Football Shooting for Winning Season on National TV

The Game: Dartmouth (5-3, 2-3) vs. Brown (4-4, 3-2)
Location: Memorial Field, Hanover, N.H.
Kickoff: Saturday, Nov. 13 at noon
Series Record: Dartmouth leads 54-29-4
Television: VERSUS — Mike Crispino play-by-play, Ross Tucker analyst (video stream will not be available online due to national broadcast)
Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM, SIRIUS Channel 130 — Bob Lipman play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst
Live Audio • Live Stats
Complete Game Notes

Could Be Lucky 13
A national audience, and fans taking advantage of the half-price tickets available for New Hampshire and Vermont residents, have the opportunity to witness something that hasn't happened in 13 years — a winning football season at Dartmouth. With a 5-3 record entering this game that will be televised in high-definition on VERSUS and broadcast on SIRIUS against Brown, a Big Green victory would guarantee that elusive winning campaign.

Dartmouth will have to overcome what could be categorized as stage fright, however, having lost its last nine games on television — including two this season — and 13 of its last 14 dating back to 2006.

Armed with the nation's fifth leading rusher in junior tailback Nick Schwieger, the Big Green have a great opportunity to put an end to both ignominious streaks. Schwieger averages nearly 135 yards a game on the ground and has reached the century mark in five of his seven games on the field. Last week he piled up 164 yards on 31 carries in a 28-10 win at Cornell with a couple of touchdowns. Schwieger is also gunning to become the fourth back in school history to run for 1,000 yards in one season; he has 942 entering the game.

Dartmouth will need quarterback Conner Kempe to snap out of a little funk of late, having completed less than 50 percent of his passes in four of the last five games. But the junior, who is one of seven Big Green QBs to throw for 3,000 yards in a career, has a variety of receiving weapons at his disposal in wide receivers Tim McManus (31 catches, 120 for his career), Michael Reilly (22 catches, 22.4 yards per catch) and Tanner Scott (17-219), as well as the ever-reliable tight end John Gallagher (14-111).

The defense is coming off its finest game of the season having sacked the Big Red quarterback a school-record 10 times, the third most by any FCS team this year. Senior end Charles Bay got to the QB three times himself and ranks eighth nationally in sacks per game, while junior tackle Eddie Smith and senior end Buddy Benaderet had a pair apiece.

Fans should pay attention when Brown kicks away to Dartmouth. Return man Shawn Abuhoff has taken two punts to the house this year, and the Bears allowed Yale to return two kickoffs for touchdowns just last week. Abuhoff is among the top 10 active leaders in the FCS in return average for both punt and kickoff returns.

The Big Green would like to avenge not only last year's overtime loss at Brown, but a loss to the Bears seven years ago when they last had a shot to post a winning record this late in the season. At 4-4, Dartmouth needed to win its last two games but was outscored by Brown in the fourth quarter, 20-7, to fall, 26-21. The Bears got the winning score on a 95-yard drive during the final two minutes of the game.

Television Trials
Over the last three seasons, Dartmouth has had nine of its games televised, most recently Harvard on Oct. 30, but has lost each one. The last Big Green win on TV came against Cornell in a wild 59-31 contest in 2007. Today's game, broadcast nationally on VERSUS in high-definition, is Dartmouth's last shot this year to break the streak. Overall, the Green are 24-46-1 in 71 televised games.

Road Warriors
With the 28-10 win at Cornell, Dartmouth has a 3-1 record on the road, its most victories away from Hanover since winning all five in 1997. Two weeks earlier, the Big Green posted their first Ivy victory on the road in four years with a 24-21 triumph at Columbia, ending a 13-game road skid. Dartmouth has as many road wins this year as it had over the past seven seasons combined.

Sack-alicious
•    The Dartmouth defense put on quite a show at Cornell, sacking the Big Red quarterback a school-record 10 times, a total surpassed by just two FCS teams this year (Sam Houston State, 12; Northern Iowa, 11).
•    The defensive line had nine of the 10 sacks, led by senior end Charles Bay with three with junior tackle Eddie Smith and senior end Buddy Benaderet each providing two, and junior tackles Mark Dwyer and Royce Egeolu one apiece.
•    The lone sack by a non-lineman came from senior linebacker Luke Hussey.
•    The previous high for sacks was nine, accomplished against Holy Cross in 1992 and again versus Princeton in 1996.
•    The Big Green are 17-2 when registering at least six sacks in a game.

Second-Half Stranglehold
In each of the first eight games this year, Dartmouth has trailed at halftime, but has not been outscored during the second half even once. Twice the Green have tied the score after the intermission, only to lose in the final moments. But whenever they have taken the lead, they have won. In the first 10 seasons of Coach Teevens' two tenures, Dartmouth had managed to win a game it trailed at the half six times. It certainly helps to outscore the opposition 134-44 in the second half as the Big Green have thus far.

Road Warrior
The season has been a tale of two sites for quarterback Conner Kempe — home and away. In four road games, Kempe has excelled, completing 60.4 percent of his passes (67-of-111) for 810 yards and eight touchdowns against just two interceptions. But in the four home games, Kempe has hit on just 47.2 percent (50-of-106) of his throws for 634 yards with seven interceptions and nary a touchdown. But before this season, his numbers were better at home. Be wary of small sample sizes!

Going the Extra 100 Yards
Junior tailback Nick Schwieger has posted at least 100 yards rushing in five of his seven games this year, including 164 at Cornell with two touchdowns. Four times in his career he has had at least that many yards in a game, second only to Al Rosier who did it five times in his career. Entering the Brown game, Schwieger is sitting at 942 yards for the season and will likely become Dartmouth's first 1,000-yard rusher since Al Rosier '91 19 years ago and just fourth ever. Coincidentally or not, all four 1,000-yard rushers played for Buddy Teevens.

Topping 220 …
Since 1975, Dartmouth has run for at least 220 yards a total of 63 times, including the 222 yards gained at Cornell on Nov. 6. The Big Green have fared quite well in those games, winning 57 of the contests against just six defeats. Probably a good target for the team.

… and Holding to 75
On the defensive side, the magic number for rushing yards is 75. When Dartmouth holds the opposition to less than 75 yards on the ground, the Big Green has a record of 48-5 since 1975. Cornell managed just 24 rushing yards on Nov. 6, the fewest for an opponent since the Big Red had just 16 in 2004. Oddly enough, that game is one of the five losses.

Schedules