On A Couple Of QBs

A couple of the better quarterbacks Dartmouth has faced in recent years played their college football not far from each other in Upstate New York and have been drawing some attention in their bids to make it in the pro ranks.

Cornell's Jeff Mathews is pictured and leads this article about Forgotten Quarterbacks posted on a website affiliated with USA TODAY Sports Media Group that goes by the unfortunate name, Sports On Earth. (Apart from a golf shot on the moon, what else is there?)

Once projected by former Cornell head coach Kent Austin to be a mid-round draft pick – or higher – Mathews is now considered a bit of a longshot to be picked. Dartmouth, which was his particular nemesis, certainly didn't help his cause. Still, the blog post linked to above had good things to say about the likely free agent including this:

Mathews has a quick, compact release and gets rid of the ball fast once he decides to throw it and as he showed during practice at the East West Game and during the combine, he can make every NFL throw, be it a touch or rip throw, with accuracy.

Colgate's Gavin McCarney got a long look from the New York Jets, although it helped that he was the only quarterback at the workout and there were receivers who needed someone to throw them passes. NJ.com has a story.

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While some schools will be looking for new quarterbacks in the fall – think Penn, Brown and Cornell – others will have their signalcaller back. Think Dartmouth, Princeton (signalcallers?) and Harvard, Speaking of the Crimson, All-Ivy League honorable mention pick Conner Hempel looks very good in the Harvard spring game video. Taking a different approach from Dartmouth, the Crimson not only tackles during the game, but Hempel takes a hit sneaking into the end zone late in the highlights.

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On the subject of Harvard, the Boston Globe coverage of spring football goes into detail about longtime coach Tim Murphy's health issue and the perspective it has given him on the game he loves. In the aftermath of an emergency triple bypass in February, Murph told the Globe's Craig Larson it's:

. . . "great to be back to work. I feel good. Going full bore.

“(But) quite honestly, with your family, you realize that you will not be doing this forever. The priorities are family, friends, and then football.”