Watch as former Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey (68) of the Rams blocks Clelin Ferrell, a 6-4, 265 defensive end out of Clemson and the Raiders' top draft pick.
Kaskey is lined up against fellow rookie Anthony Rush out of Alabama-Birmingham and meets with former Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan, whose back he used to protect. (Thanks for the pix!)
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From the lead-in to an Ivy League prediction by the Fanatic site (LINK):Returning eleven starters, including six on defense, Dartmouth looks to be the team to beat in the Ivy. Meanwhile, another perfect season is probably out of the question for badly-depleted Princeton.Now, before you get too excited, read on:
The unblemished Tigers, who were badly decimated by graduations, will likely face stiff challenges from the perennial triumvirate of Dartmouth, Harvard and Penn, as well as resurgent Columbia, while trying to win their second straight Ivy League title for only the second time in program history.Uh, everyone and his sister is predicting Yale to either be the favorite (the official media poll) or among the Ivy League elite. Fanatic? Here's how the site sees the Ivy finish:
1. Dartmouth
2. Harvard
3. Princeton
4. Penn
5. Columbia
5. Yale
7. Cornell
8. Brown
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Craig Haley has a story in Athlon under the headline, Make no mistake, they're unranked, not unloved. Haley writes about Yale:The Bulldogs went 9-1 and won the Ivy League title in 2017. It may happen again. They get a mulligan for last season because of injuries to key players, which has led to head coach Tony Reno's team suffering minimal losses. There's an embarrassment of riches of offensive players who have already had great successThe piece ends this way:
The Bulldogs will have the strongest senior class in the Ivy League. They also face road games at Princeton and Dartmouth, which were a combined 19-1 a year ago.Green Alert Take: Craig got it half right. Yale is unranked. But it's certainly unloved . . . by the Fanatic ;-)
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Connecticut's Waterbury Republican-American has a story about Yale being picked first in the media poll and it includes this:The Bulldog offense did not graduate a starter from 2018.
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Keeper’s College Football Rating bids each year to quantify who has what returning from a year before by combining yards per game rushing, passing and receiving with tackles from returning starters on the offensive line and across the defense. Here's the Keeper chart for the Ivies:
Click on table to make it readable.
For a look at Keeper's full FCS ratings click CLICK HERE.
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And finally, could ESPN's GameDay be at the Dartmouth-Princeton celebration of the 150th anniversary of college football at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 9? Hero Sports thinks if the flagship program of ESPN's college football coverage is going to do an FCS game there's a pretty good chance. (LINK)
For what it's worth, Hero lists 10 possible FCS venues for GameDay and Dartmouth-Princeton is considered second-most likely after South Dakota at North Dakota State. From the story:
Princeton and Dartmouth are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first-ever college football game with a Week 12 game at Yankee Stadium. While I don't understand the venue (the first game was played in New Jersey, not the Bronx), it's still a headline-grabbing novelty game with minimal FBS competition.
