Tuesday News Day

You've seen the incoming Dartmouth recruiting class posted on BGA Daily in one form or another many times already this spring but the college finally made it official yesterday, introducing the new class this way (LINK):

Buddy Teevens, the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach at Dartmouth College, announced his incoming recruits for the fall of 2022 with a total of 23 student-athletes. Among the recruits are four offensive linemen, four defensive backs, four linebackers, three defensive linemen, three wide receivers, two running backs, two tight ends and one quarterback.

The student-athletes come from 14 different states and one foreign country — Germany. Ohio boasts the most recruits with four student-athletes, while California and Texas each have three. New Jersey has two, while Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia each have one, as does Germany.

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Athlon has released Craig Haley's FCS preseason ranking HERE. Only one Ivy League team gets a mention (hint: it's not Dartmouth) and it's not in the Top-25:

	Athlon Preseason Ranking	2021
1	North Dakota State	14-1
2	South Dakota State	11-4
3	Montana	10-3
4	Montana State	12-3
5	Missouri State	8-4
6	Sacramento State	9-3
7	Southern Illinois	8-5
8	Villanova	10-3
9	Kennesaw State	11-2
10	Stephen F. Austin	8-4
11	Holy Cross	10-3
12	Chattanooga	6-5
13	Weber State	6-5
14	Rhode Island	7-4
15	Eastern Washington	10-3
16	Incarnate Word	10-3
17	Mercer	7-3
18	East Tennessee	11-2
19	Southeastern Louisiana	9-4
20	Delaware	5-6
21	Northern Iowa	6-6
22	Jackson State	11-2
23	William & Mary	6-5
24	Eastern Kentucky	7-4
25	Elon	6-5
	Dropped Out: Rhode Island (24)
	Teams To Watch (in alphabetical order): Furman (6-5), HARVARD (8-2), Murray State (6-5), North Dakota (5-6), Richmond (6-5)

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The Analyst's Haley has worked up a Strength of Schedule ranking for all 130 FCS teams based on how their opponents fared in 2021 against DI competition. Here's where Dartmouth and its opponents rank (LINK):

3. Brown .592 (61-42)

20. Cornell .553 (57-46)

28. New Hampshire .541 (66-56)

38. Harvard .519 (54-50)

41. Penn .510 (52-50)

42. Yale .510 (63-51)

60. Valparaiso .491 (52-54)

61. DARTMOUTH .490 (51-53)

93. Princeton .447 (46-57)

94. Columbia .446 (45-56)

117. Sacred Heart .402 (43-64)

Green Alert Take: The ranking is inherently biased toward teams with bad records in 2021. Think about it. The rest of the Ivy League SOS takes a hit because teams play 2-8 Brown, but the Bears don't have to play themselves, if that makes any sense ;-)

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Dartmouth grad transfer Jake Guidone will have transfer company on the UConn offensive line this fall with news that a short-time Alabama lineman is joining him up front. A story about the Huskies' new addition mentions Guidone. (LINK)

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The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame released the 2023 ballot for College Football Hall of Fame voting and it features four former Ivy League players and a coach Dartmouth football followers know well. Here are the players, with their accomplishments straight from the ballot (LINK):

Keith Elias, Princeton-Running Back-Two-time First Team All-American (1992-93) and 1993 Ivy League Player of the Year…Princeton's all-time leader in rushing yards (4,208) and rushing touchdowns (49)…Three-time All-Ivy performer who helped the Tigers to the 1992 conference title.

Carl Morris, Harvard-Wide Receiver-2002 First Team All-American who holds virtually every Harvard receiving record, including career receptions (245) and TD receptions (28)…Ranks third all-time in Ivy history with 3,508 career receiving yards…Holds Ivy record for career 100-yard games (15) and 200-yard games (3).

Martin Peterson, Pennsylvania-Offensive Tackle-Named First Team All-America, First Team All-Conference and First Team All-ECAC in 1986…His teams won three conference titles.

John Zanieski, Yale-Middle Guard-Named First Team All-American and First Team All-Ivy League in 1984…Selected as the team's MVP in 1984…Finished second on school's quarterback sack list with 21. 

Green Alert Take: If you have been around a bit, you are probably wondering why Keith Elias is on the ballot and former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler is not when the pair were the yin and yang of Ivy League football in the early '90s. The future NFL players had a rivalry the likes of which the Ancient Eight may not have seen since. So why is Elias up for the Hall and Fiedler isn't? It's simple. One of the qualifications as noted in the intro to the Hall of Fame story:

"First and foremost, a player must have received First-Team All-America recognition by a selector that is recognized by the NCAA and utilized to comprise its consensus All-America teams.

Elias was a first-team All-American. Fiedler was a third-team AP All-American and honorable-mention Sports Network pick.

Green Alert Take II: Back on the subject of bias. Quarterbacks aren't usually on the short end when it comes to recognition but in this instance that's the case. A look at the 2021 AP FCS All-America team shows two running backs and three wide receivers on the first team but just one quarterback. Your chances of making first team are twice as good as a running back and three times as good as a wide receiver.

Green Alert Take III: It says here that Elias, who always expressed great respect for Fiedler, would be the first to say the Dartmouth quarterback is every bit as deserving as he for the Hall of Fame.

Oh, and the coach on the ballot with whom Dartmouth is intimately familiar? Again, straight from the National Football Foundation:

Dick Biddle-Colgate (1996-13)-All-time winningest coach in Colgate and Patriot League history…2003 AFCA National Coach of the Year who led Raiders to an appearance in the 2003 FCS National Championship Game…Won seven conference titles and led teams to six NCAA playoff appearances.

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Tweeted proudly by the Ivy League yesterday:

Could also be Tweeted "proudly" by the Ivy League every November:

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EXTRA POINT
As a young sportswriter I once covered a pro golf tournament and the next day my editor read a story about the tournament in another paper and asked me, gently, why I didn't have some of the fiery quotes the other story printed. All I could answer in my defense was I that was trying to scribble down everything the fellow said but he was talking so much faster than I could write that I didn't get it all. I said I wasn't going to quote him from memory because I believed in getting it right. (And still do.)

The next day I went out and bought a cassette recorder. Problem solved.

A few years later I bought a minicassette recorder and several years later I moved up to a minidisc recorder that delivered professional quality sound on individual tracks, which made it easier to access quotes on deadline.

The next innovation brought an early iPod Touch, which then had no built-in microphone, so I had to find one specially made for that generation of the Touch. Another couple of years and I upgraded to an iPod Touch that actually had a built-in mic, which made things even easier.

Flash forward and the iPod Touch has (lamentably) been discontinued and I'm using an old iPhone hand-me-down from one of our kids. No Sim card so it's not a phone these days, but it's a sweet recorder.

There can still be one problem, however. When I am doing on-field interviews after a football practice the sound can be unintelligible because of all the crackling and popping generated by a heavy wind.

I do have a small mic for the iPod and a foam mic cover can help . . . a little. Unfortunately, while interviewing coach Buddy Teevens this spring it blew off and neither of us could find it.

With a little Googling a few days later I discovered a "dead cat" covering for mini-mics! You know,  the furry things you occasionally see reporters shoving in the face of sources when they are doing interviews outside. 

Eureka! I ordered not one but two miniature versions at a whopping $4.99 apiece. If they work the way I hope, and a field test yesterday suggested they will, it will be a huge relief because, to be completely honest, windy days were always very concerning.

I picked the "dead cats" up at the post office yesterday. They can't weigh even an ounce apiece and I expected them to come in a little manila package no larger than a business envelope. As if.

Here they are in their little packets along with the box and bubble wrap they were shipped in:

Ridiculous.

For perspective, the white envelopes are 3-by-4 inches and a whopping ½ inch deep. The box is 11 inches long, 9 inches wide and 6 ½ inches deep. Any wonder why shipping was $3.99 for something that was unbreakable and could have been mailed with nothing more than a Forever stamp?

But hey, at least my editor won't be getting on my for missing any good quotes, right? Oh, yeah. I'm the editor ;^)