Ivy League Play Begins with Nationally Televised Game

Dartmouth (1-1, 0-0) vs. Penn (2-0, 0-0)
Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 | 7 PM
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.
ESPNU — Eric Frede play-by-play, Jack Ford analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst

Defense of Ivy Titles Begins
Although Dartmouth had its 20-game win streak against non-conference opponents snapped last week in a 38-31 overtime defeat at Sacred Heart, the Big Green have the opportunity to quickly erase that memory as they host Penn on Friday night to start their defense of their two straight Ivy League titles, and with a national television broadcast on ESPNU, no less.

Dartmouth jumped out to a 21-3 lead before the first quarter concluded only to have the Pioneers claw their way back and tie the game late in the fourth quarter before finishing off the largest comeback against the Green since the 2007 season opener (21-0 halftime lead).

The blown lead wasn't the only rare statistical anomaly in the game; Dartmouth piled up 393 rushing yards yet still failed to win. That is the team's fourth most yards on the ground since 1969 but just the fifth loss when running for at least 230 in a game (100-5).

Most of those rushing yards were provided by QB Nick Howard (24 carries, 186 yards, 2 TD) and RB Q Jones (12-158, 68-yard TD), each of whom ran for a career high and became the first Big Green teammates to top 150 yards in the same game. Howard also surpassed 1,000 yards in his career, becoming the 30th player in program history to reach the milestone. And Jones is just getting his career started having entered the game with a mere 79 yards to his name.

But don't forget about RB Zack Bair, who had 169 yards on 16 carries the previous week. With 54 more at Sacred Heart (leaving him just 51 yards shy of 1,000 himself), Dartmouth boasts three rushers averaging over 100 yards a game. Only 15 other FCS players top the century mark thus far, and none of them are teammates.

All of that running around has left little for the passing game — only two FCS teams have thrown for fewer yards per game (102.5). Howard is still easing into the role of passer after spending last year primarily as a wildcat quarterback, albeit a very successful one that was sixth nationally in rushing touchdowns (15).

Buddy Teevens, the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach, is looking for his defense to rebound from some uncharacteristic poor tackling which allowed SHU to pile up over 400 yards and put the most points on the board against the Green in the last 33 games. LB Macklin Ayers has double-digit stops in each of the first two games and FS Quinten Arello added 10 and forced a fumble on Saturday, while DE Shane Cokes headlines a disruptive defensive line.

Last year against the Quakers, Dartmouth started the scoring on a blocked punt and recovery in the end zone by Robert Crockett III in an eventual 31-7 win in Philadelphia. Howard ran for 101 yards and two scores while Bair added 91 on the ground and an 8-yard TD catch. The defense limited Penn to 141 yards and eight first downs, which led to a very lopsided time of possession (41:36 for the Green), as Dartmouth beat the Quakers for the sixth time in the last seven meetings.

Scouting the Quakers
Penn is off to its first 2-0 start since 2018 with victories over Colgate and Lafayette. But both of those contests were on the turf at Franklin Field, meaning this is the first road game of the season for the Quakers.

Offensively, Penn has done enough to win but would like to get its ground game going, ranking among the bottom 10 FCS teams at this point. QB Aidan Sayin has the air attack working well, however, completing over 65 percent of his passes for 242.5 yards per game while tossing three touchdowns. He has been picked off three times as well, so the Dartmouth defense will be on the lookout for any errant tosses.

Trey Flowers has been the workhorse in the backfield with 136 yards on 36 carries (3.8-yard average) with one of the two trips into the end zone. His teammates have not provided much more, though, with a combined 16 yards on 27 attempts.

Sayin has done a good job of spreading his throws around as six different receivers have at least five catches. But it is Julien Stokes with just four receptions that has the most yards (75). Joshua Casilli is a possession receiver with a team-high 11 grabs for only 64 yards, and only six FCS teams have fewer yards per completion than Penn's 8.98. Just Sayin … (sorry, had to be done)

The real star of this Quaker team has been the defense, which is ranked first against the rush having allowed a piddly 22 yards per game and also first in sacks (5.5 per game). Penn also boasts the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week in DE Jake Heimlicher who had 10 tackles, three for a loss and one sack in the team's first shutout victory in finishing off a conference title in 2009.

The kicking game is in good, um, feet, with Graham Gotlieb having converted both field goal attempts (albeit from 24 yards or closer) and punter Ben Krimm ranking 11th nationally with 44.8 yards per boot.

Ray Priore (Albany '85), in his eighth year (seventh season) as the George A. Munger Head Coach with a record of 36-26, led the Quakers to a share of the conference crown each of his first two seasons. This is his 36th year on the Penn staff, helping secure 10 Ivy titles in 28 seasons as an assistant with his last 16 as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach.

10,000 Points Under the Ivy
You have to be pretty old to get that reference I think, but we're going with it. In 65 seasons of Ivy League football, Dartmouth has scored 9,996 points against its Ancient Eight brethren. With just four points against the Quakers, the Big Green would join three other schools with at least 10,000 points — Harvard (10,585), Princeton (10,273) and Yale (10,083).

Rare Loss While Running Wild
At Sacred Heart on Sept. 24, Dartmouth posted its most rushing yards (393) in 31 years and fourth most since piling up 509 in a 41-0 victory over Penn back in 1969. But all of those yards on the ground surprisingly did not add up to a victory as the Big Green fell in overtime, 38-31. In 33 games topping 300 rushing yards since 1969, Dartmouth has lost just one other time. Drop the threshold to 250 yards and the Green's record is 74-3. How about 230 yards? 100-5.

Three for 100 Yards per Game
Entering this weekend, there are 18 FCS players averaging 100 or more rushing yards per game spread across 16 teams. Yes, I know it's very early in the season, but while no other team has more than one, Dartmouth has three: Nick Howard (121.5), Zack Bair (111.5) and Q Jones (101.0). The last Big Green player to average 100 per game over an entire season is Nick Schwieger '12 in 2011 (131.0). As a team, the Big Green have 350.5 yards per game, second in the FCS. This sets up an interesting matchup with the Quakers, the top-ranked FCS team against the run (22.0 yards per game).

Non-Conference Wins No More
Prior to its 38-31 overtime loss at Sacred Heart on Sept. 24, Dartmouth had won 20 consecutive games against non-conference opponents dating back to a 52-19 defeat at New Hampshire eight years ago. It was the longest such win streak for the Big Green during the Ivy League (which began in 1956) and the longest active streak among FCS schools. 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). The loss also snapped Dartmouth's 11-game road win streak.

Howard Tops 1,000
Not only did Nick Howard post career highs in rushing attempts (24) and yardage (186) at Sacred Heart, but the senior QB also became the 30th player in Big Green history to amass 1,000 rushing yards in a career. It took the senior just 13 games to reach the milestone, the quickest by any Dartmouth player since Greg Smith '97 did it in 12, just a couple of years after Pete Oberle '96 also did it in a dozen. Look for another Big Green back to join the club as Zack Bair needs just 51 more yards. One more thing about Howard: He has run for 10 touchdowns in his last four games dating back to last year, the most by a Dartmouth player in any four-game span in over 50 years.

Out of Time in Overtime
The 38-31 loss at Sacred Heart was the 13th overtime game in Dartmouth history. The Big Green had won their previous two — 24-17 against Yale last year and 27-26 over Holy Cross in 2017. Only four of those games have come on the road, but all four resulted in Dartmouth losses. Overall, the Big Green are 6-7 in overtime games, with two of those losses coming against this week's opponent, including a four-overtime marathon at Franklin Field in 2013 (37-31).

Q Rating
Prior to the game at Sacred Heart, sophomore RB Q Jones had seen limited action with 15 carries and 79 yards in four games. But with senior RB Noah Roper unavailable last week, Jones shared time in the backfield with Zack Bair and quickly announced his presence by galloping 68 yards for his first career touchdown on his first carry on Dartmouth's fourth play of the game. Later in the quarter he broke off a 40-yard run, giving him his first career 100-yard game with more than three quarters still to play! He finished the game with 158 yards, and with Nick Howard going for 186, the Green had two rushers with at least 150 yards in a game for the first time ever. Jones needed just 12 carries to amass his 158 yards, a 13.17-yard average that fell just shy of the school record (minimum 10 attempts) that Howard set just last year (13.23) against Cornell.

Touchdown Jonny
Senior Jonny Barrett hasn't caught many passes in his career, but he sure makes them count. The wide receiver hauled in a 35-yard bomb from Nick Howard early in the first quarter for his first catch of the season and 16th of his career, five of which have gone for touchdowns. His four scoring snares last year led the team despite ranking sixth on the team in receptions with 12. The touchdown toss was also the second thrown by Howard in his career as well as the longest completion of any kind.

Putting on Ayers
Like Q Jones, junior LB Macklin Ayers had seen limited game action entering this season, but he earned a starting job and has been a great addition to the defense. In each of the first two contests, Ayers posted double-digit tackles with 11 against Valparaiso and a dozen at Sacred Heart. His 11.5 stops per game ranks fourth among FCS players.

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