Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Tough Day

A difficult day . . .

But first, a few items of interest.

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The odds on the weekend are in and they look like this:
Dartmouth is a four-point underdog at Yale.
Harvard is a 10 1/2-point pick at Cornell.
Princeton is a 14 1/2-point favorite at Lafayette.
Penn is a 14 1/2-point favorite at Georgetown. 
Brown is a 7-point favorite at Central Connecticut.
Columbia is a 25-point favorite at Wagner.
 
New Hampshire is an 8-point favorite at home against Stony Brook.
Valparaiso is a 13-point pick at Presbyterian.
Sacred Heart has a bye.

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Massey Rating sees Yale defeating Dartmouth, 31-28, with 53 percent confidence, and now has the Big Green going 5-2 the rest of the way with the losses to Yale and Princeton. 

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Here's how Sagarin's algorithm has Ivy League teams and Dartmouth's other opponents in the Division I picture and how that compares to a week earlier:

148 - Princeton - up 14
163 - Harvard- down 3
169 - Dartmouth - down 8
173 - Yale - down 13
178 - Penn - up five
182 - Columbia - down 18
212 - Brown - down 15
219 - Cornell - no change

190 - New Hampshire  - down nine
211 - Sacred Heart - up two
243 - Valparaiso - down 1

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Jake Novak down at the Roar Lions blog has his power ratings up and they look like this:

1 - Princeton
2 - Yale
3 - Harvard
4 - Columbia
5 - Penn
6 - Cornell
7 - Dartmouth
8  - Brown 

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From a story headlined, Syracuse football: Notable Pro Football Focus stats from the first five games (LINK):

The defense is a little harder (to grade) because the ones are probably going to stay in for longer due to facing tougher competition. But to give one of the corners a break, Isaiah Johnson is a great option to have to relieve one of them. The Dartmouth transfer has a 70.2 rating so far with 76 snaps played. If he doesn’t see the field too much more this season, Syracuse fans should feel fine for next season when Garrett Williams most likely moves on next year.

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The Virginia football team suffered a 38-17 defeat Saturday and a Daily Progress story headlined Offensive line play was a bright spot for Virginia in Duke loss has extensive quotes from former Dartmouth offensive lineman John Paul Flores, how a starter on the UVa line. (LINK)

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And now the reason why this is a difficult day:

To know what Steve meant to a generation of Dartmouth football players (as well as those who worked with him at the college and those of us who were lucky enough to call him a friend), here's a tweet from former Dartmouth quarterback and current William & Mary athletic director Brian Mann:

I wanted to share a few thoughts about Steve this morning but even though we knew this day was coming I'm struggling. Steve and I spent hundreds and hundreds of days kibitzing with each other at Dartmouth practices, and the memories just keep flooding back. None are as poignant as that last time on Blackman Field in late August when it was clear the end was near and this brave, strong Marine's voice cracked as he told me one of his great regrets was that he wouldn't ever have the chance to play golf with the young grandson he so adored.

Hopefully at some point down the road I'll pull something together about a friend whose engaging laugh will be with me forever. In the meantime, all I've got is something I posted between the tears on BGA Premium last night:

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He was a championship golfer and a decorated high school basketball official. But if you asked Steve Ward about football he was completely up front.

​He'd tell you he was a fan, but that he never played the game and didn’t really know it.

Still, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens considered his team’s equipment manager for 21 years an integral part of the Big Green football program. Ward, who fought cancer like the proud Marine he was, passed away earlier this week just shy of what would have been his 66th birthday.

“He was part of the team, part of the family,” Teevens said after Tuesday’s practice. “Since I came back, he was a member of the equipment staff, but he was more than that. He was another coach, essentially. Just very, very supportive."

Whether it was a practice or a game, Ward would cheer on players who made good plays and offer words of encouragement when others needed it. Character absolutely mattered to him, and he wasn't above setting young players straight when he felt it was called for.

"He could be stern," Teevens said. "The Marine in him would come out and he scared the daylights out of the incoming freshmen. But the graduating seniors loved him and appreciated everything he did for them.”

He may not have known the ins and outs of football, but Ward was no shrinking violet on the sidelines during games.

Whether he drew an unsportsmanlike penalty or a sideline warning at one game a few years back Teevens couldn’t remember Tuesday. That the officials were not happy with Ward the coach had no trouble recalling with a laugh.

“He was getting very excited, very agitated,” Teevens said. “We did have to have a conversation.”

Although he’d retired in part to spend more time with his family and particularly the young grandson he desperately hoped to play golf with, Ward couldn’t stay away from a program he loved. He helped out at most of the team’s games a year ago and several times in late August of this year drove 30 miles down to campus to watch practice from a folding chair be brought with him, sometimes doubled over in pain.

“He did everything he could,” said Teevens. “Even when he couldn’t really sit upright he was out on the sideline. Coach (Dave) Shula got him a lounge chair to make him more comfortable at practice.”

As late as the middle of last week Ward was hoping to be able to see the Ivy League opener against Penn and Teevens was looking into a way to get him to the game before his condition worsened.

At a team meeting over the weekend Teevens shared the difficult news that Ward’s condition was indeed worsening with his players, some who would have known him from his final years running the equipment room, some who knew him from his work volunteering at games last fall, and younger players who might have known him only as the fellow who the assistants made sure to visit with at practices this preseason.

“We talked talked openly with them about him,” said Teevens, who days ago had a video made of the players thanking Ward for all he’d done for them. “Our guys in team meetings, if they applaud somebody they bang on the desk in (Floren) 105. But it was a standing ovation for the Marine who meant so much to us. It was, ‘Thank you, Steve.’ "

Teevens and special assistant Curt Oberg went to the hospital Monday morning to look in on Ward, bringing the video with them.

“He was fading fast,” the head coach said. “I didn't know if he could see me or hear me, but I said, ‘The guys put something together for you just to say thanks for all you’ve done. I played it and he woke up.

“He smiled and and laughed and he said, ‘Thanks coach. Thank the guys,’ and that was it.”

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