HANOVER – Sammy McCorkle has no doubt been asked what kind of impact the many changes in the Dartmouth coaching staff will have on the Big Green this year.
What he may not have been asked – at least until Wednesday morning's delayed start of spring practice – is how bringing in no fewer than five new position coaches along with two new quality control coaches, impacts him.
"It's been good," he said at the conclusion of a brisk two-hour session in the indoor practice facility. "It's made me kind of go back to not taking anything for granted. Making sure that I pay even more attention to detail.
"I can't assume everyone knows how we do things. We have to talk about every little detail, every little drill. Everything from how our guys line up for stretch, to where the drills are in the field. It's how we operate in the weight room, to how we operate in meetings, to now how we run a practice. It has forced me to think about everything, detail by detail, to relearn it all again, and teach it again."
Fortunately for McCorkle, even with all the turnover he can lean on offensive line coach Keith Clark, who is heading into his 18th season in Hanover, and tight ends coach Kevin Daft, who is in his 10th. Offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery and secondary coach Kevin Bracken are the two other valuable holdovers, both in their second year.
"It's huge having those guys," said McCorkle. "Keith and Kevin have done a great job, especially with the newer coaches. Bracken and Monty have, too. It's everything from the little things like how we dress in the office, to recruiting, and now to how we practice. The tempo and the expectations we have out here. They've done a phenomenal job being mentors to the new guys."
The biggest changes in staff were the retirement of defensive coordinator Don Dobes after 17 years, and defensive line coach Duane Brooks after 13 seasons. Those are big shoes to fill. McCorkle is confident that Jordan Belfiori will be an able successor to Dobes, and Quentin Jones to Brooks.
"A big reason why I know those guys can do the job is the interview process," McCorkle said. "What I told our players and staff is that the names and faces may change, but our standard does not. And the key was finding coaches who believe in that standard, who we felt bring that standard with them.
"We may have new coaches, but to me it's not a huge drop-off because they believe in the same standard and culture that we preach and work at. Just watching the way they have stepped in, it's been great. They don't have to be Dobes or Duane. I believe in them and told them, 'Let your hair down. Go coach the way you coach,' and if we need to, we'll figure it out as we go."
If there's one big change for most coaches coming to Dartmouth, it is the no-tackling-in-practice ever approach developed by Buddy Teevens. While most college football teams have cut back tackling in practice, Dobes and Brooks played important roles in helping shape The Dartmouth Way that the new staff will adhere to in Hanover.
"We've talked about it, we've shown them practice films, we've shown the drills," McCorkle explained. "We actually had a virtual junior day yesterday, and Donnie usually did the safety part of that. Kevin Bracken did it this time, and he did a great job. It was a good opportunity for our new coaches to hear about it and how important it is.
"You could hear in the defensive meetings, Coach Belfiori did a great job of explaining the drills we were going to do. And a lot of it is stuff that we have done before. He believes in how we do things and appreciates it."
CALLING AN AUDIBLE
Wednesday's practice started officially at 6 a.m., although players were filtering into the indoor facility well before that. The session had originally been slated for Tuesday at 5 p.m., but a quick-moving snowstorm that covered the field in early afternoon forced a change of plans, only to have the sun come out and melt the white stuff away after McCorkle had already pushed the practice back.
"I almost pulled a BT and did a last-second change," McCorkle said with a laugh, referring to his predecessor's penchant for doing exactly that. "But I stuck with my decision. I wanted to make sure our first practice was a good, clean one.
"You want to control the conditions as much as you can. It was still a little wet out there, and I wanted to make sure the quarterbacks were getting good snaps and throwing the ball well, which they did today. Yeah, we're going to have to play in the rain one day, but we only get 12 practices, and I don't want to burn one of them. I wanted to make sure we got a good one.
SO DID THEY GET A GOOD ONE?
Yes, they did, according to McCorkle, who was thrilled to have his players back throwing and catching and blocking each other after concluding winter conditioning and mat drills.
"It was awesome being back," he said. "This is what all the pushing weights is about, the opportunity to come out here and do what we need to do. You could see the players were excited to be back.
"You could feel the energy and see the way the guys were flying around. Some of them were running in the wrong direction, but that's all right as long as they're running fast. We'll get that fixed as we go."
The bottom line for McCorkle?
"The guys did a great job," he said. "They were here and ready to work. I mean, we started eight minutes early and could have started 10 minutes early. And that's how they were during mat drills. We started early every day. There were guys who were here at 5:20 in the morning, ready to go.
"To me, that's a great sign. They want to get out here. They want to work. You could see today the energy built up. Do we have to clean some stuff up? The tempo and the sense of urgency? Of course. You could see some guys, especially the younger guys, whose heads were spinning a little bit. Paralysis by analysis. You've got to get them to play fast. We'll figure it out. We'll get you lined up and then just go, man. Just go. We'll continue to chip away at that."
BY THE NUMBERS
Dartmouth has 78 players available this spring. None of the 78 will be fifth-years in the fall. The end of the COVID exception and the growing trend of players using their final year as grad transfers has made someone like former offensive lineman Konstantin Spörk, who returned last fall for a fifth and final season, a unicorn.
"There's going to be fewer and fewer of those guys coming back for that extra year now," McCorkle said. "Now it's got to be a medical redshirt, which is hard to get. And with the grad transfer thing a lot of kids are going to try that instead. I get it. It's something we use in recruiting now."
SPRING BREAK
As was the case in the last few years under Teevens, Dartmouth will have six practices over the first two weeks of spring ball, take a full week off, and then return for six more practices over the final two weeks.
"There are two reasons for that," said McCorkle. "One, it allows our guys to recover, especially the soft tissue stuff. Historically during the spring you see the wide-outs and the skill guys start to have that stuff. Some years our numbers have been decimated because of that, so this allows those guys to recover during that week.
"It doesn't mean we shut down. There will be training and stuff, but it gives our guys to take a little beating off their bodies and come back strong for that fourth and fifth week."
The second reason for the spring break has to do with the coaches.
"Another big thing is recruiting," McCorkle said. "We're now allowed to get out in April and we want to make sure our coaches can be among the first ones in schools and homes. You can home visit now in spring so this gives us a chance to do a lot of that.
"We've already targeted a bunch of guys that we're going to go after, and we want to make sure we get in their homes and have a chance to use that week to really focus on the priority guys."
SPEAKING OF RECRUITING
Dartmouth lost linebacker recruit Parker Maiers to a preferred walk-on opportunity at Northwestern this week. While the Big Green will be able to defer the recruiting spot used for Maiers to next year's class, it lost a good player. But that's a price you have to be willing to pay, according to McCorkle.
"That's the risk you take when you recruit the level of guys we are recruiting now," he said. "That's our goal, to recruit top-notch talent. And unfortunately, when you do that, things like this can happen.
"Are you happy about it? No. But that's the risk you have to take when you recruit the way we want to recruit."
ON TAP
The Big Green will be back at it Thursday – outside – before finishing the first week of spring ball Saturday morning.