At the end of yesterday's spring practice, the Dartmouth football team gathered in small groups around the field in a team-building exercise. Acting coach Sammy McCorkle explained the exercise for yesterday's BGA Premium:
“We kind of mixed different players with each other. Sometime you get in a rut where it’s just all the offensive lineman together all the time. They might not even know much about a DB. So we tried to intermix the team with different guys in small groups. We even had coaches who aren’t normally with those positions, and we had two topics we talked about.
“One was, who would you have on the team pack your parachute? We just want to hear guys talk about other individuals. Maybe they don’t know something about a guy, or they hear a lot of people say his name. It’s, ‘Maybe I should kind of follow him and see how to do the right things.’
“The second (topic) was, Who do you admire the most? It was pretty good. Hopefully the guys felt like they got something out of it.”
Last night's BGA Premium story began with a chance to learn a little more about nickels coach Joe Castellitto, a former grad assistant at UConn who actually took a class with Huskies center/Dartmouth transfer Jake Guidone, and who was on the Connecticut staff alongside former Dartmouth assistant Mickey Grace. Check out the story on BGA Premium.
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| Guardian helmet photo courtesy of Dartmouth football |
Every member of the Dartmouth football team with the exception of the quarterbacks is wearing a Guardian cap over their helmet in spring football during yesterday's practice. Learn more about the "impact reducing soft-shell helmet cover" HERE.
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At Colorado coach Deion Sanders is making players earn their uniform numbers. Wanna guess which player earned first dibs on his number of choice? Yup.
First defensive player to earn his number.@ShaneCokes will be wearing 9️⃣9️⃣#GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/XWXiv8v2A7
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) April 8, 2023
Cokes wore 0 for Dartmouth (Cokes Zero, get it?) but that number is not being used in Boulder so the former Dartmouth standout went in the other direction. Sanders had this to say about him (LINK):
Cokes is leading the defensive line room. He works his butt off every day. He understands what we're trying to accomplish and the kid plays the game like we desire him to play it. So we are very proud of him.
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Given all of the rules coaches are supposed to follow it's a surprise there aren't more recruiting violations in college sports. Per the NCAA, the football recruiting rules could be in line for some significant changes, including at the FCS level. From an NCAA release:
The Division I Football Oversight Committee is recommending a comprehensive recruiting model for the sport to the Division I Council. The council is scheduled to meet April 12-13.
If approved, the changes would become legislation and, except for a Football Championship Subdivision on-campus evaluation recommendation, take effect Aug. 1. The FCS on-campus recommendation would take effect June 1.
The football comprehensive recruiting model would modify the FBS and FCS recruiting calendars; adjust the first date to send recruiting materials, electronic correspondence and telephone calls; permit in-person off-campus contacts with high school juniors; reduce off-campus recruiting activities; and, in the Football Championship Subdivision, modify on-campus evaluations.
Find the full release HERE.
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EXTRA POINT
A sure sign that the weather is turning: The bird feeder will be coming in today. In these parts the recommendation is that bird feeders be taken down from April 1 through the end of November. Why? Bears. A little Googling turns up this nugget: Once out and about after leaving their dens black bears require 15,000-20,000 calories a day and a typical bird feeder offers around 12,000 calories. So the bird feeder is getting put away until December. Sorry Yogi.
