Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Men of Steele Redux




The Daily Dartmouth has another update on Phil Steele's magazine choosing five Dartmouth players to its preseason All-Ivy League team. (July 9 BGA: Men of Steele). To the D's credit, it tracked down some of the players for comments.

Defensive backer/returner Shawn Abuhoff said:
It’s nice to be recognized. It’s all about confidence, but any preseason ranking means nothing to me. All that matters is what I’m doing on the field.”
Kicker Foley Schmidt said:
““Being recognized is great. But we must all continue to work even harder to make sure that this year is a successful one.”
Also tapped by Phil Steele's magazine were tailback Nick Schwieger, receiver Tanner Scott and linebacker Garrett Wymore.

One clarification on the story. Of Abuhoff it says:
He is a manageable eight picks away from becoming the Ancient Eight’s career record holder. If he were to get all eight interceptions during the 2010 season, he would hold both the single-season and career top marks.
With six, Abuhoff is actually eight interceptions from the Dartmouth record of 14 for a career shared by Lloyd Lee '98 and Scott Sims '89. Lee later played for the San Diego Chargers and coached in the NFL.

The Ivy League career record of 22 interceptions is held by Princeton's Dean Cain (who went on to fame in the TV series Lois & Clark). Cain had a whopping 12 interceptions in 1987 alone.

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The Daily Pennsylvanian has a story about Penn's latest in a line of transfer quarterbacks. Ryan Becker comes to West Philly from Florida State, where the DP says, "At one point last season, Becker was the Seminoles’ backup signal caller, though he never played a down."

Because the walk-on did not appear in a game, he is listed at Penn as a freshman and will have four seasons of eligibility. (In case you are wondering, that's the same scenario enjoyed by former Dartmouth tailback Pete Oberle '96, who redshirted at Colorado State and then played four years in Hanover. Oberle is still fifth on the Big Green career rushing chart with 1,763 yards. Find the "lede" to a Boston Globe story about Oberle's transfer here.)

Becker's Florida State bio can be found here and his Penn bio is here. He's actually grown two inches from 5-foot-10 to 6 feet since leaving FSU ;-). To see video of the QB, click here.

Becker is a product of Florida prep powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas, which sent quarterback Dan Shula '06 to the Big Green.
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New York Times Op-Ed columnist Ross Douthat had a very interesting column earlier this week on admission to "eight highly selective colleges and universities," and the role affirmative action played in shaping the student body. Worth noting is that Douthat is a 2002 Harvard graduate. For a more incendiary (?) look at the same subject, check out Patrick Buchanan's take.
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And finally, thanks to those of you who have already signed up for another year of Big Green Alert Premium. A reminder: If you are a returning subscriber, you do not need to fill out the form with a new password and username.

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