This and That

Senior corner Kevin de Regt's latest blog posting is up and once again it's pretty funny. But not as funny, as this:

• Headline in the Daily Princetonian: Garrett '89 takes over as head coach of Cowboys
• Headline in the Columbia Spectator: Former Columbia quarterback named interim head coach of the Dallas Cowboys

It's a little confusing, but both are correct. Jason Garrett went to Columbia before moving back to Princeton (they don't accept transfers) where he'd begun his career before his father was hired as the Columbia head coach. The piece in the Spectator has the chronology.

I saw Garrett play for Princeton and thought he was the best Ivy quarterback I'd seen until a fellow named Jay Fiedler came along.

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Back to de Regt's column. He tells about a practical joke he and Chase Jensen played at practice. I won't spoil the fun, so go to The Deregtory to find out what happened.

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De Regt's story is funny stuff, but he's going to have to go a ways to beat what an old friend of mine did in his final college football game at Amherst.

Like de Regt, my buddy was a walk-on who did not see time. In fact, I'm pretty sure he never got into a varsity game.

I'm not sure how they pulled it off in an era before cell phones, but my friend and a fellow end-of-bencher either arranged it ahead of time, or had a girlfriend or someone else make the call for them. Either way, they had a pizza place deliver a pepperoni pie right down to the sidelines late in their final game, in full view of the crowd.

One of them pulled money out of his football pants (I shudder to think where he might have been keeping it) and paid the delivery guy, adding in a nice tip if I remember the story correctly. They then proceeded to eat the pizza while having a front row view of the final minutes of the game. While it probably didn't endear him with his coach, my friend went on to become a prominent figure in the U.S. military.

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Notable teams for Dartmouth fans in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top-25 College Football Poll:

17. New Hampshire
18. Penn
35. Yale
36. Harvard
50. Colgate

In the FCS Coaches Poll:

15. New Hampshire
19. Penn
29. Harvard

ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Championship Subdivision Football Poll
presented by FieldTurf (top team in the East):

1. William & Mary 7-2 198
2. Delaware 8-1 182
3. Penn 7-1 144
4. Villanova 6-3 136
5. Massachusetts 6-3 104
6. Robert Morris 8-1 94
7. New Hampshire 5-4 90
8. Lehigh 7-2 70
9. Richmond 5-4 48
10. Harvard 6-2 26
Also receiving votes: Central Connecticut, James Madison, Rhode Island, Yale.

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Harvard radio station WHRB has its weekly power rankings and they look like this:

1. Penn
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. Brown
5. Dartmouth
6. Columbia
7. Cornell
8. Princeton

The WHRB prediction for Saturday: Dartmouth 17, Brown 7

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The Sports Network has a column on the Quakers bidding for another Ivy League title.

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There's a story in the Virginian-Pilot about Joe Moglia, the former Dartmouth defensive coordinator-turned CEO of Ameritrade being in line to be named head coach of the area's new United Football League team. Moglia has been a special advisor to the Nebraska football program and head coach Bo Pelini.

From the story:

“I know there’s been no official announcement, but if that’s true, I think they’ve made a heck of a choice,” said Pelini, who was asked about Moglia three times during his 10-minute stint on the Big 12 coaches conference call.

“I think he’d do a great job. He’s obviously intelligent, you know, and he knows football. He’ll do a great job running the football team.”

More from the story:

Pelini also said, "I don't know if I could be happier for somebody. Talk about having passion and following your dream and all those things. I think it's a great opportunity, but I also think that it's well-deserved.

"If this plays out to be true, I give the people who made that decision a lot of credit for thinking outside of the box..."

Pelini doesn't know if it's true, of course ;-)

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Photo credit: Sgt Randall A. Clinton

From the U.S. Marine Corps web site:

Retired Marine Col. Jonathan Mendes crosses the finish line at the end of the ING New York City Marathon, Nov. 7. The 90-year-old was the oldest entrant in the race and crossed the finish after 9 hours and 55 minutes. He is considering training for the 2014 marathon in which he would set the record for the oldest entrant ever to compete in the New York City Marathon. As a Marine officer with 32 years of service, Mendes trained hall of fame baseball player Ted Williams and astronaut John Glenn, he is also a decorated dive-bomber pilot.

Mendes is a Dartmouth graduate, class of 1942.