BGA Overtime

Recent remarks by head coach Sammy McCorkle several days into camp about the Big Green's 2024 defensive personnel (edited for clarity and in places for brevity): HANOVER (Sept. 3) – Offensive line-wise this is probably our most experienced group, our most mature group. … Across the board you’ve got Delby Lemieux and Kyle Brown. Plus Nick Marinaro (has been) a little a little injured but he'll be back pretty soon. Also Tristan (Holmbeck) and Konstantin Spörk. All those guys have playing experience. We also have Max Wentz, Vasean Washington and Cayman Duncan. We’ve got Will Prince, Cisco (Cabellero), Michael Betsy, Cam Davenport, Godson (Adjoku) and Roland (Waguespack). All those guys have done a phenomenal job and I feel like when it comes to experience and depth we're pretty solid there. Talking to (offensive line coach Keith) Clark, you want to have seven guys ready to play on game day. I feel like, and he feels confident that we potentially could have, eight or maybe nine

Recent remarks by head coach Sammy McCorkle after the first few days of camp about the Big Green's 2024 defensive personnel, (edited for clarity and in places for brevity): HANOVER (Sept. 3) –  We have experience at the linebacker position –  probably the best depth we've had at the linebacker position in a long time. (Linebacker coach) Donnie Dobes is really excited and feels good about that. Depth builds competition, and competition helps us become a better football team. We’re across the board on that. We’ve got Braden Mullen leading our linebacker position. Thaddeus Gianaris has had a great, great preseason. And Cam Lee's a guy who things are starting to slow down for. He’s starting to figure it out. Nico Schwikal is our Sam linebacker. We’ve moved him inside. He’s learned a lot of positions but he's really feeling comfortable with that  inside position. At Will linebacker we’ve got Micah Green and Zion Freer-Brown. At Mike linebacker we've got Danny Cronin and

Senior quarterback Jackson Proctor airs one out on Day One of the preseason. HANOVER (Aug. 24) – It would have been completely understandable for there to be concerns about what the future held for the Dartmouth football team when it opened training camp a year ago at this time. Longtime head coach Buddy Teevens was hospitalized, Sammy McCorkle was running the show as the interim and the Big Green was picked sixth in the Ivy League preseason media poll after coming in sixth a year before. Flash forward 12 months and with the unfortunate passing of Teevens, McCorkle is now the full-time head coach and Dartmouth has been voted fourth in the Ivy poll. This time, however, the Big Green kicked off training camp Saturday morning as a defending Ivy League champion. And yet, if you ask McCorkle how different it feels this year, he’ll tell you the more things change, the more they stay the same. “To tell you the truth, it doesn't really feel that different this year,” McCorkle said after a

 Big Green Alert HANOVER – Not surprisingly given his background working with the secondary, when head coach Sammy McCorkle offered up thoughts on the Dartmouth defense coming out of spring football he started in the back end. Secondary McCorkle began his remarks by talking about a rising junior who enjoyed a career game last year against Columbia featuring a ridiculously athletic interception, a key pass breakup in the end zone and a punt block he chased into the end zone for a touchdown. Although he finished the season with just seven tackles, Patrick Campbell had three pass breakups and two interceptions.  “Pat Campbell played a little bit for us last year,” McCorkle said. He's had one of the better springs of all the guys in the secondary along with Jamal Cooper. Those are two young guys who are in position to potentially to be starters for us.  “Jordan Barnes also had a good spring. We moved him around a little bit from corner to safety. Harrison Keith, unfortunately, got bang

Big Green Alert HANOVER – Dartmouth’s Green-White spring game looked a little different this year. Not just because both teams were on the same sideline or because of an adjustment in which units were wearing what color. Not even because of the offense-defense scoring system that surely confused a lot of onlookers if not the players themselves. The most obvious difference for anyone who has watched the Big Green ring up three Ivy League titles in the past four seasons, wasn’t what they saw on the field. It was what they didn’t see. For the first time since the latest championship run began, there wasn’t a second quarterback rotating in and steamrolling defenders for first downs and touchdowns. Jackson Proctor, who will be behind center this fall, is more speedy and elusive than the running QBs Dartmouth has become famous for, but he’s not as overpowering as first Jared Gerbino and then Nick Howard. And even if he were, head coach Sammy McCorkle wouldn’t want the 205-pound senior plowin

HANOVER – In an interview days ahead of the start of Dartmouth’s spring practice coach Sammy McCorkle talked about the addition of new assistant coaches Dan Hebert (wide receivers) and Braxton Chapman (running backs). What might have been the bigger news, however, didn’t break until after the interview for BGA. That’s when 29-year-old tight ends coach Wendy Laurent was officially introduced as the Big Green’s associate head coach, barely two years after arriving in Hanover. “Wendy's done a phenomenal job,” said McCorkle. “Seeing his growth since the first day he got here to where he's at now has been impressive. Just the way he holds himself, the way he presents himself, the way he represents Dartmouth College. We’re fortunate to have him as part of our program and really excited with what he's done in the short amount of time he's been here.” Laurent, who was born in Haiti, raised in Hamilton, N.J., and played high school ball at Ivy League-feeder The Hun School, block

HANOVER – Wide receiver Paxton Scott has led Dartmouth in catches each of his first three seasons. Nose guard Josiah Green had more tackles last year than either of his two linemates who will be playing at the FBS level in the fall as grad transfers. The easy thing to talk about during the off week in the middle of Dartmouth’s 12 spring practices would be to focus on stalwarts like Scott and Green. But Sammy McCorkle, in his first spring practice since being officially named head coach early last fall, was more than happy to work his way around the field sharing thoughts about players who might be a little more under the radar. Given his background as a defensive coach, it’s no surprise that McCorkle began his remarks on that side of the ball. Here’s a transcription of his thoughts with six spring sessions to go (classes listed are per next fall): DEFENSE Sammy McCorkle: “(Junior defensive lineman) Dakota Quiñonez has done a great job. He brings a lot of energy and is doing a great job

BGA    – Spring football for defending Ivy League champion Dartmouth will be a little different this year. The Big Green has had an enviable run of battle-tested quarterbacks with Dalyn Williams ’16 starting for three years, Jack Heneghan ’18 for two, and then Derek Kyler ’21 for three years. Although he wasn’t the leading passer, the torch was then passed to quarterback Nick Howard ’23, who was the Big Green’s leading rusher in 2021, had seven starts behind center in ’22 and seven more in ’23. With Howard graduate transferring to Butler and 2022 passing leader Dylan Cadwallader ’23 opting to graduate instead of return as a fifth-year senior, Jackson Proctor ’25 is not just the only quarterback on the roster who has started a game, but he’s the only one to have thrown a pass in a college game. “Having one experienced quarterback is better than having none,” head coach Sammy McCorkle cracked with a laugh in the run-up to spring football. “He’s taken a lot of snaps and been in a lot of g