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The Dartmouth
July 15, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

The Power Rankings

I'm not totally sure how high expectations could possibly be after the football team had the worst season in Dartmouth history last year, but still, Dartmouth football is coming back (kind of) and will be significantly better soon. So, I'm going to make a bold prediction, and I hope head coach Buddy Teevens and his crew don't make me sound stupid in two months.

Big Green football will win at least three games in the Ivy League this year. Here's why:

  1. Possession The same sickening story kept replaying every game last year, like a clip of a slow-motion train wreck on repeat: the offense can't establish a good possession game, the offense leaves great field position for the other team, the defense gets stuck on the field for long periods of time, the defense gets tired, the defense gives up big plays, Dartmouth loses. Thankfully, those dark times seem to be on their way out. The Big Green's offense has shown flashes of promise this year, from a 99-yard drive in the Harvard scrimmage to consistent trips to the red zone in both of the team's games so far this season. In fact, for probably the first time since Teevens himself was behind center, slash since the universe was formed, Dartmouth won the possession game against the University of New Hampshire this weekend. When the offense was clicking and the defense was rested, Dartmouth played the No. 6 Wildcats close (Dartmouth scored twice and went into halftime down by just six points). When the team committed five turnovers, the game instantly turned into a blowout. Go figure.

  2. Defense With some possession finally established, Dartmouth can let its defense shine. The Big Green boasts a talented and underrated defense this year. Stars this year include sophomore standout cornerback and kick-return virtuoso Shawn Abuhoff '12 who has both of Dartmouth's interceptions this season alliteration-prone safety Pete Pidermann '10 in the secondary, man-mountain Charles Bay '11 on the line and former defensive tackle Royce Egeolu '12, who has moved to middle linebacker and already has 21 tackles. The defense has only allowed its opponents to convert 61 percent of third downs and zero fourth downs, and will perform better in the Ivy League.

  3. Offensive line Thanks to injuries and generally terrible play, the offensive line was a sham last year. The line is young, but rapidly improving. Ivy League coaching legend Keith Clark has received tons of praise from the Dartmouth team during his short tenure as offensive line coach. Although the line still lacks some push, it has made great improvements supporting the team's always-ailing running game, and has allowed just two sacks in the past two games a total that would have been surpassed in a single quarter last year. Put your faith in Clark to lead the line into the promised land, or at least the land of no longer being a liability.

  4. Offseason workouts Since the winter, Buddy Teevens has been putting the team through a workout regimen so intense it would make Rich Rodriguez uncomfortable. Not really please don't investigate the team's workouts on my account. Anyway, the team has had early-morning workouts in addition to its regular schedule four days a week every term, and the trainers added an additional early-morning run twice a week for the summer. That's a lot of getting swole' up. Some other choice tidbits: The trainers split the team into six groups. If one person was late or missed a lift in his group, the entire group had an extra 6 a.m., extra-tough conditioning session. Also, the players finished their workouts with something called "dessert," which is extra conditioning on top of regular conditioning. I'm getting winded just writing about all of this. The end result seems to have worked, however, because every player I've talked to feels that the team can now compete physically with anyone in the Ivy League. Plus, they all have a ridiculous swell on.

  5. College President Jim Yong Kim Our new president, who was a high school quarterback himself (we'll see what we can do about getting him some minutes), is seriously amped up on Big Green football. He sent an e-mail to the Class of 2013 encouraging the babies to attend the Colgate game, then proceeded to run down the sideline high-fiving fans and beating Theta Delta Chi fraternity's bass drum. It was awesome. If there's one thing our team needs right now, it's support from all of us, and seeing that much fire coming from the top is one of the cooler things I've seen during my time at Dartmouth. Follow his example and go get nuts out there against Penn this weekend.

Three Ivy League wins. I have faith. Feel free to get more.