The team ranked fourth in the annual Ivy League preseason media poll behind the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and Brown University. The Quakers, Crimson and Bears were the team's only three losses in the Ancient Eight last season.
The team tended to dig themselves into a first half hole that proved too difficult to climb out of later in the game. The team entered halftime down 20 points to Penn and 21 to Harvard before getting within a touchdown of both teams, yet were unable to complete the comeback either time.
Fifth-year senior and co-captain safety Garrett Waggoner '13 said the team emphasized combatting that trend in practice.
"We're doing lots of situational practice sessions to work on starting fast," Waggoner said. "Our play in the second half of the season and the second half of each game is a testament to the strength and conditioning of the team."
Wide receiver Ryan McManus '15, who last year caught 42 passes for 664 yards, said the team is attempting to pick up the offensive pace to follow coach Buddy Teevens' motto to start fast and finish strong.
"We just need to stay consistent and stay healthy," McManus said. "We have a lot of our starting defense back and many important offensive players. We know that we have become a much more competitive program from where we were five or six years ago."
On the offensive side of the ball, the biggest uncertainty remains under center, where the team returns signal callers Alex Park '14 and Dalyn Williams '16. Both started games for the Big Green last season. Park was the opening day starter and, despite missing time to injury, threw for 1370 yards and 7 touchdowns while completing over 62 percent of his passes in 8 games.
Williams took advantage of scattered playing time in nine games to throw for 974 yards and seven touchdowns and run for 413 yards and three touchdowns. Williams took over for the injured Park as the featured quarterback during the final three games.
Williams and Park have essentially been splitting time this preseason but Williams appears to have a slight edge as the number one option, McManus said."They're essentially both starters and have been splitting time evenly similar to spring ball," McManus said. "They're both great athletes and it's hard to tell the difference when the ball is coming at you."
The other major piece on the offensive side is the return of running back Dominick Pierre '14, who already ranks 12th among Dartmouth's all-time rushing leaders. Despite missing time to injury as well last season, Pierre still accumulated 830 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns, good for the eighth best single-season performance in Big Green history.
The team returns many key elements from the defense that ranked second in the Ivy League in yards per game last season, giving up an average of 323 yards, and tops in the league in pass defense, surrendering a stingy 192.5 yards per game through the air. Some of the notable returning starters include Waggoner, co-captain linebacker Bronson Green '14 and linebacker Mike Runger '14, who led the league with 98 tackles last year.
"I think a lot of guys got good experience last year and played a lot of snaps so we have a lot of trust in each other," Green said. "Last year's defense was great. Often as football players we focused on the negatives but we had a lot of success finishing second in total yards."
The most significant defensive hole comes on the line, where the graduation of some of last season's major contributors will leave opportunities for increased rotation among younger players with less experience.
Looking at the upcoming schedule, the players have already circled many of the away games this year as their most anticipated clashes.
The team opens the season on Sept. 21 at Butler University in Indianapolis, which includes the rare opportunity to fly to a game.
"The ability to get on the travel team and be there for varsity games and be there in exciting places is motivation for everyone on the team," Green said. "We're going to have some exciting road games: to get on the plane to Butler is going to be exiting for our program in addition to playing at Franklin Field and at Harvard Stadium under the lights."
Green noted the danger of focusing too much on a few marque matchups, which he admitted has plagued the team in the past.
"We're really focused on one game at a time," he said. "In years past we've circled a game and skipped a few others, I think Sacred Heart [University] last year could have been something like that. "
As all of the pieces are falling into place in the final month of training, the team is focused on a single overarching goal of an Ivy championship, something that the Big Green haven't accomplished since 1996.
"Obviously we want to be Ivy champs and that's something that we've talked about in years past but this year we're really focused on it," Green said.
