Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Looking Ahead To The Tussle

Here's how prognosticators see the The Tussle between Dartmouth and Brown playing out, as well as the other two games with a bearing on the Ivy League title race. A reminder that all three teams in the title race are at home Saturday.
Per Sagarin:
Dartmouth is favored by 11 points over Brown
Harvard is favored by six points over Yale
Columbia is favored by 5½ points over Cornell

The amateur oddsmakers have:
Dartmouth favored by 14 over Brown
Harvard favored by 4½  over Yale
Columbia favored by 8½ over Cornell 

Massey sees:
Dartmouth defeating Brown, 34-21 with 80 percent confidence
Harvard  defeating Yale , 31-27, with 61 percent confidence
Columbia defeating Cornell , 27-20, with 69 percent confidence

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Wait, did he just call the Dartmouth-Brown game The Tussle?


Yes he did. As a post on this site last year opined, when the Ivy League in all its wisdom adjusted the football schedule to replace the always highly anticipated Dartmouth-Princeton season-ender with Dartmouth-Brown, the change was met with a decided lack of enthusiasm among the Big Green faithful.

Branding the game is one way to add a little juice to the season-ending contest. And because back in the day unofficial nicknames always seemed to start in the press, we here in the BGA World Headquarters took it upon ourselves to present to you The Tussle!

And why The Tussle you ask? Good question.

The Tussle is a way to honor someone instrumental in the fortunes of both the Dartmouth and Brown programs as well as the game of college football as a whole. This is excerpted from an earlier posting:
College Football Hall of Famer DeOrmond (Tuss) McLaughry served as head coach at both Dartmouth and Brown.

McLaughry headed up the Bears’ program from 1926-40, posting a record of 76-58-5. His first team, the legendary “Brown Iron Men,” featured 11 players who were on the field for all 60 minutes of wins over Dartmouth and Yale, as well as for much of the rest of that season. His 1926 team finished 9-0-1 and is still the only undefeated team in Brown football history, while his ’28 and ’32 teams both lost just one time.

McLaughry moved on to Dartmouth in 1941, replacing Earl Blaik. After two seasons he took a leave to serve his country as a lieutenant colonel in the Marines. He would return to the Big Green in 1945 and coach the team until 1954. His 1948 and ’49 squads were credited at the time with being the first in school history to post six wins over so-called “major” teams.

While McLaughry is part of football lore at both Dartmouth and Brown, his biggest impact may have been on his profession.

In addition to serving on the NCAA football rules committee from 1945-54, he played an integral role in the American Football Coaches Association, serving first as the organization’s secretary, then as president, and finally as its executive director from 1960 to 1965.

During his tenure the American Football Coaches Association bestowed the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award for "service to football" on McLaughry, and in 1964 the AFCA honored the former Brown and Dartmouth mentor by establishing the Tuss McLaughry Award, the highest honor given out by the organization. It is presented annually for nothing less than “service to mankind.”

Read those words again. The award bearing Tuss McLaughry's name is presented for "service to mankind."

Among the winners of the McLaughry Award since its inception have been General Douglas MacArthur, Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the Apollo 11 astronauts, Jimmy Stewart, General Chuck Yeager, Roger Staubach and former Dartmouth football player Jeffrey Immelt ’78, who went on to run General Electric. This year’s honoree will be Archie Manning.

Green Alert Take: Enjoy this year's edition of The Tussle, once again with a piece of the Ivy League title at stake.

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With the Ivy League race coming down the stretch, college football teams jockeying for the playoffs and the NFL grabbing headlines, this news from the weekend got overlooked. Mea culpa!

This Xweet from Sam Laptad '16 offers kudos to former teammate Flo Orimolade '17 for helping the Toronto Argonauts with the CFL's Grey Cup:

Find Oriomolade's bio on the Argos' website HERE. He finished the season with six sacks, one interception, one forced fumble and 17 tackles.

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This headline will grab your attention: Transfer Portal: Ivy League players to watch. Listed with short capsules on the site (LINK):

Wide receiver WR Bryson Canty, Columbia
Offensive guard John Iannuzzi, Columbia
Safety Trey Harris, Cornell

Green Alert Take: Players in the portal can return to their current school if they still have eligibility remaining. If I'm reading the bios correctly, Canty should have the opportunity of another year at Columbia after being limited to three games a year ago (as long as he doesn't graduate). Iannuzzi and Harris can have another year elsewhere after not seeing action as freshmen, but would be able to return to the Ivy League only if for some reason they had a medical redshirt.  

Green Alert Take II: These won't be the last names to pop up. Far from it. Cornell's game notes last week reminded us that 15 of the 27 seniors on the 2023 Big Red roster went on to play elsewhere this fall. The end of the COVID-19 super senior exception will cut that number down around the league but there will still be players moving on.

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EXTRA POINT
The forecast calls for a chance of rain tomorrow through Saturday in these parts and while that may not be a good thing if you are in the stands for The Tussle Saturday, it would be a good thing for our area. CLICK HERE for a map showing the drought conditions in northern New England. Hanover is in the "moderate drought" category while here in our part of Vermont – on the border of the Upper Valley and the Northeast Kingdom – we're in the "abnormally dry" category.

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Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Your Mileage May Vary

With UMass firing head football coach Don Brown (who got his start at the college level at Dartmouth LINK), someone at College Football Network has posted a story headlined, 5 Candidates to Replace Don Brown at UMass Include Brennan Marion, Ricky Santos.

Listing Santos, the New Hampshire coach who grew up in Massachusetts before helping lift the Wildcats to new heights as their quarterback, is no surprise. More of a surprise is another of the five names mentioned. From the story (LINK):
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.





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A story out of Virginia headlined Report Card: How did UVA Football do this year with the transfer portal? features several familiar names. Among those listed under the Key Contributors subhed are tight end Tyler Neville of Harvard and corner Kendren Smith of Penn. And under the Injured List subhed (LINK):
• 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:  

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.

Click photo to enlarge

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