McNamara, McManus Honored By Ivies

Dartmouth linebacker Will McNamara has been named the Ivy League defensive player of the week and wide receiver Ryan McManus the conference's special teams player of the week after the Big Green's season-opening 31-10 win over Georgetown.

McNamara returned his third career interception for a touchdown against the Hoyas and added six tackles. McManus had punt returns of 63, 23 and 16 yards (along with catching four passes for 65 yards).

Find a story on the two Mc's HERE.

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All Ivy League schools run press conferences after football games. There was no such thing at Georgetown, where we essentially had to pull Dartmouth coaches and players out of the locker room to talk to them amid chaos.

It was disappointing not having a chance to hear and share what Georgetown coach Rob Sgarlata and his players thought of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the game but suffice it to say that without a formal procedure it was pretty much impossible. The Dartmouth game story in The Georgetown Voice doesn't offer much, but it did include a few comments from the Georgetown side including this:

“Their philosophy was to take away the inside run game, so we definitely have to establish ourselves better in that regard going forward,” Sgarlata said. “We were too one-dimensional against Dartmouth.”

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There was a time when the student newspaper, The Dartmouth, used to travel to away games and for a few years there was thorough coverage in the late and lamented independent Sports Weekly (since rolled into The Dartmouth). Generally these days The D has a game story that includes comments from players and/or coaches collected a day or two later. Find the Georgetown story from The Dartmouth HERE. From that story:

“I think in the first game we all came out a little overexcited, and once our nerves calmed down as the game went on, we started getting our rhythm,” (Ryan) McManus said. “After a few drives under our belt, we kind of got on a roll and got in our rhythm and where we want to be. It wasn’t our best football, but we’ll take a (win) any day of the week.”

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The STATS (nee Sports Network) poll is out and features a few teams of interest:

24. Harvard
41. Dartmouth
45. Princeton
48. Sacred Heart

The FCS Coaches poll has just one team of interest:
26. Harvard

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Regular visitors to this site may have heard this before but it's kind of funny.

During the interim between my stints at the newspaper I worked in the Dartmouth sports information office. The beat writer covering Dartmouth at the time served as a stringer for the Associated Press and after a game against Cornell from Memorial Field he managed to send out a story that had the final score wrong.

By one point.

As it turns out, that one point made the difference for the betting public.

This was still pre-Internet and so the phone in the Dartmouth sports information office (and I presume at Cornell) was ringing off the hook the next day. A typical conversation went something like this:

Caller (in a heavy New York accent although I could be imagining that part): Uh, I am a Dart-MOUTH graduate. What was the score of our football game against Cornell?

Sports Information Assistant: XX-XX.

Caller: Are you sure?

Sports Information Assistant: Yes.

Caller: Are you sure it wasn't XX-YY?

Sports Information Assistant: Yes I'm sure.

Caller: Hangs up without saying anything.

As we came to learn, oddsmakers liked (or at least used to like) taking "action" on Ivy League games for two reasons. First, they believed the games were on the up-and-up. And second, there was a belief that the league had more parity than most. At least that's what we were told.

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Speaking of the wise guys, here's what they think of this weekend's slate:

Yale is favored by 24 points over Cornell
Harvard is 19 points over Brown
Princeton is 11 points better than Lehigh

Penn is a 26-point underdog against Villanova

Columbia is a 6.5-point dog against Georgetown

And finally . . .
The offshore guys have Dartmouth 14 points better than Sacred Heart

How did the wise guys do last week?

They had Dartmouth as an early 16.5 favorite of Georgetown
Dartmouth won by 21

Harvard was a 23-point favorite over URI.
The final: Harvard 41-10

Yale was a four-point pick over Colgate.
The final: Yale 29-28

Bryant was seven points better than Brown.
The final:  Bryant  20-16

Penn was a 6.5 underdog against Lehigh.
The final: Lehigh  42-21

Princeton was a five-point underdog against Lafayette.
The final: Princeton 40-7

Bucknell was 14.5 over Cornell.
The final: Bucknell 19-14

Fordham was 40 over Columbia.
The final: Fordham  44-24

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Should have posted this from the Ivy League earlier:

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) and the Ivy League announced today that the organizations are partnering for the sixth-consecutive year to co-host a special press conference and reception, presented by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses®, to bestow the Asa S. Bushnell Cup to the League's Football Players of the Year.

Green Alert Take: Am I the only one who sees the irony in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses being the "presenter" of an award for an organization that doesn't believe in bowl games or the postseason?

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Former Dartmouth assistant KiJuan Ware, now in his third year as quarterback coach at Williams, did a Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship with the Denver Broncos over the summer. The Berkshire Eagle has a story