Sunday, August 24, 2014

Here We Go

While we weren't watching the 2014 college football season opened yesterday with No. 2 Eastern Washington topping No. 14 Sam Houston State in the FCS Kickoff game, 56-35. (LINK)

Dartmouth begins practice on Wednesday.

Here is the Dartmouth practice schedule, broken down by weeks. As always, there will be a story on BGA Premium following every practice.

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m. – Practice No. 1
Thursday, Aug. 28, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 2
Friday, Aug. 29, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 3
Saturday, Aug. 30, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 4

Sunday, Aug. 31, 10 a.m. – Practice No. 5
Monday, Sept. 1 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 6
Monday, Sept. 1, 4:15 p.m. – Practice No. 7 (Blackman)
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 3 p.m. – Practice No. 8
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 9/No. 10 TBA
Thursday, Sept. 4, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 11
Friday, Sept. 5, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 12
Saturday, Sept. 6, 1 p.m. – Practice No. 14 (Green-White Scrimmage)

Sunday, Sept. 7 – Off
Monday, Sept. 8, 8:30 a.m. – Practice No. 15
Monday, Sept. 8, 4:15 p.m. – Pracice No. 16 (Blackman)
Tuesday, Sept. 9, 3 p.m. – Practice No. 17
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 7 a.m. – Practice No. 18
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2:30 p.m. – Practice No. 19 (Blackman)
Thursday, Sept. 11, 1 p.m. – Scrimmage at Harvard
Friday, Sept. 12, 3:45 p.m. – Practice No. 21
Saturday, Sept. 13, 1 p.m. – Jayvees vs. Middlebury

Sunday, Sept. 14 – Off
Monday, Sept. 15, 3:45 p.m. – Practice No. 23
Tuesday, Sept. 16, 3:45 p.m. – Practice No. 24
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 3:45 p.m. – Practice No. 25
Thursday, Sept. 18, 3:45 p.m. – Practice No. 26
Friday, Sept. 19, 4:45 p.m. – Practice No. 27
Saturday, Sept. 20, 1:30 p.m. – Central Connecticut
Internet sleuths have discovered that Lyle Marsh has reappeared on the Penn football roster. (ROSTER) The oft-injured tailback was a second-team, All-Ivy League choice in 2009, played two games in 2010 before having his season ended by injury and lasted four games before he was hurt in 2011. In 2012 he was second-team All-Ivy again. Marsh missed 2013 because of non-football issues according to the Daily Pennsylvanian and only now has reappeared on the 2014 roster.

How rare is it to have an Ivy League athlete's career stretch over six years? Very, very rare.

Green Alert Take: The hope here is Marsh stays healthy and things work out for a kid for whom football is clearly very important. If he is on the field this fall and plays to the level he has been capable of when he was healthy, Penn becomes that much more dangerous.
The Sports Network picks Holy Cross fifth in the seven-team Patriot League, one spot behind old friend Colgate. (LINK)

The Worcester Telegram has a story about Holy Cross, Dartmouth's final nonconference opponent,  focused on dynamic quarterback Peter Pujals. (LINK)
The New York Post has a STORY in which New York Mets executive Dave Howard talks about the New York Jets General Manager John Idzik. Why post that here? The two had neighboring lockers as Dartmouth football players. Howard was a quarterback and Idzik a wide receiver. Both were Class of '82

Here's a funny outtake from the story:
“Lockers [were] arranged alphabetically,” Howard resaid, “so H and I is pretty close. I notice this tall blond guy laughs at a lot of my jokes. So I’m like, ‘Hey, I like the guy!’ ” 
It turned out to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship. 
“I recognized the name, I was a Jet fan so I knew that his dad was a coach, and we immediately hit it off,” Howard told The Post. “And when I tell that story in his presence, he’ll say, ‘Guys — I’m a wide receiver, he’s a quarterback. Of course I’m going to laugh at his jokes.’ ”
We got back to the Upper Valley from Happy Valley at 10 last night and I quickly sat down and posted the Yale season preview on BGA Premium. The series continues tonight with a look at Central Connecticut State. Holy Cross will go up tomorrow and New Hampshire on Tuesday. Then it's off to the races – or at least practices ;-)

And finally for your Sunday morning ... a peaceful view of horses grazing in the field alongside our campground near Penn State:
Click to enlarge