Season Opener Brings Valparaiso to Hanover

Saturday, September 17

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Valparaiso

Quinten Arello (34) is one of the three captains that will lead the Big Green in 2022.

Photo by: Doug Austin

9/15/2022 7:00:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Sept. 17 Memorial Field ESPN+ Broadcast Audio Broadcast Live Stats Interview with Coach Teevens @DartmouthFTBL Dartmouth Notes Valparaiso Notes

Dartmouth has won 11 straight season openers and 19 consecutive non-conference games

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (0-0) vs. Valparaiso (1-1)
Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022 | 1:30 PM | ESPN+
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.

140th Season Kicks Off
The two-time defending Ivy League champion returns to the gridiron for its 2022 season opener with Valparaiso of the Pioneer Football League in town on Saturday. Dartmouth has won 11 consecutive season openers, the longest active streak among FCS schools, and the Big Green would like nothing more than to make it an even dozen.

Not only have the Big Green won 11 straight season openers, they also have a streak of 19 consecutive non-conference victories on the line. No team in the FCS has a longer streak, unless you only count regular-season games. North Dakota State has won 21 in a row entering a showdown at FBS Arizona this weekend.

Last year, Dartmouth opened its season on the road against these newly named Beacons for the first meeting between the two schools. The Big Green showed some rust after sitting out the 2020 season due to the pandemic, but they eventually disposed of Valparaiso, 28-18.

The Ivy League media have faith in this team as Dartmouth tied for first with Harvard in the preseason poll. This is the first year the Green have been picked to top the standings since Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens began his second stint at the helm in 2005, even with Dartmouth returning just three starters on defense and graduating four of the five starters on the offensive line.

A number of those graduates are off playing as graduate transfers, including QB Derek Kyler (Pitt), CB Isaiah Johnson (Syracuse), OL John Paul Flores (Virginia), OL Jake Guidone (UConn), LB Jalen Mackie (UMass) and TE Robbie Mangas (Buffalo). Each one of those players received All-Ivy honors in 2021, yet Dartmouth has the talent to fill the void.

FIrst and foremost, the Big Green have veteran players at the skill positions, beginning with QB Nick Howard. An All-Ivy First Team selection, the senior will be counted upon to take on the bulk of the passing duties after serving as primarily a Wildcat QB — albeit an excellent one — a year ago as he was sixth nationally and tied a 93-year-old program record with 15 rushing TDs.

Dartmouth is deep in the backfield with Zack Bair and Noah Roper back in the mix along with a slew of talented backs to help take the running workload off Howard. And with last year's top two receivers returning in Paxton Scott and Dale Chesson, the Green have the makings of an explosive offense.

Defense has been a staple of Dartmouth's recent successes, ranking among the top three FCS teams in fewest points allowed in each of the last three seasons. The defensive line will be anchored by All-Ivy DE Shane Cokes with plenty of support from a gaggle of seniors. Returning sackmaster Marques White leads the linebacking corps with fifth-year senior Joe Heffernan providing an additional veteran presence. And FS Quinten Arello — one of the three captains along with Cokes and Howard — will be the leader of a relatively inexperienced secondary.

Special teams will miss PK Connor Davis, who converted the last 75 PATs of his career and is seventh on the all-time Big Green scoring charts. Ryan Bloch and Zach Drescher will both have opportunities to show their place-kicking acumen, and sophomore Davis Golick will handle the punting duties after winning the job halfway through his rookie campaign. Jamal Cooney will have the spotlight on him on punt returns after averaging nearly 14 yards per return in 2021.

Scouting the Beacons
Valparaiso has played two tight games to start the season, defeating Division II Indiana Wesleyan, 20-17, before battling Illiois State of the MVC in a 28-21 defeat.

This is a young squad with a whopping 67 freshmen (18 redshirts) on the roster and just 12 seniors and fifth-years. Two of those redshirt freshmen are vying to lead the offense in QBs Michael Appel Jr. and Mason Kaplan. Appel started the opener and completed 13-of-20 passes but left early in the third quarter and Kaplan has been out there ever since. He has connected on just over half of his throws (21-of-41) with a pair of scores but three interceptions as well.

Aaron Dawson is the featured back, averaging 5.5 yards a carry with 176 rushing yards in the two games. But most of the fifth-year senior's yards (147) came in the opener as he was bottled up against the Redbirds with a mere 29 yards on 10 carries.
Four different receivers have between four and seven catches to date, led by RB Barret Labus with seven grabs for 70 yards. Wideout Solomon Davis has been the top deep threat, averaging 23 yards on each of his three receptions.

The Big Green should be wary of the Beacon defense and its nine sacks on the young season. Defensive ends Kevin Spelman and Sam Hafner have combined for half of those sacks and all three of Valpo's forced fumbles. Cornerback Keyon Turner has swatted away a trio of tosses in the secondary, and linebacker Ben Hines leads Valparaiso with 23 tackles.

Both the place kicker and punter have big legs. Brian Bartholomew has already booted a 50-yard field goal this season, which proved to be the difference in the season-opening win. And Evan Matthes is averaging over 43 yards a punt, which places him among the top 15 in the FCS.

The Beacons are coached by Landon Fox (Defiance '00) in his fourth season at the helm. In the spring of 2021, he was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, which goes to the FCS Coach of the Year, after guiding the team to its best winning percentage since 2003. The former assistant coach at PFL rival Dayton for 11 years has a record of 10-21 entering the weekend.

Co-Captains
AFter having four captains last year for just the fourth time in program history, Dartmouth is going back to three seniors to lead the squad. The leadership core will consist of S Quinten Arello, DE Shane Cokes and QB Nick Howard.

19 Straight Non-Conference Wins
Dartmouth enters the season opener having won its last 19 non-conference games dating back to the 2014 season, beginning with a 24-21 victory over Holy Cross. It is the longest such win streak for the Big Green during the Ivy League era that began in 1956. You would have to go back to the 1922-28 seasons to find a longer win streak against teams that did not eventually form the Ivy league (26). Only perennial FCS title contender North Dakota State has strung together more non-conference wins in a row (regular season only) with 21.

724 Wins All-Time
Back in 2018, Dartmouth won its 700th game, becoming just the sixth FCS team to reach the milestone. That win came two games after playing its 1,200th contest as well. Now after 139 seasons and 1,229 games, the Big Green have posted a record of 724-459-46, a winning percentage of .608. Only 21 FCS teams can boast a win percentage of .600 or better.

A Decade-Plus of Success
Dartmouth football returned to prominence throughout the 2010s decade, recording a record of 70-30 (.700) over the 10 years. Only eight teams enjoyed a higher winning percentage in that span. And with a third consecutive 9-1 season in 2021, the Big Green have enjoyed more victories over a span of three seasons (27), four (35), five (39), six (48) and seven (56) than at any point in their history. Dartmouth also added three more Ivy League titles in that last six campaigns to boost their conference-record total to 20 crowns since the league first officially formed for the 1956 season.

Winningest Coach
With the title-clinching, 52-31 victory at Brown in the 2021 season finale, Buddy Teevens improved his record at Dartmouth to 114-94-2. Two years prior, he clinched another title at Brown, which pushed him past the legendary Bob Blackman — whose name graces the endowed coaching position — as the winningest head coach in Big Green history. No other head coach outside of those two has won more than 60 games at the helm of the program.

Preseason Poll
The Ivy League Preseason Media Poll was revealed last month with Dartmouth in rare territory — atop the standings, albeit tied with Harvard. This is the first time the Big Green have been picked to win at least a share of the conference crown during Buddy Teevens' second tenure as head coach, which began in 2005. Generally speaking, the media has a tendency to underestimate the Hanoverians; Dartmouth has finished higher than its prognosticated place in 11 of the last 12 years, including 2021 when the team ended up sharing the title after being picked third. So, if the Big Green win the title outright, we'll say they outdid their predicted finish again.
Harvard did have one advantage over Dartmouth with eight first-place votes to four for the Green, but both finished with 108 points. Right on their heels was Princeton, who shared the crown with Dartmouth last year, garnering the other four first-place votes to claim third with 105 points, while Yale was a distant fourth with 83. Columbia grabbed fifth place with 67 points, Penn sixth with 49, and Brown edged out Cornell to stay out of the cellar with 29, two more than the Big Red. Now the bad news: Over the past 24 years, the media have correctly picked the champion just five times — Penn in 2003, Harvard in 2008 and 2015, Yale in 2019 and Princeton (shared) last year. The complete poll can be found on page seven of these notes.

National Palls
The national polls don't generally give Dartmouth much credit in the preseason as well, but the team did receive votes in both the Stats Perform and AFCA preseason polls. But in each of the last three seasons, the Big Green have ended up ranked in the final polls, which counts quite a bit more. In 2018, the Big Green ended the season listed 15th by the coaches and 18th by Stats Perform. That AFCA ranking was the highest for Dartmouth since the Division I classification split into two subdivisions in 1978. In 2019, the Green managed to be ranked 21st by the AFCA and 22nd by Stats Perform. And in the most recent campaign, Dartmouth ended the year 20th in the Stats Perform poll and 23rd by the AFCA. It marked the sixth time Dartmouth ended up in the final national FCS polls, the other years being 1990 (17th), 1996 (17th) and 2015 (23rd).

Still All-Time Ivy Champs
Since the Ivy League began play in 1956, no other school in the conference has won more football titles than Dartmouth with 20. The last time an Ancient Eight squad had more crowns than the Big Green was in 1961 when Yale had a grand total of two. The next season, Dartmouth equaled that amount and has never looked up at another team since. But Penn isn't far behind with 18 titles, while Harvard has 17 and Yale 16.

Returning All-Ivy Performers
Dartmouth had 16 players deservedly earn All-Ivy League honors after the 2021 championship season. But of those 16, only five are back on he field for the Green this fall. Quarterback Nick Howard is the lone first-team representative and will lead the offense. Defensive lineman Shane Cokes and LB Marques White were chosen for the second team, and WR Paxton Scott and PR Jamal Cooney received honorable mention. And we should note that Buddy Teevens was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

Preseason All-Ivy Nods
Phil Steele released its two preseason All-Ivy League teams with seven Big Green players listed, led by QB Nick Howard, LB Marques White and return specialist Jamal Cooney on the first team. The second teamers included RB Zack Bair, DE Shane Cokes, OL Griff Lehman and LS Josh Greene.

Shut-Down Defense
Dartmouth has become known for its stellar defense in recent years, ranking third among FCS teams in fewest points allowed last year after finishing second in both 2018 and 2019. The 2021 squad also ranked among the top 20 in red zone defense (2nd), total defense (5th), pass efficiency defense (12th) and rushing defense (17th). The offense may not have been as highly ranked, but it did finish first in fewest interceptions thrown, second in completion percentage, seventh in pass efficiency and 14th in third-down conversion percentage while scoring over 30 points a game for the third straight season. To top those stats off, Dartmouth coughed the ball up fewer times than anyone else (8).

Howard Encore?
Considering that no Big Green player had rushed for 15 touchdowns in a season since 1929 until Nick Howard did last year, one can hardly expect the senior QB to match that total this season. Howard was one of the most prolific offensive players in the FCS last year, ranking sixth nationally rushing TDs, not to mention ninth in scoring (9.0 points per game), 10th in total touchdowns (15) and 14th in rushing yards per carry (6.3).

One of the Last to Kick Off
The Ivy League football schedule always starts a couple of weeks after the rest of Division I. After being the absolute last team to kick off the season in five of the last nine seasons, Dartmouth gets a few hours head start on a couple of its Ivy League brethren in Yale (2 p.m. kickoff) and Columbia (6 p.m.).