Tuesday, January 20, 2026

How About That!

Check out where a graduating Dartmouth offensive lineman is visiting as he looks for his grad transfer destination:

 Find a brief mention in a Cleveland.com story HERE.

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Washington also gets a mention in a Bleacher Report story headlined 2026 Impact CFB Transfer Targets Who Can Still Move This Offseason. Others named in the story are players from Ole Miss, Colorado, Duke, a few other schools and . . . wait for it . . . Yale (wide receiver Nico Brown).

From the story (LINK):

If you want a bit of a sleeper name that's not a stranger to the big-time programs out there, another Ivy League athlete is set to make a large leap on the gridiron in 2026.

Vasean Washington, a 6'5", 290-pound athletic offensive lineman who played at Dartmouth, is looking for a new home to play his final season, much like Yale's Nico Brown.

One of the schools definitely in the mix is the Ohio State Buckeyes, who need offensive line reinforcements.

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And speaking of offensive linemen, we now know who graduating Dartmouth tackle Delby Lemieux will play for the National team in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 31. Coaching the National team's offensive line will be Mike McCarthy of the Cincinnati Bengals and Darnell Stapleton of the Commanders. Find the full National team roster HERE.

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A Stats Perform story headlined Craig Haley’s Never-Too-Early FCS Top 25 Rankings and Outlook for the 2026 Season has Yale slotted at No. 23, along with this outlook for the Ivy League (LINK):

Yale landed the Ivy League’s first-ever automatic bid to the playoffs, then came from 28 points down to beat Youngstown State 43-42 in the first round. The return of QB Dante Reno and safety Abu Kamara, the league’s 2025 defensive player of the year, warrants the Bulldogs being favored over fellow playoff qualifier Harvard (there’s also this little thing called a four-game winning streak in their heated rivalry). But the Crimson will have an experienced lineup despite QB Jaden Craig’s departure, including RB Xaviah Bascon, WR Brady Blackburn, LB Sean Line (2025 leading tackler) and DB Damien Henderson. Penn had quite the coaching hire in luring New Hampshire royalty Rick Santos away from the CAA program.

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A HERO Sports piece headlined Biggest Surprises & Disappointments Of The 2025 FCS Season has Yale finishing as one of the five "biggest surprises" after starting the 2025 season unranked and finishing 15th in the national poll. From the story (LINK):

Yale did not receive preseason votes in the national media poll, and it was voted No. 3 in the preseason Ivy League poll. The Bulldogs went on to finish 8-2 in the regular season, winning the Ivy League with a 45-28 victory over rival Harvard. That clinched the Ivy’s first-ever auto-bid into the FCS playoffs. It was looking like a rough debut for the conference. Harvard was getting destroyed by Villanova in a 52-7 loss. Meanwhile, Yale trailed at No. 15 seed Youngstown State 42-14 midway through the third quarter. But then the comeback of all comebacks occurred. The Bulldogs came storming back, taking a 43-42 lead late in the fourth to win it, generating tremendous social media attention. The next week, Yale went out to the No. 2 seed and eventual national champs Montana State. The Bulldogs had a performance that drew even more national respect, giving MSU some trouble before losing 21-13.

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EXTRA POINT
It was all over the news. The Northern Lights were going to be visible for half the country last night, so I charged my little-used digital camera and kept my fingers crossed.
Given that it feels as if it's overcast all winter in these parts, every time the Northern Lights are expected to be visible cloud cover ruins everything. Ah, but when I went outside last night after the national championship game, the sky was crystal clear. Stars were out. Excelsior!
I couldn't see any color in the northern sky, but everything I have read said cameras can pick up the colors when the naked eye can't, so grabbed my tripod and something to perch the camera on in the snow. Snap, snap, snap. Nothing.
I went inside and Googled the best shutter speed, aperture and ISO, reset the camera and went back into the cold. Snap, snap, snap. Nothing.
I have That Certain Dartmouth '14's old iPhone SE sans SIM card that I use as a voice recorder when I do interviews and brought it outside. Snap, snap, snap. Nothing. So I went inside and Googled how to shoot the Northern Lights on an old iPhone. As recommended I downloaded a new app, and set all the parameters as instructed. Snap, snap, snap. Nothing.
By now it was about 1:30 a.m., and peak for the Northern Lights was supposed to be 2 or so. I grabbed the digital camera and went to another part of our property only to find the view of the northern sky was better where I'd started the night. 
Making the night even more frustrating, our part-time neighbor's house is about 150 yards to the north, and he has a motion-activated security light that kept coming on when I was shooting with a long exposure. I'd guess fully half of the shots I took were ruined.
A little after 2 a.m., frustrated and tired, I gave up and called it a night. But before turning in, I grabbed the digital camera and grabbed a few Hail Mary shots from an upstairs window that faces north.
I'm pretty sure my yell when I saw the photo below woke Mrs. BGA. But it might have.
Yes, it's a terrible picture. It's too soft and dark but there's actually some color that's visible in the high-res version. Not curtains of color, but real, honest-to-goodness color – on my monitor at least.

I can see the color best if I focus on the top of the picture. ;-)

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