No News is Good News for Dartmouth

The local daily has an update on quarterback recruit Cole Marcoux confirming once again that he intends to enroll despite offers from the University at Buffalo and East Carolina. Surprisingly, the story is now on the web. From the story:

"Marcoux's arrival promises to kick of a quarterback competition, the likes of which hasn't been seen at Dartmouth in a long time. Conner Kempe will be a junior with roughly one season's worth of starting experience, while Grag Patton will be a sophomore and specialized late last season in running the Wildcat attack out of the shotgun formation.

"Tim McManus, a standout quarterback in high school who was the Big Green's leading receiver in 2008, will be back for his third year of eligibility from a broken leg that sidelined him all of last season. McManus, who might be the teams most agile and versatile athlete, has been told he'll play quarterback in spring practice, which begins in mid-April.

"Throw in Marxoux and fellow freshman-to-be Andrew Gay, another drop-back gunslinger from Seattle, and Teevens will be challenged in deciding who plays when and how much."

Missing from that collection of names is junior-to-be Dan Rooney, who could be a factor if healthy. He showed significant improvement during practices last fall although he was unable to play in games because of concussion issues.

Spring ball is slated to start April 5 April 12.

More from the story:

"Teevens said new offensive coordinator Jim Pry won't install a new offense, but will tinker with Dartmouth's current scheme."

And now for a few random links ...

Rutgers to the Big 10?

From the Associated Press:

Jacob Hickman started 36 straight games in a Nebraska program famous for developing offensive lineman. He was poised to achieve the dream of the millions of boys on America’s sandlots.

Hickman had an invitation to be among more than 300 pro prospects showcasing themselves at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

He said no.

The passion was gone.

That's a little reminiscent of former Dartmouth wide receiver Craig Morton '89, who withdrew his name from draft consideration after attending the NFL Combine. Morton did return to football several years later to play in the World Football League. ...

Jake Novak over at the Roar Lions Roar Columbia football blog linked yesterday to a blog called The Real Wives of Towson Football. While it might be tricky to be a parent blogging about a son's team (see this post by the Brown Bear Blogger) the dynamics of coach wives blogging is mind-boggling to me. ...

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about new flights from Lebanon's airport to New York City (White Plains, actually). From the story:

A new Cape Air flight from Lebanon Municipal Airport in West Lebanon to White Plains, N.Y., will make New York City more accessible to potential travelers at Dartmouth, according to Michelle Haynes, director of communications for Cape Air. The service, scheduled to begin March 15, will offer two daily round-trip flights and complimentary ground transportation from White Plains Westchester County Airport to midtown Manhattan at a cost of $160 each way, according to Haynes.

The door-to-door time for the trip: 2 hours, 40 minutes. ...

A glimmer of hope for the financial future at Ivy League schools from the Yale Daily:

Though Princeton University has projected that its endowment will grow 10 percent this academic year, Yale administrators said they are leery of making any projections about Yale’s endowment return, though they said it is currently slightly up from its lowest point last June.

Perhaps that story will inspire a look at how Dartmouth's endowment is faring these days. ...

And finally, the "hit counter" on Big Green Alert doesn't give specific information on who is visiting the site (no e-mail addresses or names or anything like that) but it does show the number of visitors, and the general location of the Internet Service Provider for each "hit."

So, for example, I can see that someone from the Livonia, Michigan area stopped by this morning, although I have no idea who that might be. Ditto for someone from around Cedarburg, Wisconsin and someone else from Stockton, Calif., who got up plenty early it seems.

Again, all I can see is the location of the ISP, which might not even be in your town. Just nearby.

Last year (or was it the year before?) I kept a list for a month of all the states and countries that came by. Out of curiosity, I checked the locations of hits yesterday and again this morning and discovered I had recent visitors from (among others): Moscow; Louth, Ireland; Limousin, France; Terrigal, New South Wales, Australia; Trinidad and Tobago, Lazio-Rome, Italy and Waterloo, Ontario.

Kind of fun stuff. While I'm betting some of those hits were random (hello Moscow) a few are regular visitors. If you are one of the regulars, drop me an email. It would be fun to find out who you are, why are you living where you are living, and to learn a little bit about your interest in things Green.