The marketing slogan for the 2002 Dartmouth football season, "Why not us? Why not now?" has not impressed many members of head coach John Lyons' squad.
In an Aug. 7 interview with the Dartmouth, offensive tackle John Turner '04 said, "I'd be surprised if the person who came up with that [slogan] ever set foot on a football field."
Wide receiver Jay Barnard '04 added, "That [slogan] kind of makes me angry, because it makes us seem like we're kind of a helpless football team just looking for a shot to prove our worth and prove our expectations of ourselves, and I believe we're a lot more than that."
Barnard's beliefs were validated on Saturday in Hamilton, N.Y., during the Big Green's season opener. Despite dropping a 30-26 decision to the lowly Colgate Raiders, Barnard and his teammates looked to be anything but helpless.
For 56:51 of Saturday's game, the Big Green never trailed, and appeared to be well on its way to handing the Raiders their third loss of the season, until Colgate's Justin Polk put the Raiders in the lead with a six yard touchdown run.
In his first game since the 2000 season, quarterback Brian Mann '02 threw for a career-high 369 yards, including a pair of touchdown passes to preseason All-American tight end Casey Cramer '04.
Cramer led the Dartmouth receiving corps with 102 yards on five catches, and classmate Barnard was close behind, totaling 101 yards on seven catches.
On the ground, running back Mike Giles '04 made good on his first major opportunity in a Big Green uniform, running for his first career touchdown and averaging 3.3 yards per carry.
Against Colgate, the Big Green provided its own answer to the much- maligned questions. With their performance against the Raiders, the Dartmouth men showed that there is no good reason why they can't give the Memorial Field faithful lots to cheer about in 2002.
This is not to say, of course, that there is no room for improvement over Saturday's performance. Turnovers were an issue for Dartmouth against Colgate, as the Big Green fumbled three times, losing possession twice.
In addition, Mann was intercepted late in the game on a play that wound up costing Dartmouth the contest. If the Big Green men are to improve on this past Saturday's result, they will need to take better care of the football and at that point, the sky is the limit.
In August, Barnard told The Dartmouth, "Despite a lot of hardship that we've had in the last two years, we still have a lot of great players and a great program, and for us to be put already in the [position of the] downtrodden 'feel sorry for me' type team kind of angers me, as it does a lot of other players. But, it also gives us a little bit of motivation to prove everybody wrong."
Despite losing to Colgate, the Big Green started to "prove everybody wrong" in Hamilton. If that game is any indication, the Dartmouth football team could have a few surprises in store for its rivals in 2002.
"Why not us, why not now" indeed.
