Teevens Named Regional Coach of the Year by Two Organizations

HANOVER, N.H. — After leading the Dartmouth football team to a 9-1 overall record, a top-25 national ranking and a share of the Ivy League crown for the first time in 19 years, Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens was named the Region I FCS Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) today. In addition, the New England Football Writers' Association (NEFWA) has pegged Teevens as its New England Coach of the Year as well.

Teevens is the first Dartmouth football coach to earn the AFCA award since Joe Yukica in 1978, and the fourth overall, joining Bob Blackman (1962, '65, '69, '70), Jake Crouthamel (1973) and Yukica, giving the Big Green a total of seven since the award was instituted following the 1960 season. Only Yale coaches have received the honor more often (8) within the Ivy League.

The NEFWA, which gives its award to the top Division I coach (FCS and FBS), has also bestowed its honor on the Big Green head coach seven times — Blackman in 1958, '62 and '65, Crouthamel in 1973, Yukica in 1978 and John Lyons in 1996, the last time Dartmouth had finished atop the Ivy League standings.

This is the third time Teevens has guided the Big Green to an Ivy League crown, but first since 1991 during his inaugural stint at the helm of the program. He took the head coaching job at Tulane after that season and had a stint leading the Stanford Cardinal before returning to Hanover in 2005.

Led by a smothering defense that led the FCS in fewest points allowed (10.1) and ranked among the top five in rushing yards allowed and total yards allowed, Dartmouth won its first five games by an average margin of 28.6 points to climb into the national rankings for the first time since the end of the 1996 campaign. After defeating Columbia to improve to 6-0, the Big Green traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to try and snap the 20-game win streak owned by two-time defending champion and 15th-ranked Harvard, only to lose by a point in the final minute of play for their lone setback of the season.

Dartmouth rebounded to win its next two contests, while Harvard suffered a loss to Penn — a team the Green defeated earlier in the year handily, 41-20 — putting those three teams in a tie atop the standings. All three won their season finales to give the Ivy League its first three-way tie for the title since 1982 and just the fourth ever.

The Big Green have been knocking on the door of another Ivy League crown for the past five season, finishing second or third every year since 2011. Two years ago, the only thing that kept Dartmouth from forcing another three-way tie was merely the longest game in conference history, a four-overtime loss at Penn. Last year, the Green finished 6-1 in Ivy play as they did this year, but Harvard edged them out for the crown by taking a 23-12 victory over Dartmouth in Hanover.

Over the past two and a half seasons, the Big Green are 21-4 with all four losses coming against ranked opponents.

The AFCA honors one coach in each of the five regions at the five levels of college football — FBS, FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA. The NEFWA will recognize Teevens at its Awards and Captains Banquet at Montvale Plaza in Stoneham, Massachusetts, on Thursday, Dec. 10.

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