Closing In On It

Click to enlarge.

Still way, way too much to do to spend any time digging up arcane Dartmouth and Ivy League football trivia as we finish our move and begin the arduous task of unpacking stacks of boxes that have been in storage for a year.

Here's the view from our bedroom of the New Hampshire mountains. Moosilauke and Cube are out there somewhere and if we shift a little left the real White Mountains come into view.

Hang in there. I'll be back soon.

Listen, Watch And Think

Former Dartmouth linebacker Gordy Quist '02, corner Trevor Nealon '02 and The Band Of Heathens perform Ray Charles’ America the Beautiful on their A Message From the People Revisited album:

Reading on Rolling Stone about TBoH's decision to record the song, watching the accompanying video and thinking about Memorial Day called to mind Winston Churchill's famous thought: "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."

Think about that on this Memorial Day.

•

BGA Daily will be going quiet for several days as we complete the move that started a full year ago when we sold our house on Moose Mountain and took a rental looking for the next great place. We hope to be settled in what we may start calling The Hill House later in the week. You'll see why we may call it that when the scenic photos start up again before too long ;-)

Catch you later.

Lindy's Chimes In

Lindy's magazine doesn't do as much with the FCS as it did in the past but it has released its picks for the Ivy League, Patriot League and the rest of the Football Championships Subdivision for the 2019 season.

Thanks to a pair of very dedicated eyes, here's what Lindy's has to say:

IVY LEAGUE
1. Princeton
2. Yale
3. Dartmouth
4. Harvard
5. Penn
6. Columbia
7. Cornell
8. Brown

Green Alert Take: As expected, it's starting to look as if Dartmouth isn't going to be able to use the "We don't get any respect" line this year. ;-)

PATRIOT
1. Colgate (Preseason No. 10)
2. Holy Cross
3. Lehigh
4. Lafayette
5. Georgetown
6. Fordham
7. Bucknell

Green Alert Take: Colgate being picked first makes total sense given the struggles of the rest of the Patriot League the past several years. Being picked No. 10 with all the talent the Raiders lost? That might be a stretch.

Dartmouth's other two nonconference opponents were not projected to contend in a weak Pioneer Football League:

Marist was picked sixth.
Jacksonville was picked ninth.

•

Heading into the Fédération Française de Football Américain playoffs former Dartmouth defensive end Nick Tomkins leads the Cougars of Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône in touchdown receptions (6), is tied for overall catches (28) and is second in yards gained receiving. He also tops the team in sacks and is fourth in tackles.

A Look Inside

Realizing on another slow day that many of you haven't been in the Floren Varsity House football lounge, here's a panoramic look at the room and a close-up of moose antler head coach Buddy Teevens found in Northern New Hampshire. The guess here is you won't see anything like that elsewhere in the Ivy League ;-)

Click the pictures to super-size them.

Quiet Friday

Note: If you use a link to the old BGA Premium to visit BGA Daily you may want to bookmark the main page for BGA Daily given the issues going on with the premium site.

And a reminder: BGA Premium will have an entirely new site when it kicks off for the 2019 season. Stay tuned for updates and be sure to visit this page for information.

And a final reminder (at least for now): While a few of you have jumped the gun and already joined up for the next cycle, the official sign-up doesn't begin until July 1.

•

On a slow day for BGA Daily it helps that the Canadian Football League is in camp and two former Dartmouth teammates are gearing up for their second year north of the border.

Out in Calgary, Flo Orimolade is starting to show why he was the Ivy League defensive player of the year as a senior. From a story in the Calgary Sun:

(T)he Stamps boast an eclectic group of young d-linemen in camp this year.

It includes 6-foot-7 Universite de Sherbrook product Alexandre Gagnon, as well as 5-foot-10 Dartmouth grad Folarin Orimolade.

“We call him the big giraffe, he’s like 6-foot-9,” (veteran defensive end Cordarro) Law said, exaggerating a little. “Then we got Flo (Orimolade) and he’s 5-foot-10 but we’ve got a lot of talent. There’s a lot of younger guys in there who are good ball players and we’re gonna need them.”

And up in Montreal, former Dartmouth standout Ryder Stone's love for the game was on full display. From the Alouettes' website:

Sophomore running back Ryder Stone returned the field on Thursday, and he was clearly happy to be back with the boys.

•

Fiddling with the computer several weeks ago I figured out how to use still photos to make a fun little video. This first try with defensive back Isiah Swann is a little rough but you get the idea:

For more information on Dartmouth's game against Princeton at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 9 or to buy tickets, CLICK HERE.

Familiar Names

As ESPN is reporting, "The NFL has asked teams to eliminate some high-impact drills -- including the iconic Oklahoma drill -- from training camp practices as part of the league's ongoing effort to reduce concussions." (LINK)

Per ESPN:

"The league convened an April 17 meeting among current and former NFL players, coaches and executives to discuss ways that would address the issue."

Albert Breer, reporter for Sports Illustrated's MMQB, Tweeted a list of people attending that meeting including three NFL head coaches, four NFL offensive line coaches and former players Mike Singletary and Orlando Pace among others. Two of the names Breer listed have Ivy League connections: Damani Leech and Buddy Teevans (sic).

Leech was a three-time All-Ivy League defensive back at Princeton before graduating in 1998 and today is the NFL's Senior Vice President of Football Strategy and Business Development.

Teevans  Teevens, of course, is the head coach at Dartmouth and is at the forefront of efforts to make football safer.

Asked about the meeting in Atlanta shortly after the end of spring football, Teevens said this to me:

"I've told my guys with the receptivity of the players and of our coaching staff they're making history. Coaching has been the same for years and years and years. This is a chance to change the paradigm and say, OK, maybe we can do it another way. 

"People around the country certainly are taking note. I thought it was a great honor to be asked by the NFL to go down and discuss our practice approach with some of the top offensive and defensive line coaches and safety people in the country. 

"It's nice to see our guys are researching how we can do this a little bit better whether it's a developing linebacker play or interior line play or protecting players."

•

As you read here previously, Princeton hit double-figures in Ivy League championships for the 26th time this year. Harvard has done it 10 times and no other Ivy school has ever done it. So why bring that up again?

Because not everyone likes it when one school has that kind of record. Take it from Minnesota's Division III University of St. Thomas, which has been "involuntarily" removed from its league because of its dominance. (LINK)

2019 Special Teams

Here's the last of three BGA Daily positional charts for the coming fall. This chart does include walkons because when it comes to kicking and punting you never know ;-)

What it doesn't include is return specialists. On kickoff, Niko Mermigas, who will be a junior in the fall, handled a team-high six returns last year and will be back. Rising senior Drew Estrada and soph-to-be Zack Bair each had one KOR. The only player graduating who had a return was Rashaad Cooper, who was credited with one.

On punt return, Dylan Mellor graduates after bringing back 11 last year. Hunter Hagdorn was next with 10 punt returns as a junior.

As was the case the past two days, all mistakes are mine and will be corrected if need be.

Click chart to enlarge.

•

Dartmouth held its annual Celebration of Athletic Excellence Monday night and two senior football players were among those recognized.

Linebacker David Emanuels received the Timothy Wright Ellis 1955 Memorial Award "given to a man showing extracurricular and scholastic drive, spirit, loyalty and amiability and is nominated and voted on by the captains of the men's teams."

Fellow linebacker Jack Traynor (who will be a medical redshirt senior in the fall) won the Kenneth Archibald Prize. From the announcement: "Dartmouth's highest athletic honor is presented annually to 'the member of the graduating class who has been four years in attendance, who has been the best all-around athlete, regard also being had to moral worth and high standing in scholarship.' The winner traditionally exemplifies all that we hope and expect of the men and women who put on the Dartmouth uniform and take to the field of play. This student-athlete is to be of exemplary athletic skill, of great academic prowess and of high moral character."

Find the full story with background on the winners and coach quotes HERE.

•

Work continues apace on the Dartmouth indoor practice facility. Check out the college's Campus Services page pictured above for an update.

•

The decision by Fox to broadcast its top college football game of the week at noon each Saturday instead of the more traditional 3:30 or 8 p.m. slot may have ramifications for attendance at games on the Ivy League and Patriot League level.

Chuck Burton, who has done a bang-up job with Lehigh Football Nation for many years, has penned (read:typed) a piece for College Sports Journal (LINK) arguing that competition with televised games makes it imperative that the Patriot League school install lights at Goodman Stadium.

Green Alert Take: I don't think the change will have absolutely any effect on Dartmouth's attendance but Chuck has a good point that competing with televised Penn State games in a Nittany Lion stronghold like the Lehigh Valley feels like a losing proposition for Lehigh.

Speaking of Lehigh, don't be surprised if Dartmouth and the Engineers (oops) Mountain Hawks renew acquaintances sometime in the next decade ;-)

Whether there are lights when the Big Green visits Goodman Stadium for the first time since 1996 remains to be seen but there will definitely be a different look to the facility. A Lehigh press release explained that the press box has been relocated to the top of the visiting stands while the old press box atop the home stands will be converted to private suites.

I have to admit I was taken aback by the architectural rendering on the website of the company doing the design work. Apparently in-state rival Villanova isn't thought to be much of a draw.

Green Alert Take: Maybe there's a Penn State game on TV?

That's a little unkind because apart from the ridiculous distance from 50-yard line seats to the field (photo below) 16,000-seat Goodman Stadium is a terrific place to watch a game. The setting is absolutely gorgeous and the last time I was there the tailgating scene was better than any in the Ivy League this side of Yale.

•

If you have a couple extra minutes today do check out a BBC story under the headline, Efe Obada: The NFL star abandoned on London's streets at age of 10. From the almost unbelievable story, kindly shared by a loyal BGA Daily reader:

When his future football peers were graduating from college aged 22, Obada was working in a factory in Welwyn Garden City in England. He had never played competitive sport in his life - let alone the notoriously complex game of American football.

2019 Defense

Here's the second of three BGA Daily posts with a positional chart looking ahead to the coming fall. Be aware that the defensive tackle/defensive end distinction can be hazy, much like defensive end/outside linebacker. Whether the nickel should be listed with the linebackers or the defensive backs is open to debate. All that said, positions will change and as it said here yesterday, only one set of eyes has looked at this before it was posted, so the chart will be updated as necessary. Specialists will conclude the series tomorrow. (Click the chart to enlarge.)

Click chart to enlarge.

2019 Offense

Each year BGA Daily posts positional charts looking ahead to the coming fall. Today's look at the 2019 offense is the first of three parts. The defense will be posted tomorrow and special teams on Wednesday. Keeping in mind that positions change and only one set of eyes has looked at this before it was posted the chart will be updated as necessary. (Click the chart to enlarge.)

Click chart to enlarge.

Sunday Stuff

Following up on yesterday's predictions from Street & Smith's regarding the 2019 Ivy League and Patriot League football races, here is the magazine's guess for how the Pioneer Football League will turn out with Dartmouth's two opponents in bold:

1. San Diego
2. Drake
3. Davidson
4. Stetson
5. Dayton
6. Marist
7. Butler
8. Morehead
9. Jacksonville
10. Valparaiso

(Thanks to the BGA "special correspondent" for sharing.)

•

An interesting Tweet from Callie Brownson, Dartmouth recruiting coordinator/offensive quality control assistant:

Truth is, we’re looking for a special young man here at Dartmouth. We don’t recruit guys because “everyone else is." We need DUDES on the field, GRINDERS in the classroom, and GAME CHANGERS in every day life. Anything less, and we’d be doing a disservice to Dartmouth Football.

•

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens was in Portland and Beaverton (read NIKE) OregonThursday as part of his annual Dartmouth's In Town Again Tour and had a meet-up with a group of former players:

•

The NPR show Morning Edition had a piece on one of Hanover's most famous once-and-future residents last week.

That would be Mink the Bear.

If you've driven south on Hanover's Main Street toward Sachem Field you've gone down a hill just outside of town and across a small brook. That's Mink Brook where the momma bear was living until last year when she got a reprieve from the governor (true story) and was relocated way up near the Canadian border.

Like a lot of Dartmouth alums, Mink apparently has a soft spot for Hanover and steadily worked her way back, walking "thousands" thousands of miles to get home. An update in the local daily after the NPR broadcast confirms that she indeed has completed her journey. Yup, "Mink's In Town Again."

Listen to the NPR broadcast HERE and read the newspaper update HERE.

Bull Market

Late in spring practice Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens trotted out his standard bromide about the 2019 Ivy League football polls:

"They'll pick us down at the bottom again."

When he realized the listener wasn't buying what he was selling, Teevens broke into a sheepish grin.

If Street & Smith's venerable magazine – uncovered by the same sharp eyes that seem to find it every year – is any indication of what's to come, Teevens will have to get a new schtick this preseason ;-)

Street & Smith's Predictions
Ivy League
1. Princeton
2. Dartmouth
3. Harvard
4. Columbia
5. Yale
6. Penn
7. Cornell
8. Brown

Green Alert Take: I wouldn't be surprised to see some people picking Yale to win it all. I'm shocked, shocked to see the Bulldogs picked fifth.

And in case you are wondering, Street & Smith's Patriot League picks:
1. Colgate
2. Holy Cross
3. Georgetown
4. Fordham
5. Lafayette
6. Lehigh
7. Bucknell

Rock Solid

Former Dartmouth tailback Ryder Stone's Big Green highlights popped up on YouTube this week. Check out the current Montreal Alouette's video. (Usual warnings about anyone of a certain age turning down the volume on your computer or phone apply ;-)



Green Alert Take: I went to the final Montreal Expos game at Le Stade and when the game was over they played Canadian Sarah McLachlan's I Will Remember You. It was incredibly touching knowing the Expos were leaving. I guess it wouldn't work with a football highlight video but hey, it's Montreal where Ryder plays, he's Canadian like McLachlan, and we will remember him.

Green Alert Take II: You know what? Given the Canadian connections I just played I Will Remember You with Ryder's highlights and there's something poignant about it. Maybe it would work although I suppose the warning would be anyone under a certain age turn down the sound ;-)

•

I've known STATS' FCS guru Craig Haley for a long time and am a fan of his work giving the subdivision solid publicity. Still, given the fortunes of the Patriot League these past few years I'd have to tease him a little about this lede to the latest in his series on FCS-FBS games:

Since the addition of football scholarships across the Patriot League, its teams have had a better chance of knocking off FBS programs.

It's tough to see the Patriot League having success against an FBS program given the conference's woeful performance outside the PL.

Over the last two years the only Patriot League school to finish a season with a winning record was Colgate, which was 7-4 in 2017 and 10-2 last fall. No one else was even .500.

Holy Cross and Georgetown tied for the second-best records last year with 5-6 marks, and Lehigh's 5-7 record in 2017 was second-best in the league that fall.

Factor out Colgate and the Patriot went  4-26 out-of-conference a year ago, and 6-25 two years ago. For those keeping score, that's 10-51 when you leave out 'Gate, a winning percentage of .164.

The List

Here's the Dartmouth football incoming recruiting class. Positions, heights, weights and hometowns have been adjusted from earlier lists culled from Twitter and other sources. In addition to this list there are at least three other incoming freshmen intending to play.

QUINTEN ARELLO, 6-2, 186, S, Staley/Kansas City

CAMERON BALLER, 6-4, 185, K/P, Liberty Christian/Argyle, Texas

JONNY BARRETT, 6-3, 185, WR, Mount Si/Snoqualmie, Wash.

DYLAN CADWALLADER, 6-2, 170, QB, Prestonwood Christian/Plano, Texas

ZION CARTER, 6-5½, 233, TE, Berkeley Prep/Tampa, Fla.

DALE CHESSON, 6-0, 180, WR, Ladue Horton Watkins/St. Louis

SHANE COKES, 6-4, 235, DE, Chaminade-Julienne/Dayton, Ohio

JAMAL COONEY, 5-9, 157, WR, St. Thomas Aquinas/Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

ZACH DRESCHER, 6-4, 190, P/K, Hinsdale Central/Hinsdale, Ill. 

MICHAEL FLORES, 6-3, 295, OG-C, All Saints Episcopal/Arlington, Texas

LUKE GAGNON, 6-4, 260, OL, Charlotte Catholic/Charlotte, N.C. 

TYRON HERRING, 6-1, 190, S, Deerfield Beach/Deerfield Beach, Fla. 

JOHN HIGH, 6-0, 270, DT, Bergen Catholic/Montvale N.J. 

NICK HOWARD, 6-2, 220, QB, Southwest/Green Bay, Wis. 

JORDAN KIRKBRIDE, 6-5, 230, TE, Bishop Hartley/Columbus, Ohio

HANK KNEZ, 6-3, 248, DL, Glenbard West/Glen Ellyn, Ill.

SAM KOSCHO, 5-9½, 169, S, Cardinal Mooney/Sarasota, Fla.

CHARLES LOOES, 6-2½, 255, DE, Pascack Valley/Hillsdale, N.J. 

JAMES MCCARTHY, 6-4, 275, OL, Choate Rosemary Hall/Wallingford, Conn.

ZACK MILKO, 6-3, 230, QB, West Milford/West Milford, N.J. 

BEN MONTGOMERY, 6-0, 195, N, Taylor/Katy, Texas 

GAVIN MUIR, 6-1 205, QB, Greenwich/Greenwich, Conn. 

ETHAN NURRE, 6-7, 295, OL, St. Xavier/Cincinnati, Ohio

SEAMUS O’CONNELL, 6-1, 188, WR, Father Ryan/Nashville, Tenn.

JAYLIN RAINEY, 6-1½, 260, DT, White Station/Memphis, Tenn. 

NOAH ROPER, 6-0, 195, RB, Erie/Erie, Colo.

JACK SHERIDAN, 6-0, 215, LB, Germantown Academy/Blue Bell, Pa.

SETH VERILUS, 6-1, 190, DB, Dwyer High School/Riviera Beach, Fla.

MARQUES WHITE, 6-2, 205, OLB, Brophy Prep/Phoenix, Ariz.

ADAM WILL, 6-5½, 309, OL, Loyola Blakefield/Towson, Md. 

Check It Out

An official video welcoming the Dartmouth Class of 2023 would make a pretty fair recruiting tool for Dartmouth coaches:

•

A story in Virginia's Daily Press under the headline Dust off your tailgate grill and find that lucky jersey - college football is just 100 days away reminds us that while it seems as if he moved on years ago onetime Dartmouth quarterback Bruce Dixon has still another year of eligibility on the college gridiron. From a quick capsule on Hampton University:

Spring practice ended with a four-man QB race between seniors Bruce Dixon and Austin Bradley, sophomore Isaiah Robinson (a transfer from Maine), and redshirt freshman Dallas Hall. Dixon, a transfer from Dartmouth, started once last season.

In case you are wondering the game the story is referring to that's 100 days away pits Florida against Miami on the night of Aug. 24.

The 2019 season will actually begin earlier in the day when Colgate helps kick off the 150th anniversary of college football with a nationally televised game against Villanova on CBS Sports Network. (STORY HERE)

With a game on Aug. 24, Colgate is opening the season 29 days ahead of Dartmouth, which kicks off Sept. 21 at Jacksonville. The Raiders, by the way, aren't afraid of a challenge. After opening against Villanova they travel to Air Force, have a bye week and then visit William & Mary and host Maine before traveling to Hanover to play the Big Green.

•

Former Dartmouth pitcher Kyle Hendricks had another impressive outing for the Chicago Cubs last night. "The Professor" had as many hits as he surrendered (three) while going eight innings, striking out seven and allowing just one walk on 97 pitches. He drove in two runs and dropped his ERA to 2.86 while earning his third win.

From an MLB story that features manager Joe Maddon talking about the Dartmouth grad:

Over his past five turns, Hendricks has spun a tidy 1.95 ERA with 31 strikeouts against four walks in 37 innings.

Time To Be Ram Tough

Waking up and looking out the window this morning this thought came to mind: The only nice thing about spring snow is it disappears almost as quickly as it appears. ;-)

•

Former Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey at the Los Angeles Rams' practice facility. (Courtesy Rams.com)

Rams.com had a photographer on site as the team's eight draft choices and 22 undrafted free agents arrived at the practice facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif. In addition to going through physicals the players were presented with their practice jerseys and fitted for helmets and cleats. To see the photos above at full size and read the story, visit Rams.com HERE.

•

US Lacrosse Magazine has a story about the Premier Lacrosse League, which former Dartmouth captain Mike Rabil '06 is starting with brother his brother Paul, a lacrosse legend out of Johns Hopkins. Here's an interview from earlier this year with the former Dartmouth defensive tackle talking about starting up the league:



Green Alert Take: The next time I see Mike I'm going to have to tease him about the time he told me his goal was to some day start up his own little restaurant. Seems he's taken on a larger fish to fry ;-)

Monday, Monday

The Dartmouth has a story wrapping up spring football practice HERE.

The D also checks in on the college's indoor practice facility under construction with quotes from Big Green quarterback Derek Kyler HERE. From the story:

(T)he 70,000-square-foot facility will feature a meeting room, two video filming platforms, a satellite sports medicine space, batting tunnels for baseball and softball and dividing netting similar to that in Leverone. In a previous interview with The Dartmouth, (deputy director of athletics and recreation Bo Ceplikas) said he is hoping to accelerate the timeline to get the new facility open for as much of winter as possible.

The FieldTurf surface will cover 75 yards plus an end zone at one end of the building.

•

As of this writing an even dozen Ivy League graduates have either signed undrafted free agent contracts with NFL teams or have been invited for tryouts per an Ivy League release. That number includes two players who went the graduate transfer route (Penn's Louis Vecchio via Vanderbilt and Brown's TJ Linta via Wagner) but does not include former Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan who just had a tryout with the New York Giants.

The list via the Ivy League website:

BROWN 
Daryle Banfield, Chicago Bears (DL – UDFA)
TJ Linta, Kansas City Chiefs (QB - UDFA)

DARTMOUTH
Matt Kaskey, Los Angeles Rams (OL - UDFA)
Rocco Di Leo, Cincinnati Bengals (DL - Tryout)
Kyran McKinney-Crudden, Detroit Lions (DB - Tryout)

HARVARD
Larry Allen Jr., Dallas Cowboys (OL - UDFA)
Stone Hart, Cleveland Browns (DL - Tryout)

PENN
Tommy Dennis, New York Giants (OL – Tryout)
Louis Vecchio, Philadelphia Eagles (DL - Tryout)

PRINCETON
Stephen Carlson, Cleveland Browns (TE - UDFA)
Jesper Horsted, Chicago Bears (TE - UDFA)
John Lovett, Kansas City Chiefs (QB/FB/TE - UDFA)

•

Probably should have tossed this up for Mother's Day but better late than never ;-)

At last week's Dartmouth's In Town Again gathering at the University Club of Chicago Big Green coach Buddy Teevens had the opportunity to spend a little time with the moms of a couple of his former players. Joining him were Kristin Fordon, who's son Brian '17 is working as a credit manager of Northern Trust in Chicago, and Jeannie Husain, whose son Zach '17, is a business development consultant at ComPsych in Chicago. (Thanks for the photo!)

A Very Special Story

If you ever met two-time Dartmouth captain Ky McKinney-Crudden you'd know he is is an easy guy to root for. The timing for this Hartford Courant story could not be better. Don't miss this one.

Happy Mother's Day ;-)

Double D

This quickie from the Dartmouth football office will bring a smile to the face of everyone who has been lucky enough to play for the man:

Something To Think About

Dartmouth's "All-Time Recruits" (since 2000) per 247Sports (Click to enlarge.)

Recruiting services are notoriously shaky when it comes to ranking recruits at the FCS level, which is why it makes comparing one Ivy League class against another anywhere but on the field a lesson in futility. That said, for as ridiculous as it is to try to draw any conclusions from the rankings, they are fun to talk about.

What follows is the 247Sports all-time (since 2000 ;-) ranking of Dartmouth recruits followed by a list of just some of the prominent names that did not make the list.

1. TE Jordan Kirkbride ’23
2. WR Jonny Barrett ’23
3. S Micah Croom ’20
4. QB Dalyn Williams ’16
5. DT Jackson Perry ’19
6. CB DJ Terry ’21
7. WR Jamal Cooney ’23
8. QB Dylan Cadwallader ’23
9. DB Tyler Addison ’20
10. WR Hunter Hagdorn ’20
11. OT Calvin Atkeson ’22
12. LB Jake Moen ’19
13. RB Brian Grove ’16
14. TE Zion Carter ’23
15. LB Jalen Mackie ’22
16. LB Arthur Kaslow ’20
17. CB Isiah Swann ’20
18. OT Hunter Ziegelmeyer ’21
19. S Harrison Herskowitz ’21
20. RB Rashaad Cooper ’19
21. LB Miles Battle ’21
22. LB Joe Heffernan ’22
23. WR Masaki Aerts ’21
24. TE Ben Keeter ’22
25. OL Garrett Strohmaier ’17

Now consider some of the names that did not make the Top 25:

• Defensive end Anthony Gargiulo '06, Dartmouth's all-time sack leader who played in the CFL
• All-time Dartmouth rushing leader Nick Schwieger '12, who had a camp invitation from the Los Angeles Rams
• No. 2 all-time Dartmouth rushing leader Dominick Pierre '12
• All-America corner Shawn Abuhoff '12, who got a CFL look
• No. 3 all-time Dartmouth receiving leader Ryan McManus '15
• Safety Garrett Waggoner '13, who went on to play in the CFL
• Corner Vernon Harris '16, who spent a year on the injured list with the Kansas City Chiefs
• Center Jacob Flores '16, who signed with the Green Bay Packers
• Linebacker Flo Orimolade '17, the 2016 Ivy League defensive player of the year now in the CFL
• Running back Ryder Stone '18 now in the CFL
• Unanimous All-Ivy League linebacker Jack Traynor '19
• All-America offensive lineman Matt Kaskey '19, now with the LA Rams
• All-Ivy defensive lineman Rocco Di Leo '18, trying out with the Cincinnati Bengals
• All-Ivy nickel Ky McKinney-Crudden '18, trying out with the Detroit Lions

Green Alert Take: Either the Dartmouth coaches are unbelievably adept at turning nobodies into somebodies or 247Sports needs to work on its scouting and algorithm.

Green Alert Take II: The next time someone tries to compare recruiting classes using one of the ranking services – keeping in mind those services don't even have the full classes – enjoy a good laugh.

O Canada!

With the Canadian Football League draft in the books and training camp opening in 10 days we're heading north of the border this morning.

In anticipation of the draft the Montreal Alouettes website spoke with several players about their draft memories, including former Dartmouth tailback Ryder Stone '18. A screenshot from the Montreal website:

Former Dartmouth linebacker Flo Orimolade '17, meanwhile, has fans of the Calgary Stampeders excited about the coming season. From a CFL website:

On the other side, 23-year-old Folarin Orimolade is looking to win a starting job and become the next star pass rusher out of Calgary.

Here's the team's preseason depth chart:
 

•

The Naples Daily News has a blurb mentioning that Ryan Bloch, a kicker/punter from Barron Collier High School in Naples, will walk on to the Dartmouth football team.

•

A Providence, R.I., TV station has a video about Brown hiring Heather Marini as an offensive quality control assistant. The AP story accompanying the video begins this way (LINK):

Brown University has hired its first female football coach, the school announced Tuesday.

Green Alert Take: With Callie Brownson having made headlines across the country last year when she came to Dartmouth as the first woman coach in Division I football the Brown hiring, while another step forward for women in the game, is publicized with a seriously ho-hum lede. It's a little like everyone remembering that John Glenn was the first American astronaut to orbit the earth but few remembering who was second. Give up? It was Scott Carpenter.

•

Athlon has a story under the headline FCS Football: Matchups We'd Like to See in 2019. (LINK) One of those games is Harvard-New Hampshire. The column asks:

Who’s ducking who? Separated by just over an hour's drive, these two New England powers haven't met since 1939.

Green Alert Take: That would have been a great game several years ago and still would be a good one that I'd like to see as well.

Thank Me Later

Today something a little different on BGA Daily as Dartmouth continues celebrating its 250th anniversary:

From the website for Dartmouth Undying: A Celebration of Place and Possibility:

Part scrapbook, part showcase, part argument, this book celebrates the spirit, character, and diverse accomplishments of Dartmouth College’s first 250 years, while implicitly making the case that Dartmouth’s historic contributions to society will only become greater as the College moves deeper into the twenty-first century.

Here are a few photos I shot of pages that BGA readers might find particularly interesting as well as one that highlights The Stretch, the geology department's legendary off-campus program that was an integral part of That Certain Dartmouth '14's experience at the college.

Green Alert Take: Whether it's a gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, a birthday or just because, this gorgeous hard copy, large format (roughly 11x11) book edited by Pulitzer Prize winner David Shribman '76 and Jim Collins '84, author of Mentors about life-changing Dartmouth teachers, will be treasured by anyone who loves Dartmouth. In the interest of full disclosure, I was given a copy of Dartmouth Undying and after spending a little time with the 271-page volume cannot recommend it highly enough. Consider this a tip directly from me to you. Get this thing. You won't be disappointed. It's wonderful. ;-)

From the jacket (continued after each picture)

Vision. Leadership. Daring. These were Dartmouth's from the start – its birthright, its heritage, its raison d etre. How unlikely a start it was: A Congregational minister who believed in the perfectibility of humankind, Eleazar Wheelock tramped north with – to the eighteenth-century mind as to ours – a mission that itself was audacious. A Yale man, freighted with determination, perhaps partly delusional, set out to parts unknown, unmapped, and untrammeled, to plant a college, and an idea, in wilderness so deep that traces of its wildness remain with us, two and a half centuries later, only steps from a billion-dollar campus complex that is the site of one of the most advanced educational institutions on the globe.

The College that grew out of Wheelock's unlikely dream is an unlikely alchemy, at once looking backward (to its idealistic and daring beginnings) and forward (to an equally idealistic and daring future). It remains a small college steeped in tradition, yet one with ongoing and outsized influence. Base camp to the world, in the words of President Philip J. Hanlon, Class of 1977.

All will agree that whatever else Dartmouth has been, it has been adventurous, Earl Cranston, Class of 1919, wrote in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in 1944. That sense of adventurism, richly chronicled in these pages, colors the College’s storied past, defines its far-flung alumni, and animates the world-changing work that has emerged from Dartmouth's teachers, researchers, students, and graduates. 

Dartmouth Undying is available HERE.

This And That

Keen eyes uncovered an SB Nation mention of the latest Dartmouth addition to the Los Angeles Rams' camp (following in the shoes of tailback Nick Schwieger '12 and linebacker Flo Orimolade'17, who both signed undrafted free agent deals with the team). From the SB Nation piece:

Dartmouth Big Green OT Matt Kaskey 

Massive dude. Earned starting gig at left tackle as a true sophomore. Two-time All-Ivy League First Team in 2017, 2018.

What's fun is if you scan down the "comments" at the end there are a bunch of Ram fans who have watched his highlight video and seem to like the signing. Check it out.

•

If Saturday's non-tackling scrimmage didn't do it for you, check out some bang-bang 2018 Dartmouth highlights in this demo video from Tyler Murray, who did a nice job last fall as the play-by-play voice of Big Green football on the home ESPN-plus broadcasts:



If you want more, Tyler has posted 15 minutes from the Penn game HERE.

Surprise, Surprise

CLICK HERE for the story and to watch the video.

Gotta be honest with you. I wouldn't have thought I'd ever be posting a video from TMZ on this site but keen eyes spotted this one with former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler '94 being asked about being a Jewish quarterback with the Miami Dolphins in the aftermath of the team signing Josh Rosen. Stick around to hear Fiedler's spot-on quip about the Phins adding both Rosen and former Harvard signal-caller Ryan Fitzpatrick ;-)

•

The local Valley News has a follow on Dartmouth's spring game that includes this tidbit:

Dartmouth has used tri-captains for all but one season since 2010 and has always had at least one representative from offense and defense during that stretch.

•

The Dartmouth has a piece under the headline, Dartmouth athletes find success on the field and in the classroom. One of the three athletes profiled is senior David Emanuels, a biomedical engineering major and Rufus Choate Scholar, signifying his placement in the top five percent of the graduating class.

•

I must have been under a rock somewhere to have missed this but the start time for the Nov. 9 Dartmouth-Princeton football game at Yankee Stadium has been set at 3:30 barring a late change. Find out more and learn how to order tickets HERE.

•

Congratulations to Dartmouth baseball coach Bob Whalen, who was in the dugout yesterday for the Big Green's 600th win of his 30-year tenure. (LINK) The 6-1 victory over Cornell in a swift 2 hours, three minutes gives him a 600-586-3 record at the helm. Interestingly his .506 winning percentage matches the .506 mark of legendary Tony Lupien, who was 313-305-3 between 1957 and 1977.

•

The final pile of snow at the end of the driveway melted late last week and I found myself wondering just how long the ground had been covered by the white stuff. I'm wondering no more. Uncovered by the thaw was a Nov. 16 newspaper that included a picture of Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens helping clear snow from Memorial Field in the run up to the final football game of the season against Brown. Yup, it was a long, long winter but it's supposed to hit 70 today so yippee!

That's A Wrap

When I worked in Dartmouth sports information we'd regularly receive letters and phone calls from collectors asking to be mailed schedule cards like this one for the fall featuring corner Isiah Swann. Sure, some people just collect them. Others put the freebies aside and are now trying to sell the ephemera on eBay and elsewhere. There's a 1983 Dartmouth card for sale for $3.50, a 1987 card  for $2.95, a 1982 card for $4.95 and a 2008 card for $2.50 among others. Perhaps this 2019 card will be worth putting away for a few years, particularly if Swann turns in another All-America season and goes on to play after graduation.

•

Swann, by the way, was introduced yesterday as a Big Green co-captain along with linebacker Jack Traynor, who will reprise his role as a captain next fall as a fifth-year senior. Here's a shot I took of Swann (left) and Traynor listening intently to coach Buddy Teevens after the Green-White scrimmage:

Named yesterday to the 2019 Dartmouth Football Leadership Group:

Quarterback Jared Gerbino

Receiver Hunter Hagdorn

Running Back Caylin Parker

Offensive Lineman Zach Sammartino 

Defensive Lineman David Chalmers

Defensive Back DJ Avery

Defensive Lineman Jackson Perry

Most Improved awards for spring:

Safety - Niko Mermigas

Corner - Darren Stanley

Defensive Line - TJ Simpson, Jordan McGriff

Linebacker - Mick Reese

Quarterback - Jake Allen

Running Back - Dakari Falconer

Wide Receiver - Masaki Aerts

Tight End - Robbie Mangas

Offensive Line - John Paul Flores

Specialist - Connor Davis

Strength and Conditioning - Corner Isaiah Johnson

Check out BGA Premium for a look at yesterday's Green-White scrimmage (but be careful buying all of the statistics in the non-tackling affair).

Green Alert Take: Trying to keep stats and write a story on the Green-White when the line of scrimmage was arbitrarily changed from time to time, and with coach Buddy Teevens aiding the officials by calling a few imaginary penalties to alter the game situations called to mind a quote from Willie Nelson about par at the golf course he owned. Said the country music legend famously, par is "Anything I want it to be. For instance, this hole right here is a par 47 – and yesterday I birdied the sucker.” Put another way, the Green-White was Teevens' gig and it could be anything he wanted it to be ;-)

Green-White Saturday

Fresh off his stint in the AAF with the Arizona Hotshots former Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan has earned a tryout invitation for the New York Giants minicamp this weekend. Heneghan spent last summer in camp with the San Francisco 49ers.

Find a list of invitees HERE.

•

On the subject of Dartmouth quarterbacks, check this out from STATS:

•

It's Green-White Day at Memorial Field. Check the alternate BGA Premium site tonight for full coverage.

•

Kudos to Dartmouth and Dartmouth Football for using today's event to support an important cause: Be The Match.

Your five minutes can potentially safe a life.

Role Model

A story on the WTOP radio web page out of Washington, D.C., includes this:

At Dartmouth, head coach Buddy Teevans (sic) has eliminated player tackling entirely from practice, leading the way in the Ivy League. The league as a whole changed kickoff rules to help curb brain injuries to notable effect, but Teevans’ (sic) system has yet to catch on across the college ranks, despite success on the field (the Big Green were 9-1 last year).

Green Alert Take: The story could have noted that Dartmouth has gone 17-3 over the last two years or 38-12 over the last five.

The story, which references Terry O'Neill's Practice Like Pros philosophy, includes this anecdote regarding a meeting with New Jersey high school coaches who had been pushing to tackle more than the recently mandated 15 minutes a week:

. . . Drew Gibbs, head coach at (New Jersey's) Ramapo High School — who had just navigated a perfect 13-0, state title-winning season — told those assembled that his team hadn’t had any tackling in-season during that campaign. 

“All the air sucked out of that room for a second and everybody said, ‘I guess 15 is plenty,’” said O’Neil.

•

FootballScoop predicts the ESPN Saturday morning staple GameDay will have Lee Corso donning the head from an Ivy League mascot in a broadcast from an Ancient Eight campus once this fall. Wanna guess which one? CLICK HERE to find out. Hint: It's not the same venue as the last time GameDay visited the Ivies.

•

Harvard has posted its recruiting class HERE.

•

With Merrimack College in Andover, Mass., joining the FCS and Northeast Conference football ranks this fall, is it only a matter of time until Ivy League teams join the ranks of the Warriors' opponents like North Dakota's Mayville State, Virginia-Lynchburg and New Hampshire's own Franklin Pierce? Merrimack has posted its first DI schedule HERE.

•

A reminder that Dartmouth's (no-tackling) Green-White scrimmage is set for tomorrow at 10 a.m. on Memorial Field. BGA Premium had a few thoughts about the scrimmage last night and will have full coverage tomorrow evening.

•

Following up on yesterday's note about Dartmouth and the Academic Progress Report (APR) rankings, the Big Green would have had even more than it's nation's best 18 teams recognized but for the fact that nine of the school's 35 teams were not counted because they are not NCAA championship sports.

•

And finally, rushing out a BGA Daily post before hurrying out to a meeting and making a dumb mistake yesterday (circling the wrong football field) provided a reminder that there are actually people out there visiting this electronic precinct. Thanks to all of you – including Mrs. BGA – who pointed out my mess-up.

Green Alert Take: One of the nice things about working online compared to my old newspaper gig is when I do something really dumb like that I can go back in and fix it. When I was still an "ink-stained wretch of the Fourth Estate" my mistakes taunted me until they ended up wrapped around a fish somewhere. All these years after my stint as sports editor at a central Pennsylvania daily I shudder at the memory of the headline I wrote about "Fernando Venezuela." Argh!

Thursday Notes

The area alongside the Boss Tennis Center used to be just a soggy practice field. Eventually they started calling it "the sunken garden." A year from now they'll call it the Dartmouth indoor practice facility. Here's one aerial view of the work on the project courtesy of Instagram and another from a College update with labels added:

Find the latest two-week update on the facility on the Dartmouth Campus Services page  HERE.

•

The Dartmouth Sports Publicity Office (nee Sports Information Department) has a release on offensive tackle Matt Kaskey signing with the Los Angeles Rams. Find the release HERE.

•

Athlon has a piece spun out of the NFL Draft Bible's too-early look at the top 250 prospects for the 2020 NFL draft. Included are 34 FCS players. (LINK)

Ranked the 157th overall prospect is Dartmouth corner Isiah Swann, the reigning NCAA interceptions champion.

Others of local interest who are ranked include Princeton corner TJ Floyd at No. 185 and Colgate defensive end/outside linebacker Nick Wheeler at No. 188.

•

Dartmouth has a release recognizing the athletic department's success in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) program. From the release:

Dartmouth had 18 teams that earned Public Recognition Awards, tying for the most at any school with fellow Ivy League schools Brown and Columbia, along with Holy Cross of the Patriot League.

Green Alert Take: All credit to Dartmouth and the other Ivies although to be fair, with rankings based solely on number of teams honored they have the built-in advantage of fielding many more teams than most other conferences.

The NCAA release notes that, "By percentage, Villanova led with 77 percent of its squads receiving recognition, followed by Columbia and Holy Cross, each with 75 percent."

Football is one of seven Dartmouth teams recognized all 17 years of the ranking.

•

If you wonder about legalized gambling starting to worm its way into college sports consider this from CBSSports (LINK):

The NCAA Gambling Working Group will propose the first-ever standardized national player availability report for college sports, two sources told CBS Sports.

Later this month, the working group will propose a pilot program that would have coaches list players as "available," "possible" or "unavailable" for that week's game without mentioning a specific body part or injury.

And this . . .

CBS Sports reported in September 2018 that half of FBS conferences supported a national injury report. 

#WOODSVISION

Dartmouth video coordinator Jack Moore calls the quick postings that have been linked to on BGA Daily this spring #WOODSVISION. Wonder what these little videos are all about? He kindly provided this explanation:

"With recruiting officially in full swing, we wanted to put potential recruits in the shoes of our players. With a brand new GoPro, and a chest mount, #WOODSVISION was an immediate hit amongst our guys at practice. They respond really well to the camera, and it definitely brought out some entertaining personalities! The best way to show the energy that our players and coaches bring every day is to literally put the camera in the middle of the action, and this small shock proof beast of a camera worked out perfectly."

Check out the catalogue of current and future #WOODSVISION videos here.

•

STATS has a listing of the 114 games FCS teams will play against FBS teams this fall. By conference it looks this way:

Big Sky: 19
Southland: 15
CAA: 14
Southern: 13
SWAC: 10
MEAC: 9
Missouri Valley: 9
Ohio Valley: 9
Big South: 7
Patriot: 5
Northeast: 4
IVY: 0

To be fair, the Pioneer Football League also should have a goose egg after its name. What's the deal?

Because Ivy and Pioneer teams don't offer scholarships, wins over Ivy and PFL schools would not count toward bowl eligibility so big-time schools aren't exactly lining up to play them.

Dartmouth does have Army on its schedule in 2024, but that's an anomaly.

Green Alert Take: Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens is on record since the turnaround of the Big Green program as saying he'd like to give his teams the same opportunity teams from the Northeast Conference and Patriot League teams have. If what some other conferences claim is true and that generous Ivy League financial aid – given to all qualified students, athlete or not –  is really the equivalent of athletic scholarships in all but name has the time come for the NCAA to change its policy and allow Ivy games to count toward FBS bowl eligibility?

Green Alert Take II: I'm pretty sure of three things. One, the majority of Ivy League players would be excited at the chance to prove themselves against the next level. Two, they'd give a very good accounting of themselves. And three, it wouldn't exactly hurt recruiting. Quite the opposite, in fact.

•

After Dartmouth women's lacrosse helped the school avoid getting shut out in Ivy League championships this year by beating Yale to earn a share of the title with Princeton I read this on the always entertaining TigerBlog regarding the Tigers winning their 10th title of the year:

If you're looking for a really good measure of sustained athletic success, it's this: Princeton has now reached double figures in Ivy championships in 26 different academic years. Harvard has done it 10 times. No other Ivy team has ever done it.

Green Alert Take: TB is very good at promoting Princeton athletics and he writes something similar every year. Every single  time I marvel at how successful Princeton is at combining excellence in the classroom with excellence in the athletic arena.

Green Alert Take II: Be sure to read TigerBlog's paean to Courtney Banghart on her time at Princeton and move to North Carolina. Take it from someone who knows her well, everything he writes about the former Dartmouth standout and assistant coach rings true.

Green Alert Take III: To those who still rue that Banghart ended up as head coach at Princeton and not at Dartmouth, please know that she wouldn't have put down permanent roots here, either. Since her days as an all-world soccer and basketball player at New Hampshire's Souhegan High School she's always been someone eager to challenge herself and it should be absolutely no surprise she's taken on the challenge of trying to win at the national level.