How good is the quality in Ivy League football? Look at this story that broke yesterday about how the Winnipeg Blue Bombers gave up
their 1st round pick in next year’s CFL draft just so they could
pick Dartmouth’s Garret Waggoner in yesterday’s supplemental draft. That’s a
big investment, and it’s probably justified.
For the record, Waggoner was not really a factor in Dartmouth’s
easy wins over the Lions in 2014 and 2013. But in the last minute Big Green win
at Wien Stadium in 2012, he was the leading tackler with 10 total stops and one
pass breakup.
In the pass-happy, three-down CFL, good defensive backs are more
important than they are in the NFL. That was why Columbia’s standout safety Tad Crawford ’07 was drafted by the CFL
and played up there for five seasons.
If you hate waiting for football over the summer, remember
that the CFL regular season kicks off on June 25th.
Looking at the New Yalies
Here are the members of the announced Yale freshmen/newcomer
football class that caught my eye:
We all know that WR Bo Hines is transferring in from N.C.
State. This guy is the real deal.
But 290-pound DT Daniel James from Baton Rouge could end up
being an even bigger impact player over the long haul. Joining James on the
D-line is DE Bronson Krull who was an all state player in Ohio.
A 6-6 linebacker is bound to catch your attention and Yale
has one of those now that J. Hunter Roman is on the way. Roman was a 2-time 1st
team all stater in Connecticut.
DE Peter Firestone has the size and experience to fit in
well in New Haven.
And in our league that has gone from suffering a dearth of
top running backs to now suffering a dearth of any running backs at all, RB
Kyle Ellerson from Bergen Catholic looks like he has a chance to make a good
impact in the Ivies. He’s a speed runner who can get to the outside.
5 comments:
Jake, five years ago Dartmouth was about at our level. Same coach, but now Dartmouth is a top tier program. So what happened? In general, Dartmouth has not experienced the same explosion in total number of applicants that we have experienced. And Dartmouth has recruiting disadvantages, including a remote location, a weird tri/semester arrangement, and brutal winters. So how has Buddy done it? Has he gotten any "gifts from admissions"? They clearly have upgraded their roster, but how? In terms of a place to go to school, I would put Dartmouth just above Cornell but at the bottom of the league. Great school, to be sure, but lots of recruiting negatives.
Old Lion,
Here's my take on Dartmouth and it's been the same take for awhile. Three things led to their rise to very competitive football:
1) They got new coordinators and paid the money to attract two very serious guys for the job.
2) Safeguards were put in place to keep Buddy from doing some of the stupid things he was doing to screw things up from time to time. No one wants to take credit for this move for obvious, but it happened.
3) Dalyn Williams. The addition of a talented double threat like Williams is about 50% of the reason for this improvement. Columbia had the exact same chance with Brackett, but we didn't have the serious and good OC to use him properly. Dartmouth's staff has utilized and protected Williams expertly from day one.
With the staff we have in place now at Columbia, all we need is to find the kind of recruits Norries often got us. It will happen and this time I think we'll manage the talent better.
Hey Jake: are you really saying that if Columbia had a better OC with Brackett that the program would have turned around?
Are you saying that we had the talent but lost because of bad coaching?
I acquired respect for Buddy Teevens with the resurgence of Dartmouth recently but I do wonder how much of it is his doing. I like the guy and respect him but look at the flame outs at Tulane and Stanford. Those were tough places to win but if you recall, Tulane had a great few seasons after he left and look at Stanford's after his departure - top 10. No one said "hey now that Buddy is gone, let's put money into our program to improve." I don't put all that much stock in that being the reason for the turnaround at Dartmouth. They just got some good players to help them win!
As for the CFL, it is simply an opportunity for some guys to keep playing and earn a somewhat respectable living. If they really like a player they make decent money. If you are just a rank and file guy, you are brutalizing your body for peanuts.
Al- agree with you-but most hs coaches in the country feel very comfortable with Teevans coaching their players. As for Stanford, they drastically changed their football admissions policy after Buddy was gone.
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