Granite Bowl Returns After Five-Year Hiatus

Saturday, October 16

Durham, N.H. / Wildcat Stadium

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

The Big Green are ready to invade Wildcat Stadium

Photo by: Matt and John Risley (Risley Sports)

10/14/2021 10:30:00 AM | Football

Saturday, Oct. 16 NBC Sports Boston FloFootball Video Audio Broadcast Live Stats Teevens TeleTeaser @DartFootball Game Day Central Dartmouth Notes Series History

The football team will play at New Hampshire with state bragging rights on the line

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) at #23 New Hampshire (3-2, 2-1 CAA)
Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021 | 1 PM | NBC Sports Boston/FloFootball
Wildcat Stadium | Durham, N.H.

Granite Bowl Returns

For the first time in five years, Dartmouth will play its in-state rival, New Hampshire, on the gridiron with bragging rights on the line as the only two Division I football teams within the borders of the Granite State. In the last meeting, the Big Green rallied for 15 points in the fourth quarter to defeat the Wildcats in Hanover, 22-21, ending a winless streak in the series that dated back to 1979 (18 losses and two ties).

But since Dartmouth won 17 of the first 18 games, the series is nearly deadlocked. A Big Green victory in this showdown would even things up at 19-19-2 and be their second straight win against a ranked team. It would also extend the team's win streak in non-conference games to 19.

Dartmouth enters this game riding the high of a 24-17 overtime victory over Yale — which shared the most recent Ivy League title with the Big Green — in front of over 10,000 homecoming fans. Place kicker Connor Davis booted a 32-yard field goal with 13 seconds left to send the game into overtime, quarterback Nick Howard scored what proved to be the winning touchdown on a 7-yard run and the defense stopped the Bulldogs on 4th-and-1 to end the contest.

Over the past three seasons, Dartmouth has found success with a quarterback tandem featuring one who predominantly passes (Derek Kyler) and one who serves more as a wildcat QB (Jared Gerbino initially and now Howard). Kyler has been uber-efficient throughout his career and ranks among the top five in the FCS in both completion percentage (71.1) and passing efficiency (162.98).

Howard, meanwhile, has scored two rushing touchdowns each of the last three weeks, just the third Big Green player to accomplish the feat in the last 35 years. His 7.2 yards per carry ranks fourth in the FCS as well.

But the Dartmouth offense was held to a season-low 277 yards after topping 400 the previous two weeks. The running game overall, which entered the contest averaging over 200 yards on the ground, could only muster 87. Still, Zack Bair is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 6.5 on 90 carries in his career.

The receivers are led by Paxton Scott with 22 grabs for 191 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Deep threat Jamal Cooney has caught passes of 40-plus yards each of the last two weeks, and Isaac Boston got into the act against Yale with the first four receptions of his career for a team-high 55 yards, including a 32-yard TD on his first.

The defense is anchored by linebackers Jalen Mackie (31 tackles) and Tanner Cross (27) with the former hurrying the Bulldog quarterback to force an incompletion on fourth down in overtime to end the game. Marques White is the top pass rusher with 3.5 sacks this season.

Cooney is the nation's leader in punt returns, averaging over 28 yards per attempt, and since returning from a preseason injury, Connor Davis booted a clutch field goal before the end of regulation against Yale and extended his streak of made PATs to 52, breaking the school record.

Scouting the Wildcats
New Hampshire is on a mission to return to the FCS playoffs for the first time since it made its 14th consecutive trip to the postseason in 2017. Dartmouth would like nothing more than to throw a wrench into those plans for the 23rd-ranked Wildcats.

UNH opened the season with three straight victories before Pitt handed the Wildcats a 77-7 defeat three weeks ago. New Hampshire did rebound against third-ranked James Madison, but came up just short in a 23-21 loss on Oct. 2.

The Wildcats have had two weeks to prepare for this in-state showdown with quarterback Bret Edwards guiding the offense. In five games, he has completed 65 percent of his passes (90-of-138) for 916 yards and nine touchdowns with only two interceptions.

The running game is led by Carlos Washington Jr., averaging nearly 70 yards a game and almost five yards a carry. Dylan Daube spells him admirably, also gaining nearly five yards per rush and has two of UNH's five scores on the ground.

Edwards will spread the wealth among his receivers with four players owning double-digit receptions and Sean Coyne at the top with 18 grabs for 195 yards and two scores. Brian Espanet has similar numbers with 16 catches for 201 yards, including five TD hauls.

The Wildcats' defense features preseason All-America safety Evan Horn, who has two of their eight interceptions, which ranks 11th in the FCS. Those pickoffs are aided by a quality pass rush featuring linemen Gunner Gibson (4.5 sacks), Josiah Silver (4.0) and Elijah Lewis (3.5). LB Bryce Shaw tops the team with 32 tackles. Overall UNH has allowed over 400 yards per game, but that is very skewed due to the game against Pitt. Against FCS opponents, the 'Cats have yielded 347 per game.

The punting game has been very good with both of the Wildcat kickers averaging almost 42 yards a punt. But field goals have been a different story with UNH 0-for-5 on the season.

Head coach Sean McDonnell (UNH '78) is in his 22nd season at the helm of his alma mater with a record of 157-98, and earlier this season he won his 100th career conference game. A two-time Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year, McDonnell led the Wildcats to the FCS Playoffs for each of those 14 consecutive years (2004-17).

Working Overtime on Homecoming
Homecoming is always a busy time of year, so the football team forcing overtime against Yale was in spirit with the rest of the campus. After Connor Davis tied the game with a 32-yard field goal and just 13 seconds left in regulation, Nick Howard supplied the winning score by acting like a bowling ball and treating the Yale defenders like pins at a new Brunswick Lanes for a 7-yard touchdown. The defense then got the stop on a 4th-and-1 play to give the Big Green a 24-17 triumph in their first OT game in four years. The win evens Dartmouth's record in overtime games all-time at 6-6 with victories in its last two:

Year	Opponent	H/A	Dart	Opp	W/L
1997	Princeton	H	12	9	W
1998	Lafayette	H	13	10	W
2006	Holy Cross	H	21	24	L
2006	Brown	H	19	13	W
2007	Colgate	H	28	31	L
2007	Princeton	H	14	17	L
2009	Cornell (2ot)	H	20	17	W
2009	Brown	A	7	14	L
2010	Penn	A	28	35	L
2013	Penn (4ot)	A	31	37	L
2017	Holy Cross	H	27	26	W
2021	Yale	H	24	17	W

Davis Comes Up Clutch
Senior PK Connor Davis may have missed the first two games with an injury, but you wouldn't know it from the early results. With Dartmouth trailing Yale by three with 18 seconds showing on the clock in the fourth quarter, Davis calmly booted a 32-yard field goal from the right hash mark, sending the game into overtime. And when the Big Green scored the go-ahead touchdown, he added the extra point as he has 52 times in a row. That broke the program record set by one of the great scorers in NFL history, Nick Lowery '78, who drilled all 51 he attempted for the Big Green. Davis is also just nine points shy of joining the top 10 career scorers at Dartmouth. And his father, Judd, was a renowned kicker in his own right, winning the Lou Groza Award as college football's top place kicker in 1993 at Florida.

Howard Adds to His Young Legacy
Junior QB Nick Howard has played in five games in his collegiate career — one as a freshman in 2019 and the four this fall — but has already etched his name alongside some pretty elite company. Against Penn, he became just the fourth Dartmouth player in the Ivy League era (since 1956) to rush for 100 or more yards and at least two touchdowns in consecutive games. The other three players just happen to be the top three rushers in Big Green history — Al Rosier '91, Nick Schwieger '12 and Dominick Pierre '14. Although he did not extend that dual streak, he did run for two more touchdowns, making him just the third player to have three such games in a row in the last 35 years (Schwieger had four straight bridging the 2010 and '11 seasons, and Ernie Torain '87 did it in 1986 with the only six touchdowns he scored all year).

Unlocking Yale
Although Yale still holds a 54-44-6 lead in the all-time series and enjoyed a personal nine-game win streak against Dartmouth from 2003-11, the Big Green have figured out the combination for beating the Bulldogs with wins in eight of the last nine matchups, including the 24-17 overtime win on homecoming. Dartmouth has now played five of the other seven Ivy teams in overtime at least once, with only Columbia and Harvard missing out.

Mugging for the Cameras
There was a time when Dartmouth did not fare well when appearing on TV, but the Big Green have seemingly overcome their camera shyness. With the 31-7 victory over Penn, Dartmouth has now won eight of its last nine televised games. That recent success bodes well for this game, which is being televised by NBC Sports Boston. When the Big Green play on an NBC network, they are 7-6 dating back to the first nationally televised game from New England against Holy Cross in 1953 (a 28-6 defeat).

Stingy Defense
Dartmouth has made quite the name for itself the past few seasons as staunch defenders. In both 2018 and 2019 when the Big Green ended the season ranked among the FCS top 25, only one other team surrendered fewer points per game each season — Colgate in 2018 and North Dakota State in 2019. And Dartmouth was ranked both years in the top 15 in total defense (4th and 14th) as well. Seems like the Green have picked up after the pandemic right where they left off; entering this game, Dartmouth is fourth in scoring defense (11.2) and third in total defense (241.2 yards).

Boston Arrives in Hanover
Not the city, mind you, but WR Isaac Boston. The sophomore made the first catches of his career in the 24-17 overtime win over Yale on Oct. 9, with the very first one going 32 yards for Dartmouth's first score of the game. The last Big Green receiver to catch a touchdown for his first career reception was … not that long ago: TE Joe Kramer hauled in a 5-yard scoring strike in the 2019 season opener at Jacksonville. And since 2000, there have been 16 Dartmouth players to catch a TD as their first career haul, including three players who scored on each of their first two: Tom Finnigan '04 in 2000, Jake Guidone in 2018 and Kramer in 2019.

Kyler Rising the Ranks
In the win over Yale, Derek Kyler became the 10th quarterback in Dartmouth history to throw for at least 3,000 yards in a career. The fifth-year senior hit the milestone with a 17-yard pass to TE Robbie Mangas late in the third quarter. He is also maintaining his super efficient passing with a season completion percentage of 71.1, boosting his career percentage to 68.9 (252-of-366), well ahead of Dalyn Williams at 62.7 percent. Kyler is also ahead of the Big Green field in career passing efficiency with a figure of 165.43, which is also the active career leader among FCS quarterbacks. Kyler is also fifth all-time at Dartmouth with 32 touchdown passes (Brian Mann '02 is fourth with 33) and ninth in career total offense (3,356 yards).

End Zone Air Raid
With the touchdown toss to Isaac Boston against Yale, Dartmouth has had at least one score through the air in 53 of its last 57 contests. The Big Green had one or more in every game in 2017, while missing out only once in the other four campaigns since 2015.

No Penalties
For the second time in two seasons, Dartmouth played an entire game (and even a little more) without being flagged for a penalty in the 24-17 overtime triumph over Yale on Oct. 9. The Big Green were also blameless at Marist in 2019, a 49-7 victory. The last time it had happened prior to that. The 2007 season finale against Princeton, which ended up a 17-14 defeat. You have to go back to 1985 for another such instance, a 23-7 loss at today's opponent, New Hampshire.

National Top 10
While it is still a bit early in the season, Dartmouth has had several players stand out in the national FCS rankings thus far, including a pair among the top 10 in rushing yards per carry:

• Punt return avg. — Jamal Cooney (28.5, 1st)
• Punt return TD — Robert Crockett III (1, 1st)
• Rush yards per carry — Nick Howard (7.20, 4th)
• Completion pct. — Derek Kyler (71.1, 4th)
• Passing efficiency — Derek Kyler (162.98, 5th)