A Look At Dartmouth In 2026

 HANOVER – Season previews frequently begin with the number of starters lost and the number of starters returning. It is a silly convention because there’s no universal definition of what constitutes a starter.

If your first play on offense is in a 13-personnel set, are all three tight ends credited as being starters for that particular game? If you usually play a 4-3 defense but change things up and open with a 3-4, is one of your regular starters up front who plays pretty much the rest of the game not credited with a start?

A Fast Start To Game Week

HANOVER – Urgency.

If there’s one word Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle stressed to his team throughout the spring and the preseason, that was it.

McCorkle didn’t have to mention it to his players on Sunday afternoon.

It’s what they were all about.

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

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.