April 18 – Midway Through Spring (First of Two Parts)
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 competing. (Senior) Darrell Smith-Porter is as well, which we need those guys to step up. We lost some good D-linemen last year and both those guys have done a phenomenal job every single day.
“At linebacker (junior) Zyion Freer-Brown is still not completely cleared, but you would never know the difference out there. He's done a phenomenal job. He has great instinct and I like the way he's flying around playing downhill.
“For a young guy, (sophomore linebacker) Steve Simpkins has had a really, really good spring. He has good anticipation and is doing a heck of a job. He's a tough one to block.
“At the nickel position it’s finally (junior) Tyson Grimm’s time. He hasn't disappointed. He's done a very good job at knowing our defense at the back end and he's had a really good spring.
“Secondary-wise, (senior corner) Jordan Washington obviously had a good year last year and he's having a good spring, taking more of a leadership role. I think (junior) Patrick Campbell has done a good job of stepping in, wanting to compete for that other corner spot.
“(Senior) Zach Farris is a guy who shows up every day. He has experience and brings some pretty good depth for us at that corner position.
“At safety, (junior) Sean Williams is having a good spring. (Departing free safety) Quinten Arello’s spot is kind of up in the air and (Junior) Jamal Cooper has done a good job of stepping up and showing that he could potentially be that guy. And I think of the young guys (sophomore) Harrison Keith has done a very good job, especially this last week, of really understanding our defense and getting our guys lined up.”
OFFENSE
McCorkle: “On the offensive line (junior tackle) Delby (Lemieux) is doing a great job. I’ll tell you what, it’s his athleticism. He’s getting better and better every day. And at center (junior) Nick Marinaro has done a really good job. He’s been really good getting our calls and protections made up front. He’s got very quick feet and is about as touch as they come.
“(Junior) Vasean Washington and (sophomore) Max Wentz are really competing for playing time this year. We need those guys to step up and watching their confidence grow in each practice is fun to watch. We want to see them continue to improve because we are going to need those guys.
“At tight end (junior) Sean Ward did a phenomenal job in the winter getting himself prepared and ready. And it's showing right now, at the tight end position. He's doing a very good job blocking at the line of scrimmage and with Chris Corbo gives us a huge threat in the pass game.
“At wide receiver, JG – (senior) Jackson Gerard would be the MVP of the weight room and the conditioning in the winter if you had to pick just one guy. He has completely committed himself and is playing with much more confidence. He's a guy that we definitely need to step up and take a little bit of that pressure off of (fifth-year) Paxton Scott.
“And then for the young guys, (sophomore) Nick Lemon has shown to be a deep threat. He's had some big plays during the spring, a couple of long passes for a touchdown. He's an explosive wide receiver who's still learning the system, learning the offense, but he's done a phenomenal job for us. We've just got to keep him healthy.
“At running back we've obviously got (senior) Q Jones and you've got (junior) DJ Crowther, but the guy I've been noticing a lot and is starting to really show signs of what he's capable of doing is (junior) Des Jackson. He's quick, he’s good in space and I’ve been impressed with him.
“We're moving him around to different positions, but when he's at the running back position, the thing I'm most impressed with is he's starting to have that physicality. He'll drop his shoulder. He’ll run through arm tackles. That's the one thing I think that is going to be a huge attribute for him going into next season.
“At quarterback, obviously, we've got (senior Jackson) Proctor. He’s shown what he can do in games and is doing a great job with our two younger guys. (Sophomore) Grayson (Saunier) and (sophomore) Woods Ray are getting better each day. We’re super excited about the ability of those two guys behind Proctor.”
SPECIALISTS
McCorkle: “We’ve been holding (sophomore kicker) Owen Zalc out the first half of the spring, making sure he's OK with a couple tight muscles here and there, but he'll be back to kicking the second part of the spring. That’s given the other guys a chance and (sophomore) Matisse (Weaver) has gone out and done a great job. (Sophomore) Julian Coviello is a walk-on who has stepped up and done a very good job.
“It’s nice to have two of those guys and three when Owen gets back. That takes some of the stress off the legs of the guys.
“(Senior) Davis Golick hasn’t had a chance yet to punt because we haven’t been outside that much. We usually do that the second half of the spring.
“Finally, (sophomore) Andy Belles is one of the better long snappers we've had in a very long time. His operation time is insane. He's done a heck of a job in the offseason preparing himself physically to be ready to take over.”
HOW HAS PRACTICE GONE SO FAR, COACH?
McCorkle: “I feel good where we are. We've got a number of guys who are not as much experienced. We have a good mix of guys who have a lot of experience. We have a good mix. But I'm impressed where we are. We talk about it all the time, just got to continue to get better every day.
“I was telling our leadership group in our meeting that I just feel like you can sense this being a very mature team. And it might be one of the more mature teams that have been around a long time. Just the way they handle themselves, the way they practice, the way they approach things.
“I think the fact that this isn't their first time going through this type of practice in spring. We did it last year so I think they're much more aware of it, used to it.
“We still have a number of things we've got to fix. And there's still a number of guys that we need them to step up. They need to be able to help us next season. So we'll continue to work on that and hopefully we get those guys prepared right away.”
CLOSING OUT THE FIRST HALF
For someone who hadn’t seen the Big Green this spring, Saturday’s sixth practice of the camp was an eye-opener. It’s no exaggeration to say the players were flying around.
Maybe some of that was the fact that it was a Junior Day and there were a lot of potential recruits and their families on the sidelines at The Greenhouse indoor facility. Maybe some of it was the knowledge that a week without football was in the offing.
Or maybe that’s just the way it’s been this spring.
What say you, Coach McCorkle?
“I think it's been pretty consistent,” he said. “I thought our Tuesday last week was just OK. I thought it was just an average practice. It wasn’t everybody, but what I tried to get them to understand is that we can't have 80 percent of the team playing with a lot of energy, working hard, playing hard while the other 20 percent isn’t. We need 100 percent all the time. We need everybody doing it.
“So I challenged them that we can't come out like that again. I thought they did a good job on Thursday and then I really thought they did a good job on Saturday.”
For McCorkle it was a good way to enter the bye week of practice.
“Our coaches do a phenomenal job of making sure we're prepared, ready and we try not to waste any time in practice and that’s the way it was,” he said. “I thought the players did a very good job of being locked in and focused in on the drills that they were doing at that time.
“The energy is always good inside. I think having a Junior Day helps. Having an audience. But overall, I think it was really good. Now we’ve just got to continue to build on that energy each practice.”
THE WEEK OFF
It was several of the assistants who brought the idea of taking a week off in the middle of practice to Buddy Teevens a few years ago. If he had any skepticism about the idea he quickly realize it was a big plus for two reasons.
First, because Dartmouth’s academic calendar is such that spring practice overlaps with the recruiting calendar coaches from other Ivy League schools were getting to – and being seen at – schools with potential recruits well ahead of the Big Green coaches.
And second, because after six practices the players can use a break and return to the field rejuvenated and ready to go.
McCorkle addressed the benefit to the players first,
“It’s a big week for their recovery physically,” he said. “Obviously (strength and conditioning coach Spencer (Brown), (head trainer Ben (Schuler) and I collaborate on to make sure this is an opportunity for our guys to kind of recover. But we're not going to slow down at all when it comes to continuing to improve our physical part, getting stronger and continuing to stay in shape.
“Spencer's got them lifting three times, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and they'll be outside a couple of time doing some speed work and some change of direction stuff. We want to be maintaining our physical condition to make sure that we're prepared when we hit it next week.”
On the recruiting side, Dartmouth assistants have fanned out across much of the country, something that has become even more important with recent changes in the recruiting rules.
“We have targeted guys that we're going after to make sure we’re seeing them,” McCorkle said. “It’s a good opportunity with the NCAA rule change from evaluation to contact. You can actually have communication with individuals in person as juniors.
“So it’s huge that we could get out. (Tuesday) was the first day you can do spring recruiting and we wanted to make sure we were the first one through the door. We want to make sure we can see the individuals we’ve targeted in person, get to know them and find out what they're all about.”
Tomorrow: This piece ended up being much longer than I expected so I’m going to break it into two parts.
Tomorrow’s much shorter story will include thoughts from Coach McCorkle about new associate head coach Wendy Laurent. Also his perspective on the big Pro Day by Quinten Arello, on the benefit of having fifth-year seniors in the spring (and fall), on the naming of captains and a very special down-and-back trip he made to another campus.
