From Fixing Flats To Preventing First Downs

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.’ ”

The Buddy Way

As I always do, after a recent practice I asked Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle if there way anything  he wanted to add after I finished my questions. He thought about it for a second and mentioned something touching. Here’s what he told me:

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.

Zalc Back In The Swing

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.

O Captain! My Captain!

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.

Practice 4

 HANOVER – Dartmouth’s 2025 rushing leader might be on the top line of the depth chart at FBS South Florida for the Bulls’ opener against Florida International in another week, but even without DJ Crowther, Big Green coach Sammy McCorkle likes what he has in his running back room.

It starts with 5-foot-10, 200-pound sophomore Myles Craddock, who gave an indication of what’s to come with 12 rushes for 46 yards and his first collegiate touchdown in last year’s finale at Brown. Craddock finished the season with 72 yards on the ground.

Practice 3 Indoors

 HANOVER – Sammy McCorkle did not default to A&I, but he very well could have channeled Buddy Teevens’ and used one of the former Dartmouth coach's favorite expressions.

Yup, the Big Green adjusted and improvised.

Saunier Sunday

 HANOVER – How Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier responded after an ankle issue essentially turned him into a spectator during spring football offers an insight into why his teammates voted him a captain and why he's such an integral part of the team.

Practice 1 In The Books

 

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.