A story about a wrestler out of suburban Chicago is headlined Dartmouth football recruit Mateusz Nycz doesn’t play nice at heavyweight for Marmion. Not at all. ‘Set the tone.’
The story begins this way (LINK):
As the heavyweight, Marmion senior Mateusz Nycz typically has to wait until the very end.
He wasted little time Tuesday night as the first one up under the blind draw of the sectional.
“Seeing my teammates achieve greatness is something I always get excited about,” Nycz said. “I always try to go out and set the tone. Getting a quick pin really got the team rolling.”
It definitely did.
Nycz ignited a dominant performance for the Cadets with a 39-second fall over Sandburg’s Omar Ahlmoud, leading the way for a 38-36 victory in the Class 3A Yorkville Dual Team Sectional.
For the uninitiated, that's a 39-second pin.
Also from the story about the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Nycz:
“The first day in weight training, he saw me working out,” Nycz said of (his football coach). “He asked me why I was playing center when I should have been playing tight end.
“Making that position change in football definitely improved my athleticism.”
Nycz was chosen the CCL/ESCC Red Division offensive player of the year last fall.
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Earlier this month BGA posted a blurb that began this way (LINK):
Do you ever find yourself wondering why Ivy Leaguers and other FCS players opt to grad transfer? Consider that the three players Dartmouth saw on the other side of the field the past few years who earned invitations to the NFL Combine are all coming off a grad transfer season.
OK, time for Part II, of Do you ever find yourself wondering why Ivy Leaguers and other FCS players opt to grad transfer?
HERO Sports has a ranking of the top NFL prospects among FCS players, and those with FCS roots. From that list, including how they were ranked as pro prospects (LINK):
No. 4. TE Jackson Hawes
School: Georgia Tech (2024 grad transfer from Yale)
Projected Round: 5th
No. 13. DT Thor Griffith
School: Louisville (2024 grad transfer from Harvard)
Projected Round: 7th-High Priority Free Agent
No. 14. DT Joey Slackman
School: Florida (2024 grad transfer from Penn)
Projected Round: 7th-High Priority Free Agent
Also . . .
No. 6. QB Max Brosmer
School: Minnesota (2024 grad transfer from New Hampshire)
Projected Round: 6th
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You've read here before about a Division III player Dartmouth and the rest of the Ivies missed out on. Now The Athletic/New York Times has a story about 6-foot-2, 311-pound offensive lineman Thomas Perry under the headlined The smartest, toughest 2025 NFL Draft prospect you’ve likely never seen play. From the story (LINK):
Perry studied molecular biology and mathematics at Middlebury, carried a 3.92 GPA and will be a doctor one day. He’s done 28 reps of 250 pounds (and 12 of 380) on the bench, has a near-600-pound squat, a 715-pound deadlift and explosion numbers in the 98th percentile for his position.
He also can do the splits.
Green Alert Take: While Dartmouth, Harvard and the rest of the Ivies might rue not having offered him, it is Brown that should feel the worst. This also is from the story:
"In another world, Perry might’ve continued his family legacy at Brown. His father had been an All-Ivy League player for the Bears; his uncle Bill was an All-American defensive lineman and a member of Brown’s Hall of Fame and its 125th anniversary team. ... Three of his cousins have played football at Brown, too.
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EXTRA POINT
Why is it things are never as easy as they seem? Yesterday in this space I wrote about how our electrician was stopping by to give us a little insight on how to use the huge battery in our EV to power our house during outages. I'll make a long story short and tell you he spent more than an hour here and he was thinking so hard about how to make it work that I got a headache. We eventually drove into town to buy the right connections only to find out one of the two purchases was actually the wrong connection. He'll be back today or later this week with the right one, and promises to get us going. The bottom line on the bottom line: What I thought was going to be a one-hour consulting charge is going to make a much bigger dent in our bank account, but I'm not complaining. Or am I?
