Now We're Talking

In place of the regular Teevens Teleteaser Dartmouth sports info kicks off the season with a "Coach Conversation" from the Hanover Inn's Pine Restaurant:

#

Find Dartmouth's game notes HERE. Without giving away any secrets don't be surprised if the depth chart is a little different when the team takes the field tomorrow against Valparaiso.

#

Coverage of the football program in The Dartmouth has been sporadic at best for a few years but the season preview HERE is well done.

#

If you are out of town and have the right TV sports package you are in luck with two more Dartmouth football games to be broadcast. The Oct. 29 against Harvard will be carried on NESNplus (New England Sports Network), and the Nov. 19 game against Brown will be seen on NESN. CLICK HERE to read a release about those games being carried, along with several contests in other sports.

#

WMUR, the ABC affiliate out of Manchester, N.H., has a short advance on Dartmouth opening the season:

#

Here's my last pitch of the year, promise.

When the season kicks off tomorrow there will already have been 47 stories posted on BGA Premium this cycle, spanning spring football, opponent previews, preseason camp and now the first game week. There has been at least one story a day – every single day – since Aug. 12, and barring something untoward there will be stories every day until the end of the season.

If you haven't signed up yet there's still time, so CLICK HERE to learn more.

And if you don't want to sign up but visit BGA Daily every day (and I know there are a lot of you out there) think about clicking on Griff the Wonder Dog over there to the right. I don't drink coffee and beer doesn't do it for me, but if you want to buy me a Diet Coke, that would be great.  This is BGA Daily post number 7,637 and with your help maybe I can get to 8,000 or more before I ride off into the sunset.  ;-)

#

From a column out of Pittsburgh regarding grad transfer quarterback Derek Kyler being one of two possible starters for Pitt if the Panthers' top two QBs are unavailable tomorrow night against Western Michigan (LINK):

Kyler has to be the starting quarterback Saturday evening in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and in reality, it’s not that hard of a decision. . . .

And . . .

For that reason alone, Kyler has to be your guy against Western Michigan.

Experience is the reason he gets the nod over Yarnell. Last season as a senior, Kyler was 169-of-239 for 1,972 yards, 17 touchdowns and just one interception, leading Dartmouth to a 9-1 record.

Green Alert Take: What I find so interesting is columnists and sportswriters offering opinions on Kyler who clearly have never seen him play a game and probably haven't seen him practice.

Green Alert Take II: That said, they are right. I've watched DK practice and play for four years and the next time he shows any nerves will be the first. Although he didn't take part in the team's spring practice and has been with the program only since the start of preseason, he's so football smart and savvy that I have total confidence he can step in and run the Pitt offense.

Green Alert Take III: I'm actually surprised no enterprising journalist has done a Google search on Kyler, stumbled across BGA and touched base with me. If I were on the Pitt beat that's what I would have done.

#

EXTRA POINT
Our home on the shoulder of Moose Mountain was on a hilly dirt road realtors often billed as, "The most scenic road in Hanover." If you've been following BGA Daily over the years you saw a lot of photos I shot from across the road where on the clearest of winter days with a pair of binoculars we could pick out ski trails on five mountains (Killington, Pico, Ascutney, Okemo and Stratton Mountain). 

But here's the deal. Our house was tucked into the trees. To get those shots  I had to walk down our driveway and pop onto the property of the seasonal home across the road, which had a clearing.

What brought that to mind was walking into the bathroom here in our Vermont hillside home this morning and grabbing a pair of binoculars off the windowsill to get a closer view of something that caught my eye in the distance. I have a second pair of binoculars on a sill here in the BGA World Headquarters, where the window faces the southeast. There's a third set of binoculars on a window sill downstairs in the living room. And on occasion I set up a spotting scope in our sunroom. We can't see five ski areas here but there are a lot of mountain peaks that we don't have to walk down a driveway to see. And oh boy, you should have seen the sunrise over Moosilauke this morning. Absolutely breathtaking.