Repping And Prepping

 HANOVER – About the only thing missing was the Lehigh fight song.

Then again, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if operations director Dino Cauteruccio or social media guru Zach Pierson dug up a recording of Rearing Tearing and played it over the sound system at Memorial Field:

    Rearing, Tearing down the field, down the field,

    Lehigh's team will never yield, never yield,

    Past the last white line that marks the goal,

    And brings a victory again to old Lehigh

Dartmouth’s final weekend without football until Thanksgiving probably looked and felt a lot like a Saturday with football as the Big Green conducted what coach Sammy McCorkle early in the week called a “mock game" and later referred to as a dress rehearsal.

“The idea is to do everything we do on a game day except play the game,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young players who haven’t traveled before, who haven’t been involved completely with the pregame and don't know everything we do.

“It’s not just for our players. We’ve got five new coaches who haven’t had a game with us either, so the idea is to mirror exactly what we do on game day so there are no surprises.”

And the "mirroring" was set to start well before the players got to the locker room.

“It begins with when we will be getting up in the morning,” McCorkle explained. “We want the guys to get up exactly what time they will be getting up next weekend when we’re away in Pennsylvania. We’ll eat like we do on a game day, four hours before we play.

“Everything will be the way it will be at Lehigh from coming out for stretch pregame, to what we do operation-wise, all the way to after the game facing our crowd and singing the Alma Mater.

"We’re going through the entire thing.”

Including having the large orange dots on the field for lining players up?

“Including the dots,” McCorkle said with a grin. “We’re going to have it all so we know what to expect next week.”

ON TAP

Dartmouth is slated to have Lehigh practice No. 1 Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Players will be off Tuesday with the start of classes, and be back on the field 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before they hop on the bus Friday for the six-hour trip to Bethlehem, Pa., for the opening game of the 2026 season.

While Dartmouth was having a mock game Saturday, No. 8/9 Lehigh was improving to 3-0 with a 44-20 whacking of No. 16 William & Mary at Goodman Stadium.

Turning The Page The Right Way

The flag stays in the official's pocket on this kick.

HANOVER – It wasn’t perfect. Name the coach, it never is.

That said, Dartmouth's final "preseason" practice Friday was a very good way to turn the page to "game week" according to coach Sammy McCorkle.

An Encore For Clark's Guys This Fall?

 HANOVER – You can spend a lot of time at Dartmouth practices, and it’s a pretty safe bet you will never hear the sweet harmony of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young coming out of the huge boom box on the sidelines.

Still, it would only be fitting if a lyric from the group’s 1970 album Déjà Vu echoed through Buddy Teevens Stadium one afternoon:

Scrimmage In Review

 HANOVER – It’s easy from the sidelines to see wide receivers breaking free, how accurate the quarterbacks are, who is knocking down passes, and which defensive ends are bear-hugging running backs.

It’s a little harder to see what happens in the trenches, which is something that caught Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle’s attention in film review from Monday’s second scrimmage of the preseason.

Scrimmage Two In The Books

 HANOVER – What’s the opposite of, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts?”

Whatever it is, it tells the story of Dartmouth’s second scrimmage of the preseason.

Super Sunday

HANOVER – On days when a Dartmouth football practice went particularly well and someone made an outstanding play in the final minute – or even sometimes two minutes – Buddy Teevens would sometimes blow the whistle to end the practice.

The players would cheer lustily, not because they were being cut much a break, but rather because they knew they had put together the kind of practice Teevens wanted to see.

Finding A Home In Hanover

HANOVER – Shane Montgomery had finished his first year as Dartmouth’s offensive coordinator and survived his first long winter in the Upper Valley.

The weather had finally turned, and he was on a spring recruiting trip when an old friend pointed out something he’d already discovered on his own.

“This was at a big high school combine with 50 different schools there,” recalled Montgomery. “A coach from the SEC who I’ve known for a long time told me, ‘I’ve been on the phone trying to get transfers for two months. I’ve neglected our players.’

“He said, ‘Shane, I envy you. You might have the best job of anybody here.’ ”

Back At It

HANOVER – With the benefit of video review  and 48 hours to reflect on the first scrimmage of the camp, Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle gave it a passing grade after Friday’s practice, much as he did in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s action.

“We had some guys step up that we need to step up, guys that we’re counting on to play for us this year,” he said. “Assignment-wise, we didn’t have many busts, which was good. We’ve still got some stuff we’re putting in, but overall I thought the guys knew where to be and how to line up.

“I liked the physicality. The guys did a good job of getting after each other. That’s always important and will be important for us this fall.”