The Defense And More Coming Out Of Spring

 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 banged up about halfway through spring practice, so he wasn't able to practice the second half, but he's another guy that's shown he has the ability to play for us.”

In the best tradition of Buddy Teevens, who liked to fill a writer’s notebook with names, McCorkle continued naming names.

“Sam Washington, same thing,” he said. “KJ Edwards had a good spring for us. He had a few more reps at corner. We got a little banged up in the secondary at spring, so we had to move some corners to safety and that allowed guys like him to step up. I thought he did a really good job with the reps that he was getting.”

Linebacker
Dartmouth took a big hit when Macklin Ayers, who led the team in tackles per game as a junior and in total tackles last fall as a senior, opted to graduate and use his final year of eligibility at UMass. With Braden Mullen back from injury and Danny Cronin returning for a fifth year, “We’ve got some veterans there,” McCorkle said. “Zyion Freer-Brown was a little banged up early, but as spring went on he played more and more and showed a real understanding of the defense. He gave a lot of signs of being a very good football player for us.

“Then we’ve got  Micah Green, who had a little bit of a hamstring issue early spring, but then was able to be with us the last two weeks. He's a guy that our expectation is he's going to step in and be potentially a starter for us at the linebacker position.”

With that McCorkle went all Teevens again.

“Cam Lee, Steve Simpkin’s and Yomi (Babalola) all showed up something. You weren’t sure about the linebacker position, but after the spring I really feel good with our depth and our talent at that position.”

Nickel
With Tyson McCloud grad transferring the heir apparent appears ready according to McCorkle.

“Tyson Grimm, potentially, it's his turn,” the coach said. “He's really matured and understands our defense. He had a really good spring for us. Then there’s Max Schlager and Reece Spence and Dillon Holifield, guys who did a good job of subbing in there and are fighting for that number two spot.”

Line
With Josiah Green known commodity, McCorkle focused his comments on less experienced players who will be counted on this fall. “I really thought the young group did a really good job for us,” he said. “Josh Johnson, Keoni Perkins and Bruce Williams showed the potential to be a really good group of D-linemen for us.

“I thought Dakota Quinonez had, in my opinion, probably one of the better springs on the D-line, along with Derrell Porter.”

SPECIAL TEAMS
With Owen Zalc and Matisse Weaver returning as placement specialists and Davis Golick back punting McCorkle was knew what each could do coming into spring, even if Zalc was slowed by a leg issue.

Likewise, although Andy Belles spent a year watching and practicing behind Josh Greene, long snapper's strong showing wasn’t a surprise.

What was something of a surprise was the big leg shown by walk-on kicker Julian Coviello, a varsity soccer captain at his New Jersey high school.

“He had a great spring and I'm very impressed,” said McCorkle. “For a guy that never kicked, he had a phenomenal spring. He really did a good job. We're super excited for him joining our team.”

Not that it was a given that the freshman would make the cut.

“The spring is kind of a tryout with limitations of roster size and all that,” McCorkle explained. “We’re very limited on how many we can actually have. He's a guy that we've decided that we'd love to continue to stay with us and work with us, so he's officially a part of our team.”

WRAPPING UP THE SPRING GAME
McCorkle: “The biggest concern you have going in is how many snaps are you going to get? Can you get enough? You don't want too many, but it actually worked out perfect. I think we were essentially balanced with the number of snaps for all the different groups. We gave our guys the opportunity and they got a lot of snaps. Everybody got in, and everybody got a lot of plays. So it really allowed us the opportunity to evaluate these guys post-scrimmage.

“I think the competition was really good. I thought both sides offensively and both groups defensively performed well. We had a couple younger guys that we really needed to step up, and I thought did a good job of doing that. We had a couple little ankle here and there, but overall the health, knock on wood, we came out pretty dang healthy.

McCORKLE ON THE CAPTAINS
Josiah Green, Braden Mullen and quarterback Jackson Proctor were announced as captains at halftime of the spring game and per McCorkle the selection of the three was spot-on.

“They were a great pick,” he said. “It does not surprise me one bit. They have shown unbelievable leadership, not only on their side of the ball, not only at their position, but with the entire group. If you watch or you listen to players when they're together working out with (strength and conditioning coach Spencer) Brown, they're not on the side of the ball defensively or offensively, When they're not in their positions but are all together as a group, you really can see those guys who stick out and take charge and the guys who lead by example.

“Those three guys were the leaders, there's no doubt. You can tell how guys gravitate to them. The three of them do it in a different way, but you're not going to find three guys that work harder than they do and have the passion they have. They represent Dartmouth football the way it's supposed to be represented. Those guys are perfect and it doesn't surprise me one bit that they were chosen.”

NOTES
Proctor has been invited to participate in the Manning Passing Academy June 27-30. … Per McCorkle, there will be 50-to-55 football players in Hanover this summer, challenging the all-time record since he arrived at Dartmouth in 2005. … McCorkle on the Buddy Teevens Celebration of Life: “It was phenomenal. I couldn’t believe how many people were here but that wasn’t a surprise at all. I thought the school, President Sian Beilock, AD Mike Harrity, the council, Chris Jenny, Brian Conroy and everyone involved did a phenomenal job of putting it together, starting Friday evening with the Friends of Football. It was really special.”

McCorkle on the camp schedule, which will see Dartmouth welcome high schoolers for one-day sessions on June 21 and 22, June 26 and 29, and July 12 and 13: “We're excited about the guys coming to our camp, but things have changed a bit. The way it is now we spend a lot of time at other camps actually, more than we do our own camp. It's hard for families these days. They've got to be very limited on how many places they can go to. Obviously we like to get guys up here.

"We’ve got official visits this summer, too. Everything is just speeded up now. June is the new January for recruiting for sure.”

McCorkle on free safety Quinten Arello earning a minicamp invitation from the Tennessee Titans and corner Isaiah Johnson signing with the Miami Dolphins after two seasons as a grad transfer at Syracuse: “I saw Quinten real quick at Buddy's celebration and talked to him briefly. He was super excited. I sent Isaiah a text after he signed and told him how proud we were of him.

“Those two guys, you're not going to outwork them. They've earned the chance they have. Obviously they know it's a difficult task ahead, but there's no doubt about it. Those guys are up for the challenge.”

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