey, men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball championship teams will go to the NCAA tournaments this fall, as they do every fall. So will any cross country runners swift enough to qualify.

Winter and spring sports champions will do the same.

Football cannot.

Since when is discrimination acceptable? Apparently, Ivy smarter-than-us arrogance makes it OK.

That makes this the greatest injustice in sports. It's unfathomable and unacceptable and should be fought until it's changed.

I'm not sure it is the "greatest" injustice in sports, but I am sure it's wrong. The columnist's rant includes the following thought, which I've wondered about often:

... (W)hy some feisty, brilliant graduate of one of those prestigious Ivy law schools, some of them likely former football players, hasn't raised a legal ruckus, is completely beyond me.

The Sports Network, which yesterday named Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger the national offensive player of the week, today has a column telling of that most unlikely occurrence Saturday when Dartmouth and Indiana State snapped the nation's two longest losing streaks just hour(s) apart. One correction: The column says the last win was a 17-14 overtime decision against Princeton in the 2007 finale. Actually, Princeton won that game. Dartmouth's last win was a 59-31 victory over Cornell two weeks before that.

Schwieger's hometown paper expands a little on an AP story about Saturday's big day.

In his post-game remarks Saturday, Columbia coach Norries Wilson said he warned his team not to look past Dartmouth:

“I told them that they played UNH and Colgate, and the College of the Holy Cross, the University of Pennsylvania (and Yale). They played five (sic) teams with winning records. Three teams ranked in the nation. And they had moved the football against those football teams. So why wouldn’t you think that they were a good football team? ... There was no reason not to feel like they were a good football team. They were 0-5 that’s true. But they had put a lot of good things on tape. And they had progressed and got better each week. ... From our standpoint as a coaching staff we did nothing but tell our kids that this Dartmouth football team was a good outfit and we were going to have our hands full beating them.”

Apparently the message didn't get through to a columnist for the Columbia Spectator who wrote:

The football team lost an embarrassing game to Dartmouth on Saturday. There is no other way to put it.

Dartmouth opponents in The Sports Network's Top 25 Poll:

8. New Hampshire
17. Holy Cross
24. Colgate
32. Harvard
35. Penn
38. Brown

And in the FCS Coaches Poll:

7. New Hampshire
17. Holy Cross
T-25. Colgate
32. Brown
34. Harvard

The Gridiron Power Index ranking (125 teams):

7. New Hampshire
27. Holy Cross
35. Penn
38. Colgate
41. Harvard
44. Brown
68. Yale
72. Columbia
83. Dartmouth
89. Cornell
107. Princeton

Future Opponents
T-98 Butler
117. Sacred Heart
121. Georgetown

Joe Moglia, former Dartmouth assistant coach-turned-chairman of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp – and still a friend of the program – is the focus of a piece in the Daily Nebraskan, which writes:

Since July, Moglia has been donating his time at the UNL Athletic Department to provide life skills advice and leadership consultation to the Husker football team.
“One thing I want to do right now is to be part of football. I’m with the (Nebraska) football team this season,” he said.

What happens when you don't have an official, recognizable mascot? Consider the following incorrect but embarrassing reference to Dartmouth in a Virginia Gazette story about the search for a mascot at William & Mary:

While the Tribe nickname will remain intact, the committee may come up with a mascot unrelated to its nickname. That’s odd, but not really.

For example, Iowa State University’s mascot is “Cy the Cardinal,” which has nothing to do with the nickname, Cyclones. Dartmouth University’s nickname is the Big Green, while the mascot is “Keggy the Keg.” And yes, Keggy is a beer keg.

Away from the arena, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim has donated $25,000 out of his own pocket to the Dartmouth College fund. He told the Daily Dartmouth:

Among all the values I hold dear, I can’t think of very many that are more important to me than ensuring that everyone has access to a Dartmouth education ...

Green Alert Take: Having spent 90 minutes or so at Hanover High School last night being tutored about FASFA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and CSS (College Scholarship Service) I have a renewed appreciation for the importance of the generosity shown by people like President Kim. That certain Hanover senior hasn't ruled out Dartmouth but the hope is wherever she ends up next year those associated with the school are as generous as those at Dartmouth.

And finally, a feel-good story shared by a regular reader. The New York Times writes again about Myron Rolle, the former Florida State safety who put off the NFL for a year to study at Oxford and plans to become a neurosurgeon. For anyone who thinks you can't go to one of the big-time football schools and be success in the classroom, consider this from the Times:

The nicest thing about Oxford, Rolle said, is that it makes him feel as if he is in no hurry. He graduated from high school early and finished his education at Florida State in two and a half years, cutting short his football career by a season.

Schwieger NATIONAL Player of the Week by TSN

Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger has been named the NATIONAL offensive player of the week by The Sports Network.

Schwieger Earns Top Ivy Honor

To the surprise of absolutely no one who was at Saturday's game or read about it, Dartmouth sophomore Nick Schwieger has been named the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week after running for a school-record 242 yards in Saturday's 28-6 win over Columbia.

Named to the Ivy honor roll were senior free safety Pete Pidermann (10 tackles and an interception) and freshman linebacker Garrett Wymore (seven tackles and a pass breakup).

Find a story on the Ivy honors here.

***

For a story I wrote on a freelance assignment about senior safety Tony Pastoors, click here.

Week Six Roundup

Whoa Nellie, here we go ...

Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar offers a capsule explanation of Dartmouth's 28-6 win over Columbia Saturday under the headline Hurtin' in Hanover that kicks off this way:

The Big Green immediately established a running attack and passed the ball just well enough to score points when they needed them. Nick Schwieger broke a school record with 242 yards rushing. Meanwhile, the defense gave up a lot of yards but forced Columbia mistakes time after time.

The Daily Dartmouth story is mostly a reaction story. ... Speaking of reactions, the D also has an "Inquiring Photographer," type piece about what the win means (sans the photographer ;-). It's well-balanced, but one response to the win will certainly not be received well in either the Big Green or Lions camp, but it has a ring to it (link):

Winning a Homecoming game against a perennial conference doormat should not be big news.

Not to be outdone in the semi-mudslinging, the Columbia Spectator has a story under the headline, Football embarrassed by lowly Dartmouth. It includes this quote from coach Norries Wilson, whose team now has lost its last three games:

“There’s going to be some changes, there has to be. Guys need to be accountable to themselves. It’s not okay to lose. They keep score in these football games. This ain’t four-year-old tee ball.”

For the edification of both sides, the current Ivy League standings show "doormat" Columbia and "lowly" Dartmouth tied in the league standings:

1. Harvard 3-0 (4-2 )
1. Pennsylvania 3-0 (4-2)
2. Brown 2-1 (4-2)
4. Yale 1-2 (3-3)
4. Columbia 1-2 (2-4)
4. Cornell 1-2 (2-4)
4. Dartmouth 1-2 (1-5)
8. Princeton 0-3 (1-5)

The Columbia Spec also has a sidebar headlined Light Blue unable to capitalize on red zone opportunities.

The Daily Pennsylvanian writes has an Ivy roundup under the headline Dartmouth’s long nightmare is over.

USA Today took note of the interesting happenings at the top of the list of teams with lengthy losing streaks and used it as the Stat of the week:

Going into last weekend, the three teams with the longest losing streaks in the Football Championship Subdivision were Indiana State at 33 games, Dartmouth at 17 and Northeastern at 13. All three won.

Speaking of which, the Ivy League is well represented in the longest losing streaks in the country, even with Dartmouth now vacating its spot. Cornell and Princeton are ranked 13th nationally with four consecutive losses while Columbia is tied for 16th. Heading the list: Georgetown and Idaho State with eight consecutive losses apiece.

Win or no win, the equal-opportunity Harvard Crimson isn't going to cut Dartmouth or Columbia any slack, writing:

Safe to say, even with a win under its belt, Dartmouth won’t be challenging anybody for the Ivy crown. But it’s also safe to say that upstart Columbia shouldn’t be included in any more discussions of the Ancient Eight’s upper echelon.

Speaking of not cutting anyone slack, there was this on the Ivy League football message board from someone who calls himself/herself IvyFootballFan:

At least now when Dartmouth beats Princeton in a few weeks, it won't be to break the streak, thanks Columbia for doing the Tigers a favor.

Ouch.

And yes, there was other football played Saturday including a huge Patriot League game down in Worcester where Holy Cross dispatched previously unbeaten Colgate, 42-28. The Sports Network's David Coulson makes an interesting observation:

Who would have expected that (Holy Cross quarterback Dominic) Randolph would gain more yards on the ground than Nate Eachus, Jordan McCord, or anyone else in Colgate's prominent ground attack?

Randolph passed for 288 yards and ran for another 116. Eachus had just 69 yards on 23 carries while McCord had 15 yards on nine carries. The guess here is that Randolph's enormous day is probably going to cost Dartmouth's Nick Schwieger a chance at being the region's player of the week after breaking the school record with 242 rushing yards in the win over Columbia. But time will tell. (Stay tuned for the announcement of the weekly Ivy League honors.)

Admit it, you were wondering what happened with those weekly power ratings, weren't you? Ask and ye shall receive.

The Sagarin Ratings for Dartmouth and its opponents, current and future:
(All of Division I – FBS and FCS. Last week's ranking in parentheses.)
149. Penn (150)
160. Harvard (178)
165. Brown (185)
186. Columbia (164)
191. Yale (196)
204. Dartmouth (224)
215. Cornell (210)
227. Princeton (236)

91. New Hampshire (96)
153. Holy Cross (171)
161. Colgate (160)
231. Butler (221)
237. Sacred Heart (237)
241. Georgetown (243)

The Dunkel Index
(FCS Only)
27. Penn (28)
29. Harvard (36)
37. Brown (41)
47. Yale (44)
67. Columbia (51)
81. Dartmouth (99)
84. Cornell (77)
106. Princeton

11. UNH (10)
28. Holy Cross (33)
52. Colgate (47)
112. Sacred Heart (109)
113. Butler (116)
118. Georgetown (115)

Ticket To Write

When I got home from Saturday's game against Columbia and plopped my laptop down to start to write I found a souvenir left on my desk by that certain Hanover High School sophomore, who had been there with everyone else, thoroughly enjoying himself despite the rain. Getting back before I did, he took the ticket and stuck it in a little magnetic frame that was hanging around. He knew that the result was special not just for players, coaches, alumni and fans, but also for writers who can get worn out trying to figure out new ways to tell a tough story.

Funny thing is, we were talking on the way to Memorial Field Saturday about how many Dartmouth football games he's seen. My rough guess was at least 100 and perhaps a good number more than that. He saw virtually all of them – home and away– until at least age five or six because we'd travel to road games as a family when I was with the newspaper. (The Brown game took a little cajoling when he was a toddler; the Bear was a little scary.) Mom would be watching the kids during the games while I was in the press box, and then she would drive home while I wrote furiously on the laptop. When you work virtually every weekend of the school year as a sportswriter, you grab your family time how and when you can.

Once those certain two kids started playing on their own teams on weekends traveling together got a little tougher, but they still made periodic road trips, almost always to Brown because it was after their season, and to Princeton, where their cousins live close by. And they never missed a home game if possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the two of them have seen more Dartmouth football games over the past dozen years or so than just about anyone.

And don't get me started about how many basketball games they've been to in their young lives ;-)

More Columbia

The local sports editor chimes in with a pat on Dartmouth's back. In his column he writes:

The irony was too delicious to overlook. There, in the end zone, surrounded by a delirious mass of Dartmouth College football players, the official was throwing a penalty flag for excessive celebration.

There will be more in the papers tomorrow morning, but the headline in the Columbia Spectator is rather ironic as well: Lions embarrassed by Ivy cellar-dwellers

A Gorgeous Day

The sky up here on the mountain is as blue as can be this morning and the sun is smiling down on us. But if you are a Dartmouth player, coach or fan who got completely soaked, yesterday was the beautiful one. If you don't believe it, check out the video above. It runs just over 3 minutes and will give chills to those with green blood and others who understand what this team has battled through. (Sorry for the quality; it's much better on the original.)

In a rarity, the Daily Dartmouth posted a game story on a weekend. Columbia Sports Information's official take on the game is here. Find the Dartmouth Sports Publicity take on the game here. There's even a bit about the singing of the alma mater by players, coaches, fans and alums on Dartblog.

A look at games featuring Big Green opponents:

Harvard 37, Princeton 3
Harvard quarterback Collier Winters was 13-of-19 for 190 yards but the start of the day for Dartmouth's next opponent was the Crimson defense, which limited Princeton to 157 yards of total offense.

Brown 34, Cornell 14
Kyle Newhall-Caballero completed 26-of-40-passes for 338 yards and Zachari Tronti ran for three touchdowns as Brown pulled away from the Big Red.

Penn 9, Yale 0
Penn beat Yale for the second year in a row without benefit of an offensive touchdown. The lone TD came on an interception return.

Holy Cross 42, Colgate 28
Dominic Randolph passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more as Holy Cross knocked Colgate from the ranks of the unbeaten.

New Hampshire 18, Hofstra 10
Tom Manning kicked three field goals including a school-record 54-yarder as UNH won despite accumulating just 268 yards of total offense.

And finally, breathe a sigh of relief when you read that Indiana State ended a 33-game losing streak Saturday with a 17-14 win over Western Illinois. But for Dartmouth's win over Columbia the Big Green would have been saddled with a distinction it never wanted. Also, Northeastern knocked off Towson, 27-7, ending a 13-game losing streak, meaning the three longest skeins in the nation were all snapped yesterday.

Game Day

Don't know what it is doing down in the valley right now but the wind has been absolutely howling up here on the mountain this morning. The greater metropolitan Hanover forecast calls for showers at noon turning to light rain at 1 p.m. (80 percent chance). It will be light rain at 2 p.m. (100 percent chance). Winds will be from the southeast at about 10 mph and the temperature a relatively comfortable 50 degrees or so throughout the game.

Green Alert Take: I could be wrong but it seems to me that "100 percent" and "chance" don't play well with each other. If it's truly a 100 percent "chance," there's no "chance" in it at all. It is going to rain.

The local paper has two stories and a column today regarding Dartmouth and its football fortunes. One is posted to the web and it deals with the Big Green's difficulties recruiting quarterbacks.

The New Hampshire Football Report has a capsule on today's game, slated to kick off at 1:30 p.m.

Green Alert Take: I'm not quite sure the rationale for the move to 1:30 kickoffs this year. I've heard it said that it gives students more of a chance to recover from their, um, studying on Friday nights and get out to the game. I hope that wasn't the reason for the switch from 12:30 because, as they say in the south, "That dog don't hunt." I know when I have to travel to a Dartmouth game kicking off even one hour earlier makes my life a lot easier. It just seems that if a team is boarding a bus to drive all the way back to Philly, or Princeton or in today's case, New York City, getting back an hour earlier would be a good thing.

More Columbia

A PDF of Columbia's game notes has been posted here.

The Roar Lions Roar blog has its 5 Keys to the Game: Dartmouth. Without stealing Jake's fire, in brief they are:

1. Run the ball.
2. Pressure the QB.
3. Contain the Dartmouth run.
4. Use the tight end.
5. Control the return game.

Check out the link above for full details.

Gearing Up For Columbia

The Columbia Spectator quotes Lions coach Norries Wilson sharing what he thinks the Dartmouth mindset will be for tomorrow's Homecoming game:

“I think that they’re going to look at this as their opportunity to get off the losing track. I think ... they’re going to look to this week as a week that they (are) going to feel like they should win the football game.”

With all due respect, I think the Columbia coach has it wrong. Having been around this team a fair bit, it seems to me that a great many of the players – and it wouldn't surprise me if it were most of them – have felt that way every Saturday. As daunting as a Colgate, a UNH or a Holy Cross might have been, the sense here is that, for better or for worse, the Dartmouth players went into those games believing they were going to win. Good for them.

Another Wilson quote in the same story:

“If we don’t show up to play Dartmouth, they’ll beat us—bottom line.”

If you listen closely you can hear those who remember Dartmouth going 50 years without losing to Columbia in Hanover (a streak that ended in 1998) grinding their teeth, particularly in light of the fact that the Lions have dropped their last two games and are 2-3 on the season.

Columbia football blogger (and radio commentator) Jake Novak offers his take on the game and makes an interesting point in his Roar Lions Roar blog:

There are a number of intangibles to discuss here, especially the feeling in Hanover that this may be the Big Green's best chance to get a win and end their current losing streak at 17.

In reality, it isn't. The upcoming home games against Cornell and Princeton will provide better opportunities for Dartmouth to grab a victory, especially because the Lions can run the ball a lot better than either of those teams.

Given the Columbia put a 38-0 hurt on Princeton in New Jersey and Cornell has dropped its last three, he may be right. Which means if Dartmouth can pick this one off the confidence should increase exponentially for the final two home games against the Big Red and the Tigers.

The Daily Dartmouth preview quotes Big Green tailback Nick Schwieger:

“We’re looking to run the ball early and often, which we’re hoping will soften up the Columbia defense. We just need to keep attacking and we’ll be fine.”

Schwieger is the subject of this week's opposing player feature in the Columbia Spectator.

The Harvard Crimson, which never misses a chance to take a poke at Dartmouth in its weekly "picks" column, manages to stick it to both schools in tomorrow's game:

My sleeper pick for Ivy League champion is just plain sleeping. The Lions’ long road back from their winless Ivy slate in ’07 brought them to the neighborhood of contending. But well-armed Penn was on the neighborhood watch and banished Columbia, 27-13.

Luckily for the Lions this week, they get Dartmouth.

Prediction: Columbia 38, Dartmouth 10.

Back to the Daily Dartmouth where a columnist makes a prediction I fear will be wrong:

We, for once, are going to have a huge crowd ...

Larger than usual, probably. But huge? Depends on your definition but it would be a surprise, unfortunately. A perfect storm is agitating against anything approaching a five-figure crowd: a winless season, a Homecoming opponent not named Harvard or Yale, and a miserable and rainy forecast. Hopefully I'm wrong because a big crowd is fun for everyone, players on both teams and the media alike.

The Daily Dartmouth editorial board has added its voice to those clamoring for good news on the gridiron front. From an editorial in today's edition:

...(T)o be fair, Dartmouth has yet to lose a game this season that it “should” have won — although it is unclear whether a team that has gone 5-30 since the members of the Class of 2010 arrived at the College “should” win anything.

And then the hammer:

Coach Teevens, we do not want the story of your time at Dartmouth to end with another winless season. We won’t resort to ultimatums, but the writing is on the wall: You need to win a game, and you need to win one soon.

Extra Point
Walking out of the Hanover Co-Op the other day I marveled at the number of people who joined me in carrying their groceries in reusable cloth bags. A simple idea that we should have embraced long before we did.

Note from the Editor

The "comment" section of the blog is being put on hiatus. As always, I will try to respond to all emails that include a return address personally, but they will not be posted to the blog. Thanks for understanding.

Ask the AD

Almost hidden – unintentionally – on the extremely busy Dartmouth home page, a new and welcomed featured of the Dartmouth web site has debuted: Ask the AD. The feature is described this way:

If you have a question for Acting Athletics Director Bob Ceplikas concerning any of the 34 varsity teams or the athletics department in general, please click on the link below and submit your question. Once a week, Ceplikas will select a question and respond right here on DartmouthSports.com. Check back every week to see if your question is selected!

Find a link to Ask the AD here. To skip directly to the form for asking a question, click here.

The feature is patterned after one at Colgate that last year included this question of Raider AD Dave Roach about the future of the football series with Dartmouth.

The official Dartmouth release for the Columbia game has been posted and it includes this nugget:

Dartmouth has yet to hold an opponent to less than 30 points this year, and Columbia averages 25.

Dartmouth's game notes can be found here.

Jake Novak's Roar Lions Roar blog suggests our local daily has provided Columbia with some good bulletin board material here.

In an earlier post in anticipation of Columbia's longest bus ride of the fall, Jake lists the distance each school has to travel for conference road games. The average distance for Dartmouth is 249 miles, second-longest among Ivy teams behind only Cornell. Yale, not surprisingly, has the shortest average trip of 152 miles.

What is interesting about the numbers, and it's something that has been noted here many times before, Dartmouth's longest road trips (Ivy and non-conference) are all bundled in even-numbered years. Here are the Ivy numbers shamelessly pilfered from the Columbia blog (with the non-league games drawn from Yahoo Directions in italics):

THIS YEAR'S DARTMOUTH ROAD TRIPS
at Harvard 126 miles
at Brown 186 miles
at Yale 189 miles
at UNH 99 miles
at Holy Cross 148 miles
_________________
Ivy League Total (round trip): 1,002 miles
Season Total (round trip): 1,496

NEXT YEAR'S DARTMOUTH ROAD TRIPS
at Columbia 262 miles
at Princeton 318 miles
at Cornell 326 miles
at Penn 364 miles
at Colgate 245 miles
____________________
Ivy League Total (round trip): 2,540 miles
Season Total (round trip: 3,030 miles

In other words, not only does Dartmouth have to play four road Ivy games next year (as opposed to three this year), but they are also the four longest road Ivy games the Big Green could play.

Green Alert Take: I've written this before, but someone from Dartmouth at one point in the past either didn't think the schedule through or didn't fight hard enough to make the schedule make sense.

A regular reader passed along a Dartmouth promotional piece about financial aid that features a few thoughts from Big Green junior co-captain Timmy McManus. Find it here.

Yale has lost receiver Gio Christodoulou and leading tackler Larry Abare for the year due to injuries. The New Haven Register has a story. ... Speaking of Yale, new Bulldogs coach Tom Williams is playing his "ones" versus his "ones" in practice a good percentage of the time. The Register's Portal 31 blog has a note about the practice that Dartmouth's Buddy Teevens has picked up on this week.

The New York Times has yet another scary story about brain damage in football players. The lede of the Times story:

Brain damage commonly associated with boxers and recently found in deceased N.F.L. players has been identified in a former college athlete who never played professionally, representing new evidence about the possible safety risks of college and perhaps high school football.

Extra Point
In Maine last week we stopped by the incredible LL Bean complex (if you are ever up there, be sure to check it out) and I found myself amazed at the selection of retro bicycles that have become so popular in the last few years. I spotted one of those balloon-tired monsters yesterday locked up next to Dartmouth's Berry Center and it looked like nothing so much as one of those much-maligned Schwinn tanks from when I was a kid. Now, I lifted one of the bikes when I was a LL Bean and it's clear they don't weigh nearly as much as they used to. But as someone who bicycled across the country two times and who actually brought a spoon instead of a spoon and fork on those trips as part of the effort to save weight, I can't imagine what it would be like trying to ride up the mountains around here on one of those retro beasts. Downhill might be fun, though!

This and That

Josh Drake, Dartmouth's green-and-white dressed superfan – if you've been to games you know who he is – has an op-ed piece in today's Daily Dartmouth regarding the state of the Big Green football program. He's as loyal a Dartmouth supporter as you'll ever find, but he's losing patience.

The latest Ivy League football coaches teleconference has been posted on the web. Here's a transcript of what Columbia coach Norries Wilson had to say about Dartmouth:

Dartmouth's 0-5. I think that can be a little bit deceptive. They've played three ranked teams and the other two teams they've played are picked at the top of our league and have winning records. I've watched all their tape and they move the ball up and down the field against Holy Cross this past week, just they didn't have any trouble getting it in the box. They had to switch quarterbacks. The tailback is a good player. They do some things with him in the backfield in the Wildcat. On defense they moved some people in at linebacker. They don't do a bunch of pressuring but they play stout up front. I think the Bay kid is a good player along with Eddie Smith.

They play ball. I think the last four years their special teams have been as good as anybody's in the league. ... They are always sound on special teams and they always try to give you something different so we are going to have to have ourselves prepared to go up there and play someplace that we haven't won since I've been here. They come out and compete each week and they've beaten us before so I don't think they are going to have any worries about playing us this week.

The Columbia Spectator has a roundup of last weekend's Ivy League football games.

The New York Times has a piece about football players making the switch to bobsled pusher. Thanks to a regular reader who sent along a link to the story that includes this:

At Cornell, Jamie Moriarty played safety. If other athletes could make the switch, he figured he could as well. He finished fifth at the 2009 United States National Bobsled Push Championship.

Speaking of "Olympic" sports, former Dartmouth hammer thrower Emily Daly '09 is trying to raise enough money to allow her to chase her dream of making the U.S. Olympic Team for 2012. Daly, who didn't take up the event until coming to Dartmouth, made it to the NCAA Championship finals representing the Big Green last year. She believes if she can dedicate enough time to training she can make it to the Games in London. To read more about her quest or make a donation to help her, click here.

Daly has prepared a thorough, six-page report for anyone interested in learning more about the challenges she faces in trying to make it to London or how they can help. For that report or her email address, drop me a note at that contact button over there to the left and I'll put you in touch with her.

Extra Point
I had to shake my head several years ago when I heard about a town in New Jersey that had swingsets removed from school playgrounds because of insurance concerns. I found myself thinking about that this morning at the blinking red traffic light by the entrance to Dartmouth's Thompson Arena parking lot. Standing square in the middle of the intersection, as has been the case on school mornings for many years: a Hanover High School student directing traffic. This young man was clearly well trained and was doing a good job waving on this line of cars, stopping that line of cars and allowing fellow students to cross the busy intersection safely. But as the SUVs and pickup trucks and Subarus whizzed by just a few feet on either side of him I couldn't help but wonder what the swingset folks in the Garden State would think.

Stop the Streak Saturday

The sports editor of our local paper has an interesting idea in today's column. It's probably unworkable at this late date, but interesting. He wants this weekend's football game against Columbia when Dartmouth tries to end a 17-game losing skein to be promoted as Stop the Streak Saturday. He writes:

The first thing Dartmouth needs to do is attract a crowd. Not the 5,000 or so die-hards who show up most Saturdays. No, we need a football crowd – with war paint, banners, cowbells, horns and Halloween masks. A capacity crowd of 13,000 ready to make some noise. That will give the boys in green a reason to play, don't you think?

How does he propose getting all those fannies in the stands to cheer the Big Green on? Free tickets and a "Joe Willie" (Namath) type guarantee of victory. If Dartmouth loses everyone gets a free ticket to the next game.

The columnist admits Dartmouth will take something of a financial hit for the game but suggests that added refreshment and program sales will soften the blow a bit. And he writes:

I'll bet there's an alum or two out there who would write a quick check to cover the difference in lost revenue if that large (non-paying) crowd helped bring victory to Dartmouth.

Discuss among yourselves.

The weekly polls and rankings are in. The GPI ranking (a BCS-type hybird) looks like this in regard to Dartmouth opponents, current and future:

8. New Hampshire
29. Colgate
41. Penn
45. Holy Cross
50. Harvard
52. Brown
58. Columbia
74. Yale
82. Cornell
104. Princeton
107. Dartmouth

90. Butler
113. Sacred Heart
121. Georgetown

The Sports Network Poll

9. UNH
17. Colgate
22. Holy Cross
46. Brown
50. Harvard
55. Penn

The FCS Coaches Poll

8. UNH
17. Colgate
22. Holy Cross

The Dunkel Index with last week's ranking in parentheses

10. UNH (4)
28. Penn (51)
33. Holy Cross (36)
36. Harvard (28)
41. Brown (46)
44. Yale (49)
47. Colgate (44)
51. Columbia (33)
77. Cornell (61)
99. Dartmouth (98)
100. Princeton (102)

109. Sacred Heart (97)
115. Georgetown (117)
116. Butler (97)

The Sagarin ratings with last week's ranking in parentheses (245 teams ranked)

96. UNH (81)
150. Penn (160)
160. Colgate (146)
164. Columbia (161)
171. Holy Cross (151)
172. Harvard (138)
185. Brown (160)
196. Yale (188)
210. Cornell (182)
224. Dartmouth (216)
236. Princeton (214)

221. Butler (210)
237. Sacred Heart (230)
243. Georgetown (241)

Green Alert Take: It's clear that playing weak teams hurts you more in the Sagarin ratings. Brown fell 25 slots after a win over Princeton while Holy Cross plummeted 20 spots after a win over Dartmouth. In the Dunkel numbers, Brown and Holy Cross rose, if only slightly.

The annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game pitting the top graduated high school seniors from New Hampshire against those from Vermont moved from Dartmouth's Memorial Field to the high school field in Windsor, Vt., last year in anticipation of stadium construction at Dartmouth that was ultimately postponed. The Rutland Herald reports that the game will be played in Windsor again next summer and not at Memorial Field, which, "had been the game site for most of the 56 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowls."

Brown University has hired an outside marketing firm to work with its athletic program. The Daily Herald has a story.

The perennial powerhouse Dartmouth men's rugby team finished off a perfect regular season with a win over Brown last week and hosts Yale Saturday morning at 11 at the nearby Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse in the first round of the Ivy League championship. If you haven't seen the Big Green play or checked out the gorgeous facility and setting, there's plenty of time to get over there and back for the football fesitivities. The Daily Dartmouth has a story.

A Sports Business Journal story spun out of the United Football League has a quote from John Slusher '90, Nike Vice President of Global Sports Marketing. Slusher lettered at Dartmouth in 1988 and '89 after graduating from California's Chadwick School. Freshman linebacker Garrett Wymore, who was second on the Big Green in tackles Saturday, is a graduate of Chadwick.

Extra Point
Last week brought a Sign of the Apocalypse mailing from a college. The 8x11 package that included 3-D glasses to bring life to the enclosed booklet.

Ivy Honor Roll

Dartmouth quarterback Conner Kempe (312 passing yards), receiver Tanner Scott (126 receiving yards) and safety Anthony Diblasi (nine tackles, interception) named to the Ivy League honor roll. All well-deserved.

Wrapping Up Holy Cross

The Daily Dartmouth story on the Big Green's loss at Holy Cross includes this quote from sophomore quarterback Conner Kempe:

“We need to score when we have the opportunities and take advantage of what the defense is giving us. The offense just kind of froze in the red zone, and we just need to overcome that somehow.”

He's right, of course, that performance in the red zone is critical. But first you have to get there. Dartmouth was actually a decent 2-for-3 inside the 20 at Holy Cross. A holding call followed immediately by a sack sabotaged the first visit near the end of the half, but when the Big Green crossed the 20 in each of its final two possessions of the game it converted on both. Holy Cross was 4-for-5 in the red zone.

For those keeping score at home, Dartmouth is 11-for-13 (85 percent) in getting points in the red zone this fall while its opponents are 23-for-25 (92 percent).

Dartmouth has scored touchdowns on 8-of-13 (62 percent) marches inside the 20 while opponents are 18-of-25 (72 percent) in scoring touchdowns.

Something to keep in mind: A 30-yard touchdown pass or 40-yard TD run will not count in the red zone stats unless the ball was inside the 20 on that drive and then moved back because of lost yardage or penalty. Dartmouth has nine touchdowns this fall, meaning just one came from outside the red zone (Michael Reilly's 57-yard catch.) Big Green opponents have 24 touchdowns this fall, meaning six have come from outside the red zone.

Speaking of Kempe, he is quoted in a story about his high school coach being abruptly forced to resign in this story out of South Florida.

The weekly Daily Dartmouth power ratings call Saturday's game against Columbia an "absolute must-win." That's a popular sentiment with a visit to defending champion Harvard looming another week hence, but rest assured every game is a must win for the players and coaches.

For a nice summary on what went right and what went wrong for Game Six opponent Columbia in its 27-13 loss to Penn, check out the Roar Lions Roar blog.

Friday's New York Times had another story about the excesses in big-time football recruiting. From the story:

Private planes have long been used to zip coaches around the country, and now the idea of using helicopters has taken off. At least eight programs — Missouri, Minnesota, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Maryland, Louisiana State and U.C.L.A. — have used helicopters to drop in on recruits’ games the past few years.

As the story suggests, if a coach wants to make a "splash" for a prized recruit in front of his friends, there's nothing quite like having a chopper set the coach down within sight of the potential recruit's high school game.

Ever wonder who foots the bill when a student-athlete is hurt and needs medical attention? A Daily Dartmouth story notes that:

Dartmouth students injured on the playing field have limited out-of-pocket expenses due to aid from the Dartmouth Student Group Health Plan and funding from the athletic department.

Saturday Wrap

LATE NOTE: Today's jayvee game against the club team from the University of Vermont is not expected to be streamed live. It should be available on the web later this week.

The Worcester Telegram has a full game story and a terrific picture of Dartmouth defensive back Chris Burns battling for a pass with a Holy Cross receiver.

The story makes note of the success of a novel play where Crusader quarterback Dominic Randolph fakes a throw with his right arm while simultaneously dishing the ball off to sophomore running back Matt Bellomo with his left. Watching from above, it was hard to see exactly what sleight of hand Randolph was pulling and apparently it wasn't much easier from the sidelines. Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens couldn't help but be impressed, calling Randolph, "David Copperfield."

From the story:

Randolph kept the Dartmouth defense off balance with four shovel passes to Bellomo for 34 yards.

“They didn’t adjust to it,” Bellomo said, “so we kept running it.”

Asked by the out-of-town media about the plays afterward, Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore said they weren't really shovel passes, but were handoffs. Hard to tell without seeing the film, but no matter what they were, they were supremely entertaining and effective.

Green Alert Take: Perhaps Gilmore was simply following the magician's code of ethics while protecting how his David Copperfield pulled off the trick. Or maybe he's hoping the game film Colgate will watch in anticipation of this week's Patriot League showdown isn't all that clear and he wants to keep Dick Biddle's guys guessing.

The official Dartmouth sports publicity take on the game and full box score can be found here. The Holy Cross take on the contest is here.

And wonder of wonders, the local Valley News has posted a game story here. From the VN story:

It's looking increasingly likely that while Dartmouth's athleticism is clearly improved over what it showed last year during a winless season, its 2009 record may not accurately reflect that rise. Teevens' troops host Columbia next week in a crucial homecoming game. Should the Lions triumph, the muttering among Big Green alumni and boosters that Teevens should be fired could erupt into shouting with a date at defending Ivy champion Harvard next on the docket and an 0-7 record clearly in sight.

Ouch.

A look at the rest of the games featuring Dartmouth opponents ...

Penn 27, Columbia 13
In a battle between Dartmouth's first Ivy League foe and its next, the Quakers take advantage of Columbia quarterback Milli Olawale's three interceptions and three lost fumbles.

Brown 34, Princeton 17
The Tigers hang tough with the Bears for a half in Providence, trailing just 20-17 at the break before Brown pulls away.

Lafayette 35, Harvard 18
A shocker in Cambridge as the Crimson falls in a 28-3 hole and battles back within 10 points in the fourth quarter before the Leopards finally put it away. Lafayette wins a share of the "unofficial" Ivy League championship with a 4-0 record against the Ancient Eight this year.

Yale 7, Lehigh 0
The Bulldogs get the only points of the game on a 40-yard punt fake run by Paul Rice. One week after tearing up Dartmouth, Yale quarterback Brook Hart is just 12-of-31 for 86 yards with three interceptions.

Fordham 39, Cornell 27
Cornell quarterback turned receiver Steven Liuzza runs for 166 yards and passes for 55 but Fordham quarterback John Skelton lives up to his NFL hype by completing 20-of-27 passes for 420 yards. Cornell gets 552 yards of offense without starting quarterback Ben Ganter.

Colgate 31, Georgetown 14
Hapless Georgetown hangs tough but gets worn down in the final 20 minutes or so like every other Colgate opponent so far this year as Nate Eachus runs for 158 yards, Jordan McCord rumbles for 94 and Pat Simonds catches 111 yards worth of passes.

Massachusetts 23, New Hampshire 17
UMass wins for the third time in four games against UNH, overcoming a 17-10 deficit early in the fourth quarter.

Quick Note And Out The Door

Zipping off to beautiful downtown Worcester in five minutes for today's game against Holy Cross. No time to create a blog today, so instead I offer a few notes from the bottom of yesterday's Green Alert premium preview:

The forecast for gametime is a 50 percent chance of rain in the afternoon with the wind out of the northeast at 8 mph and gusting to 25. (Editor's note: The chance of rain has since been dramatically reduced.) .... The all-time series between the teams is tied at 34-34-4. ... Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore is 5-0 against the team for which he once served as defensive coordinator while Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens is 0-9 all-time against the Crusaders over his two stints at Dartmouth. ...

Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph holds the all-time FCS record with 34 consecutive games passing for at least 200 yards. ... He is ninth all-time in the FCS for career touchdown passes (98) and 11th in total passing yards (11,376). ...

Three-sided Fitton Field at Holy Cross is the second-oldest Division I stadium still in use behind only Penn’s Franklin Field, although it has been rebuilt enough that it's impossible to tell that from the inside. Fitton Field hosted its first game in 1903. Franklin Field has been in use since 1895. ...

Holy Cross came into the 2004 game against Dartmouth with 15 consecutive losses, the nation’s longest losing streak. The Crusaders won that afternoon, 24-0, and haven’t had a losing record since. They are bidding for their fifth-consecutive winning season. ...

Dartmouth quarterback Conner Kempe saw his first varsity action against Holy Cross last year, completing three of five passes for 40 yards. ... He should have an added weapon with the expected return of sophomore receiver Michael Reilly, who has been out with an ankle injury since midway through the UNH game. ...

Dartmouth’s schedule is currently tied for second-toughest in the nation behind only Towson. The Big Green’s 10 opponents have a 30-18 record, a combined .625 winning percentage. ... The schedule to date is second-toughest in the FCS with the first four opponents a combined 11-4. Only Cornell is listed ahead of Dartmouth with its four opponents a combined 12-4. ... The Holy Cross schedule to date is 106th of 113 teams, with its previous opponents just 5-15.

SI on Brad Ausmus

Tremendous story on SI.com about Dartmouth graduate Brad Ausmus under the headline, "Ausmus' huge impact on Dodgers can't be measured by statistics."

From the story:

The reason that Ausmus has been a gainfully employed major leaguer for so long, and remained coveted even at his advanced age, is as simple as it is difficult to quantify: his skill as a catcher, a unique position that requires a rare and delicate blend of intelligence and athleticism, ranks him among the finest ever to have played there -- and in certain ways, as the finest, full stop.

As a writer, you live to have quotes like this in your stories:

...(N)o matter how Ausmus has contorted himself, he has never arrived at a batting stance from which he has been able to hit a baseball with any consistency. "At some point, around 2001," Ausmus says, "I cut the line and let the whale go free."

The story includes a wry quote from former Dartmouth baseball coach Mike Walsh, who recruited Ausmus but never coached him because the catcher signed with the Yankees and wore pinstripes instead of green:

"We arguably had the greatest catcher in the history of the Ivy League as our bullpen catcher."

Holy Moly

The Daily Dartmouth preview of the Holy Cross game can be found here.

The Daily Pennsylvanian doesn't give Dartmouth much hope against Holy Cross. Under the headline, "No quarterback, no end in sight," the DP begins its Ivy League preview this way:

Already losers of 16 straight, Dartmouth will be without quarterback Alex Jenny this weekend after the senior dislocated his right (throwing) elbow last week in a 38-7 loss to Yale.

Throw in the fact the Big Green (0-4, 0-2 Ivy) must travel to Worcester, Mass., to face No. 25 Holy Cross (4-1), and it’s safe to say loss number 17 will come tomorrow after the teams kick off at Fitton Field at 1 p.m.

The Harvard Crimson doesn't cut Dartmouth many breaks each week, but this time it does toss a bouquet at Jenny calling him "actually good." No clue if the writer realizes Jenny is hurt, but once again the Crimson shows little mercy for the Big Green in its weekly picks. From the column: "This is going to be ugly. Think Giants vs. Raiders ugly." The Crimson predicts a 44-7 Holy Cross win.

The Sports Network has a capsule of all top-25 games including HC-Dartmouth. TSN's prediction: Holy Cross 44, Dartmouth 14. (The Sports Network, by the way, goes on to pick Columbia to post a 21-17 win over Penn in a, dare-we-say-it, key Ivy League matchup.)

Jake Novak of the Roar Lions Roar Columbia football blog knows something about struggling teams and so he usually finds a way to soften the blow. His look at Dartmouth-Holy Cross reads like this:

The Crusaders offense may be slowed a bit by the weather, but not much. Dartmouth needs to find some answers.

The Manchester Union Leader has a capsule on the game headlined, Big Green Seeing Purple.

New starting quarterback Conner Kempe is quotes in a Palm Beach Post story about the resignation of his head football coach at The Benjamin School. Kempe told the paper:

"The outcry from the alumni is going to be heard very soon. The man was doing nothing wrong. I just find it a little bit absurd that he was somewhat pressured into resigning. That’s the word on the street.”

Should have posted this last week but there was an interesting op-ed type piece in the Yale Daily News last week written by Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, who transferred to the Ivy League from Nebraska. Witt writes that his stock answer when asked why he transferred is, "Because it's Yale."

Among other things, and to be honest, this is taken somewhat out of context, he wrote:

... I didn’t come here to play football. Nowhere in that phrase is any mention made of winning football games, or becoming the starting quarterback on the field. Though others may label me as a football player, I do not, nor have I ever, derived my identity from football. I am a student first and foremost. Therefore, I ask you to treat me as you would any other Yalie. I came to this school to learn from the best and to be surrounded by the best — in the classroom, not on the field.

Former Dartmouth head coach John Lyons has turned his time in NFL Europe into a nice pipeline of international talent coming to play for him at Kimball Union Academy. He sent international players to Boston College and UNH last year and has a couple more internationals this year. There's a story in the Valley News.

And finally, this on the flu front from the Daily Dartmouth:

About 240 Dartmouth students have been diagnosed with influenza-like illness as of Wednesday, although the number of cases reported each day has been declining ...

More Holy Cross

If you can't make Saturday's game, it is available on a web stream for $6.95 on CrusaderVision. For information or to sign up to have access to the live video, click here.

The Dartmouth sports publicity office's official Holy Cross advance has been posted here under the headline, "Big Green Regrouping Behind Sophomore Quarterback Kempe." From the release:

“We were knocked for a bit of a loop when Alex went down last week, no doubt,” (Coach Buddy) Teevens said. “It certainly deflated us, and it showed in the result. But after reviewing the film, there were some positives to be pulled from the game. (Sophomore quarterback Conner) Kempe came in cold and performed admirably under the circumstances. With more reps this week during practice, you can see the team rallying around him. He had a couple of big passing games for us last year, and if he can stay within himself and not feel like he has to make all the plays himself, he can move our offense up and down the field.”

The New Hampshire Football Report has picked up its Dartmouth football coverage this fall and has a story spun out of the weekly Ivy League teleconference under the headline, "Dartmouth turns to Kempe for relief."

The Dartmouth game notes can be found here and they bring up an interesting point. As was the case against New Hampshire earlier this season, the Big Green comes into the game tied against an opponent in an all-time series it once dominated. After winning the first 10 games played against Holy Cross and holding a 28-13-4 lead in the series through 1977, Dartmouth is now tied with the Crusaders, 34-34-4. Holy Cross has won the past five meetings.

The Sports Network has a story about upsets in the FCS last week and it includes a mention of Brown's win over Holy Cross. From the story: "The two teams combined for 940 yards, 842 through the air, in this wild contest."

The New Haven Register's Portal 31 blog held its weekly "chat" featuring writer Jim Fuller and a quick scan shows a few questions/comments following Yale's 38-7 win over Dartmouth last week.

Q: Was the win over Dartmouth deceiving or did Yale show signs of life?
Jim Fuller: I think it's hard to read too much into what Yale accomplished because Dartmouth is a very weak team. But Yale could have just as easily struggled to a 24-14 win so I think it could be a sign of things to come. Time will tell.

Q: Was there any perception that Williams was trying to run up the score on Teevens when they kept passing and passing in the 4th q?
Jim Fuller: Both Teevens and Williams were asked about this in the post-game press conference and neither seemed to think it was an issue. Williams said his plan is to run his offense and try to score points. Also, Hart hasn't seen much time so it was a chance to him to get more work. Teevens' response was that it is our job to stop them.

The Daily Princetonian has an update on the condition of star running back Jordan Culbreath. From the story:

Culbreath’s doctors at the National Institutes of Health are currently hypothesizing that the culprit is a disease known as aplastic anemia.

The disease is a rare one, with only 500 to 1,000 people developing the condition each year in the United States.

In alumni news, former Dartmouth placekicker Erik Hinterbichler's Macintosh program Herald gets a nod in the bible of the Mac, Macworld.

From the wild and wooly world of high school football, a regular reader sent along a link to a story about another bizarre ending to a game in Michigan when a player picked up a blocked field goal and ran it in for the winning touchdown while the blocking team celebrated.

Extra Point
In the lobby of a bank in nearby Lebanon yesterday I noticed a familiar face. It was C. Everett Koop '37, the former U.S. surgeon general who received an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh this week. I congratulated him on the award and thought to ask him about when he tried out for the Dartmouth football team. I wisely (I think) decided the man who fielded a call from President Obama the other day with good wishes for his 93rd birthday probably had more important matters on his mind. Koop, by the way, used to own (and may still) a little red farmhouse on our road that is mentioned prominently in his biography. We still refer to it as, "the Koop house."

Gearing Up For Crusaders

The Holy Cross game notes for Saturday's game have been posted and they include an interesting note. Former Dartmouth offensive defensive coordinator Tom Gilmore is 5-0 against the Big Green while Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens is 0-9 against the Crusaders.

Teevens was 0-5 against Holy Cross in his first stint but keep in mind, nobody did much better. Over those five years, the Crusaders were a combined 50-4-1 with records of 11-0, 9-2, 10-1, 9-1-1 and 11-0.

Speaking of Holy Cross, you might want to check out the HC-Brown game story from the Worcester Telegram. Beating the Crusaders is simple, it turns out. All you have to do is pass for an Ivy League record number of completions and then cross your fingers that it is enough.

In case you are wondering, here are some of the awards Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph has won already this year:

• Sports Network National Offensive Player of the Week
• Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Gold Helmet Award (twice)
• Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week (twice)

Audio from the Ivy League's weekly teleconference is now up on the Ivy football page. Nothing really new to report from the Teevens sound bite. Curious about what Yale coach Tom Williams would have to say in the aftermath of Saturday's game, I listened to his audio as well. As might be expected, it was Yale-centric. Interestingly, neither coach fielded a single phone call from the media.

The New Haven Register has a nice follow piece on Yale tight end/H-back John Sheffield, who might have changed the entire tone of Saturday's game when he dragged a pile of tacklers for a crucial first down to keep the Bulldogs' initial touchdown drive alive. Sheffield's quote to the paper reads as if it were torn from a Buddy Teevens' script:

“It was very frustrating last year, and at the beginning of this year. It is easy to have those thoughts of ‘Oh, is this going to happen again?’ What I said to them is that if you want it to be different, we have to change it. You have to change it individually, and each one of us has to do that. I think people did that. They hustled, and they made plays.”

The Register story also includes this hard-to-swallow fact:

Beating up on Dartmouth is nothing new as the Bulldogs have beaten the Big Green by a combined score of 122-24 over the last three years.

Ouch.

Two more ratings/rankings have been updated. The venerable Dunkel Index list of Dartmouth opponents and future opponents looks like this (number in parentheses is last week's ranking):

4. UNH (9)
28. Harvard (39)
33. Columbia (36)
36. Holy Cross (27)
44. Colgate (32)
46. Brown (51)
49. Yale (56)
51. Penn (48)
61. Cornell (62)
98. Dartmouth (89)
102. Princeton (106)

Future Opponents

97. Sacred Heart (107)
110. Butler (112)
117. Georgetown (114)

The Sagarin ratings from USA Today list all of Division I. New Hampshire is ranked ahead of Louisville, Indiana, Colorado Kansas State, Colorado, Purdue, Maryland and Illinois among others. Sagarin looks like this:

81. New Hampshire
138. Harvard
146. Colgate
151. Holy Cross
160. Brown
161. Columbia
172. Penn
182. Cornell
188. Yale
214. Princeton
216. Dartmouth

Future Opponents
210. Butler
230. Sacred Heart
241. Georgetown

The Trenton Times reports that star Princeton running back Jordan Culbreath, "is being treated at the National Institutes of Health to allow his bone marrow to grow back quickly."

Princeton coach Roger Hughes on the challenge being faced by Culbreath, who ran for 276 yards against Dartmouth last year:

"To see a young man with all of his attributes and as special as he is have to go through this gives all of us a chance to reflect on the priorities in our lives. Understanding how fragile not only the game of football is, but how fragile life is, has been very sobering for our team.''

Extra Point
A guy named Vic owns what is officially called the Etna General Store ("Hikers Welcome," reads the sign on the side.) Although he's a friendly guy who has a few words and a smile for anyone who comes through the door we still call the place, "Dave's," after the previous owner. Whether it's Vic's, Dave's, the Etna General Store or, "The Little Store," as friends call it, I'm glad it's not a 7-11, a Wa-Wa or a Cumbies. Getting your milk or bread from someone you know at a "Dave's," is one of the things that makes living off the beaten path special.

Alumni Notes Headline the Day

Starting the day with a few alumni notes before zipping back from Maine for today's practice ...

Being a big Mac fan, I was checking out a new freeware program when I noticed a familiar name had written the program. Clicking on a link or two I discovered the author was indeed Erik Hinterbichler '06, the former Dartmouth placekicker and 2001 USA Today first-team All-American.

In addition to his Apple mail notification program Herald, Erik has a humorous PDF with instructions on how to kick a football. Find it here.

Thanks to a regular reader for sharing a link about former offensive lineman Taylor Layman. The 2007 Big Green co-captain is one of five first-year University of Tennessee College of Law students awarded UT Athletic Department Graduate Student Awards for their "excellence as student-athletes at their respective alma maters before they enrolled in law school for Fall Semester 2009."

Former quarterback Jay Fiedler gets a humorous nod in this story about good Dartmouth friend Greg Frame being selected to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Dartmouth safety and co-captain Peter Pidermann has been named to the Ivy League honor roll for his 11-tackle (nine solos) game at Yale. (link)

A newspaper blog note on a hard-luck high school football player from New Jersey named Mike Banaciski mentions his strong interest in Dartmouth:

Mike broke his fibula during a summer camp at Dartmouth College in the summer. ...

Dartmouth is one of the schools that has expressed interest in him and Banaciski said the feeling is mutual.

Conor McFadden, a 6-foot-3, 260-pound center at Minnesota's St. Thomas Academy, has his eyes on Cornell and Princeton after considering Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross, Georgetown and Yale according to this note. St. Thomas Academy is the alma mater of Dartmouth co-captain Timmy McManus and placekicker Foley Schmidt.

Brown's starting quarterback has been named the national offensive player of the year by the College Sporting News after breaking the Ivy League record for completions in a game against Holy Cross. From the CSN release:

Brown junior quarterback Kyle Newhall (Gilbert, Ariz.) out-dueled Holy Cross’ All-American quarterback Dominic Randolph and established a new Ivy League record with 46 completions on 61 attempts, while accumulating 431 passing yards in the Bears’ 34-31 upset win over the Crusaders. His 46 completions broke the previous Ivy League mark of 44 completions by Brown’s Kyle Slager against Rhode Island on October 5, 2002.

The Dartmouth-Yale game gets a second look and a little commentary in Ivy weekend reviews in the Columbia Spectator and the Daily Pennsylvanian. The Roar Lions Roar blog writes of the game:

It's not clear if this game is splash for Yale or confirmation that things are a lot worse than we thought for Dartmouth.

The Gridiron Power Index (the compilation of various polls and rankings) has Dartmouth and its opponents (current and future) ranked this way:

4. UNH
27. Colgate
29. Harvard
37. Holy Cross
46. Brown
57. Columbia
60. Penn
72. Cornell
75. Yale
98. Princeton
105. Dartmouth

Future Opponents
80. Butler
106. Sacred Heart
122. Georgetown

Looking Back at Yale

Greetings from the Lewiston, Maine area ...

The Daily Dartmouth writes about Saturday's 38-7 loss at Yale. Sophomore quarterback Conner Kempe, who replaced the injured Alex Jenny, is quoted:

“I think we were just outplayed and out-physicalled and out-everythinged. We were ready, but they came with more than we were expecting.”

The Yale Daily News writes about the Dartmouth game:

The Elis dominated almost every facet of the contest, but what stood out was the passing game.

Quarterback Brook Hart ’11 made his first start of the season and had the best performance of his collegiate career, going 28-for-40, including three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Hart’s 390 yards represent the sixth highest total that a Bulldog quarterback has ever thrown in a single game.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has an Ivy League roundup and The Sports Network writes about the resurgence at Columbia.

In response to an article in the Daily D last week suggesting the Big Green employ an option offense, a writer offers The Five Reasons A Triple-Option Offense Is a Terrible Idea.

The D has a story about the Dartmouth band not marching so far this season that says the decision not to march was made by the band, and that marching is in the future. That seems to contradict what the band narrator said at Penn but so be it. From the story:

In recent years, (band general manager Nate) Caron '10 said, the band had strayed a little from its musical center. This year, he said, the band felt that it was important to make sure that it was fully prepared to march before getting on the field, citing some “difficulties” in past years.