It's always news when a quarterback announces his college decision:
🌲 Committed 🌲 pic.twitter.com/sE5UEGRF2v
— Woods Ray (@woodsray_) December 14, 2022
Woods Ray, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback from Homewood High School in Alabama, threw for 2,646 yards last fall, completing 62.1 percent of his passes (181-294) with 27 touchdowns and four interceptions. The dual-threat QB also ran for 812 yards and 12 TDs. The Birmingham Back of the Year and All-South Metro Player of the Year chose Dartmouth over Columbia, Mercer, Samford and Davidson, although he originally had his eyes on a big-time school. From a story after his final high school game and before he chose Dartmouth (LINK):
“I’m going to keep sending my film out and see if someone gives me a shot,” said Ray. . . . "My dream school is Auburn. I’d love to go there. I’ve tried to send my film off to them but no one has responded. I’m going to keep praying and hope something happens.”
From the same story:
Woods Ray slowly left the stadium at Saraland High School and headed directly to Atlanta to catch a flight for New Hampshire and a recruiting visit at Dartmouth College.
The Homewood senior had just completed his high school football career with one of the most memorable performances in the school’s long playoff history. His final play came up inches short of victory when he was stopped in overtime in a 57-56 overtime loss to Saraland, but that didn’t make the performance any less remarkable.
And . . .
Ray’s night included 470 total yards. He passed for 295 yards and rushed for another 175. He completed 32-of-48 passes and accounted for 52 of the Patriots’ 56 points with five touchdown passes, three rushing touchdowns and a pair of 2-point conversion passes.
Ray's brother Harvey is a tight end at Jacksonville State.
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Another day another couple offers for former Dartmouth players. Tight end Zion Carter adds Grambling to a list that already included Tulane, Buffalo, Marshall and Alabama State.
John Paul Flores, who played this year at Virginia, has added Old Dominion to a list featuring Temple, UMass, Marshall, Troy, Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green and Rice.
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When Jerry Berndt made dinner reservations with his family they were always for "Coach." That's one of the anecdotes included in the obituary for the Dartmouth assistant in the 1970s and successful head coach at Penn who died on Dec. 4. (LINK)
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Not sure they'll appreciate this in Parkhurst, but Harvard Magazine's look at the Crimson season included this (LINK):
When the going gets tough, what do the tough do? They follow the Animal House plan: “Road trip!” This one took the Crimson to Hanover, New Hampshire, where in what Murphy called a “tough, gritty, grind-it-out kind of game,” they subdued Dartmouth 28-13.
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EXTRA POINT
What did I know? When I was pretty sure bears were denned up for the season I put our birdfeeder out in mid-November, filling it with seed stored in our cool, dry basement since last spring. Sure, a few birds stopped by and nibbled at the seed I had spilled while filling the feeder, but that lasted only a few days. They soon stopped coming and no birds visited the feeder.
A little Googling informed me that bird seed stays fresh for 6-9 months, and then only under perfect conditions.
That being the case, yesterday we picked up some fresh seed and last night I spent a little time emptying the feeder of the spoiled seed, scrubbing it down and filling it was the new stuff. I haven't seen any visitors yet today but with significant snow expected starting late tonight the timing for trading out the seed could be perfect for our feathered friends.
