Tuesday, February 28, 2006
3:30p.m. I just confirmed that the crane that will be needed to begin the disassembly of the visiting football stands is slated to be on site Monday, March 6. Now that I've figured out how to get an occasional photo on the site (finally) I'll take a few snaps from time-to-time and let you see how work is progressing. ... In case you missed it, senior tailback/hurdler Ikechi Ogbonna broke a meet record in the hurdles Sunday afternoon while winning the Heptagonal championship at Leverone Fieldhouse. Sophomore wide receiver Brian Evans finished fifth in the 60-yard dash. To read more click here.
8:15 a.m. Columbia graduate Marcellus Wiley, who went on to make the Pro Bowl with the San Diego Chargers as a defensive end and is now with the Jacksonville Jaguars spoke with the Columbia Spectator during a recent visit to campus. I vividly remember watching Wiley in the final year of freshman football and thinking the Lions had themselves a talented, if skinny, young tailback. By his senior season, with one year off back home in Los Angeles where he hit the weights and the fridge equally hard, he had swelled to 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds. He helped the 1996 Columbia team win its first six games and go 8-2 overall. The only losses: a 14-11 nailbiter against Princeton and a 40-0 thrashing at Dartmouth, which would finish the season undefeated. Wiley was a second-round NFL draft pick. Here's what Wiley told the Spectator about the reaction of his NFL teammates to his Ivy League background:
We get ragged on a lot of times. They say that we play against accountants and lawyers, and we didn’t play against anybody of size. They just have this image that I was just running around like this giant squashing everybody on the field. But, I just try to tell them that there’s talent here.
I've never been a huge fan of Terry Bowden, but he makes some good points about offseason conditioning and spring drills in this column. It's worth thinking about as Dartmouth's winter sessions wind down. ... I'm headed into town this morning and I'm going to take a peek around Memorial Field. The original word was that deconstruction of the visiting stands was going to start in February. Well, that doesn't leave much time. ;-)
Monday, February 27, 2006
8:20 a.m. The second in a series of "10 Questions" with incoming recruits has been posted on the Green Alert main site. Today: defensive end Jeff Smith of Florida.
8 a.m. It's a s-l-o-w day to for Dartmouth and Ivy League news to this point so I'll take this opportunity to give you a sneak peak at a newly compiled statistical category that will make it's debut in next year's media guide: sacks. These numbers were researched by Dartmouth sports information office intern Ben Flickinger. (Note: sack statistics were sketchy until the early 1980's, so these records are culled since that time):
Dartmouth Career Sack Leaders
Anthony Gargiulo ’06 (2002-05) 25
Scott Hapgood ’97 (1993-96) 23
George Neos ’93 (1990-92) 23
Ryan Conger ’05 (2001-2004) 20
Cliff McDonald ’92 (1989-91) 16
Zack Walz ’98 (1994-97) 15
Greg Dietrick ’99 (1996-98) 11
Gerry LaMontagne ’94 (1991-93) 11
Jason Upshaw ’98 (1995-97) 10
Taran Lent ’96 (1993-95) 10
Dartmouth Season Sack Leaders
Anthony Gargiulo ’06 (2004) 12 (65 yards)
Scott Hapgood ’97 (1995) 12
George Neos ’93 (1992) 12
Cliff McDonald ’92 (1991) 9
Anthony Gargiulo ’06 (2005) 8 (46 yards)
Ryan Conger ’05 (2004) 8 (43 yards)
Ryan Conger ’05 (2003) 8
Ed Coker ’93 (1993) 8
Ed Simpson ’85 (1984) 8
Nick Mourlas ’92 (1991) 7
Cliff McDonald ’92 (1990) 7
Dartmouth Single Game Sack Leaders
Anthony Gargiulo ’06 (2004 at Cornell) 4
George Neos ’93 (1992 at Harvard) 4
Sunday, February 26, 2006
5 p.m. Football/track senior Ikechi Ogbonna won the 60 meter hurdles today in the Heptagonal Track Championships at Leverone Fieldhouse in a meet-record time of 7.93.
2:30 p.m. A story on the Ivy League web site regarding the hiring of Norrie Wilson as the conference's first black head football coach includes this historical note: Dartmouth’s Matthew Washington Bullock was the first black man to coach an integrated football team when he took over the UMass program in 1903.
9 a.m. Kudos to the Dartmouth men's ice hockey team which won a share of the ECAC Hockey League title and clinched the No. 1 seed in the ECACHL tournament last night before another standing room only crowd of 4,109. The title is the first in Bob Gaudet's eight years as head coach. He's hoping to lead the Big Green into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since he backstopped Dartmouth to the Final Four as a goalie in 1980. One of Gaudet's teammates early in his hockey career at Dartmouth? A two-sport fellow by the name of Buddy Teevens. Whatever happened to him? ... The I-AA web site showingblitz.com has its list of top tight end recruits on the board and none are from the Ivy League. Again, take a look at them, but don't put too much stock in these rankings. ... Former Dartmouth QB Brian Mann saw his replacement as the starter for the Los Angeles Avengers put up big numbers in a narrow loss yesterday. From the What have you done for me lately department, here's the spin the team web site put on the quarterback situation in LA: "(Sonny Crumbie) hit his receivers with calming regularity - a far cry from the season's first four games with Brian Mann and Ryan Van Dyke under center ... . Yesterday's New York Times had a lengthy piece on here-today, gone-tomorrow makeshift schools established just to help high school basketball players become eligible to play in college. It's a sad and damning story, well worth reading. Find it here. ...The Winter Olympics finish today. To see how Dartmouth's 14 students, future students and alumni fared, click here. ...
And finally this: We got 10 inches of snow up here on Moose Mountain yesterday and there was close to as much down in the valley. It's funny. Usually at this time of year I find myself tired of winter and rooting for sunny days to open up a few patches of grass as a promise of the spring to come. With the paucity of snow this year, it's just the opposite. There could be more snow in the forecast for late in the week and I say bring it on.
A reminder: The second edition of "10 Questions" with an incoming recruit will be posted Monday.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
8 a.m. Not only is former Dartmouth coach John Lyons back on the staff of the NFL Europe's Cologne Centurions, but he got a promotion. After serving as defensive backs coach a year ago, he's serving as the team's defensive coordinator this spring. His bio can be found here. ... Although he was a salary cap casualty with the New York Jets, former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler is drawing some attention around the NFL. One of the teams that may be interested in signing him is the Cincinnati Bengals, according to this story in the Enquirer. ... A Bay Area columnist wouldn't mind seeing the Raiders pick Fiedler up. ... After starting three of the first four games this season, former Big Green signalcaller Brian Mann will watch the start of tonight's Los Angeles Avengers Arena League game from the bench. Here's what coach Ed Hodgkiss told the L.A. Times: "You make changes when you don't win," Hodgkiss said. "I made this move not because Brian hasn't been playing well. We haven't been playing well as a team and this change was done to hopefully give us a spark."
Friday, February 24, 2006
1 p.m. Dartmouth quarterback recruit Max Heiges of Novato High School was honored Tthursday evening as one of 24 scholar-athletes by the Northern California Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. The emcee noted Heiges' 3.9 grade point average and described how he went 17-for-22 for 256 yards and three touchdowns in Novato's 33-14 win over Marin Catholic in the 2005 North Coast Section 2A Championship game. Among the former Dartmouth players taking the event in were Peter Bogardus, Alan Anderson, Sam Coffey, Diek Gale, Brian Stretch, Bob Wenz and Gib Kerwin. Heiges is also a budding artist and to see a picture of him with his painting of Pat Tillman, click here. ... Photographs from yesterday's touching story about a woman's basketball player at Bryan College (see Thursday's blog) can be found here. Thanks to a blog reader for pointing out that a clip of the player making her basket can be found here. (Hopefully your connection is faster than mine so you can fast-forward through all the player introductions, etc.)
9:15 a.m. I'm trying to get a magazine story done today so I don't have much time, but the sharp-eyed Blog reader who sent along yesterday's story about the woman basketball player at Bryant College shared another feel-good basketball link today. If you can watch CNN video on your computer, click here. Or you can read about it here.
9 a.m. Someone who read the Green Alert Blog item a few days back where I commented on the Ivy League's indefensible prohibition against football going to the I-AA playoffs suggested that I ought to "rant" more often. As anyone who used to read my stuff in the newspaper or who follows this Blog should know, I'm not really much of a ranter. But after reading a lively discussion elsewhere on Columbia's new football schedule, I feel compelled to say something.
How come Columbia -- Columbia for crying out loud -- can find a way to rework its football schedule but Dartmouth can't? Originally scheduled to play Duquesne and Lafayette for at least the next three years, the Lions are instead playing Georgetown and Iona this fall, with the added bonus of replacing a tough bus ride to Pittsburgh with a home game against Georgetown.
Maybe Duquesne and Lafayette originated the switch. Who knows? All that matters is that, for better or for worse (and the Iona game is for the worse) Columbia's schedule changed. Dartmouth's schedule? Same old, same old.
A little background: Dartmouth has had the same three non-conference opponents (Colgate, New Hampshire and Holy Cross) since the year 2000. The same three opponents are on the schedule for at least the next three years and I believe beyond that. Opening up with Colgate, New Hampshire and Penn can put you in an 0-3 hole awfully quick. Understand, if you start 0-3 you have to go 5-2 the rest of the year just to be a .500 team. And history shows if you lose your first conference game you better run the rest of the Ivy League table to have a legitimate shot at the title.
When he was the head coach trying to bring a struggling program around, John Lyons desperately wanted to make the early schedule more manageable. Buddy Teevens has made it clear he wants the non-league schedule changed, if only to make it more interesting. Administrators in Alumni Gym have said they want to change the schedule but say their hands are tied.
Well, whether it was Columbia or Lafayette or Duquesne who did it, others have found a way to untie their hands. Now it's Dartmouth's turn. To borrow that marketing expression I dislike, don't tell me how you did it, Just Do It. ...
Harvard has a new running backs coach who comes over from Columbia. Nice move, huh? Awaiting him in Cambridge: Clifton Dawson, who is on track to challenge Ed Marinaro's Ivy League rushing record. ... Speaking of John Lyons, I went to the Kimball Union Academy site to see if there was anything about him going to NFL Europe and found the following note about his prep school team: "KUA ends the season with a 5-2-1 mark and reaches 5 wins for the first time since the 1993 season." I hadn't realized he had as good a year as he did. ... And finally this, former New England Patriot linebacker Steve Nelson stepped down as football coach and athletic director at Curry College. I mention that only because Nelson has been either a finalist or mentioned with each Ivy coaching job that came open in the past half dozen years. It will be interesting to see if he's in the mix should another Ivy position open.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
11:45 a.m. A regular blog reader sent along a link to this Providence Journal story from college women's basketball. If you've got a pulse, this will bring a tear to your eye (it did to me). At the very least, it will choke you up. Don't miss this one.
8:15 a.m. The Associated Press reports that three former Division I scholarship athletes (two football players) are suing "to lift the NCAA's cap on financial aid and allow schools to pay for such items as laundry, health insurance and travel. The antitrust suit was filed Friday in federal court. It seeks to overturn National Collegiate Athletic Association rules limiting college athletic scholarships to covering tuition, books, housing and meals."
"When a boy goes off to college there are three things his mother usually wants answered. First, will he receive proper meals? Second, where will he stay? Third, if needed, will he receive good medical attention?"
The questions above are from the first paragraphs of a memorandum legendary Dartmouth coach Bob Blackman sent to parents of prospective members of the 1959 Dartmouth team. The two page memorandum is up for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $1.99. If you are curious, you can save yourself a couple of bucks and read the entire first page of the original memo here. ... From today's Daily Pennsylvanian: New Penn offensive coordinator Shawn Halloran wants his unit to be good on the ground. "To win a championship, you have to have the ability to run the football," he said. ... And then there's this commentary from the Daily P, which takes a hard look at what it perceives to be an overall downturn in the athletic fortunes of the Pennsylvania school (although the suspicion lurks that no one would have noticed if the Quaker football team had won the Ivy League this year):
"The 2005-06 school year will be a memorable one for the Penn athletic department, but for all the wrong reasons.
It's because it will be the department's worst collective year in decades. ... Currently, Penn stands as the only school in the Ivy League without a championship in a single sport."
My kids had been hoping to see Super Bowl champion coach Bill Cowher at Leede Arena tomorrow night, given that his daughter Meg is a star with the Princeton basketball team that is challenging Dartmouth (and Brown) for the Ivy title. Although Cowher was at Jadwin Gym when the Big Green defeated the Tigers a couple of weeks ago, the NFL Combine this weekend probably has his attention. Still, you never know. My kids will bring their Sharpies. ... Here's how today's Princetonian started a story about Princeton's standout player and her famous dad:
"By merit of her genes, sophomore forward Meagan Cowher was destined for an athletic future. Her mother played both collegiate and professional basketball, and her father is the well-known head coach of the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers."
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
1:30 p.m. It's now official. The New York Jets have released Jay Fiedler. Here's an early link with some good background. Here's another story. I expect more to follow in the next few days.
7 a.m. Cornell offensive lineman Kevin Boothe will be the only Ivy Leaguer at the NFL Combine, part of which kicks off today. The full list of I-AA invitees:
* QB Tarvaris Jackson, Alabama State
* DE Chris Gocong, Cal Poly
* OT Kevin Boothe, Cornell
* QB Erik Meyer, Eastern Washington
* QB Ingle Martin, Furman
* QB Bruce Eugene, Grambling State
* DE Jason Hatcher, Grambling State
* WR Marques Colston, Hofstra
* FS Antoine Bethea, Howard
* PK Jon Scifres, Missouri State
* WR Miles Austin, Monmouth
* QB Travis Lulay, Montana State
* FS Reed Doughty, Northern Colorado
* CB David Pittman, Northwestern State
* QB Barrick Nealy, Texas State
* TE Daniel Fells, UC Davis
* DE Darrell Adams, Villanova
* OT Paul McQuistan, Weber State
For pretty comprehensive coverage of the event click here. ... For longtime scout Gil Brandt's interesting take on the proceedings (with a mention of Boothe) click here. ... The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting column about what happens to Ivy League competitiveness when Patriot League schools start to offer scholarships. The story is about basketball, but it translates to football just as easily. Here's an excerpt:
When the first of the Patriot League schools started giving scholarships in 1999, everything changed. Imagine Colgate and Cornell, both terrific schools, are recruiting you. One offers a free education. The other says it will cost more than $150,000. Is there really that much of a difference that you are not going to choose Colgate?
As expected, Harvard president Lawrence Summers is resigning. There are a lot of stories including this one that is part of the Boston Globe's coverage. It begins this way:
Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers, facing a faculty revolt and eroding support from the university's governing board, announced yesterday he will resign, ending the briefest tenure at the Ivy League school's helm in 144 years.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
4 p.m. update Dartmouth officially announced the addition of Cedric Calhoun as defensive line coach today. Read the release and see a picture of the new assistant here. ... ... Incoming freshman wide receiver Ian Ferrell (photo/brief detail) of Englewood, Colo., and Kent Denver has been listed as the No. 14 recruit nationally at his position in Division I-AA according to showingblitz.com. Again, don't put to much weight on these rankings, but in the final analysis, it's better to be listed than not to be listed. Quarterback recruit Max Heiges was listed No. 14 earlier. (Do I spot a trend?) ... Other Ivy-bound wide receivers listed were Harvard's Michael Clarke (No. 4), the Crimson's Steve Pilconis (No. 9), Yale's Jordan Farrell (No. 20) and Harvard's Matt Luft (No. 30). I have a theory on all of this: A good portion of the research for these rankings is done on the Internet and simply because Harvard is Harvard, athletes headed there get a disproportionate amount of publicity. To see the full rankings, click here.
Harvard President Expected to Resign
11:15 a.m. Some reports from the non-sports side as I put off starting a freelance story I need to get done today. ... Controversial Harvard President Lawrence Summers is expected to announce his resignation within days according to numerous media reports including one by Reuters. ... E-mail has changed the dynamic between college professors and college students and not necessarily for the better according to the New York Times. ... Today's Daily Dartmouth reports that the number of law school applicants from the college increased from 299 to 317 in 2004-05. Medical school applicants in 2005, meanwhile, rose from 129 to 169.
Lloyd Lee Promoted by Bears
8:15 It's been a real, real good month for Lloyd Lee '98. First, the former Dartmouth safety became a father for the first time with the birth of daughter Samaira Lynn. Then came his promotion from defensive quality control coach to defensive assistant working with the nickel package and linebackers. Lloyd was selected an All-American safety in 1996 while helping Dartmouth go 10-0. He spent parts of the 1998 and '99 seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Since his playing days ended, he worked for both the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Bears. For Lloyd's bio on the Bears' web site, click here. ... I distinctly remember the first time I saw Lloyd on the field. It was toward the end of what was then the annual Dartmouth-Columbia preseason scrimmage at Choate. I remember pointing at Lloyd after the scrimmage and asking head coach John Lyons, Who's that guy? John smiled and told me I had a good eye for talent. I did a whole series of stories about Lloyd and classmate Zack Walz as they prepped for the NFL draft. Zack was chosen by the Cardinals but Lloyd didn't hear his name picked. As disappointed as he was, he was incredibly gracious when I interviewed him on the second night of the draft. He ended up signing with San Diego as a "priority" free agent. ... I traded emails with Lloyd a couple of weeks back in anticipation of a quick story with him for the Green Alert main site. I guess I'll have to speed up my time schedule now!
8 a.m. Don't ask me why, but I was reading a Daily Press (Hampton Roads, Va.) column about the historically black schools of the MEAC weighing a decision to abandon the Division I-AA playoffs in favor of a league championship game and a possible berth in a black national championship bowl game when the following line stopped me in my tracks:
Opting out of the NCAA football playoff process isn't unprecedented. The Ivy League does not participate, supposedly for reasons of academics and missed class time (though those concerns somehow disappear during the NCAA basketball tournament).
My first reaction was that it was a cheap shot. My second reaction was that it is a cheap shot, but one the Ivy League presidents have invited. Wouldn't you just love to hear their response to the line by the Daily Press reporter? Me too, but don't hold your breath. Football is the only Ivy League sport that isn't allowed to go to the postseason and the Ivy presidents are notoriously mum on the subject for one very good reason: They can't rationally defend it. OK, I'm getting off my soap box now. ... Dartmouth-connected Winter Olympians are coming home with at least three gold medals and two bronze. Capturing gold were Canadian women's hockey players Gillian Apps, Cherie Piper and Katie Weatherston, all class of '06. Apps and Piper both scored in the 4-1 gold-medal clinching win over Sweden. The two Big Green skaters tied for the tournament scoring lead with seven goals apiece. ... Claiming bronze with the 4-0 U.S. win over Finland are Kristin King '02 and Sarah Parsons '09. ... The Daily Dartmouth has a piece about Big Green skier Charly Ligety '09, who had a serious rooting interest in the Olympic downhill because the gold-medal winner was his brother, Ted. ... And finally, this: The third-ranked Dartmouth women's lacrosse team will kick off the home spring season Saturday with a game against UConn on the turf at Scully-Fahey Field. There are flurries in the forecast. Brrr.
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