Thursday, September 03, 2015

Big Weekend Everywhere But In The Ivy League

Dartmouth's three nonconference opponents open play this weekend.

Kicking off the season will be Oct. 17 opponent Central Connecticut, which plays tomorrow night at 7 against Lehigh in New Britain, Conn. The Central Connecticut game notes can be found HERE.

Game notes have become notoriously undependable over the years so take it with a grain of salt, but Tavion Pauldo, who was very impressive in a short stint against Dartmouth last year, is listed as the starting quarterback for the Blue Devils. An impressive dual-threat QB, Pauldo was 4-for-4 with 50 yards and one touchdown through the air against the Big Green and ran eight times for 50 yards with a touchdown on the ground.

Georgetown opens the season Saturday at noon with a visit to St. Francis in Loretto, Pa. If game notes have been posted I couldn't find them.

Sacred Heart hosts DII St. Anselm Saturday night at 6 and game notes are not up yet.
The wiseguys have installed Central Connecticut as a three-point underdog against Lehigh. St. Francis is an eight-point favorite over Georgetown and Sacred Heart is a 29.5-point favorite against St. Anselm.

Green Alert Take: The wiseguys haven't posted a line on Saturday's Green-White scrimmage on Memorial Field ;-). Dartmouth and the Ivies will still be two weeks away from kicking off.
Speaking of Central Connecticut and Sacred Heart, College Sporting News has posted its Northeast Conference prediction and it has Sacred Heart second and Central Connecticut sixth in the seven-team league.

Sacred Heart linebacker James Rentz is the CSN preseason defensive player of the year.

Find the predictions and small capsules on each team HERE.

Powerhouse Villanova takes a step up tonight with a game at Connecticut. It should be a terrific game. From the Hartford Courant:
The Huskies will face the best player at the Division I-AA level last year in Wildcats quarterback John Robertson, the Colonial Athletic Association's 2015 preseason offensive player of the year and reigning Walter Payton Award winner who threw 35 touchdown passes (and three interceptions) last season while rushing for more than 1,000 yards.
From BGA Premium notes last night:
Scouts for the Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders are expect to be on campus Thursday to watch video … The New Orleans Saints have scheduled a visit for Friday. … Two French visitors with a background in robotics stopped by Wednesday to learn a little bit more about Dartmouth’s innovative tackling dummy called the Mobile Virtual Player. The Boston Globe is working on a story about the dummy and the NFL Network has scheduled a visit next week.
The Washington Post writes about last year's SONY hack and emails regarding the upcoming film Concussion. Interesting stuff HERE.
It's been written about elsewhere, but if you haven't seen the compelling story about former Dartmouth lacrosse goalie Andrew Goldstein and a young lacrosse player, be sure to check it out on the ESPN site HERE.

From the story:
Goldstein's many and varied accomplishments -- on the athletic field, as an eye-opening trailblazer and in the laboratory as Dr. Goldstein -- are extraordinary by any calculus. But his greatest triumph may well have been reaching out, comforting and ultimately saving a desperate 12-year-old boy whom he recognized in himself.
Dartmouth practice resumes this morning on Memorial Field with a second practice slated for this afternoon on Blackman Field. There will be a full report on the morning session on BGA Premium before the start of the afternoon session, which will be covered tonight.