BGA Overtime is the successor to BGA Premium, a site that covered Dartmouth football with daily stories starting in 2005. The OT is written and edited by Bruce Wood, a former beat writer who has covered Dartmouth sports since the early 1980s. It is not affiliated with Dartmouth College and is supported by your generous donations..
 |
| Sammy McCorkle addresses the team after practice. |
HANOVER – When Dartmouth head coach Sammy McCorkle gathered his team on Blackman Practice Fields at the conclusion of the first preseason session of the year Saturday, he didn’t hold back.
McCorkle was probably a good 150 feet or so across the field from a couple dozen or so family members who decided to hang around for an extra day to watch practice after drop-off, but rest assured they could hear every word.
What are the chances that the two teams prognosticators pick to battle it out for the Ivy League championship both have starting quarterbacks named Dante this fall?
Pretty good actually.
It's the ultimate cliché, but it's spot on. Last year was the best of times and the worst of times for the Yale football program.
It was the best because not only did the Bulldogs beat Harvard for the fourth time in a row to win a share of the Ivy League title, but they also won the first FCS playoff came in conference history one week, and the respect of the nation the next with a one-score loss to the eventual national champion.
Whether it is the school's sports publicity office not getting around to it, or coach Bob Surace working an angle, Princeton is the only Ivy team that has not posted a 2026 roster.
That leaves an open question at quarterback where there is, or there could be, an interesting mystery contender to fill the wide-open job.
Maybe new Penn coach Ricky Santos didn't get the memo. Or maybe he's just a little less paranoid than a lot of college football coaches.
Either way, the former New Hampshire quarterback standout and coach came right out and revealed on the Ivy League media day who was going to be the Quakers' No. 1 QB heading into camp.
Ah, but he did leave that door a little open for a new entry in the sweepstakes.
It's a safe bet that virtually no one saw Columbia winning a share of the Ivy League championship in 2024.
After the Lions slipped back to 1-6 overall and 2-8 last fall, the conference pundits reverted to form and picked them last this year. That was no surprise, but there could be one in store.
Like Brown and Columbia – not to mention Dartmouth and Yale – Cornell returns its starting quarterback, and he's a big one. Literally.
Stuck for his first two years behind Jameson Wang before breaking out in Week 3 last year, Garrett Bass-Sulpizio is a 6-foot-5, 231-pound senior who completed 64.4 percent of his attempts on the season. His best showing was a 37-for-45 (82.2 percent) outing against Dartmouth when he threw for 328 yards. Not just a passer, he ran for 91 yards against Colgate and was the first Big Red player to run for a score in seven consecutive games since the legendary Ed Marinaro in 1971.
Long-suffering Brown fans have been waiting patiently for the turnaround since bringing prodigal son quarterback James Perry back as coach in 2019. After just three Ivy League wins in his first the seasons back, that patience, at least judging by anonymous voices on the internet, was starting to wear thin.
Perry bought himself some time with a 28-21 upset of No. 10 Rhode Island in Week 3 last year, and while a four-game losing streak took some of the luster off a 3-1 start, back-to-back wins at the end – including a 35-28 victory over Dartmouth in the finale – have Perry and Co. thinking maybe the program has finally turned the corner.