Kudos to Central Connecticut sports information for posting game notes for tomorrow's visit to Hanover. Find the notes HERE.
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Watched practice and chatted with head coach Sammy McCorkle yesterday for the Central Connecticut-Dartmouth preview that will be posted tonight on BGA Overtime.
I asked McCorkle if he had ever played in or coached in a game with that wild a turnaround. He grimaced and said he had – playing for the Florida Gators at Florida State's Doak Campbell Stadium.
"Unfortunately, I was on the other end of one," he said. "The Choke at Doak. I was a freshman at Florida playing at Florida State and we were beating them, 31-3, going into the fourth quarter. This was back when you still had ties and they came charging back and tied us there, 31-31.Even though it was a tie if felt like a loss. Then they beat us in the Sugar Bowl.
Find a story about The Choke at Doak HERE.
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The local Valley News takes a quick look back at the Dartmouth-Yale game before previewing the Week 5 matchup with Central Connecticut HERE.
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The Dartmouth has a writeup about the Yale game HERE. No mention of this week's game.
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The Massey Ratings algorithm has Dartmouth defeating Central Connecticut with 89 percent confidence. Final score: 35-17.
Massey sees the Big Green finishing 9-1 with the only loss to Harvard in a one-point game. Here's how Massey has the Ivy League finishing up:
Dartmouth 6-1Harvard 6-1Penn 5-2Columbia 3-4Yale 3-4Princeton 2-5Brown 2-5Cornell 1-6
Green Alert Take: Here's my question for the Dartmouth faithful. If the football gods offered that to you right now, would you take it? You lose to Harvard but are guaranteed a share. Or at 4-0 – but coming off two Ivy League barn-burners – would you roll the dice? Would you have taken 9-1, 6-1 before the season began? How about if the "1" was Harvard?
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The Friday Night Ivy League football game of the week is Brown (2-2, 1-0 Ivy League) at Princeton (0-1, 1-3) at 7 tonight on ESPNU.
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The Analyst has a piece headlined First-Year FCS Coaches Who Are Pushing All the Right Buttons From the Start that includes Harvard's Andrew Aurich as one of seven featured coaches with this text (LINK):
Previous Position: Rutgers tight ends coach (2023)2024 Record: 3-1, 1-1 IvyPrevious Coach: Tim Murphy (8-2 in 2023)The Skinny: Aurich, who had been at Rutgers since 2020, is a Princeton graduate and assistant who has a reputation as an ace recruiter within the Ivy League ranks. That’s why when Murphy retired after three decades as Harvard’s coach in January, Aurich was the guy for the job. When it comes to performing on the field, the Crimson are only three points away from a 4-0 start, and they are once again contenders for the league title, which they shared with Dartmouth and Yale last year.
Green Alert Take: Columbia fans who have seen Jon Poppe lead the Lions to a 3-1 record and a 1-0 Ivy League mark might take issue with their first-year coach not making the cut.
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Did Dartmouth (and Yale) send recruiting information to a fictional player at a fictional school in Arkansas in the early 1980s? A story about the hoax school suggests that they did (LINK):
"Our principal at Jessieville during those days was a guy named Norman Jesperson," Crowder said. "So Bob and I just put our heads together and thought, 'Hey, you know, why don't we just turn his name around and we'll invent this guy named Jess Norman." And Norman put up huge numbers in nearly every game.
Schools like Yale and Dartmouth took notice, sending recruiting letters that went to Crowder's address.
Green Alert Take: The Arkansas prank pales in comparison to the great Plainfield Teachers College hoax of 1941. It was well before my time but it's something I've always enjoyed reading about because I was born in the town where the "most elaborate character was the star halfback John Chung, aka 'The Celestial Comet.' Chung, who averaged an astounding (and record-breaking) 9.3 yards per carry, was a 'full-blooded' half-Chinese, half-Hawaiian player who seemed destined for a future as an All-American. He downed plates of wild rice at halftime to boost his strength."
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And finally, this is from the Dartmouth women's ice hockey web page:
That's right. The Ivy League women's hockey season begins tonight. And should the Big Green or any other Ivy team make it to the Frozen Four please know they will be playing as late as March 23 in Minneapolis.
I'll do the math for you. That's five months and five days from now. Let me make that a little clearer for you. That's FIVE MONTHS and FIVE DAYS from now.
Green Alert Take: I'm hopping up on my soap box again to ask you why does the Ivy League think an 11th football game would be too much of a strain on the players when the hockey season could keep going until spring? And while I'm at it, Why does the Ivy League think allowing its football champion to participate in the playoffs would stretch the season too long? I'm here to tell you there is a much, much, much greater probability that an Ivy League women's hockey team would make it to the Frozen Four than an Ivy football team would make it to Frisco. It makes no sense and the Ivy League presidents who let every sport but one go on to play in their national championships should be ashamed of themselves.
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And as long as I'm being a little ornery, can we please stop with these pop-ups? I've been getting these pleas to get me to sign up for the Dartmouth Athletics Email Newsletter for way too long, and my in box is too busy already. Please give me a link to click to stop receiving this when I visit your website.
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EXTRA POINT
They got a foot of snow on Jay Peak in northern Vermont a couple of nights ago. Nothing quite like that here but we still saw white stuff on a not-too-distant peak:
