Countdown to Spring Action

Being a one-man band I can't promise this every day, but if Dartmouth has resolved its "public" wi-fi issues, I'll have Twitter updates today throughout practice here. If you don't see them, I wasn't able to get access.

With spring football starting, this is as good a time as any to offer an excerpt from the final Optimist and Pessimist column that appeared on Green Alert Premium shortly after last season concluded:

Just two seniors who were regulars this fall are graduating – safety Peter Pidermann and offensive lineman Alex Toth. Could Dartmouth ever say that before?

That means, with wide receiver Niles Murphy eligible to file for a medical redshirt season, every player who scored a point for Dartmouth can return next fall. The top seven pass catchers, two lead rushers, two quarterbacks who started games and the entire offensive line sans Toth are all back. And that's not even counting Timmy McManus, who will make a huge contribution no matter where he plays.

On the other side of the ball, the top five tacklers return and with safety Tony Pastoors in the same situation as Murphy, every player who had double-digit tackles this fall except Pidermann has the opportunity to come back. That’s 18-of-19 double-figure tacklers back if you are counting.

Placekicker Foley Schmidt, kickoff specialist Don Kephart and punter Matt Kelly all return as well.

With so many young players getting experience this fall, another year of strength training ... and recent history pointing to another solid incoming freshman class, the future is blindingly bright.

And it doesn’t hurt that while Dartmouth is returning virtually everyone, other teams are losing significant star power.

That was from one of the weekly Optimist and Pessimist columns. The Optimist goes on to list what he feels are:

• Two teams Dartmouth should be a heavy favorite against
• Five games that should be a tossup
• Three tough outs

The Pessimist goes on to list:

• Two teams Dartmouth should be a favorite against
• Five that are "close" to being a tossup
• Three teams he says it is "not happening against"

Not a whole lot of difference between The Optimist and The Pessimist heading into the fall, which is curious.

*

While Dartmouth is just getting started late this afternoon, Penn has already wrapped up spring ball. For a pretty thorough look at how things shaped up in West Philly, visit the Penn website.

Speaking of spring ball, venerable broadcaster Bob Fouracre will call the Holy Cross game on Internet radio this Saturday at 11. He'll even have interviews and highlights after the contest.

Kudos to Brown football for joining the bone marrow testing drive. A brief about the effort in Providence can be found here.

Incoming Oklahoma freshmen Austin Katigan and Joe Dowdell get a mention in a NewsOK.com blurb. The piece states the obvious to anyone who has been paying attention:

Like I said last week, former Oklahoma receiver Jarrail Jackson has opened up the Dartmouth campus to Oklahoma recruits. Jackson is an assistant for Dartmouth.

The Columbia Spectator writes about the importance of big bucks in the search for a basketball coach in Morningside Heights and the potential attractiveness of bringing in a big name the way Harvard did when it lured Tommy Amaker three years ago.

*

Dartmouth appears to be on the verge of wrapping up interviews with finalists for its vacant head coaching position. It sounds as if today will see a visit by former coach Paul Cormier, currently an advance scout for the Golden State Warriors. "Corms" steadily built a solid team the first time around. After a 5-21 debut season in 1984-85, the Big Green went 11-15 the next fall, 15-11 the following year and then put together back-to-back seasons of 18-8 and 17-9. Only a couple of missed foul shots at the end of regulation in the final game of the '87-'88 season kept Dartmouth from a tie for its only Ivy League title since 1959. Cormier left Dartmouth for Fairfield after the 1990-91 season.

In other business – literally – the Daily Dartmouth has a story about changes in store for the Hanover Inn. The D writes:

College officials have decided to employ an outside agency — real estate firm Carpenter & Company — to serve as the asset manager of the Hanover Inn, Senior Vice President Steven Kadish wrote in a letter to Hanover Inn employees on Monday. College officials hope the appointment will allow the College to focus its financial resources on research and education instead of subsidizing the Inn, which has lost money over the past few years, Kadish said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

*

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored in his first jayvee baseball game of the spring. Batting third, his sister popped out to right and hit a screaming liner directly at an outfielder as her team was, um, "mercy ruled" in its opener. On the plus side, she threw out the only runner who tried to steal on her early in the game. On the other side, a pickoff throw to first was low and got past the first baseman. Both teams are now off until after next week's spring break, which should clarify a certain college choice.