Spring Notes
HANOVER – The Dartmouth players going through the second of the Ivy League’s permitted 12 spring practices this week will be joined late this summer by two dozen or so incoming freshmen, and together those two groups will make up the entire roster for the fall.
Or will they?
Probably, but that could change in future seasons with the potential for adding a player, or two or three after spring ball.
It was a year ago this month that the proposed House v. NCAA settlement all-but erased the 85-scholarship limit for FBS schools in favor of a firm 105-player cap of scholarship and walk-on players combined. Should the settlement be approved, FBS programs that might have traditionally carried 125 players during the season will see that number trimmed by 40 spots.
Given an anticipated free-for-all for scholarships among preferred walk-ons, so-called gray shirts and traditional redshirts before and during spring practices at the FBS level, the beneficiaries to the new roster limit could well be FCS schools.
Dartmouth hasn’t dipped into the transfer ranks much in recent years, but head coach Sammy McCorkle isn’t discounting the possibility of that changing somewhat given the expected change in the FBS ranks.
“Potentially, no doubt,” he said after Tuesday’s practice. “A lot of kids coming out of high school would roll the dice between taking a spot at an Ivy school or maybe going to a Stanford as a preferred walk-on and hoping to get a scholarship. Now there's not going to be as many roster spots for those guys.
“The schools are going to be making (roster) decisions every year. They may want to bring in 20 transfers, and that’s going to put them over the 105, so they are going to have to cut guys. That may allow us to get guys who don’t have as many options as they had in the past.”
Dartmouth’s last high-profile transfers were quarterbacks Jimmy Fitzgerald ’20, who came in from Illinois only to see his career ended by a knee injury before ever playing in a varsity game. And quarterback Jake Allen ’22, who saw limited action after redshirting one season at Florida.
The last transfers who made big impacts were Greg Smith ’97, a running back from Missouri, and Pete Oberle ’96, a running back from Colorado State. Together, they helped the Big Green to its last undefeated season with a 10-0 record in 1996.
SPEAKING OF WHICH
Several years ago, Dartmouth played an NEC team that added a half dozen – or more – transfers during the summer. Given the nature of college sports today, McCorkle expects that trend to continue.
Which is why the Central Connecticut team Dartmouth added to this year’s schedule in the winter may not look all that much like the one the Big Green snuck past last fall.
“The day of watching last season’s team and saying, ‘We’ve got a pretty good idea about those guys,’ is over,” he said. “They’ll be a completely different team next year.”
ABOUT THE NCAA’S
After another week of spring ball, the Big Green will take a week off while the coaches hit the road recruiting. Per McCorkle, the subject of the recent Ivy League ruling allowing its teams to compete in the postseason will surely come up.
“It already has,” he said. “Football guys want to play against the best in the playoffs, and like every Ivy school, we can tell them they’ll have the opportunity now to play for a national championship.
“But,” he went on, “our goal is to play for an Ivy championship every year. That’s our No. 1 goal. If you do win that, you’ll have the opportunity. The focus is the same for us as it has always been, and that’s the Ivy League championship. We’re going to take it one week at a time, and if we do that, the rest will take care of itself.”
ABOUT SCHEDULING
With the carrot of the NCAA playoffs looming, will Dartmouth look to schedule more competitive opponents than Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference teams in the future? Yes, and no, according to McCorkle.
“Potentially,” he said. “It’s hard because a lot of teams are locked into games, and there’s so many teams in some of the better conferences. Obviously, we’re going to look at it because it helps prepare you not just for the playoffs, but for in-conference games.
“But I thought the teams we played last year were good teams. Two of the three (Central Connecticut and Merrimack) went to the playoffs. They were tough teams with a lot of transfers, and if you get into the playoffs, that’s probably the kind of team that you are going to be playing. Solid teams full of transfers.”
ON PRO DAYS
McCorkle noted that while there wasn’t a Pro Day in Hanover this year, the preparation and training players get with the Big Green was on display when former defensive lineman Charles Looes at Rice and Shane Cokes at Colorado worked out in front of NFL scouts in recent weeks.
"That just goes to show you type of talent we have and the development that we do here,” McCorkle said. "We find our type of guys, we get them here, and they're the type of guys that are hungry, that want to get better. They want to go to that next level, and we help develop them. We push them and put them in a situation where they can get to that fifth year already polished and ready to go, with the potential to play at the next level in the NFL or CFL."
