Dartmouth-Fordham Notebook

HANOVER (Sept. 20 BGA) – When Dartmouth takes the field for Game One Saturday afternoon it will be going up against an opponent that not only has a game under its belt, but will be playing its fourth game of the season.

That’s nothing coach Sammy McCorkle hasn’t seen before.

“There's good to it and there's bad to it,” he said, starting with the challenge of playing at game speed for the first time this season.

“You try to simulate that as much as possible and practice, and we do a lot,” he explained. “We do a lot of team stuff. We do a lot of ones versus ones, twos versus twos.”

Added the second-year head coach: “We don't tackle to the ground … but we really challenge our guys. And we practice with high tempo in every phase that we do. It’s a high-tempo, getting back on the ball, getting to the next station, getting to the next drill mindset.”

All that is part of having a sense of urgency at all times in practice and on Saturday.

“It's hard to simulate that,” McCorkle said, “but we feel like if we're able to do that every single practice, we're getting as close as we can to a game situation. And we try to put our guys in the hardest situations, so they actually feel like when they get to the game, it slows down for them.”

While there are clear challenges in playing a team that has three games under its belt, there also are advantages like nothing having games for the opponent to scout as well as something else.

“It’s beneficial for us because we're pretty much healthy going into that first game,” McCorkle  said. “And also, we're anxious. We’re excited and we're ready to play that first game. 

“We’ve got to control we can control. We're their fourth game. There's nothing we can do about it, and it is what it is. We’re going to line up and we're going to come out and be ready to play when it's time when to kick off at 1 o'clock.”

FORDHAM COACH JOE CONLIN, a former Harvard and Yale assistant, on Dartmouth:

“They're very sound. They play hard, they're physical, they run to the ball well, all the things that the good defenses do.I played against them a lot, but obviously when I was at Yale and Harvard and their kids were always tough and well coached.

“So, we have to execute better. We’ve got to hold on to the football. We’ve got  to be able to get the ground game going consistently. And we have to be able to throw and catch and move the chains on third down. If we can do those things, we'll have success. But they're going to make you earn every inch.”

NOTES

Dartmouth is 4-1 all time against Fordham, with victories in each of the last four matchups. … The teams first met on Sept. 29, 1951 when the Rams won in Hanover, 14-6. The last meeting was once Oct. 11, 1997 when Dartmouth won in The Bronx, 31-10. … Dartmouth is 67-67-4 all-time against current members of the Patriot League. … The Big Green is 12-1 in its last 13 openers with the only loss coming last September at New Hampshire. … Fordham hasn’t played an Ivy League team since 2019 when it fell to Yale, 48-24.

Joe Conlin was named Fordham coach in December of 2017. He is 29-34 overall. He led the Rams to the 2022 FCS playoffs with a 9-3 record. … Conlin spent the 2011 season as offensive line coach at Harvard before moving on to Yale where he coached O-line in 2012 and ’13, and then served as assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from 2014-17. … He was defensive line coach at New Hampshire  from 2004-07. …. He was a defensive tackle at Penn before graduating in 2002.

Two freshmen appear on the Dartmouth depth chart. No’Koi Maddox is one of two players listed as possible backups at strong safety. Luke Armistead, who rugby punts, is listed on the top line of the punter role along with returner Davis Golick. … Wide receiver Paxton Scott and linebacker Danny Cronin are the only two fifth-year players on the Dartmouth two-deep.

Fordham’s Cooper LaFond, a 6-foot-7, 315-pound freshman, is listed as the starting right tackle. The Rams also have freshmen listed at backup linebacker, backup strong safety and second-team cornerback. Starting placekicker Bennett Henderson also is a freshman. … Fordham lists grad students on the first or second line at 11 positions on its depth chart.

There are three offensive linemen from Lagos, Nigeria on the two teams. Dartmouth features 6-5, 320 sophomore Godson Ajoku and 6-4, 298 freshman Anthony Ndika. Fordham has 6-4, 300 Tari Hart of Lagos. … Dartmouth also has two players from Germany (6-5, 305 senior offensive lineman Konstantin Spörk of Pulheim, and 6-3, 230 junior linebacker Nico Schwikal of Schönfeld) while Fordham has a defensive lineman from Australia, 6-3, 258 Jack Low of Brisbane.

Elsewhere in the Ivy League this weekend Princeton is at Lehigh, Harvard hosts Stetson and Columbia is home to Lafayette at noon. In addition to the action on Memorial Field, the 1 p.m. slate features Brown at Georgetown and Cornell at Colgate. Yale travels to Holy Cross for a 2 p.m. kickoff and Penn finishes off the slate with a 6 p.m. game at Delaware. All the games except for the last one are on ESPN+. … The Ivies were 5-3 on opening weekend a year ago.