The HERO jersey countdown for best player wearing a uniform bearing the number of days until the first FCS games of the season dips into the Dartmouth roster for the second time:
FCS Jersey Countdown3⃣5⃣
— Sam Herder (@SamHerderFCS) July 21, 2025
The best returning No. 35 is @DartmouthFTBL K @OwenZalc
Zalc is a back-to-back All-Ivy League 1st Team selection and the 2024 Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Year after making 13/17 field goals with a long of 54
The Countdown…
The full story adds this about Owen Zalc (LINK):
Zalc is a top FCS kicker, entering 2025 on the Stats Perform Preseason All-American Second Team. He is a back-to-back All-Ivy League First Team selection. In 2023, Zalc set a school record for field goals in a season, making 17-of-21 and earning FCS Freshman All-American honors. He also broke the Ivy League record for field goals in conference play with 14. Last year, Zalc hit 13-of-17 field goals with a long of 54 yards, which broke Dartmouth’s previous record of 52 yards and tied the Ivy League record. On top of another nod on the All-Conference First Team, Zalc was named the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Year.
The previous Dartmouth selection was No. 75 Delby Lemieux.
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EXTRA POINT
I was an English major as an undergraduate and took several courses on Shakespeare, but that was long enough ago that when the category comes up in Jeopardy I’m useless. I was a much better student during the week than in Sunday School, so it’s the same when the category is the bible. I went to college as a math major before making an about face, but any clue more involved than good old-fashioned arithmetic and I’m lost. You get the idea.
But I digress. One category I usually knock out of the park is colleges and universities. That said, I have to admit something I saw on FootballScoop this morning had me stumped. It read: OUAZ has an opening for a Graduate Assistant position.
OUAZ?
A little Googling revealed that the opening is at Ottawa University Arizona, a spinoff of Ottawa University of Kansas. While the main school has been around since the 1860s, OUAZ didn’t open until 2017 in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise.
For the record, the Spirit football team, which plays at the NAIA level and is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association, went 8-2 overall and 7-1 in conference last year.
Here’s the kicker. With a student body of around 900, OURAZ had more than 150 football players last year, and somehow managed to field teams in 27 sports. (LINK)
OK, Jeopardy writers. Bring it on!
