Your weekly six-pack of thoughts and observations after Week 8:
1) If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I get it. Dartmouth is 6-2, so what they are doing is working. But I still find it odd that the Big Green has the fewest touchdown passes in the Ivy League this fall. Grayson Saunier is absolutely in the running for All-Ivy and is completing a league-best 67.9 percent of his attempts, which makes it all the more curious that Dartmouth has a conference-low six TD throws. Columbia and Cornell have eight apiece and Princeton nine. Leading the way are Harvard (19), Yale and Penn (14 apiece) and Brown (12). The lack of TDs through the air hasn’t cost Dartmouth, but if defenses were just a little more concerned about that, might it help open the run game up as well?
2) Sticking with the passing game theme, am I the only one who was surprised that Dartmouth ran the ball 37 times against Princeton compared to throwing it just 15 times? Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. The ratio was almost identical to the 38/15 against Columbia the last time the Big Green played at home.
3) Junior placekicker Owen Zalc was a first-team All-Ivy League pick his first two seasons for a reason, nailing 17-of-21 field goal attempts as a freshman and 13-of-17 one year ago, with a long of 54 yards. His 51-yarder last month as time expired won the Yale game. But his 31-yard kick in the fourth quarter against Princeton was his third miss in his last four attempts. Earlier this season, he had a stretch of four misses in five attempts. Something The Kicking Wizard of O.Z., could probably use for his confidence right now is another game winner. And while I’m sure that would be fine with Sammy McCorkle, I’m even more sure the Dartmouth coach would rather it not come to that in either of the last two games.
4) Princeton freshman receiver Josh Robinson is the runaway leader for the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and with good reason. The 5-foot-7, 165-pound speedster is a true weapon and exciting to watch. Something those of us who follow the ball might not notice but McCorkle did and raved about after watching Princeton tape is that for as small as he is, Robinson is also a terrific blocker in the run game. He caught eight passes for 70 yards against Dartmouth, a performance that brought him his fifth Ivy Rookie of the Week award.
5) This time it was Princeton’s turn not to show up at the post-game press conference, although to the credit of the school’s sports information office, they did share an audio clip via email. Unfortunately, it did not address the topic I had asked about. The perfect postgame scenario this fall was down at Penn where the school made a video recording of both press conferences and made the Dartmouth's presser available to visiting media. That’s a first-class way of doing things, and kudos go out to SID Mike Mahoney and his staff. It's a shame more Ivies don't handle the postgame that way.
6) Dartmouth’s game against Cornell Saturday is at 1 p.m. After the clock change, most schools move their kickoff to noon – if it’s not already noon – which seems to be more and more popular. If the idea behind staying at 1 p.m. is to make sure the students are up after a late Friday night, that’s not a good reason. As last week showed, students simply are not coming to games this late in the season. With sunset as early as it is this time of year, moving the start time to noon would allow older alumni – by far the Big Green’s most loyal fans – to get out of the stadium and down the road before it gets fully dark.
And the bonus that I always say you know is coming:
7) Dartmouth fans are notoriously late getting to their seats. I can’t say it’s a big reason why, but I’m pretty sure the music being blared over the loudspeakers isn't particularly inviting to the demographic that comes to Buddy Teevens Stadium. It certainly grated on my ancient ears. I know the music choice is for the players warming up on the field, but here’s something that I've shared with some in the past. The players have to be there, and fans don't. So how to get them into the seats? My suggestion is to play college fight songs over the loudspeakers during warmups. USC’s Fight On, Tennessee’s Rocky Top, Notre Dame’s Victory March, Oklahoma’s Boomer Sooner and Michigan’s The Victors would get everyone in the stadium excited to be there. And I don’t think the players would complain. It might even fire them up.
As always, your mileage may vary. ;-)