As he is wont to do, media day host Jack Ford waxed poetic about Ivy League football, but to his credit, he really did try in vain to get the coaches to talk about their teams. As I would during the in-person media days, he asked for the strengths and challenges of each team only to have the coaches wander off to other thoughts like so many politicians not interested in answering a question. Unfortunately, in a virtual format with limited time for each coach, Ford was unable to his the coaches with follow-up questions asking them to actually name names.
He did a little better asking the players variations of the same questions.
Here is an edited version of Ford's conversation with interim Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle, quarterback Nick Howard and safety Quinten Arello. A lot of "so's," "you knows," and "ands" have been edited out and some sentences we mildly cleaned up for readability.
JACK FORD: Coach, what I've been doing with everybody, all the head coaches, is asking them to launch this conversation with a sense of the season coming up, where you see its strengths, weaknesses. But I would be remiss and I should tell you that every coach before us in this event has talked about offering their best wishes for Coach Teevens. Buddy, I mentioned, is a personal friend. So let me ask if you could give us whatever you can in terms of an update on coach Teevens and his circumstance?
SAMMY McCORKLE: Like many already know, Coach Teevens is in Boston. He's surrounded by close friends and his family. And he's really working hard every single day to get better. Everybody that knows Coach Teevens, they know how tough he is. It's been phenomenal the support from individuals across the country. And every single one of the Ivy coaches has have reaching out and have been communicating and have been concerned. We all know Coach T is a fighter and he's gonna continue to improve and he's doing that on a daily basis.
FOR: I texted with Kirsten, his wife, and said, if anybody's gonna do this, we know he's the guy that's gonna do it. So I say to everybody, please send all our best wishes to him and the family.
So let's talk some some upcoming football. Let me let me go back to that first question, which is how are you seeing this upcoming season, focusing a little bit on the strengths of the team and some elements that you think the team is going to need to need to get better at.
McCORKLE: I think our guys realize from last season, that's below our expectations. That's below our bar. There's a lot of things that occurred last year that were in our control. And there's a lot of things that occurred that were out of our control. I think the biggest thing that we focused on in the spring and we will continue to focus on in preseason, is those things (we can control). We lost a couple of games in overtime last year and we took the time and effort to go through and make sure we cover every base and see if we would have done this a little bit different, if we made a different decision as coaches, would that have changed the outcome? I think we're really stressing, and we did stress in the spring, and we're going to stress this preseason, the things that we can control. We want to make sure we continue to work on that. So whenever we're in that situation, again, we're prepared.
And then things that are out of our control injuries? That occurs. That happens. How are we going to adjust? As Coach Teevens would always say, 'You want to adjust and improvise, A and I.' How are we going to A and I? And I think that's going to be our be our biggest push as we continue to go forward.
I think our team has a sense of urgency. I think our team has that, and attention to detail. Doing all the little things right. I think we realize how important those things are. That can be a big difference in a win or a loss. And that'll be our main focus going into preseason.
We're super excited. We have seven returning offensive starters. At every position on our offense is a leading receiver, a leading passer, a leading rusher. Four of our five offensive linemen returned from last year. Defensively, we have four returning starters. Obviously, Shane Cokes moving on to Colorado is a big loss. But once again, our top two, top three tacklers on our defense will be back.
We'll have much more experience this year than we had last year. We had close to 72 guys who saw the field in some capacity last year. To me, that is going to be the biggest difference from our team last year – just the experience. It's not going to be the first time they're in that situation. And we're super excited.
We’ve got a little ways to go for that first game. It's a big game. It's going to be against UNH down there at UNH. You know, they're a top 1-0 team. The last two years have been really good games between us. And we're super excited, but we're not focused on that right now. We're focused on day one. We start this weekend and going forward and making sure that when we leave that practice field, we've gotten better every single day.
FORD: Let me ask you from your personal perspective, becoming the interim head coach. You've been there for a lot of years, worked with Buddy for a lot of years. I've said this on the air, one thing that has struck me often, and I think it has a significant impact on the success that you've all had at Dartmouth in the last 10, 15 years or so is, when you look at the coaching staff and you look at the longevity and the continuity, how long so many coaches are there. . . . Talk about from a head coach perspective, especially a head coach who got thrust into a position in some extraordinarily difficult circumstances, about the role that the longevity of coaching staff can play here?
McCORKLE: Oh, it's huge. I mean, when the situation occurred it just naturally happened. Everybody just took charge. They all knew that we had to band together, support each other. And you couldn't ask for a better staff. Like you said, this group has been together a long time. We speak the same language. It doesn't mean we always agree on everything, but we've worked together long enough that we know how to have a discussion, how to have a conversation. We know the common goal is to find the solution that's going to help us go forward. It's been great. And like I said, every individual that's part of this program that's been on the staff has done a phenomenal job just stepping up and taking charge.
FORD: Nick, I'll start with you if I can. A couple of years ago, I was there at one of the games you could call it a bust out game for you. You played extraordinarily well. And coming into this season, you were part of that group that had some options. Do you go someplace else and play? Do you stay here and play? Tell us why you made the decision that you want to come back here and you wanted to lead this team another year.
HOWARD: I was looking at it kind of from the bigger perspective of not just football, but where I want to be, who I want to be spending my time with. And ultimately I decided that Hanover is home. Our coaching staff, my teammates, just the town itself, the college, I love it here. And I didn't want to give that up. Like you said, there were opportunities. So a lot of our guys did move on and we're all wishing them the best, but I felt like I had some unfinished business here in Hanover and I'm really looking forward for an opportunity to go out with Quinten, with our coaching staff, with the rest of our awesome teammates ,and chase that dream.
FORD: Talk a little bit about going from last year's offense to this year's offense. What are you looking at as the leader of that offense as to what you need to do after some tough losses last year, some uncharacteristic losses, What are you viewing this upcoming season as what you need to do to do to get where you believe the Dartmouth offense should be?
HOWARD: I think one of the major factors overall is just our attitude as an offense. As Coach McCorkle kind of touched on earlier, we had a lot of new guys last year, a lot of young guys who hadn't played trying to figure it out while they're on the field. The whole getting your feet wet thing, but we're hitting the ground running now. Four of of our five offensive linemen are coming back. We have a super experienced receiver core. All three of our older quarterbacks now have played. Our tight ends are very deep and some guys have experience. So across the board, I think the biggest thing is just shifting the attitude from, 'I’m trying to figure this out. I don't want to mess up,’ into really attacking every single snap. Just coming with a different type of mentality and an understanding that not only do I know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna do it 100 miles an hour without fear of making mistakes. And I think that's gonna really make a big difference in some of those situations that previously were unprecedented for us. And now as we've been working in practice, all the other obstacles that we've had this off season, the distractions and the fearfulness, is out of the way.
FORD: Let me talk about your development. So two years ago, as I said, you burst on the scene and became part of this extraordinary two-headed quarterback position where, and I think I said this on the air – I never remember seeing it before – you had guys who had just different skillsets but complimented each other so well. And you had two guys sharing the position who were both All-Ivy quarterbacks. It was an astonishing accomplishment. And then all of a sudden now it's your show. Talk about the idea of how people would say you were the runner, but then we saw, and said this on the air as a compliment, 'No, he's not just a runner. This guy can throw the ball.' Talk about your development now, how you want to be seen and how you want to play this coming season.
HOWARD: Like you said, in 2021, we had a great system with Derek and I, super, super successful. And Derek has remained as one of the biggest mentors I've ever had in the game of football. Being able to lean on him in '21 really allowed me to grow as a person and as a player. Even to this day, I'm still in contact with him a lot and he's still teaching me a lot of things. So I'm very thankful for that relationship. And as you said, I do feel very comfortable throwing the ball these days. We are constantly working our offensive staff, particularly coach (Kevin) Daft and our offensive line coach, Coach (Keith) Clark, on what's the right balance between throwing and running, making sure we're spreading the ball, getting touches to the guys who need the ball outside of myself. And I'm really excited looking forward to this year. I feel like this is the best I've ever been physically, emotionally, just the whole deal. So I think that also played into my decision in coming back, just where I'm at right now. I feel leaps and bounds ahead of where I was in '21 and '22. I’m just really excited.
FORD: We've talked about how you can see your development. But I will also say that there are still some times when you're carrying the ball and we'll say, 'Yeah, no, he still looks like the linebacker he was when he was coming out of high school and recruited here.' It's like there's that part of the linebacker mentality that says, 'Yeah, I'm a quarterback, but I'm still gonna run over you.' ... And that's a compliment, by the way, from a former defensive back. I've said this on the air, 'Man, I don't want to see that guy coming down with a 10 yard head start. And I'm the last guy between him and the goal line. 'So all compliments for you.
FORD: Quinten, let me ask your perspective from the defensive side of the ball. Dartmouth has made a living with great defenses over the years. It's one one of the many things you point to when you talk about Dartmouth football. Give us your sense of this coming season and maybe even compared to last year, things you're looking at saying, ‘We gotta get better at this, but here's where we think we're pretty strong.’ What do you think?
ARELLO: Yeah, so last year was not our expectation as a defense. There's no doubt about that. But as Nick and as our head coach, Sam McCorkle, have both stated, last year we played a little bit timid. So I think moving forward the biggest change for our defense is playing with a lot more confidence. Last year we only returned two, maybe three true starters on defense. This year we're returning four, but the way I look at it, we're returning seven or eight because we have corner positions where unfortunately guys got injured, but underclassmen were able to step up and fill that role. Same thing with the our free safety position and both of our linebacker positions as well. So that experience coming from last year and going into the spring ball created a lot of confidence that we otherwise did not have last year. That's a huge difference.
Obviously losing Shane Cokes in the pass and the rush game is a huge loss, but I feel confident that we can bounce back from that. Losing Marques White last year during the Yale game was huge as well, but he's coming back. He's a force to be reckoned with. I'm super excited to see what he's gonna be able to do. But I think the biggest difference is just the confidence. I believe in the guys in front of me. And I'm just super excited to see what we can do this year.
FORD: Coming off of the spring, were there some things or players where you said, ‘OK, this is gonna help help us get better from last year?’
ARELLO: We have been very fortunate to have a very good D line in the past. There's no doubt about that. And so the young guys being able to step up this year after getting some playing time last year, that's what I'm super excited for. As a secondary position, having a good D line is phenomenal. It makes my job 10 times easier. So I'm super excited for that. But then also into the boundary on my side of the field, having a boundary corner that can really fit into the run game to compliment our Mike linebacker, our inside linebacker, is just a huge benefit. It makes my job easier and makes the other team's job a lot more difficult. Finding a good, tall, long, boundary corner is something that I'm super excited for. And I think that we saw glimpses of that last year with Leo St. Gourdin. Love him to death, Super physical, super aggressive, and I'm super excited that he's going to be playing on my side of the ball this year.
FORD: Well, we're going to be looking forward to all of that. The ESPN crew is going to be coming up to Dartmouth for one of the games and Nick, I know what you say. I am going up a day or two earlier, cause it's one of my favorite places to be, up there. So we'll come up and visit all of that.
Dartmouth (opens) at New Hampshire Saturday, September 16th, and it's one of those rivalries. I am so glad as a football traditionalist that Dartmouth has maintained (that series). ... You'll remember the old Yankee Conference where the Ivy schools used to open up with our in-state rival. Yale played UConn for 50 years, I think. And to see Dartmouth still playing New Hampshire, I think is a wonderful preservation of a great tradition. So good luck with that opening game. And to all of you, good luck with the season.
McCORKLE: Jack, I just want to send real quick, Coach (Bagnoli), all the best as he moves on. We're gonna miss him, he's a legend and we'll miss him on the sidelines.
FORD: He's a great guy to know and a great guy to cover. And I think everybody shares that for Coach Bagnoli Guys, thanks, good luck. We'll look forward to seeing you in the fall.
