On the Radar

A 6-foot-4, 245-pound tight end/nose guard from West Torrance High School in California has Dartmouth in his sights. From a Daily Breeze story about Josh Giradini:

Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and UCLA are among the schools that already have shown interest in Giradini, who said he's leaning toward the Ivy League to possibly follow in the footsteps of last year's Warriors running back/linebacker, Dan Hengeller (sic), who plays for Dartmouth.

"He's my buddy, so I'd love to go there with him, but we'll see what happens," Giradini said.

Dan Henggeler is a freshman running back who has caught the eye of Coach Buddy Teevens in camp. Said Teevens of the 5-foot-11, 190 pound Henggeler:

"I’m really impressed with him. He has great vision and good confidence. We had a one-on-one pass protection drill with linebackers a little bit bigger than he is and he did a good job with it. He’s very physical and has great leverage. He’s a fearless kid. I love the way he runs the ball. He’s a quick learner who reacts very well."

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Yale hasn't had to look quite as far to zero in on a couple of prospects. The Portal 31 New Haven Register blog writes about teammates from Staples High in Westport, Conn., who both committed to Yale. From one of the young men:

"Coach (Williams) meets with admissions this week but we can get a likely letter in October and that pretty much means we are officially (committed)."

I guess that's the way it works all around the league but having just gone through the long search, application and decision process with That Certain Hanover High Grad it seems impossible that some kids in the next class have already just about cleared their biggest hurdle.

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Bucknell's well-done game notes for this week's contest against Marist have been posted. Probably not a surprise but freshman Brandon Wesley is listed as the likely starter at quarterback. Wesley was inserted into the lineup in the first quarter of last week's loss at Duquesne and went the rest of the way. He finished 12-for-21 for 81 yards through the air and ran 19 times for 69 yards before sacks and lost yardage dropped his next to 48.

Bucknell, the notes report, has lost nine consecutive road games. Not to bring up a sore subject, but in case you are counting, Dartmouth has dropped 17 consecutive games away from home.

An interesting twist to the Bucknell-Marist game is that Week Two opponent Sacred Heart opened the season with a narrow win against the Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie. The game should give a good read on the comparative strength of the Big Green's two newest opponents.

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Speaking of Sacred Heart, Pioneer redshirt freshman running back Gregory Ibe was named co-NEC rookie of the week after rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Marist. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry. Sacred Heart release.

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Cornell Alumni Magazine has a detailed story about new coach Kent Austin and his approach to rebuilding the Big Red. The story touches on:

• a "do-or-die" adjustment to the financial aid program in Ithaca
• the innovative recruiting database Austin himself designed
• a push to recruit outside the Northeast and more in the south
• the scope of renovations of the Cornell football physical plant over the past five years
• plans for a million-dollar scoreboard and reconstruction of the west stands, both in 2011

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Dan Shaughnessy has a column on SI.com under the headline: It's college football season everywhere -- except in Boston. Among other things, Shaughnessy writes:

The University of Connecticut football team played at Michigan in from of 113,090 Saturday. In Sunday's Boston Globe, UConn's 30-10 loss was covered with a wire service report leading the "New England Football Roundup" on the 14th page of the sports section. The UConn coverage was on the same page with the game story detailing UMass' 27-23 victory over William & Mary. Holy Cross' 38-7 victory over Howard got two paragraphs of coverage.

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Not everyone is giving up, though. The Concord Journal down in Massachusetts had a lengthy story last week headlined, Gridiron Club still going strong; Since 1932, group has celebrated football in New England. The story finishes with a list of the winners of the Bulger Lowe Award, given annually to the "Best Division I Player in New England." Dartmouth has had five winners:

Don McKinnon in 1962
Joe Palermo in 1957
John Clayton in 1949
Joe Sullivan in 1948

Last year's winners were Buddy Farnham of Brown and Mike McLaughlin of Boston College. Holy Cross' Dominic Randolph and Yale's Bobby Abare shared the award in 2008. For the full list, click here. (Thanks to a regular reader and new subscriber for the clip ;-)

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Another regular reader has sent along a link to a New York Times story headlined, As Colleges Compete, Major Money Flows to Minor Sports. From the story:

Something has changed on many college campuses across America. As they seek to raise their profiles, universities are investing in once-obscure sports that do not come close to paying for themselves, even in the face of dire budget cuts. It’s still not clear whether it pays off, but winning in all sports is what matters now, and the message is driven home from the highest levels of the university.

From the story:

The reason, university officials say, is that the emphasis on sports pays off: athletics serve as the “front porch” of a university, a powerful marketing tool that generates free advertising on ESPN and the sports pages.

Former Dartmouth Director of Athletics Josie Harper often spoke of "front porch sports," and frequently used the expression when referring to football.

More from the Times:

This week a team of former N.C.A.A. athletes unveiled the Capital One Cup, which will be awarded to the top men’s and women’s Division I programs based on cumulative on-field performance across multiple sports.

“This will be an opportunity for school administrators to see the importance of their nonrevenue programs,” said Doug Flutie, the former Boston College and N.F.L. quarterback who won the 1984 Heisman Trophy. “On college campuses, the self-pride in those programs will continue to escalate.”

It will be interesting to see how the Ivy League schools fare in that competition.

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Bloomberg.com has a long story today about Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim. The story tells how he won over an alumni gathering in New York City last March in part "by praising the college’s fraternities. He talked about attending a football game with a 102-year-old alumnus and introduced a star high school quarterback recruit." Wanna guess who the recruit was?

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Dartmouth practice has been moved up to 2:45 today. Check Big Green Alert Premium tonight for another full report.