The Six-Pack After Merrimack

HANOVER (Sept. 30 BGA) – Week Two is in the books so it’s time for another edition of the BGA Six Pack Plus with thoughts and analysis heading into the first Ivy League game.

1) Notre Dame played a part in Dartmouth’s win at Merrimack. Stay with me now.

It was January of 2022 when the Fighting Irish “flipped” a highly regarded kicker who had committed to Dartmouth. That and several injuries forced the Big Green to pull Ryan Bloch ’23 out of a self-imposed retirement. It also sent Dartmouth back into the market for a kicker, and that resulted in the Big Green landing Owen Zalc. All the sophomore has done since then is make 21-of-26 field goals, with his third of the game Saturday providing the winning margin against Merrimack. The kicker who switched to Notre Dame? He has kicked four extra points for the Irish and hasn’t attempted a field goal.

2) The decision to send Zalc out for a career-long, 50-yard field goal attempt on a fourth-and-nine play at the Merrimack 33 with just 7:54 left and the Big Green trailing 14-10 was open to second-guessing. But Zalc had regularly made kicks from that distance in practice and while his 50-yard bid in the third quarter sailed wide left, it had the distance. McCorkle figured, correctly as it turned out, that Zalc would stripe the kick, his defense would hold and the sophomore would get a shot at the winner, which is exactly how it played out. Combine the gamble against the Warriors with last week's onside kick and two kickoff returns already this fall and it suggests McCorkle isn’t afraid to roll the dice.

3) Merrimack was not Jackson Proctor’s best game at quarterback with the senior completing just 14-of-29 throws for 161 yards. But with the game on the line, the senior delivered. On the Big Green’s next-to-last drive he completed his final four throws (although the last was lost to a penalty) to set up Zalc’s 50-yard field goal. On the final drive he was three-for-three with throws of 13, 15 and six yards, all for first downs set up the winning kick. That kind of clutch play on a day when he had been struggling says a lot.

4) Speaking of struggling, Dartmouth’s run game was credited with 119 yards and not many came easily. The longest carry by a running back in the first half was four yards. Q Jones’ 10-yarder in the third quarter would be the only double-figure gain by a running back all day. Proctor helped bail the ground game out with 43 yards on 10 carries. Of note was backup quarterback Grayson Saunier subbing in on the final drive with the game on the line and sprinting 10 yards around the left side for a first down at the 22. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds Saunier isn’t cut in the mold of Nick Howard or Jared Gerbino, but could his cameo at Merrimack and 31-yard TD run late in the Fordham game lead to him seeing time as the “running” quarterback should the ground game struggles again?

5) Give the Merrimack defense credit. McCorkle wasn’t blowing smoke when he said it’s a good unit stocked with athletes who play hard and “vicious.” That said, Dartmouth scored just one touchdown on Saturday and regardless of how talented your kicker is, you simply aren’t going to win many games when you reach the end zone just one time. 

6) Merrimack is 1-4 this fall and while two of the losses were to Air Force (21-6) and UConn (63-13) it’s still a one-win team that pushed Dartmouth to the limit. Fordham, meanwhile, fell to 0-5 with a 63-21 loss to Monmouth Saturday. That’s a 1-9 combined record for the two teams the Big Green has beaten this fall. But as the old saying goes, you can only beat who is on your schedule. (Although it’s hard not to think about what might have been last Saturday when the Big Green had expected to be playing at Army instead against an opponent whose stadium features seats on just one side.)

And the bonus . . .

7) Merrimack listed the attendance Saturday as 15,211 and that’s an out-and-out fib. There might have been that many tickets sold, but more than half of the ticket-holders never saw a snap. They were celebrating Homecoming in the parking lot behind the grandstand and in lots all over campus. Duane Stadium, with a listed capacity of 4,000, was filled with spectators ringing one end zone and it was a surprisingly good environment, but the official attendance number isn’t even close to accurate. Still, if they sold enough of those $5 bottles of water the school did pretty good for itself.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Micah Green led Dartmouth with nine tackles including half a stop for a loss. Safety Sean Williams made eight tackles while Josiah Green had seven, including a sack for five yards, from his linebacker position. Ejike Adele had six tackles and 1.5 sacks up front while Tyson Grimm add six at the nickel.

Merrimack was credited with six pass breakups and five hurries while Zyion Freer-Brown had the only breakup Dartmouth recorded. The Big Green was not credited with a QB hurry. So it goes with skeleton stat crews on the road.

Paxton Scott, targeted just once in the first half without a catch, caught four balls for 36 yards after the break. Painter Richards-Baker’s 75-yard TD reception was his only catch of the day. … Davis Golick averaged 43 yards on his two boots and is averaging a career-high 41-5 yards through two games. Opponents have no punt return yardage against him this fall.

The Big Green had 18 first downs to Merrimack’s 15 and total offense was even closer. Dartmouth finished with 280 yards to the Warriors’ 264. … Also close were possession time (Dartmouth 30:45, Merrimack  29:15) and third-down conversions (Dartmouth 7-of-16, Merrimack  5-of-12). … Neither team turned the ball over.

Dartmouth had drives consisting of 10, 12, 12 and 14 plays while Merrimack's long dirve was nine plays. The Big Green’s longest marches were 51, 62 and 75 yards. Merrimack had one of 72 and one of 60 but the next-longest was just 30 yards.

QUOTABLE (lightly edited for clarity)

Paxton Scott on not watching the gamewinning kick: “I haven't watched any of his game winning kicks. Kyle Brown and I were sitting on the bench looking at the iPad. We think it's bad juju to watch him. So now it's just superstition. We trust him.”

Scott on whether it was a point of emphasis to get him the ball in the second half: “No, not really. We talked about it as receivers: playmakers need to make plays. We’re the spark of the offense and but the ball just kind of found me. I was trying to get open the best I could. They ran a lot of man cove- two stuff like that and so I was just trying to find pockets and Proc was able to find me, so very grateful for that.”

Scott on the benefit late in the game of Zalc’s range and accuracy and how that played into the final minutes: “It definitely takes a little bit of pressure off the play calling. We're not trying to force as much, especially as receivers. We're not trying to make spins and jukes. Everyone is there to do their job and we do that. Everyone in the huddle was calm, very collected and we just kind of marched down the field. That's the type of stuff you want to see. And then Owen did a great job.” 

Owen Zalc on gauging the wind on the final kick at a stadium that unaccountably had just one red tell-tale atop the four goalpost uprights (albeit on the posts he was kicking toward). “I felt (the wind) a little bit, but it was moving around so much I didn't really think about it. I just tried to do exactly what I do every time.”

Zalc on whether he’s rooting for a chance to kick the decisive field goal or for the team to score a touchdown: “I want to win the game. However we do that doesn't really matter to me.”

Ejike Adele on the final Merrimack drive that he helped snuff out with the game on the line: “You got to give everything you got. That's the mentality we have to have up front every single play, especially when it gets to the fourth quarter. We call it tank time. You’ve got to empty out your tank, give everything you have. Up front, I think we did that and that helped us win the game. That's why we've got  to keep that mentality.”

Adele on Merrimack tailback Jermaine Corbett, who ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns: “He was a good player, a very good player. One of the better running backs I think we'll see this season. Definitely a really good player, very shifty and hard to tackle. I'm just glad we've got  the job done today.”

Sammy McCorkle on Corbett: “He's just so good. He's quick. He’s elusive. For a guy his size, he's very hard to tackle too. He's got great vision. He’s got a good jump cut. He really does, he kind lulls you to sleep a little bit when he gets up in there, and then all of a sudden he bounces it and hits it.”

McCorkle on the 75-yard touchdown pass to Painter Richards-Baker to even the score at 7-7 in the first quarter: “We needed a little jump start there. I felt like our guys were just kind of going through the motion a little bit. That was helpful, but we've got to continue that energy. We have to match our opponent's energy, and even more. I thought they did a good job coming out with a little bit more energy than us. Obviously we can't wait till the second half to do that.”

McCorkle on whether he has some words of wisdom for Zalc before the winning kick: “No, I leave Owen alone. He knows what he has to correct. It's the whole operation too. It’s not just not Owen. It's the snap, it's the hold, it's the protection, it's everything. We'll look at the film, but I don't know if that was the greatest operation. That's something we've got  to make sure we clean up so he can continue to do what he does.”

On whether he might have called for the kick on third down rather than fourth in the event of a bad snap or bobbled hold: “Potentially. It was all about the clock. Just trying to get the clock down as much as we possibly can. … Kicking that on third down, but it would have been nice. We were trying to get it  a little bit more to the middle for him.”

On calling Grayson Saunier’s number for the 10-yard run during the final drive: “He's a gamer. He’s an athletic kid. He does some really good stuff. He can give you some options there. He can give you some versatility as well. He's very composed for as young as he is and as a limited amount of experience he has. When he gets out there, he's very composed. You definitely want to have another threat on that offensive side of the ball. We're going to need it going forward.”

The tailgating scene at Merrimack was lively and crowded. This picture was shot from the top of the grandstand during the game. (Click for a better look.) Given the size of the stadium and the number of people partying in the parking lots who seemed to have no interest in the game and never made it into the stadium,  the star of the afternoon was Homecoming, not football.

Dartmouth Pulls One Out

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (Sept. 29 BGA) – Dartmouth’s 16-14 win over Merrimack Saturday afternoon wasn’t anywhere near the kind of tour de force performance the Big Green enjoyed in the season-opener against Fordham a week earlier.

But needing a key stop and then having to drive 62 yards for Owen Zalc’s 32-yard field goal with three seconds left might just prove to be even more valuable heading into the start of Ivy League play against Penn this week.

“It’s going to be important for us, for sure,” said defensive lineman Ejike Adele after the Big Green improved to 2-0. “I think when it’s Ivy play we're going to end up in dogfights like this. Probably – definitely – more than once.

“It's good that we have this experience now so we can move forward, look at the things that we messed up on in key situations, and just keep building on it. But we're extremely happy that we made it happen at the end.”

It happened because both sides of the ball stepped up with the game on the line.

Trailing, 14-10 through three quarters, Dartmouth cut the difference to one midway through the fourth on Zalc’s second of three field goals, this one coming from 50 yards.

When the Warriors (1-4) crossed midfield on the ensuing possession it was Adele teaming up with Josiah Green for the critical eight-yard sack that helped Dartmouth hold and get the ball back with 2:59 remaining.

On a day when he completed less than half of his passes (14-of-29 for 161 yards) Big Green senior quarterback Jackson Proctor was clutch when it mattered most. He triggered the winning march – after a short punt gave Dartmouth the ball at its own 25 – with back-to-back completions of 13 yards to tight end Chris Corbo, and 15 yards to running back Q Jones to push the ball across midfield.

After a four-yard Jones carry it was Proctor finding Paxton Scott, who held on despite a big hit, for a six-yard gain and a first down at the Merrimack 37. When Jones followed with a five-yard run the Big Green was within Zalc’s range

It would get closer thanks to a surprising play call.

On second-and-five, little-used sophomore quarterback Grayson Saunier subbed in for Proctor behind center, took the snap and ran left for 10 yards for a first down at the 22. Two Merrimack times out and short gains by Jones and Proctor later, Zalc trotted onto the field to try for the third game winner of his young career. The All-Ivy League sophomore – who was successful on 17-of-21 tries a year ago – was completely unfazed talking about the winning kick outside the locker room minutes later.

“I've said it in multiple interviews, but I mean, just do the same thing I do every time,” he said. “I’m going to get good protection. I know that the snap's going to be there. The hold’s going to be there. I’ve just got to kick it. I mean, I wish I had a better answer, but if the ball's there, I'm going to kick it.”

For all the drama of the kick, the game wasn’t over.

There were still three minutes left on the clock and although speedy Merrimack wide receiver Donovan Wadley – who had three kickoff returns of at least 90 yards for a touchdown last year – was in street clothes because of an injury the Warriors still had a chance. Awaiting the kick was dynamic 5-foot-8 tailback Jermaine Corbett, who had given Dartmouth fits all game.

Corbett fielded Matisse Weaver’s final kick at the goal line, found a seam up the middle and probably had a few Dartmouth fans nervous that he was going to squirt out the other side of the scrum before being collared at the 33-yard line by Cameron Best-Alston and Zyion Freer-Brown, touching off a huge Big Green celebration. 

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Corbett, who rushed for 137 yards on 21 carries and caught three passes for 45 more yards, had helped Merrimack take an early lead on their opening possession of the game. He already had runs of 14 and 12 yards before his slice-and-dice 13-yard touchdown made it 7-0.

“He's just so good,” McCorkle said of the grad transfer from Stonehill. “He's quick. He’s elusive. For a guy his size, he's very hard to tackle, too. He's got great vision. He’s got a good jump cut. He kind of lulls you to sleep a little bit when he gets up in there, and then all of a sudden he bounces it and hits it.”

Dartmouth wasted no time answering the Merrimack score. On the second play of its ensuing drive, Proctor dropped back, ran right and seemed to be about to tuck the ball and head upfield. But spotting deep threat Painter Richards-Baker streaking down the right side beyond the last defenders, he loaded up and hit his senior classmate at the opposite 45. Richards-Baker did the rest, outracing the pursuit for the 75-yard touchdown that tied the score.

"We needed it," McCorkle said of the long TD. "We needed a little jump start there. I just felt like our guys were kind of going through the motion a little bit."

The Big Green took a 10-7 lead into the break thanks in large part to back-to-back Merrimack mistakes.

When a pass breakup forced a Dartmouth punt from near midfield midway through the second quarter, Marc Christian-Georges was flagged for running into punter Davis Golick, giving the Big Green a first down at the plus-43.

One play later Jones was stopped on a short gain only to have the Warriors’ Jabari Nichols whistled for an unsportsmanlike taunting penalty, giving Dartmouth a first down at the 27.

After the drive bogged down at the 14 Zalc came on boot a 31-yard field goal that gave Dartmouth the 10-7 had at the break.

Take away the long TD pass and the Big Green finished the half with just seven yards passing while the running backs had just 22 yards and Corbett by himself had 79 yards on the ground, giving McCorkle a couple of talking points in the locker room.

“Just do your jobs,” he recounted of his message to the team. “Do your jobs. You don't have to do anything extra. Don't get in a one-on-one battle with a guy. Do your responsibility and do your job.”

 “And we need more energy. I challenged them. I said they've got more energy than us in the first half. I said they were more aggressive than us in the first half. I said we've got to flip that now.”

Which is what they did.

But only after Merrimack began the second half the way they did the first, driving 72 yards for a touchdown and a 14-10 lead, with Corbett again getting the points, this time on an 11-yard run.

Dartmouth had a chance to cut into the lead  midway through the third quarter but Zalc’s 50-yard try missed, setting up the fourth quarter dramatics that provided the Big Green the kind of nail biting win that could pay dividends down the stretch. Even if the score wasn’t impressive against an underrated opponent.

“It's big, you want to win and make a statement,” said McCorkle. “But that's a good football team and I could care less about their record. They are a good football team. I've watched enough football on video and I saw it early in the week. These guys are good, they're very good on defense. They had a good plan on offense.

“We went toe-to toe and you need to have those. You're going to have those games going forward. I think the team that's been in those situations before, the composure of that will show. Our biggest thing is we just got to keep getting better across the board.”

They’ll have that chance Saturday when they host Penn in their Ivy League opener. The Quakers, who dropped a tough 29-22 decision at undefeated Delaware in their opener, rebounded with a 27-17 win over Colgate Saturday. 

Merrimack Odds And Ends

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (Sept. 27) - Dartmouth and Merrimack are meeting for the first time. … The Merrimack website hasn’t been updated but it would seem this is just the school’s second game against an Ivy League opponent. In 2022 the Warriors let a 21-7 lead with under five minutes remaining in regulation slip away in a 28-21 overtime loss to the Crimson. …

Merrimack is being outscored through four games, 32.8-17.3. … Rushing numbers are relatively even with the Warriors averaging 149.8 yards on the ground to 166.5 for opponents. The bigger difference is through the air where opponents have averaged 201.5 yards and Merrimack just 124.3. … The Warriors are converting  just 26.7 percent of third-down opportunities while opponents are at 42.9. Merrimack has been penalized 31 times to the opponents’ 22.

Mike Gennetti is in his first year as Merrimack head coach. He succeeded Dan Curran, who led the school through the transition to Division I and left after last season to take the Holy Cross head coaching job. Gennetti has been on staff at Merrimack since 2003. … The Warriors left the Northeast Conference after last season and are independents this year. Per an August release Merrimack will play Sacred Heart – which also went independent this year – for the what the schools are calling the Yankee Conference title (although New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and other traditional members of the real Yankee Conference may disagree. ;-) …

The Ravens, City Chiefs, Seahawks, Falcons, Jets, Browns, Vikings, Panthers, Commanders and Patriots have all taken a look at Merrimack defensive lineman Nicholas Lenon per The Mack Report. … The school has had players sign with the Ravens, Rams and Chiefs in recent years. … Former linebacker Shawn Loiseau ’12, a two-time DII All-American, was the first Merrimack player to sign with an NFL team, spending camp time with both the Texans and the Colts.

Since moving up to DI in 2019, the Warriors have finished with a winning record two times, although the ’19 season probably should have an asterisk with three of the wins over Mayville State, Virginia of Lynchburg and Franklin Pierce. … They were 8-3 in 2022. …

Merrimack is best known athletically as a hockey school. The Warriors play in Hockey East under former Dartmouth assistant Scott Borek. They qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament in 1988, 2011 and 2023.

Merrimack’s most famous alum is Carl Yastrzemski. The baseball Hall of Famer began college as a baseball and basketball recruit at Notre Dame in the 1957-58 school year, signed with the Red Sox after his freshman year and then completed his degree at Merrimack in 1966, a year before winning the American League Triple Crown. … 

Merrimack is one of two Augustinian colleges in the United States. The other? Villanova. … Founded in 1947, Merrimack has a student body of approximately 5,700 undergraduate and graduate students. … 

Dartmouth-Merrimack was a late addition to the NESN+ and ESPN+ lineup. John Avino and Jacob VanRyn will handle the broadcast. An audio call is available free of charge on DartmouthSports.com with Matt Corsetti describing the action.

Dartmouth returns home next week for the Ivy League opener and Buddy Teevens Stadium dedication game against Penn. Merrimack will have a bye week before visiting Morgan State.

Questions Abound Ahead Of Merrimack Encounter

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (Sept. 27 BGA) – No guarantee who will start at quarterback. A dangerous running back. A potential game-breaking wide receiver who may or not play because of injury. A dominant defensive lineman. 

The 1-3 Merrimack team Dartmouth faces Saturday has some real similarities to the team it easily dispatched a week ago. But this game differs in one significant aspect.

The Big Green’s 45-13 win over struggling Fordham last Saturday came on Memorial Field. This game won’t just be Dartmouth’s first on the road, but it will be Homecoming for the Warriors and like Sacred Heart – which stunned the Big Green two years ago before a boisterous crowd of alumni – Merrimack apparently does Homecoming right.

Consider: Although it has a capacity of just 3,500, last year 13,647 were shoehorned into Duane Stadium for Homecoming. That’s almost 5,000 more fans than the Warriors had for their other four home games combined and they were rewarded with a win over Stonehill.

Two years ago Merrimack drew 12,622 for the Homecoming win over LIU and the year before it was 12,147 turning out for Duquesne. So while their football history goes back only to 1996 and they were Division II until 2019, rest assured the Warriors will have plenty of support against the Big Green.

Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle is well aware what that can mean.

No one has to remind him what happened two years ago when an SRO crowd of 5,569 cheered Sacred Heart on to a 38-31 overtime win against the Big Green in Fairfield.

“We can only control what we can control,” McCorkle said in advance of the Merrimack game. “It’s at their stadium and it’s their Homecoming, but we can’t allow the Homecoming part or anything else to get in our heads.

“You definitely want to start well,” he continued. “You want to match their intensity. You want to match their energy. They are a very good football team and we have to be ready to play.”

To be fair, Merrimack – playing an independent schedule this fall after leaving the Northeast Conference along with Sacred Heart – is off to just a 1-3 start. The Warriors were impressive in a 21-6 loss at Air Force on Aug. 31, and were seriously unimpressive in their second FBS game at Connecticut a week later, losing 63-17. They got on the right track with a 31-21 win at Bucknell of the Patriot League before falling to Maine, 26-15, before a rain-soaked 2,547 at Duane Stadium a week ago.

McCorkle put Merrimack’s early results in perspective.

“They were toe-to-toe with Air Force,” he said. “I just think that UConn got it rolling against them early with some big plays and ended up getting good field position all the time because (Merrimack) was scrambling. It was a tough start for them, but that's not who they are.”

Who they are, he stressed, is a team not that unlike his own.

“Offensively they are pretty similar to us,” he said. “They do a lot of things. They've got some threats. They've got guys. Their running back, he's legit. He does a very good job. He's got good vision. He's got good acceleration, good burst. He's dangerous.”

The player McCorkle references is running back Jermaine Corbett, a 5-foot-9, 195-pound transfer from Stonehill who is averaging 102 yards per game and 7.3 yards per carry this fall. He ran for 103 yards on 14 carries against UConn, averaging 7.4 per. He also averaged 7.4 against Air Force with 59 yards on eight runs. In the win at Bucknell he finished with 166 yards on 19 carries.

While McCorkle has been impressed by what he’s seen of the Merrimack offensive line – “They are big, athletic guys who moved their feet well,” he said – the Warriors have huge questions at wide receiver and quarterback because of injury.

Although 5-9, 180 wide receiver Donovan Wadley has just 93 yards on receptions this fall the speedster is capable of breaking a game open as a returner. He led the nation with a whopping 37.9-yard average on 17 kickoff returns last year with touchdowns of 95, 94 and 90 yards. He also had an 83-yard touchdown reception and a 45-yard touchdown run. He left last week’s loss to Maine with an injury and while he’s questionable for Dartmouth, the Big Green is wary of him.

“He’s the returning (offensive) player of the year in their (former) league,” said McCorkle. “He’s definitely a threat with the ball in his hands and we have to know where he is at all times.”

Who will throw him the ball is the question of the day. The talk out of North Andover before the season was that either Gavin McCusker or Malakai Anthony would start at quarterback, with Anthony getting the nod against Air Force. McCusker came in to start the second drive of that game, was hurt on his first play and hasn’t seen the field since. Auburn, N.H.’s Ayden Pereira, a sophomore transfer from Maine, was behind center for much of the second half against UConn before giving way to Justin Lewis, who finished the game.

Pereira has played the last two games, throwing for 147 yards on 11-of-15 accuracy in the lone win over Bucknell. On the season he's completing just 47.7 percent of his attempts for 212 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Lewis has completed 73.7 percent of his throws for 165 yards, but with two interceptions to one touchdown.

“I have no idea who will play so we have to be ready for whoever they put in the game,” said McCorkle with a shrug.

Defensively, the player to watch is Nicholas Lenon, a 6-2, 250 sixth-year pro prospect who has 40 tackles for loss and 21.5 career sacks for the Warriors. He has six sacks this year. In addition to production from the defensive line, safety Donte Williams has a team-high 23 tackles with two forced fumbles and an interception.

“They fly around and knock the heck out of you,” said McCorkle of the Merrimack defense. “They're very physical and violent.They’ve got a bunch of guys up front who can play. At every level, they've got guys who can run around. They play with a lot of energy and we've got to match that energy, that's going to be the big part.”

On special teams Lliam Davis, a senior kicker out of Johannesburg, South Africa, has made 22-of-29 field goals in his career with a long of 46. Cole Peterson averaged 40.9 yards per punt.

Among the keys to success, according to McCorkle are cleaning up two of the few things that needed cleaning up after Fordham.

“I think the penalties, that's a big thing,” he said after Dartmouth was flagged eight times for 60 yards a week ago. “A couple of them were just being aggressive, which is normal. Guys are jazzed up, ready to play.

“And obviously, when other guys get in the game, we've got to keep that tempo going. We can't have a lull because we put different guys out there for different matchups. Energy has to say the same the whole time. Overall we did that, but there were a couple of times when we've got  a little relaxed, and we can't do that.”

The Optimist-The Pessimist Return

HANOVER (Sept. 24 BGA) – Much to the chagrin of some readers and to the reading pleasure of others, the guys have made the move from BGA Premium to BGA Overtime.

You know who we’re talking about. The one you love and the one you love to hate. They are – drum roll please – The Optimist and The Pessimist.

For those of you who are new to this electronic precinct, here’s how they introduced themselves last year. As your moderator, I don’t think I could improve on what they have to say, so without further ado:

The Optimist: I guess I’ll go first. I’m a huge believer in the Dartmouth football program and as the name implies, I see the glass as half full. OK, that's not quite right. I see it as completely full. Over the top as the other guy would probably describe it. Even when my friend is getting a little snarky, I try to maintain civility no matter what cheap shots he takes knocking the team I love. My hope is to point out the absolute best outcomes possible.

The Pessimist: The name says it all. I’m all about pointing out that even in those times when the glass is half full whatever is in it must be undrinkable. You aren’t supposed to take what I say to the bank, but maybe to the local 7-11. I’m occasionally funny and I know I’m a little rude but hope you don’t take it personally. My only guard rail is this: I'll never say anything nasty about a player or a coach. True story, there was a woman a few years back who threatened to take out a hit on me. As for the snarky part?  Snark is my middle name.

The Optimist: Welcome back and what a return to Memorial Field. I mean, we dominated our opener in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams. And don’t forget, those guys were widely regarded as a strong contender to win the Patriot League this fall.

The Pessimist: Where do I start? You do realize that Fordham was without the starting quarterback who was on the watchlist for the national offensive player of the year and without its 1,000-yard rusher, its top wide receiver and its biggest offensive lineman, right? And without the linebacker who came into the season with more career tackles than any active player in the country. I mean, as one of our readers asked, How would Dartmouth have looked without Jackson Proctor, Q Jones, Delby Lemieux and Josiah Green?

The Optimist: Better than we let Fordham look. Like I said, that’s a team picked to challenge for the Patriot League title.

The Pessimist: Glad you mentioned that. Do you know who was picked to repeat as the Patriot League champion?

The Optimist: Lafayette.

The Pessimist: And you know how the preseason Patriot League favorite fared on Saturday?

The Optimist: They lost.

The Pessimist: You left out one detail. They lost to Columbia, picked last in the Ivy League. That’s right. The least-respected team in the Ivy League beat the most-respected team in the Patriot League. If you are going to make some noise you better have won that game.

The Optimist: I’m not a fan of you speaking in italics. I just really like the way QB Jackson Proctor ran the team, how our running backs ran wild and how our receivers ran free. And our defense pretty much ran Fordham off the field.

The Pessimist: That’s a lot of running so let me run something by you. All that came against an 0-4 team that was hammered by Central Connecticut, 33-3, and a week later lost to Stony Brook, a team that was coming off an 0-10 season.

The Optimist: With Fordham behind us we’ve got our final warmup for Ivy League play this week at another struggling team, 1-3 Merrimack. That’s just what we need before entering Ancient Eight play.

The Pessimist: You do know the Big Ten is 60 years older than your Ancient Eight, right? As Casey Stengel famously said, You could look it up.

The Optimist: Yeah well, the point remains. Merrimack should be another good warmup.

The Pessimist: For the record, one of Merrimack’s losses was by just 21-6 against FBS Air Force, and on Saturday Maine needed 13 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 26-15 win over Merrimack, whose nickname really should be the Monitors.  

The Optimist: I see what you did there. For the record,  you conveniently forgot to mention Merrimack’s other loss so I’ll share it with you. Let’s see, oh yeah. They lost to UConn, 63-17.

The Pessimist: I’ll grant you this. You’ll have a lot easier time Saturday than you would have had if a schedule change hadn’t condemned you to play in front of a friends-and-family crowd a cozy little Duane Stadium instead of up at historic Michie Stadium.

The Optimist: Trust me, I wasn’t happy about Army punting us. I still remember Craig Saltzgaber booting four first-half field goals the last time we played at West Point back in 1983 when we lost just 13-12.

The Pessimist: Ditto. By the way, any idea what Merrimack’s real nickname is?

The Optimist: Warriors. And after we take care of them we have the Quakers. Interesting juxtaposition of team names, huh?

The Pessimist: Hadn’t thought of that but yeah.

The Optimist: Speaking of the Quakers, they blew a lead 22-21 lead Saturday against Delaware to drop their opener.

The Pessimist: What you fail to mention is the game was at Delaware in front of a hostile crowd of 17,848. And that Delaware is undefeated at 3-0. And that because the Blue Hens are moving up to the FBS they aren’t ranked in the main polls but computer rankings have them as high as No. 1 in the country. Oh yeah, and the homestanding Blue Hens needed a TD with 1:44 left to survive the team you’ll face in your Ivy League opener.

The Optimist: After Penn we’ve got Yale, Central Connecticut and Columbia. I’ll grant you the Bulldogs won’t be a pushover, but it will be smooth sailing after that.

The Pessimist: Yale beat Holy Cross last week and the other two had very impressive games. Central Connecticut had FBS UMass on the ropes until the final minutes and we’ve already talked about Columbia knocking off Lafayette.

The Optimist: We’ve got Harvard after Columbia and you know we’ll be ready for them on Dartmouth Night Weekend. Princeton looked terrible losing to Lehigh and then we get woeful Cornell, which also lost last weekend. We couldn’t ask for a better way to end the season than the Tussle Against little sister Brown.

The Pessimist: That’s a lot to unpack. Granted, Stetson wasn’t much of a test but Harvard is my pick for Ivy League champion. Neither Princeton nor Cornell was very impressive but Princeton is still Princeton and Central New Jersey and Ithaca, N.Y., mean two long bus trips in as many weeks. As for Brown, please note they won their opener. On the road, no less.

The Optimist: Two can play that game. Please note that the opponent Brown beat was that noted Patriot League powerhouse Georgetown, picked to finish fifth of seven teams in the struggling PL. And oh by the way, defense still seems to be a dirty word for the Bears. They surrendered 402 yards to the Hoyas.

The Pessimist: We’ve got eight games before the Tussle with Brown so this is as good a place as any to leave it. I’ll see you next week, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel just a different web address. Not sure what BGA Overtime is but it has a nice ring to it.

The Six-Pack After Fordham

Paxton Scott with the first of his six catches for 121 yards in this screen grab from ESPN+

HANOVER (Sept. 23 BGA) – Here’s your Week 1 Six Pack of Observations from Dartmouth’s 45-13 win over Fordham in this year’s season-opener:

1) For openers, this was the running back-heavy offense coach Sammy McCorkle said he wanted to use. Although Jackson Proctor is a gifted runner, the quarterback carried just four times for 22 yards, a far cry from a year ago when QB Nick Howard led the team with 138 attempts, 11 more than Q Jones and 80 more than Tevita Moimoi. Against Fordham, Jones had 16 carries, one shy of his career high despite playing just three quarters. DJ Crowther mixed in nine carries. While Proctor had nothing to prove as a runner after posting runs of 78 and 64 yards the past two seasons, soph Grayson Saunier showed he’s a quarterback with a pretty good set of wheels by reeling off a 30-yard TD run.

2) Proctor was a solid 14-of-18 for 185 yards and two touchdowns. In the final preseason scrimmage of camp his composure behind center was obvious and nothing changed in the opener. While Fordham certainly had its share of blown coverages, it was up to Proctor to find them and put the ball on his receivers and that’s exactly what he did. He didn't at all look like a quarterback beginning his first season as the clear-cut starter. He’d certainly like to take back the interception he suffered on the ball he threw at the end of the first half toward Chris Corbo, but at worst the 6-foot-5 tight end probably makes that a 70/30 ball instead of 50/50. 

3) With a year under his belt, special teams coordinator Joe Castellitto is making things interesting, never more than in the third quarter of the opener. With Fordham receiving the ball to start the second half, Dartmouth chose to try to capitalize on a weakness Castellitto saw on video, trying an onside kick. Although the Rams recovered, the strategy demonstrated both McCorkle’s faith in the coach who succeeded him as special teams leader, as well as a willingness to take chances. Castelllitto had to be smiling several minutes later when Jordan Washington not only blocked the field goal attempt after Fordham’s drive bogged down, but returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.

4) It was great to see Paxton Scott have a breakout game with six catches for 121 yards. The fifth-year senior has been capable of that kind of output since his first season but since the graduation of Derek Kyler ’21 Dartmouth’s passing yardage has gone down each year. That could change this fall with Proctor settling in and if it does, Scott will be a big part of the equation. With his six catches, Scott passed Ryan Fuselier, David Shula, Timmy McManus, Victor Williams and Jack Daly to move into fifth place on the all-time Big Green list for career catches. He needs two more grabs to move ahead of Craig Morton and into the top five in Dartmouth annals. While Jay Barnard's school record of 216 catches is probably out of reach, Scott can move into second place with 55 catches this fall. For context, he had 51 a year ago.

5) Not to be outdone, the Dartmouth defense allowed the Rams 42 yards of total offense until their final drive of the first half. They had just 84 yards of total offense before the drive that finally got them on the scoreboard midway through the third quarter. A 80-yard drive midway through the final period when Dartmouth was substituting liberally allowed the visitors to run their total offense number up to 257 yards (70 rushing, 187 passing) ,but the Big Green defense on this day looked as if it hadn’t lost a step from a year ago.

6) To be sure, Fordham was a decimated team coming in without its star quarterback, star running back, top receiver and All-America linebacker. But the Rams were supposed to be a strong contender for the Patriot League championship and Dartmouth did not let them look like that on Saturday. Beyond the final score, anyone watching saw a clear difference in speed and athleticism between the two teams.

And just because . . .

7) Sorry, but I just can’t give the nod to the black pants with green shirts.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Linebacker Josiah Green and nickels Cam Best-Alston and Tyson Grimm each had a team-high four tackles for the Big Green, with seven others registering three stops each. Linebacker Cameron Lee was credited with two sacks while Green and linebacker Danny Cronin each had one. Lee and Cronin each had two stops for a loss.

Patrick Campbell had two pass breakups, with Lee and Jordan Washington each having one.

The Big Green had eight players credited with rushes with Q Jones (17-for-86 without a loss) and DJ Crowther (nine for 79) leading the way. In addition to Paxton Scott’s six catches for 121 yards, tight end Chris Corbo caught three balls for 27 yards. Crowther showed his hands while catching three, but being taken down behind the line he finished with negative yardage.

Davis Golick recovered from an early 26-yard effort to average 41.2 yards on five punts. Placekicker Owen Zalc, limited in the preseason because of injury, was perfect on extra points and booted a 40-yard field goal in his only attempt. Matisse Weaver handled the kickoffs with two touchbacks.

Both teams finished with 18 first downs. … On the down side, Dartmouth had eight penalties for 60 yards. … The Big Green did not return a kickoff (although to be fair, Fordham kicked off just three times).

THEY SAID IT
(Lightly edited for clarity)
Fordham coach Joe Conlin: “Offensively and defensively credit to Dartmouth. From being in this league, I know their staff. They do a good job and they executed in the first half. We just allowed those two long runs in the second half. We should have been in a decent spot. We’ve just got to figure out a way to clean things up moving forward.”

Conlin on playing a Dartmouth team he hadn’t seen on video yet this fall: 
“It's the same staff basically as last year, and they weren't a big departure from what they were last year. So we felt good about understanding who they were going to be. The DC (defensive coordinator Don Dobes) has been more or less the same guy for decades. And offensively, they're a little bit of a departure from when I was in the league, about seven years ago, so there's going to be an evolution there. But they stayed pretty true to what they were. We just we weren't good enough with our eyes on defense.”

Dartmouth quarterback Jackson Proctor: “The offensive line played great. The receivers caught the ball. Q had a really good game. Prepping up throughout this game, throughout the week, I think we did a really good job, and I think that's a testimony to the team we have.”

Big Green tailback Q Jones on what he saw: “A lot of holes, and my job is just to hit those. My tight ends and O-linemen handled their business up front, and to repay them I try to get touchdowns. I try to get first downs because it's just a testament to all their hard work.”

Dartmouth defensive lineman Josiah Green on Fordham’s difficulty protecting the quarterback this year: “We watch a lot of tape (as a) D-line, linebackers and secondary. We knew that their O-line wasn't a strong point of their offense, so we wanted to make sure that we broke them down as much as possible and took advantage of the weak points. Every team has one, and we were able to capitalize off of that.”

Josiah Green on his sack: “A couple of plays earlier I missed him, so I bet my teammates that I was going to get him next time, and I got him. It's just pursuit. Coach (Aashon Larkins) talks about pursuit all day, every day. Angles beat speed, any day of the week. So I knew I messed up the play earlier. I took a better angle, and he got the worst of that.”

Sammy McCorkle on Paxton Scott: “He's a gamer. He does a great job of really knowing the coverages and finding space and putting himself in an open space. Obviously, Proc did a great job of finding him and those were critical big plays for us, especially on third down. He's just a veteran, and he really understands the game. And he does a heck of a job preparing for a game each week.”

McCorkle on the onside kick decision: “Coach Cass has done a phenomenal job scheming opponents.We knew that we can make big plays on special teams, and those are big. Obviously we took a chance to start the second half. We saw it on film. We felt like we had an opportunity. We just didn't quite kick it where we wanted it.”

McCorkle on the field goal block and return for a TD: “I think I about pulled a hamstring running down the sideline. I was racing the ref. I think I had him by a couple strides…. I’m a special teams guy deep down, so you get excited and pumped up for stuff like that.”

McCorkle on what he saw from Proctor: “His composure. Really understanding. We talked about it all preseason. And just making sure to take what the defense gives you. You don't have to go out there and create magic.

“And the good thing about it, he's a skilled-enough guy that he can go make plays. But he has trust and the faith in everybody around him to know to know that hey, if the play's not there, we've got to live another down. Give ourselves an opportunity offensively to do that.

“It helps having a stingy defense like that out there. Knowing as an offense if you've got to punt after three downs or six downs, that's OK. We'll punt it. And if the defense forces a three-and-out, you actually end up having a better field position.That's the kind of mindset we want them to have. You don't have to try to make up for it in one play.”