Graduating Dartmouth quarterback Jackson Proctor will play next fall at Northern Illinois, but it’s going to be a challenge working his way up the depth chart without having gone through spring practice. From the Northern Illinois school newspaper (LINK):
Heading into spring ball, NIU’s starting quarterback job felt like Josh Holst’s to lose. The Marengo product started three games last season, including the Huskies’ double-overtime victory in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, where he passed for 182 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for a team-best 65 yards to earn the game’s MVP honors.
After nearly a month of practices, head coach Thomas Hammock confirmed what already seemed apparent: Holst remains the frontrunner for QB1.
“Right now, Josh is the guy. Jalen (Macon) will be two and Brady (Davidson) will be three,” Hammock said April 26 following NIU’s Spring Showcase.
The competition isn’t over yet, though. Dartmouth University transfer Jackson Proctor is expected to join the team this summer and could shake up the depth chart during fall camp. But for now, Holst is the man to beat.
Green Alert Take: It says here that – like labeling the school he’s coming from Dartmouth University – underestimating Jackson Proctor is a mistake.
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This could drum up attendance at Saturday’s Green-White game if they spread the word to the general public. As long as the stuff is in good shape, these are nice prices!
Don’t miss the Dartmouth Athletics Surplus Sale at the @DartmouthFTBL spring game this Saturday! Runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field.#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/t2moSMBe0p
— Dartmouth Athletics (@dartmouthsports) May 6, 2025
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From the NCAA (LINK):
The Division I Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committee is recommending legislation to increase the maximum number of games that can be played, standardize the first contest date and eliminate first contest date exceptions, beginning with the 2026 season.
If the legislation is adopted by the Division I Council, FCS teams could play 12 regular-season contests each year. Current legislation permits 12 regular-season contests in years when there are 14 Saturdays from the first permissible playing date through the last playing date in November (2024, 2025). In all other years, only 11 regular-season contests are permitted.
The recommendation also would standardize the start date of the FCS season as the Thursday 13 weeks before the FCS championship bracket is released, which is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. If the proposed change is adopted, in 2026, FCS teams could begin competing on Thursday, Aug. 27.
Green Alert Take: Would having everybody else in the FCS eligible to play 12 games each year enable the Ivy League to diversify its schedule a little bit? Please?
Green Alert Take II: If everyone else goes to a 12-game schedule, what are the chances the Ivy League finally goes to 11? Didn’t think so.
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Speaking of scheduling, when Jacksonville abruptly dropped football a few years back and Dartmouth was left searching for a last-minute replacement, only DII New Haven was available. That game went by the wayside with the COVID season suspension.
Don’t be surprised if New Haven – which would be the other UNH in these parts – finally shows up some day on the Big Green schedule now that the school has accepted an invitation to join the Northeast Conference and move up to the FCS. From a release (LINK):
The University of New Haven has accepted a full membership invitation from the Northeast Conference (NEC) Council of Presidents and will officially join the league on July 1, 2025. The announcement was made today by NEC Commissioner Noreen Morris and University of New Haven President Jens Frederiksen, Ph.D.
Located on Connecticut’s southern coast, New Haven will begin its transition to NCAA Division I and the NEC during the 2025-26 academic year. The Chargers will attain full Division I membership in 2028-29 following the NCAA-mandated reclassification period.
Green Alert Take: Schedule a game with this other UNH if you like, but please, not on this playing surface:
His academic and football prowess continued at Dartmouth College where he graduated in 1949 with a double major in Physics and History. Ray immersed himself in campus life and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, joined the German and Italian clubs, and was a member of Green Key and the Cask and Gauntlet. His notable football achievements included playing in the 1948 Blue/Grey Game, the 1949 Eastern All-Stars game vs the New York Giants, and receiving numerous invitations to tryout for NFL teams at that time. He reflected on his Dartmouth experience as the "place where I truly learned how to learn" and he bled Green his entire life.
After graduation, he became an assistant football coach on the Dartmouth Football staff under Tuss McLaughry and Bob Blackman. His coaching career was interrupted by a call to duty in the Korean War and he enrolled in the Army. He was stationed at Fort Bliss and was the base athletic director as well as head football coach. In later years, he would found the NH Pop Warner football organization and the NH Chapter of the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Dartmouth College Oral History Project had a “The War Years at Dartmouth” interview with Truncellitto that is worth reading HERE.
Green Alert Take: The trancript begins with Truncellitto explaining how a chance meeting with a sportswriter at a basketball game, an athletic trainer encouraging him to consider Dartmouth, and pictures showing the campus getting “greener and greener and greener” led the city kid to abandon plans to attend Columbia and head north. And he never looked back.
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EXTRA POINT
Gotta run, er, mow.
For the first time since late last week the sun is actually shining (a little bit at least) and the grass might actually be drying out (a little bit at least ;-). There’s rain in the forecast this afternoon so I have to hop on the electric tractor and attack our six acres (a little bit of it at least).