The Optimist-The Pessimist After Central Connecticut

 Tired of waiting for the other guy, The Optimist is about to place his order when the door opens and The Pessimist ambles to their usual table.

The Optimist: After two wins over two playoff teams in two weeks I was starting to wonder if you were even going to show.

The Pessimist: Remember what the former women’s basketball coach said when she returned to Dartmouth after coaching at Fordham?

The Optimist: Remind me.

The Pessimist: She said the biggest difference between coaching in the Bronx and coaching in Hanover is, it’s easier to find parking in the Bronx.

The Optimist: That’s pretty funny. I guess we’ll find out about that in three weeks when we put a 4-0 record on the line at Fordham.

The Pessimist: You don’t waste any time, do you?

The Optimist: Back to my original point, two wins over two playoff teams. You can’t do much better than that.

The Pessimist: Actually, you can. Both of those games came down to the final minute, and in games like that it’s really a tossup. Yes you won them both, but it’s not like you dominated either game. You could be 0-2 just as easily as 2-0.

The Optimist: If you’ve been reading that BGA guy’s stuff, you would know better. Under Sammy McCorkle the Big Green is 9-2 in one-possession games, and 6-1 in games decided by a field goal or less. So beating two playoff teams in close  games that go down to the wire is par for the course.

The Pessimist: I won’t dispute that the record in close games is really good. What I will dispute is that you beat two playoff teams.

The Optimist: You are kidding, right? New Hampshire and Central Connecticut both advanced to the FCS playoffs last year.

The Pessimist: They were playoff teams last year. As the mutual fund people say in the fine print, “Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.” 

 

The Optimist: I never knew you were a money guy, but I digress. We’ll start with New Hampshire. Take away their FBS loss and their loss to us and they are 3-0. Take away last week's result against us and Central Connecticut is 2-1, the only loss coming on the last play of their game one week before we played them. I dare say we’ve shown our chops against a couple of pretty good teams.

The Pessimist: I dare say? Whatever. You’ve got a couple more tough opponents this week and next. You might not know it by the score, but Penn-Lehigh last week was a battle. Keep in mind Lehigh – which unlike New Hampshire and Central Connecticut actually won a playoff game last year – is 5-0 and ranked eighth in the nation this year by the FCS coaches.

The Optimist: You did happen to see Penn lost that game, 44-30, right?

The Pessimist: You did happen to see the game was at Lehigh, and that it was a one-possession contest until the final minute, right?

The Optimist: The bottom line is Penn lost that game against a playoff team, and we actually won our game against a playoff team.

The Pessimist: Yes, you beat Central Connecticut. But their quarterback completed 25-of-33 passes, which translates to a 75.8 percent completion rate and means trouble for you.

The Optimist: Seriously? The guy threw for only 223 yards so his completion rate was no big deal.

The Pessimist: It actually is a big deal and I’ll tell you why. The Central Connecticut quarterback came into the game completing 50.5 percent of his passes this fall. He hit 51.1 percent last year and 48.7 percent the previous two seasons. Given those kinds of numbers, he might have enjoyed the game of his life against your defense. One of the least accurate passers in the country looked like an All-American against your defense. What's going to happen when you play an accurate QB?

The Optimist: Not concerned. Penn had a quarterback last year who some people thought could be the best in the Ivy League, and we held him to 11-of-27 passing for 123 yards. It ought to tell you something that the kid we see this week lost the starting role last year to a guy who could complete just 40.7 percent of his attempts against us.

The Pessimist: Actually, this year’s starter took over the job midway through last season. All he did at Lehigh the other day was go 28-for-37 for 316 yards and three touchdowns. That’s 75.7 percent passing. Trust me, your pass defense, which last week struggled against a 50-percent passer, is in for a test down in Philly on Saturday. While we're at it, you won’t have just one talented receiver to deal with. Against Lehigh, the Quakers had one guy catch 12 balls for 141 yards and two touchdowns, and another guy had 10 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.

The Optimist: Blah, blah, blah. Now tell me how Penn did running the ball. Speaking of which, how was the Penn run defense?

The Pessimist: You wouldn’t ask if you didn’t know, so you tell me.

The Optimist: Gladly, against Lehigh last week Penn ran for . . . drum roll please . . . all of 29 yards. Twenty-nine. And how did the Lehigh ground game perform? They ran through, over and around the Penn defense for 300 yards. They also passed for 239 yards, with one kid catching eight balls for 132 yards. Add it up and the Quakers gave up 539 yards of total offense.

The Pessimist: I'll admit those are some big numbers, but keep in mind Penn held the Lehigh quarterback to 15-of-31 passing against the Quaker secondary. That's some pretty good pass D.

The Optimist: Nice try. After we take care of Penn we’ve got a Yale team that is 2-0 after beating winless Holy Cross and winless Cornell. The Bulldogs haven’t played a road game yet, and we’ve got them here. I mean, hapless Cornell turned the ball over five times and still was down just three points with less than two minutes remaining against a Yale team living on reputation.

The Pessimist: They are 2-0 and have arguably the best running back in the Ivy League as well as a starting quarterback who transferred in from South Carolina. They are going to be a stiff test.

The Optimist: Then it’s on to winless Fordham.

The Pessimist: Not quite. Winless, I mean. Fordham beat Holy Cross on Saturday.

The Optimist: So they did. They absolutely crushed winless Holy Cross, 26-21. I'm shaking in my boots.

The Pessimist: Then you’ve got defending Ivy League co-champion Columbia, which is 1-1 after beating Georgetown last week.

The Optimist: Shouldn’t it be defending “tri-champion” Columbia? Sorry, but three champions cannot be co-champions. Now where were we? Oh yeah. Columbia’s win over Georgetown. Isn’t Georgetown the team that was beaten by Brown, 45-0, a week before? Why yes it is. As for the Lions' loss to Lafayette, it’s not looking very good after Lafayette lost to struggling Princeton last week.

The Pessimist: Kind of harsh to call a Princeton team that’s 1-1 struggling, but there you have it. While we're at it, I’ll tell you who’s not struggling. That’s Harvard, who you play after Columbia. They are 2-0 and have outscored their opponents, 100-14.

The Optimist: That’s quite a murderer’s row they’ve played. Stetson and Brown might be the cupcakeist opening two games in the country.

The Pessimist: Cupcakeist? I think you made that up, but it's pretty harsh.

The Optimist: It’s also pretty true. Then we have Princeton, which has been playing two quarterbacks. Remember the saying, if you have two No. 1 quarterbacks, you don’t have a No. 1 quarterback?

The Pessimist: Their two No. 1 quarterbacks beat a pretty good Lafayette team last time out.

The Optimist: Not that again. Then it’s on to winless Cornell. Nuff said.

The Pessimist: Hold on there, big fella. Cornell beat you last year, and is 3-3 in its last six with you. Nuff said.

The Optimist: Finally, we have Brown the last Saturday the season and let’s be serious. Not only do they not play defense, but they couldn’t do anything offensively against Harvard. Bad combination.

The Pessimist: I don’t know about Brown-Harvard. But I do know they shut out Georgetown. As for their offense, they put 46 up on the Hoyas. Maybe getting shutout by Harvard says more about the talented Crimson defense you face in a few weeks than it does about the Brown offense.

The Optimist: You had to work pretty hard this week, didn’t you?

The Pessimist: Yup. Catch you next week.

Your Mileage May Vary – Week Two

Here’s your weekly half dozen observations between the Central Connecticut and Penn games.

1) Grayson Saunier became just the fourth Dartmouth quarterback to surpass 400 passing yards in a game when he went 30-for-44 for 407 yards with two touchdowns and one interception last Saturday. It’s way too easy to overlook that this was just Saunier’s fourth game as the starter. The junior is completing 70.3 percent of his passes through the first two games. It’s still early, but the Big Green record for completion percentage in a season is 70.7 by Derek Kyler in 2021.

And in case you are wondering: other Dartmouth QBs who have topped 400 yards are Jack Heneghan ’18 (440), Dalyn Williams ’16 (435), Greg Smith ’02 (416 and 407), and Jay Fiedler  (419). 

2) Tailback DJ Crowther didn’t have as many yards as he did in the opener against New Hampshire, but he was even busier with 29 touches. He had 24 carries for 86 yards and two touchdowns, and caught five passes for 12 yards. Crowther is big and strong, but it’s a long season and that’s a lot of work for someone who takes a lot of hits. The Big Green needs to get another running back going. Desmin Jackson had five carries for 10 yards against Central Connecticut but was the only other tailback to get a carry. Through two games, Crowther has 44 carries for 238 yards. Jackson is next among the running backs with seven for 21.

3) Kickoff return yardage against Central Connecticut was telling. Dartmouth’s only return on five kickoffs was a 12-yarder by Luke Rives. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, returned five of six kickoffs, including several brought out of the end zone. Averaging a healthy 32.0 yards on five returns helped Central Connecticut start drives with better field position than Dartmouth. Coach Sammy McCorkle has been more aggressive in the return game than Buddy Teevens was, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.

4) Kudos to offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery and defensive coordinator Don Dobes this week. Again, it’s still wicked early in the season but through two games Dartmouth is converting 62.5 percent of its third down opportunities and limiting the opposition to 23.8 percent. The raw numbers: Dartmouth is 15-of-24 while the opposition is 5-of-21. That’s a significant difference. 

5) The Ivy League office likes to promote the Ancient Eight’s out-of-league record while much of the country that doesn’t think the Ivy League challenges itself goes tsk, tsk, tsk. When the Dartmouth program was trying to get back on track the schedule was definitely softened but as Craig Haley reminds us, the Big Green’s first two wins of the year came against teams that went to the FCS playoffs last year. Granted, Fordham is down, but at least the Rams got off the schneid Saturday with a win over Holy Cross. (Although to be fair, the Crusaders are now the winless ones.)

For some years there was thought to be an unspoken scheduling philosophy holding that Dartmouth’s three non-conference games would feature one good challenge, one 50/50ish game, and one pretty likely win. It would seem the opening two games both belong in the first bucket.

6) Sammy McCorkle wasn’t kidding when he said teams like Central Connecticut and Merrimack are better than many Ivy League fans realize. There was a time when the perception was those teams were stocked with players almost exclusively from the tri-state area who were just happy not to be playing in Division III. If that was ever the case it’s not like that anymore. Central Connecticut has players who hail from places like Texas, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. There are transfers from big-time programs like Virginia Tech and Syracuse, and a good number of junior college products. Likewise, there was a time when coaches in the Northeast Conference didn’t all have full staffs, and some of their assistants might be public school teachers by day. All of that has changed, which is why it’s a mistake to simply pencil in a win over schools like Central Connecticut and Merrimack. Consider this: Northeast Conference member LIU is 1-4 with losses to Sacred Heart and Stonehill. It’s only win? A 28-23 victory over FBS member Eastern Michigan.

And the bonus that you knew was coming:

7) This probably belongs higher up, but during camp I asked Sammy McCorkle about areas of concern heading into the 2025 season. He brought up both lines, and talked about the wide receiver group establishing itself. How are they doing so far? The O-line hasn’t given up a sack while the D-line has recorded five. Dartmouth has 13 “quarterback hurries” to date and the opponents have three. And through two games, the Big Green already has three receivers with double-figures in catches and that doesn't even count Ky'Dric Fisher, who caught the game-winning 50-yard touchdown pass Saturday. Check, check and check.

What They Did & What They Said After Central Connecticut

 NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – It wasn’t easy, and Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle didn’t expect it to be.

For the second straight week of this young season, and the second straight meeting with Central Connecticut, the Big Green has played with fire without getting burned.

“Our guys do a really good job of hanging in there, staying focused and locked in, and not panicking while continuing to do their stuff,” McCorkle said outside the boisterous locker room after the 35-28 win. “We knew this game was going to be a battle, and we need battles like this.”

They’ve had their share under McCorkle. Coming into this season he had 14 wins on his head coaching resumé at Darmouth, with exactly half of them decided by four or fewer points. He’s now 16-6 since taking over for Buddy Teevens, with six of the wins by a field goal or less. And he's 9-2 in one-possession games.

The only one-possession losses have been to Harvard: the Crimson held off the Big Green in 2023, 17-9, and came from behind to win in Hanover last year, 31-27.

“I mean, this is who we are,” McCorkle said of the latest close call. “We battle. We always keep fighting, and fighting, and fighting. You’ve got to play to the final whistle and that’s what we did again.”

That was no surprise to tight end Chris Corbo, who was confident on the final two possessions that his team would march down the field and finish the job.

“We’ve worked on those situations all throughout preseason, and in season now,” he said. “We knew once we got the ball with the chance to win it, we were well equipped to do it.”

Added the senior All-America: “We have a lot of things to fix, a lot of things to clean up. But the biggest thing we showed is the tenaciousness of this team, the will to fight and battle and not give up when plays go against us. Our grit and determination to keep going and win is really impressive to me.”

According to Zyion Freer-Brown, it is McCorkle who sets that tone.

“Coach tells us to keep our composure and act like you’ve been there before,” said the linebacker. “I trust the guys behind me. I trust all 11 guys on the defense. I trust everybody on the team. We know that we’ve got each other's back no matter what, so we're going to execute and do our jobs.”

Which is what quarterback Grayson Saunier – whose four career starts have all been one-possession wins – continues to do.

“Obviously we want to win in a different way,” he said. “We want to beat teams by two, three-plus scores. We have the ability to do that, however, that's not always how it's going to go. So we have to keep preparing for games like this.

“Now we just have put all three phases of the game together. I think if we play our best game in all three phases we'll be all right."

STATISICALLY SPEAKING

Saunier completed passes to eight receivers on his way to a career-high 407 yards on 30-of-44 passing (68.2 percent). Grayson O’Bara led the way with seven catches for 128 yards, including a 71-yarder. Corbo caught seven balls for 68 yards and a touchdown and Daniel Haughton had six grabs for 68 yards before leaving the game with an injury.

DJ Crowther had five catches for 21 yards to go with his 24 carries for 86 yards and two touchdowns on another busy day. Saunier ran three times for 21 yards and matched Crowther’s long of 16 yards.

Central Connecticut QB Brady Olson, a 50-percent passer coming in, completed 25-of-33 passes (75.8 percent) with three touchdowns in one of the best performances of his career. Dartmouth’s defense did a solid job limiting dangerous Central Connecticut running back Elijah Howard to 69 yards on 14 carries.

Nickel Tyson Grimm led the Dartmouth defense with eight tackles while linebacker Nico Schwikal had seven stops, with one for a loss, and a jarring pass breakup. Up front, Dakota Quiñonez had six tackles, a tackle for loss and a QB hurry. Zyion Freer-Brown had five tackles including a sack while adding a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery on the final play of the game. Cameron Best-Alston also had five stops. Linebacker Teddy Gianaris had four tackles including a sack, and was credited with four quarterback hurries.

Dartmouth piled up 31 first downs on its way to a 524-289 advantage in total offense. The Big Green ran 76 plays to the Blue Devils’ 61, and had a five minute advantage in time of possession.

The Ivy Leaguers finished 7-of-12 on third down to Central Connecticut’s 3-of-9, and posted four sacks along with 10 QB hurries. The Big Green offensive line did not allow a sack.

Dartmouth drives in order (plays/yards result): 6/39/interception; 4/75/TD; 7/69/lost fumble; 6/53/TD; 7/17/FG; 15/76/FG; 8/43/missed FG; 10/52/missed FG; 3/6/punt; 9/89/TD; 5/75/TD.

Central Connecticut drives in order (plays/yards result): 5/13/punt; 6/38/TD; 9/68/TD; 3/6/punt; 2/7/lost fumble; 5/12/punt; 3/-6/punt; 11/80/TD; 3/10/punt; 12/80/TD; 2/2/lost fumble.

THEY SAID IT

Central Connecticut coach Adam Lechtenberg (to the New Britain Herald): “We played a really good team and we made one too many mistakes. We gave them some opportunities to win the game and we didn't make enough plays. I was proud of our effort. We played hard in all phases, we executed in all phases."

Lechtenberg: “That's a team that's won four of the last five Ivy League championships, and they'll have a chance to win it again this year. So we played physical, we played hard, we just didn't play well enough.”

Dartmouth linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown: “They are a good team. They are a really sound team, so hats off to those guys. We knew they were going to give us everything they’ve got. We knew it was going to be a dogfight, but we’ve got dudes on this team.”

Dartmouth wide receiver Ky’Dric Fisher: “A lot of our games, even dating back to last year, are very close. For us to come out to win games like that shows that we're resilient. We don't back down. Winning games like this is a testament to the work we put in.”

Dartmouth tight end Chris Corbo: “We like to make it interesting. It was a game of turns. They made some plays, we made some plays, but we stayed level-headed.”

Corbo on what the Big Green takes out of the game as it heads to Philadelphia for its conference opener against Penn this week: ”We’re battle tested after two tough games. I think we’re ready to go and excited to get to Ivy League play. We know what the stakes are so we’re going to get to the film (Sunday), wipe it and get ready for Penn.”

Dartmouth offensive lineman Konstantin Spörk on the Dartmouth approach during the final drive: “We’re always confident we are going to make it. Especially this season we have great confidence in the offense, and it doesn’t feel like we are under pressure. We’re just doing what we are supposed to do and that’s working out for us. We’ll enjoy this game for 12 hours and then lock in on Penn.”

Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier on his 407 yards through the air: “None of that matters. The only thing that is important is we got the W. Some games we need to pass it, some games we need to run the ball.  Today we had to throw it more than usual. Whatever coach throws at us, we’ve got to be ready to do.”

Saunier on suffering another first-possession interception: “You don’t want to throw those picks, but things happen. It’s all about bouncing back and battling through adversity. The defense has our back and whether they score or not we’ve got to be ready for the next drive. So it’s about wiping it and just moving on from there.”

Dartmouth Wins Heavyweight Battle

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – You know that line at the end of the original Rocky when Apollo Creed says, “Ain’t gonna be no rematch,” and Rocky responds, “Don’t want one.”

Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle comes from the school of “anyone, anytime,” but you couldn’t blame him if he isn’t particularly looking forward to another rematch with Central Connecticut.

For the second year in a row, a team many Ivy League followers refuse to give its due took Dartmouth down to the final play of the game before the Big Green could escape with a 35-28 win.

Only after Ky’Dric Fisher ran under a high-arcing throw from Grayson Saunier and sprinted untouched into the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left and Dartmouth’s defense broke up the Blue Devils’ hook-and-ladder prayer on the day’s final play could McCorkle relax.

The Big Green improved to 2-0 with the win while Central Connecticut, which hadn’t lost at home since 2023, fell to 2-3 with its second last-minute loss in as many weeks.

McCorkle freely admitted after the game his team has work to do before opening the Ivy League season at Penn on Saturday. But he thinks anyone who expected Dartmouth to run an overmatched opponent off its home field should have taken a closer look at a team with the last two Northeast Conference offensive players of the year, the reigning defensive rookie of the year, and a boatload of transfers including some from the FBS.

“I know a lot of people don’t understand, but they’re a good football team with some dudes,” McCorkle said. “They won their league last year, and we knew going into this game it was going to be a battle, which it was.”

A back-and-forth game that saw Central Connecticut score first and neither team lead by more than seven points was tied at 28-28 with 58 seconds remaining after the Blue Devils drove 80 yards in 12 plays, the last a five-yard touchdown pass.

With a potential overtime looming, but Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier, who would finish with a career-high 407 passing yards, had other ideas.

After his three completions advanced the ball to midfield, offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery dialed up a two-move, stop-and-go to Fisher on the right sideline. “They had a new corner out there and he was biting and biting,” McCorkle said of the play call.

According to Saunier, it was a play the Big Green had been working to perfect ahead of the game.

“Last week we had a similar play to Luke Rives where he made a great catch,” the quarterback said. “But I didn’t make the throw we needed, so he was falling out of bounds when he caught it. Ky’Dric ran a great route and the ball placement this time was better.” 

Although it was the only pass he caught all afternoon, Fisher knew when he made his final move there was open field ahead of him, and the last defender was in his rear-view mirror.

“In my peripheral (vision) I saw him take a step and I knew that was my sign to take off,” he said. “My teammates told me (after the play) he bit really bad.”

Even with Fisher 10 feet or so beyond the last defender, there was still the little matter of Saunier getting the ball to him. And the receiver catching a wide-open pass, sometimes the toughest of all to pull in.

With the ball in the air, everything – except for Fisher’s feet – went in slow motion. 

“It felt like it took a long time to come down,” Fisher admitted of a spiral he caught in stride. “There was a lot of time for nerves to kick in, but I’ve made that catch a lot of times in practice and all I was thinking to myself was, ‘Do not drop the ball.’ ”

Watching from the sidelines, time slowed both for McCorkle on the sideline, and for tight end Chris Corbo after finishing his route.

“It felt like the ball was up there for 50 seconds,” McCorkle said. “Ky is fast and has great hands, so I knew we had a chance if it got there.”

Said Corbo: “I came around on my break and I saw (Fisher) wide open. I saw the ball and it was, ‘Is it ever going to come down?’ But it dropped right in the basket.”

Fisher expected nothing less from Saunier, who overcame an interception on the Big Green’s first possession to go on and finish with just the sixth 400-yard passing game in Dartmouth history in just his fourth career start.

“Grayson has one of the best attitudes I’ve ever seen,” Fisher said. “Most quarterbacks would be down after throwing a pick like that, but he was like, ‘We’re good. We’re good,’ and he showed how resilient he is.

“The last pass was a beautiful ball. He didn’t let the pressure get to him. He delivered the ball perfectly, and we made the play.”

Fisher said after the game he was eager to see the touchdown pass on film because he couldn’t even remember crossing the goal line.

“I think I kind of blacked out,” he said. “I just remember hearing my teammates yelling, so I started yelling with them.”

Saunier finished his afternoon 30-for-44 with two touchdowns. The first came after a Central Connecticut TD put the home team ahead, 21-20, eight seconds into the fourth quarter.

After Dartmouth’s only three-and-out of the game, the defense recorded back-to-back sacks to force a punt to give the ball back to the Big Green offense at its own 11 with 9:38 remaining. Saunier completed his first three passes of a drive that was capped by a perfectly thrown 26-yard touchdown pass down the middle to Corbo.

“Chris is one of the best players on our team,” said Saunier. “We expect great things out of him. He understands that and when he has to make a catch like that, he does it.”

Saunier ran over the right side for the two-point conversion that became important when Central Connecticut responded with the long drive that tied the score and made overtime look almost inevitable until the Saunier-Fisher connection broke Homecoming hearts in the crowd of 4,019.

“Was it a perfect game?” McCorkle said. “Heck no. But when we have to find a way to win, we do. Wins are hard to come by, so the bus ride home will be much better.

“Maybe I’ll get to pick the movie on the way home, which I never do.”

Rocky anyone?

NOTES

DJ Crowther again led the Dartmouth ground game, running 24 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns, including the first that tied the score at 7-7 in the first quarter. He followed his two-yard TD with another of 12 yards to answer a Central Connecticut touchdown throw and tie the score at 14-14 with 9:24 left in the second quarter.

The only other score before the teams combined for 29 points in the fourth quarter came off the foot of Owen Zalc, who hit field goals of 27 and 36 yards. The junior All-America was wide on kicks of 29 and 50 yards.