Bumper Green Crop

Nick Schwieger is now just a junior


The 2010 Dartmouth Big Green may hold the Ivy League record for most returning starters.

Don't believe me?

Check out the starting lineup from Dartmouth's final game of the 2009 season:


OFFENSE

WR 84 Reilly, Michael*
LT 67 Montgomery,Will*
LG 63 O'Neill, Ryan*
C 58 Fletcher,Austen*
RG 74 Cook, Kyle*
RT 66 Toth, Alexander
TE 85 Gallagher, John*
QB 16 Patton, Greg*
RB 28 Dornak, Matthew
H 88 Foley, Justin*
WR 86 Scott, Tanner*


DEFENSE

DE 96 Bay, Charles*
DT 99 Smith, Eddie*
DT 52 Dwyer, Mark*
DE 90 Phillips,Connor*
SAM 37 Scorah, Pat*
MIKE 25 Wymore, Garrett*
WILL 30 Fernandez-Soto, Diego*
CB 8 Abuhoff, Shawn*
SS 11 Waggoner, Garrett*
FS 21 Pidermann,Peter
CB 31 Andreassi, J.B.*


*=returning players


That's right. They have nine returing offensive starters and ten returning defensive starters.

And that STILL buries the lead.

Because their best overall offensive weapon, RB Nick Schwieger, was out in the final game against Princeton and he'll be back in 2010.

So were talking about 20 out of 22 starters returning for Dartmouth.

Throw in guys like the multi-talented 2008 starter WR/QB Tim McManus who should be back and QB Conner Kempe, who didn't officially start the final game but still threw 34 passes in the contest, and you're simply dealing with a bumper crop of experienced players in Hanover.

So where's the catch?

There are a few of them actually.

There are the obvious facts that the Big Green were just 2-8 last season, gave up almost twice as many points as they scored, and were not even competitive in most of the eight games they lost.

The other "catch" is a little more subtle, but Columbia fans have become very familiar with it over the years.

You see, it seems logical that starting a bunch of freshmen and sophomores hurts at the beginning but then you reap the rewards down the road when they become seasoned veterans.

Unfortunately, it rarely works out that way.

Columbia has been stuck in that situation many times, and what usually happens is the seasoned vets help a bit in the long run, but not enough.

The fact is, there's a bit of a law of diminishing returns when to comes to athletes in the Ivies. A "two-star" player as a sophomore or even as a frosh rarely vaults into the four-star category even by senior year.

What happens more often is the best players are already playing like the best players even as sophomores.

That's what happened at Columbia in 1971 when sophomores like Ted Gregory and Don Jackson led the team to a shocking second place finish in the Ivies.

That's what happened in 2006 when more than 10 freshmen, like Austin Knowlin, Taylor Joseph, and Lou Miller got regular playing time for the Lions and delivered the first non-losing season for Columbia in ten years.

Dartmouth does have some very talented players returning. Schwieger may be the best running back in the league and DE Charles Bay could be the best pass rusher. The returning offensive line is starting to gel together and helped the Big Green improve tremendously in rushing yardage and allowed fewer than two sacks per game in 2009.

But the defense, especially that interior defensive line, is so suspect that I'm not sure all the starting experience in the world is going to do much to make this a viable crew in 2010.

The point of this post is not to trash the very impressive number of returning Dartmouth players - of course the experience on this team will be a plus - but experience alone is not enough.

And Dartmouth's fans know this.

That's why there's so much buzz about the incoming freshmen class.

The real question is why a seasoned professional like Head Coach Buddy Teevens and a storied program like Dartmouth got into a situation where so many upperclassmen needed to be replaced in the first place.

That's a burning question in Hanover these days, but one that the program seems very eager to answer by simply saying, "never again!"

With tough opponents like Colgate and New Hampshire off the schedule this year, things are already looking up. Those were two potential "returnees" Dartmouth is happy not to be having back in 2010!