The Optimist-Pessimist After Columbia

 HANOVER – Like everyone in town, The Optimist and The Pessimist look forward to Week Seven of the season more than any week of the year. Like generations of Dartmouth students, they thoroughly enjoy trading the peace and quiet of the Upper Valley for a weekend in and around Boston. But first the two old boys need to hash out what they saw last week, and what they expect to see going forward.

The Optimist: It’s always a good time when Dartmouth people get together in Boston and we get a chance to celebrate another win in Cambridge.

The Pessimist: Not quite.

The Optimist: OK, I'll rephrase that just for you. Celebrate another game in Cambridge.

The Pessimist: That's still wrong. Harvard Stadium is across the river from Cambridge in Allston, which is actually a Boston neighborhood.

The Optimist: Someone’s been spending a little time on Wikipedia.

The Pessimist: Guilty as charged.

The Optimist: Whether we’re talking Cambridge, Allston or Boston, what we’re heading to Massachusetts to enjoy is the Harvard game, and it’s one I’ve been waiting for since last season.

The Pessimist: Looking for payback after what happened last fall at Memorial Field, are you? I seem to recall the Crimson drove 94 and 73 yards for touchdowns in the final six minutes to erase a 10-point deficit and beat you, 31-27, on a TD with 27 seconds left a year ago at Memorial Field.

The Optimist: Thanks for the play-by-play. I suppose payback is part of it. But the bottom line is, I can’t wait to see the high and mighty Crimson brought down a few notches.

The Pessimist: You and the rest of the Ivy League.

The Optimist: True. But in this case, it’s annoying how I keep reading about the big numbers Harvard has put up this fall when they’ve been playing nothing but tomato cans.

The Pessimist: I’m not sure what old boxing movies you’ve been watching, but tomato cans? Are you from the 1940s?

The Optimist: Harvard is 6-0 but it’s a hollow 6-0. Their wins have come against teams that are a combined 12-23. 

The Pessimist: You have a point. I don’t think their resumé to date is going to impress the folks who determine the FCS playoff field, if it gets to that.

The Optimist: It won’t. But unlike Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle, who quickly brushed off a young reporter’s question about the postseason after last week’s game, I’m glad to talk playoffs. I think the committee will really like the way we’ve hit our stride the past two weeks, outscoring our opponents, 70-16. 

The Pessimist: Harvard has outscored its opponents this fall, 259-69. You’ve outscored your opponents, 182-116. Advantage Crimson. 

The Optimist: Oh please. Our first three wins were tight, one-possession games against teams with winning records, unlike Harvard’s early season cupcakes, who are a combined 12-23.

The Pessimist: First tomato cans. Now cupcakes. Careful there, big guy.

The Optimist: Careful because?

The Pessimist: Because if you are critical of Harvard putting up big numbers against opposition that is combined 12-23 I need to remind you that the teams you beat since you, as you put it, “hit your stride” are, drumroll please, a combined 2-12. Not exactly a murderer’s row. Fordham is 1-7 and Columbia is 1-5.

The Optimist: You can only beat who is in front of you, and that’s what we did. Convincingly.

The Pessimist: Which is exactly what Harvard has done. Convincingly. Thanks for making my case.

The Optimist: OK, enough about Harvard. After we take care of the Crimson we have a two-game home-stand beginning with Princeton. We couldn’t ask for a better way to kick off the final weeks of the season than to play a team that hasn’t beaten us on Memorial Field since 2009. I mean, they’ve had some pretty good teams since then and couldn’t win in Hanover, and this isn't one of those teams. 

The Pessimist: Their 38-28 win over Lafayette, at Lafayette mind you, caught my attention. So did the 40-21 pounding of Brown, which was playing with confidence coming off back-to-back wins over No. 8 Rhode Island and Bryant.

The Optimist: You conveniently forgot about the Tigers limping to a 17-10 win over the Columbia team we just crushed. They’ve lost two of their last three.

The Pessimist: It’s no disgrace losing to No. 14 Harvard and No. 19 Mercer.

The Optimist: After dispatching Princeton we’ve got 2-4 Cornell and we’ll be ready for them after they surprised us at their place last year.

The Pessimist: You better be ready for them because they have found something. After a tough start they’ve won their last two. We’ll know more after Saturday when they host Princeton.

The Optimist: Let’s be real. Yes, Cornell won its last two but one was against lowly Bucknell and the other was against Brown in overtime. We’ll get to Brown in a moment but I can tell you beating Bucknell does not impress me.

The Pessimist: How about beating Richmond? Bucknell beat ‘em.

The Optimist: I’m getting a little tired of playing the “who beat who” game.

The Pessimist: Actually, it should be the “who beat whom game” –  because whom is the object of the verb beat.

The Optimist: Has it come to this? But to answer your question, beating Bucknell, which beat Richmond, does not impress me. Holy Cross has just one win this year and that win came against Richmond.

The Pessimist: Fair enough.

The Optimist: After we take down Harvard, beat Princeton and Cornell at home, we head down to Brown and there’s probably no one I’d rather be playing  to protect our Ivy League lead.

The Pessimist: That’s assuming you have the Ivy League lead.

The Optimist: Don’t forget who you are dealing with. Now where were we? Oh yeah, Brown. They’ve lost their last two games and are back to their old tricks, giving up points by the boatload. They thought they were hot stuff after pounding Georgetown in their opener but then took a 41-7 licking from Harvard. Two weeks ago Princeton scored 40 on them. There’s no D in Brown, Bears or Bruno, whatever they call themselves.

The Pessimist: Be forewarned, they are capable of an upset. Perhaps I should remind you that earlier this season they had that stunning 28-21 win over then-No. 8 Rhode Island.

The Optimist: Perhaps I should remind you we’ve beaten them seven times in a row and 10 out of the last 11 meetings. They haven’t beaten us in Providence since 2009, and we’ve won our last four games against them by 28, 25, 23 and 21 points.

The Pessimist: Perhaps I should remind you that earlier this season they had that stunning 28-21 win over then-No. 8 Rhode Island.

The Optimist: You already said that.

The Pessimist: Oops. That can mean just one thing.

The Optimist: Two things. First, you are running out of things to say. And second, it's time for us to wrap things up. See you next week after we beat Harvard to grab a share of the Ivy League lead.

The Pessimist: I'll see you next week, either way.

Your Mileage May Vary - Week Six

 HANOVER – Here’s your weekly six-pack-plus of thoughts and observations after Dartmouth dismantled Columbia Friday night. As always, your mileage may vary. ;-)

1) The Columbia game was a statistical anomaly. How many times will a team run just five plays in the first quarter? Not many. Now, how many times will a team run just five plays in the first quarter and lead 21-0? Most people would have said never until Friday night. Likewise, how many times will a team have more punts than it had in any game all season, and win by 46 points?

2) Sophomore punter Luke Armistead isn’t getting much work, but he’s been a weapon this fall. He punted for a 47.0-yard average Friday night. He’s now been over 40 yards in every game but the opener against New Hampshire. For the record, Armistead has punted 12 times in six games, so he’s on pace for 20 punts this fall. Since Sammy McCorkle arrived in Hanover in 2005 the fewest punts Dartmouth has had in a season is 32 in 2019. Over the 19-plus seasons McCorkle has been on staff the Big Green has punted 30-39 times in a year on four occasions; 40-49 times on eight occasions; 50-59 times on five occasions; and 60 or more times twice. The high was 64 punts in 2005. Prior to Friday night’s four punts, Armistead was on pace to punt 16 times this fall.

3) Dartmouth has 10 sacks this year with linebacker/edge rusher Teddy Gianaris leading the way with three. While the defensive line has been solid, it has accounted for just 2.5 sacks with Bruce Williams and Joe Onuwabhagbe having one each, and Keoni Perkins being credited with a half sack. Ejike Adele had six sacks last year by himself, and Josiah Green had three.

4) The lede of yesterday’s BGA Overtime story dealt with the impact Matisse Weaver has made with his directional kickoffs. Here’s what the story did not mention. Weaver is also talented enough in field goal/pat kicking that he was neck-and-neck with Owen Zalc for that role when the two were freshmen. Then coach Buddy Teevens said at the time it was pretty much a game-week decision to go with Zalc, who went on to become the Ivy League rookie of the year. It was that close.

5) It’s always interesting when a team arrives out of nowhere to win a championship the way Columbia did in 2024. Programs that build steadily are much less likely to fall off the edge of a cliff the way the Lions have this year. Granted, Columbia made steady improvement with the arrival of Al Bagnoli in 2015, and quarterback injuries certainly played a part in this fall’s struggles, but because the Lions’ skipped a couple of rungs on the ladder last year that slide this year probably isn’t as much of a surprise as some would have you believe.

6) When I was at one of my newspaper jobs, a young writer asked a coach whose team had won the first game of a doubleheader but blew a lead in the final inning of the nightcap if his team accomplished what he hoped. I almost took a step back as the writer was finishing up his question. The coach’s response went about like I expected. I had to stifle a laugh when a young writer asked coach Sammy McCorkle Saturday night if he was already thinking about the FCS playoffs. The good thing is McCorkle’s team had won (although I know him well enough to know even if they had lost I wouldn’t have had to take that step back ;-).  It was no surprise at all that McCorkle answered with two one-word “sentences.” He said:

“Nope.

"Harvard.”

And you knew it was coming . . . 

7) OK, I get it. You can’t predict the future. But the Ivy League Friday night TV schedule featuring now 1-5 Columbia three times and now 6-1 Dartmouth just once is a disaster. I’m no fan of “flexible” scheduling and I suppose it wouldn’t be possible to adjust the broadcast schedule on the fly because of class schedules, hotel reservations and transportation issues, so the Ivy League is stuck. The expectation here is that ESPNU broadcasters Eric Frede and Jack Ford better have a lot of backup material ready in another week when Harvard visits Columbia.

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Editor's Note: Given that Harvard is probably the busiest week for BGA and BGA Overtime readership, this is a good time to thank everyone who has encouraged me to keep this site going. It seems whenever my enthusiasm begins to wane and I wonder if all the work I put in is worth it, I hear from a few of you - as I did last week - and it charges my batteries. So thank you again and keep reading!

What They Did & What They Said After Columbia

 HANOVER – Contributing mightily to Columbia’s woes in Friday night’s game were problems in the kick return game. Before delving into the problems, a little history lesson.

It was in 2018 that the NCAA enacted the rule allowing the receiving team to fair catch a kickoff inside the 25-yard line and have it serve as a touchback.

Already concerned about concussive injuries on kickoff returns, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens studied field starting field position numbers and in the second year of the new rule laid down the law. The only kickoff returns would be at the end of the half, the end of a game, or when a returner “went rogue,” as he called it with a smile one time when a player couldn’t help himself and took off running after catching the ball.

Given that Sammy McCorkle was a special teams standout at Florida and served as Dartmouth’s special teams coach, it’s understandable why his kickoff return was one of the few areas that he changed after taking over for his mentor.

In Teevens’ final three seasons, Dartmouth returned four, three, and three kickoffs. By way of contrast, the Big Green returned 17 and then 14 kickoffs in McCorkle’s first two years.

Through six games this fall, however, Dartmouth has returned just three kickoffs and what he saw McCorkle saw Friday night might be why.

Columbia returned eight kickoffs against the Big Green, and the result was starting field position at the seven, eight, 15, 19, 22, and 23-yard lines. That set the Lions up on average at the 15½-yard line. A dropped fair catch brought about the drive that started at the seven but two completed fair catches set Columbia up at the 25, a 10-yard bonus over where it started on the other kicks.

The kickoff return issues left Columbia with long fields, and Lions coach Jon Poppe gave credit where it was due. While Dartmouth kickoff specialist Matisse Weaver averaged 57.2 yards per kick – well under the 60.8 Columbia’s kicker is averaging this fall – it wasn’t because he doesn’t have a big leg. It was by design.

Matisse Weaver

“The Dartmouth kicker, God bless him, is a professional at squib kicks,” said Poppe. “He did a great job placing it and pinning us near a sideline to take away some angles on our return. Dartmouth did a great job forcing us to return the football.

“Some of it is coaching on their end in a positive way, and when you're out of phase with your return, it's tough to create angles, right? That's where you're fighting for every yard you get. I thought our returner besides the drop did a good job fighting for what he got. To have consistent offensive scoring, it's tough to have those starting field positions and score a lot of points in football games, for sure.”

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Senior tailback DJ Crowther topped the century mark for the second time this fall by carrying 18 times for 103 yards. He had 20 carries for 143 yards against New Hampshire in the opener. He’s averaging 95.2 yards per game, second only to the 114.0 of Yale’s Josh Pitsenberger, and well ahead of Columbia’s Michael Walters, who is third with 63.5 yards per game.

Grayson Saunier’s 55 yards have him seventh in the league at 50.5 yards per game. Saunier has run for 303 yards on the season. Crowther is at 572.

Nick Lemon’s three catches for 61 yards represented season highs in both departments. Ky’Dric Fisher had a season-high three catches for 33 yards, and Grayson O’Bara added three grabs for 18 yards.

Zyion Freer-Brown had 12 tackles to lead the Big Green, while Nico Schwikal had seven. Given a little extra run because of the lopsided nature of the game, Steve Simpkins and Sean Chester had six stops apiece. Simpkins had eight tackles in the five games combined prior to Columbia. Chester had four.

Perhaps surprisingly, given how the game played out, punter Luke Armistead had his busiest day of the season, kicking four times for a sterling 47-yard average. His 58-yarder was a season-long. He’s second in the Ivy League with a 44.5-yard season average. Princeton’s Brady Clark averages a league-best 45.7 yards. The Dartmouth record for punting average in a season is 42.9, set by Alex Ware in 2001 on 39 punts.

Dartmouth finished with a slim advantage in first downs, 18-17. Total offense was 358 yards for the Big Green and 271 for Columbia, the low for a Dartmouth opponent this fall. That number was 199 until the Lions put together a 72-yard drive in the fourth quarter.

 A total of 59 players saw action for Dartmouth.

The Big Green led 21-0 after the first quarter despite running just five plays in the period
. On the game, Columbia ran 70 plays to Dartmouth’s 53.

Dartmouth drives in order (plays/yards/result): 5/83/touchdown; 5/19/punt/3/9/punt; 2/14/touchdown; 10/75/touchdown; 6/75/touchdown; 16/69/touchdown; 3/5/punt; 3/8/punt.

Columbia drives in order (plays/yards/result): 7/55/interception; 5/12/punt; 6/14/punt; 10/45/punt; 3/-1/punt; 3/-7/punt; 1/-1/half; 8/47/downs; 3/0/punt; 17/72/field goal; 8/18/end of game.

THEY SAID IT (lightly edited for clarity and brevity)

Columbia coach Jon Poppe on Grayson Saunier: “Watching film, his long speed is what really stands out, and you saw that tonight. He's quick with his cuts and does a great job staying north with his cuts. And he can open up in the open field. That's what you saw tonight. What showed up on film showed up tonight against us. And that's what makes him a very, very good quarterback at this level. I thought he threw the ball pretty well. He opened up the game on a play action, and you know we're screaming, ‘Watch the post, watch the play action.’ It doesn't matter. It was just that kind of night for him. He’s a great player, and I’m excited to see what he continues to do, knowing he's only a junior. I hope he has great success every game besides the next time he plays us.”

Poppe: “I appreciate the way our guys have fought to the end. That's been something that we have been able to hang our hat on, but that's not good enough. There will be some major things to come here in terms of improving our play as the season closes out.”

Dartmouth offensive tackle Delby Lemieux: “I think the biggest thing that comes out of a day like today for us is confidence. We work all week on establishing the run. We knew we wanted to run the ball coming into this game. After a performance like that, the biggest thing we take away from it is, all right, we know we can do it. Now we just have to get back to work on Sunday and the rest of the next week and get ready to do it all over again.”

Dartmouth nickel Tyson Grimm on the confidence the team gained with the big win: “I think it's great just for all three sides of the ball, but we can't get too high and can't get too low. We’ve got to wipe it. We have Harvard next. It’s going to be a great test for us. So we have to look forward to Harvard, understand what we're capable of, but that we can always get better. We have got to focus on what we can improve from this game.” 

Grimm on his “pick six” interception return for a touchdown: “(The Columbia quarterback) didn't really give anything away. It was just reading the keys, just going through my progressions like the coaches tell me to do. Read the receivers, do my job, and then look for the quarterback, and I just happened to be there and make a play.”

Dartmouth defensive back No’Koi Maddox: “Since this last Sunday’s practice,  the team has been . . . really focusing on attack mode. Today I feel like the whole team just brought everything together. Like we have the tools, we have the pieces, and everything just lined up today.”

Maddox on whether he had seen something on film or during the game that gave him confidence that he could get his hands on the punt he blocked and returned for a touchdown: “Yeah, for sure. I came off after the first punt, and I told Coach McCorkle like I could get it, and he gave me the green light, and I just went and got it.

Lemieux on playing on Friday night: “It's fun. You get to be under the lights again. It definitely feels like a little bit of a high school football game. You get that chilly air, the sun's going down while you're warming up, and you're out there under the lights with all your best friends. There's nothing like it.”

McCorkle on the success of the run game: “It comes down to our offensive line. Our guys do a really good job up front. Our offensive line. Our tight ends. And I really thought our wideouts did a much better job this week on the perimeter blocking. A lot of times you don't see that and realize that, but a lot of times when DJ pops, it is because those wideouts are getting hat on a hat, and they're in good position to allow him to find that open space. (The running backs and Saunier) trust the linemen, they trust the blockers, and they trust what we're doing schematically as well.”

McCorkle on Columbia driving down the field on its first possession before Grimm’s 75-yard return for a score turned things around: “I was a little disappointed the way they were running the ball on us. They had a scheme. They came in with a plan, and we did make some adjustments.

 “That interception was huge. That kind of stopped that momentum a little bit. I thought our guys, the front seven, did a really good job of knowing what they were trying to do, knowing the blocking scheme they were trying to do. Donnie Dobes and the rest of the staff did a good job of putting our guys in good places to slow that down.”

McCorkle on why the win over Columbia is a benefit beyond the standings: “We've got dudes in this room. We've got guys who can play. I think some guys were just still not completely confident that they could be that guy. And we just kept telling them, ‘Hey man, you just have to go out there and play, because you can be a really good football player.

“A guy like No’kKoi, he's a sophomore. He's right there. And then all of a sudden he went out there today with a lot of confidence. That's exciting. We had a number of guys like that who stepped up. All it takes is one big play, and that just flips an individual's mentality and their confidence. That's all it takes. And I think a lot of guys did that today.”

McCorkle on whether he’s thinking of playoff ramifications yet in two words: “Nope. Harvard.”