Winning Championships and Creating a Legacy: The Dartmouth Defensive Line

Dartmouth football's 2024 starting defensive line of Josiah Green, Ejike Adele and Derrell Porter was special.

They started their entire senior seasons alongside each other and were each named All-Ivy, with Adele being named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

"The goal is to win games and win championships, but I think we've done a good enough job for people to realize, wow, these guys came from being really small to become something," said Green. "Then they became dominant. We're not the players who magically got good, but we worked our butts off to get good. And we want to let everybody else know that's achievable."

Green, Adele and Porter had different paths to Dartmouth, but with similar themes.

"I had some guys from my high school who went to other Ivy League schools to play football, so they were an inspiration to me," said Adele. "Coach (Duane) Brooks at Dartmouth ended up offering me over a Zoom call. I ended up building really good relationships with Coach Brooks, Coach T (Teevens) and Coach Mac (McCorkle) over the course of late in my junior year into my senior year. They were a staff I really wanted to play for.

"Dartmouth was a really strong community that I wanted to be a part of."

Green and his twin brother Micah decided to join the Big Green community over more than a dozen other offers (including a number of Ivy League schools).

"The people who sounded down to earth, and actually cared about me, were definitely at Dartmouth," said Green. "No matter if it's rain or shine, Coach Brooks is going to tell you the truth. I don't need someone who's going to tell me what I want to hear; I need someone who's going to tell me what I need to hear. The combination of him and Coach T, it was not going to get any better than this."

Green doesn't regret his decision to come to Dartmouth for a second.

"I would make that decision 100 times again," he said.

Porter, whose route to Dartmouth included an unexpected year of prep school, will never forget his first meeting with the first-years.

"I saw Josiah and Micah (Green) and was like, 'oh my goodness, I'm unprepared,'" said Porter. "I was so skinny while they were around the same weight, but shredded. Then I see Ejike and was like okay, this is getting egregious.

"Coach Brooks told us from the start that freshman year is about taking the time to learn and improve your technique, so you'll be good enough to play sophomore and junior year," Porter continued.

The defensive line was going against quality competition in practice, which only helped in that development.

Green, Adele and Porter have been tight-knit from the start, each confident in their abilities, which led to believing they would play early in their careers.

Brooks said that the first year is a time to learn for a reason.

"Freshman year was a big year for growth for all of us, especially in the Ivy League," said Adele. "It's very much an old man's league. Everyone who's good is an upperclassman because it takes time to develop when the talent pool is so even across all eight schools. We took the time to really learn from the older guys who were playing ahead of us."

Green saw significant action as a sophomore in 2022, getting into 10 games. The 2022 game at Princeton featured Green, Adele and Porter playing together for the first time.

"We went through a lot," said Porter. "I believe we had a 12-play drive. We were all super tired. It was our first experience together in a real game."

It was a sign of things to come…

Things progressed from playing together part of one game to starting every game together and each earning All-Ivy as seniors. Adele and Green were first team honorees, with Adele earning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. Porter was honorable mention All-Ivy.

How did Green, Adele and Porter progress?

A variety of factors. One was the weight room. Also, when they arrived at Dartmouth, veterans like Seth Walter, Shake Cokes, Charlies Looes (and more) took them under their wing.

"They were trying to help us out and make us better for the future, which you don't always see [from upperclassmen]," said Porter. "Coach Brooks oversees the room and doesn't want any guys to fall behind.

"That really paid off, and we paid it back to our younger guys too [when we were upperclassmen]."

The physical development was critically important, as was the mental growth.

"What we didn't understand at the time (as first-years) was that Coach Brooks was trying to help us understand the game better before just throwing us out there," said Adele. "Over this past year as seniors — all three of us taking over leadership of our room, helping run the film and explaining things to younger guys — helped us improve a lot in the mental aspect of the game."

As Adele said, teaching others helps reinforce one's own understanding and knowledge.

"By the time we got to the games, no matter what other teams could throw at us, they were things we had seen before because of how much film we had watched and how much our general understanding of the game had improved," he said.

You probably saw him in the backfield.

Monday December 16th, 2024#TheWoods #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/yPiic4Vbcr
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) December 10, 2024

The trio's chemistry has only grown stronger as time progressed.

"The last two springs, Coach Brooks didn't let us go with anybody else in practice besides each other," said Porter. "That really helps as far as gaining trust and realizing what each other does."

Green believes the trio's success is just as much due to factors outside of the football field.

"We're actually friends outside of this, which we told our young guys — to be friends outside of the football field," he said. "We hang out with each other and we have meals together, which reinforces that bond of wanting to play for each other.

"We turned this this into a brotherhood and something that's going to last beyond Dartmouth," Green continued. "We had something bigger to play for when we were on the field together."

For their entire careers, the three had been talking about playing together as seniors.

"Looking forward to that over our first few years at Dartmouth helped us," said Adele.

Green, Adele and Porter complement each other, on and off the football field. They are very different people.

"From our perspective, Ejike is this super nerd — like doctor, biology, surgeon," said Green. "Derrell is a film major, entertainment. I'm more of this Anthro, mix of the two, but not too much of either one.

"We're all different personalities, who came together in the same way and we're all proud to be who we are individually."

Those personalities translate to the field and resemble the positions they play.

"I feel like on the field, I have to be the one to keep everything calm, ground everybody and keep everybody together," said Adele.

As Green said, "Ejike has to set the edge, set everybody straight and know that everything's going to be fine. Derrell plays nose, in the middle, getting grizzly with everybody. And that's his personality. I'm a mix of both. I'll take my one-on-one over anybody, but if I need to look at the bigger picture, I can set that edge."

It has become a brotherhood, which extends to the broader Dartmouth football program.

"The relationships and friendships at Dartmouth, I don't think I would have gotten this anywhere else," said Porter. "Even if you're not best friends with somebody, hanging with them off the field, you still know them. And you're really close.

"Relationships are a huge strength at Dartmouth," Porter continued. "Even our new coaches who have come from other schools have said we're a lot closer than any other group they'd ever been around."

In their time at Dartmouth, Green, Adele and Porter won three Ivy League titles (2021, 2023 and 2024). They are all graduating Dartmouth before playing their fifth years next fall: Green at Duke, Adele at Rice and Porter at UC Davis.

When thinking of legacy, Adele is focused on more than just championships, although they are important.

"When we first got here, we heard all the legends and the lore about all the previous greats, which really inspired us to push ourselves to be better each and every year," said Adele. "I hope we can uphold that tradition and inspire whoever else comes after us in our room.

"That was our goal, along with winning championships."

Consider it a success.

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