Here are a few shots I took at yesterday's first Dartmouth practice on the Blackman fields. The first shot shows the new indoor practice facility under construction. It will have a regulation width 75-yard FieldTurf playing surface with a 10-yard end zone. (Click photos to enlarge.)
A note from last night's BGA Premium practice report:
Joining the Dartmouth program this year are Tyrone Hendrix, a former Morgan State wide receiver who will serve as offensive quality control assistant. Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said he ran a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash on a dare.
Parker Thurston, a 2019 graduate of the University of Oklahoma and a Hanover High School graduate, takes over as video coordinator. He was a sports management major who worked with football and baseball programs at Oklahoma.
Following in the footsteps of Callie Brownson at Dartmouth is Erin Craig, a Barrie, Ontario native who is doing a two-week internship with the Big Green. A certified strength and conditioning coach, she has both coached and played football in France.
Also helping out with the program this fall is John Roden, a former Division III coach whose wife works in the office of residential life at Dartmouth.
Also from last night's BGA:
Dartmouth’s first practice of the fall was held on the grass Blackman practice fields and ran just about two hours. That’s a far cry not only from when Teevens was playing in the late 1970s, but also from when he returned to Hanover in 2005.
“We’re really trying to ease guys into it, getting our work done, but smartly so you don't blow guys up,” he said. “They’re all excited and it was a high-energy day.
“It was a shorter practice. We will go a little bit longer tomorrow, then longer on the next day . We’re also going to give them every fifth day off. They will go five and then have a break. In the past we had like 12 days straight and were not as productive. We were wearing guys down and want to keep them healthy.”Teevens also confirmed that for the second year in a row the Big Green will not be holding a preseason scrimmage against Harvard, noting "That worked out pretty well last year." (Dartmouth had lost to Harvard each year that the teams scrimmaged in the preseason. They did not scrimmage in 2018 and the Big Green beat the Crimson, 24-17.)
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Barring a change (and they've been known to happen ;-) Dartmouth will be back on Blackman practice fields at 1:30 today for preseason practice No. 2.
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Dartmouth's Week One opponent, Jacksonville, is a 23.5-point underdog for Thursday night’s game at Richmond according to the offshore wise guys.Given that the Ivy League doesn't begin play for 26 more days to feed our football Jones we'll adopt a conference and take a look at what the wise guys think of our old friends from the Patriot League this week:
Bucknell is a 40.5-point underdog at Temple
Colgate is a 16.5-point underdog at Air Force
Fordham is a 7-point underdog at home against Central Connecticut
Georgetown is a 3-point favorite at Davidson.
Holy Cross is a 20.5-point underdog at Navy
Lafayette is a 14.5-point underdog at William & Mary
Lehigh is a 3-point underdog at home against St. Francis
