Thursday, July 08, 2021

'Round The Girdled Earth

Dartmouth's introduction to incoming freshmen features one who lives in Germany and one who lived for a while in Italy.

From Cologne, Germany comes Kontantin Spörk, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound offensive lineman who played at Fork Union Academy and prepped at Phillips Andover:

And from Cornwall, N.Y., by way of Don Bosco High School and a stint living in Italy comes Alex Geraci, a 6-4, 225 tight end:

#

Writing in The Analyst, FCS guru Craig Haley has a piece headlined Numbers Add up for One Player to Watch in Each FCS Conference. (LINK)

If you've been paying any attention at all to what has been posted on these pages you have to know two names on the list and Dartmouth will face them both this fall. The only question is, which one would be the lead photograph accompanying the story. Hint: It's the first one.

Selected from the Ivy League, of course, is Brown quarterback EJ Perry. And chosen from the Northeast Conference is Sacred Heart running back Julius Chestnut.

Haley writes of Perry:

When Ivy teams last played in 2019, Perry – the nephew of Brown coach James Perry – made his first season as a Boston College transfer memorable. He set the league record for total offense (3,678 yards in 10 games) while leading the FCS in total offensive yards per game (367.8). The dual-threat accounted for 30 touchdowns.

And of Chestnut:

Chestnut, the FCS leader in rushing yards and all-purpose yards per game this spring, enters his final season with nine straight outings over 100 rushing yards, and the run stretches out to 17 of his last 21 games. He leads all active FCS players in rushing yards (3,063) and rushing yards per game (109.4), and is tied for third with 32 touchdowns.

#

At least three transfers are headed to the Ivy League this fall with Yale's new addition a real eye opener.

Joining the Bulldog program from Notre Dame is Jay Brunelle, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound wide receiver who originally chose the Fighting Irish over a group of Power Five offers including Michigan, UCLA and Boston College. Find his Notre Dame bio HERE.

Heading to Columbia from San Diego State is Joe Green, a 6-4, 210 quarterback from Sammamish, Wash., once a Harvard verbal commit who chose the Aztecs over a scholarship offer from Washington State. Find his San Diego State bio HERE.

Tweeting his decision to leave the University of San Diego for Penn is Liam Kearney, a 6-3, 265 offensive lineman from Pittsburgh. His USD bio is HERE.

#

The latest school to "announce" its football schedule is Harvard. LINK

Green Alert Take: I find it incredibly annoying when schedule stories are posted and you have to work your way through a few paragraphs to piece together the overall schedule. C'mon people, is it that hard to simply list the schedule at the end of the story?

#

The lede to a Dartmouth release pretty much sums up the story (LINK):

With reduced COVID-19 restrictions for the summer term and plans underway for transitioning to normal operations in the fall, President Philip J. Hanlon '77 this week announced that the COVID-19 Task Force will end its work on Aug. 1.

#

If you are hoping Hanover Country Club will get a last-minute stay of execution don't count on it. Dartmouth has posted a PDF titled Planning for Possibilities; A Strategic Campus Framework that addresses potential uses for the property. (LINK)

#

EXTRA POINT
Most mornings when I head out to hike I bring along my iPod Touch and listen to a podcast. My regular route up and down the mountain usually takes about an hour, which matches up quite nicely with my favorite podcasts.

Don't get me wrong. In addition to improving my fitness I've learned a ton listening to Fresh Air, Here & Now, On Point and Freakonomics Radio among others on my hikes. But it occurred to me this morning that if I'd been listening instead to language lessons since I started my (almost) daily routine last fall, by Dartmouth's first game I'd probably have spent more than 300 hours improving on my four years of high school Spanish and might almost be fluent.

Then again, ¡Nunca es tarde para empezar!

Posted by at