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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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:
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)
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 ;-)
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
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.
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.
The Green Alert Blog is the free component of Big Green Alert, a premium web site offering comprehensive coverage of the Dartmouth College football team. Big Green Alert has at least one newspaper-length story about Dartmouth football virtually every day from the start of the season through the final game. Big Green Alert and the Green Alert Blog are not affiliated with Dartmouth College or Dartmouth College football.
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