This isn't your big brother's Dartmouth.
No, the Big Green, often written off as the bottom-feeders of the Ivy League, no longer serve only as a practice squad for the rest of the conference. They may not be title contenders, but their opponents can no longer look to trips to Hanover as guaranteed wins.
Last year, Dartmouth garnered three conference victories for the first time since 2003. Its 3-4 record tied with Penn and Princeton for fourth place, especially surprising considering the team was picked to finish dead last in the preseason poll.
Symbolic of the Big Green's ascendance from the doldrums to mediocrity was their 21-13 victory over the Quakers last season, a feat they had not accomplished since 1997.
In fact, Dartmouth could have performed even better. They lost to eventual Ivy champion Harvard by one touchdown and twice lost in overtime - including a season-ender against the Tigers.
"We progressed a lot last season," coach Buddy Teevens said. "It's disappointing we didn't have the wins to show for it."
That team, however, graduated eight starters on offense - including quarterback Tom Bennewitz - and seven on defense, including linebacker Justin Cottrell, the Ivy League's leading tackler. Especially new will be the offensive line with four new starters and the secondary with three.
Leading the way for this inexperienced group will be junior quarterback Alex Jenny, who won the starting job over sophomore receiver/quarterback Tim McManus, though both will likely see playing time, according to Teevens. Jenny had five touchdown tosses on only 62 attempts last year.
One of the few other experienced starters will be senior running back and captain Milan Williams. Last season, his 657 rushing yards were third to Yale's Mike McLeod and Penn's Joe Sandberg. This year, his shiftiness should pose problems for Ancient Eight defenses throughout the season.
So the new season brings new challenges along with new hope. Dartmouth is slated to finish seventh in the Ivy League this year - ahead of Columbia - but the young team knows that it has a history of failure to counteract.
"It's an earned reputation over time. You need to go out and compete successfully and effectively," Teevens said. "We haven't done that to date. We've improved incrementally each of the past three seasons. We need to put things together to show other folks that we're not what Dartmouth has been over the past few seasons."
