Week 2 Dartmouth opponent Sacred Heart was the Northeast Conference media poll favorite to repeat as league champion but Craig Haley, the FCS guru for The Analyst, has the Pioneers pegged second behind Duquesne. Haley writes (LINK):
The Pioneers lost a lot of top NEC talent to graduation and transfers, but return the conference’s offensive player of the year in running back Malik Grant (1,347 rushing yards, 11 total TDs last season). Plus, the offense should be more balanced with transfer wide receiver Devin Young (128 career receptions at Maine) aiding quarterback Marquez McCray. The defense is strongest on the line, where three of last year’s four starters are returning.
A reminder that the NEC official poll looked like this:
1. Sacred Heart (5 first-place votes)
2. Duquesne (3)
3. Saint Francis
4. Central Connecticut State
5. Merrimack
6.(tie) LIU
6.(tie) Wagner
8. Stonehill
Dartmouth defeated 8-4 Sacred Heart last year on Memorial Field, 41-3.
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And speaking of Sacred Heart, HERO Sports' uniform number countdown has only a few days to go. From the HERO Twitter (LINK):
The Best Player Who Wears No. 4 Is Sacred Heart’s Malik Grant
240 rushes for 1,347 yards and nine touchdowns, plus 10 catches for 130 yards and two scores.
“Grant has picked up several preseason All-American accolades this summer, including HERO Sports Second Team, The Bluebloods First Team, and Stats Perform Second Team. He is ranked our No. 5 returning FCS offensive back.”
Grant carried 24 times for 92 yards against the Big Green last fall.
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Dartmouth's first practice of the preseason provided what might be one of the top highlights of the entire camp when Painter Richards-Baker made this catch of a pass from Gavin Muir:
Already making plays‼️@GavinMuir23 ➡️ @Painter_rb #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/tTBiLYYJqS
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) August 22, 2022
Here's a shot I took at practice of Painter reaching for a sideline pass from Nick Howard as wide receivers coach Dave Shula looks on:
This picture and a handful of others accompany the BGA Premium story out of the first preseason practice. The Big Green will be back on Blackman Fields today and another practice story will be up on the site tonight.
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With the preseason under way, bios have been updated for Dartmouth's returning players as well as the freshmen on the official Dartmouth website. Check them out HERE.
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As it said here yesterday, BGA Daily is your one-stop shopping location for Dartmouth football news and that now includes the program's new TikTok account. CLICK HERE to see a video of the team doing the Offense vs. Defense Cup Challenge in the Floren Varsity House auditorium.
Green Alert Take: Uh . . .
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Missed this before but the SB Nation Syracuse football site had a post earlier this month headlined, Get to Know Your Orange Man: #20 CB, Isaiah Johnson. Check out the site's take on the Dartmouth grad transfer HERE.
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Saw this on FootballScoop some weeks (months?) back and never did post it so with the season approaching, this is as good a time as any. The Scoop cited a study of 894 FBS games that worked up the percentage of times a team won when it achieved certain statistical advantages. Here's what they discovered in a survey of 894 FBS games:
• Teams that ran for more yards won 77.9 percent of the time.
• Teams that passed for more yards won 58.4 percent of the time.
• Teams that scored first won 69.2 percent of the time.
• Teams that held the lead at halftime won 80.7 percent of the time.
• Teams that won the turnover battle won 77.5 percent of the time.
And finally, in 146 of the 894 games a team ran for more yards, passed for more yards, scored first, held the lead at halftime and won the turnover battle. The record of those teams: 146-0.
Green Alert Take: I'd be curious to see the winning percentage for teams that passed for more yards over the first three quarters. Why not the entire game? Because teams that are behind by a couple of scores in the final quarter tend to throw more in games they have a greater chance of losing. That skews the percentages. I'm curious how teams fare who come into games planning to throw the ball, which is easier to determine before wild fourth quarters distort the numbers. Does that make any sense?
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EXTRA POINT
While Mrs. BGA was cooling off with friends at their lake house about 35 minutes north of us she and several others headed out for a walk on a nearby rail trail with their dogs.
At one point Griff the Wonder Dog was being hounded (pun intended) by another pup. He has remarkable patience in situations like that but apparently this time he finally decided he'd had enough.
Here's what Mrs. BGA said happened next:
"He did his bark for the year."
And I missed it ;-)
