Plus One

Add to the list of Dartmouth football commitments for a year from now the name Ezekiel Su’A. The latest addition to the program is 6-foot-1, 205-pound linebacker from the powerhouse Mater Dei program and Moreno Valley, Calif. A three-start prospect per 247Sports, Su'A has reported offers from Colorado State, San Jose State, Army, UNLV, Cal Poly, Northern Arizona and Penn.

Su'A, whose brother Leviticus played at the University of Arizona, is the 15th commitment to be reported on BGA in this cycle.

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Invited to a Rotary presentation introducing the 2026 Dartmouth coaching staff at Floren Varsity House yesterday I learned a few "relatively" interesting facts:

• Sammy McCorkle's oldest daughter, Maddie, a former Duke lacrosse player and recent graduate of the  University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, is now working for the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium as a staff assistant in football and business administration.

• Offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery's son Tanner, a former college baseball player, is the "development" coach for the Houston Astros' Singe-A affiliate, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers in North Carolina.

• Tight end coach Kevin Daft's daughter Caroline will be a freshman mifielder/draw specialist at Amherst this year. Older daughter Talia is a coxswain at the University of Michigan. Find a story about Talia HERE.

• Cat Palmer, who started as the Dartmouth football recruiting and operations coordinator after wrapping up her softball career at Wesleyan, is no stranger to football. In addition to three seasons as operations director at Wesleyan and doing an internship with the Kansas City Chiefs, she has a younger brother, Will, who is a 6-foot-3, 275-pound freshman offensive lineman at Villanova. Find her bio HERE and his bio HERE.

• Veteran offensive line coach Keith Clark's son Kaelan, graduated from Lebanon High School in the spring and is currently doing his Marine Corps training at Parris Island in South Carolina.

And finally . . .

• Noah Reilly, in his first year as the Dartmouth defensive quality control specialist, played high school football at Martin County High School in Stuart, Fla. If he checked the school record book, he'd recognize the name of the head coach long before he played. Fellow by the name of Sammy McCorkle led the team in 2003-04.

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EXTRA POINT
There are a lot of reasons why we are thrilled That Certain Dartmouth '14 and That Fellow Who Roots For A Baseball Team That Shall Not Be Named are now stationed at Acadia National Park. Being just 5½ hours away they can come this way for a long weekend, and they will be in town later today both for a visit and for tonight's free concert at Lake Morey Resort featuring The Revivalists.

Summer is winding down and if you haven't taken in one of the free concerts on the golf course in Fairlee, Vt., the Revivalists might be fun to check out. And lucky folks in the Upper Valley don't have to drive 5½ hours to see them:

Ruling The Granite State

From a CBS Sports posting titled, Picking the best college football team in each state ahead of the 2026 season; From Alabama to Wyoming, and everywhere in between, these are the best Division I college football teams in every state (LINK):

NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Dartmouth: Not only did the Big Green finish third in the Ivy League last season, but they also defeated New Hampshire in the season opener. Now, coach Sammy McCorkle will try to get Dartmouth back atop the Ivy League standings.

The other Ivy to make the cut?

MASSACHUSETTS -- Harvard: I couldn't, in good conscience, choose one of the state's two FBS programs. Boston College and UMass combined for two wins last season, and the outlook isn't great for either team in 2026. At least Harvard won some football games last fall, going 9-2 and sharing the Ivy League title. However, losing quarterback Jaden Craig to TCU will be tough to overcome.

Green Alert Take: Brown could make a head-to-head argument after defeating Rhode Island last year, but with the Rams winning 22 games over the past two years (compared to Brown's eight wins over the same span), and with the state school ranked seventh in the preseason top-25, it would be a stretch.

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This third of three parts from the Ivy League football "media day" is a transcript of responses by safety Harrison Keith and defensive lineman Joshua Johnson to prompts from Jack Ford. The host's occasionally windy questions have been condensed, and remarks from the Dartmouth players have been gently edited to remove false starts, and for clarity.

Jack Ford to Harrison Keith

Talk a little bit about, and elaborate from your perspective … the idea of you'll get your turn, but you need to develop. From your perspective, you get on the field last season and have an explosive year. Third-team All-American, preseason All-American. Talk about that whole development process that Coach mentioned.

Harrison Keith

In my experience at Dartmouth football, there's always been guys in the grades above you that kind of take you under their wing and show you the ropes. I think early on for me it was a guy like Quinten Arello, who was a fifth-year.

And then more recently, our leader, our captain last year, Sean Williams, who just graduated. He was a heck of a ballplayer. When I was coming in as a freshman, he was already starting as a sophomore. And whether it was in the film room or out on the field, he took all the younger guys under his wing, 100 percent. I learned a ton from him. I was fortunate enough to be out there with him last year in the back end.

It's a guy like that, with experience, who knows the ins and outs of the defense, who makes sure you believe in yourself and you're in the right place at the right time. A guy that will tell you just go be you.

That's the biggest thing Coach Mac says. We practice fast. We play hard. So when the game comes, you can just go and believe in yourself and do your job.

Jack Ford to Joshua Johnson

Talk from your perspective about that notion of developing in the Dartmouth system.

Joshua Johnson:

The system development, especially within the D-line, has been cultivated by my past coach, Duane Brooks, and it's been continued by the current coach, Coach Q Jones. And basically what it is, is we see each other as a family. That's what it is at the end of the day.

We see the light and also I guess what we could be, the potential that within each other. We try our best to nurture that within the group. And so what happens is, whenever we're given the the opportunity to actually play, the player that we see within ourselves is actualized and it's beautiful. It's actually poetry, in my opinion.

Jack Ford to Joshua Johnson

From last year's defense coming into this year, what do you think is the area that the defense needs to make the most progress in to get where you want to be?

Joshua Johnson:

Explosive plays is a big thing. Making sure that we get our explosive plays down.

Also, sometimes you're in a tight spot, whether that be behind the line or in the red zone, what we want to do is make sure that we're able to stop those big plays and then also stop people from scoring. Three is always better than seven. 

Making sure that we're solid and always on the same page, and especially with this new system, that we're communicating well and  executing to the level that our defensive coordinator set out for us.

Jack Ford to Harrison Keith:

Do you guys talk about (the FCS playoffs)? Do you guys talk about, Hey, we can get into this tournament?We can we can win a national championship?

Harrison Keith

It's definitely in the back of our minds for sure. Coach Mac alluded to it though. Genuinely, a key part of Dartmouth football is taking things one day at a time. One week at a time.

We play a game on a Saturday. Already that Saturday after the game, the coaches are, all right, get your minds right. We’ve got so-and-so next week.

That's genuinely our mindset. You can't go far if you're thinking too far into the future. You've got to take it one step at a time. So that's kind of what we've adopted as a mindset.

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Jake Novak, who has converted his Roar Lions blog about Columbia (and Ivy League) football into an audio format, has an entry titled Ivy media takeaways. From a transcript (LINK):

We've had some Ivy Media Days that were very light on information before, but this one really takes the cake. To say that we got nothing out of this Ivy Media Day would almost be an understatement.

Green Alert Take: Should the Ivy League ask the media for their take on the "media day," the guess here is the response would be unanimous that it is hugely disappointing. Maybe that's why almost no media participated. I did learn a few things, but for someone like me, who was hoping to flesh out what I know about the teams before writing my season previews, it was pretty much a waste of time.

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From a Green Bay Press-Gazette story on Dartmouth alum Bond Almand's bicycle ride to every NFL stadium (LINK):

Almand, 22, of Maryville, Tennessee, departed on July 7, a month after graduating from Dartmouth University with degrees in government, climate science and environmental studies, which aren't much valued in the current political atmosphere, so he allowed himself to be talked into the NFL trip by another Dartmouth grad who now works for Extreme Networks.

Green Alert Take: Dartmouth University. Fingernails on chalkboard.

And this from the story . . .

He averages 17 to 21 miles an hours (up to 60 down some hills), and 200 miles a day, although he faces several 250-mile days on his coming route from Minneapolis to Denver. To keep that going, he consumes about 10,000 calories a day, which requires him to sometimes eat after he can't take another bite. Not doing so could cause his body to start eating his muscles.

Green Alert Take: That last sentence . . .

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A FootballScoop analysis loses me, but these words in the headline should get to click through: 'unintended consequences' of the NCAA's new punt rule. (LINK)

The piece suggests the "punt formation rule is going to bring 'hockey line changes with changing jerseys' to sidelines this fall."

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EXTRA POINT
Our little one-room post office is open only until 11 a.m. each day. If we get a package and it doesn't fit in one of the half dozen lockers, we can't pick it up until the next day.

Yesterday, I finished up BGA and hustled out to get a package Mrs. BGA was waiting for. I got to the post office by 10:30 and was pleased to see a package slip in our box. Unfortunately, the postal clerk had already left for the day.

If you are wondering why this post went up a little late today, it's because I closed the laptop earlier this morning and hopped in the car to go to the post office before the clerk checked out. Good news. The clerk was there and I got the package. Life in a small town. ;-) 

Lalos To Pats, And More From 'Media" Day

Former Dartmouth defensive lineman Niko Lalos '20 is in camp with the New England Patriots as a long snapper. A Yahoo story details his journey from undrafted free agent who made a brief splash as a defensive end with the New York Giants, to practice member of the New Orleans Saints, to trying out as a long snapper for the Philadelphia Eagles, to playing defensive end in the XFL. Find the story HERE.

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No media members asked questions of Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle during the virtual "media day"  event yesterday – most coaches were not asked a single media question – so the Q&A was entirely between host Jack Ford and McCorkle. Here's a transcript of their Q&A gently edited to remove the "you knows," false starts and the like.

Jack Ford

Taking a look at what needs to get better from last season, 7-3 season, last season to this season. And I'll start with the offensive side of the ball. What are you as coaches saying, Here's where we need to get better offensively? What's the answer to that?

Sammy McCorkle

I think consistency and that's across the board everywhere. But you want to be consistent. And I think the biggest thing that we've got to do . . . we did a good job of keeping drives alive last year, but we’ve got to finish those those drives. What I mean by finish drives, we’ve got to score touchdowns. We’ve got to score points. I think that'll be the biggest thing.

We’ve  got to play team football this year. Across the board. All three phases. We need to work together.

I think offensively the biggest thing is to make sure that we allow our athletes to get out and be in space and make plays. And when opportunities arise where we can have explosive plays, we need to have those. I feel confident we have the individuals in places that can do that for us, but we have to be consistent with that.

You can't be one and done. You've got to be balanced offensively. You’ve got to be able to run the football. You’ve got to be able to throw it around. You’ve got to keep defenses off balance for sure.

The most important thing offensively, and across the board, is just the physicality. I say it year in, year out. If you want to win a title in this league, if you want to be successful in this league, you've got to win up front. You've got to have guys up front who can be physical,  who control the line of scrimmage, and that has to be done on both sides of the football.

Jack Ford

Same question from the defensive perspective. What what do the coaches say that you need to get better at defensively from last season to this season?

Sammy McCorkle

We can't give up explosive plays. We have to limit those explosive plays. We have to make offenses have to work.

We need to set the tempo on down and distance. We’ve got to put offenses behind the chains early on in the series. You’ve got to win the first downs across the board.

For us it's going to start off with Joshua Johnson up front. We've got to be physical up front.

We’ve got to dictate what offenses are going to try to do to us. In the back end, the back seven, with Harrison back there, we've got to do a good job of being assignment sound. Making sure we're in the right spots and  we're in position that we don't give anything away. If offenses are going to make a play, they're going to have to earn that.

Jack Ford

I'm curious about something. One of the great strengths of Dartmouth football in the last decade or so, and you can probably even go back farther than that – but let's just focus the last decade or so – has been continuously reintroducing new quarterbacks who become extraordinarily successful. In an era where you see you know, a quarterback doesn't play, they kind of look to go someplace else. I understand it.

But I look at what Dartmouth has done, having had junior-senior leadership. Having maybe a sophomore getting some snaps, and then all of a sudden that person becomes the junior-senior leadership. And then somebody else comes behind them. You've been extraordinarily successful at doing that. My question, it might sound simple, but the question is, how have you been so successful at that?

Sammy McCorkle

Well, that's a big part of our program, our organization. That's our blueprint. It's all about development.

We really focus on developing our players across the board at every single position. Our coaches do a phenomenal job. Either coaches that have been here in the past, or coaches that we have now. That's part of it. That's part of our DNA that we want to develop all of our players.

Hats off to our offensive our entire offensive staff.

But also it has to do with the commitment from our players understanding that it is about development. Of course, everybody wants to play right away. But I think the biggest thing is understanding when your time is, when you're ready to play.

I think our players do a good job of understanding that. Like I mentioned before, our older players do a phenomenal job of mentoring our younger players. And that's a big part of it. That could be simple things  like watching tape together on their own, and having somebody there to help you know how to watch tape, and what you're looking at and what you're watching.

And when you're training, and you're working out in the offseason, having that older player at your position showing you this is what it's going to take for you to get to this level. Then taking that out to the practice field. That leads to, when that opportunity comes for that younger player to step up and be the guy, he is following that blueprint and that development. That's a big aspect of our program.

Jack Ford

Let me come back to something that we mentioned this before, the idea of the Ivy champion now getting an  automatic bid. Last year we had two teams in, that first opportunity. You've been around the league for a long time. How has this new ability to actually play for a national championship, how has that introduced itself into your conversations with not only your current players, but in in your recruiting of new players?

Sammy McCorkle

Well, that's a huge part of, especially, the recruiting aspect. The fact that we are now able to do that. That's just that's one more notch in being an Ivy League football player. and having the opportunity to accomplish multiple things during their experience at an Ivy League institution.

But for our players, we take one day at a time. Our goal is always to to to win an Ivy League championship. Our goal is to focus on that one day, that game, that week.

If you channel your business and take care of that, that will happen. 

That's the great thing about it now. Every game was important in the past, obviously, but now it's even bigger. Robin (Harris)  kind of alluded to it at the beginning about the non-conference games.

We play three teams in the top 25. Two of our out-of-conference opponents are top 25 teams, and the other opponent won their conference. We know that it's good it's a big task, it's a large task. That forces you to have to prepare in the preseason going forward that if you want to reach the goals and the level that you want to be at, you're going to have to do that now.  You can't wait until week four to figure that out. And  that'll be our goal going into preseason.

Jack Ford

Coach, we’ve got a couple of of really exciting games. Our our ESPN schedule looks great. We've got a couple of exciting games for Dartmouth.

We've got Dartmouth down at Yale on a Saturday afternoon. Which is actually the first time we have done an ESPN game on a Saturday afternoon other than Harvard-Yale, so that'll be fun. And then we do have for the first time Harvard-Dartmouth. As you know, for whatever reason, because of the schedule difficulties, we haven't had a Harvard-Dartmouth game on our ESPN coverage here. Is that something, the national television exposure, is that something that kind of feeds into the excitement of the team?

Sammy McCorkle

It's huge. It's great. Hats off to our our league and Robin and everybody working hard to get that done.

It’s huge. Especially for families who can't make it to games to have the opportunity to watch their relatives, their loved ones on TV.

But the biggest thing is you're you're you're on prime time and you want to perform at your best on prime time. Obviously, it gives a little extra energy that week when you know you're going to be on television. But once again, once that first that ball gets kicked, it doesn't matter if you're on TV or not, yo’ve got to ready to go out there and perform.

It's exciting to have the opportunity to to play those games on TV and we're looking forward to it.

Editor's Note: Yesterday's BGA transcript of Sammy McCorkle's introductory remarks did not include the thank yous he offered at the outset.  He began his remarks by acknowledging the contributions of Robin Harris, the Ivy League's executive director, JJ Klein of the Ivy office for organizing the virtual media day, Dartmouth President Sian Beilock, Big Green AD Mike Harrity, Dartmouth alumni across the country, and finally the Big Green coaches and support staff.

On tap tomorrow: Remarks from safety Harrison Keith and defensive lineman Joshua Johnson.

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Make it 14 Ivy League players recognized as the best in the nation wearing their number in the countdown to the first FCS game. From the post about latest addition:

Yale WR Jaxton Santiago

-2026 Junior

-6’3″ 215 lbs

-2025: 50 catches, 687 yards, 5 TDs

The complete list of Ivy players chosen:

96: Yale DT Jaylin Tate
86: Cornell TE Ryder Kurtz
85: Columbia WR Titus Evans
77: Harvard OL Spencer Doan
75: Penn OL Luke Sacchetti
71: Harvard OL Thomas O'Brien
64: Princeton OL Barrett Eddlemon
37: Penn S Ty Cortes
35: Harvard LB Sean Line
29: Harvard K Kieran Corr
27: Princeton CB Evan Haynie
24: Dartmouth S Harrison Keith
19: Harvard WR Brady Blackburn
20: Yale WR Jaxton Santiago

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EXTRA POINT
Call me naive but I only recently learned about "flamingo fundraisers," wherein pink plastic flamingos are secretly placed on a lawn and the homeowner makes a donation to have the things removed, or tosses in a little something extra to have them placed on the lawn of someone they choose. It's called "flocking."

I bring that up because not to far from here there's a house that has a small sign on their law that says "No Flocking." Or maybe "No Flock?" I forget. Either way, Mrs. BGA has said she thinks they are intent on keeping the plastic birds off their lawn.

Me? I'm not so sure because on the other side of the sign is a protest against ICE, which leads me to think the sign might have to do with the government starting to use more Flock cameras, which have been in the news recently. (USA Today, NYT)

I guess I could ask the folks with the sign, but I'm kinda afraid to go on their lawn. ;-)

Sammy McCorkle's Opening Remarks

There will be more on BGA from today's Ivy League football press conference tomorrow, but for now, here are head coach Sammy McCorkle's opening comments (which thankfully were a little more specific than most):

Sammy McCorkle :

I’m excited. We’re 10  days away. Ten days away. It seemed like a long time ago when the season ended, but it's here. And  I tell you what, our guys have done a phenomenal job ever since the season ended last year.

Just the commitment they've made to this program and to each other. I think that's the most important thing. That's one of our core values - accountability. Our guys hold each other accountable and they hold themselves accountable. 

We’ve got a good mix. We're going to have a good mix of experienced players coming back from last year, and we're going to have a good mix of guys who, it'll be their first opportunities to to go out there and perform. It's exciting.

I think that'll be the biggest thing for us going into preseasons, to find out what that mix is going to be about and who's going to be part of that mix. We bring back a number of seniors. We have 26 seniors on our roster, one of the bigger bigger ones we've had in the last couple years.

I'm really impressed, regardless of their status or their playing time they've had over their years here, all 26 guys are completely committed to this program. They know what our standards are. They know what our core values are, and those guys bring it every single day.

Probably between 60 and 70 percent of our roster has had some type of  game-time experience in the past, which helps. That's important, especially in this league. It's all about experience.

Our guys do a very good job of helping each other, developing each other, mentoring each other. Guys that have played a lot in the past have done a really good job during last season, then in the off-season and preparing ourselves for preseason of getting our guys ready to perform. And having expectation across the board.

Offensively, we return our starting quarterback, Grayson Saunier, one of our team captains. We're really excited to have him back.

We've got a number of guys who are going to have to step up and play for us on the offensive side of the ball. But we also have a number of guys who make plays and who've made plays for us in the past.

Defensively, you've got two young men on here today (safety Harrison Keith and defensive lineman Joshua Johns) that are great leaders, great football players. They're going to be two guys that are going to help lead a defense that  I'm excited about.

Special teams-wise, we bring back every specialist –  our starting kicker, our starting punter, and our starting long snapper. 

I think the biggest thing in preseason is going to be an opportunity to find out the most important. Find out what it the identity of our football team is. That's going to be huge. They're the ones that are going to decide. They're going to decide what we're going to be about. And I look forward to getting started up in about 10 days. 

Check back tomorrow for more.