Saturday, January 20, 2024

UMass-Bound

Former Dartmouth linebacker Macklin Ayers has made his transfer portal decision and while he's going to a program that has struggled he will have a chance to test himself against some of the best in the nation with games against Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi State and Liberty over a five-week span next fall:

Ayers follows in the footsteps of Jalen Mackie '22, who led the UMass Minutemen by a wide margin with 100 tackles in 2022. He'll be playing for head coach Don Brown, the defensive guru who began his long college coaching career at Dartmouth.

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Incoming Dartmouth quarterback recruit Kyle Meier has been named to the New York all-state Class A second team per a story that notes he "was arguably the focal point for the Warriors in setting Whitesboro single-season records for rushing yards (about 2,300), rushing touchdowns (36), passing yards (about 1,900) and passing TDs (23). , , , Those all eclipsed the numbers he had as a junior when he was named to the all-state first-team."

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The likely end of Sports Illustrated brings to mind this cover featuring former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler '94:


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Harvard Magazine has another story about the retirement of coach Tim Murphy that includes this regarding his relationship with Buddy Teevens (LINK):

This past season was a rugged one. Murphy was coaching with a heavy heart. His lifelong friend, Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens, died in September after being injured in a traffic accident the previous March. “Buddy and I had often talked that we would go out [from coaching] together,” Murphy said. Sometimes last season, particularly when he spoke with the media after a close game, the strain showed.

Green Alert Take: I shared a quiet moment with Murphy at the conclusion of the press conference following the Dartmouth game last fall. It was obviously an emotional day for Murph but I left Cambridge pretty sure that he hd coached his final game against Dartmouth. I was a little surprised at season's end when he didn't step down. I wasn't surprised at all when the news broke during the week that he's calling it a career.

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EXTRA POINT
Don't get me wrong. While I've humble bragged here in years past when the temperature has dipped to 20-something below zero, I can live without temps like that. Still, there was something reassuring in what has been a mild winter so far to head downstairs this morning and see it was 2.4 degrees below zero.

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