Senior Day and "The Tussle" to Conclude the Season

Saturday, November 19

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

The 2022 seniors

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Senior Day and "The Tussle" to Conclude the Season

11/17/2022 2:03:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Nov. 19 NESN ESPN+Audio Broadcast Live Stats Teevens Teleteaser @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth has won seven of the last eight meetings with Brown

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (2-7, 1-5) vs. Brown (3-6, 1-5)
Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022 | 1:30 PM
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.
NESN, ESPN+ — Matt Corsetti play-by-play, Steve Goldberg analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst

"The Tussle" Comes to Hanover
Dartmouth and Brown will finish the 2022 season at Memorial Field on Saturday with the 99th meeting between the two teams on the gridiron. The game should be referred to as "The Tussle," as coined by Bruce Wood of the Big Green Alert blog, in honor of the College Football Hall of Famer Tuss McLaughry who served as head coach for both squads — Brown from 1926-40 followed by Dartmouth from 1941-54.

The Tussle has mostly gone Dartmouth's way in recent years with the Green winning seven of the last eight contests, including last year's 52-31 triumph to clinch a share of the program's 20th Ivy League crown. But Dartmouth should not get too comfortable considering the host team in the series has lost nine of the last 11 matchups.

Last week, it was another close loss for the Big Green, this time a 17-13 decision at Cornell. Nick Howard nearly pulled off a last-minute victory, like at Columbia three weeks prior. But after marching the offense to the Big Red 8, his pass on the final play of the game was caught by Jonny Barrett (who led the team with five catches for 69 yards), only to have the senior land just out of bounds in the corner of the end zone.

The biggest play by a running back in the game was not from carrying the football but rather throwing it — Noah Roper's 16-yard touchdown toss to Jarmone Sutherland that put the Green on the board in the second quarter.
Howard finished the game with a career-high 213 yards and a TD on 19-of-33 passes, but the running game was mostly subdued with just 47 yards on 20 carries, the fifth game under 100 yards this season (first time in 13 years).

The defense produced one of its best games of the season, holding Cornell to 10 points and 276 yards, the latter the fewest since the season opener. DL Charles Looes amassed a career-high 12 tackles and recovered a key fourth-quarter fumble, the Ivy leader in tackles, LB Joe Heffernan, had 11 stops, and LB Macklin Ayers (fourth in the FCS in tackles per game) showed he is fully healthy with 10 of his own.

Dartmouth's downfall came after Howard hit Jace Henry for a 22-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Cornell quickly answered that punch by taking the ensuing kickoff 91 yards to the end zone, immediately wiping out any momentum.
At Brown last year, Dartmouth fell behind, 14-7, before taking a seven-point lead into halftime, then scored three touchdowns in a row after the intermission to take control of the game. The Green piled up 324 rushing yards and ran for four TDs — including a 65-yard burst to the end zone by Keegan McHugh — while Derek Kyler threw for 215 yards and three more scores.

Prior to the game, Dartmouth will honor 37 seniors and fifth-years — 33 players and four managers — as part of the Senior Day festivities. Those fifth-years have had a hand in a total of 29 victories and would love to make that a round number.

Scouting the Bears
Brown produced a couple of close victories against non-conference opponents, knocking off Bryant in double overtime and CCSU by a touchdown, but like Dartmouth has only managed one win in league play, but it was over Penn, 34-31, ending the Quakers perfect season in week seven.

The Bears rely heavily on the passing game, which ranks among the top 25 in the FCS. But they have had to turn to Aidan Gilman behind center after starter Jake Willcox suffered an injury against Penn. While Gilman did lead the team to victory over the Quakers, he has since thrown for 137 yards in each of the last two games with four picks.

Five different players have at least 20 catches, led by Wes Rockett and Hayes Sutton with 44 apiece, tied for sixth in the Ancient Eight. The duo has combined for over 900 yards and six TDs as well. And Graham Walker averages over four catches a game, but short passes are the norm for the Bears with just two of their top six receivers averaging even 10 yards a catch (Rockett is the highest at 11.8).

On the ground, Brown averages fewer than 3.0 yards per carry and slightly more than 100 per game. Allen Smith is the primary ball carrier with 398 yards on 132 carries but does have 10 touchdowns, tied for the Ivy lead. Jordan DeLucia has been a nice change of pace, picking up just over four yards on his 57 carries.

The defense features CB Isaiah Reed (team-best 46 tackles) who has one of the Bears' five interceptions to go with eight pass breakups. DE Terrence Lane II is the top pass rusher with 3.5 sacks and 5.5 TFL, and CB Cooper DeVeau is another good cover man with 10 PBUs and a pick. But Brown is looking for more takeaways as it ranks among the bottom five in the FCS in turnover margin.

Austin Alley has taken over the place kicking duties of late and is 4-of-4 on field goals, while punter Michael Walsh doesn't kick long but limits the return game.

Head coach James Perry (Brown '00) is 7-22 in his third season at the helm of the Bears. He began his coaching career at Dartmouth before stops at Williams, Maryland, Brown and Princeton before his first head coaching gig at Bryant (2017-18). As a player, Perry earned the Bushnell Cup by quarterbacking the Bears to an Ivy title in 1999 and posted a 23-7 record as a starter.

Senior Day
The final home game of the season is always a bit bittersweet as Dartmouth fans thank the senior class as they wrap up their Big Green career. For the group of eight fifth-year seniors, they have been a part of 29 victories thus far and would like to make that an even 30 with a win over Brown. Please salute the 33 players and four managers for all of their efforts to make Dartmouth Football a special program.

Host Leaving the Post
Best rhyme I could come up with that at least somewhat applied here. For the last 11 seasons, the host team in the series between Dartmouth and Brown has not fared well, losing nine of those 11 meetings. Thankfully for the Big Green, the two wins have been secured in Hanover — 44-21 in 2014 and 49-7 four years ago. Let's hope that recent pattern holds, the host team winning every four years …

Another Close Loss
With the 17-13 loss at Cornell, the Big Green have suffered three defeats in the Ivy League by four points or fewer and another in overtime. Generally speaking, most of Dartmouth's losses in league play over the last decade have been within one score. Since the start of the 2012 campaign, the Big Green own a record of 46-23 with 17 of those losses by no more than eight points.

Five TD Passes, Five QBs
Over the last four games, Dartmouth has tossed five touchdown passes, and each one was thrown by a different player. In a 27-24 win at Columbia, QB Dylan Cadwallader had a 6-yard score before WR Paxton Scott pulled off a "Philly special" on a 5-yard TD toss. Two weeks later, it was QB Jackson Proctor's turn at Princeton from 8 yards out. And most recently, RB Noah Roper heaved a 16-yard touchdown before QB Nick Howard finally got into the act with his 22-yard strike in the end zone. Prior to this season, the Big Green never had more than three players throw a touchdown pass in a season. So the question is: Who's next?

Howard Howitzer
Senior QB Nick Howard is starting to get the hang of this throwing thing having connected on 19-of-33 passes at Cornell on Nov. 12. He amassed a career-high 213 yards through the air with one touchdown and nearly another on the game's final play that would have lifted the Green to victory.

Top Tacklers
The Dartmouth defense is third in the league in fewest points allowed (conference games only) and a big reason for that is the linebacking duo of Joe Heffernan and Macklin Ayers. Heffernan leads the Ivy League with 68 tackles in the six Ancient Eight contests, an 11.3 average. And despite missing two games, Ayers is sixth in total tackles (44) and third in tackles per game (11.0). Overall, Ayers is fourth in the nation with 10.9 tackles per game and Heffernan is 12th at 10.0.

From Looes to Highest
Heffernan (11) and Ayers (10) both posted double-digit tackles at Cornell, but it was DL Charles Looes who led the team with a career-high dozen stops. The senior also had a tackle for a loss and recovered a key fumble in the fourth quarter to punctuate his day. Other defenders with a career high in tackles against the Big Red were DB Leonard St. Gourdin (9) and DL Alex Schmidt (7).