Season Opener Set for Saturday

The Game: Dartmouth (0-0) vs. Colgate (1-1)
Location: Memorial Field, Hanover, N.H.
Kickoff: Saturday, Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m.
Series Record: Colgate leads 18-5-1
Video: Big Green Insider ($) in HD, produced by NSN
Radio: WFRD 99.3 FM; Dartmouth Sports Network
Tickets: Online or call (603) 646-2466
Live Stats • Complete Game Notes

Opening the 130th Season
A familiar foe returns to the fold as Colgate invades Memorial Field to start off Dartmouth's 130th season of varsity football. After squaring off for eight straight seasons, the two schools held a one-year hiatus in the series last year.

As it turns out, the Raiders are the last non-conference team to defeat the Big Green on their home turf in a 34-15 contest two years ago. Dartmouth knocked off both Sacred Heart and Holy Cross last year in Hanover, and now looks to extend that home streak against teams outside the league to three, which would be its longest since winning five straight in 1994-96.

The Green are coming off a 6-4 campaign in 2010, their first winning season in 13 years. No less than seven starters return on offense, including the Bushnell Cup co-winner, running back Nick Schwieger. The senior tri-captain posted the second most rushing yards in a Dartmouth season last year with 1,133 while barreling his way to 14 touchdowns, leading the Ivy League in scoring.

Guiding the offense will be senior Conner Kempe, already sixth in the Big Green annals with 3,333 passing yards. And with two terrific senior targets in tri-captain Tim McManus (career 126 receptions for 1,550 yards) and tight end John Gallagher, Dartmouth will feature a balanced attack week in and week out.

An experienced offensive line that yielded just seven sacks a year ago returns to protect Kempe and blow open holes for Schwieger, anchored by a preseason All-America left guard in senior Ryan O'Neill. Dartmouth also has seniors at center in Austen Fletcher, a four-year starter, and left tackle in Kyle Cook.

On the other side of the ball, head coach Buddy Teevens has nine returning starters on an improving defense that yielded 212 points in 2010, the second fewest by a Big Green squad in the last 13 seasons. It's not often that a team's most exciting defensive player is a cornerback, but senior Shawn Abuhoff holds that distinction with 10 career interceptions and 36 passes defended in his career.

Abuhoff is a member of a veteran defensive secondary that features two other seniors and a junior, but the defensive line holds the distinction of starting all seniors. That group is led by tackle Eddie Smith, who was second on the team last year in tackles for a loss and sacks.

The linebackers will be spearheaded by senior Luke Hussey on the strong side, junior Garrett Wymore in the middle and stellar sophomore Bronson Green on the weak side.

Special teams was a source of pride last year, and all the key players are back for an encore. Abuhoff picked up All-America first-team honors for his work as a return man after bringing back three punts for touchdowns. Senior placekicker Foley Schmidt is on the verge of cracking Dartmouth's top 10 career scoring list, and sophomore Daniel Barstein already has a full season as the punter under his belt.

The Ivy League media has pegged the Big Green to finish exactly where they did in the standings last year — fifth. But Teevens and his players have their sights set on adding to the school's total of 17 Ivy championships, the most of any conference member. Teevens has been a part of three of those titles, one coming as a player when he won the Bushnell Cup as the Big Green quarterback in 1978, and two more as the head coach in his first stint in Hanover in 1990 and '91.

Preseason All-Americans
The Big Green feature no less than three seniors who have been labeled as preseason All-Americans by various publications, beginning with Shawn Abuhoff. The cornerback, a Sports Network/Fathead.com first team All-American last year as a return specialist, is poised to become Dartmouth's all-time leading return man, plus can set a new school record with four more interceptions.

Running back Nick Schwieger was the co-winner of the Bushnell Cup award last year as the Ivy League MVP and is aiming to set his own school mark for career rushing yards. He needs just 413 more to break the record held by Al Rosier '91. Blocking for him will be senior Ryan O'Neill, who is the third of the trio to be recognized. The left guard was part of a unit that allowed just seven sacks all last year and paved the way for Schwieger to rack up 1,133 yards on the ground.

Shawn Abuhoff	Sports Network 2nd Team Phil Steele's 3rd Team College Sporting News 3rd Team
Nick Schwieger	FCS Senior Scout Bowl 2nd Team Phil Steele's 3rd Team College Sporting News 3rd Team
Ryan O'Neill	Lindy's 2nd Team

Preseason All-Ivy
Last year, the Big Green earned six spots on the All-Ivy first team — the most for the Big Green in 14 years — and two more on the second team, all but one of whom returned this season. So it should not come as a surprise that Dartmouth led the league in preseason all-conference selections with 11 as chosen by Phil Steele's College Football Magazine.

Shawn Abuhoff was listed on the first team at both cornerback and punt return, while making the second team for kickoff return, accounting for three selections alone. Nick Schwieger was joined on the offensive first team by two linemen — Austen Fletcher and Ryan O'Neill — and senior tight end John Gallagher. Defensive players dominated the second team selections with linebacker Luke Hussey, free safety Garrett Waggoner and cornerback J.B. Andreassi, the last of which missed most of last year with an injury.

Records Watch
With several stellar seniors wrapping up their careers this year, numerous Dartmouth records are likely to be broken.

Running back Nick Schwieger has the opportunity to break career marks for rushing yards and attempts, as well as all-purpose yards. Entering the season, he has 1,840 yards on the ground and needs just 413 to surpass the mark of 2,252 set by Al Rosier '91. Before Schwieger passes that standard, he likely will overcome Jeff Dufresne '81 who carried the ball 450 times; Schwieger has already taken a handoff 408 times. As for all-purpose yardage, he is 665 yards behind Rosier's record of 3,350. And while the Norton, Mass., native needs just six more rushing touchdowns to move into second place in the Big Green career annals, he has to more than double his career total to reach Myles Lane '28, who marched into the end zone 33 times back in the day.

On the defensive side, keep an eye on senior cornerback Shawn Abuhoff, who needs to match his interception total from a year ago (4) to set a new Big Green career record. Scott Sims '89 set the standard of 13 before being matched by Lloyd Lee '97, the latter of which picked off a Dartmouth record seven passes in his sophomore campaign. But Abuhoff also has his sights set on a return record. Steven Jensen '05 amassed 2,027 yards on kickoff and punt returns, meaning Abuhoff will own that record with just 118 more return yards.

Forecasted for Fifth
Don't expect the coaching staff or the players to accept the fate the Ivy League media chose for them as Dartmouth was pegged for fifth in the preseason poll. Coming off their first winning season in 13 years and a fifth-place finish, the Big Green have plenty of experience back to vault further up the league standings. Penn was picked to win its third straight title, followed by Harvard, Yale and Brown. The last three spots in the poll were claimed by Columbia in sixth, and Cornell and Princeton tied for seventh. The complete poll is on page seven.

The Experience Factor
The offense features seven starters returning and the defense nine, with 15 of the 22 total starters on the two sides expected to be seniors. Many of those returners come at the skill positions, as evidenced by the numbers. As a team, Dartmouth gained 1,657 rushing yards a year ago; all but 26 of those yards are back with the Green in 2011 with nearly 1,500 of those yards claimed by Nick Schwieger and Dominick Pierre. Every pass thrown is accounted for, whereas a few more receiving opportunities should arise as 834 of the 1,779 receiving yards (46.9 percent) are gone. Defensively, 11 of 12 interceptions are back, while 617 of the 776 tackles (nearly 80 percent) are suiting up for the Green again. And don't forget those kickers — all punts, extra points and field goals are back, although a new leg will perform kickoff duties.

Opening Day
Historically, the Big Green have been quite successful in the first action of the year. Overall they have an 84-42-3 record which includes a 49-game winning streak from 1895 to 1943. During the streak, Dartmouth outscored its opposition by a total of 1,562-52 with 39 shutouts. The Green also won 13 straight from 1960-72. Over the last 27 seasons, however, Dartmouth is just 6-21 on opening day.
Although Dartmouth is 3-8 in season openers under Coach Teevens, it ended a four-game skid with a 43-20 road victory at Bucknell last year.

1987	H	Princeton		3	34	L
1988	H	Penn		27	33	L
1989	H	Princeton		14	20	L
1990	H	Penn		6	16	L
1991	A	Penn		21	15	W
2005	H	Colgate		26	21	W
2006	A	Colgate		7	28	L
2007	H	Colgate	(ot)	28	31	L
2008	A	Colgate		20	34	L
2009	H	Colgate		15	34	L
2010	A	Bucknell		43	20	W

Schedules

Players Mentioned

Shawn Abuhoff

Shawn Abuhoff

J.B. Andreassi

Daniel Barstein

Kyle Cook

Austen Fletcher

Austen Fletcher

John Gallagher

John Gallagher

Bronson Green

Luke Hussey

Luke Hussey

Conner Kempe

Tim McManus

Ryan O'Neill

Dominick Pierre

Foley Schmidt

Nick Schwieger

Nick Schwieger

Eddie Smith

Garrett Waggoner

Garrett Wymore

Footer

Schedules

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Upcoming Event: Football at Fordham on October 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM

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