From USA Today's Panthers Wire in advance of today's game (LINK):
... (Former Dartmouth offensive tackle) Matt Kaskey has been given the standard practice squad elevation for Sunday’s game. If he’s active, it will be the first time he’s played during his NFL career.
Green Alert Take: They spelled his name "Kasey" in the drophead, but you can be sure he' won't complain if he sees the field.
Before Kaskey and the Panthers line up at 4:05 in Washington, his former teammate Niko Lalos and the Giants will be in action at the Ravens at 1 p.m. Lalos, a defensive end, gets a mention for "dabbling" with longsnapping in an SI Giants story HERE.
Green Alert Take: Lalos would occasionally practice longsnapping at Dartmouth but with steady classmate Grant Jaffe holding the job down for their final three years he never got the chance to show what he could do snapping in a game.
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A couple of other Ivy Leaguers had memorable games yesterday. Former Harvard tight end Kyle Juszczyk caught a pair of touchdown passes for the 49ers in the afternoon (LINK) and at night fellow Crimson alum Ryan Fitzpatrick came out of the bullpen in relief of an ineffective Tua Tagovailoa to launch what one writer called "the throw of the year" to help the Dolphins shock the Raiders. Watch Fitz' pass, while his head was nearly being pulled off:
Said Tagovailoa after the game, "They call him FitzMagic for a reason."
Read more about Fitz' rescuing the Fins HERE.
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This headline on FootballScoop caught my attention: Gamecocks’ Beamer poised to add special teams guru. I clicked through because I had a hunch that the "guru" might well be one of two coaches with Dartmouth connections.
One person I thought it might be was Adam Scheier '95, a four-year letterwinner at Dartmouth who made a name for himself on Big Green special teams and later went on to work with special teams at Lehigh, Bowling Green, Wake Forest, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Mississippi State and now Rutgers.
But I would have been surprised if it had been Scheier, who earned a Broyles Award nomination for top assistant coach in the nation at Texas Tech and is a key part of Greg Schiano's rebuilding effort on the banks of the Raritan.
I thought there was a better chance it was Pete Lembo, one of the three finalists for the Broyles Award in 2019 for his special teams work at Memphis. Lembo was a Big Green assistant at the end of Scheier's playing career who worked alongside him on John Lyons' staff during the undefeated 1996 season. From a story about Lembo's move (LINK):
Even when he was a head coach, Pete Lembo was a stickler for special teams. He oversaw everything, but he often got into the nitty gritty on punts or kickoffs, getting a player’s feet in the right spot or drilling a particular technique.
Now he’ll bring those talents to Shane Beamer’s first South Carolina football staff, The State confirmed via a source.
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, citing sources, first reported Saturday evening via Twitter that “Pete Lembo has agreed to become the special teams coach and associate head coach at South Carolina.”
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It's not football and it's not Ivy League-related. All it is . . . is unbelievable. The Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry made 105 consecutive three-pointers from the baseline after practice for today's game. (LINK)
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EXTRA POINT
A story about the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries had me shaking my head yet again. Can someone please explain to me why hordes of people start lining up to buy tickets for those things only when they hit $376 million and $341 million respectively?
Potential lottery player when the payoff reached $200 million: "I think I'm going hold off until it's real money."
For what it's worth, I've never bought a lottery ticket and never will. Count me among those who believe lotteries are for people who are bad at math.
Except, of course, for these people, who it turned out were pretty good at "arithmetic." (LINK)
