Five Months From Today ...

With the season opening five months from today, it's as good a time as any to revisit one of the highlights from a year ago:


Last evening's Green Alert had a look at new defensive coordinator Don Dobes. He explained his approach this way:

“My defensive philosophy starts with the basics of being fundamentally sound, being aggressive, being attacking. Great enthusiasm and great energy. I think you have to play the defensive side with a passion for the game. I feel like you've got to run around like your hair is on fire, but at the same time be disciplined, be detail-oriented and be determined."

Another excerpt:

“I told the guys on my interview that when I started coaching at Penn in the early ‘80s the two teams that we had to beat were Yale and Dartmouth. Those were the two that we put up and said, ‘OK, this is where we want this Penn program to go.’ That's what (head coach Jerry Berndt) said. So that's why I feel we can be successful again here, and there's no reason why we can't get to that upper echelon and compete again.”

Players like (Zack) Walz and (Josh) Dooley and Anthony Gargiulo ‘06, who saw his CFL career and NFL hopes wrecked by a cheap-shot knee injury, are certainly familiar names to Dobes.

“Those are the kind of guys that we want to put up on the mantle and want to be like,” he said. “Part of it is getting these guys to understand that there was always a tough, junkyard dog mentality to this place. That's what we want to re-create.”

Dobes, by the way, will be coaching against his son Kevin in the 2010 finale at Princeton and he spoke about what that would be like.

One of the more impressive freshmen at Dartmouth a few years ago was a defensive back named Chance Robbins, of Jenks, Oklahoma. As happens occasionally with athletes as well as students who wouldn't know Alumni Gym from Alumni Hall, Robbins decided to transfer. I'd originally heard he was going to go to Arkansas to play but could never find his name on a roster. Instead he turned up Oklahoma State and appeared on this OSU roster. The twist in the story is that he ended up not playing for the Cowboys. Rather he turned his attention to poker and it sounds as if he's having some success with it.

Robbins isn't the only Dartmouth football player to turn to poker. Chip Reese, who died in 2007, was one of the absolute legends of the game. (Green Alert blog link) And Andrew Seidman '09 has done well as a poker player and author. (BGA blog link)

Holy Cross held its spring football game yesterday in Worcester. Not that there's much to learn about Dartmouth's Week 5 opponent from the writeup, but if you are so-inclined you can find it here. Of note, as the post-Dominic Randolph era begins at Holy Cross, the Crusader offense surrendered eight sacks and averaged 3.4 yards per play yesterday. Hard to say from a distance but senior Ryan Taggart might have put a strong claim in on the QB job by completing 11-of-13 passes for 102 yards.

Randolph, of course, was the straw that stirred the drink for the Crusaders last year, throwing for 3,776 yards and 34 touchdowns while also leading the team in rushing with 480 yards and seven touchdowns. Taggart was 2-for-2 passing as the top backup a year ago and ran for seven yards. Think things will be different in Crusader Country next fall?

It was a rough day for Dartmouth sports yesterday with the No. 7 women's lacrosse team seeing its chances for the Ivy League title damaged with a hard-fought, 9-6, loss to No. 6 Penn at Scully-Fahey Field and the men's team taking it on the chin against No. 6 Princeton, 16-2.

Baseball and softball both had their doubleheaders against Yale shifted from Saturday and Sunday to Sunday and Monday but even this morning the weather looks a little dicey.

And now for today's feel-good story, thanks to a regular reader. Here's a New York Times piece on a unique NFL hopeful:

(Brandon) Crawford, like so many others, has dreamed of being in the N.F.L. since he was a child. But he has dreamed much longer than the others hoping to be selected this week. Crawford is 33, an age when most professional athletes are icing their knees and pondering retirement.

Finally, that Certain Hanover High Senior is headed to central New York today to overnight at a couple of schools on her list, one from the Patriot League and one in the NESCAC. Later in the week she'll visit central Pennsylvania to overnight at another Patriot League school. She'll be meeting again with the coaches at all three schools. Then the hard part comes ;-)