Revisiting The Dartmouth Way

With Dartmouth holding its first fully padded practice of the spring on Tuesday, BGA Premium had a piece that night reaffirming acting head coach Sammy McCorkle's adherence to Buddy Teevens' philosophy of stressing tackling in practice, but never tackling each other. McCorkle admitted he thought the idea was crazy when Teevens first broached it, but now refers to himself as a "true believer."

As a reminder of how Dartmouth players practice tackling without bringing each other to the ground, let's revisit the 2016 tackle drill tape posted under the title The Dartmouth Way. It's Saturday, you've got the time, so check it out:

 

Here are several screen grabs from the video:

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Thursday's BGA Daily reported the names of 15 Dartmouth players who were selected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society for their work in the classroom as well as on the field. As it turns out, two of their former teammates also made the cut.

Selected from the University at Buffalo after posting a 4.0 GPA as an educational studies major was tight end Robbie Mangas '22. The former Dartmouth captain recorded 16 catches for 141 yards last fall. (LINK)

Chosen from the University of Virginia was offensive lineman John Paul Flores '22 for his performance studying religion in the classroom. (LINK) Flores, who started five games and appeared in 10 for Virginia last fall, will finish his college eligibility this fall at the University of Louisville where he is pursuing a masters in religion.

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Fortune has a story headlined Ivy League schools are not above compensating their student-athletes fairly. A new lawsuit could end that special status that includes this (LINK):

Simply put, if the courts dig deep enough, they will find that there’s a history of top athletes being given preferential treatment to afford an Ivy League education, in the same way that the schools acknowledge that athletic merit can give them preferential treatment in the admissions process. 

And that leads into . . .

In reality, the Ivy League takes its sports very seriously. And while, say, Dartmouth football isn’t the billion-dollar business that is Oklahoma football, its importance to influential Dartmouth alumni is not dissimilar. 

And this conclusion. . .

The best way forward is for the Ivy League to adopt collectives, which I have written and spoken about at length. A collective is a group of boosters who promote the sports program by helping to recruit and keep student-athletes by providing them with financial and other benefits. 

Editor's Note: The author of the piece, Aron Solomon, is a lawyer for Esquire Digital who has taught entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania as well as McGill.

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The Associated Press this week had a story headlined NCAA lifts restrictions on athletes’ official visits. Where recruits previously had been limited to five visits funded by schools courting them, they will now be able to take paid visits to as many schools as they need to make a decision. They will, however, be limited to one visit per school unless there is a coaching change. Find the story HERE.

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EXTRA POINT
I got home the other day and our answering machine was blinking with a phone message from a former Dartmouth coach. Unfortunately, I couldn't call him back because he didn't leave a number. I finally tracked him down via email and reminded him that there are still a few of us "Landline Luddites" who not only don't have cell phones but also don't have caller ID. ;-)