Although Rooney has attempted just seven passes in his Dartmouth career, Teevens said he needed to provide a spark to a passing offense that ranks 114th out of 120 Football Championship Subdivision teams. Dartmouth's offensive line currently averages just 117 pass yards per game.
"We're trying to get more consistency at the quarterback spot," Teevens said. "We're primarily a running football team, but a productive pass offense balances things up. We haven't found that yet, so we decided to shake things up."
Rooney said he was excited when Teevans told him he would start, but knows that he must perform at a high level if he wants to continue playing with the first team.
"The running game's been there for us all season, so if we can get a few guys off [Nick Schwieger '12] and Dominick [Pierre '14], we can get the offense moving in the right direction," Rooney said. "Coach is just looking for a guy that's going to perform to the level we're looking for and put some points on the board."
Andy Gay '14 started for Dartmouth at Yale University last week in place of Conner Kempe '12, who had started the Big Green's previous 13 games dating back to last season. Gay was pulled at halftime of the 30-0 loss, however, after completing just three out of 11 passes for 14 yards. He was also sacked twice.
The presumptive starter at the beginning of the season, Kempe has been unable to improve his completion percentage from last season, when it stood at 54.2 percent. While the defense deserves some blame for the Dartmouth's 1-3 start, Kempe's numbers are telling. The senior has completed just 48.4 percent of his passes for 444 yards in four games. He has thrown just three touchdowns and given up two interceptions.
Dartmouth now turns to Rooney in hopes of squeezing some success from the remainder of the season.
"He's been productive in the past, but hasn't played a lot for us at the varsity level," Teevens said. "He's been steady in practice, and the big thing is to have some consistency in the pass game. My expectation is that he'll perform well."
Rooney will be missing a few key targets on Saturday, as co-captain Tim McManus '11 and his younger brother, Ryan McManus '15, will both miss the game with injuries. Tim has been sidelined since he took a hard hit to the head during the second quarter of Dartmouth's game against the University of Pennsylvania two weeks ago. Ryan sustained a similar injury after catching four passes in last week's loss to Yale.
Teevens said Tim McManus has taken longer than expected to return, but that the Big Green will not take any risks due to the nature of his head injury.
The team's primary bright spot this season has come from its special teams play. While opponents have wised up to All-America return man and co-captain Shawn Abuhoff '12, kicking away from him as much as possible, he has still managed to return one punt for a touchdown. The Big Green has also blocked six kicks, which is tied for the most in the FCS.
"Coaches Chris Wilkerson and Sam McCorkle have done a great job with that," Teevens said. "We spend a lot of time with that and we put our best guys on that unit."
Dartmouth blocked an extra point in last year's 27-19 victory over Holy Cross (2-3, 1-0 Patriot) in Hanover. The Big Green forced six turnovers that day and ran to victory behind 169 rushing yards from Schwieger.
The Crusaders will be a tough opponent for the Big Green to beat. All three of the Crusaders' losses have been by eight points or less, and they have faced two Ivy League opponents so far, beating Harvard University before losing to Brown University last week. Their most impressive performance likely came in a 39-32 loss on the road at the University of New Hampshire, which is currently the sixth-ranked team in the country.
Dartmouth plays Holy Cross at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
