Thursday, January 19, 2023

Old Friends

Former Dartmouth offensive lineman/tight end Jake Guidone, who finished his college career as a center helping UConn to a bowl game last fall, is serving as one of the captains of the Ivy League team in Japan for the Dream Bowl. Here he is at a press conference for the game along with co-captain Scott Valentas of Columbia and Ivy coach Al Bagnoli:

FYI, while the game will be televised in Japan, it is not scheduled to be broadcast on this side of the globe. There is an outside chance that a last-minute streaming arrangement can be set up, albeit with Japanese commentary. If that does come about it will be posted here on BGA Daily.

#

Former Dartmouth tight end JJ Jones III '21, has declared for the draft after helping New Mexico State to a bowl victory this year:

#

Dartmouth sports has a story about three Big Green athletes who fly private planes including punter Davis Golick. From the story (LINK):

Golick also noted that his sport has taught him how to maintain focus for longer periods of time while in the cockpit. "Blocking out distractions is a huge part of football and having to do the same thing in the air has definitely aided my development."

Green Alert Take: As an aside, one of the athlete/pilots is alpine skier Oliver Morgan, who I used to throw batting practice to when I coached Little League and his brother was on our team.

#

The Dear Andy mailbag on The Athletic site has this question regarding the Big Ten (LINK):

You now have to bring in four new schools in order to reach an even 20 teams in the conference. Here’s the catch though: the school has to be Group of 5 or Independent and can’t have a historic winning percentage above .500. Who are you taking and what are you basing your decision on?

Part of Andy Staples' answer:

Big Ten presidents want to believe their schools are on par with the Ivy League, so why not just invite the Ivy League?

Why would Ivy League schools entertain such a notion? I’ll explain. On Sept. 30, a 28-year-old congressional antitrust exemption that allowed Ivy League schools to ban the awarding of athletic scholarships expired. Unless the Ivy schools drop to Division III, at some point, athletes are going to sue the league and win — which will result in those schools awarding scholarships. Or perhaps Dartmouth or Brown or some other Ivy will decide independently to award scholarships and start dominating various sports. With no antitrust exemption to protect the ban, the other schools would follow suit and begin awarding athletic scholarships.

In football particularly, the Ivies could build some competitive FBS teams quickly. . . .  

Again, find the full story HERE.

#

The Analyst's FCS version of an NFL All-Pro team has an Ivy Leaguer on offense, an Ivy Leaguer on defense and an old friend of sorts on special teams. (LINK)

From the story: 

FB Kyle Juszczyk, San Francisco 49ers, Harvard – 16 games/12 starts: 7 carries, 26 yards, TD; 19 receptions, 200 yards, TD; 7th straight Pro Bowl selection

LB: Foye Oluokun, Jacksonville Jaguars, Yale – 17 starts: 184 tackles and 102 solos (both No. 1 in NFL), 2 sacks (12 yards), 12 TFL, 9 QB hurries, 2 forced fumbles, 5 passes defended

PR: Kalif Raymond, Detroit Lions, Holy Cross – 17 games: 20 returns, 264 yards, 13.2 average, 47 long for TD; All-Pro second team

#

A remembrance has gone up for Steve Ward, the longtime head equipment manager for Dartmouth football who passed away in the fall. (LINK)

#

EXTRA POINT
Now retired, Mrs. BGA is determined to finish watching one critic's list of the Top 100 movies of all time. Last night we tuned in to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Suffice it to say, it's a safe bet that if the movie were made today it would be very, very different.

Two things. First, it had quite a cast, something I didn't realize when I first saw the movie and Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Scatman Crothers weren't household names.

And second, because I hadn't seen the movie in a long time I can't say for certain how much of it was re-edited onto the cutting room floor. I'd venture to say not much, although one of the best lines in the flick was absolutely edited out. It's something particularly rude Jack Nicholson's character Randle Patrick McMurphy says to Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched.

Posted by at