Yale On Tap For The Big Green
BGA Oct. 11 – Tony Reno has been head coach at Yale since 2012 and in his first nine games against Dartmouth he had a 1-8 record. The lone win in those first nine meetings came when the Bulldogs intercepted a Jack Heneghan pass at the 3-yard line with 57 seconds left to preserve a 21-13 victory.
To their credit Yale and Reno have turned things around with wins over Dartmouth the past two season. But while the Bulldogs were able to claim consecutive series wins on the way to back-to-back Ivy League titles, both games deserve an asterisk.
In 2022 Dartmouth came into the Yale game ranked second in the country in rushing among FCS teams but played without hard-running quarterback Nick Howard, who had carried 48 times for 294 yards and four touchdowns over the previous two games. With Dartmouth missing its battering-ram QB a ground attack averaging 298 yards per game limped its way to just 20 yards – and still Yale barely escaped with a 24-21 win.
Given how much Howard had been worn down running the ball in 2022, Dartmouth planned to have him share the load last year with Dylan Cadwallader, who was breathing new life into the passing game early in the season. Cadwallader was completing 66 percent of his passes – including a 16-for-19 showing in a win over Lehigh in Week 2 – when he was knocked out of the Penn game a week before the showdown with Yale.
And so, for the second year in a row, Reno’s Yale team took on a Dartmouth team missing a key component behind center. With Jackson Proctor seeing his first significant action the Bulldogs went on to secure a 31-24 win, aided by four turnovers.
This year, for the first time since 2021, the Big Green will face Yale with its starting backfield intact. But even with the now-seasoned Proctor coming off a standout performance against Penn (24-for-31 for 232 yards and two touchdowns) and the run game humming (207 yards against the Quakers), Sammy McCorkle expects a stiff challenge from the 2-1 Bulldogs.
“They’re a good football team,” the Big Green coach said. “They’ve got players who do a very good job in all three phases.
“They're a physical team. They're a fast team. And we know we're going to have to be prepared.”
Yale, which outlasted Central Connecticut last week, 23-22, comes into the contest at 0-1 in the Ivy League thanks to a 47-23 loss at Cornell in which they didn’t have their starting quarterback. Grant Jordan, a senior who missed most of his first three seasons in New Haven with injury, won the starting job coming out of training camp only to be hurt in the first series of the Bulldogs’ opener against Holy Cross.
After sitting out the Cornell game he returned last week against Central Connecticut and did his best impression of dual-threat predecessor Nolan Grooms, the two-time Ivy League offensive player of the year.
Grant completed 16-of-31 throws for 146 yards and one touchdown while showing he can be dangerous with his legs, running seven times for 51 more yards and another touchdown.
Like Grooms, he has a special weapon in the backfield.
Leading the way on the ground for the Bulldogs last week was Josh Pitsenberger, the 2022 Ivy League rookie of the year. He carried 19 times for 127 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown burst. Despite missing the opener against Holy Cross, Pitsenberger leads the Bulldogs in rushing with 197 yards and three touchdowns this fall. He’s averaging 5.5 yards per attempt. Nathan Denney has carried a team-high 42 times for 130 yards, a 3.1-yard average.
Even with Mason Tipton now with the New Orleans Saints, Yale has a solid wide receiving crew. David Pantellis leads with way with 15 catches for 226 yards and one touchdown. Mason Shipp has 12 receptions for 150 yards and Chase Nenad has caught seven balls.
Standout tackle Kiran Amegadjie went to the Chicago Bears in the third round of the NFL draft last spring, but the Yale offensive line has continued to play well. Central Connecticut came into last week’s game leading the nation in sacks but was unable to get to the quarterback even one time at the Bowl. Yale has allowed just one sack all year, is converting a healthy 46.8 percent of its third-down opportunities, and is 11-for-12 scoring in the red zone. Nine of those scores have been touchdowns.
On the flip side, while the Yale pass defense has held opponents to 54 percent completions, the Bulldogs have surrendered 281.7 yards per game and seven touchdowns through the air. Cornell quarterback Jameson Wang had four touchdown passes against the Yale pass defense, which has been remarkably consistent. Holy Cross had 279 yards through the air against the Bulldogs, Cornell had 278 and Central Connecticut had 288.
Headlining a defense that has had difficulty defending against the pass downfield is free safety Abu Kamra, who has 28 solo stops – 15 more than anyone else on the team – and a team-high 33 tackles. Linebacker Dean Shaffer has 19 tackles, strong safety Osize Danyian has 17 and linebacker Inumidum Ay-Durojaiye has 15 with two tackles for loss. Corner Sean Guyton, who last year returned one of his two interceptions against Dartmouth 70 yards for a touchdown has three pass breakups this fall.
Doing the most damage behind the line of scrimmage is Dylan Yang with four tackles for loss.
Nick Conforti handles PAT/field goal and has made 3-of-5 kicks with a long of 40 yards. Joey Felton, who led the Ivies in kickoff returns last year is averaging 27.6 yards this fall with a long of 57.
Even sans two of last year’s standouts now in the NFL and the two-time Bushnell-winning quarterback, McCorkle expects a battle against Yale.
“It’s going to be a heck of a game,” he said. “They’re defending champions like we are.
“With the one loss in the league we know they’re going to come out ready to play and so we have to be not only physically ready to play, we got to be mentally ready to play as well.”
NOTES
Dartmouth is one of the final four FCS teams in the country without a loss. The Big Green is bidding for its first 5-0 start since 2021. That season ended with a 9-1 record marred only by a 19-0 loss to Columbia on Memorial Field. … Yale was the Ivy League media’s choice to win the title followed by Harvard and Penn. Dartmouth was picked fourth along with Princeton, which received one first-place vote.
Yale leads the all-time series with a 56-44-6 mark, but Dartmouth is ahead since the start of formal Ivy League play in 1956 with a slim 33-32-1 advantage. Since 1990 this has been a series of streaks with Dartmouth winning eight in a row from 1990-98, Yale winning nine straight from 2003-11, and the Big Green winning eight of nine from 2012-21.
The Big Green is still looking for its first Ivy League offensive or defensive player of the week although it has swept the special teams honors with defensive back Jordan Washington getting the nod after the opening win against Fordham and kicker Owen Zalc being the choice the past two weeks. Yale hasn’t had a POW yet this fall.
Paxton Scott moved into the Dartmouth all-time top-five for receptions with 10 catches last week, giving him 151 for his career. He’s on pace for 67 catches this fall and should he reach that mark he’ll finish the year with 198 catches, just ahead of NFL tight end Casey Cramer’s 185 and second only to Jay Barnard’s 216.
Scott is ninth in the country for receptions per game. … Owen Zalc is tied for second in the nation with two field goals made per game.
Sammy McCorkle’s career record as head coach in his second season at Dartmouth is 9-4 (.692). ... Tony Reno is 69-44 (.611) at Yale with Ivy League titles in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Reno’s son Dante is a 6-foot-2, 214-pound freshman quarterback at South Carolina who chose the Gamecocks over a host of offers including Michigan, Miami, Iowa, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech among others.
