It has been a nightmare of a football season for the Big Green Gridders.
A year ago, they were at the top of their game, coming off three consecutive Ivy League titles and still led by Ivy League superstar now turned NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler '94.
They slipped just slightly, losing a share of the title to the University of Pennsylvania in the final week of the season, but with the best overall record in the league's history to their name, there was no snickering behind the Dartmouth football players' backs.
Then Fiedler, sometimes called Dartmouth's "heart and soul," and a number of other crucial seniors graduated, ending a dynasty and introducing uncertainty into the team's future.
A period of transition and small-scale rebuilding was inevitable, but with a returning class of senior standouts on defense such as Josh Bloom, Hunter Buckner, Brian White and Chris Boran, along with powerful running back Pete Oberle '96 and experienced receivers David Shearer '95 and Andre Grant '95, no one expected Dartmouth to miss a beat.
Instead, Dartmouth experienced something along the lines of a massive heart attack, finishing for the first time ever at the bottom of the Ivy League with a record of 2-5 and 4-6 overall.
With the season now over, one can only ask what went wrong. The team had a slow start to be sure, but it was the vast amount of injuries that prevented a talented and highly touted squad from ever getting a chance to put its best foot forward.
Injuries, a coach's worst nightmare, tend to make or break a season, as they have the ability of transforming formidable teams into forgettable ones. No football team smitten by the injury bug as badly as the Big Green this season could realistically hope to remain competitive, especially in a league where depth is at such a premium.
After losing Fiedler, Dartmouth had no quarterback with substantial Ivy playing experience when the season began. The quarterback question mark ended up turning into an exclamation point as Dartmouth lost not one, but two starting quarterbacks to broken arms: Ren Riley '96 and transfer student Jerry Singleton '96.
The Quarterback problem, though, was just the tip of the iceberg. Dartmouth's injured, at times a crew large enough to start a wheelchair basketball league, also included workhorse running back Oberle, star co-captain outside linebacker Buckner, defensive back Adam Scheier '95 and a medley of other offensive linemen and defensive backfield players.
Ten sacks in the last two games of third-stringer Jon Aljancic '97, combined with a soft defense, which was touted as one of the best in the league early in the season, showed that injuries prevented Dartmouth from playing the type of hard-nosed football for which it is known.
So what can be salvaged from this uncharacteristic season for Coach John Lyons and his Dartmouth football team? Depth, something that has been heavily tested by all the injuries, can only improve.
Impact players, such as running back Zack Ellis '98, who rushed for his first collegiate touchdown Saturday against Princeton, and Lloyd Lee '98, who started much of the year at safety, will enter next season knowing what it takes to compete at this level.
Oberle, with two years of eligibility remaining, also returns next year. At the quarterback position alone, three players with games under their belts will be vying for the starting role - Aljancic, Riley and Singleton.
The Dartmouth players, wishing this could have been the season they couldn't remember, nevertheless have much to look forward to.
For Big Green heart, possibly more evident this season than in any other in recent history, along with a steady return of experienced players, should help usher in a return to success for the team in the future.
