A Look Back (A Lot Of Them, Actually)

Dartmouth athletic communications has several sentences from coach Sammy McCorkle about the Green-White Game HERE.

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With the Green-White Game behind us, it will be 132 days until we see Dartmouth on the field for its opener at Lehigh on Sept. 19. With very little happening in the Big Greeniverse before then, here's a look back at highlights from last year's seven wins, in order:

   

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EXTRA POINT
Big day on the video bird feeder front. We set a record with 439 bird visits yesterday with Jacob and Esther, the northern cardinal husband and wife, the stars of the show.

Happy Mother's Day!

The Dartmouth football program's social media posted this coming out of yesterday's Green-White Game:

Spring Game Ballin.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/qzgvBaqZtr

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) May 9, 2026

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By now I hope you've read the posts I tossed up last night with game coverage, notes, statistics from the 12th and final day of spring football and the announcement of new captains and most improved by position group. If not, find that coverage HERE.

Because it's pretty much impossible to compile statistics on defensive players as a one-person stat crew working a game where there's no tackling, the players on that side of the ball were a little shortchanged on BGA last night. That being the case, here is a random selection of notes in the margins of my stat sheets yesterday:

Fumble batted around by several players on both offense and defense before Chris Chol falls on it in what would be the end zone ... Did Christian Harris toe tap and hold onto the ball for a nifty interception on the sideline? ... Uche Odimegwu has QB running for his life ... Johnny Riley with a tackle for loss ... Riley with another tackle at the line or behind it ... Bruce Williams with a sack for a loss of seven ... Matisse Brosseau (?) tips pass at the QB's hand ... Williams should have been awarded a sack but the officials swallowed their whistles ... Joshua Johnson with another would-be sack that goes down as a five-yard run ... Johnny Stephens with a pass breakup ... Odimegwu with a tackle for loss or at the line of scrimmage ... Johnson with another sack. They can't block him ... Matthew Boydell coming up big in the middle of the defense for a fourth-down stop ... Odimegwu again with a tackle for no gain.

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Just discovered a Block Destruction: Donut Tackle video from new defensive line coach Quentin Jones:

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EXTRA POINT
Mrs. BGA and I went to the West Newbury talent/variety show last night. No, we didn't participate but it was a reminder about the beating heart of our rural northern New England village. From a well-known musical dad providing backup for his talented young daughter, to a church choir, to our town's young postal clerk breaking out his guitar and playing a song he wrote, to an old sailor reading a poem, to an intermission featuring legendary rhubarb punch and more goodies than it should, it was a thoroughly delightful evening spent with neighbors in a very special place.

To get a feel for how our little town revolves around this old building, click on the photo to bring up the story. As one of our neighbors says in the story, "“If you say you’re from West Newbury, then you are. Maybe not geographically, but if you’re part of the spirit of West Newbury, you’re considered part of the community.”

Green-White Day

10:15 update: The Green-White is taking place in the Indoor Practice Facility.

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It's Green-White Game day and it looks like the weather is going to hold. The predicted rain is expected to stay mostly to the south of Hanover until early this afternoon.

Be sure to visit BGA Overtime tonight for a recap and the announcement of the 2026 captains and the spring "most-improved" in each position group.

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3 Down Nation, which covers the Canadian Football League, had a piece earlier this week headlined The CFL’s highest-paid defensive linemen in 2026 that has former Dartmouth linebacker Flo Orimolade '17 slotted fifth in the league. From the story (LINK):

5) Folarin Orimolade, Calgary Stampeders (A)
Hard money: $221, 500
Maximum value: $227,500
The two-time Grey Cup champion got a $75,000 signing bonus to agree to a new deal with the Stampeders in January. The 30-year-old native of Washington, D.C. will also collect $106,500 in salary, $20,000 in marketing, $15,000 in housing, $4,000 in travel, and $1,000 in training in 2026, plus up to $6,000 in awards incentives

The "A" after his name indicates he's an American player. Also from the story:

“Hard money” is a CFL term that refers to any portion of a contract that is paid even if a player is hurt. This includes base salary, signing bonuses, roster bonuses, housing allowances, travel allowances, and training allowances. Marketing money, which is officially called “non-football-related services,” isn’t always guaranteed, though we’ve decided to include it in hard money for this series.

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With the first Calgary preseason game nine days away and the regular season beginning June 5, the CFL official website as a post headlined 5 Things To Know For 2026: Calgary Stampeders that includes this as one of the five (LINK):

Defensive end Folarin Orimolade (30 sacks and 124 tackles in 78 career games) suffered an Achilles injury last September and it is unclear as to whether he’ll be ready for the opening of training camp, and if not, how much game action he’ll have to miss to start the season.

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If you ever heard the story, you may have wondered if the supposed benefit to kids growing up in Wheelock, Vt., was true. Your answer showed up on the WCAX -TV news. Spoiler alert: Yes, it's true.

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EXTRA POINT
Back when he was a puppy, Griff the Wonder Dog and I came around a bend where the Appalachian Trail ran behind our house on the shoulder of Moose Mountain and found ourselves in a staring contest with a black bear. It probably took only a couple of seconds but felt like a couple of minutes before the bear decided it had seen enough and scurried deeper into the woods.

I was very glad Griff wasn't with me when I was on my usual trail Thursday. I didn't run into a bear this time, but did have a legitimate 30-second staring contest with someone else, who showed no signs of backing up until I said a few words to it. Griff had one run-in with a porcupine when he was younger and it wasn't pretty.

No Winner Or Loser But It's (Almost) A Game

Dartmouth's Green-White Game is tomorrow. Because some of you who may be thinking about heading out to Memorial Field don't click through to visit BGA Overtime, here's the way last night's OT post began:

In part because it led to the poaching of their players in the transfer portal, a significant number of FBS football coaches stopped holding spring games and replaced them with one final practice.

The NCAA closed the second portal window this year but the number of spring games at the FBS level still continued to fall.

As they used to say in these parts, “It’s different at Dartmouth.”

While they won’t be drafting teams the way the Big Green did years ago, coach Sammy McCorkle has no intention of turning Saturday’s Green-White Game into a glorified practice.

“We’re going to try to keep it a game situation as much as possible,” he said after Thursday’s practice on sun-splashed Memorial Field. “We’re going to have intermittent stuff. Our depth at defensive line is a little bit of a concern with those guys playing a lot of snaps. So we’ll mix some things in there, like a little punt stuff at halfway points of quarters to give those guys a bit of a breather.

“But overall, we want to keep it as much of a game situation as we can. That’s our goal. I’d like to average about 50 snaps per group, so about 100 for the full scrimmage.”

As has been the case for a few years, the new captains will be introduced Saturday and the most improved players in various areas of the field will be recognized by their position coaches.

The team will be on the field by 10 Saturday morning with the Green-White Game itself starting a bit later.

The BGA Overtime post segued from the explanation of the Green-White Game to Coach McCorkle's answers to questions you submitted. Click HERE to visit the full page. (And yes, I had to look up how to spell segued. ;-)

One last thing: A reminder that there will be coverage of the Green-White Game tomorrow night on the OT.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers PewterReport.com has a piece headlined Bucs rookie mini-camp 2026: One word for each defensive player. I thought there was a chance they would use "Strong" for defensive lineman Josiah Green '25, but they took the cliché way out. Here's what they wrote (LINK):

DT Josiah Green: Intelligent
Green was a four-year member and three-year letter winner for the football program at Dartmouth and earned unanimous All-Ivy honors in 2024 before transferring to Duke in 2025. It goes without saying that it takes a great deal of smarts to graduate from Dartmouth, an Ivy League school, and then finish up your college experience at Duke, another prestigious university. But it's not just classroom smarts that you get with Green, a 6-foot, 284-pound tackle. He spends a lot of time watching film and incorporating the opposition's tendencies into his approach on gamedays.

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Sports Illustrated used to have a piece called Signs of the Apocalypse. Maybe it still does, but how would anyone know? But I digress.

This from an ON3 post fits the bill (LINK):

Another blue-blood quarterback from last season, Alabama's Ty Simpson, revealed that he received an alleged $6.5 million offer from Miami that had him seriously considering forgoing the draft and entering the Portal. He ultimately turned that offer down, however, and was selected with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Green Alert Take: It's pro football, folks.

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EXTRA POINT
So, you think you are wasting time reading down this far in BGA? Think again!

This was a clue Ken Jennings read the contestants the category titled FASTEN-ATING! on Monday's Jeopardy:

If you made it this far in your daily visit to BGA back on Dec. 31, you know the correct response. (LINK) 

Final Call For Questions

If you have a question you'd like me to ask Sammy McCorkle, you still have time to send it along. I'm heading to practice late this afternoon so if you have something you'd like me to ask for you before then, click HERE. That will create a blank email to me with the subject line Questions for Coach. I'll ask your questions anonymously, and post his responses on BGA Overtime  tonight.

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A site called Viking Territory has a piece headlined Pretty Quietly, The Vikings Added 1 More Newcomer for Center Competition that offers up an analysis of how former Dartmouth offensive lineman Delby Lemieux fits with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent. From the story (LINK):

A touch small, Mr. Lemieux is a smart player who boasts very good athleticism; his 9.33 RAS Score is elite. Operating at center in a scheme like Minnesota’s means needing those two things: brains and movement abilities. Likewise, the detail about being a captain is worth remembering, as well, since being a center means needing to be a leader. Rounding out the optimism is that Lemieux must be a worker. Very few go from being an Ivy League lineman who wasn’t ranked going into college to an offseason NFL roster. Clearly, Lemieux isn’t allergic to work.

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BGA Overtime had a bit about Tuesday night about Dartmouth football players and their involvement in the bone marrow matching effort. This is from the program's social media:

Teamed up with @DartmouthSkiing & @DartmouthWLax for a community marrow drive which we are proud to highlight with our partners @casellawaste. This event was about raising awareness and taking action in the fight against cancer. One simple swab could make you the match that saves… pic.twitter.com/arFIAg0oAB

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) May 6, 2026

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Several weeks ago BGA posted a series of statistical charts, but punting was not included because it hadn't been compiled on the Dartmouth or Ivy League football websites. That being the case, I went back and pulled together the punting averages, number of punts and season-longs for the leading punter each year back to 1960. Here are the top 20 season averages for the players who led the team in punts each year:

Yr	Name	Avg	No.	Long
2001	Alex Ware	42.9	39	73
2025	Luke Armistead	42.7	26	58
1999	Wayne Schlobohm	42.3	55	60
2024	Davis Golick	41.4	40	62
2008	Brian Scullin	40.8	55	62
1997	Wayne Schlobohm	40.6	72	58
1998	Wayne Schlobohm	40.1	74	71
1981	Rick Bayless	39.3	40	55
1982	John Corbett	39.1	36	54
1966	Tom Pyles	38.9	33	-
2014	Ben Kepley	38.9	39	58
2000	Alex Ware	38.7	37	66
2002	Alex Ware	38.5	47	57
2003	Grant Wagner	38.1	59	61
1996	Wayne Schlobohm	37.9	58	68
1984	Elwyn Fields	37.7	46	48
1988	Rob Hubbard	37.7	46	62
2010	Daniel Barstein	37.6	43	61
2011	Daniel Barstein	37.4	50	54
2015	Ben Kepley	37.4	49	60

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Yahoo out of the UK has reposted a Business Insider piece under the headline The most beautiful college campus in every US state. You can probably guess what school takes the honors for New Hampshire. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
Why is it that my desk has a drawer full of ballpoint pens, but when I pull one out it doesn't write? Then  I toss it back in the drawer and pull out a couple more, and they don't write either, so I toss them back in the drawer as well.

Am I doing something wrong? ;-)

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. But they are perfectly fine pens that have plenty of ink in them so I can't bear to toss them out.

A Familiar (Last) Name

Quarterback Richmond Saunier, younger brother of starting Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier, has chosen Dartmouth over Princeton, Cornell, South Alabama and Northwestern State. He'll be a senior a Lafayette (La.) High School in the fall.

Find his highlights HERE, and an interview where he's asked how he compares to his brother HERE.

This And That

From Dartmouth's social media:

From the field to the boardroom, leadership translates.
Thanks to Jeff Immelt ’78 and Clay Adams ’93, ’99 former Dartmouth Big Green football players, for coming back to Dartmouth and dropping knowledge on leading through communication and action.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/URJtZJN2yZ

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) May 5, 2026

In the notes section of last night's BGA Overtime story, coach Sammy McCorkle discusses the impact Immelt 's talk had on his players and staff. (LINK)

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Thursday's BGA Overtime report will feature a "mailbag" with your questions for Coach McCorkle. If you have something you'd like me to ask for you, click HERE. That will create a blank email to me with the subject line Questions for Coach. I'll ask your questions anonymously, and post his responses on BGA Overtime  the same way Thursday evening.

Green Alert Take: Questions have started to trickle in, but there have to be more out there, right?

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HERO Sports has a listing of the top FCS linebackers this fall and former Dartmouth standout Zyion Freer-Brown, who grad transferred to The Citadel, comes in at No. 23. Current Ivy Leaguers who made the cut are No. 6 Sean Line (Harvard), No. 19 Phoenix Grant (Yale), and No. 26 Chase Christopher (Princeton). Find the full list HERE.

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And on the subject of transfers, a piece headlined Duke must find Aaron Hall replacement at defensive tackle includes this (LINK):

Joining Watson and Anderson are Michigan/Penn State redshirt sophomore transfer Owen Wafle and Dartmouth graduate transfer Dakota Quiñonez. Wafle is a former 4-star recruit who is finally hoping to earn an opportunity to start for the Blue Devils, while Quiñonez, a first-team All-Ivy League defensive tackle, looks to be a key member of the rotation.

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And one more note about transfers. Holy Cross went 12-1 in Bob Chesney's final season and followed that with 7-4, 6-6 and 3-9 records. Having become reaccustomed to winning, the Crusaders apparently are intent on doing so again.

Per HERO Sports, since last year Holy Cross has added FBS transfers from Pitt, Kentucky, Wake Forest, UConn (3), Boston College, Old Dominion and Georgia State. (LINK)

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Speaking of the FBS, the American Football Coaches Association has come out with four proposals regarding the college calendar, including the elimination of conference championship games. (LINK)

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News has broken about former Yale football coach Tony Reno's devastating medical diagnosis. While the Yale family will surely step forward to help, the rest of the Ivy League has an opportunity to do its part as well. From a fundraiser site:

There are challenges ahead that no family should have to carry alone — including financial pressures that impact every part of family life, now and in the days ahead. If you feel moved to contribute, know that anything given goes directly toward Tony and his family, so they can face what's ahead together.

To visit the Reno Family Support site, click HERE.

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EXTRA POINT

I almost never listen to the radio in my car. If I’m alone, I might put on a podcast or the news, but that’s about it.

On my way to campus for the first day of spring football, I accidentally discovered that, thanks to the wonders of satellite technology, my car had been receiving a free trial subscription to Sirius radio. Apparently, it had been active for more than a month, and I hadn’t noticed until driving to practice.

Saturday is the final day of spring football, and last week we got a letter saying the Sirius trial is ending Saturday. Great timing. And sorry, Sirius, but there will be no overtime.

Challenging Schedule? Yup

Three Dartmouth opponents show up in a StatsPerform story headlined It’s Not Early Anymore: Craig Haley’s 2026 FCS Football Preseason Top 25 Rankings. Here are those rankings, with info Haley has dug up on Big Green opponents Lehigh, Yale and Monmouth included (LINK):

1. Montana State (14-2, 8-0 Big Sky)

2. Montana (13-2, 7-1 Big Sky)

3.South Dakota State (9-5, 4-4 MVFC)

4. Illinois State (12-5, 5-3 MVFC)

5. UC Davis (9-4, 6-2 Big Sky)

6. Rhode Island (11-3, 8-0 CAA)

7. Villanova (12-3, 7-1 CAA)

8. Tarleton State (12-2, 7-1 UAC)

9. North Dakota (8-6, 5-3 MVFC)

10. Youngstown State (8-5, 5-3 MVFC) 

11. Lehigh (12-1, 7-0 Patriot)

    •  Key Players: QB Hayden Johnson, RB Luke Yoder, S Nick Peltekian

    • 2 Pivotal Games: at Holy Cross (Aug. 29), at Villanova (Oct. 24)

    • 1 Number to Know: The Mountain Hawks ranked No. 1 in the FCS in rushing yards  allowed, surrendering just 70.1 yards per game. 

12. Southern Illinois (7-5, 4-4 MVFC)

13. South Dakota (10-5, 6-2 MVFC)

14. Austin Peay (7-5, 4-4 UAC)

15. Lamar (8-5, 5-3 Southland)

16. Stephen F. Austin (11-3, 8-0 Southland)

17. Tennessee Tech (11-2, 8-0 OVC-Big South) 

18. Yale (9-3, 6-1 Ivy)

    • 3 Key Players: QB Dante Reno, WR Jaxton Santiago, FS Abu Kamara

    • 2 Pivotal Games: Rhode Island (Oct. 17), Harvard (Nov. 21)

    • 1 Number to Know: The Bulldogs have posted four straight wins over archrival Harvard, with the last three preventing the Crimson from collecting an outright Ivy League title. 

19. Southeastern Louisiana (9-4, 7-1 Southland)

20. Abilene Christian (9-5, 7-1 UAC)

21. UT Martin (6-6, 6-2 OBV-Big South)

22. Western Carolina (7-5, 6-2 SoCon)

23. Jackson State (9-3, 7-1 SWAC) 

24. Monmouth (9-3, 6-2 CAA)

• 3 Key Players: QB Frankie Weaver, LB Charlie Sasso, DB Jaeden Jones

• 2 Pivotal Games: at Tennessee Tech (Aug. 29), at New Hampshire (Oct. 17)

• 1 Number to Know: The Hawks’ FCS-leading 498.7 offensive yards per game marked their second consecutive season with a program high. 

25. Idaho State (6-6, 5-3 Big Sky)

Green Alert Take: Ivy League nonconference scheduling is widely criticized for not being challenging, but don't blame Dartmouth this fall, with two of the three nonconference opponents in this top-25 compiled by the leading writer about FCS football. 

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Is there something you've been wondering about Dartmouth football? This is your chance to have Dartmouth head coach Sammy McCorkle answer your questions, not mine.

The BGA Overtime plan is to build Thursday's practice report around a Q&A with your questions, but that can only happen if the questions come in. To submit yours, click HERE. That will create a blank email to me with the subject line Questions for Coach. Then just ask away. I'll pose the questions to McCorkle anonymously, and post them on the Overtime page the same way.

Green Alert Take: A few questions have come in already. If you are curious about the 2026 Dartmouth team, the new coaching staff, recruiting, scheduling, opponents, how you can help, you name it, click that link above and I'll ask coach McCorkle a selection of your questions.

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Speaking of asking questions, you may recognize the hand recording a few thoughts last Saturday using his daughter's old iPhone – sans a SIM card of course.  ;-)

Continuing to build and gaining confidence.
Coach McCorkle on Spring Practice after practice #9 as we approach the Spring Game.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/rBK4XeW6DX

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) May 4, 2026

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Dartmouth's game at Princeton on Nov. 7 will kick off at noon. We know this because Princeton has "released" its 2026 schedule. (LINK) 

Green Alert Take: I had no idea the schedule was being held captive. Apparently, others are as well because that's the only Dartmouth game time I've seen yet. ;-)

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How big a challenge is it getting Ivy League students to attend athletic events at their school? It's a huge challenge, as the Brown Daily Herald found out. Check out the attendance figures in a deeply reported story headlined A snapshot of sports game attendance at Brown; The Herald’s Data Desk analyzed average game attendance data from fall 2021 to spring 2025 across 13 varsity sports HERE.

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From a website titled Game Day Chatter comes a nugget reminding us of the splash Dartmouth alum Ben Rice is making with the Yankees. The piece notes that Rice and Aaron Judge became the first Yankees teammates in 70 years to both reach double digits in home runs in fewer than 30 games.

The last to do it?

Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra in 1956. Find the story HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but yesterday I cleared off a pile of papers that has been cluttering a corner of my desk here at the BGA World headquarters for too long. But I'll admit it because a lot of what I found were notes from you, the BGA readers, and I kept them because they mean a lot to me and help me keep at it.

Maybe my favorite was from someone who took me to task for not living up to something I posted a couple of years ago, when I took the paywall down on BGA. The note the fellow wrote read:

"For a guy who is not doing it anymore, you are still kind of doing it. Just sayin' . . ."

I guess he has a point. ;-)