Monday, September 16, 2024

A New Name

To the list of high school seniors publicly announcing their commitment to Dartmouth add the name of Aiden Holewski, a 6-foot-3, 232-pound defensive end from Gulf  High School and New Port Richey, Fla.. Find the Xweet announcing his commitment HERE.

Holewski chose Dartmouth over offers from Penn, Columbia and Cornell as well as Southeastern and Grinnell. Also a tight end at Gulf, he registered 11 sacks last year.

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With game week signaling the end of preseason camp Dartmouth's social media spoke with head coach Sammy McCorkle and offensive lineman Nick Marinaro about how the Big Green progressed in advance of the season. Here's the video followed by a lightly edited transcript of McCorkle's remarks for those who prefer the written word:

Sammy McCorkle on the preseason:

The biggest thing we were looking for was how we were going to progress from day to day. And I think we achieved that. At each position we've got better every day with each practice.

What we were trying to do with our players is we wanted to challenge them, put them in the toughest situation. And we mixed that up with game situations, long drives, putting them in situations that they're going to face during the season. And I thought they responded well. And I think they're doing a really good job of understanding what we're trying to do schematically on offense, defense and special teams. And they're bought in.

I think the big thing is, is they're holding each other accountable. And that's what we were trying to achieve. I think we did that this preseason.

I think having experience across the board at every position (helps). Those guys have done a phenomenal job leading their group. And at the same time, holding themselves accountable showing up every single day.

But I think the biggest thing is we had some guys that haven't had as much experience. We needed them to step up and perform. And I feel like overall, we had a number of those guys do that. And that's something we're going to need.

We're going to need depth. We've got  to stay healthy, but injuries occur and we've got to make sure the next guy we put out there at any position, they've got to be prepared to perform and help us keep going forward.

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Dartmouth's opener is against Fordham of the Patriot League and FCS guru Craig Haley of The Analyst listed the 0-3 Rams as a "Stock Down" team after their 27-21 home loss to Stony Brook on Saturday. Haley wrote (LINK):

Fordham was expected to contend for the Patriot League title, but there’s been little sign the Rams are headed that way during an 0-3 start. Standout linebacker James Conway hasn’t played this season and quarterback CJ Montes was lost to injury during the Rams’ 27-21, Homecoming loss to Stony Brook. They have scored only one offensive touchdown in their last two games.

Here's how Dartmouth's other nonconference opponents fared:

• Central Connecticut improved to 2-1 with a 27-20 win at Saint Francis, which one week earlier had defeated FBS member Kent State, 23-17.

• Merrimack earned its first win with a 31-21 victory at Bucknell. The Warriors (1-2) had opened with loses at FBS Air Force and Connecticut.

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Dartmouth kicker Matisse Weaver is the rare Ivy League football player from Wyoming. Listen to an interview with the sophomore from the County 10 media outlet HERE.

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Disappointing news out of Charlottesville, Va., where the Virginia Cavaliers report card after Saturday's loss to Maryland reports that grad transfer offensive lineman Ethan Sipe '24, is lost for the season after breaking his foot last week. (LINK)

It was another week, another Nick Howard performance for Nick Howard. The former Dartmouth quarterback led all rushers with 87 yards and one touchdown on eight carries and completed 6-of-8 passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns as Butler (3-0) crushed DIII Hanover in a walk-over, 53-0.

Through three games Howard is leading Butler with 226 yards and four touchdowns on the ground and is completing 72.7 percent of his passes (16-of-22) for 276 yards and three touchdowns.

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This Xweet from OptaAnalystFCS is true but a little misleading:

In fairness, there's an apples and oranges thing going on.

Ivy League teams have a huge winning streak advantage because they don't participate in the playoffs. Every FCS team that goes on to the postseason but one – the eventual national champion – loses its final game of the season.

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Yikes! Saturday's Portland State football game against South Dakota was canceled because of . . . whooping cough. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: It's not the same thing, thankfully, but that brings to mind the 1969 season when Dartmouth defeated Holy Cross in the Big Green's second game, 38-6, and then saw the Crusaders have to cancel the rest of their season because of a hepatitis outbreak traced to an infected water fountain at their practice field in Worcester, Mass..

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EXTRA POINT
As expected, our weekend wedding at a former girls overnight camp in New Hampshire's White Mountains had me offline from Friday through yesterday afternoon. Although I choose not to have a cell phone and try to limit my time online, it was refreshing not to even have the temptation to check emails or football scores.

As it turned out, there actually was internet available via Starlink – but when Mrs. BGA tried to check on her phone to see how That Certain Nittany Lion '16 was faring in his weekend duties looking after four dogs whose owners were at the wedding, the "open" wifi was not working.

Only at the farewell breakfast yesterday did we learn that the "staff" wifi password was available.

With that, we were able to learn that the dog-sitter was surviving his duties, which included looking after two active Australian shepherds, Griff the Wonder Dog and the bride's huge black Newfoundland – Samson. I'm not sure how much Sammy weighs but per the internet, the range for a male Newfie is 140-180 pounds. He survived . . . and so did That Certain Nittany Lion '16.

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