Your Mileage May Vary – Week Five

 Here are some observations and opinions after Dartmouth’s 30-13 win over Fordham Saturday closed out both the non-conference season and the first half of the 2025 campaign.

1) For the second time in as many weeks the Dartmouth offense could not muster a first-half touchdown. After being held scoreless through three quarters against Yale on Homecoming, the Big Green managed just two field goals in the opening half at Fordham. Against New Hampshire in the opener Dartmouth had just seven points at the half, meaning that in three of five games this fall the offense has managed one touchdown and only 13 points. It hasn’t cost the Big Green yet, but it is playing with fire.

2) Buddy Teevens was adamantly opposed to returning kickoffs, both because of the possibility of concussive injury and analytics showing that average starting field position was better fair catching the ball. Sammy McCorkle, a special teams standout at Florida who coached the position before succeeding Teevens, allowed returners to bring back 17 kickoffs in 2023 and 13 last year. But at the halfway point this season Dartmouth has returned only 3-of-23 kickoffs. Opponents have returned 17-of-27. The Big Green did not return any of the seven kickoffs against Fordham. On the season, opponents are averaging 24.3 yards per return and Dartmouth 16.0.

Corbo

3) With four catches against Fordham, Chris Corbo now has 23 receptions through five games. At his current pace, not only would he surpass last year’s total of 32 receptions, but he would have the most catches for a Dartmouth tight end since Casey Cramer ’04, who went on to be drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and spent five years in the NFL. In the 19 seasons before Corbo broke out last year, the leading tight end for Dartmouth averaged 14.8 catches per year, with John Gallagher's 30 receptions in 2009 the most. Cramer topped out at 72 receptions in 2002 and had 58 one year later. He finished his career with 185 receptions.

4) At the midway point of the season, Dartmouth’s run defense is allowing 3.4 yards per rush, second-best in the Ivy League to Harvard’s 3.1. Conversely, the Big Green pass defense is allowing quarterbacks to complete 66.0 percent of their passes, seventh in the Ivy League, besting only Princeton’s 69.4 percent. But all that matters is points per game where Dartmouth’s 22.6 points allowed trails only Harvard (11.0) and Yale (17.8).

5) DJ Crother continues to get the bulk of the work carrying the ball for the Big Green. He had 18 carries for 91 yards at Fordham. His 97 carries are surpassed in the Ivy League only by the 119 for Yale’s Josh Pitsenberger. Crother’s workload isn’t all that different from that of Q Jones, who had 89 carries after five games a year ago. Crother has 469 yards and seven touchdowns at the season’s midpoint. Jones was at 374 yards with two touchdowns through five games in 2024.

6) Dartmouth continues to enjoy tremendous success converting on third down. The Big Green was 6-of-13 against Fordham and is at 55.0 percent this fall. That’s second in the nation behind only 4-2 Alabama State’s 57.1 percent. Other Ivy conversion percentages and national rank (126 teams): Penn 51.7 (6); Princeton 44.3 (27); Harvard 43.1 (35); Yale 42.3 (39); Brown 41.2 (48); Cornell 34.2 (95) and Columbia 31.4 (106).

And you knew it was coming . . .

7) With the win over Fordham, Sammy McCorkle’s record in 2½ years heading up the Dartmouth program is 18-7. That works out to a .720 winning percentage. How does that stack up since Bob Blackman arrived in Hanover in 1955?

• Blackman finished 104-37-3, a winning percentage of .732. 

• McCorkle’s 18-7 mark works out to .720.

For the curious, Buddy Teevens twice inherited struggling Dartmouth programs and finished 117-101-2 (.536). Worth noting is that once Teevens finally posted his first winning record in his second stint with the Big Green (6-4 in 2012), his record over his final 12 seasons was 82-38, which translates to .683.

The one cautionary note is that John Lyons’ record through the six seasons between 1992 and 1997 was 44-15-1, or .742. He finished at .469, which is a story for another day.