For five seasons, 6-foot, 198-pound Matthew has been the Patriots' special teams' captain, and, in each of those seasons, he was the AFC's sole non-kicking special teams player named to the Pro Bowl.What does that have to do with Dartmouth football? More from the story:
Matthew is smart (he verbally committed to Dartmouth before deciding on UCLA because it was closer to home), tough and versatile.How close did Dartmouth actually get to landing Slater, an eight-year NFL veteran? From Chris Lincoln's book, Playing the Game:
In mid-April 2003, Dartmouth head football coach John Lyons and his staff were anxiously awaiting to hear if Matthew Slater would be attending Dartmouth in the fall. The son of NFL Hall of Fame lineman Jackie Slater had been through the entire recruiting process – receiving a visit from Lyons in his California home, making a visit to Hanover to see the Dartmouth campus with his parents, talking on the phone once a week with John (Perry), the Dartmouth assistant who was his primary recruiting contact. Now it was time to decide. Slater had received his official acceptance letter of acceptance from Dartmouth admissions. All he had to do was mail in the card, due by May 1, that confirmed he would be attending the school.
Slater had started out as a "million-to-one" shot for Dartmouth when (Perry) showed Lyons videotape of the wide receiver with blazing speed back in December. Lyons had watched the tape and said, 'Oh my God. He's like a man playing with boys. He's that much better.' As a result of his exceptional ability, Matthew Slater's courtship had lasted far longer than usual for Ivy League football recruits, most of whom committed to Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, and their Ivy League counterparts by early February each year. "He was so good," says Lyons, "we just couldn't rush him. We said, 'Matthew, we'd love to have you, so whatever it takes we'll just do it.' "And . . .
. . . (D)espite the sales pitches from . . . big-time schools, Dartmouth remained Matthew Slater's first choice. Five days after receiving his official Dartmouth acceptance in early April, he spoke to (Perry) on the phone, who was pleased to tell Lyons that their dream prospect had said, "I've made my decision, I want to come to Dartmouth. I'm still working with my parents."But he didn't.
Find the full story in Playing the Game.
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Williams College has received 97 applications for its head football coaching position and according to the Berkshire Eagle's sources, there are at least two Ivy League assistants in the field: Princeton's James Perry and Dartmouth's Chris Rorke. Both have close connections to the program.
