Saturday, September 19, 2020

Game Day

The site 247Sports has a story about Washington quarterback Jackson Proctor's commitment to Dartmouth HERE.

***

Today was supposed to be Dartmouth's football opener against New Haven but as we all know, 2020 got in the way.

With no games, Dartmouth sports information and Big Green football have come up with a novel way to spend the fall: Streaming video of a season's-worth of interesting games from recent years on Saturday afternoons with in-game commentary from some of those involved. Today they will show the 2016 Dartmouth-New Hampshire game featuring commentary from Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens and defensive line coach Duane Brooks as well as quarterback Jack Heneghan and defensive lineman Brennan Cascarano.

In keeping with the look-back idea, scroll down a bit and I've posted the preview I wrote for the game, word-for-word as it appeared on BGA Premium. (As always, I grimace reading my own stuff and am tempted to fix every typo at the very least, or rewrite the entire thing at the worst, but to keep with the theme of reliving the game the story is reproduced as it was, warts and all.)

I'll post the game story tomorrow and then we can all decide if I should continue the preview/game story each week. Let me know.

So check out the preview below and watch the stream of the game HERE.

Young Dartmouth Kicking Off Against Equally Young New Hampshire

HANOVER – The recipe for a Dartmouth win over New Hampshire in Saturday's opener? Outscore ‘em.

Duh.

The formula is pretty simple but it’s easier said than done because historically it takes a lot of points.

Dartmouth and its cross-state rival have faced off 11 times since 2000 with New Hampshire winning each time. In 10 of those 11 games UNH scored at least 42 points. Three times since 2000 the Wildcats surpassed 50 points in the game, including a 52-19 win in Durham two years ago.

New Hampshire, whose high-octane offense traces its roots back to San Francisco 49ers coach Chip Kelly – the school’s offensive coordinator from 1999-2006 – graduated Sean Goldrich, one of the top quarterbacks in school history, and is playing this fall without both graduated 2015 leading receiver Jared Allison and NFL prospect Jordan Powell, a tight end suspended for the first six games. Out because of injury is guard Alexander Morrill of nearby Lebanon, a starter since his redshirt season and one of the New Hampshire’s two most imposing offensive linemen.

Given all of that, it’s not entirely surprising that UNH suffered a 31-0 goose egg at AP No. 28 San Diego State in its opener two weeks ago.

But this is UNH, after all, and so it probably shouldn’t be a surprise either that after a sputtering start the Wildcats rode a 26-point second half last week to a 39-28 win over Holy Cross in Durham, keeping them at No. 24 in the STATS poll. They did it by piling up 362 rushing yards (394 before lost yardage) and averaging a whopping 7.0 yards per run.

Leading the UNH attack was 5-foot-11, 204-pound senior Dalton Crossan, who used a combination of quick feet and bullish power to run for 199 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns against the Crusaders. Explosive backup Trevon Bryant averaged 8.8 yards per carry with  nine runs for 79 yards.

First-year starting quarterback Trevor Knight was 11-for-18 throwing the ball for 190 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. He also did damage with his legs, running 18 times for 87 yards. Knight is completing just 44.1 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and three interceptions but clearly is a weapon with his feet.

Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens knows that Knight’s struggles throwing the ball and personnel losses notwithstanding, the offense the Big Green will see Saturday will look a lot more like the one that tore up Holy Cross than the one that struggled against San Diego State.

“(Crossan) is as good a back as we will see,” the Big Green coach said. “He’s tough and physical but he will also make people miss. He reminds me of Nick Schwieger ’12.

“Their quarterback will run on you and the running back will run on you. They have had some (pass blocking) ‘leakage,’ but when they do the QB takes off. It’s a challenge. We’ve got to tackle extremely well and keep the quarterback in the pocket. Make him throw it and don’t let him exploit seams because he’ll take advantage.”

Neil O’Connor leads the Wildcats with a modest five catches for 69 yards in two games but the player to watch out for might be senior Kyon Taylor, who caught 31 passes in six games last year. Rory Donovan got free for a 62-yard TD grab against Holy Cross last week, finishing with two catches for 98 yards.

 “They are imaginative and creative,” Teevens said of the UNH attack. “They’re going to execute and stress and strain you in a lot of areas.”

UNH has seldom been known as a defensive powerhouse and a very young Wildcat unit looked like anything but a defensive juggernaut in the first half against Holy Cross as quarterback Peter Pujals helped the visitors vault out to a 21-6 second-quarter lead. But well-regarded New Hampshire Defensive Coordinator John Lyons, the onetime Dartmouth head coach, made the necessary adjustments at halftime and Holy Cross managed just seven points after the break.

Even with the less effective second half, Pujals finished the night with 427 yards and three touchdowns through the air, completing 42-of-64 throws with two interceptions. The Crusaders had a 29-22 advantage in first downs but managed just 71 yards on the ground.

While safety Emmanuel “Pop” Lacey  led UNH with 14 tackles against Holy Cross to earn CAA Rookie of the Week honors the player to be wary of on that side of the ball is senior corner Casey DeAndrade. The Wildcat captain and preseason All-American had six tackles, three breakups and a 28-yard interception return for a score with 2:10 left to sew up the win.

While DeAndrade came into the season as a known commodity, New Hampshire’s three starting safeties came into the fall without a single career tackle among them.

Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan, who will be making his first career start in the Granite Bowl, knows that while UNH may be young and relatively inexperienced, it is talented.

“It’s a good team that definitely lives up to the great reputation that their program has,” he said. “This year’s team is very fast, very physical. We have seen their first two games and they play their assignments really well and are well coached. They’re going to bring the best out in us hopefully, and we’re going to need that.”

While New Hampshire may be just as youthful as Dartmouth it brings with it the swagger that comes from UNH winning the last 13 games of the series and going 18-0-2 against Dartmouth dating back to the last Big Green win in 1976 (24-13).

Saturday’s game fulfills a contract obligation between the two teams who do not have another game currently scheduled against each other. That’s fine with Teevens, who is not as enthusiastic about playing UNH as UNH coach Sean McDowell is about playing Dartmouth.

“They are as good a team as we will face all season,” said Teevens, “and we face them right off the bat. It is what it is. The schedule doesn’t change. So we just step up and play.… They are on the schedule. Let’s go.”

NOTES

Although there are four Ivy League schools in New England, New Hampshire has rarely played any Ivy not named Dartmouth. The last UNH game against another Ancient Eight team came back in 1939 when they endured a 46-0 beating at Harvard. 

New Hampshire is just 9-15 all-time on Memorial Field but the nine wins in Hanover have come in the last nine games on Dartmouth’s home turf. … The good news for Big Green fans is Buddy Teevens does have a couple of wins over New Hampshire on his résumé. The bad news? Both came when he was head coach at Maine. He’s 0-7-1 against the Wildcats at Dartmouth. … The Big Green won the first 16 games of the all-time series dating back to 1901. New Hampshire was outscored in the first three, 94-0, and managed just 28 points total in the first 15 matchups.

UNH coach Sean McDonnell is a two-time Eddie Robinson Award winner as the national coach of the year in FCS. In both 2013 and 2014 he helped the Wildcats to the FCS semifinals. … Dartmouth has won its last six season openers including a 31-10 victory last year at Georgetown. … New Hampshire’s highest-scoring game in the series came in a 66-12 win in 1986 … Dartmouth’s biggest output came in 1965 when the Big Green won, 56-6. 

There have been two last-second games since 2000 with UNH winning both. In 2001 the Wildcats got a touchdown with four seconds remaining to win, 42-38. Greg Smith passed for 416 yards for Dartmouth in the narrow loss. UNH finished that season 4-7 and Dartmouth 1-8. (The Colgate game was cancelled because of 9/11.) … In 2001 the Big Green took a 26-22 lead midway through the fourth quarter only to have a UNH touchdown with 2:48 remaining put the Wildcats back in front. Dartmouth responded by driving to the New Hampshire 13 before an interception in the end zone ended the proceedings. Brian Mann passed for 303 yards for Dartmouth. The Big Green closed out that season 3-7 and UNH at 3-8.

In the most recent meeting two years ago in Durham, UNH ran out to a 17-0 lead and Dartmouth clawed back to 17-13 only to be outscored the rest of the way, 35-6.

Posted by at