It seems as if every time I wonder if and why I should keep BGA Daily going I hear from someone who helps me remember why I'm still at it after 6,892 postings. Thanks!
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When I first saw this "Past and Present" on Reddit, of all places, I wondered if I should use it. I guess I thought it was kind of, well, embarrassing? But as all of our teachers taught us, always go back to original sources and when I did that I found that it started on the Carolina Panthers' official Twitter page. That tells me former Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey, who is hilariously funny, was in on the laughs:
Towson And Dartmouth Match Up In A Way Neither Expected
BGA Premium Oct. 15, 2017
HANOVER – Given that Dartmouth is moving away from playing scholarship programs like New Hampshire it is something of a head scratcher that the Big Green signed on to play another school from the same powerhouse conference.
In one way, however, Saturday’s first-ever meeting between the commuter school of 22,000-plus students in the Baltimore suburbs and the Big Green seems like a result of Match.com or some other online dating site. Just imagine:
“Formerly promising Maryland college football team missing top two offensive players looking for game against college football team dealing with defensive injuries. Willing to travel."
Towson would be the team missing two top offensive performers.
Quarterback Morgan Mahalak, a four-star transfer from Oregon, looked like a pretty good pickup last spring for the Tigers, who had every offensive starter returning from a 7-4 team . . . except its signalcaller.
But in just his second game after transferring down to the FCS level Mahalak injured his shoulder. He hasn’t played a down since, and isn’t on this week’s depth chart.
Towson also has lost Darius Victor, the standout 5-foot-8, 223-pound running back bidding for his third 1,000-yard season in a row. Victor ran for four touchdowns in a 31-28 loss to No. 6 Richmond two weeks ago, but missed last week’s loss to No. 27 Stony Brook and does not appear on this week’s depth chart.
While Towson has battled injuries on the offensive side, a tidal wave of injuries on the defensive side has hit Dartmouth. True, the Big Green has had more injuries on the offensive than it did a year ago, but it is the defensive side that has been hardest hit.
Starting corner Danny McManus and nickel Ky McKinney-Crudden have been lost for the season. Starting corner Darius George was hurt at Yale and is doubtful this week. Jackson Perry, expected to anchor the Big Green defensive line, went out early in the opener, hasn’t been back since and is still on crutches. Linemate Zach Husain missed last week and hasn’t practiced this week. There are more but you get the idea.
The up side for 2-2 Dartmouth, coach Buddy Teevens stressed this week, is that a lot of young players are getting time that will pay dividends over the next two or three years. The down side is that what looked like a young defense – and a young team – is trending even younger.
As the season reaches the midway point, Teevens said, the Big Green is playing “young guys who are somewhat less experienced than we expected.” And those young guys, he added, are being backed up by “young guys that don’t have any experience.”
Even a healthy Dartmouth defense would need a strong effort against a pro-style Towson offense that has the potential be explosive without two of its top weapons.
“They are very, very athletic,” said Teevens. “They are big and strong, a legitimate football team that plays in the best conference in the country.”
With Mahalak sidelined Ellis Knudson has taken over at quarterback. The 6-2, 241-pound redshirt sophomore has completed just 50 percent of his attempts for 178.8 yards per game with five touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s not much of a threat to run but has used his bulk to score a pair of touchdowns on the ground.
Against St. Francis Knudson came off the bench when Mahalak was injured and passed for 301 yards on just 10 completions, a whopping 30.1 yards per completion.
With Victor out of action, speedy redshirt freshman Shane Simpson is the featured back. He ran for 76 yards on 13 carries in last week’s loss to Stony Brook. Classmate Deshaun Wethington will split time with Simpson after carrying 13 times for 67 yards a week ago. Simpson is averaging 5.1 yards per carry and Wethington 6.2 while Victor had been averaging 4.3
Christian Summers, a 6-3 senior, heads up the receiving corps with 23 catches for 493 yards and a 21.4-yard averaged boosted by a 94-yard TD grab against St. Francis. He had a 43-yarder in the same game. Andre Dessenberg, another 6-3 receiver, is next with 22 catches, including a 46-yarder and one touchdown.
Defensively, Towson is allowing opponents to complete 64.1 percent of their passes with 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. The Tigers have seen teams they played convert 53 percent of their third-down attempts.
Although Towson is just 1-4 that record could be a lot better.
A week ago the Tigers let a 17-7 lead slip away but had a first down at the Stony Brook 28 on its final drive. The chance to pull out the win disappeared with a fourth-down incompletion that sealed a 27-20 loss.
A week earlier Towson had the ball at the Richmond 38 with 53 seconds remaining but failed to convert a fourth-and-two that closed the books on a 31-28 loss to a top-10 team.
Teevens can relate to the frustration the Tigers must have felt after Dartmouth came up empty on two fourth-down attempts in Yale territory last week.
“At crunch time we didn’t make a play when we had to,” he said. “We have to make plays.”
That’s a sentiment senior co-captain Flo Orimolade was stressing this week.
Injuries or not, he said, the Big Green has to “Find a way to make a play. Third down, crucial situations, you have to make plays, no matter who is in.”
NOTES
Towson fielded its first football team in 1969. … The Tigers are 3-6 against Ivy League opponents but haven’t played against an Ivy team since losing to Columbia, 24-10, in 2011. … They played for the national championship in 2013, winning a school-record 13 games. … Towson makes it two Granite State opponents in as many weeks when it plays host to New Hampshire next week.
The Tigers roster features FBS transfers from Oregon, Maryland, Southern Mississippi, Connecticut, Central Florida, Kent State and Old Dominion. … Rather than naming captains, six “kings” have leadership roles for Towson, with each having two “sentinels” and a “kingdom.”
Victor has 3,309 rushing yards in his career, third on the Towson charts. Nick Schwieger holds the Dartmouth record with 3,150 yards. … The Tigers have four players on current NFL rosters. Terrance West is a running back with the Ravens, Ryan Delaire is a defensive end with the Panthers, Jordan Dangerfield is a safety with the Steelers and Jermon Bushrod is an offensive lineman for the Dolphins.
Towson is the fourth CAA school Dartmouth will have played, joining New Hampshire, Maine and William & Mary. … The Big Green hasn’t lost to a first-time opponent since falling to Fordham in 1951. … Dartmouth’s 58 pass attempts last week at Yale were the most by the Big Green since a 2004 game at Colgate when Charlie Rittgers threw 59 passes and the team 60 in a 17-15 loss. … Jack Heneghan is averaging 276.5 yards per game and at that rate he would finish the year with 2,765 yards, second on the all-time chart behind Brian Mann’s 2,913 in 2002. Jay Fiedler is currently second all-time at Dartmouth with 2,748 yards in 1992. … Flo Orimolade leads the Ivy League in sacks with four, and tackles for loss with 8.5. He’s also atop the conference stats with three forced fumbles. … Towson closes out the Big Green nonconference schedule.
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EXTRA POINT
Outside our window this morning. Click the little box to make it full screen. . . .
