Alumni In The News

Macklin Ayers ’24, the standout linebacker who grad transferred to UMass after picking up his diploma, is honored in a PennLive story headlined The best Mid-Penn football players of the century so far. The story says that the Elizabethville, Pa. product succeeded “either through speed or toughness or sheer defiance,” and that he "covered a ton of ground in his prep career with his blue collar approach.”

The PennLive piece is behind a paywall. but can be found HERE.

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Screenshot from 2004 Dartmouth media guide

A story headlined Mizzou Players Share the Story Behind Their Jersey Numbers includes thoughts from coaches including this from Derham Cato ’05 (LINK):

Tight ends coach Derham Cato, defensive lineman at Dartmouth, No. 90

"Not really a reason. They kind of just gave it to me when I showed up Day 1." "I was 81 in high school, but I was a tight end in high school, and then they flipped me (to defense) overnight, and they kept feeding me, and I kept moving inside (along the defensive line). Like, at least 90, it's like, kind of sexy. So I just let it rip, I didn't mind it too bad.”

Do you think you were a good player?: 

No. I would have been somewhere else. I loved my time in college football. And the beautiful thing about football, there's a place for everybody. And getting ready for playing at Harvard is, I mean, you get the same feeling as doing that as me on the sideline out here getting ready to play an SEC opponent. So football is a beautiful game. Doesn't matter where you're playing. It doesn't matter how many people are in the stands."

Cato was a three-year starter and four-year letterman at Dartmouth. He went on to see time in the Arena Football League, NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League and AFL2 before returning to coach tight ends at Dartmouth in 2010. He’s also been on staff at Vanderbilt, Davidson, Washington for five years, Maine for a short stint before moving on to Missouri in 2023.

(Another Ivy League coaching veteran at Missouri is Sean Gleeson, who spent six years at Princeton before moving on to Rutgers, Oklahoma State and Northwestern.)

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Stats Perform's Walter Payton Award Preseason Watch List for the outstanding FCS offensive player of the year features Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig and Cornell wide receiver Samuel Musungu (LINK).

Green Alert Take: I pulled the Payton Watch List up expecting to see Dartmouth All-America Chris Corbo listed but while there were 10 quarterbacks, 13 running backs and seven wide receivers, there wasn’t a single tight end on the list. Granted, it would be hard to quantify an offensive lineman for the award, but whither tight ends? You’d think a year after Penn State’s Tyler Warren finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy balloting the position would get a little more love from the Payton Award folks.

Stats Perform also had two Ivy Leaguers on the Watch List for the Buchanan Award as the nation’s top defensive player. Named were Harvard defensive back Ty Bartrum and Yale DB Abu Kamara. (LINK)

In addition to the two Payton and two Buchanan nominees, Dartmouth will face another pair of players  this fall who were included on the Watch Lists. Fordham linebacker James Conway and Central Connecticut running back Elijah Howard also made the cut.

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EXTRA POINT

On my hike early on this final morning of July I came across a reminder that fall – read: football – is just around the corner.