No Whiteout This Time

Last chance to take a shot at winning the $100 gift certificate to Molly's for being closest to the official attendance at today's Dartmouth-Harvard game. Enter by sending an email to guesstheattendance@gmail.com

2011 Dartmouth-Harvard (Bob Mondshine photo)

The forecast for kickoff at 5 p.m. in Hanover is 62 degrees, cloudy with East-Southeast wins at 6 mph. It should still be 56 degrees at the final whistle, a far cry from last year in Boston when the Dartmouth-Harvard game took the term "whiteout" literally and the game was played in a howling snowstorm.

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A quote from Harvard coach Tim Murphy in Bostondotcom regarding last week's meltdown at Princeton:

“We have exorcised those demons, we got that out of our system on Sunday. We are focused and ready to go.”

And another quote from tight end/H-back Kyle Juszczyk:

It seems like every week, the defense we are playing, is No. 1 in the Ivy, or has the No. 1 rushing defense in the country. It does not change how we prepare. We do what we do. It’s a recurring theme every week.

One of the reasons why Harvard keeps playing the No. 1 defense in the Ivy League is because that defense hasn't yet played the Crimson ;-)

Consider, Princeton was No. 1 in Ivy League games for fewest yards allowed entering last week's game. It finished the game No. 4.

The Tigers had the No. 2 pass defense in Ivy League games going into the contest. They finished the afternoon No. 6.

Nationally, Princeton's pass defense went from No. 63 in the nation to No. 103 in one day. That's what happens when the other guy piles up more than 400 yards of total offense in the first half, 634 yards in the game and 448 through the air. Buy hey, Princeton got the last laugh, winning, 39-34.

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Scary news out of St. Louis where BGA friend Kevin Demoff, the Vice President of Football Operations/COO of the Rams, was rushed to the hospital yesterday. From St. Louis Today:

No one has worked harder than Demoff, who joined the Rams in 2009, to get the franchise back on solid footing. If nothing else, all of the grinding hours he has put into his job might have gotten to him. When he fainted Friday, he hadn't eaten anything since before the team's 17-3 victory over Arizona on Thursday.

Keeping his sense of humor, Demoff later tweeted:

I guess fainting the day after going over .500 isn't exactly acting like you've been there before.

Speaking of Demoff and the Rams, their game notes include a couple of Dartmouth notes:

Rams Executive Vice President of Football Operations/COO Kevin Demoff graduated from Dartmouth College in 1999 with a bachelors’ degree in history. Demoff later attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and earned a Masters in Business Administration in 2006.


And . . .

Rams Offensive Line Coach Paul Boudreau is a native of Arlington, Mass. and played offensive line at Boston College from 1971-73. Boudreau spent the early part of his coaching career in New England and held positions with Boston College (OL 1974-75), The University of Maine (OL 1976-78) and Dartmouth College (OL 1979-81).

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Alex Emanuels, a 6-3, 255 center and Cornell commit from Mercer Island, Wash., was the ballcarrier on a hook-and-ladder play that very nearly went the distance. Wait, did you say a center was the ballcarrier? Yup. Check out video of the play here.