Spring At The Halfway Point
BGA (April 19) – Dartmouth is two weeks into its first spring with a new offensive coordinator, a new special teams coordinator, new cornerback, secondary, and wide receiver coaches, a familiar face in a new role as tight ends coach, and a new strength and conditioning coach.
With so many players finally getting to know their new coaches and so many coaches getting to know their players, Sammy McCorkle has to be second-guessing the decision he made to shut practice down for the next week, right?
Wrong.
After the sixth of 12 spring practices on Saturday, the head coach made it clear that the timing is perfect both for his staff, which will spend the week recruiting, and for his players, who can use the time to rest, recover, and review everything they’ve learned over the past two weeks.
It helps, of course, that the Big Green is pretty much on schedule with regard to where McCorkle hoped it would be at this juncture.
“I think we’re right about where I thought and hoped we would be,” he said after a lively session on Memorial Field. “Our first team guys are doing well, and the second and third groups are coming along. They are still making mistakes, but each day they are getting better.
“Obviously, you want everybody hitting on all cylinders, but that’s not realistic after only six practices. Not when you are putting a new offense in, and with little adjustments in special teams, and a lot of new people. You’re going to have a little bit of feeling your way through it. We keep telling guys to, 'Keep at it, keep going, and you’ll pick it up,' and they are. Health-wise, we’ve got a couple of dings here and there, but overall, we’re in good shape and where we need to be.”
Where the coaches need to be next week is on the road, joining staffs from the other Ivy League schools – most of which have already finished spring football – who have already been on the recruiting trail for a few days.
“We normally would have been out last week, because when April 15 hits, that’s the first day you can get on the road,” said McCorkle. “But with the school calendar starting a bit later, we had to put it back. But that’s OK.
“We have our target (recruits). We know who we are going after. Our coaching staff, and our recruiting department with Danny O’Dea and Erin Brennan, have done a phenomenal job. Our guys are equipped, ready to roll, and to really start building those relationships with the guys we have identified.”
Back in Hanover, the players won’t be going through drills, but the next week is important for them as well, according to McCorkle.
“It’s a good recovery week for them,” he said. “But recovery doesn’t mean you're just laying on a couch kicking your feet up. Recovery means taking care of yourself, making sure we get good rest, making sure we're eating right, having the right diet and nutrition, and at the same time letting (Strength coach Conor) McNally get you right.
“We won’t slow down at all in the weight room, but it’s a good time for our guys to recuperate body-wise, and also mentally. Especially the young guys whose heads are spinning a bit. The week gives them a chance to slow it down and rewind things. They can go back through it, watch some film, let the older guys walk them through it, and be really ready to go at it again the following week.”
YOUNGER PLAYERS DRAWING NOTICE
Asked for a handful of younger, less-proven players who have gotten his attention over the first two weeks of practice, McCorkle started in the running back room. (Classes listed are as of next fall.)
“I'd say (sophomore) Dylan Elder has done a really good job, and (soph) Colin O'Garro has done a really good job. Those two guys have come back ready this spring. They’re ready to compete. And with (Desmin Jackson) being hampered a little bit, they’ve gotten a lot more action.
“DJ (Crowther) is an older guy, but he’s really showing leadership in that room. He’s setting the bar high, and I think those guys are feeding off that and the job coach (Braxton) Chapman is doing.”
On the other side of the ball, (sophomore) linebacker Sean Chester has drawn notice.
“He’s done a great job,” said McCorkle. “Donnie Dobes has moved him from Sam linebacker to inside linebacker with a couple of guys a little banged up. He shows up all the time, and he's doing a heck of a job playing full speed there.
“And I think (soph) Thai Brown and (soph) Christian Harris, the last couple practices, have really shown in the secondary, flying around out there, doing a good job, playing with confidence.”
The final player to get a nod was soph quarterback Noah Trigueros.
“He’s getting a lot of reps, and you can just tell each practice he's getting a little bit more confidence,” said McCorkle. “And he’s understanding you've got to take charge out there. That's your offense.
“You can see that, especially today. I saw a little bit of a different swagger to him, a little different look to him. A little different command. And it's exciting to see that.”
COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Asked for a few lesser-known veteran players who are showing signs that they are coming of age, McCorkle never hesitated with the first name.
“(Senior right tackle) Vasean Washington,” he said. “I mean, he's a different person. And it's great to see him come and perform the way he's performing. And to see his confidence.
“He’s speaking up. He’s playing with energy. He has excitement. He's not holding back anymore, and I'm super excited to see the way he's playing. It helps us a lot at the offensive line position.”
On the other side of the line, senior Dakota Quiñonez is showing a lot of the same things.
“Dakota's played a lot for us in the past at D-line, but he's the guy now leading that crew,” said McCorkle. “He's done a very good job, and it’s good to see. (Senior D-lineman) Jabari Johnson is another one. He’s really stepped up this spring and is playing well.
“(Junior linebacker) Cam Lee is a guy who showed spurts of being a really good player last year, but he's playing with so much more discipline now, understanding his technique, and lining up in the right spots. If he continues to do that, he can be a very, very dangerous guy for us defensively.”
NEW RECEIVERS COACH
The search for a new receivers coach was still going on when practice started two weeks ago. It culminated with the hiring of Mitchell Thompson, previously the offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Division III Bates College. He was on Memorial Field running his new charges through their drills on Saturday.
“I've known him for a number of years,”McCorkle said. “He's worked our camps, and I have always thought highly of him. He’s a hard worker, a bright guy, a very good recruiter, and I’m super excited about getting him.
“I think he's going to fit in with no problem at all. Our entire football staff was very impressed by him during the interview process, and we're excited to have him join us.”
Thompson was a standout player at Washington & Lee before graduating in 2014. He spent seven years on staff at Amherst and coached one season at Oberlin before arriving at Bates.
AS FOR SPECIAL TEAMS
Running backs coach Braxton Chapman is officially the new special teams coach, taking over for Joe Castellitto, now at UMass. While McCorkle had strong words of praise for Chapman, he explained that the “teams” part of special teams should not be overlooked.
“We've all been involved with special teams,” he said. “I think that's the way it’s always been here. It's never been a one-man show. We've got a special teams coordinator title, but everybody helps. Everybody's involved.
“With Coach Chapman’s experience helping out last year, (the transition) was seamless. He's a very detailed guy. He sees the big picture and is an organized guy, and a good teacher, which is what you need on special teams. Especially when a lot of times on special teams you're going to be putting guys out there who haven't played much. He's done a very good job working on fundamentals first, and building from the ground up.”
HOW WAS PRACTICE, COACH?
McCorkle: “I thought Thursday’s practice, we kind of crept into it a little bit. Our best energy was the last 15 minutes of ‘team.’ You can't do that. You can't wait until the fourth quarter, because you might be too far behind the eight-ball to get back in the game.
“So that's what we talked about. Come out here from the get-go. Coaches, everybody, the whole staff, trainers, strength coaches, everybody that's affiliated with us, come out here, and it's be ready from the very get-go, and I saw that today.
“We had some mistakes, but the guys were flying around. I tell the young guy especially, you can make up for a lot if you're running around and flying around out there on the field. If you make a mistake and stop, you're not going to give yourself a chance.
“It was a good day. It was good competition. We had a bunch of recruits out here and the weather was almost 70 degrees, so the atmosphere was great, and the guys responded.
THE REST OF THE SPRING
McCorkle on what to expect when the players return to the field: “We've probably got about another week of install. Then we'll be pretty done with the installation part of it.
“I think the big thing for us then is to kind of see where guys are. See which guys start to separate themselves a little bit. See who has really improved, and will have a chance to help us next year.
“We need everybody, but I think that's where you're going to start to see it get really competitive, and see the best competition in that next week.”
Editor's Note: A special thank you to the Dartmouth football parents for your kindness and encouragement to keep BGA Overtime going for another year.
