Worth Noting

From the latest Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Click to enlarge

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Former Dartmouth wide receiver/defensive back Corey Vann '13 offers an insider's look at Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin in a story published in yesterday's New York Post. Vann and Martin were high school teammates at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. Vann includes a quote from former Dartmouth receivers coach Jarrail Jackson in the story.

Martin played at Stanford but it turns out Dartmouth also tried to recruit him.

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Former Dartmouth assistant Pete Lembo has his 9-1 Ball State Cardinals on ESPN tonight against 9-0 and 20th-ranked Northern Illinois. For a terrific USA Today Q&A with Lembo from last month that briefly mentions his three years as a "restricted earnings" coach at Dartmouth, click here.

From a Muncie Star Press story about tonight's game:

All Ball State and No. 20 Northern Illinois have is one loss between them, 16 combined consecutive wins, likely the two highest-profile players in the Mid-American Conference, one a darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate, and two of the strongest programs currently running in the conference.

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Like Lembo, Penn's Al Bagnoli got his start as a graduate assistant at Albany under the legendary Bob Ford. The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a lengthy look at the all-time winningest Penn coach. From the story:

“Coach Bagnoli is kind of the figurehead, the legend,” senior defensive back Dan Wilk said. “He’ll probably have a statue [in Franklin Field] one day. He’s awesome because he knows how to win.”

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Speaking of Penn, former Quakers quarterback Mark DeRosa, who gave up his final year of football eligibility in 1996 to play pro baseball, is retiring after 16 seasons in the big leagues. Find a story about him here.

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Princeton quarterback Quinn Epperly has been added to the Walter Payton Award Watch list by The Sports Network. The only question is why it took The Sports Network so long to include him ;-)

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The latest Gridiron Power Index numbers are out and the Ivy League is ranked No. 6 of 14 FCS conferences. The Patriot League is No. 9, the Northeast is No. 12 and the Pioneer Football League brings up the rear.

1. Missouri Valley Football Conference (27.64)
2. Southland Conference (32.88)
3. Colonial Athletic Association (33.94)
4. Ohio Valley Conference (37.67)
5. Big Sky Conference (43.07)
6. Ivy League (50.07) 7. Southern Conference (50.57)
8. Big South Conference (51.86)
9. Patriot League (56.39)
10. Independents (62.95)
11. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (64.08)
12. Northeast Conference (68.29)
13. Southwestern Athletic Conference (77.11)
14. Pioneer Football League (79.81) 

The GPI is derived by adding up seven computer rankings (after the high and low are tossed out) plus the FCS and Sports Network polls and dividing by seven. Got that? It is billed as, "the index ranking for the NCAA Division I FCS and a top indicator of at-large playoff selection."

Here's how GPI sees the Ivy League this week:

21T. Princeton (22.14)
27. Harvard (25.00)
44. Yale (40.86)
46. Brown (41.43)
56. Penn (47.86)
58. Dartmouth (48.29)
106T. Cornell (82.43)
119. Columbia (92.57)

68. Bucknell (56.43)
69. Butler (59.29)
83. Holy Cross (67.71)