It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for your weekly Six Pack–plus one look at Dartmouth football after week two of the season, so buckle up.
1) Might as well start with the big one. It says here that Dartmouth has to be considered the best – or one of the best – 0-2 teams in the country. Seriously, one more play Saturday and they are in range of a prototypical Owen Zalc game winner against a team that spent the early part of the season in the top 25. At Lehigh a week earlier, it took a remarkable interception at the end to stop what sure felt as if it was going to be a game-winning drive against a team now ranked No. 6 in the nation. Both of those were coin-toss games in the final 60 seconds.
2) Say what you will about the Massey Ratings System; here is the site's relative strength of schedule given games played so far for the eight Ivy League teams. There are 128 FCS team schedules rated:
26 Dartmouth
31 Cornell
83 Yale
84 Penn
93 Harvard
95 Brown
97 Princeton
106 Columbia
Interestingly, the toughest schedule to date is 0–3 Central Connecticut (at South Dakota, at Toledo, at Montana State), but the Devils’ future schedule is ranked 101st.
Less well-known is the Warren Nolan system but it ranks Dartmouth’s schedule off the charts compared to the rest of the Ivy League. The rankings: 12. Dartmouth, 37. Penn, 46. Cornell, 88. Brown, 102. Princeton, 103. Yale, 117. Harvard, 127. Columbia.
Debate the merits of each system if you must, they certainly agree that 0-2 Dartmouth has had the toughest schedule and 2-0 Columbia the easiest.
4) We’ll learn a lot about the run game this week. After struggling at Lehigh, the ground game came alive in a big way with 235 yards against Monmouth. Keeping in mind that the Hawks allowed Sacred Heart to run for 217 yards earlier this month, maybe Monmouth’s run defense isn’t all that strong. but who's to say? Penn comes to Memorial Field Saturday after holding Bucknell to 40 yards on the ground and limiting All-America tailback Luke Yoder to a season-low 74 yards on 19 carries, a 3.9-yard average.
5) Two games into the season, the Big Green is still looking for its first sack and its first interception. Every other team in the Ivy League has at least two sacks, with Harvard leading the way with nine and Brown and Cornell each having six. Dartmouth also is the only team in the league without an interception. Again, Harvard leads the way with five, while Cornell and Princeton have three each. Again, keep in mind the level of competition each team has played.
6) Dartmouth safety Harrison Keith was disappointed Lehigh didn’t test the secondary in the Big Green opener, but he sure got his wish from Monmouth quarterback Frankie Weaver, who hoisted up 42 passes. Keith had all the work he needed and more, making a game- and career-high 13 tackles, including two for a loss. He also had a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry and seemed to be all over the field.
And because it's how BGA rolls . . .
7) Dartmouth used to publish future schedules in its media guide, but it hasn’t done that since it stopped printing guides, and there are no future schedules listed on its website. Without knowing the details, it seems unlikely the game with Monmouth would be a one-off and that Dartmouth probably owes the CAA team a game. A non-affiliated website that usually gets these things right shows the Big Green with contests at New Hampshire and at Central Connecticut next year, which pretty much rules out a third nonconference road game next fall. Could Dartmouth be headed to the Jersey Shore for a game in 2028? Maybe, and if it does, it might have a chance at payback against 6-foot-5 QB Weaver, who will be a redshirt senior that fall if he sticks around Monmouth, no sure thing in this era of NIL.