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..
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.’ ”
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.”
HANOVER – You might say it was a meaningless play featuring freshmen at the end of a meaningless scrimmage.
And you would be wrong.
On all accounts.
HANOVER – Dartmouth finished final exams on Monday.
Midterms are on Wednesday.
Confused yet? Listen to what Big Green coach Sammy McCorkle had to say Tuesday morning after the final practice ahead of the first of two preseason scrimmages.
HANOVER – As a boy growing up in the Detroit suburbs, Jordan Belfiori learned a lesson he values to this day. Not that it was easy.
“My father has worked for a company in the Midwest called Belle Tire for around 40 years,” the first-year Dartmouth defensive coordinator said. “He was store manager, and the moment I turned 18 and was no longer playing sports, he said I was going to learn how to bust tires. I was going to learn how to do alignments. I was going to learn how to do oil changes and fix spares and put tires on rims. I was going to learn how to be a mechanic/tire technician.
“Every summer and every winter I would come home from college, and that's what I would do. My dad said, ‘I’m going to make you do this job because you are going to be working with guys who are going to be making $8 an hour for the rest of their lives. I want you to understand the value of the education you are getting so you don’t mess it up.’ ”
On our media day, we had some extra time and we brought the young guys back, just the first-year guys, and we watched The Buddy Way documentary together.
I asked the guys how many of them had seen it, and probably half the room raised their hand.
HANOVER – For Owen Zalc, it was all so easy.
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound kicker was a Freshman All-American and first-team All-Ivy League pick in 2023 when he set the Ivy League record for field goals in a season by hitting 17-of-21 attempts.
A year later, he tied the Ivy League record with a 54-yarder on his way to a 13-of-17 season and a second selection to the All-Ivy first team.
Last fall, he booted a 51-yard field goal as time expired to give Dartmouth a 17-16 Homecoming win over Yale, but he would finish the year just 9-of-18, missing one more kick than in his first two seasons combined.
Zalc never made excuses, but there was an explanation.
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| Dartmouth football players salute their captain as safety Harrison Keith does an interview with Manchester TV station WMUR. |
HANOVER – Hanging up his lacrosse stick wasn’t any easier for Harrison Keith the second time around than it was the first.
That said, Dartmouth’s senior co-captain knew it was the right thing to do, both for the Big Green football team this fall, and for wherever his career might take him.