Be Careful What You Believe

One of the problems with the Internet is it can be very difficult discerning which source is credible and which is not.

A message board poster I will dub one of the "Defenders of the Green," recently engaged in a lively discussion about whether Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger will figure among the Ivy League's all-time greats should he put together another season like this one and lead the conference in rushing for the third year in a row. Wrote this Defender of the Green:

An NFL scout has said that Schwieger looks better than McLeod did when he was at his best ...

Interesting.

The Defender of the Green followed up with a link to the NFL scout's report, which I followed, only to discover that it:

• had an analysis of receiver Tim McManus that said he played through "a spate of minor injuries" last year when he actually sat out the entire season with a broken leg.
• reported quarterback Cole Marcoux had played in the previous three games as a holder and was used on one play as a wildcat wide receiver. At that point Marcoux hadn't been on the field in a varsity game.
• suggested Charles Bay benefits from having been a high school wrestler, which the defensive end didn't even list on his own athletic bio information sheet.
• wondered how Schwieger would perform next year when tight end John Gallagher and offensive linemen John O'Sullivan and Alex Wodka have graduated. Gallagher is a junior, O'Sullivan can come back next year and Wodka was a backup who did not start a game this fall.
• referred to former Yale tailback Mike McCloud. One of the premier backs in Ivy League history, the former Bulldog spells his name McLeod.
• posited at midseason that quarterback Conner Kempe was being pushed constantly for the starting job by Dan Rooney. Dartmouth was 4-2 at the time and that simply wasn't true.

I can recall when I was working on my master's degree we debated whether journalists should be licensed. Given that this was in a journalism program it shouldn't be a surprise that the idea wasn't terribly well received by future members of the Fourth Estate. But that, of course, was before the Web and the blogosphere gave a voice to anyone with Internet access and an opinion or agenda.

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Want to see what Dartmouth missed in September? New Hampshire plays at Delaware tonight in the FCS playoffs on ESPN2 beginning at 8. It is the sixth NCAA quarterfinal appearance for UNH is seven years. (story) And yes, Ivy League champion Penn will still be idle.

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From a story in Delaware's News Journal under the headline Delaware Blue Hens football: Diehard fans don't plan to bow to frigid weather:

The weather forecast calls for temperatures in the low to mid-30s and some clouds.

Frigid weather? It was 2.1 degrees this morning when Coop and I walked out to get the morning paper.