HANOVER – Sammy McCorkle answered the way you’d probably expect him to answer.
The question: Are you one of those coaches who believes a team’s biggest improvement is between the first game and the second?
McCorkle’s answer: “I think every game is about improvement.”
If the Dartmouth coach failed to bite on the question as the Big Green looks to rebound from last week’s 24-20 loss at Lehigh, he had no problem outlining what improvements he’ll be looking for in Saturday’s game against 2-2 Monmouth.
“We’ve got to eliminate the mistakes, the self-inflicteds,” he said. “Offensively, we had to settle for field goals last week because of penalties when we were in situations where maybe we could have scored touchdowns.
“Defensively, we had two pass interference situations that kept their drives alive and they scored touchdowns on both of those. If you force the field goal, it’s a whole different ballgame. We’ve got to eliminate the mistakes because if you give a team like Monmouth those opportunities they are going to make you pay.”
The Hawks come into their first game against Dartmouth off a 28-20 win at Albany. They also have a win over Sacred Heart (31-24) and losses at No. 15 Tennessee Tech (38-14) and FBS Western Michigan (49-14).
“They are a very good team,” said McCorkle. “They’ve had a tough schedule but they have good players. Our guys bounced back this week and have been locked in and focused. They know we’ve got a huge challenge this week.”
Monmouth, which fielded its first football team in 1993, finished 20th in the FCS coaches poll last year and was ranked 22nd in the STATS poll after going 9-3. The Hawks began this season ranked 22/23 and are currently in the “others receiving votes” category in both top-25 polls.
Leading the way for the school, located just a five-minute walk from the Jersey Shore, is 6-foot-5, 215-pound quarterback Frankie Weaver. The redshirt sophomore has completed 61.7 percent of his passes for 226.3 yards per game with six touchdowns and three interceptions. He was an efficient 11-for-15 for 205 yards and two touchdowns last week, but two late interceptions could have cost the Hawks the game.
“He’s a long guy with a strong arm,” said McCorkle. “He can spin it. He does a good job and can thread the needle.”
Weaver is not a threat on the ground. He finished with negative 103 yards rushing in six games last year and has negative yardage through four games this year. The run game, which lost its leading rusher from last fall to the transfer portal, is instead handled by a well-matched pair of tailbacks in 5-9, 180 Elijah Jennings (281 yards with one touchdown) and 5-10, 190 Kenny Smith Jr. (240 yards and two scores). While the Monmouth ground attack is averaging just 132 yards per game (66th in the country), McCorkle knows both backs can be dangerous.
“They are quick,” he said. “(Smith) can fly and he’s elusive. If he gets the corner on you, he can put his foot in the ground and get north and south on you fast. Both of them get on you quick.”
So do the wide receivers. Tra Neal leads the team with 24 catches for 326 yards and two touchdowns and has topped 100 yards in each of the last two games. Gavin Nelson is right behind with 23 catches for 249 yards and two scores. Neal had a 60-yard touchdown catch last week, and Nelson a 46-yarder.
“Those are two really good wideouts,” said McCorkle. “We may not see a better combination all season. (Neal) is a very smart, football-savvy guy. He reads coverages and finds the open spots. We’ll have our hands full with those two.”
Like Dartmouth, the visitors are playing behind an almost entirely rebuilt offensive line that has allowed just two sacks and is headlined by preseason All-CAA center Kevin Shriner. The two-deep up front features transfers from Penn State, Ole Miss, West Virginia, and Lafayette.
“They have an athletic offensive line,” McCorkle said. “They move well laterally and up the field.”
Monmouth has the personnel and scheme to score quickly so the goal is to force the visitors to string together 10- or 12- or 14-play drives, something McCorkle isn't sure they are built to do.
On the other side of the ball, the Hawks gave up 217 yards rushing to Sacred Heart but were solid against their toughest competition, holding Tennessee Tech to 106 yards on the ground (395 overall) and Western Michigan to 148 (414 overall).
While they’ve struggled against dual-threat quarterbacks like Dartmouth’s Grayson Saunier, McCorkle is hopeful his inexperienced running backs will improve on the 62 yards they recorded at Lehigh.
“It was a combination of things last week,” he said. “The running backs have to know where the holes are and hit them. I thought we were physical up front, but we need to come off the ball even more. It’s critical we do better running the ball because you don’t want to be one-dimensional.”
Monmouth coach Jeff Gallo, a longtime assistant who stepped in this year for Kevin Callahan, who headed up the program for all of its first 33 years, expects Dartmouth to present a stiff challenge. Talking about the Big Green, he told the Asbury Park Press:
“What you see is a team that doesn't beat itself, a team that makes you earn it. They don't do a ton, but they do things well. They're big – their front seven is big, but they have enough skill. On offense, they have good skill guys. They're really well-coached up front with a big offensive line. Quarterback is mobile.
“And then defensively, again, they make you earn it. They're a four-down front, big guys upfront. They'll play coverage behind it and make you run it down the field. That's what shows up on tape this year and last year. Same idea – they make you earn things."
Monmouth is the final tuneup for Dartmouth before consecutive conference games against Penn and Yale, which both opened with wins last week. Although he didn’t bite on the game one-to-game two question, the Big Green coach made it clear he’s looking for improvement heading into the Ivy League slate.
“You better be ready to tune it up because you’re going to get your butt kicked if you don’t,” he said. “We’ll worry about (the start of Ivy play) when we get there, but we know we’ve got to get ready for this one because they are a good team.”
NOTES – Monmouth is 2-3 all-time against Ivy League teams. Their last Ivy game was a 51-9 loss at Princeton. Their last win against an Ivy was 61-28 at home against Columbia in 2014. … Monmouth is looking for the 200th win in school history. The Hawks’ all-time record is 199-151. Dartmouth’s all-time record is 741-474-46.
The Hawks led the nation in total offense a year ago with 498.7 yards per game and were picked second in the CAA preseason poll. They are ninth in the nation this year in third-down conversions (51.7 percent on 31-of-60) and rank sixth in the country with 0.5 sacks allowed per game. … Monmouth features 11 transfers from FBS programs and 18 total transfers. Among the nine players lost to FBS schools through the portal was Rodney Nelson, the CAA Offensive Player of the Year last fall when he ran for 1,802 yards and 18 touchdowns. He’s now at Miami (Ohio).
Dartmouth is 13-2 at home under Sammy McCorkle, who is now 21-10 in his fourth season.