This Is It

There's a wet snow falling and it's 34 degrees here at the BGA World Headquarters north of Hanover as I type these words. By kickoff for The Tussle between Dartmouth and Brown at Buddy Teevens Stadium it should be 41 degrees with a 55 percent chance of showers. Fortunately, the weather should improve a bit during the game.

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Our local daily takes a look at the development of Dartmouth's special teams in a story in advance of today's season finale HERE. If you can't access the story behind the paywall, the Apple Intelligence summary of the piece reads like this:

Dartmouth’s special teams coach, Joe Castellitto, brought a new energy and excitement to the unit, emphasizing its importance and potential impact on games. Through his coaching style and emphasis on technique, Castellitto has transformed the unit, leading to improved performance and a positive influence on the team’s overall success.

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BGA Overtime has both a preview of today's game and a re-posting of the story from last year's championship Saturday win over Brown that should give you a bit of an idea what it will feel like today trying to keep an eye on two games at once.

Find today's OT game preview HERE and the look back at last year's championship game HERE.

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Dartmouth has produced a senior day story and video about Big Green running back Q Jones HERE. Jones enters today's game fourth in the Ivy League in rushing with 647 yards. Malachi Hosley of Penn, who has 1,070 yards, will win the Ivy rushing championship but Jones can finish as high as second in the league with a solid outing today.

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Jake Novak down at the Roar Lions blog expects Dartmouth to come out on top today but thinks the Big Green and Columbia will be disappointed with what happens at Harvard Stadium. He write of Dartmouth:

I still like the Big Green to win, but something is missing with this team lately. 

And of The Game:

This feels like it will be one of the better H-Y matchups. I think Harvard wins by a FG.  

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It's Senior Day in Hanover and with that a good number of players who will be graduating have tossed their names into the portal hoping to find a place to use their final year(s) of eligibility. Among those who have entered the portal are Q Jones, Josiah Green, Micah Green, Ejike Adele, Nick Marinaro, Danny Cronin, Zach Farris, Derrell Porter, Kyle Brown, Alex Geraci and Jordan Washington. And there may be more I haven't come across yet.

Green Alert Take: I can't keep up with all the names going into the portal but they can be found with a little scrolling HERE.

Green Alert Take II: Brown has players announcing for the portal as well, but no one on either team is drawing the interest of injured Brown corner Isaiah Reed, who has offers pouring in from everywhere.

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Old friend JJ Jackson, who spent six years as wide receivers coach under Buddy Teevens at Dartmouth, has been honored after leading NAIA Texas College to a 7-3 record this fall. That's the best record at the school since the program was "revived" in 1963 per a Texas College release, and the first winning mark since 2005.

Jackson is a finalist for AFCA's NAIA National Coach of the Year for turning around a program that had gone 7-70 over the eight seasons before this one. Find a Texas College story HERE, and a more detailed story in the Fort Bend Herald HERE.

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EXTRA POINT

I'm not sure what the issue was but Robo, our little robotic vacuum cleaner, took a couple of unexpected days off. When it again chose not to leave its home base this morning, I flipped it over and did what we all might do. I stared at it, then turned the power button off and let it sit for a minute or so. When I turned the power back on and hit the "go" switch, off it went on its merry way.

We bought Robo a few years ago when a "flash sale" made it worth the gamble even if it didn't do a very good job. Never, I remember thinking, would I ever pay full price for something so silly. Today? I'd probably pay twice what we paid for Robo when we bought it, but don't please tell the people who make and sell it.