Preseason Poll Tabs Big Green for Sixth

Dartmouth takes the field for the 2017 season opener at Stetson.

Dartmouth is ready to take the field for the 2018 season.

Photo by: Mike Janes Photography

8/20/2018 2:00:00 PM | Football

Dartmouth has overachieved its predicted finish eight of the last nine years.

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Buddy Teevens, Dartmouth's Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach, should be used to his team being underestimated in the preseason polls. Eight times in the last nine seasons, Dartmouth finished higher than the Ivy League media prognosticated prior to the season, including last year when the Big Green tied for second after being pegged to come in fifth.

Certainly Teevens is expecting his team to make it nine of the last 10 years as the Ivy League announced the results of its preseason football poll today with Dartmouth tabbed to finish sixth, despite receiving votes in the STATS Preseason FCS Poll. Last year's champion, Yale, claimed the top spot with 129 points thanks to 11 of the 17 first-place votes, while Princeton landed in second place with 104 points and three first-place votes. The last three votes for a team to win the title went to each of the next three squads, one apiece, with Harvard (99) in third, and Columbia and Penn tied for fourth with 76 points. Following the Big Green's 65 points were Cornell (37) and Brown (26).

"The only standings that matter to me come at the end of the season," Teevens said in regard to the poll. "Aretha Franklin sang about respect, but the best way to get respect is by earning it on the field every year."

One can understand the media's low expectations for Dartmouth with the graduation of half of its starters on offense and defense, including quarterback Jack Heneghan who signed a free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers and running back Ryder Stone, now playing for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League.

But Big Green fans have plenty to look forward to with great competition behind center in the form of junior Jake Pallotta, sophomore Derek Kyler and University of Florida transfer Jake Allen, as well as junior Wildcat quarterback Jared Gerbino. Dartmouth also has a cadre of capable running backs in seniors Miles Smith — an All-Ivy League honorable mention as a sophomore who suffered through an injury-plagued junior campaign — Rashaad Cooper and Matthew Shearin, along with a handful of other contenders including junior Caylin Parker and sophomore Ethan Maenze and Dakari Falconer.

The defense will be centered around senior linebacker Jack Traynor, one of the top-five leading returning tacklers across the FCS and a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection a year ago. And with the return of fifth-year defenders Rocco Di Leo (DL) and Kyran McKinney-Crudden (NB), plus All-Ivy cornerback Isiah Swann, the Big Green has a strong nucleus around which to build its smothering defense.

Dartmouth will open its season on Sept. 15 when it hosts Georgetown at 1:30 p.m. Fans will be able to watch the game by subscribing to ESPN+ with Tyler Murray and Matt Goldstein calling the action from Memorial Field. The contest will also be broadcast on the airwaves on 94 ESPN Radio (94.3 FM out of Claremont, 94.5 FM out of White River Junction), as well as online at 945espn.com with Brett Franklin and Wayne Young '72 on the call. Tickets for the game are available by calling the Dartmouth Athletics Ticket Office at (603) 646-2466 or purchasing online at tickets.dartmouth.edu.

2018 Preseason Ivy League Football Media Poll
Place	Team (1st-place votes)	Points
1.	Yale (11)	129
2.	Princeton (3)	104
3.	Harvard (1)	99
4.	Columbia (1)	76
	Penn (1)	76
6.	Dartmouth	65
7.	Cornell	37
8.	Brown	26