WORCESTER, Mass. -- It's the kind of thing that coaches have nightmares about.
A season starts, full of promise and potential. The team is playing better than it has in years and is rallying around a superstar who elevates the play of everyone around him.
Then suddenly, just when the games are becoming important, the worst happens. That superstar goes down, and he goes down hard.
Three series into Dartmouth's 49-17 loss to Holy Cross at Fitton Field on Saturday, Big Green football coach John Lyons' nightmare became a reality.
Quarterback Greg Smith '02, a candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year and Division I-AA All-American, got sacked by defensive end Sammy Siaki and broke the third metacarpal of the middle finger on his throwing hand. He was rushed immediately to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where he received X-rays.
Smith returned as the game was ending with his arm in a plaster cast.
The prognosis is not good.
"It's going to have be a minimum of six weeks," athletic trainer Scott Roy said outside the team locker room following the loss. "If they surgically fix it, it could be stable sooner, but he's not going to be able to grip the ball. It would be a miracle if he was even back for the last game."
The harsh reality is that Smith's season is effectively over. The quarterback's stellar showing in the first three games had made Dartmouth (1-3, 1-1 Ivy) a darkhorse candidate for the Ivy League title.
With classmate and former starter Brian Mann '02 still on the sidelines nursing an injury of his own, Dartmouth's new quarterback is Evan Love '05, a tall, athletic rookie from Bronxville, N.Y.
Smith entered the weekend averaging 365 total offensive yards per game, third best in the nation. His imprints were felt throughout the Dartmouth offense; of the team's 90 points in the first three weeks, Smith was responsible for 62 of them.
Smith's injury is a tough break for Dartmouth, and an even tougher one for the signal caller himself.
"I knew right away," Smith said. "I got up and I knew. 'There it goes,' I thought, 'that's it, all the Ivy hopes, everything I had.'"
It happened very quickly, too. One second Smith was standing tall on the Dartmouth 30 yard-line, looking to get his team on the board. The next moment, he was on the ground, bleeding profusely from his injured right hand.
How did it happen? In Smith's own words: "I think it was my fault. For some reason I thought [Siaki] was going to be blocked, but he wasn't. I was taking back the ball, ready to throw it, and I saw him at the last second and didn't want to get hit and fumble, so I pulled it in. His facemask hit my hand--and he hit me in the right spot."
As tough to stomach as the injury is for Smith, it is almost as hard for the rest of the team.
Big number 11 had been the key to an offense that was rolling up copious amounts of yards and points.
Through three games, Smith had thrown for more yards (1,098), attempted and completed more passes (99-159) and thrown for more touchdowns (10) than anyone else in the league. He also led the Ivies in total offense and was coming off a victory against Yale in which he had thrown for 406 yards--his second 400+ game of the young season--and five touchdowns, earning Ivy co-Offensive Player of the Week honors.
The rest of the squad had been playing better than expected, too--especially the much-maligned defense after three consecutive 2-8 seasons. But the team had been rallying around Smith, who was not only putting up numbers, but also making the crucial plays that had the team, and everyone around the league, believing that Dartmouth could finally be a factor.
All that is unlikely, now. The team's fortunes hinged largely on Smith's right arm and, in the wake of the injury, coach John Lyons has been left scrambling for answers. But there is not much he can do, right now, except carry on and accept the tough break his team has been dealt.
"We are going to have to regroup," a visibly shaken Lyons said after the game. "We have to look at everything and see where we want to be. I'm just not sure right now. If your best player goes out at that position, it's just not good."
Crouching behind the center when winless Columbia comes to Memorial Field on Saturday will be Love, an untested rookie.
Love is big (6' 4", 205) and has a strong arm, but he is unaccustomed to the speed of the college game.
Without a doubt, It will be a difficult transition for Love and the team.
"He's getting thrown into a deal where the quarterback position is really the focal point of the offense and there's a lot to it," Lyons said. "With Greg, we were going to feature the things that Greg was comfortable with and that he was really good at. Now with Evan, that's going to be a different set of things. I think he's going to be fine, but he hasn't played football anywhere near this kind of level, even in high school. There are signs that he gets it, but it's just gonna take some time."
The team hopes that Love's learning curve will be steep and that Dartmouth can salvage a season that has taken a horrific turn.
"Evan's got the keys to a Lamborghini," Smith said, referring to the team's talented corps of wide receivers and tight ends that includes the likes of Matt DeLellis '02, Damien Roomets '02 and Casey Cramer '02. "The way this offense was moving this year--it wasn't just me."
Now, just when it looked like the best was yet to come, Smith has to give up the keys to that Lamborghini.
"I don't want this to be my last memory of football," Smith said.
Although the team will explore Smith's options--the QB may be able to red-shirt his sophomore season, when he missed seven games due to a knee injury, and return for the 2002 campaign--it probably will be.
