Of The New Guy And The Old Guy

Dartmouth quarterback Nick Howard is the only Ivy Leaguer on the inaugural Walter Payton Award watchlist for the top offensive player in the FCS. He's one of 11 quarterbacks on the list along with 14 running backs, seven wide receivers and three tight ends. (Offensive linemen? Thanks for playing our game.)

Find a story about the Payton list on The Analyst site HERE and a story on the Dartmouth website HERE.

The only player Dartmouth will face this fall who is on the list is Sacred Heart running back Malik Grant.

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Speaking of Malik Grant, he's one of a whopping seven Sacred Heart teammates named to the All-Northeast Conference preseason team. Not surprisingly, the Pioneers were a solid choice to win their third consecutive NEC championship. Here's how the poll turned out:

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

Sacred Heart had players named to the All-NEC preseason team at each level of the offense and defense. Chosen on offense in addition to Grant were quarterback Marquez McCray, wide receiver Kenneth Womack and offensive lineman Jon Mucciolo. Selected on the other side of the ball were defensive lineman Kevin Peprah, linebacker DeAndre Byrd and defensive back Arsheen Jiles. 

Dartmouth will visit Sacred Heart on Sept. 24. Last year the Big Green pounded the NEC champions on Memorial Field, 41-3.

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Missed this earlier but Valparaiso, picked eighth in the 11-team Pioneer Football League, had just two players earn preseason honors. Offensive lineman Aaron Byrd and place-kicker Brian Bartholomew were chosen. Dartmouth opens the season against the Beacons on Sept. 17.

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In his press conference prior to yesterday's practice Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was asked about grad transfer quarterback Derek Kyler, the Dartmouth grad transfer. Here's his response:

 

Part of what he said is a little unclear but it sounded like this:

What we saw at Dartmouth is obviously he had some great stats. He gives us another guy that we can count on. I told someone we went through seven quarterbacks the year before I got to Northern Illinois but you have to prepare for that as well. He’s a great kid, he’s smart and he’s operated an offense before so he’s got that experience.

A quick video from the Pitt practice shows Kyler throwing while wearing uniform No. 16:

 

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Also back on the field is John Paul Flores, the Dartmouth grad transfer at Virginia. From a story out of the UVa practice (LINK):

Since the spring, Virginia added six transfers primarily in the trenches. Dartmouth transfer John Paul Flores has played at guard and tackle, but also saw reps at center on Wednesday.

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Likewise kicking off practice is Week 5 Dartmouth opponent New Hampshire in its first preseason with former All-America quarterback Ricky Santos as head coach. The Union Leader has a story HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
A couple of days ago I finished a book on my Kindle and after hitting the "return to library" link I started searching for my next book from the Green Mountain Library Consortium, Vermont's repository of online books. Pleasantly surprised that a newish John Grisham was available, I clicked to download it only to run into a brick wall.

For the first time ever, the site was asking not just for my library card number, but my password. Huh? I don't have a password and never needed one before.

Now, most websites (including BGA Premium) have a "forgot" functionality if you are having password problems. Not the state library site. It had this message instead: Invalid credentials. Please try again or contact your library for assistance. 

I did try again. And again. And then I did contact our librarian, who informed me she's gotten a lot of messages like mine since the state started monkeying around with its website a few days ago. "Wish me luck," she wrote.

I hope the state gets things figured out quickly. The BGA Premium preview series begins one week from tomorrow and for the 100 days after that I'm a writer, not a reader and John Grisham is waiting ;-)