The hiring of Buddy Teevens '79 marks the beginning of a new era of Dartmouth College football. Teevens has been charged with the task of rejuvenating a football program whose 16-53 record since 1998 has dampened the atmosphere around Memorial Field. But Teevens' attempt to resurrect a once-dominant football program will not be his alone, as the assistant coaching staff that will help revitalize the program has finally been put into place.
Leading a defense that will return six starters is coach Chris Wilkerson. The new defensive coordinator will also coach the linebackers. He filled similar roles in 2003 and 2004 at San Jose State University, where he also coached special teams. Wilkerson has a long history with Teevens; the two met in 1997. While they stayed in contact for the next several years, the pair got to know each other better during the last couple of years when SJSU faced off against Teevens' Stanford Cardinal.
"Teevens was someone I wanted to associate myself with. Coaching [at Dartmouth] was an opportunity I couldn't turn down," Wilkerson said. "I'm going to try to put our kids in a position to have success. We plan to build our defensive scheme around what best suits our players."
On the offensive side of the ball, it will be Teevens himself calling the shots. Teevens will also take on the mantle of quarterback coach, working directly with Charlie Ritgers '06.
Teevens coached Dartmouth to a share of the Ivy League crown in 1990 and the outright title in 1991 before taking the head coaching job at Tulane. After his time there, he held a few assistant coaching positions at the University of Florida, including passing game coordinator and assistant offensive coordinator in Steve Spurrier's Fun and Gun offense, before spending two seasons as the head coach at Stanford University.
Helping Teevens push the ball up the field are several new faces on the offensive end. Cyril Brockmeier, the new offensive line coach, is one of them. Brockmeier, a man of positively frightening proportions, played offensive line for Teevens at Tulane. After finishing his playing days at Tulane, Brockmeier eventually met up with Teevens at Stanford, where he worked with the offensive line and as an assistant strength coach.
"I followed Teevens to California and then back up here," Brockmeier said. "That's just the kind of guy he is."
New coach Mike Hodgson also made a significant move to become a part of Dartmouth's new coaching staff. After 26 years of coaching and a five year stretch as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks, and wide receivers coach at Central Connecticut State University, Hodgson has is looking forward to coaching tight ends in Hanover next fall.
"This is a really exciting place to be," Hodgson said. "The atmosphere and enthusiasm has been awesome."
The defensive line that will lead Wilkerson's defense will be coached by James Jones, another new addition to the staff, and one who rivals Brockmeier in terms of sheer enormity. He played defensive line at Texas Southern University and coached the defensive line there and at Moorehouse College, Wagner College and Prairie View, in addition to a stint at Cornell coaching special teams and outside linebackers. Hired only three weeks ago, Jones had nothing but good things to say about becoming a part of the Dartmouth football program.
"The program is very high energy, and everyone's been very warm and receptive," Jones said.
That warmth will certainly continue if Jones's unit can reflect his goals in their performance. Jones plans to impress the importance of precision and detailed execution on his unit, and hopes to develop a unit of great tacklers up front.
The success of his unit would certainly make Sammy McCorkle's job a great deal easier. McCorkle is the new defensive backs coach. McCorkle played and was a graduate assistant coach at the University of Florida. He has been impressed with the excitement and enthusiasm that his new colleagues have brought to the coaching staff.
KiJuan Ware is one of the few holdovers from John Lyons' coaching staff from last year. After playing quarterback and coaching wide receivers at Springfield College, he will be the receivers coach in the fall. Ware said he has already noticed some changes since the new staff's arrival.
"The energy level is the big change, not just with the team, but with the whole department," Ware said.
Matthew Smiley was also in a very different situation this time last year. Smiley, who will be the kickers coach and assistant quarterbacks coach, recently finished up his commitment to the United States Air Force. On a ROTC scholarship, Smiley attended the University of Illinois, where he walked on and first crossed paths with Teevens. After graduation, Smiley joined the Air Force and was deployed four times, first to Turkey, then twice to Kurdistan and finally to a small island in the Indian Ocean. While his family is still in Grand Forks, N.D., near the Air Force base where Smiley was stationed, his discharge hasn't been too lonely in Hanover.
"Teevens handpicked the staff, and we get along tremendously," Smiley said.
Curtis Oberg '78 is the final addition to the staff. Coming out of more than two decades away from the game, Oberg will be the assistant running backs coach and will help with alumni relations. A former president of the Friends of Dartmouth Football, Oberg, a fullback, played for Dartmouth alongside Teevens when he was a student.
"My goal really is to increase alumni donations to the football program. Our goal is $600,000, which is quite lofty considering we've been receiving about $120,000 or $130,000 a year," Oberg said.
Adam Hollis is the other remaining coach from the Lyons' staff. He is in his sixth year at Dartmouth, and will continue as the head running backs coach.
"I'm very pleased with the guys we have on board," Teevens said.
The coaches aren't the only guys that Teevens had to get on board. He also needed to bring in recruits. Consequently, Hollis will also head the recruiting staff. While many worried that this year's recruiting class would be lackluster at best due to the rebuilding of the coaching staff during the recruiting season it does not seem to be the case. While specific names will not be discussed until deposits have been made for fall term next year, the whole staff seems upbeat about the results of the recruiting process.
"Teevens being named coach enabled us to have a pretty good year," Hollis said. "We're really excited about the recruiting class that we have and that we were able to bypass the 'transition' year."
"We had a solid year," Teevens said. "Our recruits are high performers academically. We got some needed size on the offensive line as well. Our recruits have strong character, are passionate people and qualified academically."
The new additions to the program are excited to be here and enthused about starting a new era in Dartmouth Football set to kick off in August.
