Catching Up

Following up on yesterday's posting out of UConn regarding Jake Guidone, today two more new Tweets about Dartmouth grad transfers heading for the FBS:

That's Jalen Mackie, the 2021 Stats Perform third-team All-American linebacker. A first-team All-Ivy league selection, Mackie led the conference in tackles per game last fall with 9.6. Although he could have returned to Dartmouth as a COVID super senior, he opted instead to play for former Dartmouth assistant Don Brown at UMass this fall.

JJ Jones III, chosen to the All-Ivy League second team last fall as a COVID super senior, is "Ready. To. Work." at New Mexico State, his father's alma mater. Among others, Jones will suit up against Minnesota and Wisconsin of the Big Ten, Missouri of the SEC and . . . wait for it . . . Mackie's UMass team in Amherst on Oct. 29.

Mackie, by the way, will see another old teammate on Oct. 15 when Buffalo and former Dartmouth tight end Robbie Mangas visit UMass.

Continuing with the former teammates playing each other thread, Syracuse corner Isaiah Johnson will play against a couple of his old Dartmouth cronies. He'll renew acquaintances with Guidone when the Orange plays at UConn on Sept. 10 and will see offensive lineman John Paul Flores on Sept. 23 when Virginia invades the Carrier Dome JMA Wireless Dome.

Got all that?

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Former Big Green linebacker Flo Orimolade '17 will hit the field long before the Dartmouth grad transfers.

The former Bushnell Cup winner as the Ivy League defensive player of the year who has been with the Calgary Stampeders since 2018 (LINK), has his first CFL preseason game this Saturday. The Stamps open the regular season on June 9 against Montreal.

In advance of the opening of Calgary's camp a columnist wrote a piece headlined 50 Things to Watch at Stampeders training camp. From that story with my italics (LINK):

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE OTHER D-END SPOT? By the end of last season, Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund had taken over as the starter at d-end for the Stamps. He did what was asked and as a Canadian, it definitely helped the ratio. With Connor McGough back, the Stamps have two legit Canadian d-ends. Is that the direction they go, though? Folarin Orimolade has been quite good when he’s been healthy, and it just feels like at some point he’s got to get an extended look, no?

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EXTRA POINT
For those of you who have been following along, the disassembly of the engine room of the electric lawn tractor is complete, thanks to the "for dummies" YouTube video I followed. Parts that were pulled have been labeled and strategically placed on a sheet on the garage floor. Photos were taken where they will be helpful when the time comes to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

The four batteries were removed and hooked up to a charger that seemed to suggest they were pretty much fully charged. Tomorrow I'll lug them into the car (they each weight 67.5 pounds) hoping one of our local auto parts stores can "load test" them and check their "cold cranking amps." And you are right, I could buy a meter to check that myself, but like most of this stuff, it's probably better left to the professionals ;-)

The hope is at least one of the batteries is failing because that's (relatively) easy to fix by replacing the battery. If all four of the batteries test out OK, then the problem is with the tractor itself and will likely require shipping it out with a good chance I won't see it until summer is over.

Meanwhile I can almost see the grass growing.