After celebrating its second consecutive Ivy League Championship, shared with Columbia University and Harvard University, Dartmouth football went back to work with a new goal: finding fresh minds.
Throughout last winter and spring, the program added four new coaches to the staff in hopes of being the sole Ivy League team to advance to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs this season.
The Dartmouth sat down with all four new coaches to find out why they joined the Big Green and what their plans are for the season this fall.
Shane Montgomery, who joined in February as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator, said he was “drawn” to Dartmouth.
“To get a chance to coach at one of the premier academic institutions, not only in the country, but in the world, that’s something you’re looking for as a coach,” Montgomery said. “A place like this, you’re recruiting some of the most talented kids, not only in the classroom, but on the football field.”
Wide receivers coach Mitchell Thompson, who joined the Big Green in April, has had a very special connection with Dartmouth since he was a teenager. In an interview, he described visiting the College before he went on to play defensive at Washington and Lee University.
“Coach [Sammy] McCorkle and, before him, Coach [Buddy] Teevens ’79 — I’ve known them since I came to the Dartmouth camp as a prospective student-athlete in 2009,” Thompson said.
After graduating, Thompson did not take the traditional coaching route, starting out instead as a social media coordinator for Amherst College before becoming a wide receivers coach.
“The Division III landscape of football is quite different from the Division I landscape, and it’s something that really benefited me,” Thompson said. “When you meet other coaches who have Division I backgrounds, they really get to be specialized in what they do and what they focus on. In a Division III landscape, you have to grab an oar; I took over some secretary duties at some point.”
During the transition into a new position, Montgomery said he was grateful for McCorkle, who has been head coach since 2023. Montgomery said McCorkle is a “great team member,” as he listens to the opinions of staff and provides a good example of work-life balance.
McCorkle is a “family man” and a great leader, according to Montgomery.
“I’ve worked with all different types of head coaches, and he’s got the best interest of not only the players, but of the staff,” Mongomery said. “He knows how important it is to have a great balance between work and family life.”
Thompson credited senior co-captain and wide receiver Daniel Haughton ’26 for the easy transition to Dartmouth.
“Haughton has been just awesome to work with,” Thompson said. “ ... It makes it really easy as a coach when you have a guy like that who’s already an established leader.”
Mike Johnson, who was hired this past spring as the cornerbacks coach, joined the Dartmouth staff because of the culture created by Teevens and continued by McCorkle.
“From an assistant coach’s perspective, when you are new into a program and its institution, culture is something here that you can see and feel,” he said. “It’s evident that everyone … believes in what Coach McCorkle is preaching to our kids on a daily basis. From day one, that family-oriented dynamic is evident.”
Johnson spent the spring working on building a good team dynamic, encouraging experienced players to “continue their growth” and newer players to “step up to create a rotation that we feel comfortable to go in and win.”
“We built that foundation in the spring, and we’re going to continue to grow and develop in every aspect on the field and off the field to give ourselves as a unit a chance of success and also add value to the defense and obviously play championship-level defense,” Johnson said.
Kevin Bracken was hired in the spring as a secondary coach who focuses mostly on safeties and nickelbacks. So far, he said he has had an “excellent experience” working with the secondary teams in the summer.
“In the spring, you work on your fundamentals and the schematics, and then in the summer, the kids work on lifting weights, and we work on really forging that bond between ourselves and the players, and the players continue to do that with each other,” he said. “The summer focus was just for us to continue to build those bonds and make sure that those are really strong because that’s the most important thing at the end of the day.”
Bracken hopes to use his new strong relationships to bring the Big Green into the FCS playoffs.
“It’s new and a very humbling experience to be able to have this opportunity in front of us,” Bracken said. “Overall, we are a process-oriented organization and the process doesn’t change. Dartmouth has been a place of success for the right reasons because of those relationships and how much we focus on them.”
Transitioning into the small town New England lifestyle is a change for Johnson, who is originally from Maryland, but he said he enjoys the community of Hanover.
“I enjoy the people; they are really nice,” Johnson said. “The town of Hanover has a very original close-knit feel. I like the community aspect of it. Everyone at the school is treating me well. It hasn’t been a hard transition.”
Bracken has enjoyed exploring Hanover with his recently expanded family.
“I just recently had a newborn and I’m looking forward to that,” Bracken said. “We’re really enjoying it and we couldn’t be happier.”
Dartmouth football opens their season at home on Sept. 20 at 1 p.m. where Montgomery, Johnson, Mitchell and Bracken will all make their Dartmouth debuts.
