To Tackle Or Not To Tackle, That Is The Question

Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens, perhaps the nation's foremost advocate of not tackling in practice, is fond of saying no team tackles as much as the Big Green. Confused? They do tackle, but they just don't tackle each other. Here's some of the tackling they do, courtesy of the Dartmouth football office:

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Read about fifth-year senior Jake Guidone's entry into the transfer portal, his decision to return to Dartmouth, the move from tight end to guard, his push to boost his weight from 270 pounds to 300 and what he's hoping for next year on the BGA Premium practice report that went up last night HERE.

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The Eagle Tribune has a story headlined Next Generation of Marinaros Shines that mentions both Joe Marinaro, a sophomore linebacker at Boston College, and brother Nick, a 6-foot-2, 270-pound freshman offensive lineman at Dartmouth. The Massachusetts newspaper jumped on the story because of this local connection (LINK):

Their dad, Andover High Hall of Famer Mike Marinaro, said no to Harvard to play at BC, where he was an All-East defensive lineman for coach Tom Coughlin."

Craig Haley's Ivy League preview appears on The Analyst today and his projection for the race differs from the conference media poll only at the bottom, where he flips Cornell and Columbia. The prediction (LINK):

1. Princeton

2. Yale

3. Dartmouth

4. Harvard

5. Penn

6. Brown 

7. Cornell

8. Columbia

Green Alert Take: It's still jarring to see Harvard picked fourth and Penn fifth, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

Of Dartmouth Haley writes:

The Big Green, who have gone 8-2 or 9-1 in five of their last six seasons, have the advantage of playing both Yale and Princeton at home. A veteran offensive line protects Derek Kyler, one of the most efficient FCS quarterbacks in the 2018 and ’19 seasons (68.2 completion percentage, 166.2 passer rating and 25 TD passes to five interceptions). The defense is relatively new in the front seven, but the secondary, led by strong safety Niko Mermigas, is a strength.

The Analyst's preseason offensive and defensive players of the year are the same as everyone else's. Brown quarterback EJ Perry and Princeton linebacker Jeremiah Tyler get the nod.

The league's top NFL prospect per The Analyst might be a bit of a surprise: Yale running back Zane Dudek.

The "3 Must-See Games" are:

• Princeton at Dartmouth on Nov. 5
• Yale and Princeton on Nov. 13
• Harvard at Yale on Nov. 20

Green Alert Take: Went out on a limb with that last one, didn't they?

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Associated Press headline: Ivy League sports return as way they went out: cautiously. From the story (LINK):

All eight Ivies are requiring that their football teams be vaccinated for COVID-19 — just like the rest of the students on campus. Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said this month that the goal had been reached with “very limited medical or religious” exceptions.

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Subhead from a bizarre FootballScoop story: An "online-only prep school" found its way on ESPN's air Sunday... after playing on Friday. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: ESPN should be better than that.

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Missed this last week. A release out of the college noted that . . .

Dartmouth is now asking employees who have not yet returned to campus and whose roles are not directly student-facing to continue to work remotely until Oct. 4. Previously, the plan was for those workers to return at the beginning of September.

The college also . . .

. . . announced a change to the frequency of COVID-19 surveillance testing for vaccinated employees, from every 30 days to weekly. Unvaccinated employees who are coming to campus are still required to test twice a week. Employees do not need to participate in surveillance testing if they are not coming to campus to work. 

And . . .

Over the course of the next two weeks, Dartmouth will start providing take-home testing kits for everyone—vaccinated and unvaccinated—participating in the surveillance testing program.  

Find the full news release HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
An avid golfer and fan of the game, That Certain Nittany Lion '16 was coming here for dinner last night after dropping a college friend at the airport in Burlington. Because he would be able to see it otherwise, he asked us to record yesterday's final round of the BMW Championship. When I wrapped up BGA Premium last night I went downstairs to check in with him and he was intently watching the recording of Patrick Cantlay sinking a long birdie putt on 18 to force a playoff.

At that point he started expressing concern that the DVR'd recording would run out before the playoff ended as it had in another tournament earlier this year. I told him to pause the playback, which would reveal how much time was left on the recording. I don't remember how much time it showed but it was clear the recording would not cut off before the winner was determined so I told TCNL '16 that.

Oops. How was I to know the playoff was going to go SIX extra holes?