With the college football season heading toward the halfway point it's a good time to check in on how Dartmouth grad transfers are faring this fall:
• Corner Isaiah Johnson '22 is fourth on the Syracuse roster with 25 tackles. He has two pass breakups and one forced fumble in his second season with the 4-1 Orange.
• Defensive back John Pupel '22 is second on the Boston College roster with 32 tackles and has one forced fumble. The Eagles are 2-3.
• Defensive lineman Shane Cokes '23 has started all season for Colorado and has posted 10 tackles for the 3-2 Buffs.
• Offensive lineman John Paul Flores '22, has played in four games for 5-0 Louisville. After playing last year at Virginia he's listed second on the depth chart at left guard for the Cardinals.
• Tight end Zion Carter '23 has four catches for 33 yards with a long of 15 for the University at Buffalo. The Bulls are 1-4 but 1-0 in the MAC.
• Linebacker Joe Heffernan '22 has two tackles at 4-1 Duke.
• Wide receiver Dale Chesson '23 has not played to date at Michigan.
• Offensive lineman Michael Flores '23 has yet to see the field at Old Dominion.
• Defensive back Tyron Herring '23 is second on the Delaware roster with 21 tackles. He has one interception and one fumble recovery for the 3-1 Blue Hens. He had six tackles and a forced fumble against Penn State in Delaware's only loss.
• Linebacker Seth Verilus '23 has 10 tackles and one pass breakup for 2-3 Robert Morris.
• Defensive back Bobby Crockett '22 has two interceptions along with six tackles for 2-3 Bryant.
• Defensive lineman Bobby Jefferson '22, who has battled back from Achilles' heel surgery, has one tackle to date in limited action at Robert Morris.
• Tailback Noah Roper is the leading rusher for 5-0 Colorado School of Mines, the second-ranked DII team in the nation. He's run for 354 yards and five touchdowns and added seven catches with two more scores.
Tailback Zack Bair '22 suffered another foot injury and medically retired after hoping to play at Robert Morris, and receiver Jamal Cooney '23, is out of action this fall but hoping to play again next year.
Did I miss anyone?
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Jake Novak's latest Ivy League power ranking on his Roar Lions site looks like this:
Harvard
Dartmouth
Yale
Penn
Brown
Princeton
Cornell
Columbia
Of Dartmouth Jake writes (LINK):
What you saw Saturday at Franklin Field wasn't really a team playing for its departed and beloved coach. You saw a very, very good defense confound the Quakers and expose Penn as a team without a varied enough attack. The Big Green's ground and pound plus that defense will win a lot of games this fall.
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The Big Green's ensemble for Saturday's game:
Green on Black #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/2kG8GdFqoQ
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) October 4, 2023
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From the sublime to the absurd (LINK):
In one of the most unique and lucrative arrangements of the 27-month-old name, image and likeness era, the Crimson Collective, the NIL group supporting Utah athletics, is presenting a truck to each one of the 85 scholarship members of the football team. The history-making deal is estimated to be in the seven figures. Each truck’s retail price is $61,000.
Funded by collective donations, the trucks will be leased to each player as part of individual six-month contracts that are expected to roll over contingent on a player’s eligibility and enrollment at the university. Leases end when a player’s eligibility expires or they choose to transfer. The collective will also cover the insurance for each truck.
This is the best part:
The trucks satisfy one of three missions of the Crimson Collective, which operates as a 501(c) 3 non-profit. The collective strives to provide education, housing and transportation to Utah athletes through NIL endeavors with local charities.
“If we want them to go around town to help with these causes, we need to provide them transportation,” Garff said. “How do we get these players around to create attention around these causes?”
Green Alert Take: Yeah, sure.
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And finally from a story on the Sportico site headlined Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Set To Argue Employee Status With NLRB (LINK):
On Thursday morning—a month before they are slated to play their season-opener at Duke—Dartmouth men’s basketball players will make what could be their most consequential televised appearance in a video conference before the National Labor Relations Board.
Also . . .
Expect the players to argue that although Dartmouth, as an Ivy League school, doesn’t pay for athletic scholarships, the school confers players equipment, apparel, tickets to games, footwear, access to nutritionist and medical professionals, room and board, academic support and other benefits not provided to other students. Significantly, these benefits are connected to being on the team and would be lost to players if they quit the team.
Through coaches, the school also dictates players hours, how they are to perform their work and some of their conduct off the court. Players also cede certain name, image and likeness (NIL) rights related to being recorded and photographed as part of their team membership. These requirements are all consistent with players being employees.
The story goes on to offer up what the college's response is expected to be:
Dartmouth will probably lead its arguments by stressing that as a member of the Ivy League, it does not provide athletic scholarships and thus, unlike an employer, does not pay the athletes for playing.
And . . .
Dartmouth will likely also contend that while basketball players might receive financial aid, that aid does not reflect additional compensation for playing basketball and would continue if a player stopped playing for any reason. Along those lines, Dartmouth will insist the players are not employees since their work is not performed in exchange for compensation.
Again, check out the full story HERE.
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And finally, a terrific honor for Rick Bender, now in his 16th year as Dartmouth's sports information directo, AKA the "Senior Associate Athletics Director for Varsity Athletics Communications."
Three times a first-team all-conference shortstop, Rick Bender graduated as the program's all-time leader in hits, doubles, extra-base hits, total bases, at-bats and games played. He still ranks among the all-time leaders in those categories, including second with 90 extra-base hits, second with 401 total bases, third with 176 runs scored and fourth with 198 games played. He still owns the single-season assists record with 192 in 1991. Bender later worked as a Davidson assistant coach, spent eight years as the sports information director and served on the Athletics Hall of Fame Committee for two-plus decades.
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EXTRA POINT
The temperature reached an unseasonable 85 degrees yesterday in Hanover. Come daybreak Monday it could be in the upper 30s. Pick your poison.
