Coming And Going

Another Dartmouth social media post, and another opportunity for a new football assistant to introduce himself:

The man leading the corners.@CoachMcGuire_ on his approach and the standard for the secondary.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/bTyFzLgiaY

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) April 2, 2026

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It doesn't happen all that often, but Dartmouth football has seen a recruit "flip" to another school.

Linebacker Parker Maiers of Indianapolis has backed off a commitment to Dartmouth in favor of an opportunity to join the Northwestern program. Here's what Maiers had to say in an On3 story carried by Yahoo (LINK):

“Playing at the highest level of college football has always been a dream of mine and Northwestern gave me that opportunity."

“Not only do they have amazing academics but have a great football program, Their staff has been nothing but welcoming to me and my family. I can’t wait to be a Wildcat.”

Maiers originally picked Dartmouth over offers from Navy, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Buffalo, Air Force, UMass, Western Illinois, Butler and Penn.

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Dartmouth quarterback recruit Jack Cannon is the player in the spotlight in a story headlined, Lacrosse program emerges as title favorite with N.J. football Player of Year back in lineup. From the NJ.com story (LINK):

Holmdel played with the mindset and composure of a team that expects to win big games. The Hornets compete in the Shore Conference’s top division and have been a playoff contender for several years under Quinn, but have never been able to seriously challenge the big three of Rumson-Fair Haven, Manasquan and Christian Brothers. That changed with the win over Manasquan.

That mentality starts with Cannon, a Dartmouth football commit who was the NJ.com state Player of the Year this past fall.

Cannon was credited with a goal and four assists in the story about the Holmdel win. The story goes on:

Cannon put together an all-time career for the Hornets as the team’s record-breaking quarterback, leading them to the program’s first sectional championship with a 41-20 win over Seneca in the Central, Group 3 title game.

He set a state record with 63 touchdowns combined between rushing and passing. He led New Jersey with 33 rushing touchdowns, was fourth with 2,747 passing yards, fifth with 30 passing touchdowns and 10th with 1,673 yards rushing. 

More from the story . . . 

Cannon played lacrosse as a freshman and sophomore and was beginning to develop into one of the best all-around players in the Shore. He skipped his junior season to focus on his football recruitment, leaving a void in Holmdel’s midfield. He committed to Dartmouth in May 2025. Later that summer,, with his collegiate future secured, he decided he would return to lacrosse and play basketball during his senior year.

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Longtime New Jersey sportswriter Paul Franklin – who should know better than to write Dartmouth University – has a piece about new Dartmouth men's basketball coach Brett MacConnell HERE. Franklin points out that MacConnell did not play high school basketball in Central Jersey, but rather was a soccer player.

Of note, the story mentions that . . . 

MacConnell is flying to Fresno, Los Angeles and Philadelphia to meet with the parents of three current players and two incoming freshmen.

Green Alert Take: Call this informed speculation, but the guess here is that the new coach is taking a shot at pulling sophomore guard Connor Amundsen of Fresno and sophomore guard Kareem Thomas of Wilmington, Del. – half an hour from Philly – back out of the transfer portal.

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EXTRA POINT
Following up on yesterday's rant about databases that will not accept our address for package deliveries, the good news is that my order is on its way. In fact, it is projected to arrive at some point today. That's pretty fast service . . . if the package gets here.

I'm optimistic because it is coming from UPS, which like FedEx has dependably delivered to our house, perhaps because the route drivers have come to recognize our name and address.

If I'd known the package was coming by UPS I wouldn't have been as frustrated as I was a couple of nights ago. Of course, even UPS and FedEx are no sure thing. The "Last mile" delivery system sometimes results in packages like mine being dropped off by those services not at our house, but at our local post office, which can present its own set of problems.

As I found out a few months back, a package arriving at our post office is no guarantee we'll get it because the online forms sometimes return a message in red saying they don't deliver to PO boxes so there's nowhere to list the box number. In those cases, I include the "0026" at the end of our zip code (26 is our box). But even that's no guarantee. You'd be amazed how many times I've seen mailing labels where the "+4" is cut off.

And that's why I now put #26 at the end of our street address.

Sorry for getting worked up again. I'll stop now. Let's just hope my package arrives this afternoon. ;-)

Closing In On It

With spring practice beginning next Tuesday, Dartmouth is currently going through mat drills. What's that you ask? What are mat drills?

The answer first appeared on this site 10 years ago. Click HERE to read that post, or just watch a little of what's happening below:

Setting The Foundation.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/PAniq1dDyb

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) April 1, 2026

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A reminder that BGA Overtime will go live again next week when spring ball starts. If you haven't investigate the OT site, you can take a look at it HERE. 

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Dartmouth continued its meet-the-new-coaches series earlier this week with this social media posting:

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An email landed in my in-box yesterday with a reminder that the Dartmouth Friends of Football Golf Classic is set for Saturday, June 20, at Montcalm Golf Club, about 15 minutes from campus. The email provided this tentative schedule:

• 10:30 AM: Shuttle service to course
• 11:30 AM: Registration and lunch
• 1:00 PM: Shotgun start
• 6:00 PM: Post-round reception

The email also noted that they are still recruiting sponsors for everything from the tournament itself down to tee box and green sponsors.

To register for the event, click HERE.

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Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a few steps forward. No idea what will happen, but along with the news of Brett MacConnell being named Dartmouth's new head men's basketball coach earlier this week comes news that two of Dartmouth's most promising young hoop players have entered the portal. Find a listing by school of basketball players in the portal HERE.

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I'm not a fan of click-bait "best of" type postings that force you to click, and click, and click only to find out the headline was a tease. Fortunately, just one click brings up the full listing of The 39 Most Stunning College Campuses in the World. You'll take pride in who comes in at No. 7. Click HERE to see who it is.

Green Alert Take: Gotta admit, I really, really like the setting for No. 20. Of course, that may have something to do with seeing a basketball game there in the dead of a northern New England winter. ;-)

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EXTRA POINT
I'm not going to relitigate why it is so unbelievably annoying that there are databases out there that will not accept our address for the delivery of packages, but here's what I will tell you. After about 90 minutes of trying last evening to order something that cannot be found locally, the paint is peeling off the walls here in the BGA World Headquarters from all the screaming and expletives that came out of my mouth. (OK, that's not entirely true. The paint is not peeling.)

Time will tell if putting our actual town where a PO Box should go will work. Audibles like that sometimes do. Other times, packages are returned to sender.

It is utterly absurd that I can put in my house number, street, town and zip code into the online forms and then be told my address is not valid.

After discussions with our postmaster a while back, I went into Google Maps and tried to change the listed location of our house from the next town to our little town. An email back from Google said the change was accepted, but the postmaster warned me that not every business uses the Google database. He also warned that some of the databases may not be updated for months or even a year. All I can say is "Argh," but I can't shout it. My throat is too sore from shouting last night.

Dartmouth Football Coaching Tree

 

From the top down: Head coach Sammy McCorkle, the coordinators, three returning assistants, and four of the new position coaches.

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Speaking of coaching, former offensive lineman Sanders Davis '14 is in his second year on staff as an offensive line assistant with the Cleveland Browns. The product of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge came to the NFL team after six seasons at Rice University. Find his bio with the Browns HERE and his Dartmouth football bio HERE.

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A headline that is yet another illustration of how football is different in Texas: Rural Texas HS with enrollment just over 100 students set to build $21 million facility. Find the story HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
This is no April Fool's. It was on this day in 1826 that the first patent for what is now called the internal-combustion engine was received in what is now called the Upper Valley. The patent was issued to Samuel Morey for the "gas or vapor engine" he used to motor up and down the Connecticut River. The patent for his engine was "rediscovered" in the Dartmouth archives in 2004. (LINK)

Morey has been honored locally with the eponymous Samuel Morey Bridge connecting the towns of Orford and Fairlee (he lived in both) and by the naming of Fairlee's Lake Morey, where it was long believed Morey sank his steamboat, the Aunt Sally. (LINK)

Coaching News

Not to bury the lede on a day after a day in which Dartmouth announced its new men's basketball coach, but the Big Green football program has its new running backs coach.

Add to the Dartmouth staff Ben Wilkerson, most recently running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Fordham. A former Alfred State quarterback who played professionally for three years in Europe, Wilkerson helped standout running back Julius Loughridge to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons while at Fordham.

Prior to his time in The Bronx, Wilkerson coached at Arkansas Pine Bluff, Buffalo, Susquehanna and Buffalo State, as well as at Alfred State. In addition to running backs, he has coached quarterbacks and wide receivers at the college level.

Also joining the Dartmouth program this spring is new offensive quality control assistant Luke Seale.

With Wilkerson onboard, here's how the retooled Dartmouth staff looks heading into spring practice, which begins one week from today:

Head Coach: Sammy McCorkle 
Offensive Coordinator: Shane Montgomery
Quarterbacks: Shane Montgomery
Offensive Line: Keith Clark
Tight Ends: Kevin Daft
Wide Receivers: Todd Gilcrist
Running Backs: Ben Wilkerson
Defensive Coordinator: Jordan Belfiori
Linebackers: Jordan Belfiori
Defensive Line: Quentin Jones
Corners: Adam McGuire
Secondary: Kevin Bracken
Offensive Quality Control: Luke Seale

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From Dartmouth athletics social media

Hired to try to bring Dartmouth its first Ivy League men's basketball title since 1959 is Brett MacConnell, who spent last season at Stanford after 13 years on staff at Princeton. Find a Dartmouth release HERE, an ESPN release HERE, a NJ.com story HERE, and arguably the most revealing story about him coming to Hanover in the Princetonian HERE. 

A four-year student manager at Rutgers in his native New Jersey, MacConnell made stops at Delaware Valley, Holy Family and Saint Peter's before coming to Princeton ahead of the 2012-13 season as director of basketball operations. After one season he was promoted to assistant coach. He was named recruiting coordinator in 2015, and in 2018 was given the title associate head coach.

In his role as recruiting coordinator MacConnell helped bring recent standouts Xavian Lee and Caden Pierce to the Tigers, along with Tosan Evbuomwan and Devin Cannady, who both went on to the NBA.

Interestingly, during his time in Princeton he filled in as head coach for the Tigers for four games, including a 77-76 overtime win at Hanover on March 1, 2019.

Building the future.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/j6yEBi8Q4m

— Dartmouth Men’s Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 31, 2026

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EXTRA POINT
After a winter buried in the back of our garage, the '84 VW poptop camper started without any problem yesterday. We drove it into town to do an errand, and the 42-year-old vehicle performed like a champion.

Unfortunately, after a day in the low 60s that allowed me to hike up the still snow-covered mountain in shorts, it's going to be cold and rainy for a few days. Hopefully it won't be long before we have more days like yesterday.

Here's a look at "Wiffle," primed and ready to take us to the mountains and beyond!

Mira Esto

I'm not sure you are ready for this. I know I wasn't.

Here's a scouting report on Delby Lemieux, the graduating Dartmouth offensive lineman and NFL prospect . . . in Spanish.

With help from Google Translate, here's an approximation of what the transcript says:

Delby was a starting tackle for Dartmouth throughout his four years of college, spending the last three seasons at left tackle.

He is a relatively light offensive lineman—especially by tackle standards. However, his impressive power—particularly in his lower body—stands out. He possesses a solid anchor and is capable of effortlessly moving opponents and creating effective running lanes in the ground game. This power, combined with excellent explosiveness, makes Delby a highly effective player when pulling or working up to the second level; consequently, he serves as a valuable asset in the running game. That said, he needs to improve his balance, as it is not uncommon to see him lose his footing while attempting a block.

His reads are sound. One potential reason he frequently ends up off-balance lies in his hand technique and pad level, despite his initial contact being both strong and impactful. Both his hands and feet tend to become heavy, and he is prone to losing a block if the engagement is prolonged or if the defender executes a counter move. He sometimes plays too upright, leaving him vulnerable to being knocked off-balance by powerful opponents.

In terms of pass protection, Delby has demonstrated a distinct lack of lateral agility, causing him to struggle significantly against fast, explosive pass rushers. Although he possesses long arms, he struggles to seal off the outside edge. Despite his relatively light frame—weighing in at just 280 pounds—he is not particularly flexible, allowing agile rushers to slip past him with ease. This factor, combined with his aforementioned proficiency in the running game, leads us to project him as a guard at the next level.

Nevertheless—and despite his noted lack of lateral agility—Delby remains a reasonably competent pass protector; his long arms and wide base help him sustain blocks effectively. However, he will need to refine his technique and pad level to avoid facing unnecessary difficulties on the field.

The site posting this report describes itself en español as:

The best Spanish-language analyses of players from small universities. Searching for diamonds in the rough at universities outside the Power 5 conferences.

The site has dozens of other scouting reports, including one on Harvard grad Jacob Psyk, who finished up his eligibility as an edge rusher at UC Davis. (Video link) 

Green Alert Take:Your mileage may vary with regard to the accuracy and value of the information provided by the "scout," but if nothing else, this exercise shows Google Translate can pretty helpful, even at making sense of sports jargon. ;-)

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EXTRA POINT
The mercury (silicon?) could rise to a balmy 61 degrees today and I'm giving serious consideration to trying to pull the VW camper out of its winter hibernation home in the garage today. I'm a little concerned about two things. First, whether or not it will start. And second, how many cute little tenants we had this year.

Former Assistants In The News

One fall Big Green Alert did a series of weekly Q&A's with Dartmouth's assistant coaches as a means of learning more about the coaches' lives off the field. They answered questions about their favorite movies, whether they played a musical instrument, favorite vacations, best non-football sports memories and much more.

One of the questions was about the coaches' dream cars, and while I can't remember the exact model Cortez Hankton mentioned, I do remember the addendum he tacked onto his answer. "And I have one." 

Such is the life of a former NFL wide receiver.

I bring that up because Hankton is the new wide receivers coach at Ohio State and he just met with the media for the first time. Watch this video and you'll see why former Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens jumped at the chance to give Hankton his first full-time coaching job in 2012, and why he's been so welcome at each of the next stops on his coaching career:

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And speaking of coaches who arrived at Dartmouth in 2012, Kyle Metzler – who lost his job at Penn when head coach Ray Priore was let go – has started the Metzler Performanc Group (MPG), a "standards-based athlete development and evaluation firm built on clarity, accountability, and honest assessment."

Click HERE to learn more.

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Hankton and Metzler were two of three new coaches Dartmouth brought on in 2012. The third was defensive line coach Kevin Lewis, now at Furman where he's joined this year by another former Dartmouth coach. Grayson Kline, who spent a couple of seasons as an offensive quality control coach for the Big Green, is starting his first season as tight ends coach with the Paladins.

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I had to laugh when I saw the headline, Memphis HC Charles Huff Drops Epic Quote Citing Lil Baby to Explain Why Music is Banned at Practice. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: When Buddy Teevens first brought a first tinny speaker out to football practice to play music I asked him to explain the move, and he said it was intended to be a distraction. The thinking was, he said, it would force the players to tune out the music and concentrate on what was happening on the practice field because if they didn't, they'd be completely lost. Or something like that. ;-)

In time the music at practice became almost white noise and when it did I offered Buddy a suggestion. If you really want to help the players learn to deal with distraction, I said, in the middle of a "Lil Baby" song (I obviously didn't say Lil Baby ;-) have it segueway into the loudest refrain from a Kate Smith recording of God Bless America. Just imagine the heads of the offensive linemen popping up at that.

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EXTRA POINT
It's a sunny morning here at our Vermont hillside home and our solar tracker is hard at work converting the rays into electricity. With gas prices being what they are right now, the sunshine that keeps our two EVs going is more welcome than ever.

Briefly

Here's how graduating Dartmouth safety Sean Williams performed at his Pro Day:

Dartmouth @DartmouthFTBL three-time All-Ivy League safety-nickel and team captain Sean Williams [10 career interceptions] was a Pro Day standout, and met with #Patriots #49ers
40 time: 4.53
Vertical: 40 inches
225 bench: 14 reps
Shuttle: 4.27
3 come: 6.97
Height: 5’9/3
Weight:… pic.twitter.com/R2BZEJ7ROz

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) March 26, 2026

Per results from  the NFL Combine, Williams' vertical would have been third out of the 16 safeties who tested their vert. While the official results of the Combine are a reminder that more and more prospects limit their testing at the event, click HERE to see how Williams' results compare to other safeties.

Former Dartmouth defensive back Onye Onuoha, who grad transferred to Butler, was back in town for Pro Day but his results were not readily available.

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EXTRA POINT
This has been mentioned here before but one time when the long-suffering Dartmouth men's basketball program was conducting a search for a new coach former Valley News sports editor Don Mahler pushed for the school to try to bring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Ivy League. At that juncture, Abdul-Jabbar was looking to get into coaching, and a splash hire like that would certainly have brought a lot of attention to Dartmouth.

The window for hiring Kareem closed some time ago, but here's a similar idea. How about the Big Green making a run at Bobby Hurley, recently let go at Arizona State?

As a former Duke standout, Hurley is no stranger to elite academic institutions, and he grew up in the northeast, so he's no stranger to the Ivy League footprint. He began his head coaching career at Buffalo, which isn't exactly the ACC, so he's not too proud to coach without the bright lights.

Granted, Hurley's ASU tenure did not end the way he would have preferred, but keep in mind fellow Dukie Tommy Amaker didn't have that much success as a head coach before Harvard, and all he's done is lead a Crimson team that had never won the Ivy League to seven conference championships. That's right. Seven!

It's been 67 years since Dartmouth won the Ivies. Maybe a call to Hurley wouldn't be a bad idea, huh?

Seniors Update

After four years without tackling in practice, former Dartmouth linebacker Teddy Gianaris was apparently more-than-ready to get after it as a grad transfer at Wyoming. Here's the lede to the story above:

One of the new guys immediately broke a cardinal rule.

On an inside run play Tuesday inside War Memorial Stadium, running back Samuel Harris took the hand off and patiently made his way toward the line of scrimmage. The sophomore they call "Tote" didn't have a chance to show off his trademark speed.

He was unceremoniously dumped the second he entered the masses.

That tackle came courtesy of Thaddeus Gianaris, a graduate transfer from Dartmouth.

More from the story:

t wasn't an audible rear-end chewing, but Jay Sawvel joked that he did threaten to toss the 6-foot-2, 244-pound defensive end out of practice if that ever happens again.

"He's a psychopath," Wyoming's head coach said with a smile. 

And . . . 

"The one thing that Thaddeus has is, you know, his motor is crazy good," Sawvel said. "Obviously, he was a first team all-conference player where he was before. Look, that guy's wired really well -- and I appreciate that.

"I had to tell him, this isn't part of the deal right now to take down a back in no pads right now." 

Read the full story HERE. 

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Dartmouth held its Pro Day yesterday and the program's social media shared these photos:

Click HERE and HERE to see full-sized versions of these picture from Dartmouth social media.

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Headline on an FCS Football Central story: Top 5 FCS Offensive Prospects In The 2026 NFL Draft; Who are the top offensive FCS prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft class? From that story (LINK):

5. Delby Lemieux | IOL | Dartmouth

Lemieux is a fringe NFL roster prospect with upside as he transitions from offensive tackle to interior offensive line. Though the transition from tackle to interior can be difficult, Lemieux is poised for a smoother one thanks to his best trait: technical soundness.

He had a solid week down in Mobile, Alabama, for the Senior Bowl and helped his stock rise significantly. Teams willing to take a swing on a versatile and technically sound offensive lineman as a preferred free agent will get a hidden gem. He has upside to be a potential adequate starter.

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From a FootballScoop story:

When NIL initially came to college back in July of 2021, the widespread belief was that it would have a major impact on major college football at the FBS level, but it would have less of an effect on the FCS level, even less at the Division II level, and really a minimal impact at the Division III and small college level.

Which leads us to this quote from Lake Forest head coach Jim Cantanzaro:

"There are at least six schools that I know of, with confirmation from people within their programs and within their [athletic] department, that have north of $250,000 to $300,0000 of NIL money for their football program. Some for basketball, and some for baseball too." 

Find the story and a video interview HERE. 

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The Dartmouth men's hockey season came to a close in the NCAA Regional with a closer-than-it-seems, 5-1 loss to Wisconsin. The Big Green, which earned its first ECAC championship and was making its first NCAA postseason appearance since 1980, finishes out the year at 23-8-4.

The Dartmouth athletic communications release on the game began this way (LINK):

No. 8 Dartmouth men's hockey saw its historic season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal. The Big Green fell 5-1 to No. 12 Wisconsin in the Worcester Regional.

2:52 into the game the Badgers opened the scoring on the power play.

The Big Green evened the score at one at the 10:05 mark. The Big Green evened the score at one at the 10:05 mark. Hank Cleaves backchecked and deflected a pass from the Wisconsin player. The puck came to the stick of Cam MacDonald, the senior sped through the neutral zone and into the Wisconsin zone. He then dropped the puck to Colin Grable who drew two defenders in before feeding H. Cleaves on the left wing. The sophomore took a low shot and beat the goalie far side for his 18th goal of the season. Grable notched his 14th assist while MacDonald picked up his 16th assist of the season.

The game stayed tied for the remainder of the opening period.

Green Alert Take: One of the responsibilities I had when I worked as Dartmouth's assistant director of sports information in the early 1980s was helping interns in the office with their writing. If I still worked in that office I would have suggested that rather than recount how last night's goals were scored in chronological order, a better place to begin the release would be by pointing out that the game was still 1-1 midway through the final period. That's not a "homer" lede. It's the truth.

The SI.com story began where it should:

Deadlocked at one after forty minutes, Wisconsin had every reason to drop their heads as nothing was going right on the offensive end but a physical game plan and high defensive intensity that limited Dartmouth to just 14 shots continued until the Badgers finally came alive in the third. 

Green Alert Take II: I get that social media and video clips are the shiny toys of sports information today, but years from now the social media posts will have faded away, and without context the video clips will be hollow. There's still a place for solid writing and reporting, and with newspaper coverage becoming rare it's more important than ever. That's why, for example, last week's ECAC championship story should not have opened with who started the game's scoring, but by who finished it by scoring the winning goal in overtime.

Green Alert Take III: I feel a little uneasy making suggestions like these because I know the athletic communications office at Dartmouth is young and understaffed, and there is no one looking over the writers's shoulders when reporting on deadline. When I read my own writing I sometimes grimace knowing how valuable it would be to have a good editor. The hope here is that when Dartmouth finally does fill out its athletic communications staff the importance of more than social media expertise will be recognized.

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Still on the game, talk about cheap shots. This from an SI.com story headlined Takeaways From Surprising First Day of NCAA Hockey Regionals: Puck Drop fits the bill (LINK):

Surprising stat of the day: Dartmouth only managed 14 shots on net against Wisconsin, half of its opponent. Granted, the Badgers had two empty-net goals, but they also saw Quinn Finley, Grady Deering, Luke Osburn and Simon Tassy ring shots off the post. Don't be surprised if there's a lot of talk about why the Big Green finished No. 8 in National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index, which was used to pick at-large teams and seed the tournament, when it was No. 54 in strength of schedule out of 63 teams.

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EXTRA POINT
As yesterday's PAT promised, we did go to an early showing of the Project Hail Mary movie yesterday before watching Dartmouth hockey on delay. I have a very cynical thought about the origins of the movie, but it might just ruin it for you if I share what I think, so I'll keep it to myself. Sorry to be so mysterious. Suffice it to say I don't feel any need to go see the movie again.