As this story from the Noles247 website on the 247Sports network shows, the folks who follow Florida State football are now following Dartmouth grad transfer Drew Estrada. The former Dartmouth wideout/return specialist told the site he hopes to make a decision in early December and said:
“I’m trying to find the best fit and a place where I’m going to get an opportunity to make an immediate impact."
And . . .
“I’m still keeping my options open at the moment. I might try to take some unofficial, but it’s tough right now with Covid."
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From the NCAA via Craig Haley of STATS Perform:
Longest uninterrupted FCS series until this year:
130 games—Lafayette-Lehigh (from 1897)
101 games—Cornell-Dartmouth (from 1919)
100 games—Cornell-Penn (from 1919)
99 games—Columbia-Cornell (from 1920)
94 games—Dartmouth-Yale (from 1926)
Green Alert Take: Someone has to come up with wording for streaks that are uninterrupted by anything other than a global pandemic. Anyone?
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A couple more examples of the strangeness of this football season:
• Clemson at Florida State was postponed yesterday one hour before kickoff.
• The Temple-East Carolina game was delayed after a Temple player's girlfriend tested positive. Several of the Owls were kept out of the game as a result of contact tracing.
And this, which cuts those of us who bleed blue (of either variety) to the core . . .
Dartmouth Comes Through When It Matters To Top Princeton And Win Title No. 18
BGA Nov. 21, 2015
HANOVER – When you've already been waiting 19 years, what's another 59 minutes and 36 seconds?
Kyle Bramble collected a short screen pass from Dalyn Williams and crashed over the goal line for the winning points with just 24 seconds remaining Saturday as Dartmouth earned a share of the Ivy League championship with a hard-fought, 17-10 win over Princeton.
Falling behind on a Princeton touchdown early in the second quarter and trailing by three points late in the fourth, the Big Green found a way to grind out a win despite turning the ball over four times and surrendering a season-high seven sacks.
“The fact that our guys didn’t lose their poise, didn’t lose their confidence, executed when we had to is really a tribute to the senior leadership,” said coach Buddy Teevens. “We won a game and won a championship."
Dartmouth, which last claimed the Ivy League championship in 1996, finished the year 6-1 in the conference and 9-1 overall. The Big Green shares its record 19th Ivy League title with Harvard and Penn. It marks the fourth time since the formal start of conference play that three teams have earned the title and each time Dartmouth has gotten a piece.
Princeton, which was tied for had the lead in the final five minutes of four losses this fall, finishes 2-5 in Ivy League play and 5-5 overall.
“It was a classic heavyweight 15-rounder, an old-school 15-rounder,” Princeton coach Bob Surace said. “At the end of the day they got us.”
Trailing, 10-7 with eight minutes left in the season, Dartmouth got a timely, 29-yard punt return by Ryan McManus to take possession at the Princeton 36. Williams (31-for-45 for 262 yards with one interception) completed four consecutive passes as the Big Green marched to the Princeton 4 before the drive bogged down.
Junior kicker Alex Gakenheimer, who had missed a couple of earlier attempts, came on and booted a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-10 with 4:54 remaining.
The stout Dartmouth defense then sandwiched a couple of three-and-outs around a Gakenheimer miss to get the Big Green one final chance to avoid overtime.
Taking over at its own 37 with 2:01 left, Dartmouth got a 23-yard catch and run by McManus – aided by a deadly stiff arm – to advance the ball to the Princeton 40. After a six-yard completion to McManus, Williams pulled the ball down and ran left for nine yards to the Tigers’ 25.
Dartmouth avoided a potential disaster when Bramble recovered a fumbled completion to the Princeton 15. After a three-yard he run for a first down Dartmouth called time to think about things.
The Big Green brain trust had two decisions to make. Should it play for the field goal? Or if it went for the touchdown, what should it run?
Thirty one seconds, 12 yards and one critical decision would determine whether the Big Green would walk off the field as Ivy League champions in regulation or perhaps have to roll the dice in overtime.
While the team was huddled on the sideline to set up the play of the season, senior center Jacob Flores spoke up.
“They kept bringing the blitz whenever we’d get in the red zone,” he said. “I came over and said, ‘If they are bringing it all out, the screen is going to work.”
Explained Teevens: “We kind of filtered that one around. (Offensive coordinator Keith Clark) was thinking the same thing.”
Back on the field after the decision was made to go for the touchdown, Flores’ ears perked up. Williams was calling for Lucky, a screen on the left to Bramble.
“They didn’t ask me, but they called the play and I was like, ‘That’s my call. I know it’s going to work.’ ”
Flores was confident but so was Surace on the far sideline, who said later he was anticipating either a “pick six” or a throw-away.
“We knew that was the play they were running,” he said. “I mean, it’s amazing. We told the player who had the guy in coverage. …
“The guy who had him saw him fake block. He did a great acting job and our guy ran by him, and when he redirected he got blocked.”
Bramble collected the short pass and aided by a block from left guard Josh Clark on safety Dorian Williams near the goal line crashed over at the pylon.
“All I had to do was catch the ball,” Bramble said. “The linemen blocked great. I could basically have walked in.”
The replay actually showed the last Princeton defender doing his best to fend off the 315-pound Clark’s block as he made a desperation move at Bramble, who wasn’t going to be denied.
“They are not going to stop me on the 1-yard line for the Ivy League title,” he said. “I can tell you that right now.”
Because they didn’t, Dartmouth had a seven-point lead. But with 24 seconds still on the clock the game wasn’t over.
After the ensuing kickoff, strong-armed Princeton quarterback Chad Kanoff (24-for-44 for 226 yards) ran for nine yards and completed a pass to Seth DeValve for 13 to the Big Green 43. But corner Chai Reece plowed DeValve into the turf after the catch, not allowing him to get the ball to the trailer whose arms were outstretched for the anticipated hook-and-ladder pitch.
Still hoping for one last play, the Tigers rushed to the line and Kanoff spiked the ball to stop the clock, drawing a flag. The referee was just midway through explaining that downing the ball with less than three seconds left was a penalty and the game was over when the Dartmouth sideline exploded onto the field.
“This has been an unreal ride,” said senior linebacker Will McNamara, who led the Big Green with 10 tackles. “These are my best friends. It is kind of bittersweet. We finally got that championship but at the same time it’s the last time that we are going to get to play together. It’s great to go on top.”
Which is what they did.
“All week long we just talked about finishing,” said Teevens. “Finishing. That was the whole thing. Every day we broke down (at the end of practice) and said, ‘Finish.’ That’s what it took. Playing right to the end.”
And then walking off the field as Ivy League champions.
“I couldn’t be happier for our guys,” said Teevens. "The seniors in particular. All that they’ve put in and the fifth-year guys coming back. And having it end this way for them, I am very, very happy for them. They earned it and they deserved it.”
Nov. 21 – A Fitting Ending For Kyle Bramble And The Dartmouth Class Of ‘16
HANOVER – Kyle Bramble’s college football career couldn’t have ended in a more fitting way than having him score the touchdown that clinched Dartmouth’s 18th Ivy League championship.
Sure, running for 1,000 yards and earning a ticket to New York City for the Bushnell Awards ceremony next month would have been great. But the senior from Floyds Knobs in southern Indiana knew that with two other talented running backs on the Dartmouth team, carries would be parceled out and those things were not going to happen. And that was all right.
Bramble, whose 12-yard carry of a screen pass with 24 seconds left gave Dartmouth a 17-10 win, put that play, the season and his career in perspective after the game.
“I didn’t expect to find the people that I did when I came here,” he said. “I realized a few years ago this isn’t about me. This is about Dartmouth football. It literally means the world to me, and I know it does to the alumni I talk to, like someone who graduated back in ’63. The tradition here is so great.”
It’s why he fought back two years in a row from potentially career-ending knee injuries to get back on the field while working toward earning an engineering degree that usually takes five years in four.
“Two ACL’s, a torn pec, a broken nose,” Bramble said with a smile after the game. “I have been through a lot. But coming back for the team and just being part of this is what was important. It wasn’t for myself. It was for the brotherhood.”
That sentiment resonates with Will McNamara, the heart of a defense that held an opponent to just one touchdown for the seventh time in 10 games this fall. He credits it for helping a Dartmouth program that had gone 13-27 in the four years before he arrived to go 29-11 with his class.
“The closeness and the bond that these guys have, has really become something special,” McNamara said. “I think the main difference to me is how much I love these guys. It really shows in the success that we have had.”
The roots of that success, head coach Buddy Teevens stressed, predate any of the players who will soon be getting sized up for championship rings.
“There’s an awful lot of guys who had a part in this,” he said of the resurrection of the Dartmouth football program. “The older alums and the support they’ve given when we weren’t a real good team. They just believed. That’s a Dartmouth thing. . . .
“This is kind of the end result. We are very, very happy for all of them. We feel like they are a part of our team, which they are.”
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
While Dartmouth had a 26-17 advantage in first downs, a game that was tied until the final minute was evenly played. The Big Green finished with 354 yards of total offense and Princeton with 323. Princeton ran for 97 yards, Dartmouth for 92. The Big Green lost three fumbles and Princeton lost three fumbles. Princeton had five penalties, Dartmouth four.
Ryder Stone led Dartmouth with 49 yards on eight carries, with most of it coming on a 32-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. The Big Green gained 142 yards on the ground but lost 50 yards on sacks and tackles for loss.
Williams’ 31 completions were one off his career high set in last year’s win at Yale. He will graduate as the school record-holder for career completions (620), completion percentage (62.7) and passing yards (7,458) as well as total yards (8,952).
Dartmouth was credited with 10 pass breakups against Princeton quarterback Chad Kanoff, a former Vanderbilt commit who completed 24-of-44 passes for 226 yards. … Safety David Caldwell recorded his Ivy League-best fifth interception in the fourth quarter with the score tied at 10-10.
Will McNamara led Dartmouth with 10 tackles while Chai Reece and AJ Zuttah had nine apiece and Cody Fulleton eight. Fulleton filled up the box score with a seven-yard sack, 2.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a breakup. … Zuttah also recovered a fumble and had 1.5 tackles for loss.
A crowd of 6,208 turned out on an unseasonably mild afternoon. … There now have been four three-way ties for the Ivy League title and only Dartmouth has gotten a share each time. … The championship ends a 19-year drought for the Big Green, which prior to the just-completed dry spell had never gone more than eight years without winning the crown. The eight-year drought was ended by the 1990 team which helped Teevens win his first title as a coach. That team was in town celebrating the 25th anniversary of its championship season.
Dartmouth graduates nine players listed on the first line of the defensive two-deep for the Princeton game and seven from the first line of the offense. … The Big Green opens the 2016 season at home against New Hampshire on Sept. 17. In addition to the Ivy League opponents the schedule features a renewal of the rivalry at Holy Cross in Week 2 and an Oct. 15 game against Towson in Hanover.
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EXTRA POINT
I don't deserve any credit for this one. Mrs. BGA took a vacation day from DHMC Friday and made an interesting observation after turning on the TV.
Sitting through depressing commercial after commercial for Reverse Mortgages, Medicare services, drug commercials and the like Mrs. BGA said, and I paraphrase: "Advertisers are missing the boat with so many people at home right now."
She's right, of course. You don't usually see weekday morning and afternoon commercials for things like Red Bull, Axe Body Wash, Budweiser, Chilis, Grey Goose Vodka and Fantastic Four movies, but maybe in this strangest of times you should.
