One Final Six Pack, Then Over And Out
BGA (Nov. 25) – This is the final edition of the Big Green Alert Six-Pack. Enjoy!
1) I had to laugh every time I read or heard someone pigeon-hole Jackson Proctor as Dartmouth’s “throwing” quarterback. Now, he's obviously a terrific passer. Unless I am mistaken, his 70.3 career completion percentage breaks Derek Kyler’s school record of 69.3 percent. But as Proctor proved against in Saturday’s win over Brown by running for 171 yards and three touchdowns on just 13 carries, he’s also dangerous with his feet. Just check the stats. As a sophomore he had a run of 64 yards. Last year he had a long of 78 yards and on Saturday he had a touchdown run of 75. The "throwing QB?" Yup, and a pretty fair "running QB."
2) It was painful to see wide receiver Paxton Scott in uniform for his senior day but unable to play because of the foot injury that kept him out the final four games of his terrific career. But to Dartmouth’s credit, the Big Green’s pass catchers picked up the slack in his absence late in the season. Against Brown it was Grayson O’Bara having a breakout game with four catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns. A week earlier at Cornell it was Daniel Haughton with six catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Chris Corbo had eight catches against Princeton and finished the year with seven touchdown passes. The good news for Dartmouth? All three return next season along with Grayson Saunier, who showed he’s so much more than the “running” quarterback by completing 63.5 percent of his throws with with five touchdowns and one interception. There's a lot to build on.
3) With a potential Ivy League championship on the line, it had to surely be a relief to those in the stands and watching on ESPN+ Saturday that the biggest worry as the game wore on was what was happening in Cambridge rather than in Hanover. That, of course, in a year when Dartmouth won consecutive nailbiters by 2, 3, 1, 4 and 3 points. For the mathematically challenged, that fiveweeks by a total of 13 points. Interestingly, the two breathers on the season came in the first and last games, a 32-point win over Fordham and the 28-point win over Brown.
4) The Harvard Crimson “broke” a story earlier this fall that the Ivy League is going to once again consider allowing its football teams to participate in the FCS playoffs. As it turns out Jackson Proctor has been part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee push to get the initiative before the Ivy League presidents. It was confirmed Monday that the school presidents, who have the final say, will consider the issue next month. There presidents have shot the idea down in the past so there are no guarantees, but the anticipation is that Dartmouth president Sian Beilock will vote in the affirmative.
Harvard and Yale have long been stumbling blocks, arguing that nothing should supersede The Game. But you have to wonder if Harvard might now appreciate the value of being able to erase the bitter taste of back-to-back losses to Yale by playing again the next week. As for Yale, the Bulldogs might have been the best team in the league down the stretch, and if they’d been able to get in the mix a postseason game would be an opportunity to prove it. All that said, while this may be the best chance we’ve seen for the Ivy presidents to finally do the right thing, it will be an upset if the the players, coaches and athletic directors get what they want.
5) If the Ivy League were to send a team to the playoffs this year, which of the three champions would it be? Harvard would certainly have the inside track, having posted wins over fellow tri-champions Dartmouth and Columbia. But the Crimson did lose their final game, and its loss at Brown was a real blemish. The Big Green could make the case that it finished the same 8-2 as Harvard with a smashing victory in its final game, but going 2-2 down the stretch with a bad loss at Cornell wouldn’t help. Columbia went 3-1 in its final four, was the only one of the three to win its final two games, and is the only one of the champions not to lose to a team that finished down in the standings.
It’s unlikely, but perhaps possible that some year the Ivies could get two teams in the field. That would have been a tough pill to swallow for the one team left out this fall. Don’t be surprised should the president relent if they include a proviso that just one team can move on. If that's the case, I wish them luck designing the tiebreakers and suggest they keep their phones off the hook on selection Sunday.
6) For years there was no love lost between Dartmouth and Yale. That has changed in a big way the past two seasons. Last year the Big Green needed the Bulldogs to beat Harvard to earn a share of the Ivy League title and coach Tony Reno’s bunch came through. This year Dartmouth needed Yale to cough up a huge fourth-quarter lead down in New Haven (which they did), then to mess up a two-point conversion in overtime (which they did), and finally to beat Harvard with nothing more than pride on the line (which they did). Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle said it best after Saturday’s game: “I guess I owe Tony Reno a steak dinner in New York.”
And that bonus that always seems to show up . . .
7) Whether you share the Ivy League title with one other team or with two, it’s of little difference. That being the case, I will admit I was rooting hard for Columbia Saturday afternoon to win its first Ivy championship since 1961. Could it be an omen for Dartmouth men’s basketball, which hasn’t won an Ivy League title since 1959?
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Danny Cronin led Dartmouth with nine tackles Saturday. Micah Green had seven with a sack and Jordan Washington had five tackles, four breakups and the 58-yard “pick six” interception.
Jackson Proctor’s 75-yard run helped him average 13.2 yards per carry. Q Jones added 64 yards on 12 runs for a solid 5.3-yard average.
Easy to overlook with Grayson O’Bara’s big game was Painter Richards-Baker catching four passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, and Daniel Haughton making five grabs for 62 yards.
Davis Golick had another solid day punting with two kicks for a a 46.0 average. And for the second game in a row, Owen Zalc was not called on to try a field goal. That after having a three-pointer in 17 consecutive games before being shut out at Cornell. He was perfect on PATs against Brown, going 8-for-8.
Dartmouth had just a 24-23 advantage in first downs, a sometimes meaningless statistic. The home team was just 2-for-9 on third-down conversions while the visitors were 6-of-15.
The Big Green finished with 552 yards of total offense, a season-high by more than 100 yards, and a figure 200-plus yards over its season average coming in. Brown had 427 yards of offense, with 361 in the air to 308 for the Green.
Dartmouth had 244 of its yards on the ground, second this fall only to the 271 it had at Columbia. The Brown ground came managed just 67 yards on 27 carries.
Starting with the final series of the first half, Dartmouth drives went touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown and touchdown in succession. The Big Green had five drives of 73-or-more yards, one of 65 yards and one of 60.
THEY SAID IT
(Gently edited for clarity)
Brown coach James Perry (in the Brown Daily Herald): “They are a terrific team. They won the Ivy League Championship for a reason. Jackson played exceptionally well. He can run and he can pass, and he showed it.”
Wide receiver Grayson O’Bara on his 72-yard touchdown reception: “The first thing I think about when I get asked a question like that, is that that touchdown happened on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday multiple times. I mean, Proc and I connected on that all week in practice. The offensive staff had a great plan going into the game. I mean, we knew what we were going to get, and we lined up there, and it was exactly what we thought. The Saturday part's just the icing on the cake. I mean, that's a part that everybody gets to see, but all week long, we've repped that same route.”
Defensive lineman Ejeke Adele on the defensive line: “Up front, I think we've just done a great job all year of being relentless. All the guys around me, they want it more than any other group that I've ever been a part of, whether it's the linebackers, (Braden) Mullen, Josiah (Green), Derrell (Porter), whoever's in there. Cam Lee, too.All those guys, including myself, we all just want it more than everyone else, and we've done a really good job of effort. That's all it is. That's all pass rush is, is effort, and I'm really proud of the job that we've done as a unit, putting pressure on quarterbacks all year and helping us win games.”
Quarterback Jackson Proctor on not having a shot at the postseason: “Everybody wants to keep playing in the playoffs. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Student Athlete Leadership Council within the Ivy League to kind of get that idea posed to the presidents, and I think it's gone super far. Obviously there's a long ways for it to go, but hopefully in the future we can show people what we're all about. The Ivy League's got really good football players. Every year we can hang with the best, so, I mean, hopefully down the road we see that happen.”
Coach Sammy McCorkle on the playoff issue: “I’m a fan of it, but it's out of our hands. Proctor was part of the committee that talked about it and pushed it, and it's in the hands of the presidents now. We have no say-so on that, and we're kind of outside just watching. It would be great. I think it would be interesting, for sure.”
McCorkle on whether he would feel differently if Harvard had rallied to defeat Yale and the Big Green missed out on the title: “No, I'd still be just as proud as our guys. Our guys went out there and played their butts off today. They performed, and did what we had to do. No, it wouldn't have changed it at all. The way our team bounced back after last week's loss, to be able to come back and do what they did this week, shows a lot about their character as an entire football team.”
McCorkle: “It’s hard to find the words to say how proud you are of a group of guys that have just battled every week. They've done everything we've asked them to do ever since last season ended. You know, we said f you're ready to set the bar higher, we need to set it higher, but you better be ready to do what it takes. And not once did they question anything. Not once did they not give every ounce of energy to try to raise the bar.
“You know, it didn't go perfect all season. There were a couple times where we could have packed it in, we could have given up. … But we're built differently. I think just the tough times we've had to go through in the last few years (have) put us in a situation where we know we have to help each other, and I think that's the one thing that you could see in the way we played today.”
Corner Jordan Washington on how it felt to win the Ivy League title: “It's so beautiful. It's what life's all about, honestly. I love those guys, I love everyone on the team.”
McCorkle on the future for the Big Green: “We're going to keep the bar high, and our expectations are not going to change. There's not going to be complacency. We're going to enjoy this one. The guys worked hard. We're going to enjoy this (but) once it's over with, we've got to get ready to prepare ourselves going forward.
“I think we've got a lot of good young players. We graduate some good players that have done a lot for us and have won titles for us. But we also have a number of guys who are ready. It's their turn. They're excited and they're anxious to have their opportunity to go out there and perform.”
Editor’s Note: I owe a much-deserved thank you to head coach Sammy McCorkle who made sure to hustle over to talk with me each Thursday during game week, and patiently answered whatever inane questions I asked. I also appreciate the help I received during the year from Justin Lafleur of the sports publicity office. He had a lot on his plate this fall and always delivered. And as always, you wouldn't be reading this if Mrs. BGA wasn't such a good sport about sharing me with you. ;-)
That's it for BGA Overtime this year. It was a gamble taking down the paywall and stepping back from the seven-day-a-week grind. I wouldn't say it was a huge success on this end, but it probably did better than I had a right to expect. Huge thanks to those of you who stuck with me and supported the effort this fall, as well as the few newcomers who came on board.
Be sure to continue to check out the daily BGA site but don't look for anything this weekend. Unless the weather forces a change of plans, we'll be on the road out to Happy Valley Friday, joining 100,000-plus in Beaver Stadium Saturday, and won't be back until Sunday night.
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
