Scouting Dartmouth

Flo Orimolade


With all the All Ivy talent that graduated earlier this year for Dartmouth, everyone knew the Big Green would have to succeed this year mostly on grit, guile, and good coaching.

So far, that's exactly what they've done.

Dartmouth comes in to New York this weekend in hopes of spoiling Columbia's 16th straight Homecoming with a 3-2 record, a good defense, and an offense that seems to get the more out of less.

Let's start with the defense. Overall, it's simply good but not great. The pass defense numbers are better than the run defense numbers, with nine sacks and a sub-par 5.7 yards per attempt number for opposing passers. The run defense is not terrible, but it was the biggest reason why the Big Green lost at Yale two weeks ago.

As advertised, LB Folarin "Flo" Orimolade is a major star. He's leading the team with 40 tackles and already has five sacks. DB Lucas Bavaro, son of NY Giants great Mark Bavaro, has made some crucial stops this year and has three pass breakups and two fumble recoveries. Nick Tompkins may be the best D-lineman in his first year as a starter.

The offense has been led by the steady if not spectacular Jack Heneghan who has passing stats Columbia fans would give up a lot for if they were for any Lion QB. One thing that stands out is he's only been sacked four times in five games. In addition to good protection, he's not eating the ball unwisely. His seven picks are a bit of a concern.

Lots of teams claim to run the ball by committee, but Dartmouth really does it. Ryder Stone has the most carries at just 44, fewer than nine per game. Overall, the Green is averaging a nice 4.6 yards per carry and a decent 148 yards per game. Again, the O-line deserves a lot of credit here.

Speaking of spreading it around, five Dartmouth receivers have 10 or more catches on the year. But no one has more than the modest 19 catches and 228 yards than Drew Hunnicutt. Big play receivers the Big Green has had in the past like Ryan McManus or Victor Williams either aren't around this year, or Heneghan just isn't the kind of guy to get it to them. The longest pass play for Dartmouth this season was for 37 yards.

Placekicker David Smith has been very accurate. He's 6 for 7 on FG's and a perfect 12-12 on PAT's. But his range doesn't look like it's much longer than 35 yards. Punter Ben Kepley has been excellent.
None of the Dartmouth returners seems dangerous this year.

But the best thing going for the Big Green are the intangibles. You know something is going your way when you block a short FG try to basically ice a win against a team like Towson. You also know things are going your way when the three scholarship teams you play look kind of small when the final gun sounds.