The bullies on the block: At least either co-leading Harvard (7-1, 4-1) or Penn (4-4, 4-1), who meet Saturday in Philadelphia, will have a claim on the Ivy title for the 13th time in the last 16 seasons. The last Harvard-Penn matchup to not directly impact the league title was in 1996.That's all true but read on . . .
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Brown's game notes for Dartmouth have been posted here and they include a listing of Brown's year-by-year records since Phil Estes took the reins in 1998. While Harvard and Penn get all the headlines it is way too easy to overlook what Brown has accomplished, with more Ivy League titles than losing overall seasons under Estes:Brown Under Phil Estes
1998 7-3, 5-2
1999 9-1, 6-1*
2000 7-3, 4-3
2001 6-3, 5-2
2002 2-8, 2-5
2003 5-5, 4-3
2004 6-4, 3-4
2005 9-1, 6-1*
2006 3-6, 2-5
2007 5-5, 4-3
2008 7-3, 6-1*
2009 6-4, 4-3
2010 6-4, 4-2
2011 7-3, 4-3
2011 5-3, 2-3
* Ivy League champions•Dartmouth's game notes are available here. From those notes:
With the 44-28 victory at Cornell, Dartmouth extended its winning streak in road games to five, tied for the fifth longest among FCS schools. It is also the longest such streak of success for the Big Green since rattling off 14 straight from 1995-97.
Green Alert Take: I might have to take friendly issue with calling Dartmouth's quarterback play "inconsistent." Not once this year has the Big Green passing game been under 50 percent completions and Dartmouth has tossed just six interceptions to 10 touchdowns.
•The Denver Post has a "catching up" story with former Buddy Teevens teammate Greg Jaeger, who lettered for the Big Green in 1978. From the story:While Greg Jaeger was outstanding on the football field, it didn't take long once he reached college that he decided his best path forward was out of uniform. He played football at Dartmouth through his sophomore year, when the Big Green won the Ivy League title, and then stepped away.•USC has been "fine and reprimanded" after a student manager took air out of footballs according to USA Today, which notes that underinflated balls are easier to throw. According to the report, USC coaches and officials had no knowledge of what happened. There's also an interesting bit at the end of the story about a questionable jersey switch.•Thanks to a BGA reader for a link to a story about a tiny girl in Utah who has been teaching the boys in the Gremlin age group (mostly 9-year-olds) how to run with a football. Check out the story and video here. It's worth watching at least the first minute or two.•Once again, we dodged a storm . . . so far at least. The forecast was for upwards of three inches of snow but all the white stuff fell south of here. The forecast for Saturday is 45 degrees and mostly sunny.
