Green on White

Football players pose before the framework of the sculpture. (Photo courtesy of Dartmouth)

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There are flurries falling this morning, up to a foot is expected to build up tomorrow and there's snow in the forecast the rest of the week. It's a little late for Dartmouth's Winter Carnival and the hard-working students who built this year's snow sculpture. Some of those workers, again this winter, were football players.

From a Dartmouth release:

A group of more than 25 football players pitched in to break up hardened snow, shovel it into barrels and dump the snow into place for the sculpture.

Dartmouth head football coach Buddy Teevens encourages his team members to contribute their time to this time-honored Dartmouth tradition. “I know as a former player that seeing the sculpture and homecoming bonfire, and knowing that you have helped in that tradition really ties you into what is Dartmouth.”

Dartmouth's spring practice is slated to begin Monday, April 5 and the Spring Game is scheduled for Saturday, May 1. While there may be changes to how the 12 days of spring practice are spread out – consideration is being given to going three times a week for four weeks instead of four days a week for three weeks – the Spring Game is locked in for May 1, which is on Freshman Parents Weekend. If the practices are run over four weeks there may be sessions held after the Spring Game.

The 2010 Dartmouth regular season schedule is to the right. (Click schedule to supersize)

The "official release" of Ivy League football schedules is little more than a formality but occasionally there's a some real news involved. Such is the case at Yale where a release notes that the Bulldogs will have six home homes for the first time since 1998.

Ditto for Columbia, which will have six home games as well, including four in a row to begin the year.

Dartmouth, the Roar Lions Roar blog points out, will be the Lions' homecoming opponent but as I've noted in the past, don't read too much into the naming of a homecoming opponent. At Dartmouth, for example, the decision is not made in the athletic department but in the alumni office.

Penn also has released it schedule and while the Quakers will have just the traditional five home games, they will open at Franklin Field for the fourth year in a row. The 2009 Ivy League champions, incidentally, got their rings at halftime of the basketball game against Yale last Saturday. (link)

While Dartmouth Game 5 opponent Holy Cross hasn't yet announced its schedule, the Crusaders have posted their spring roster. Notable for his absence after seven or eight years in uniform (at least it seemed that way) is quarterback Dominic Randolph, who finally collected his sheepskin.

The Worcester Telegram has a story about the Holy Cross standout under the headline, "Randolph armed, ready for NFL." From the story:

Scouts from all 32 NFL teams came through Holy Cross last fall and got to see Randolph break the New England career passing yardage record. Randolph’s statistics were staggering, but (coach Tom) Gilmore believes it’s his football intelligence that sets him apart.

“He understands the game at a very, very high level,” Gilmore said, “at a coaching level.”

Gilmore, who was an assistant at Dartmouth from 1992-99, has compared Randolph to former Big Green QB Jay Fiedler, who played 10 years in the NFL. Like Fiedler, Randolph has tremendous “field smarts,” Gilmore said. And Gilmore believes Randolph has enormous potential. “He’s really good right now,” Gilmore said, “and he’s only going to get better.”

A reader of yesterday's blog post about potential pro prospects among Dartmouth's opponents shared a link to a writeup spun out of ESPN's Sunday Outside the Lines story on Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle, the former Florida State defensive back. The posting hints at why NFL teams might shy away from high academic achievers.

Saw this on Football Scoop and I had to laugh (italics are mine):

Maryland: Colorado equipment manager Bush Hamdan joined the Maryland staff last week as an offensive intern.

Speaking of laughs, how about submitting a YouTube video along with your college application? Tufts University has invited applicants to do just that as the New York Times reports. Maybe if that certain Hanover High senior wanted to get into communications like her old man she could have sent along her YouTube interview with a young Apolo Anton Ohno wannabe.