Friday, May 05, 2017

Jacksonville Times Two

Minnesota's Pioneer Press writes about Dartmouth senior safety Charlie Miller earning a free-agent contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. From the story:
“My agent called me seconds after the NFL Draft  finished and told me it was going to be the Jaguars,” Miller said. “Then I got the actual call from them about 10 minutes later. It was pretty unbelievable. It still doesn’t feel real.”
Speaking of Jacksonville . . .

As regular readers know, the BGA braintrust (me ;-) regrets the Ivy League's trial separation from the Patriot League for a variety of reasons and here's a new one. When you schedule teams with whom you don't have a regular relationship weird things can happen. Things like Penn being left at the altar by expected 2017 Game One opponent Jacksonville.

After that game fell apart, and with virtually everyone in the FCS long-since scheduled up, Penn had to scramble to find an opponent. It has ended up with Ohio Dominican, a Division II school. (Penn schedule)

In case you are wondering, Penn now shows up on the Ohio Dominican schedule right between those titantic clashes against Ashland and Malone.

Three more things to consider.

First, no Patriot League school would punt an Ivy League opponent, let alone this late in the game.

Second, Penn's average home attendance last year was 5,590, sixth in the Ivy League. Opening with Ohio Dominican should pack 'em in, don't you think? (And just imagine what it will mean to attendance, and Ivy League football, if Penn – with a new quarterback – happens to lose that game. Ouch.)

Third, Dartmouth has Jacksonville on the schedule in 2019 and 2020. Just sayin', but you might want to make sure your airfare is refundable when you buy those tickets.
You know a lot of Dartmouth, Ivy League and Patriot League ears will perk up upon hearing the name of the new head football coach at Minnesota-Crookston. Trust me, there will be a lot of smirks, as well.

Mark Duffner was a hero in Worcester, Mass., while going 60-5-1 in six years at at Holy Cross, but the scores his scholarship teams put up against non-scholarship opponents did not endear him with many opposing players and coaches.

A quarter century later, Minnesota-Crookston has named Mark Dufner head coach.

What's that, you say? There's a typo in that last sentence?

Not really. The Mark Dufner taking over in Minnesota has only one "f" in his last name. The one with two "f's" in his name hasn't been a head coach since going 20-35 at Maryland and being fired after a 5-6 season in 1996. Today he's the linebackers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (LINK)
Back on April 15 we posted a picture That Certain Dartmouth '14 shot of bison on their morning commute. (LINK) Today we have a picture she shot of a bison relaxing in a Yellowstone playground: