A clip I could watch over and over on offensive coordinator Kevin Daft's Twitter account:
Need a '23 QB that can do this.#TouchdownTuesday in 🌲#TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/arv8y7suLE
— Kevin Daft (@CoachDaft) August 23, 2022
By he way, a Q&A with quarterback Nick Howard done after practice earlier this week went up on BGA Premium last night. And a story about Daft spending three weeks coaching with the Denver Broncos went up on Tuesday. Practice resumes today – and as always there will be a story on BGA tonight.
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A UConn football depth chart story in the Hartford Courant includes this mention of Dartmouth grad transfer Jake Guidone (LINK):
With the lofty goal of being the “best in the country,” as sixth-year right guard Christian Haynes put it earlier in camp, key additions have bolstered coach Gordon Sammis’ offensive line. Jake Guidone is the most critical new face, as he’ll be plugged in as the starting center.
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This mention of grad transfer quarterback Derek Kyler comes out of Pittsburgh (LINK):
Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti form one of the best one-two quarterback duos in the country, with Slovis firmly entrenched as the guy at Pitt, but that No. 3 isn’t where Narduzzi would like it to be. Dartmouth transfer Derek Kyler and Nate Yarnell are competing for the opportunity.
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And this out of Virginia (LINK):
This year's line is a piecemeal of FCS transfers — Lehigh’s sophomore lineman Andrew Canelas and Dartmouth’s graduate student lineman John Paul Flores — and inexperienced Cavaliers. . . .
This new offensive line, while full of potential, is not yet as talented as the 2021 unit. This may put more pressure on (quarterback Brennan) Armstrong to extend plays with his legs as much as he did in 2020 — not an ideal situation.
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A headline out of Cincinnati: All-time sack leaders in Cincinnati Bengals history. From the story (LINK):
4. Reggie Williams (63.5)
The Dartmouth third-rounder played all 14 years of his NFL career with the Bengals and posted career-high sacks during the 1981 season with 11.0. The 14 years spent with the same team helped get Williams into the four-spot on this list but the dude was also a beast during his pro career.
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From a story headlined Meet the legends in Miami University’s football ‘Cradle of Coaches’ comes this capsule look at the first coach included in the piece (LINK):
Earl “Red” Blaik was the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1934 to 1940 and at the United States Military Academy from 1941 to 1958. Blaik compiled a record of 166–48–14 over the course of his college coaching career. His Army football teams won three consecutive national championships in 1944, 1945 and 1946.
He played at Miami from 1915-17.
Among the other coaches mentioned in the story are Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Ara Parseghian, John Harbaugh, Sean McVay and former Yale coach John Pont.
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Headline on the Harvard page: Football-UNH Agree to Play Home-and-Home Series. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: Now I want to see a headline on the Dartmouth page saying Football-Holy Cross Agree to Play Home Series.
Green Alert Take II: Better yet, I don't want to have to see that headline. I want to be able to take for granted Dartmouth is going to play its most traditional nonconference opponent every year.
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Speaking of which, Craig Haley has his Patriot League preview up on The Analyst and it’s great reading about old friends. Craig sees the league playing out this way (LINK):
1-Holy Cross
2-Fordham
3-Colgate
4-Lehigh
5-Lafayette
6-Georgetown
7-Bucknell
The official Patriot League poll turned out the same way with Holy Cross receiving 11 first-place votes to two for Fordham and one for Colgate.
Holy Cross is bidding to match Lehigh’s record of four consecutive league titles set from 1998-2001 and to become the first ever to win all four outright.
Green Alert Take: Forgive me for beating a dead horse but how much fun would it be to see Dartmouth put a six-year nonconference winning streak on the line in a game against Holy Cross this fall rather than play Valparaiso or Sacred Heart?
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College football kicks off with a few Week 0 games this weekend and virtually everybody else starts play next week but the Ivy League has to wait 22 more days before playing its first game. Would it really hurt the Ivies to move the schedule up one week and either add another game or a bye week like virtually everyone else?
What brought that thought to the forefront is this: Just as the football team wraps up practice today the Dartmouth women's soccer team will be on nearby Burnham Field. Not for a practice, though. They are opening their season today at 4 against Fordham.
Green Alert Take: As is the case with the NCAA playoffs, once against football gets the short end of the stick.
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EXTRA POINT
I was working here at the BGA World Headquarters early yesterday afternoon when I put the computer to sleep and drove 1.5 miles to our little post office to pick up the mail. (Although we don't get a lot of snail mail I want to make sure if I do hear from any subscribers that I get them up and going the same day.)
After pulling the free weekly newspaper out of our box (sadly, no new subscriptions), I drove another 1.5 miles to the little West Newbury town beach on Hall's Lake. I ended my lunch break by spending about 15 minutes in the water and marveling at the fact that there wasn't another person in sight before returning to the keyboard.
OK, it was a weekday in late summer but the temperature was in the low 80s and after a few days approaching 90 the water temperature was, as Mrs. BGA likes to say, "delicious."
Sometimes life in small-town Vermont really is idyllic.
