Football Aiming for Share of Title in 100th "Tussle" with Brown

Saturday, November 18

Providence, R.I. / Brown Stadium

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

Team entering the field at UNH, Sept. 16, 2023

Photo by: Nick Romei

Football Aiming for Share of Title in 100th "Tussle" with Brown

11/16/2023 10:24:00 AM | Football

Saturday Nov. 18, 2023 NESN ESPN+ Broadcast International Video Audio Broadcast Live Stats @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth needs a win and some help from Yale to earn its 21st Ivy championship

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (5-4, 4-2) at Brown (5-4, 3-3)
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 | 1:30 PM
Brown Stadium | Providence, R.I.
NESN / ESPN+ — Scott Cordischi play-by-play, John Anderson analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Matt Corsetti analyst

Season Ends with "The Tussle"
Dartmouth and Brown square off for the 100th time on the gridiron in this contest, named "The Tussle" by veteran Big Green scribe Bruce Wood in honor of the Hall of Fame coach, Tuss McLaughry, that coached at both schools. But Dartmouth has bigger concerns — doing all it can to earn a share of the Ivy League title. A Dartmouth victory, coupled with a Yale win over Harvard, would land the Green in a three-way tie atop the standings with those two, just the third time the Ivy champion would have two losses.

Last week, Dartmouth kept its championship hopes alive by taking care of Cornell in the final home game of the season, 30-14. Quarterback Nick Howard topped 100 yards on the ground for the first time this season and sixth time in his career while carrying the ball over the goal line three times, breaking the 96-year-old program record for rushing touchdowns in a career (34).

The Big Green jumped out to a 14-0 lead on two of those Howard TD runs. After Cornell cut its deficit in half, Jackson Proctor connected on a 37-yard touchdown toss to tight end Jace Henry with less than a minute before the intermission. Again the Big Red closed to within seven, but a 42-yard field goal by Owen Zalc and Howard's final scoring scamper put the game out of reach.

Proctor, whose only other career start came last year at Cornell, finished the game 13-of-19 for 149 yards and one touchdown. Paxton Scott, fourth in the Ivy League in receptions and yardage, hauled in five tosses for 78 yards while Henry had a career-high 64 yards on a mere two grabs.

The running game isn't reliant on Howard whether he is or is not behind center. Q Jones averages close to 50 yards per game with a pair of touchdowns to his credit, and Tevita Moimoi picks up close to five yards per carry.

The Big Green had a balanced attack with 196 yards on the ground and 176 more through the air while holding Cornell to 266 total yards. Leonard St. Gourdin led Dartmouth with a team-high six stops, plus forced and recovered a key fumble at the Dartmouth 5 in the first half. DE Charles Looes provided the Green's lone sack, boosting his league-leading total to 6.5 on the season.

The defense as a whole has been quite good, ranking in the top 25 nationally in total defense (13th), rush defense (14th) and scoring (21st) to name a few statistical categories. That will come in handy against a Bears offense that averages over 400 yards a game, 29th in the FCS.

Special teams continued to play a big role for Dartmouth with Zalc leading the country in field goals per game (1.78) while breaking the program record with his 16th field goal of the season in the win over Cornell. Punter Davis Golick also had a big game with a career high in punting average (46.3 yards) and the longest punt of his career (53). And Sean Williams remains one of the top return men across the FCS, averaging 25 yards per kickoff return (17th) and over 11 yards per punt return (18th).

Scouting the Bears
Picked to finish last in the preseason polls, Brown has proven itself as an up-and-coming team for the futuread could finish as high as second with a win over the Big Green. The Bears' three wins in Ivy play have come at the expense of Princeton, Penn and Columbia.

As noted previously, the Brown offense is quite stout, and Jake Willcox is second among FCS quarterbacks with 302.9 passing yards per game while completing 63.2 percent of his passes and throwing 17 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He can maneuver in the backfield as well with 129 rushing yards to his credit.

Willcox has three receivers with more than 400 yards to their name, led by Wes Rockett who has a league-best 62 catches for 725 yards and three scores, putting him in the top 20 nationally on a per-game basis. The Dartmouth defense will also have to contend with Graham Walker (40 catches, 448 yards, 5 TDs) and Mark Mahoney (37-408, 3 TDs), not to mention deep threat Solomon Miller (15.9 yards on his 19 receptions).

The ground game has been a bit sluggish with under 100 yards per game and just 3.1 yards per carry. Stockton Owen has been the primary back with 102 carries for 326 yards and seven TDs. Ian Franzoni spells Owen and has gained 193 yards and scored once.

The Brown defense has improved from a year ago, surrendering 28 points a game (seven fewer than in 2022) and just under 400 yards per game (37 fewer). LB Ethan Royer is the leading tackler with 54, 3.5 going for a loss with a sack and an interception. The top pass rusher is Terrence Lane II with 3.5 sacks and 6.5 TFL, and CB Isaiah Reed leads the Ivy League with four pickoffs.

Christopher Maron handles the place-kicking duties and is 8-of-10 on field goals with a long of 47. Austin Alley averages 38.8 yards per punt with a 56-yard boot on his resume. Rockett is the top punt returner in the league as well (12.5-yard avg.).

Head coach James Perry (Brown '00) is 12-27 in his fourth season at the helm of the Bears. He began his coaching career at Dartmouth before stops at Williams, Maryland, Brown and Princeton led to 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.

Series With Brown
• This is the 100th game in the series.
• The Big Green are aiming to win their sixth straight in the series for the first time since taking six in a row from 1988-93.
• In the first 20 years of the Ivy League, Dartmouth was 18-0-2 against the Bears, which included a 15-game winning streak.
• At Brown Stadium, the Green are 30-10-1 with wins in the last five contests at the venue.

Last Year Against the Bears …
Dartmouth took control in the first half, building up a 20-0 lead, then did not allow any points until the final two minutes of the game in a 30-7 victory. The Big Green piled up nearly 300 yards on the ground and had the ball for almost 40 minutes in the dominating performance. Noah Roper led everyone with 91 rushing yards and a TD while QB Jackson Proctor had 70 on a mere four carries and fellow QB Nick Howard had 56 more and scored twice. And the defense completely shut down a Bears offense that had put up 38 points a game entering the finale as Braden Mullen had two of the team's three sacks, and Sean Williams and Robert Crockett III each picked off a pass.

So You're Sayin' There's a Chance
And a decent one at that. Thanks to its 30-14 win last week over Cornell, Dartmouth is still in the hunt to earn a share of the Ivy League title. A Big Green win over Brown and a Yale triumph over Harvard in New Haven would leave Dartmouth, the Crimson and the Bulldogs tied atop the standings at 5-2. There have only been two instances of an Ancient Eight champion having two losses, and wouldn't you know the Big Green was in on the action both times (1963 and 1982).

Howard Breaks 96-Year-Old Record
Nick Howard demonstrated just how difficult a runner he can be to bring down against Cornell, posting his first 100-yard game of the season (108) and sixth of his career while scoring three touchdowns in the 30-14 victory. Those three scores boosted his career total of rushing TDs to 34, breaking the all-time Dartmouth record that had been set by Myles Lane '28. Yes, Class of 1928, and he finished playing 96 years ago. It was his 14th multi-touchdown game as well, tying the program record held by Lane. Howard also climbed four spots on the Big Green all-time rushing leaders from eighth to fourth with 1,835 yards to his name, and he is tied for third in scoring with 204 points.

The Wizard of O.Z.
First-year place kicker Owen Zalc continues to be a weapon for Dartmouth. The four-time Ivy League weekly award winner (rookie three times, special teams once) connected on a 42-yard field goal in the 30-14 win over Cornell. It was his 16th three-pointer of the season, breaking a 33-year-old record held by Dennis Durkin '93, and his 13th in Ivy League games only, tying the conference record. He is just the third Big Green player to earn four weekly honors in one season from the league office, joining Craig Morton '89 (four-time Rookie of the Week) in 1986 and Jay Fielder '94 (four-time Offensive Player in 1992). Three times this season he has provided three field goals in a game, and in two of those contests he provided the winning kick either in overtime (Penn) or the final two minutes of regulation (Princeton). In addition, Durkin is the only other Big Green kicker with at least three field goals in three games in one season. On top of all that, Zalc leads the FCS in field goals made per game (1.78).

Cornell Brings It Out in Dartmouth
Tight end Jace Henry does some of his best work against Cornell. The senior hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass in the 30-14 victory over the Big Red, his second career receiving TD. His other one also just happened to come against Cornell last year in Ithaca.

On the flip side, Dartmouth missed a PAT for the first time this year versus the Big Red. This was the third consecutive year the Big Green failed to convert a PAT against Cornell, and over their last 27 games, their only other failed PAT was blocked by Harvard last season.

One last note for you: Of Nick Howard's 34 career touchdowns, seven have come against the team that recruited him to play linebacker. That's right, Cornell. Two of his three games with three or more trips into the end zone have come against the Big Red, the other a career-high four TD game back in 2021.

Great Scott!
Senior WR Paxton Scott has been the Big Green's most effective offensive weapon this year, twice catching 10 passes and topping 150 yards in a game and leading the team in receptions in six of the nine games thus far. He enters the final game of the season fourth in the league in receiving yards (609) and fifth in receptions (47), not to mention 11th all-time at Dartmouth in both catches (127) and yardage (1,505). To move up into the top 10, he would need four more hauls and 127 more yards against the Bears.

Proctor Passes Another Exam
One week after coming off the bench to guide a second-half comeback against Princeton, QB Jackson Proctor got his first starting nod of the season and second of his career — both against Cornell. The junior completed 13-of-19 passes for 149 yards and a TD in leading the Big Green to a 30-14 victory. For the season, Proctor has completed 67-of-88 throws (76.1 percent) for 676 yards and three scores. No Dartmouth QB has completed more than six passes at a rate higher than 75 percent in any season, and the program record is 70.7 percent (169-of-239) set by Derek Kyler '21 in 2021 (Proctor would need to complete 33 passes against Brown to qualify for that mark).

Golick Goes Long
Junior punter Davis Golick posted career-high numbers in the 30-14 win over Cornell, blasting four punts for a career-high average of 46.5 yards. Among those four boots was a 53-yard bomb without a return, the longest of his career. Twice he pinned the Big Red inside their own 20 as well.

Top-20 Defense
The Dartmouth defense has been terrific this season, ranking 13th among FCS schools in yards allowed per game (301.4) and 14th in rushing yards allowed (106.3). The Big Green are also tough on third and fourth down, allowing opponents to convert just 33.3 percent of their third downs (tied for 19th in the nation) and 31.6 percent of their fourth-down situations (sixth).