•
Checking my normal sites for Dartmouth/Ivy League news this morning I was intrigued to find Isiah Swann getting a mention in The Athletic. Wow! That's a serious national publication.Without a subscription, however, all I could see was the teaser.
While The Athletic's lineup of writers and contributors is impressive, the last things I need are yet another $4.99 a month subscription and another time sucker. The Athletic is both. But because I apparently can't help myself from trying to dig this stuff up for you, I took out a free trial subscription to the site just so I could pass along what it had to say about Isiah. (Note to self: Do not forget to cancel subscription by Sunday before the billing cycle begins.)
OK, so I started the trial subscription and managed to find the story in The Athletic that had been teased under the headline, On the Scouting Trail: Player notes, recaps, interviews and video from the 2020 College Gridiron Showcase. Per the story there was just one "media scout or draftnik" in attendance at the CGS.
This is not in any way meant to be a shot at Football Gameplan's Emory Hunt, the self-proclaimed "Czar of the Playbook." He deserves credit for actually going down to Fort Worth to watch the Showcase, does a fine job covering FCS football and works incredibly hard. And it's not meant to discredit what he wrote. But having followed his stuff for a few years I've come to realize he has a huge soft spot for anything and everything Ivy League football, which is why I wasn't remotely surprised that he listed Zach Sammartino as one of the "offensive standouts" in his group of "small college prospects from the FCS-NAIA levels." Given the Czar's predisposition, I would have been absolutely shocked if he hadn't singled Swann out in the premier group. I was just hoping to hear from someone seeing Isiah for the first time.
Keeping all of that in mind, here's what Hunt wrote about the Dartmouth corner, who impressed others enough to earn a spot in this week's East-West Shrine Bowl:
Swann came into this week as one of the premier players participating and most definitely lived up to the billing. Rarely was he out of position in coverage during the drills. And in the scrimmage, just like he did for the Big Green, Swann found a way to make plays on the ball, picking off a pass inside the red zone.
