A look at the best of Dartmouth since BGA came on the scene with the return to Hanover of Buddy Teevens in 2005. A reminder that these are one onlooker's opinions. Your mileage may vary ;-)
KICKER/PUNTER/LONG SNAPPER
Josh Speicher '09 did a solid job for a couple of years and Grant Jaffe '20 will wrap up a consistent three seasons in the fall. But the pick at this juncture has to be Graydon Peterson '17, who took every snap for four years and rarely had one finish anywhere but in the strike zone.
RETURN SPECIALIST
Shawn Abuhoff '12 is the runaway winner in both punt and kick returns. He had four punt returns for touchdowns while averaging 11.5 yards for his career, a school record. He averaged a whopping 17.2 yards per punt return on 18 attempts (with three touchdowns) in 2010. He’s second in the Dartmouth annals for career kickoff return average at 25.5 while bringing back the second-most kicks in school history. He had one return for a TD.
Ryan '15 and Danny McManus '17 were both among the top punt returners. On kickoff return Kirby Schoenthaler’s '15 28.6 average for a single season was topped only by Abuhoff’s 30.8. Niko Mermigas '12 didn’t get a ton of tries last year but averaged a healthy 25.0 yards and could find his way onto this list.
PUNTER
Ben Kepley’s '17 36.9-yard average with a season-high of 38.9 gives him the edge at punter with Brian Scullin’s '09 breakout season of 40.8 yards in 2008 the highwater mark in that department. Davis Brief '20 has averaged 36.4 and 36.0 yards in his two seasons with last year’s average sabotaged by his terrific knack for dropping punts inside the 20, something he did on more and one third of his kicks in 2018.
KICKER
Foley Schmidt '12 handled the placements for four years and was dependable from Day One. He striped 11-of-14 kicks as a senior with a long of 46 and was 33-of-47 (70.2 percent) in his career. Alex Gakenheimer hit 19-of-30 (63.3 percent) with a long of 41. He was a terrific 15-of-18 through his first two years.
KICK BLOCKING
Abuhoff earns the nod again with Jeremiah Douchee '17 in the picture.
TOMORROW: Opposing Team
