Giants Cut Lalos; Kaskey to Reserve List

By most accounts, Niko Lalos '20 faced an uphill battle making the New York Giants' regular-season roster. But it was also believed he would have a very good chance of returning to the practice squad, where he earned a promotion to the big team last year.

The first part came true this morning when The Turk came for Lalos and he was cut. Time will tell if he does land on the practice squad. (LINK)

In another move offensive lineman Matt Kaskey '19 cleared waivers and reverted to the Carolina Panthers' injured reserve. (LINK)

Listen Up

Dartmouth Alumni Magazine has a story about Gordy Quist '02, Trevor Nealon '02 and The Band of Heathens spun out of the Austin-based group's appearance at the Mile 0 Fest in Key West at the end of April. Quist, a former linebacker from Spring, Texas, was listed at 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds while Nealon, a corner from Tacoma, was listed at 6-0, 190 in their senior year media guide. A third teammate and classmate who has made frequent appearances with the band is Damien Roomets, a 6-0, 195 wide receiver from Sudbury, Mass. From the story (LINK):

Rolling Stone calls the Heathens “a smoking live band,” and the group has toured relentlessly for 15 years, playing everywhere from small clubs to huge festivals. Along the way, they’ve built up a particularly intense following. “These cats are why I’m here,” one fan tells me.

If you are a BGA Daily regular you are familiar with the Heathens from past postings but if you are new, here's a particular timely song called Hurricane with Gordy singing lead vocals. Per YouTube the video has been viewed 27,218,109 times as of this morning! 

Check out the Heathens performing LA Country Blues on Austin City Limits HERE and I particularly like Gordy's solo performance on Green and Blue. (LINK)

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NFL teams must be down to 53 active players and 16 practice squad players by 4 this afternoon. By the time you read this you may already know the fate of former Dartmouth defensive end Niko Lalos '20 with the New York Giants.

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The tackling belt

Todd French of Dartmouth's Facilities Operations & Management (FO&M) is a Dartmouth football fan, a fan of the Mobile Virtual Player and a bit of a tinkerer. Already the holder of a patent for a pouch enabling skiers to conveniently carry their pass, trail maps and more, he came up with an idea to add functionality to the MVP several years ago. After two years of development and prototypes, the "tackling belt" made its first appearance at a practice yesterday.

Strapped onto the MVP with a Velcro girdle of sorts, it is a red football-shaped protrusion designed to give defenders a target to aim for on the robotic dummy to practice creating turnovers. While it's still in development, French is already working on sleeves for easily attaching the "noodle" arms Dartmouth sometimes employs that allow the MVPs to harass quarterbacks, and he's even been working on a net that can be attached to the dummy to give quarterbacks a robotic receiver to throw to.

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The Dartmouth football team has no practice today but check in on BGA Premium tonight for what should be an entertaining look at how they used their free time.

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Per Twitter this morning: "New Hampshire QB Max Brosmer is out for the season with a torn ACL." Dartmouth visits UNH on October 16.

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CBS Sports is among the outlets jumping on the "high school" football team that appeared on ESPN Sunday after playing a game Friday. Its story is headlined, Bishop Sycamore's legitimacy in question after football team's 58-0 loss to IMG Academy. (LINK)

FootballScoop continued its investigation with a story that includes this (LINK):

After publishing Sunday's article, multiple sources confirmed to me that players aged 20 and older commonly play for Sycamore. 

"A high school coach came up to me at one of our camps and said, 'Hey, that corner over there used to be on my 7-on-7 team," one Power 5 recruiting staffer told me. "He had to stop playing because his ID said he was 21 years old." 

And this . . .

Sycamore's representatives claimed its 2021 roster was remade with "25-26" Division I prospects.

Clearly, that was not true, as only around 30 players dressed out for Sunday's game.

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EXTRA POINT
An electrician who we used during the renovation of our Etna house will be here shortly to help wire us up so we can power our new EV up with a Level 2 charger. He's coming a long way and we'll obviously be paying for his "windshield" time.

But here's the deal. That's OK. He does very good work, he's dependable and we trust him.

We could have brought in a more local electrician who did work for us when we first moved here to our Vermont hillside home. But after making numerous phone calls, leaving several messages and sending multiple emails without hearing back even once, he blew his chance. The fellow who is coming here answered my very first email the same day.

This will cost us more we're fine with that. It's not just about the work you do. It's also about service.

To Tackle Or Not To Tackle, That Is The Question

Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens, perhaps the nation's foremost advocate of not tackling in practice, is fond of saying no team tackles as much as the Big Green. Confused? They do tackle, but they just don't tackle each other. Here's some of the tackling they do, courtesy of the Dartmouth football office:

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Read about fifth-year senior Jake Guidone's entry into the transfer portal, his decision to return to Dartmouth, the move from tight end to guard, his push to boost his weight from 270 pounds to 300 and what he's hoping for next year on the BGA Premium practice report that went up last night HERE.

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The Eagle Tribune has a story headlined Next Generation of Marinaros Shines that mentions both Joe Marinaro, a sophomore linebacker at Boston College, and brother Nick, a 6-foot-2, 270-pound freshman offensive lineman at Dartmouth. The Massachusetts newspaper jumped on the story because of this local connection (LINK):

Their dad, Andover High Hall of Famer Mike Marinaro, said no to Harvard to play at BC, where he was an All-East defensive lineman for coach Tom Coughlin."

Craig Haley's Ivy League preview appears on The Analyst today and his projection for the race differs from the conference media poll only at the bottom, where he flips Cornell and Columbia. The prediction (LINK):

1. Princeton

2. Yale

3. Dartmouth

4. Harvard

5. Penn

6. Brown 

7. Cornell

8. Columbia

Green Alert Take: It's still jarring to see Harvard picked fourth and Penn fifth, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

Of Dartmouth Haley writes:

The Big Green, who have gone 8-2 or 9-1 in five of their last six seasons, have the advantage of playing both Yale and Princeton at home. A veteran offensive line protects Derek Kyler, one of the most efficient FCS quarterbacks in the 2018 and ’19 seasons (68.2 completion percentage, 166.2 passer rating and 25 TD passes to five interceptions). The defense is relatively new in the front seven, but the secondary, led by strong safety Niko Mermigas, is a strength.

The Analyst's preseason offensive and defensive players of the year are the same as everyone else's. Brown quarterback EJ Perry and Princeton linebacker Jeremiah Tyler get the nod.

The league's top NFL prospect per The Analyst might be a bit of a surprise: Yale running back Zane Dudek.

The "3 Must-See Games" are:

• Princeton at Dartmouth on Nov. 5
• Yale and Princeton on Nov. 13
• Harvard at Yale on Nov. 20

Green Alert Take: Went out on a limb with that last one, didn't they?

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Associated Press headline: Ivy League sports return as way they went out: cautiously. From the story (LINK):

All eight Ivies are requiring that their football teams be vaccinated for COVID-19 — just like the rest of the students on campus. Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said this month that the goal had been reached with “very limited medical or religious” exceptions.

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Subhead from a bizarre FootballScoop story: An "online-only prep school" found its way on ESPN's air Sunday... after playing on Friday. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: ESPN should be better than that.

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Missed this last week. A release out of the college noted that . . .

Dartmouth is now asking employees who have not yet returned to campus and whose roles are not directly student-facing to continue to work remotely until Oct. 4. Previously, the plan was for those workers to return at the beginning of September.

The college also . . .

. . . announced a change to the frequency of COVID-19 surveillance testing for vaccinated employees, from every 30 days to weekly. Unvaccinated employees who are coming to campus are still required to test twice a week. Employees do not need to participate in surveillance testing if they are not coming to campus to work. 

And . . .

Over the course of the next two weeks, Dartmouth will start providing take-home testing kits for everyone—vaccinated and unvaccinated—participating in the surveillance testing program.  

Find the full news release HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
An avid golfer and fan of the game, That Certain Nittany Lion '16 was coming here for dinner last night after dropping a college friend at the airport in Burlington. Because he would be able to see it otherwise, he asked us to record yesterday's final round of the BMW Championship. When I wrapped up BGA Premium last night I went downstairs to check in with him and he was intently watching the recording of Patrick Cantlay sinking a long birdie putt on 18 to force a playoff.

At that point he started expressing concern that the DVR'd recording would run out before the playoff ended as it had in another tournament earlier this year. I told him to pause the playback, which would reveal how much time was left on the recording. I don't remember how much time it showed but it was clear the recording would not cut off before the winner was determined so I told TCNL '16 that.

Oops. How was I to know the playoff was going to go SIX extra holes?

Be Smart

After a year away I signed up for ESPN+ yesterday after taking the last year off. The price went up but what hasn't?

Speaking of prices, with the start of the college football season yesterday and Dartmouth's first game 20 days away I thought to remind you that if you feel the need to buy tickets in advance, do it through the school's ticket office. Let me show you why.

Pasted below is a screen grab from one of the reseller sites. It's hard to read but it's offering tickets to Dartmouth's home opener against Sacred Heart and the Big Green's Ivy League opener at Penn. In red letters under the Tickets link it reads Limited seats available! It may be true that this seller's tickets are limited, but you can carve this into granite: There will be plenty of tickets available for both of those games.

This screen grab shows you what the ticket reseller is asking for ducats to see Sacred Heart:

And here's what Dartmouth's ticket office is charging:

Here's what the resellers are asking at Penn:

And here's what the Penn ticket office is charging:

Green Alert Take: I understand people have to make a living. That picture of Griff the Wonder Dog up there in the top right of this page is a reminder of that. But those ticket prices for Dartmouth games are nuts.

Look, I expect to be using a reseller to buy tickets for the Penn State-Indiana game the day after Dartmouth is at Penn. I'll be annoyed paying a premium but I get it. Those tickets are hard to come by. Tickets to Ivy League football games are not. Save yourself a few dollars and use the Dartmouth ticket office (LINK) or the Penn ticket office (LINK).

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If you visited BGA Premium last night or you are stopping by today you can read my story about new Dartmouth long snapper Josh Greene. He recently did an interview with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for his Riding the Pine talk show that you can listen to on Spotify HERE. Oh, and be sure to check out the news report from several years ago featuring Greene talking about his Off the Bench Foundation's "Return and Re-Gift It" campaign, which provided sporting goods to underprivileged kids. (LINK)

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Former Dartmouth defensive lineman TJ Simpson did not get on the field yesterday in Indiana State’s 26-21 win over Eastern Illinois. The Sycamores will return to action Sept. 11 when they visit Northwestern in a game to be broadcast on the Big 10 Network.

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The Analyst, which provides the most professional coverage of FCS football you will find, has an overview of the season ahead that offers predictions of interest to Dartmouth and Ivy League fans HERE. Among the conference predictions is:

Ivy – Princeton: Ivy schools didn’t have a season last year, so the Tigers return off their winningest two-year stretch (18-2 over the 2018 and ‘19 seasons) since back-to-back 9-0 campaigns in 1950 and ‘51.

The story has James Madison ruling the CAA and New Hampshire, but does have UNH earning an at-large playoff spot. Central Connecticut, not Sacred Heart, is the pick to win the Northeast and San Diego is projected to regain the Pioneer Football League title over Valparaiso and the rest.

Craig Haley of The Analyst has Sacred Heart tailback  Julius Chestnut winning the Walter Payton Award, essentially the Heisman of the FCS, writing:

Coming from a Northeast Conference that’s never boasted the FCS offensive player of the year, Chestnut will need one big performance after another. It’s conceivable considering the consensus All-American has been over 100 rushing yards in nine straight games and 17 of his last 21.

Dartmouth and defensive coordinator Don Dobes will get their shot at Chestnut on Sept. 15.

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EXTRA POINT
Several weeks ago I slid the standing desk here at the BGA World Headquarters down to the sitting level so I could occasionally kick back and relax.

With deadlines now looming, I'm working each morning pretty much from the time I finish BGA Daily – which is work, come to think of it – until I head out to practice in the early afternoon. When I arrive back home in early evening I'm back at the keyboard until a quick break for dinner with Mrs. BGA. Then I'm in front of the computer again.

Yesterday my back decided it had had enough and up went the desk to standing level. Dartmouth's first game may be three weeks away but the preseason has officially started . . . for all of us.

Good Stuff

The Dartmouth football drone captured this moment at practice earlier in the week:

⌛️...#TheWoods pic.twitter.com/F8t9ChzV36

— Dartmouth Football (@DartFootball) August 27, 2021

(While you are at it, check out the FPV [first person view] drone footage shot to show off the ridiculously extravagant facilities of the DALLAS COWBOYS and MIAMI DOLPHINS.)

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Ivy League sports information departments no longer produce a spring or preseason "prospectus," but kudos to Dartmouth's Rick Bender for providing the next best thing. CLICK HERE for a PDF of Dartmouth's Information Request Sheet (Quick Facts) with information under headings General, Coaching Staff, History, Team Information, Sports Information, Team Information and Returning Statistical Leaders along with a Roster, Roster Breakdown, Schedule, Statistics and more.

CLICK the graphic to enlarge.

Green Alert Take: Forms like that for the other Ivy League schools when I was working on the BGA Premium Dartmouth opponent previews would have saved me hours and hours.

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Stumbled across this list of former Dartmouth players who played in the NFL and reworked it to list the eight players who were in the league for five or more years. Here they are in order of most years played:

18 years, K Nick Lowery ’78 (1978-96)

14 years, LB Reggie Williams ’76 (1976-1989)

10 years, QB Jeff Kemp ’81 (1981-91)

9 years, QB Jay Fiedler ’94 (1995-2005)

8 years, T-G-E Ed Healey ’18 (1920-27)

8 years, G-T-E-C Swede Youngstrom ’18 (1920-27)

6 years, T-FB-TB Gus Sonnenberg ’20 (1923-30)

5 years, RB-TE Casey Cramer ’04 (2004-08)

Two other players are on the Pro Football Reference list for Dartmouth but probably shouldn't be included here. Johnny “Red” Bryan played six years in what would become the NFL (1922-27) but never lettered at Dartmouth and is claimed by the University of Chicago. Charlie Guy, who played five years (1920-24) never lettered for the Big Green and is considered a Washington & Jefferson product.

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From a Baylor football preview (LINK):

Drew Estrada enters his sixth season, first at Baylor after transferring from Dartmouth. The Ivy League didn’t play in 2020, but Estrada had eight touchdowns and 827 yards during the Big Green’s 2019 season.

Green Alert Take: Nothing earth-shattering there but it is a bit of an eye-opener to read the "sixth season" bit. Fingers crossed that Drew heals up from an injury that has slowed him during camp.

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It's the weekend but there's no such thing in the sports world. Check in with BGA Premium tonight for a report out of the latest Dartmouth football practice.

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And before I let you go, Dartmouth actually started intercollegiate play last night with a 3-2 women's soccer victory over Holy Cross on Burham Field. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
When we celebrated "Christmas in August" earlier this month we had family members in town for the first time who obviously had not seen the gorgeous views we have here from our Vermont hillside house. Unfortunately, the western wildfires had clogged up the skies and 4,802-foot Mount Moosilauke (left in the photo below) was never visible. The mountains to the right were only barely visible at best.

After three days of hot and humid weather it cooled off last night and that made for cloudy skies but a crisp horizon this morning. Here's what our family members missed:

Click photo for a closer look.

The State Of The Big Green

This Dartmouth football Instagram post sent me scurrying to the 2021 roster to see just how many players were from each state. Here's what I came up with:

18 Florida
11 Texas
10 Illinois
10 Pennsylvania
8 New Jersey
7 Georgia
6 California
5 Ohio
5 Washington
4 Colorado
4 Massachusetts
4 New York
4 North Carolina
4 Tennessee
3 Indiana
3 Maryland
3 Michigan
2 Connecticut
2 Minnesota
2 Missouri
2 Wisconsin
1 Alabama
1 Alaska
1 Arizona
1 Arkansas
1 Kansas
1 Louisiana

And . . .
1 Canada
1 Germany

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Dartmouth returns to practice this afternoon at 2 on Memorial Field. And that means BGA Premium will resume practice reports tonight. In an effort to get to know a little more about the freshmen and sophomores, last night's BGA Premium offered some of their responses to the prompt, "Something that might surprise people about me." Among the 26 interesting facts mentioned in the post were:

• More than doubled his weight in high school (OL Nick Marinaro)
• Lived in Japan for five years (OL Ethan Sipe)
• Was on a national championship football team (OL Konstantin Spörk)
• Once read 85 books in nine months (WR Wade Williams)

(Spörk's national championship was in Germany ;-)

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The Big Green is scheduled to practice today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 2 p.m. on Memorial Field and then have a second day off on Tuesday.

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Don't be surprised if there's a Dartmouth football T-shirt or two seen around the Penn State baseball facilities this fall. In addition to freshman Carson Franks' brother Brenden playing for the Nittany Lions, former defensive lineman Kevin Luensmann's '90 son Travis is transferring from South Carolina to PSU. The younger Luensmann is a 6-foot-6 right handed pitcher. His dad was a 6-3, 250 defensive tackle who earned three letters and co-captained the 1989 Big Green along with future big leaguer Mark Johnson.

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I've made no secret of my preference for the Ivy League playing most of its out-of-conference games against Patriot League schools. Like the Ivy, the Patriot is an elite academic Division I conference in the Northeast and unlike some of the schools Dartmouth and the others in the Ivy League have taken to scheduling, it doesn't take a lot of junior college players or FBS washouts as transfers. If I had my druthers, there would be two Patriot League teams on the schedule each fall and one wild card opponent. But I digress . . .

Craig Haley over at The Analyst has his prediction for the Patriot League race and he sees it shaping up this way:

1. Holy Cross
2. Fordham
3. Lafayette
4. Colgate
5. Bucknell
6. Georgetown
7. Lehigh

There was a lot of talk when the Patriot League introduced scholarships that it would leave the Ivy League behind. It hasn't turned out that way. Haley writes (LINK):

The 35 non-league games (six against the FBS) are tough enough that Patriot League teams may not finish with an overall winning record, but they at least want to improve on recent winning percentages that have been the second-worst (.222, 2018), third-worst (.229, 2017) and fourth-worst (.250, 2019) since the league’s start in 1996.

And . . .

The Patriot League has been the lowest-scoring conference in the FCS for four straight seasons, with teams averaging 18.3 points per game this past spring. No offense is going to match Fordham’s firepower, but the other teams need to make a jump.

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Given that we haven't even started the season this is scary (LINK):

The University of St. Thomas' 2021 football home opener against St. Francis (Ill.) scheduled for Sept. 4 has been cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols.

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EXTRA POINT 
I am not a Luddite.

No, I don't have a cell phone but that's by choice. I like the freedom of not being tethered to one of those things and, frankly, I'm not sure I'd have the self control to turn it off or put it aside. (I don't need the cell phone bill either but my, uh, frugality, is a story for another day ;-)

So no, I'm not a Luddite. Remember, we put in a solar tracker, we bought an EV and, oh yeah, I do this website you may have heard of.

I was thinking about all of this while driving to my hike early this morning when the headlights on my car turned on automagically. I apologize for bringing this up, but it was a reminder that the days are getting shorter and that the sun is coming up a little later each day.

By the way, I had no idea about the automatic headlights until I was flipping through the manual for the electric car one day. Pretty cool new innovation I thought. But then while I was "detailing" the Honda Fit that we sold a couple of weeks ago I had to laugh. I drove the car for five years and never knew it had automatic headlights as well.

I don't think it had the automatic high and low beam switching this one has, but then again . . .

A Little Of This, A Little Of That

The view from above "The Woods" courtesy of Dartmouth football.

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It's a day off for the Dartmouth football team today so where won't be a practice story on BGA Premium tonight. But as always, there will be a story posted this evening and it should be fun. It will be a little different than anything you've seen on the site in its first 15 years. (And yeah, that's a teaser ;-)

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Craig Haley at The Analyst sees Week 5 Dartmouth opponent New Hampshire finishing fourth in the powerhouse CAA. He has James Madison first, followed by Delaware, Villanova and UNH. He writes (LINK):

4. New Hampshire (0-1, 0-1) – After a 24-20 loss to Albany, COVID-19 issues played havoc with the remainder of UNH’s spring season. While the Max Brosmer-led offense must improve on the CAA’s lowest scoring average (20.2 ppg) in 2019, the defense will be fierce with the likes of defensive tackle Niko Kvietkus and safety Evan Horn. Coach Sean McDonnell (154-96) needs two more CAA wins to reach 100.

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A line near the end of a Calgary Sun story about the CFL Stampeders (LINK):

Jarrell Owens will be added to the six-game injured list because of the injury that resulted from the chop-block . . . Fellow defensive lineman Folarin Orimolade will also likely be added to the six-game.

Orimolade, the Dartmouth grad and Bushnell Cup winner as Ivy League defensive player of the year in 2017, had returned this season from an injury that sidelined him most of his last year with the team only to be hurt in their most recent game.

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It's always fun to read about a former Dartmouth football player's son having success playing the same position in the same sport. Colorado's Craig Daily Express has a story with this bold line: Peck carries a legacy on his shoulders at quarterback. That would be Ryan Peck, son of Kevin Peck '91. (LINK)

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A posting under the headline College Football Kicks Saturday: Who’s Won The Most Titles? has three Ivy League schools in the top-10 for national championships and they are the three you would expect:
1. Yale 18 titles
2. Alabama 16
3. Princeton 15
4. Notre Dame 13
5. Michigan 11
6. South Carolina 9 (Of course they mean that other USC ;-)
7. Harvard 8
8. Ohio State 8 (Should actually be T-7 with Harvard)
9. Oklahoma 7
10. Minnesota 6

Why is this worth sharing? Here's what the post included in the Princeton entry:

Princeton is another team that is approaching the 100th anniversary of their last national championship.

They play in the Ivy League conference with rivals Harvard and Yale. However, the league has been dominated by the Dartmouth College team . . .

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Mollie Marcoux Samaan stepped down as Princeton athletic director on May 25 to become commissioner of the LPGA. Yesterday the school announced that John Mack, a former track standout for the Tigers before graduating in 2000, will be their next athletic director. Mack worked in both the Princeton and Northwestern athletic departments before spending the last decade practicing law. Find a news release HERE and read what TigerBlog wrote about the man and the hire HERE.

Mack is the third athletic director hire in the Ivy League this year and all three are former athletes in the programs they now run. Brown turned the reins over to Grace Calhoun, who ran track at the school, back in April. Calhoun had most recently been AD at Penn, which replaced her with Alanna Shanahan, who played lacrosse for the Quakers.

While the other Ivies have acted quickly, Dartmouth, which announced Harry Sheehy's departure in early February, has gone another route. The school brought Peter Roby '79 in to serve as interim AD through June of 2022. Roby, like the three permanent athletic directors hired this year, was an athlete at the school he now serves, captaining the Big Green basketball team.

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EXTRA POINT
Griff the Wonder Dog, who is pictured at the top right of this page, is no longer a pup at age 7. But he still loves his toys. You might say he loves 'em to death. Here's his favorite, a strange, squeaky stuffed animal we call The Squirrel, that he pulls out of his toy box and plays with virtually every night after eating:

Actually, that's The Squirrel III. The first one was kidnapped by an unknown animal when we camped in our yard one night during the pandemic last summer and Griff mistakenly left it outside the tent. In the morning it was gone. I finally found it in some brush I was clearing late in the fall.

The Squirrel I was replaced by Squirrel II, pictured below. Gorilla Tape extended its life but as I said, Griff about loves his toys to death. We finally retired this one and dug out the spare we'd had hidden away until a few weeks ago. We'll probably pick up The Squirrel IV the next time we have a chance because it's only a matter of time. ;-)

Week Zero

It has been a long time coming but former Dartmouth defensive lineman TJ Simpson '20 will be back on the field this week as a graduate transfer at Indiana State. The Sycamores, who did not play in the spring, take on Eastern Illinois Saturday at 6 p.m. in Terra Haute in what is referred to as a "Week Zero" game. Find Simpson's ISU bio HERE.

A 6-foot-3, 240-pound product of Miami Central High School, Simpson posted 13 tackles including 1.5 sacks for the 2019 Ivy League co-champions. He had 22 tackles in his Big Green career. Find his Dartmouth bio HERE.

Simpson is joined on the ISU roster by former Columbia defensive back Hunter Lunsford and former Cornell wide receiver Phazione McClure. The Ivy Leaguers are among 27 transfers on the Sycamore roster including players from Michigan, Minnesota, Purdue and San Diego State.

Simpson is one of at least four Dartmouth players finishing their careers as grad transfers. Wide receiver Drew Estrada is at Baylor, defensive lineman Seth Simmer is at Samford and running back Caylin Parker is at Albany.

Dartmouth, of course, is still 24 days away from opening its season at Valparaiso on Sept. 18.

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The SI FanNation site Giants Country has a story headlined, 9 Giants on the Bubble Heading into the Final Preseason Game. Dartmouth product Niko Lalos is one of the nine. From the story (LINK):

Lalos being on this list isn't a referendum on his skillset. I always thought he was destined to be a practice squad player again, only called up after injuries.

However, with the buzz and play of fellow defensive lineman David Moa, I have been wondering who the Giants value more. Both Moa and Lalos can coexist on the practice squad together, but if injuries do happen, who would get called up first?

Accompanying the story: 

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No official word yet on the severity of the injury suffered last week by former Dartmouth linebacker Flo Orimolade in the Calgary Stampeders game. In searching out information I came across this video from the previous week:

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BGA Premium began last night's practice report with a look at placekicker Connor Davis. CLICK HERE to reach the site and pull down the 2021 menu to access the daily practice reports. The Big Green will finish off its first four-day run of practices at 3 this afternoon, have a break tomorrow and then return to the field Friday.

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With Dartmouth sports teams back on campus and women's soccer hosting Holy Cross Friday night and men's soccer entertaining Southern New Hampshire Saturday it's worth keeping an eye on the college's COVID-19 Dashboard. It reported 29 active cases among students on Aug. 23 and added two more yesterday. From the site (LINK):

Since Aug. 17, Dartmouth has identified two clusters of people with COVID-19 in the student population. The first cluster has at least 10 individuals. The second cluster, identified on Aug. 21, has at least five individuals. The state of New Hampshire defines a cluster as three or more individuals confirmed with COVID-19 who are part of a related group of individuals who had the potential to transmit infection to each other through close contact.

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EXTRA POINT
Happy National Banana Split Day. As Casey Stengel said long before Google, "You could look it up."

It's also the 105th anniversary of the National Park System, which has special meaning in this house with a ranger in the family.

The Inside Story

Click this BGA photo for a closer look at Dartmouth's indoor practice yesterday.

The local Valley News has a story about the second day of Big Green football practice – the first with well over 100 players going through their paces at the indoor practice facility I have taken to calling The Green House. In the story defensive back Isaiah Johnson talks about the meaning of the new facility (LINK):

“It says we care about our football team. It says that our football team matters. It says that our alums are willing to put back and give back to the team, and it says that, if you win, the school notices.”

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Last night's BGA Premium practice report featured a look at tailback Zack Bair returning this fall after a serious knee injury at Penn in 2019. (LINK)

Tonight's report may be a little later than usual, but it will still be on your screen when you awaken tomorrow morning.

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Scrolling down a page on the Dartmouth ticket office website revealed the following, which may or may not have been updated (LINK):

VENUE POLICIES

Masks will be required in all of Dartmouth Athletics indoor and outdoor venues until further notice.

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The Dartmouth COVID-19 Dashboard updated yesterday listed 29 confirmed and active student cases and three among faculty and staff. (LINK)

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FootballScoop has a piece listing the COVID cancellation policies for each FBS conference (so far). In general it seems to be if you can't play you lose. (LINK) 

Green Alert Take: I don't think the Ivy League has made a public statement about its policy on COVID cancellations. It wouldn't surprise me if the Ancient Eight simply rules no contest, but we'll see. Hopefully whatever decision they make won't come into play.

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The Dartmouth sports publicity office writes about the Phil Steele all-conference teams HERE.

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Writing for The Analyst, FCS guru Craig Haley offers his prediction for the Northeast Conference season and Week 2 Dartmouth opponent Sacred Heart. He has the Pioneers second in the NEC behind Central Connecticut. Haley writes (LINK):

The Pioneers’ spring championship was their fourth league title under coach Mark Nofri since 2013. Running back Julius Chestnut’s dominance shouldn’t change behind an offensive line that returns All-NEC standouts J.D. DiRenzo and Josh Sokol. Bolstered by an FCS co-high 82-yard punt, Noah Gettman’s 46.5-yard average in the spring more than six yards better than the Pioneers’ previous single-season high.

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Flo Football looks at Week 5 opponent New Hampshire writing (LINK):

There was a time when it seemed like the NCAA rubber-stamped New Hampshire a spot in the FCS playoff field each season. The Wildcats qualified for postseason play 14 years in row (2004-2017), but haven’t tasted the playoffs since that 2017 season.

And . . .

“Historically we’ve had amazing football teams,” New Hampshire quarterback Max Brosmer said. “We’ve lost that over the past (two) years. There’s something brewing in our locker room right now. We want to come out and show the country what we’ve got, because people are sleeping on us.”

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EXTRA POINT
From an Associated Press article (LINK):

Ella Bruning has become the person everyone wants to talk to in South Williamsport this week.

The starting catcher for the Wylie Little League team from Abilene, Texas, is the 20th female to play in the Little League World Series and the only girl to compete in this year’s tournament.

Reading that had me thinking about That Certain Dartmouth '14, who played baseball through Little League. When she (reluctantly) switched to softball in high school she was the starting center fielder on the Hanover varsity as a freshman before moving to catcher as a sophomore, where she played every inning through the rest of high school.

Catching that many innings for three years she got to know the umpires pretty well and they got to know her.

The statute of limitations has run out so now the story can be told. I don't remember what year it was, or where the game was played, but knowing TCD'14 had a rifle arm a home plate umpire once told her he'd give her a dollar (or was it two?) for every potential base stealer she threw out. I don't know if the fellow had tickets to a Red Sox game or a date that night and needed to get on the road quickly but I do know TCD'14 came home with several dollars in her pocket she didn't have when the day began. And that's a true story.

A Busy Monday

A few shots from the first day of Dartmouth preseason football practice:

Good luck holding Zack Bair back after his return from injury.

Simon says, Do This!

Fancy new headware.

BGA Premium had its first full camp report last night and will be back at practice this afternoon for tonight's posting. Look for it by 10 Eastern tonight.

A couple of notes from last night:

• The Big Green had 122 players at the first day of camp with the permissible 110 in the freshman through senior classes and 12 "super seniors/grad students" allowed back by NCAA and Ivy League decree.

• While the Dartmouth athletic department has had what has to be an unprecedented turnover in personnel the permanent football coaching staff has stayed intact, with Mickey Grace and Ahmaad Smith coming aboard as "defensive assistants." Grace is the latest woman on the Big Green staff after doing a stint with the Los Angeles Rams. Smith is a former Tennessee State defensive captain who played for a number of arena teams and was in CFL camps.

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From a Dartmouth news release yesterday about the start of practice (LINK):

Buddy Teevens, the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach and winningest coach in program history, will have to replace nearly his entire starting lineup with eight gone from the offense and 10 from the defense. 

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The fact-filled Phil Steele Preview came out last week but seems to have taken the roster movement at Dartmouth to heart. Here are Steele's All-Ivy League first, second and third teams. (Click to enlarge.)

In case enlarging didn't work for you, find the Steele teams HERE. Selections from Dartmouth were:

OFFENSE
Second Team

QB Derek Kyler
OL Evan Hecimovich

OL John Paul Flores

DEFENSE
First Team
DB Niko Mermigas

Third Team

DB John Pupel

Steele has Brown quarterback EJ Perry as the preseason offensive player of the  year and Princeton linebacker Jeremiah Taylor as the defensive POY.

Here's the breakdown of selections to the Steele first, second and third team by school:

	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Princeton	9	6	6	21
Yale	3	5	7	15
Columbia	5	6	3	14
Harvard	5	4	3	12
Cornell	1	2	8	11
Brown	2	3	2	7
Dartmouth	1	4	1	6
Penn	4	0	0	4

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From a Calgary Herald story about last week's Stampeders game (LINK):

In the final seconds of the first quarter, Folarin Orimolade went down with what appeared to be a left-knee injury. The Stamps had really high expectations for Orimolade this year after he missed the entire 2019 season with a quadriceps injury .

Here's a screengrab of the former Dartmouth standout from the story:

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EXTRA POINT
It would seem we dodged any significant impact from hurricane/tropical storm Henri, although the shorts and T-shirt I hiked in this morning are now hanging from the shower curtain and dripping liberally into the tub. 

And So It Begins . . .

It all begins this afternoon with the first official practice for the 2021 Dartmouth football season. CLICK HERE to check out BGA Premium tonight and every night – seven days a week – for coverage of Big Green football practices and games.

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It wasn't a practice but the Big Green was on Memorial Field yesterday gearing up for today's official start:

Here's the tentative practice schedule:

2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22 Practice 1 (Helmets)
1:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23 Practice 2 (Helmets)
2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 24 Practice 3 (Helmets)
3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 25 Practice 4 (Uppers)

2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27 Practice 5 (Uppers)
2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28 Practice 6 (Full)
2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29 Practice 7 (Full)
2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 30 Practice 8 (Full)

2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1 Practice 9 (Full)
2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2 Practice 10 (Uppers)
2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3 Practice 11 (Helmets)
10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 4 Practice 12 Scrimmage (Full)

2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 6 Practice 13 (Full)
2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7 Practice 14 (Uppers)
2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8 Practice 15 (Helmets)
10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 9 Practice 16 Scrimmage (Full)

4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11 Practice 17 (Uppers)

4 p.m. Game-week practice for Valparaiso begins Monday, Sept. 13.

(A reminder that the goal is to have each practice story posted on BGA Premium by 10 p.m. Eastern. There will be nights that are later as occasionally life gets in the way, but always the stories will be on your screens by the time you turn them on in the morning.)

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New York's Newsday has a piece about Dartmouth alum Niko Lalos '20 returning home to Ohio today when the New York Giants visit the Cleveland Browns. The story notes that among those at Saturday's workout in Cleveland was Lalos' father, who never saw him play for Dartmouth. From the story (LINK):

"It’s exciting to see he’ll be here for this one," Lalos said. "It kind of makes all of the college ones he had to miss worth it. And to do it in my hometown, it’s a nice way to check that box."

Also from the story:

Lalos was a bit of a surprise . . .  for the Giants last year. An undrafted rookie from Dartmouth he began the 2020 season as a defensive end on the practice squad. When the Giants started to lose edge rushers to injury they tried him at outside linebacker. He was a gameday activation from that unit who made his NFL debut on Nov. 29 and eventually was promoted to the 53-man roster. He played only 72 defensive snaps on the season but made the most of them, recording a sack, a fumble recovery and an interception with his six tackles. He became a fan favorite for his intense play and uncanny ability to be around the football. A coach favorite, too. 

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The BGA Premium opponent preview series winds up tonight with a look at Yale. Each of the previews has run about 1,500 words and a lot of work has gone into researching and writing them. The theme this fall after a year away from football and Ivy League teams playing two untested and largely unknown classes: Mama Always Said, Life Was Like a Box of Chocolates. You Never Know What You're Gonna Get – Forrest Gump.

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EXTRA POINT
Those of you who read yesterday's PAT know Mrs. BGA and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary with a dinner near the water as we do every year. We ended up at Covered Bridge Farm Table in Campton, NH, about an hour east of here. We ate a delicious dinner on the deck overlooking the Pemigewasset River and alongside this:

As an aside, on our way to an afternoon and evening in New Hampshire's White Mountains we stopped and explored Polar Caves, about 50 minutes from campus. We had driven past the tourist attraction dozens and dozens of times over the years without ever giving a thought to stopping. Our kids had been there with camp trips but we always thought it was a little hokey. But on an 86-degree day with high humidity perhaps there was something about the name that drew us to it, so we decided to give it a look. We're glad we did.

Squeezing and shimmying through the caves was sometimes challenging but central air conditioning couldn't have been more pleasant on such a hot day. I half wanted to get a book and a headlamp and spend the rest of the day in one of the caves.

For what it's worth, we climbed through every one of the caves except the last, the Lemon Squeeze, which narrows to 14 inches across. That was going to be tricky before we had our anniversary dinner –  and might have been impossible after ;-)