Be sure to check out BGA Overtime tonight for a preview of the Dartmouth-Yale game.
Speaking of which, I watched a replay of the Yale-Central Connecticut game in preparation for writing the preview and I was struck by a sideline shot at Yale Bowl where it looked at one point as if each player on the starting defense was on the bench studying his own individual iPad. I found myself wondering if NIKE or Franklin or some other football equipment manufacturer thought ahead to this fall's rules change and designed football gloves with touchscreen-sensitive thumbs!
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This is pretty cool:
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The local Valley News has a preview of Dartmouth-Yale HERE.
The Yale Daily News takes a look at tomorrow's game HERE.
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Jake Novak, down at the Columbia football blog Roar Lions 2024, likes the Big Green's chances. In his weekly picks he writes (LINK):
Dartmouth -4 1/2 at Yale
I like this smaller point spread and the way Dartmouth is playing. This will be the best defense the Elis have seen all year and that doesn't bode well for them.
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FCS guru Craig Haley of Stats Perform/The Analyst has a podcast called FCS Delivered with former New York Giants linebacker Gary Reasons and each week they pick a selection of games in the subdivision. This week's picks included Dartmouth-Yale and Craig – a former Princeton beat writer – posted this graphic:
— FCS Football (@OptaAnalystFCS) October 10, 2024
Full episode: https://t.co/8apDPhyaXU pic.twitter.com/8ODrLTPH4p
You can listen to the two ever-so-briefly discuss Dartmouth-Yale HERE or take the easy way out and just read the transcript of their thoughts on the game that I pulled together for you:
Haley: Dartmouth at Yale, that's two of last year's champions along with Harvard. Who do you like here?
Reasons: Well, Craig, I'm going to go with Dartmouth. I think they've been a balanced attack all season long. They get 200 yards a game on the ground or passing the ball. Either way, it's kind of a real balanced attack. And I think they're also doubling up their opponents on the scoring side. So I'm going to take the big green here, three and oh coming into this game. They're going to be four and oh once they leave.
Haley: They're one of four undefeated teams left in the FCS. They were impressive last week against Penn. I'm going to go Yale though at home. I'll say they get it done.
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Dartmouth-bound quarterback Jaden Cummings of Summerville High School and Charleston, S.C., is the subject of a story that includes this (LINK):
“All the alums they’re all in big corporations, they’re the CEO’s, they’re the owners of the big pro teams,” said Cummings. “And graduating from Dartmouth they get you internships with them. And just having the Dartmouth degree under your name just takes your resume to the next level.”
The All-State and All-Region performer’s current list of accolades includes an 80 percent completion percentage, 19 passing touchdowns to just one interception, and another six scores on the ground.
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Two of the best football minds to come out of New Hampshire are making waves at the Ohio State University. ESPN has a story about the Ryan Day-Chip Kelly partnership HERE.
If you have a subscription to The Athletic, there's an even more in-depth story on the pair HERE that includes this about the two University of New Hampshire alums who attended the same schools growing up in Manchester:
Chip Kelly was a first-year offensive coordinator. Ryan Day was his first quarterback.
Back then, before Kelly’s ingenuity made him one of the most coveted play-callers in the country, he was an anonymous figure in the football universe: a 35-year-old former New Hampshire defensive back working at his alma mater. “He was just a name in the media guide,” said Mike Zhe, who covered the team for the Portsmouth Herald. “Page 40, offensive coordinator: Charles ‘Chip’ Kelly.”
Inside the football facility, however, Kelly was revered.
“He was like a mad scientist,” former New Hampshire tailback Stephan Lewis said.
The football field was Kelly’s laboratory. He tinkered, experimented and often pleaded with players to go faster. More motion. More concepts. More disguises. Kelly wanted to snap the ball as frequently as possible and deliver it to playmakers in space, spreading out defenses and wearing them down.
“Basketball on grass,” Lewis said.
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EXTRA POINT
I'm starting to feel a little like good old Charlie Brown trying to kick that football. Once again yesterday, the people who know about such things shared the news that we would have a good shot at seeing the Northern Lights last night. And once again, it was heavily overcast and the football got yanked away. It's been a recurring theme all summer.
While we couldn't see the show, way out in southern Utah it was a different story. That Certain Dartmouth '14 sent along this shot from among the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park:
