One of the more impressive seasons in the conference last year came from Dartmouth and first-year head coach Sammy McCorkle who took over for the late, legendary Buddy Teevens. McCorkle’s Big Green won six games last year and took home a portion of the league championship on the last week after thoroughly defeating Brown. Now everyone wants to know how he can follow it up in Year 2.McCorkle has his work cut out for him this year as Dartmouth was hit hard by the transfer portal.
Green Alert Take: There's minimal analysis in the piece but the short Dartmouth section is fine.
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The same site has a story headlined Top-20 FCS Specialists for 2024 that had me scanning down to see if Dartmouth kicker Owen Zalc made the cut. Spoiler alert: Although he could have, he did not.
But a Big Green opponent did. Coming in at No. 5 in the country is a player Dartmouth will see on Sept. 28. From the story (LINK):
5. Donovan Wadley, KR - Merrimack
Wadley burst onto the scene as a sophomore last season in a big way and not necessarily for his work on offense. He was sensational for the Warriors on special teams and in the return game. Not only was he one of only two FCS players to take three kickoffs back for touchdowns last fall, he led the nation with an 37.9 average on those runbacks. Wadley is a home run threat any time he gets the ball and it doesn’t take much for him to cut it loose. Of his 17 kick returns in 2023, eight of them yielded at least 20 yards and three went over 90. There are several instances where a kickoff out of bounds penalty is actually a better option than kicking it to Wadley.
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EXTRA POINT
First, a quick update regarding the lawn tractor saga. Another call to the shop finally resulted in talking to a human instead of an answering machine. The word I got is that the work is finished – but they are waiting on delivery of the special blades the thing needs. I was told the blades would be there between the third and the ninth. I said, "Of July?" Fortunately, the answer was yes. With our field starting to look pretty ragged, they are on the clock (and so am I ;-).
And now for a sign that summer is officially underway: Weekly concerts at the gazebo on the green at the little town just south of us have begun. This shot is from last night:
