Central Connecticut Has Dartmouth's Attention
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – Don’t even start with the “trap game” stuff.
Yes, last week’s Dartmouth game was the season-opening Granite Bowl against a nationally recognized team. Next week’s date is the Ivy League opener against the only team with more outright conference championships than the Big Green (13-9).
And this week’s opponent? Dartmouth comes into the game as a 9.5-point favorite over school without anywhere near the football pedigree of New Hampshire or Penn.
But given the scare Central Connecticut threw at Dartmouth last year, the amount of transfer talent on the Blue Devils roster, and the prospect of boisterous Homecoming crowd that would like nothing better than to see them put an Ivy League school in its place, Big Green coach Sammy McCorkle scoffs at any thought his team will be caught either looking back or looking ahead.
“I don’t think of this as a trap game at all,” he said with a shake of his head after Thursday’s practice. “We know it’s another tough one. It’s tough one number two. We are going to have to be on our ‘A’ game because that’s a very good football team, and we know it.”
Central Connecticut is 2-2 after turning the ball over four times in a 16-14 loss at Merrimack last week. The Blue Devils were crushed by UConn in their opener (59-13) but rebounded by rolling over Division II AIC (34-7) and winless Northeast Conference rival Saint Francis (31-7).
A history lesson: At Dartmouth last year, Central Connecticut held leads of 7-0, 10-3, and 16-13 before a 26-yard punt return by Sean Williams and facemask penalty set Dartmouth up at the plus-32 with 9:06 left. Seven plays later, Grayson Saunier capped his first career start with a one-yard touchdown run to give the Big Green a four-point lead.
But the game wasn’t over. Central Connecticut responded by methodically driving from its own 25 to the Dartmouth 6. It took a dropped touchdown pass in the final minute and a misfire into the end zone on Central Connecticut’s final snap for the Big Green to escape with a nail biting win.
“We saw it last year. They have dudes everywhere, at every single position,” McCorkle said. “You can see these guys can play just watching oen clip.”
Particularly if that clip features tailback Elijah Howard. Or receiver/returner Donovan Wadley. Or safety Christopher Jean.
Howard, who got into 12 games for Virginia Tech as a defensive back as a freshman, was the offensive player of the year in the Northeast Conference last fall. He’s run for 2,103 yards and 16 touchdowns in 25 games with Central Connecticut.
“He’s potentially one of the best backs we’ll see all year,” said McCorkle. “He’s got track speed. He’s very elusive, but at the same time he’s a physical runner. And he’s their second-leading receiver.”
Interestingly, Howard isn’t the only former NEC offensive player of the year on the roster. Earning that distinction two year ago was Wadley, a transfer from Merrimack. In addition to catching passes and making the occasional run from scrimmage, he led the nation in kick returns two year ago, bringing three back for touchdowns.
Leading the Central Connecticut offense for the second year is Brady Olson, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound transfer quarterback from UMass. He played in 19 games during his days with the Minutemen, but while he passed for 1,936 yards and 10 touchdowns he completed just 48.7 percent of his attempts. His struggle with accuracy has continued at Central Connecticut where he hit on 51.1 percent of his passes last year and and is at a 50.5 percent clip this time around. Not a runner, he’s averaging 1.9 yards per carry this year.
Despite Olson’s less-than-stellar numbers, McCorkle is wary.
“He’s a very mature, composed quarterback,” the coach said. “He’s played a lot of games and played against us last year. He does a good job of managing their offense, especially down in the red zone where it counts the most. They are really good in the red zone.”
Central Connecticut has scored on 14-of-16 trips into the red zone, with nine touchdowns.
The star of the defense is Jean, last year’s defensive rookie of the year in the Northeast Conference. He’s had three interceptions in four games this fall, and seven in his last six games dating back to last year. He’s had four pass breakups and is second on the team in tackles this season.
“He’s a savvy player with real good ball skills,” said McCorkle. “He’s all over the place and has really good ball instinct. They are good at creating turnovers so we have to be very disciplined taking care of the ball, and take care of what they give us offensively and then defensively.
“Statistically, they are in the top 50 in every phase,” McCorkle continued. “We’ve got to be in position to make plays when we have the opportunities against a team that plays fast and creates havoc.”
McCorkle is confident the Big Green has prepared well.
“We got after it this week,” he said. “Tuesday and Wednesday were good, physical practices. Today (Thursday) was a little bit lighter, but the intensity level didn’t go down. The biggest thing is we have to come out here with a sense of urgency every day and I thought overall our guys did that.”
HOMECOMING IN NEW BRITAIN
Central Connecticut plays on Arute Field, named in honor of the grandfather of former ABC and ESPN announcer Jack Arute, who built the field. The multi-purpose facility has a FieldTurf surface and seats 5,500. Last year’s Homecoming game against Wagner drew 4,152.
Dartmouth’s only previous visit to Arute saw a crowd of 2,064 turn out in 2015.
Having seen how wild Homecoming was in a loss at Sacred Heart several years ago and in last year’s narrow escape at Merrimack, McCorkle thanked Mother Nature for forcing the Big Green inside for its final practice before the Central Connecticut visit.
“It was good for us with what it’s going to be like down there,” he said. “With the music and the noise, it was a little harder to hear and focus. That’s good preparation for Saturday.”
NOTES
Central Connecticut’s roster includes at least 20 transfers or junior college products. Among them, corner Jahvante Royal, who played 23 games at Pitt and four last year at New Mexico. There are two transfers came from James Madison, including one who did a redshirt season at Virginia Tech, there’s a defensive lineman who spent two years at West Virginia and another player who had a redshirt season at Wake Forest.
Central Connecticut pushed No. 10 Rhode Island hard before dropping a 21-17 decision in the first round of last year’s FCS playoffs. Howard ran for 101 yards in that game and Isaac Boston, who had grad transferred from Dartmouth, caught two touchdown passes.
The Blue Devils finished second in the country last year in turnovers gained, third in turnover margin, fourth in the nation for fewest sacks allowed per game and ninth in defensive sacks. They are eighth this year in turnovers gained, and ninth in turnover margin this fall.
Dartmouth is 3-0 all-time against Central Connecticut with a 34-24 win in 2014, a 34-7 verdict a year later and last year’s 20-16 win. … Dartmouth freshmen who were expected to travel this week are quarterbacks Charlie Peters and Jaden Cummings as well as linebacker Uche Odimegwu.
