New Big Green Assistants

No official announcements out of Dartmouth yet, but the Big Green has three new assistant football coaches listed in the athletic directory.

Joining the Big Green are Jordan Belfiori, Todd Gilchrist, Jr., and Quentin Jones.

Belfiori comes to Hanover from Butler University, where he had been defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, the role long held at Dartmouth by the recently retired Don Dobes. Belfiori previously coached for seven years at Colgate, where he served as the Raiders' defensive coordinator. He's 2012 graduate of Central Michigan. Find his Butler bio HERE.

Gilcrist is a former Holy Cross wide receivers coach and offensive pass game coordinator who also coached both running backs and wide receivers at Columbia. He was a Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow offensive line intern with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2024. He comes to Dartmouth from Averett University, where he served as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach last year. Gilcrist is a 2012 graduate of Pitt, where he was a member of the football team. Find his Averett bio HERE.

Jones, whose LinkedIn says he will coach defensive line at Dartmouth, arrives from Wesleyan University. His coaching resume includes stops at Brown, several other schools, and as head coach of the Prague Lions in Europe. He began his playing career at UTEP before playing at Youngstown State and the University of Charleston in West Virginia, where he earned his degree. Find his Wesleyan bio HERE.

Expect more coaching news before spring practice kicks off.

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EXTRA POINT
On a relatively warm Sunday afternoon I figured it was a good day to head to the car wash and finally get a winter's worth of dirt and grime off Mrs. BGA's car.

As usual, I dug into the old milk bottle where we stash quarters and pulled out enough coins to buy the time needed to do a thorough job. Rather than spend $10 or $15 doing the drive-through, I'd do the work myself while Mrs. BGA and Griff the Wonder Dog stayed in the car.

I brought along my favorite pair of gloves in case it was a little cold, but when I got to the car wash I didn't need them, so I put 'em on top of the coin box and set about spraying the car with soap. As usual, when the car was all soaped up I switched to a hard rinse before spinning the dial to hot wax. When I was finished, the car looked great.

Given how nice the day was, we decided to take a Sunday drive. I was doing to pretty decent job of avoiding puddles and mud to keep the car as clean as I could when I looked over and noticed Mrs. BGA's gloves on the dashboard. "Uh," I asked with a sinking feeling, "have you seen my gloves?"

You know what's coming. I'd left them on the coin box at the car wash, a good 20-25 minutes away. So we turned around and headed back to the car wash. Mrs. BGA, who always sees the best in people, gave me a 75 percent chance of finding the gloves. As a (former?) journalist, I'm a trained skeptic and thought she was being a little optimistic.

Unfortunately, I was right.

I'll call the car wash in a few minutes and see if they have a lost-and-found, but I'm not expecting they do. There's no attendant at the car wash and it was so busy yesterday that I'd guess a half dozen or more cars had come through the place before we got back and someone in one of those cars has a nice new pair of gloves.

Catching Up

This is from a year ago, but I don't spend much time on the Vimeo platform, so I missed it. Although it is titled 2025, this is actually a look at the 2024 Big Green seniors, from the Class of 2025:

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Per his social media, former Dartmouth corners coach Mike Johnson is now assistant defensive backs coach at Old Dominion. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
Fall back, spring ahead, right?

Setting clocks to the right time is a breeze compared to getting Griff the Wonder Dog's clock right. I'm thinking this time around we'll adjust his dinner time by 10 minutes a day for six days. It may take him a bit longer to catch on perfectly, but you can be sure within a couple of weeks or so he'll give up whatever he's been doing and look one of us in the eye a just minute or two before his 5:30 dinner time. His timing is uncanny.

We're Not In Hanover Anymore

What Dorothy said to Toto came to mind when I saw this post from former Dartmouth tight end Chris Corbo:

Corbo's message in full:

"Tech Fans! Come join me and @capital.vacations at the Men’s Basketball game tonight for your chance at a free vacation. See you there. Sting ‘Em!"

Corbo's social media directs those interested in doing business with him to the agency representing him as a grad transfer at Georgia Tech. A visit to the agency's site finds another former Dartmouth pass catcher among the 38 clients listed on its roster (LINK): 

That's wide receiver Grayson O'Bara, who grad transferred to North Texas. AJ Surace, the Rutgers quarterback and son of Princeton coach Bob Surace, is another client as are Leonard Fournette and other NFL players from the Colts, Bucs, Falcons, Cowboys, Broncos and Jaguars.

Green Alert Take: Yup, Corbo and O'Bara are not in Hanover anymore.

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Craig Haley at The Analyst has a piece headlined Spring (Practice) Forward: Five Questions For the 2026 FCS Football Season. A section titled What's Different in 2026 includes this (LINK):

The head coaching carousel has brought change to 25 FCS programs, including four making straight FCS-to-FCS moves: Eddie Robinson Award recipient Kevin Cahill (Lehigh to Yale), Rick Santos (New Hampshire to Penn), Joel Taylor (West Georgia to Mercer) and Steve Englehart (Presbyterian to West Georgia).

In a podcast with Sam Herder of HERO Sports, Haley offers a few thoughts about the new Ivy League coaches. Here's a lightly edited version of what he had to say in the podcast (LINK):

It is quite the boon for the Ivy League to make these two hires. Rick Santos at New Hampshire – I feel that's the biggest surprise out of the 25 hires that have occurred this offseason. I remember it was announced at 10 a. m. Eastern on a Saturday morning when it became official. It was just, wow, I can't believe this is happening because he starred at quarterback for UNH. He was a Walter Payton Award recipient there. He played and coached under Coach McDonnell and spent five years as their head coach. Basically two decades at the school. You wouldn't think he'd be leaving. But, they are attractive, Ivy League institutions. It's good football. There's money there. I think that was the biggest surprise of all.

And the most recent one with coach Cahill leaving Lehigh. He was on staff there under Tony Reno for 10 years. I guess you would think he would be more entrenched at Lehigh after winning two straight titles and the Eddie Robinson Award. And the Patriot League getting so much stronger now with some of their additions school-wise. That is not as surprising, other than the fact that, you would have thought maybe he was a little more entrenched after the recent years at Lehigh. These are just great hires. So great, great hires there for Penn and for Yale.

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EXTRA POINT
I found myself thinking about Erma Bombeck's book The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank this morning when I looked out our kitchen windows.

Just a few feet away from our house the piping for our septic goes through an effluent filter buried not far below the ground. This morning – for the first time since before Christmas – I saw a small patch of snow-free ground above the filter. Seeing that little patch of bare ground is kind of like the first robin of spring . . . but stinkier.

(I'm taking a little poetic license. There's no smell until I dig up the filter to hose it off each spring when the ground dries out. Yuck.)

Check It Out

This was posted by ESPN College football three months ago and somehow I think I missed it.

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A video interview from several weeks back features James Rush, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound incoming Dartmouth defensive back from Saline (Mich.) High School:

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The 2026 Harvard schedule has been posted several times on BGA but the school just officially announced the slate HERE.

Two points:

• Thank you, Harvard. I appreciate being able to scroll quickly through the prose and find the actual schedule posted at the end. It's annoying when releases like this don't include the schedule and you have to visit the team site to see the schedule at a glance. It's particularly annoying with lengthy basketball, hockey and baseball schedules.

• And second, although you can find Dartmouth's schedule over there to the right, we're still waiting for the school to make everything official. While we're at it, Harvard had a writeup on its early decision recruiting class two months ago . . . . (LINK)

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BGA pulled out a few FCS vs. FBS football game payouts of local interest from a HERO Sports posting earlier. (LINK) An update by HERO added a few more games featuring past, current and potentially future Dartmouth opponents and how much they are taking home from the FBS games (LINK):

Wagner-Cal $525,000 

Wagner-JMU $260,000

Stonehill-Ohio $400,000

URI-Temple, $325,000

Stony Brook-Ball State $325,000

Holy Cross-Miami (Ohio) $320,000

Monmouth-Western Michigan $310,000

Colgate-Central Michigan $300,000

Fordham-Coastal Carolina $300,000

Green Alert Take: I had several emailers ask why Ivy League schools don't pursue those games and I suggested injury concerns could play a role, as could concerns about competitiveness. The late start to the Ivy season doesn't help. How games against the non-scholarship Ivy League would affect bowl eligibility for some FBS teams could also play into scheduling. All that said, Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle has said on numerous occasions he'd welcome the chance to see the Big Green take on an FBS opponent.

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EXTRA POINT
Three words is all it takes to explain the current state of affairs here at our Vermont hillside home:

Mud. Is. Back.

Catching Up With Jay Fiedler

The New York Jets' website catches up with former Dartmouth and NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler '94 for a look back at his career and what he has done since. From the story about Fiedler, who lives back on Long Island with his wife and two children:

(D)uring his 10-year career, Fiedler passed for 11,844 yards with 69 touchdowns and 66 interceptions. He also rushed for 854 yards and 11 touchdowns.

"What I'm most proud of is the resiliency and perseverance that I had to remain in the league, to work myself up to becoming a starter in the league, and to have a career as long as I did," Fiedler said. "I very easily could have been a guy that was a backup for a couple of years in Philadelphia and out of the league."

Find the full story HERE. 

In addition to training players at all levels, Jay Fiedler still runs "Prime Time Football Clinics." Here he is with some young quarterback hopefuls:

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Speaking of Jay Fiedler, it was always fun when Jay and Brian Mann '02 – who broke a few of Fiedler's Big Green records – would take hilarious shots at each other during the auction portion of the Friends of Dartmouth Football annual golf outing. Just yesterday the Friends shared a "save the date" for this year's event:

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EXTRA POINT
That Certain Dartmouth '14 was up early today to catch the 4:40 a.m. Dartmouth Coach to Logan Airport for her return trip to Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park. She thoroughly enjoyed her speaking engagement on campus and we thoroughly enjoyed having her back home! Here's a shot That Certain Nittany Lion '16 got of Baker Library in the wee hours while most of the college still slept.

Giving It A Shot

Through no fault of his own, corner Onye Onuoha's Dartmouth career did not go the way he hoped. He lost his freshman year to COVID, and missed his entire junior season to injury. While he graduated with just seven tackles in 19 career games, he made up for lost time as a grad transfer at Butler.

In two years with the Bulldogs he posted 70 tackles and one interception. Last fall he had 10 passes defended, helping him earn a spot on the All-Pioneer Football League honorable-mention team.

Now Onuoha has another goal in mind. He's prepping for a shot at the NFL. From a story in The Butler Collegian (LINK):

Onuoha is currently in his home state of Colorado, prepping with an independent trainer to perform in front of NFL scouts at Dartmouth’s pro day. After not receiving an invitation to the NFL Combine — only 300 to 330 players are invited each year — attending a pro day is the only option for Onuoha and players like him to showcase their skills.

Find Onuoha's Dartmouth bio HERE and his highlights here:

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The last three times Dartmouth played Patriot League member Lehigh the games have been in Hanover (2023, 1999, 1997). This fall, for the first time in 30 years, the Big Green will play at Lehigh.

Curious about the venue? Here's a snippet of a video about Goodman Stadium. Click on the picture to learn a little more (although the narrator is a bit annoying. ;-)

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EXTRA POINT
A little fun trivia for you. It was on this day, March 4, 1791 that Vermont – previously an  independent nation – became the 14th state in the union. The Vermont Republic even had its own money:

Elsewhere

HERO Sports has an entry listing confirmed "payouts" by FBS schools to visiting FCS opponents. (LINK) Here are a few of those numbers of regional interest:

New Hampshire at Syracuse     $550,000

Villanova at Louisville                 $500,000

Maine at Boston College         $400,000

CCSU at Toledo                         $325,000

Lafayette at UConn                 $300,000

Sacred Heart at UMass             $250,000

As for 2026 Dartmouth opponents, Merrimack will play FBS games at Wake Forest and at Delaware, but the payout is not yet public for those contests. Ditto for Monmouth at Western Michigan. Lehigh does not have an FBS game this year.

Not surprisingly, no Ivy League team is playing a payout game.

Green Alert Take: UMass is paying Sacred Heart $250,000 for visiting Amherst this fall. How sweet would it be for Dartmouth players to have the opportunity to test themselves right down the road against an FBS team like that (with very good chance of coming away with a win), and the college banking a cool quarter of a million dollars for the privilege? Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle is on record as favoring the opportunity for his team to have the chance to play an occasional FBS game.

 Here's what we know so far of the non-conference schedule for Ivy League teams this fall:

BROWN

at New Haven

at Rhode Island

Bryant

COLUMBIA

Lafayette

at Georgetown

at Marist

CORNELL

at Colgate

at Georgetown

Lehigh

HARVARD

at New Hampshire

Colgate

Holy Cross

PENN

at Bucknell

Lehigh

TBA

PRINCETON

at Bryant

Albany

at Wagner

YALE

at Holy Cross

TBA

Rhode Island

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Middlebury College has a blurb about bringing in Darren Shoyer as its associate equipment manager. Shoyer spent last fall working in the Dartmouth equipment program, including with football. (LINK)

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Yale formally introduced Kevin Cahill as its next head football coach yesterday:

Dartmouth will face three new head coaches this fall in Cahill, Monmouth's Jeff Gallo, and Lehigh's Rich Nagy, who was promoted yesterday from defensive coordinator to replace the departed Cahill. Read about Nagy HERE.

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From an Opta Analyst posting headlined FCS Schools With the Most NFL Players by Position in the 2020s Decade (LINK):

The story notes that Harvard is tied for second among FCS programs both with four offensive linemen making it to the NFL in some capacity, and with two players in the running back/fullback category.

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EXTRA POINT
It's town meeting today in Vermont. Don't know what that's all about? Click HERE for a primer.

Doctor Humor At The Start And The End

When I saw the headline Ranking all 19 Ohio State football transfer additions for 2026 I was all set to trot out the old joke, "What do you call someone who finished last in their class I medical school? Doctor."

But no, former Dartmouth offensive lineman Vasean Washington was not No. 19 among incoming Buckeyes. He was No. 15, and that's saying a lot when you are talking about transferring to perennial national championship contending Ohio State. Here's what the piece had to say about the Dartmouth product (LINK):

The number of returning starters made the offensive line less of a priority to address in the portal, but the Buckeyes added Washington, who was the starting right tackle at Dartmouth last season. While his experience is limited to the Ivy League, he adds depth and has experience, experience at other spots, having made four starts at left guard and left tackle in 2024.

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You read on this site a little over a week ago about former Dartmouth assistant Matthew Smiley landing at South Carolina as the program's special teams coordinator. (LINK) While it's not the NFL – Smiley had most recently been coordinator for the Buffalo Bills – the charter member of the first coaching staff of Buddy Teevens' second tenure is doing OK for himself. Per FootballScoop, South Carolina rewarded him with a three-year deal paying him $700,000 a year.

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And speaking of coaches, with spring football just beginning early next month expect the announcement of a few new Dartmouth coaches before long. This screenshot from the team website shows the only names remaining from last fall:

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EXTRA POINT
Today is the birthday of one of Dartmouth's most well-known and beloved graduates, Theodor Geisel. You probably know him better by his middle name: Seuss.

Dr. Seuss was born on this day in1904 in Springfield, Mass., and graduated from Dartmouth in 1925. Find a few humorous thoughts from him in a 2009 issue of Alumni Magazine HERE.

Two things I must have known about Seuss books but managed to forget:

• Green Eggs and Ham features only 50 different words, with the only one with two syllables being "anywhere."

• The Cat in the Hat is 1,702 words long, but uses only 220 different words.