WCAX, the CBS TV affiliate in Burlington, Vt., catches up with Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens to get a sense about how the fall went without games or traditional practices, and to learn about the challenges of recruiting in a pandemic. Click the photo to bring up the video and the WCAX story headlined, Dartmouth Football Navigating Future After Lost Season: Big Green look to stay sharp and pick right players in recruiting.
"A lot of things that we do will be off junior tape right off the bat. They all had junior seasons, but the kid that was injured in his junior year, that’s the tough thing. And then the other end, developmentally, quite often in our sport, physically you see a change from the junior year to the senior year with their performance level or they were a backup guy and now they’re starting. And sometimes you can’t see that if guys aren’t playing. So it’s somewhat of a leap of faith and you talk with high school coaches about what they’ve seen, what they project. But it is, it’ll be a little bit of a dice roll for a lot of people. You haven’t seen a guy play for you know, a year and a half, two years and you’re offering him an opportunity to come, and you hope that you’re right.”
(If the video didn't play, CLICK HERE.)
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From a story in the New York Daily News after That Certain New York Football Giants Breakout Rookie of a week ago had a successful encore performance by recovering a fumble in his second NFL game (LINK):
Undrafted rookie defensive end Niko Lalos, 23, an undrafted rookie from Dartmouth, recovered one Wilson fumble that was freed for good by safety Jabrill Peppers. It was Lalos’ second turnover in his first two career NFL games.
“I mean Niko had his second turnover, that’s two games and two big plays he’s made for us,” (Giants head coach Joe) Judge said.
After seeing limited time in his first game, Lalos was on the field for 26 of 56 defensive snaps in yesterday's stunning win over Seattle and participated in 10 of 24 special teams plays. In addition to the fumble recovery the defensive end who helped Dartmouth to a share of the 2019 Ivy League championship was credited with his first two NFL tackles. (LINK)
He played football in middle school and says those are his best memories from that part of his life. He grew up in football family with one brother playing Division III ball in college and a grandfather who played. But going into high school, he found a new pursuit.
"I was playing basketball my freshman year, but then I got really into Fortnite," Taylor explained. "That was the new hot game, so I got more serious about playing and wanted to take it to the next level, so I went and got the parts and built my own computer. I practiced every day and did more tournaments, getting bigger and bigger into it and more passionate about it. It was almost like a job. I was practicing for hours a day."
Lest you think Dartmouth is on an island recruiting the big fella, he also holds offers from Columbia and Air Force and has drawn interest from Michigan, Michigan State and Iowa.
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It's Monday and you are back at work (hopefully). Wanna have a little fun at lunch? A site creatively called NFL Combine Results features just what it says: Combine (or Pro Day) workout results for the past 33 years.
Curious how quarterback Jay Fiedler's '94 numbers compared to those of Ryan Fitzpatrick, the two Ivy Leaguers to start at QB for the Dolphins? Wonder about linebacker Zack Walz '98 arm length before he was drafted by the Cardinals or why former Princeton quarterback John Lovett projected as an NFL tight end?
Offensive tackle Matt Kaskey '19 of the Panthers practice squad isn't listed and neither is former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer '04, who stuck around the NFL for five years, but you can waste a lot of time on the site checking out things like the ridiculous numbers Saquon Barkley put up or Tom Brady's time in the 40 (it wasn't pretty ;-). Cruise over to check out historic NFL Combine Results HERE.
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EXTRA POINT
That Certain Dartmouth '14, who is in her second year working toward a Master in Environmental Management (MEM) at Western Colorado University while working full-time as an educational ranger at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Gunnison, Colo., shared this graphic from the Nov./Dec. issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, which mentions both of her schools:
