Friday, January 21, 2011

Big Guy to Big Green

Scotty Whitmore, the jumbo-sized offensive lineman who helped Klein Collins High School of Spring, Texas, to an 11-1 record last fall, has committed to Dartmouth according to Rivals.com.

The 6-foot-5, 300-ish Whitmore was part of an O-line that allowed the Tigers to run for 3,330 yards and pass for 1,587 this season. Whitmore was chosen to the Texas 13-5A All-District first team. For an earlier posting about Whitmore, check out the links on this BGA blog page.
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Houston dual threat quarterback Jordan Are' has "offers" from Dartmouth and Harvard according to Rivals and is also being recruited by Columbia according to this story on a Houston Chronicle website. Find his junior year highlight video here.
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There are whispers (not on campus) that an old friend could be showing up in a new place. Can't say any more than that right now, but stay tuned because if it happens you'll see it here. Sorry for being so mysterious ;-)
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The Roar Lions Roar Columbia football blog reports the school will be welcoming 6-foot-4, 263-pound defensive lineman Wells Childress, a transfer from Texas A&M. A walk-on for the Aggies, Childress redshirted as a freshman and appeared in one game last fall. He is the son of former Houston Oiler Ray Childress.
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Childress is the only Ivy League-bound player so far on the College Sporting News transfer tracker.
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Speaking of Columbia, Lion tight end Andrew Kennedy is the lone Ivy rep on the CSN All-America team. The College Sporting News takes a novel approach to naming a team, selecting 63 players to fill out what would be a full scholarship team that could play at the FCS level.
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In case you wonder what happened with Villanova football-baseball standout Matt Szczur, the bone marrow donor who helped save the life of a toddler last spring, he's made a decision about his future as reported by The Sports Network. The Most Outstanding Player in the FCS championship game a year ago was offered and accepted a reported $1.5 million contract with the Chicago Cubs while practicing for the Senior Bowl. He batted .347 over 25 games in the Cubs' organization last summer. Szczur explained his decision this way:
"In football, I'm taking the chance of injury. In baseball, I'm just taking the chance of making it."
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The Princeton football website had probably the best video highlights packages this fall. I stop by the site occasionally hoping to see the package from the season-ending Dartmouth game. If it's there, I haven't been able to find it. Perhaps a casualty of the overlapping seasons.
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The Columbia Spectator has a piece on the continuing uptick in the number of Ivy League applications with figures for Dartmouth and all the Ivies that have reported so far. I'm no expert but having gone through the admission process last year and looking ahead to doing the same thing a year from now, I can't help but think The Common Application and the Internet have made applying to a bunch of schools almost too easy. (Not that it is easy, mind you.) I suspect a lot of kids apply to schools they have no realistic shot at getting into, or that they have limited interest in actually attending.
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Dartmouth's Thompson Arena will be undergoing $4 million in renovations according to The Dartmouth, which followed up on a story in our local daily. No word on the replacement of the home grandstand at Memorial Field, which was days away from the wrecking ball a few years ago when the financial crisis put the project on indefinite hold.
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Perhaps you saw something in the paper about a scary assault in a Dartmouth dorm room a few days ago. The Daily Dartmouth quotes Director of Safety and Security and College Proctor Harry Kinne:
“After investigating, Safety and Security and the Hanover Police found that the crime was never committed.”
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And finally, an old friend who is the AD at another FCS school shared a story about Bear Bryant that is headlined, "It Don't Cost Nuthin' to be Nice." It's an oldie but a goodie that is well worth reading.

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