Details and direct quotes from the 2-plus hour Ivy League preseason phone call will be included in the BGA Premium previews that start Aug. 17 and run every day until practice begins on Aug. 27.
In the meantime, the questions I asked all the coaches – and I had to push some of them for specifics – were, what one positional area of the field would you consider your team's strength this year, and what one positional area is the biggest challenge/concern. Some of the coaches mentioned several areas for one or the other question, but pushed into a corner, here is what they had to say:
Brown's Phil Estes
Strength: Inside linebacker
Challenge: Kicking game
Columbia's Pete Mangurian
Strength: Quarterback
Challenge: Both lines with the O-line foremost
Cornell's David Archer
Strength: Tailback
Challenge: Both lines
Dartmouth's Buddy Teevens
Strength: Linebacker*
Challenge: Tight end/running back
Harvard's Tim Murphy
Strength: Offensive line
Challenge: Secondary
Penn's Al Bagnoli
Strength: Secondary and linebacker
Challenge: Offensive line and punter
Princeton's Bob Surace
Strength: Quarterback
Challenge: Defensive line
Yale's Tony Reno
Strength: Tailback (depending on health issue)
Challenge: Quarterback
* Seeing other teams just once a year, I can't say for certain that the coaches were all 100 percent on target with their comments, although their answers all seemed to fit with what I would expect. Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens occasionally will answer a question with what he wants the answer to be and, given that I see the Big Green every practice and every game, I'm thinking this might be one of those cases.
Green Alert Take: The feeling here is that while talented, athletic and somewhat experienced young players have Dartmouth in good position to reload at linebacker, calling the position the strength of the team might be open to debate, particularly given the graduation of two-time, first-team, All-Ivy League linebacker Mike Runger and Bronson Green – who three times earned All-Ivy mention. That's two accomplished and experienced leaders who are gone. It very well may end up being that linebacker is one of Dartmouth's strengths this fall, but some would point to quarterback, some to wide receiver and still others to the defensive line as the strengths coming into the season.
