Besides Boise State, offers came from Kansas, Tulsa, Air Force, Army, Tulane, Navy, Penn, North Texas, Louisiana Lafayette, Dartmouth, Texas State, New Mexico and Sam Houston State.
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Speaking of Austin Jeanty, I gave up my Heisman vote several years ago, but I'm still on their mailing list and received this reminder a few days back.
As a voter for many years, I was sworn to secrecy about how I voted until the announcement came out. Given that I don't have a vote anymore, I'm free to tell. you which way I would be leaning if I still had my vote.
By way of background, Heisman voters are asked to pick their first, second and third choices.
For as much as I would be tempted to vote for Jeanty given his near-record production, I would have chosen two-way start Travis Hunter for my first-place vote. He's kind of like college football's version of Shohei Ohtani, although unlike the Dodger great, he's not really in the discussion as the best in the country at either of his positions.
Jeanty, by way contrast, is in the discussion as the best running back in the country, which the numbers this year suggest he is. He'd get my second-place vote today.
As for my third-place vote, do you remember when Sports Illustrated campaigned for Joe Dudek, the running back for then Division III New Hampshire powerhouse Plymouth State? The idea of someone breaking the mold of the traditional Heisman candidate, which SI was pushing for, appeals to me. And so my third-place vote would go for Tyler Warren, the tight end from Penn State. And I don't want to hear anything about my predilection for the Nittany Lions. Watch these highlights and I think you'll agree the guy at least deserves a chance to go to NYC.
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Shared by a loyal BGA reader, here's a blurb from a 1991 SI under the headline, A Late-Season Homecoming that provides a little history lesson regarding Dartmouth football scheduling:
Until last Saturday, Dartmouth hadn't played its final game at home since 1927. That was because school officials had feared that late-November weather in Hanover, N.H., would be better suited for snowballs than footballs. The tradeoff was that for the last 27 years Dartmouth got to open Ivy League play at home.
However, some malcontent evidently complained that Dartmouth got too much of an advantage by always opening at home – never mind that the Big Green had lost seven consecutive league openers before this season. So Dartmouth began Ivy play on the road this season and closed it last weekend by meeting Princeton for the league title in Hanover. There was no snow, but the day was cold and gray and the field mushy.
Each team came into the game with five league wins; Princeton had lost once, to Harvard, and the Big Green had tied a game, also with Harvard. The visiting Tigers, who hadn't won the Ivy title outright in 26 years, were so confident of victory hat they brought along two cases of champagne and stored them in the locker room for the postgame celebration. At least, that was what the Dartmouth coaches told their players. "That got us fired up," said Big Green tailback Al Rosier. Of course, the story may have been nothing nore than a motivational ploy by Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, because Tiger coach Steve Tosches later denied having anything stronger than soda pop in his dressing room.
Despite treacherous footing, Rosier was splendid in Dartmouth's 31-13 victory, accounting for 190 of his team's 304 rushing yards while Princeton was running for a paltry 69 yards. Rosier finished with 1,432 yards for the season, making him the alltime leading rusher in 110 seasons of Dartmouth football.
The victory gave Dartmouth its first outright Ivy title since 1978. The Green's quarterback that year was Teevens, who now has lost only one Ivy game in the last two seasons at his alma mater.
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EXTRA POINT
I was a little late out of the gate, but I finally put up our ancient LL Bean Snow Stick yesterday. While we got a couple of inches or so Wednesday night and another inch-plus last night, given the weight of the unusually wet snow we got last week the stick is showing just six inches this morning.
The stick goes up to 36 inches and while we certainly aren't Buffalo or Erie or anywhere in the Sierra, the entire stick disappeared on numerous occasions when we lived on the shoulder of Moose Mountain. We haven't come even close to burying it in the five winters we've been back in Vermont, but there's always hope. ;-)
