Sammy McCorkle (Dartmouth Head Coach)The Ivy League to UMass coaching trajectory is popular because coaches who know how to win there typically have less of a learning curve. Sammy McCorkle is a relatively new head coach at Dartmouth, taking over midway through the 2023 season, but he’s had great early success and has also been a long-time assistant coach there.McCorkle is a bit older than some of these other candidates but has the experience and ability to fit in well at Amherst.
Green Alert Take: Perhaps cribbing from Abe Lemons who earlier said much the same thing, Bill Russell once famously answered a question about whether he'd ever return to coaching this way: "I don’t want to grow old coaching. I’d like to grow old gracefully, one year at a time.” The guess here is Sammy McCorkle might think the same thing when he learns his name has been mentioned with regard to the woeful UMass program. To be fair, the Minutemen are finally heading to the MAC next year and they have been more competitive than they've been in years despite the 2-8 record. And for the record, it will be 2-9 after this week's game. They are playing at No. 8 Georgia.
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Dartmouth defensive back Patrick Campbell (he of the highlight video interception return) and wide receiver Daniel Haughton have been named to the Ivy League honor roll after their performances Saturday against Cornell.
The Big Red duo of linebacker Luke Banbury and placekicker Alan Zhao have been named the co-defensive player of the week and special teams player of the week respectively for their play in the win over Dartmouth.
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Speaking of Saturday's game, last night's BGA Overtime Six Pack pointed out that while giving up 39 points to the Big Red was disappointing (keep in mind seven of those points were on a scoop-and-score and PAT), it should be noted that the Big Red has a pretty potent offense this fall. From a "Beyond the Box Score" note on the Cornell site (LINK):
Cornell has scored 39 points or more in three consecutive games, the first time it has done so since 1930 (66 vs. Clarkson, 61 vs. Niagara, 47 vs. Hampden Sydney). The only time it has done so four times in succession - that was in 1892.
And this was from BGA OT last night (LINK):
On the surface it might seem jarring that a Dartmouth defense that surrendered more than 21 points just twice in the first seven games gave up 39 points to Cornell. Here's what you might not realize. The Big Red scored 47 points in its win over Yale earlier this year, 49 in its win over Princeton in Week 7 and 49 in a loss to Penn the next week. That's 98 points in the previous two weeks alone. Quarterback Jameson Wang makes his share of mistakes but he makes a lot more plays with his arm and his legs. And with sophomore Samuel Musungu coming of age at wide receiver, soph Ryder Kurtz at tight end and classmate Ean Pope at running back, the Big Red has an explosive offense. In fact, Cornell leads the Ivy League in conference scoring this fall at 37.5 points per game.
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It's the final week of the Ivy League season and time for my annual vent about kickoff times for Week 10.
With the championship on the line, all four Ivy games should start at the same time. We're fortunate this year that the three games with championship implications are all noon kickoffs. (Princeton-Penn is at 1 p.m.) As was the case last year when Dartmouth learned it had won a share while milling about on the field after the win over Brown, a team (and its fans) shouldn't have to wait an hour or more to learn their fate.
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This week's FCS polls with Dartmouth still getting votes in the Coaches Poll:
Stats Perform | W-L | Pts | Prev | |
1 | North Dakota State (41) | 10-1 | 1385 | 1 |
2 | Montana State (15) | 11-0 | 1356 | 2 |
3 | South Dakota State | 9-2 | 1290 | 3 |
4 | South Dakota | 8-2 | 1189 | 5 |
5 | UC Davis | 9-2 | 1165 | 4 |
6 | UIW | 9-2 | 1086 | 6 |
7 | Idaho | 8-3 | 1022 | 8 |
8 | Mercer | 9-2 | 1002 | 7 |
9 | Montana | 8-3 | 903 | 10 |
10 | Richmond | 9-2 | 880 | 11 |
11 | Abilene Christian | 8-3 | 846 | 14 |
12 | Southeast Missouri State | 9-2 | 799 | 12 |
13 | Rhode Island | 9-2 | 754 | 15 |
14 | Illinois State | 8-3 | 624 | 17 |
15 | Villanova | 8-3 | 620 | 9 |
16 | Tarleton State | 8-3 | 585 | 13 |
17 | Harvard | 8-1 | 431 | 20 |
18 | Stony Brook | 8-3 | 343 | 16 |
19 | Duquesne | 8-2 | 285 | 22 |
20 | Jackson State | 9-2 | 271 | 23 |
21 | Northern Arizona | 7-4 | 266 | 25 |
22 | UT Martin | 7-4 | 192 | 18 |
23 | South Carolina State | 8-2 | 182 | NR |
24 | New Hampshire | 7-4 | 173 | NR |
25 | Eastern Kentucky | 7-4 | 167 | NR |
Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots):T ennessee State 97; William & Mary 69; North Carolina Central 56; Southern Utah 38; Southeastern Louisiana 28; Chattanooga 24; Western Carolina 21; Central Arkansas 19; ETSU10; Tennessee Tech 8; Lehigh 6; Drake 5 |
FCS Coaches | W-L | Pts | Prev | |
1 | North Dakota State (23) | 10-1 | 647 | 1 |
2 | Montana State (3) | 11-0 | 623 | 2 |
3 | South Dakota State | 9-2 | 601 | 3 |
4 | South Dakota | 8-2 | 544 | 5 |
5 | UC Davis | 9-2 | 529 | 4 |
6 | UIW | 9-2 | 515 | 6 |
7 | Richmond | 9-2 | 490 | 7 |
8 | Idaho | 8-3 | 435 | 10 |
9 | Mercer | 9-2 | 428 | 9 |
10 | Montana | 8-3 | 392 | 11 |
11 | Southeast Missouri State | 9-2 | 386 | 13 |
12 | ACU | 8-3 | 356 | 15 |
13 | Illinois State | 8-3 | 317 | 16 |
14 | Villanova | 8-3 | 290 | 8 |
15 | Rhode Island | 9-2 | 288 | 18 |
16 | Tarleton State | 8-3 | 244 | 12 |
17 | Jackson State | 9-2 | 237 | 20 |
18 | Missouri State | 8-3 | 221 | 14 |
19 | Duquesne | 8-2 | 178 | 21 |
20 | Stony Brook | 8-3 | 139 | 17 |
T- 21 | Harvard | 8-1 | 130 | 22 |
T- 21 | South Carolina State | 8-2 | 130 | 23 |
23 | Butler | 9-2 | 65 | T-25 |
24 | UT Martin | 7-4 | 63 | 19 |
25 | Tennessee State | 8-3 | 52 | NR |
Others Receiving Votes: Northern Arizona, 41; North Carolina Central, 32; William & Mary, 29; Drake, 10; Southeastern Louisiana, 8; Eastern Kentucky, 7; New Hampshire, 7; Chattanooga, 5; Southern Utah, 4; Dartmouth, 3; North Dakota, 3; Central Arkansas, 1. |
• Ethan Sipe, offensive line, Dartmouth (2024): Sipe got 20 snaps in the season opener with Richmond, suffered a broken foot, and was lost for the season thereafter.
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You've got to love (or hate) NAIA football:
𝑨𝑹𝑮𝑼𝑨𝑩𝑳𝒀 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑴𝑶𝑺𝑻 𝑫𝑶𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑨𝑵𝑻 𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑴𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑰𝑵 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑮𝑬 𝑭𝑶𝑶𝑻𝑩𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑯𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀@UPIKEFOOTBALL QB Lee Kirkland shattered multiple NAIA and CFB records in the Bears’ 90-14 win over St Andrew’s yesterday#NAIA #NAIAFootball pic.twitter.com/TliKr4qsxB
— The College Football Network (@thecfbnetwork) November 17, 2024
In case that's hard to read, a 6-foot-6, 265-pound quarterback at the University of Pikesville in Kentucky named Lee Kirkland completed 41-of-47 passes for 646 yards and 11 touchdowns in a 90-14 win.
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The Dartmouth women's basketball team suffered a 61-37 loss to Vermont yesterday but might have won a few fans with its leading scorer writing an opinion piece in The Dartmouth about the team's decision not to join the men's team and try to unionize. From the piece (LINK):
We firmly believe that this choice serves the best interests of the past, present and future members of our program. We remain committed to identifying ourselves as student-athletes, not employees, and will continue to prioritize the values that define our experience at Dartmouth.
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Speaking of the women's loss at Vermont, I find it curious that with the stated push for the sports publicity staff to "tell stories," the basketball writeups have gone to the "How it Happened" model instead of writing actual stories.
Green Alert Take: When I'm working on the recaps I write on Sundays for all of the Ivy League football games, if a school uses the How it Happened format, I immediate close that page and go to the other school's site, hoping that have an actual narrative. I find them much more useful.
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EXTRA POINT
We have a neat online picture frame in our living room that allows family members to remotely share photos that rotate every few seconds. Occasionally I'll look up and see a picture that either I don't remember or that simply catches my attention anew. This one taken by That Certain Dartmouth '14 of Griff the Wonder Dog climbing the peak of my daily hiking trail near sunset is one of those photos I found myself admiring last night.
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| Click photo to enlarge |
