Solid Final Scrimmage
HANOVER (Sept. 8) – You know those days when the head coach returns home and even man’s best friend knows to steer clear?
This wasn’t one of those days.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Even before starting quarterback Grayson Saunier capped a scrimmage-ending, 13-play, 65-yard two-minute drill with a short touchdown pass to Ian Scott on the goal line, the family dog – if the McCorkle family even has one – was safe.
“That was the perfect way to end a good day,” said head coach Sammy McCorkle of the drill that enabled Dartmouth to come from behind for a mythical 27-24 win. “We want to get better every time we are out here, and we did that today. Offense, defense and special teams all did a lot of good things.
“We’ve still got some things we have to coach up, but we got all the work done we wanted to get done. The (two-minute) went how you want it to go. I thought both the offense and the defense did a good job. It was a close call and a great way to end it.”
On a picture-perfect Upper Valley Monday afternoon, starting quarterback Grayson Saunier went a healthy 27-for-35 for 248 yards, and junior classmate Woods Ray wasn’t far behind, finishing 15-of-20 for 160 yards.
"I thought both of those guys were very composed, very in control, and did a really good job,” said McCorkle. “There were a couple reads we've got to clean up, but they did a really good job understanding where people were going to be offensively, and have a good idea where the defense is going to be.
"I thought Woods did a good job coming out here today, especially getting out of the pocket. He did a good job with his mobility, which was much, much better today."
Sophomore QB Noah Trigueros kept his name in quarterback mix, going 7-for-7 for 101 yards. Freshman QBs Charlie Peters and Jaden Cummings both flashed in limited action.
The breakout star for the offense was shifty sophomore receiver Ky’Dric Fisher, who caught six passes for an even 100 yards.
“He got banged up a little bit in the middle of preseason, but did a good job rehabbing and showed signs today of what he can do, and what he's going to be,” said McCorkle. “He’s an exciting weapon, and is going to be a guy that can make some big plays for us.”
On a day when passing dominated play calling – as it usually does in scrimmages – familiar names like wide receivers Grayson O’Bara (six catches for 58 yards) and Daniel Haughton (five for 75) stood out, as did All-America tight end Chris Corbo (four for 32). Among the others who opened eyes were sophomore Luke Rives (four catches for 63 yards) and junior tight end Taysire Williams (four for 31).
One of the loudest cheers of the day came when Ray lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone where athletic 6-foot-5 fifth-year senior Remington Gall pulled in a contested pass with a defender draped on him.
Equally noticeable Monday were the yards after catch, aided by the kind of downfield blocking that McCorkle was glad to see.
“You saw Dan Haughton, you see Ky’Dric Fisher, you see Grayson O’Bara out there blocking for each other,” the coach said. “Then you see our tight ends flexing out, blocking on the perimeter. They did a good job of that across the board.
“That’s something we’ve been really working on and practicing. (The wide receivers) are going to get vertical and they can split you. We did a good job of getting out there in front of them, and the quarterbacks did a good job of getting the ball to them so they could make plays.”
Senior tailback Desmin Jackson had several good runs including a long gain on an inside reverse to highlight a ground game that was severely hampered by quick whistles.
McCorkle was pleased by what he saw from his backs. “I thought they found the holes when they were there,” he said. “Des did a really nice job today. He hit a nice cut, split it and was gone. He’s getting back to healthy and looking like the Des I remember.”
Defensively, linebacker Nico Schwikal continued a strong preseason with a pair of tackles for loss, and defensive back Thai Brown had multiple textbook pass breakups.
“Thai is a kid that kept showing up,” McCorkle said. “He’s done a very good job of being composed out there. He's so competitive that in the past, sometimes he’d let a bad play bother him, but he's done a good job with that. He’s just moving on to the next play. He's a guy that wants to make plays and he did a heck of a job out here defeating some good wideouts.”
Linebacker Teddy Gianaris seemed to be around the ball all afternoon.
“Teddy G is a force coming off the edge,” said McCorkle. “We move him around and he’s someone you have to know where he is. He forces double teams and he definitely had our quarterbacks paying attention to where he was.”
Several other defenders caught McCorkle’s eye as well.
“I thought Zyion (Freer-Brown) did a heck of a job flying around,” he said of the linebacker. “Safety-wise, Jamal Cooper is doing a heck of a job. He’s our utility knife, playing a little bit of safety and corner.
“Taylor Faalele (a 320-pound sophomore) did a good job on the defensive line. He had some penetration and caused some havoc.”
OFFICIALLY SPEAKING
Tossing seven yellow flags in the air was a full team of black-and-white striped officials. While McCorkle would prefer fewer whistles, he felt the penalties served as valuable reminders.
“Sometimes you get lazy and can get away with stuff in practice,” said McCorkle. “That’s why it’s good to have the officials out here.
“One of the things we talked about the last couple of days was, how we are going to handle adversity as an individual and as a team? You get a big play and it’s called back for holding. Is the guy who held going to drop his head and be in the jar? You’ve got to wipe it clean and forget about it. And the other guys have to make sure. It’s got to be, ‘Let’s move on to the next play.’ ”
HELPFUL FOR EVERYONE
The scrimmage was more than just a chance for a young team to play in front of officials for the first time. It also was the first opportunity for a revamped staff – featuring a new offensive coordinator, a new secondary coach, a new corners coach, a new wide receivers coach and a new head of strength and conditioning – to pull on the headsets and work in game conditions in the stadium.
“That’s huge especially with the communication,” said McCorkle. “We had different guys in the press box. And different guys on the sidelines working with the iPads. It was a good opportunity for those coaches to get a better feel for it here.
“All of them have done it before, but not here. Luckily, we’ve got a great staff with guys like (Don) Dobes, (Keith) Clark, (Duane) Brooks and (Kevin) Daft, who have done a good job helping the new guys along.”
AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
For years Dartmouth had its culminating scrimmage on the Saturday before the first game. Buddy Teevens eventually bumped it up to the Thursday before game week and McCorkle moved it earlier still this time around.
“Obviously, worst-case scenario is someone gets hurt, and we wanted to make sure if that happened we’re able to get guys back in time for the first game,” he said. “This gave us a few extra days.”
MYSTERY NEWCOMER
Beneficiary of a completely blown coverage was a lanky wide receiver not yet listed on the school’s roster page.
Catching a 37-yard throw from freshman Peters was wide-open 6-4 Romello “Mello” McRae, a sophomore walk-on from Los Angeles. McRae, whose brother Robert played basketball at Dartmouth, and whose sister Elyjah was a Class of ’25 in Hanover, was a ballboy for his high school team until his mother finally gave him the OK to join the team for the playoffs in his senior year. All he did, per the Los Angeles Times, was catch a touchdown pass on his first-ever play.
ON TAP
After a day off from practice, Dartmouth returns to the field on Wednesday. Official preparation for the opener against New Hampshire will begin later in the week.
The Big Green will have what McCorkle called “a little bit of a mock game” on Saturday as a kind of dress “rehearsal” for the opener before diving fully into New Hampshire game prep a day later.
“We’ve started to prepare for them probably earlier than we’ve done in the past, but then we’ll really start to hone in,” McCorkle said. “The guys do it on their own, anyways. You can tell them, ‘Hey, focus on just us,’ but their are watching film and seeing what we’ve got to do to prepare for UNH.
"It’s going to be a big challenge so we’ve just to take each day at a time and get better.”
