• When does Dartmouth kick off spring football?Tuesday, April 8, which is in 53 days.• When is the spring Green-White game?Saturday, May 10.
Green Alert Take: As aways, spring dates are subject to change, although the opening of the indoor practice facility, which I like to call The Green House, largely takes weather out of the spring equation.
Placekicker
35 Owen Zalc (5-10, 165, So.) or
37 Matisse Weaver (5-10, 200, So.)
Holder
13 Woods Ray (6-2, 210, So.) or
12 Jackson Proctor (6-2, 210, Sr.)
Long Snapper
31 Andy Belles (6-3, 210, So.) or
52 Braden Mullen (6-4, 240, Sr.)
Punter
1 Davis Golick (6-1, 210, Sr.) or
17 Luke Armistead (6-1, 190, Fy.)
Kickoff Return
86 Nick Lemon (5-11, 195, So.) or
15 D.J. Crowther (5-11, 205, Jr.)
Punt Return
9 Sean Williams (5-9, 190, Jr.) or
7 Paxton Scott (6-1, 200, 5th)
For reasons unknown to me, not included in the two-deep is this, which I've taken the liberty of adding:
Placekicker
37 Matisse Weaver (5-10, 200, So.)
35 Owen Zalc (5-10, 165, So.)
Green Alert Take: All of the specialists on the first line of the depth chart had an "or" after their name. In some cases that was ridiculous. The silliest was at placekicker. After earning freshman All-America honors in his first season, Owen Zalc was never going to be a game-time decision last fall unless he was injured.
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Rams.com has a piece headlined Where Are They Now? Rams Legend QB Jeff Kemp.
Green Alert Take: Former Dartmouth quarterback Jeff Kemp '81 absolutely beat the odds by not only making an NFL roster after a modest career with the Big Green, but by lasting 10 years in the league. That said, it's a stretch to label someone who played in just 24 games for the Rams a "legend."
In the story Kemp shares a behind-the-scenes look at what happened in 1984 when Los Angeles starter Vince Ferragamo was hurt and he was pressed into action:
"My first start (in Week 4) against the Cincinnati Bengals, we won the game (24-14)," Kemp said. "And that week with Vince going down and me being so unproven, the papers were all panicked. 'What are the Rams going to do? Kemp is just an extra arm from Dartmouth. He's not ready to play.'
"So (Head Coach) John Robinson said in the team meeting, 'Hey, we don't need to worry about Vince going down and depending on Jeff. He doesn't have to win the game by himself. He's not going to do anything special to win the game for us.' And I'd been kind of demure and laying low before that, and so I spoke up and said, 'How do you know?' And John said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'How do you know I'm not going to do something great and help us win?' And he looked at me and said, 'Damn right! You just might!'
Kemp was with the Rams for four seasons, then spent one year with the 49ers before moving on to Seattle for 4½ years and then closing out his career with a half season in Philadelphia. He finished with 6,230 passing yards, 39 touchdowns and 40 interceptions. He made 29 career starts and appeared in 96 games. Find his yearly statistics HERE.
If you were wondering (and I was) how those numbers compared to those put up Jay Fiedler, the 1994 Big Green grad played nine years in the NFL, passing for 11,844 yards with 69 touchdowns and 66 interceptions. He made 60 career starts and appeared in 76 games. Find Fiedler's yearly statistics HERE.
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EXTRA POINT
Although Vermont is a pretty small state, the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST) somehow maintains and grooms more than 5,000 miles of trails. Per the association website, its 127 clubs and "their steadfast volunteers, and the landowners that allow riders to cross their land, are the backbone of the organization."
Per VAST, there are ± 10,000 landowners who "graciously" allow trails to cross their property. We don't have a trail on our land but there's a trail directly across the road that emerges from the woods, passes through a field, crosses our road and transects the back of our uphill neighbor's property. Although we've had regular snow this winter, only a few snowmobilers have come through so far. With more of the white stuff on the way tomorrow and a potential big storm Sunday, I expect we'll be hearing the whine of more than a few "snow travelers" this weekend.
