One Yard

The office door of offensive coordinator and O-line coach Keith Clark (click to enlarge)

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The Sports Network lists 5-foot-11, 225-pound Columbia linebacker Alex Gross as the Ivy League's top defensive candidate for the NFL. I had been sure they were going to list Dartmouth defensive end Charles Bay, who was joined in yesterday's Pro Day in Hanover by longsnapper Shane Peterlin and former teammates Marlon Alebiosu and Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor. The proceedings began in Floren Varsity House with the players having their height measured, then their hands and the length of their arms. They were then tested in the vertical jump (three attempts), standing long jump (two) and bench press before moving over to Leverone Field House for a series of running and agility tests highlighted by the 40.

Be sure to check back for a few interesting numbers from the testing.

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Although Joe Paterno and Penn State managed for many years to somehow dodge it, salaries for coaches at state schools are supposed to be public information. Because they are and because FootballScoop reported it, we know that Scott Sallach, the former Dartmouth assistant coach (1998-2002), will be making $135,000 next year as tight ends coach at Mississippi State, a raise of $5,000 over what he made a year ago.

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Holy Cross has announced its new recruiting class. Although Dartmouth has little crossover with the Patriot League in recruiting for football, the one school that it seems to cross paths with more than the others is Holy Cross. Looking at Crusaders' list, there's no name that jumps out as having been seriously on Dartmouth's radar. On the HC home page there's also a video with coach Tom Gilmore touching on the Crusaders' class, spring football and even a little about next season.

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The Harvard Crimson has reaction to the story about the list of classes provided to Stanford athletes. From the Harvard story:

Even in what an anonymous senior has called "possibly the jokiest semester at Harvard yet," the Crimson’s athletes often have to rely on hearsay and history to find light courses with their already busy schedules. Team lists, Facebook threads, and text messages are all used to balance the demands of critical coaches and courses. ...

... Some 3,000 miles away, in the calm repose of California, Stanford’s athletes have been lucky enough to go to a school which does this for them.

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Given what we are learning almost daily about concussions, it may be a band aid on a bullet wound, but the New York Times writes:

Football helmets more than 10 years old are worn by about 100,000 young players every fall, presenting what manufacturers and experts in the field have long considered an inappropriate safety risk, particularly in the current age of growing concerns about concussions.

But the use of outdated head protection will soon become far less common. The trade group that oversees the refurbishing of used helmets, the National Athletic Equipment Reconditioners Association (Naera), announced on Thursday that it would no longer accept helmets more than 10 years old.

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And finally, if you don't back up your home computer with all those family photos, financial spreadsheets and important documents, this is a reminder that you should. My MacBook backs up every night via both Time Machine and SuperDuper (which clones your drive allowing you to bring up your desktop on another computer) and it's a good thing. I've had fabulous luck with every Mac I've owned, but whether it was all the power surges of the past few days or just my turn, when I went to power my laptop up yesterday nothing happened. I have a 40,000-word project, a 30-page freelance story and that young adult novel I haven't had a chance to work on this winter all on that hard drive and if they had been lost it would have been devastating. Thanks to my backups and a pocket external hard drive, they are all safe. Two words for you: back up.