Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Well-Deserved

For the sixth time in his 2½ years in a Dartmouth uniform and the second time in as many games, Dartmouth placekicker Owen Zalc has been named the Ivy League special teams player of the week.

Zalc booted field goals of 42, 33 and 24 yards in last week's 30-13 win at Fordham. The junior from Cary, N.C., is now 7-of-12 on the season with a long of 51 yards. In his Big Green career he's 25-of-37 with a school-record long of 54 yards.

Also honored for their play against Fordham on Sunday were quarterback Grayson Saunier and safety Sean Williams, both named to the Ivy League honor roll.

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If you haven't yet checked out Your Mileage May Vary on BGA Overtime, you can find it HERE. I'm going to guess there are at least a couple of notes there that you will find interesting.

There have been 42 stories go up on The OT since the start of fall practice. No. 43 later today will feature those two familiar old guys.

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Screenshot from Noah Kahan official website

Vanderbilt Commodores On SI has a story headlined, Exclusive: Why Noah Kahan Attended Vanderbilt Football's Win over LSU.

Kahan, for those who don't know, is an internationally famous singer-songwriter who grew up across the river in Vermont and played soccer at Hanover High School. The story describes him as "a two-time Grammy Award nominee, Billboard Music Award Top Rock Album award winner, 2023 | Heart Radio Best New Artist and the creator of the hit album Stick Season."

The official Stick Season video, by the way, has been viewed 56 million times and the "lyric video" another 44 million times. Those are millions with an M. ;-)

Anyway, why mention him here? Kahan was quoted in the story out of Vanderbilt saying (LINK):

"It's cool to support a team that's winning. Growing up we had Dartmouth College football and, bless their hearts, they were never that good."

Green Alert Take: That gave me an idea. Noah Kahan, who got his start in music as a young boy playing the guitar in the basement of our old post office in Etna, recently bought a house here in the Upper Valley and his family still loves locally. If I worked in Dartmouth communications, I think I'd reach out after reading that quote and playfully remind him that the Big Green is bidding this fall for its fifth Ivy League championship in six seasons. I'd send him a Dartmouth football shirt and invite him to a game. Doubtful his schedule would allow it, but it would make for some fun PR.

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Dartmouth just polished off a Fordham football team that is averaging 83.1 yards per game on the ground this year. That number would probably be a lot higher if the Rams hadn't seen tailback Julius Loughridge, a two-time member of the All-Patriot League first team, transfer out.

Instead of suiting up for a 1-6 team playing in a stadium in The Bronx with seating on just one side of the field, Loughridge is playing this fall for 7-0 South Dakota State, the No. 2 team in the country, which will host No. 1 North Dakota State on Saturday. The former Fordham standout, who missed the Dartmouth game last year, leads South Dakota State in rushing with 102 yards per game this fall – and probably isn't having any second-thoughts about moving on.

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And speaking of the showdown between the top-ranked teams in the FCS, here are this week's polls:


FCS Coaches

W-L

Pts

Prev

1

North Dakota State (25)

7-0

625

1

2

South Dakota State

7-0

597

2

3

Tarleton State

8-0

578

3

4

Montana

7-0

547

4

5

Montana State

5-2

501

5

6

UC Davis

5-1

487

6

7

Lehigh

7-0

465

7

8

Tennessee Tech

7-0

431

8

9

Monmouth

6-1

417

10

10

North Dakota

5-2

398

11

11

Jackson State

5-1

345

13

12

Villanova

5-2

322

14

13

Rhode Island

6-2

314

15

14

Mercer

5-1

277

16

15

Lamar

6-1

268

18

16

Presbyterian

7-0

241

19

17

HARVARD

5-0

198

20

18

Southern Illinois

4-3

165

12

19

Southeastern Louisiana

5-2

164

22

20

Illinois State

4-3

163

9

21

Youngstown State

4-3

155

25

22

Northern Arizona

4-3

124

21

23

Austin Peay

4-3

73

24

24

Stephen F. Austin

5-2

64

NR

25

Abilene Christian

4-4

48

17


Dropped Out None





Others Receiving Votes: South Dakota, 32; West Georgia, 29; Western Carolina, 23; N.C. Central, 17; Lafayette, 13; PENN, 11; Sacramento State, 11; UT Rio Grande Valley, 7; Central Arkansas, 6; Gardner-Webb, 4; Alabama State, 3; DARTMOUTH, 1; Duquesne, 1. 





Stats Perform

W-L

Pts

Prev

1

North Dakota State (55)

7-0

1,399

1

2

South Dakota State (1)

7-0

1,339

2

3

Tarleton State

8-0

1,276

3

4

Montana

7-0

1,220

4

5

Montana State

5-2

1,198

5

6

UC Davis

5-1

1,078

6

7

Lehigh

7-0

1,035

7

8

North Dakota

5-2

995

9

9

Tennessee Tech

7-0

987

8

10

Monmouth

6-1

909

11

11

Villanova

5-2

683

15

12

Jackson State

5-1

638

14

13

Rhode Island

6-2

631

16

14

HARVARD

5-0

601

18

15

Lamar

6-1

585

17

16

Southern Illinois

4-3

481

12

17

Mercer

5-1

475

20

18

Illinois State

4-3

429

10

19

Presbyterian

7-0

369

21

20

Northern Arizona

4-3

342

19

21

South Dakota

5-3

296

22

22

Youngstown State

4-3

244

NR

23

Abilene Christian

4-4

227

13

24

Stephen F. Austin

5-2

226

25

25

Austin Peay

4-3

182

23


Dropped Out of Top 25: Idaho (24)





Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): Southeastern Louisiana (5-2, 3-0 Southland), 176; Western Carolina (5-3, 4-0 SoCon), 61; Sacramento State (4-3, 2-1 Big Sky), 47; North Carolina Central (5-2, 0-0 MEAC), 36; Lafayette (5-3, 3-0 Patriot), 9; PENN (4-1, 2-0 Ivy), 8; Gardner-Webb (4-3, 2-1 OVC-Big South), 7; Alabama State (4-2, 2-1 SWAC), 6; Duquesne (5-3, 3-0 NEC), 2; West Georgia (5-3, 2-3 UAC), 2





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EXTRA POINT

There's a house not far from our local lake that has a yard chock full of towering and creepy Halloween decorations that light up at night. The decorations went up a couple of weeks ago and I thought that was a little premature. But then on Saturday I saw the owner of another house had already started to put up scaffolding he uses for his over-the-top Christmas decorations. Tis the season, I guess. Or maybe the seasonS?