Don't Miss Out

There's a great deal of optimism surrounding the Dartmouth football program heading into Saturday's opener at Bucknell and Big Green Alert Premium will be there every step of the way. BGA is at every practice from start to finish as well as every game, home and on the road. And that includes junior varsity games where you can find out how some of the stars of tomorrow are faring.

A full story has appeared on the site each night since media day on Aug. 10, and there will be at least nine full-length Dartmouth football stories a week between now and the end of the season. For more information on what you get with a Green Alert Premium and the cost of a subscription, click here.

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Week One opponent Bucknell may be 0-2 but it has had another Patriot League honoree as freshman defensive back Derrick Palmer won the conference's rookie of the week award after making nine tackles in a loss to Marist.

Also, defensive end Josh Eden was an honorable mention choice on his side of the ball after making two sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss against Marist, the most by a Bucknell player since 2005.

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The Ivy League's game notes are out and you can get the full PDF file here. Of note is a listing of the last player from each of the Ivy schools to be named the conference defensive player of the week. Every school but Harvard and Dartmouth had at least one defensive player so-honored last year. For the Crimson you have to go back only one more game – to the finale against Yale in 2008 – to find a defensive player of the week. The last pick from Dartmouth? The Big Green hasn't had a defensive player of the week since Oct. 1, 2007 when Ian Wilson was honored.

A capsule look at Dartmouth from the Ivy notes:

Dartmouth returns 19 of 22 starters, the most in the Ivy League, and has one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the league in junior Conner Kempe, who has thrown for nearly 1,700 yards and nine touchdowns in his first two seasons. The League’s leading rusher last year, junior Nick Schwieger, heads up the running game, and senior Tim McManus leads a deep and talented wide receiving corps after missing the 2009 season with a broken leg.

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Teams of interest in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top-25 College Football Poll:

8. UNH
27. Penn
34. Harvard
37. Colgate
42. Holy Cross
51. Brown

(Also: Georgetown T-53)

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Speaking of Patriot League teams, Villanova coach Andy Talley told the Morning Call in runup to last Saturday's game against Lehigh:

"Lafayette has great facilities, so does Lehigh, and Colgate has improved its situation. They can sell education and there's no doubt they would be top-10 teams in the country with scholarships."

Given the lumps some of the premier teams in the Patriot League took last weekend (Villanova 35, Lehigh 0; Furman 45, Colgate 15; UMass 31, Holy Cross 7) you can be sure Talley's remarks only fanned the scholarship flames a little more.

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A disturbing story in the New York Times yesterday began this way:

A brain autopsy of a University of Pennsylvania football player who killed himself in April has revealed the same trauma-induced disease found in more than 20 deceased National Football League players, raising questions of how young football players may be at risk for the disease.

The Daily Pennsylvanian follows up with a story today. The Philadelphia Inquirer also has a follow.