"Williams attributes his strong performance this season to a sense of urgency toward reaching his ultimate goal: playing in the NFL."The Dartmouth quarterback's goals with the Big Green are lofty. He tells the paper:
“I want to leave Dartmouth as the best football player to ever play here. I want to leave here with all the passing records, all the individual records, and most importantly, the last couple of years, I want to help Coach Teevens and the coaching staff and all of my teammates win a couple Ivy League championships.”The story includes an anecdote related by tailback Kyle Bramble that shows a playful side of the Big Green QB:
“I think it was the Penn game, we were out on the field, we were winning so it was just good times, and all the offensive linemen were in on it too, but the other team was calling out, ‘Taco! Taco!’ for one of their plays. All of us just started laughing and saying things like, ‘Watch the enchilada’ and all this stuff. Dalyn was the main guy in that and made the defense mad, and all the offense was cracking up.”
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Holy Cross gets its game notes out about as fast as anyone in the nation. They were up yesterday and you can peruse them HERE.
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The Princetonian looks at how Ivy League football stacks up after four weeks. (LINK)
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Columbia has lost 15 consecutive games. Now it may be losing its prized transfer quarterback according to the Columbia Spectator (LINK). From a story in the Spec:“I met with Brett Nottingham on Sunday morning to tell him of my decision to start (junior quarterback) Trevor (McDonagh) versus Penn,” head coach Pete Mangurian said in a statement. “Brett then said he needed time to reevaluate his position with the team. I gave him that time. Having received no response to numerous attempts to reach Brett, we are moving forward with our preparation as though he will not be part of our football program.”Editor's Note: The story has a familiar ring. Dartmouth once had a transfer quarterback from a Big Ten school who left the team after losing the starting job.
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From this week's Gridiron Power Index, the amalgam of 10 rating services that calls itself the leading indicator for at-large FCS playoff selections:26. Harvard
T-34. Dartmouth
37. Yale
T-74. Princeton
84. Brown
95. Penn
105. Cornell
118. Columbia
5. New Hampshire
88. Holy Cross
90. Central Connecticut
124. Davidson
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There was a chance that Dartmouth would make an appearance in the first ECAC poll to determine the "Beast of the East" at the FCS level, but not this week. Here's how the ECAC polling went:1. Villanova (5-1)
2. New Hampshire (5-1)
3. Fordham (6-1)
4. Richmond (4-2)
5. Harvard (4-0)
6. William and Mary (4-2)
7. Bryant (4-1)
8. Sacred Heart (5-1)
9. Bucknell (5-1)
10. Delaware (4-2)
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Yale's Tyler Varga has been added to The Sports Network's Payton Award list, which will be awarded to the nation's most outstanding player at the FCS level. (LINK)
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Speaking of Yale, the Portal 31 blog features this quote from Bulldog coach Tony Reno about the Dartmouth game:"This one probably hurts the most since we’ve been here, because this is the one we should have won.”
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Dartmouth alum Mike Slive will be retiring as commissioner of the SEC. The New York Times has a story. (LINK)
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Following up on that story yesterday about the Dayton kicker returning his own kickoff for a touchdown, a loyal BGA reader sent along a link from the Sports Illustrated vault that adds more detail on when Dartmouth's Dave Regula did the same thing in 1997. Scroll down and there's some good stuff, including a quote from Regula. (LINK)
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Illinois football will wear Gray Ghost uniforms, and Eastern Washington will wear Military Appreciation Day unis. (LINK)Editor's Note: I remember thinking when Oregon started with all of the alternate uniforms and helmets that it was just Nike having some fun. Silly me. I didn't realize that it was a "loss leader." Oregon started doing it and a few other schools took a look and figuratively said they had to keep up with the Ducks. Then more schools jumped on board. Now it is the Eastern Washingtons of the world. Hey, Nike didn't get where it is without smart marketing.
