Measured Quantities

EVERY Wednesday during the summer months, a mailing goes out from Davis Varsity House to the men who will be members of Dartmouth's football team. The weekly memo includes the technical stuff that involves each position, a scouting report on one of the opponents, a couple of inspirational lines, and assorted notes about who's doing what and where during the summer weeks. The facts in these personal items are embellished by the member of the coaching staff who happens to be responsible for a particular mailing. For instance: "... Curt Oberg has a lifeguard job at Union Village Dam." Or, "Dave Casper was spotted by a movie director at the beach and was asked to model for a Charles Atlas before-and-after ad. Your guess is as good as mine."

Oberg last year gained more yards (a round 500) by rushing than any previous sophomore fullback at Dartmouth. Casper is a defensive tackle who weighs about 205 pounds, hardly imposing for the position, but he found his way to starting status as-a sophomore last year. Both are factors in Dartmouth's football scheme this fall, and each ranks as a measured, relatively proven quantity. The guy who has been measured to satisfaction by his teammates, but who has only seen abbreviated duty in combat, is another subject for personal notes in a mid-summer memo: Kevin Case.

The lines about this senior quarterback read: "Kevin Case has been seen walking around campus mumbling to himself, 'Flank Right I Flex K Con Ride Blast Rip or Lou,' or was that 'Right Flank Flex I K Con Ride Blast Lou or Rip???' " That mumbo-jumbo will never appear as such in Dartmouth's playbook, but there's no question that similar terms have been rippling through the mind of this freckle-faced math major from Davenport, lowa, as he meandered to class this summer.

A year ago, Case was a junior who many folks felt had a good chance of winning the quarterback job from senior Mike Brait. He was, and still is, a better all-around athlete than Brait, but Brait had an edge in experience and a comparatively proven arm to feed the ball to fleet receivers like Tom Fleming. Brait was outspoken, cocky, confident. Case wasn't outspoken or cocky, and he was not completely confident. He still ranks as the Quiet Man on this team, but unlike a year ago he has found the confidence to be the Green's field leader. More important, the players who will execute his commands are confident that he can do the job.

Pat Sullivan, the 235-pound co-captain and offensive tackle, tells about Case at Yale last November. Yale was leading, 137 , and Brait had left the game in the final period with a broken nose. It was a tremendous pressure situation that greeted Case as he entered the huddle. "He came in, didn't get excited, and said simply, 'We're going to score,' " Sullivan remembers. "And that's what we did."

At 6-2, 185 pounds, Case is a shade bigger than two of his more successful predecessors of recent vintage, Jim Chasey and Steve Stetson. He is not a drop-back passer like Brait but prefers to roll out. He has better speed afoot than any quarterback since Stetson and something that even Amos Blandin and Eddie Chamberlain can't recall in a Dartmouth passer since the T-formation became vogue more than 30 years ago (and they couldn't pinpoint one before that, either): Case is a lefthander. What that's worth remains to be seen, but it definitely will give Dartmouth's offense a different look in 1976.

"A lot of people are picking Dartmouth for the middle of the Ivy League standings because they feel our quarterback situation is uncertain," says Sullivan. "It may be uncertain to them but it isn't to us. There isn't a player on this team who doesn't feel Kevin can do the job for us. He showed what he can do at Yale. He can run, he can throw. We have confidence in him and that's what matters most."

Case has paid his dues. He was one of three quarterbacks on the 1973 freshmen team who passed for more than 300 yards. As a sophomore, he was a jayvee and accounted for 11 touchdowns as the rushing and passing leader. He watched and learned behind Brait in 1975 and now takes the helm of a backfield that looks stronger than any since Rick Klupchak, Ellis Rowe, and Doug Lind rumbled to Dartmouth's fifth straight Ivy title in 1973.

Oberg is an established fullback. Sam Coffey, the late arrival as a sophomore last year, averaged 4.5 yards per carry once he got things together. Coffey has the quickness to make the option action a renewed threat. A sophomore from Detroit, Ron Robinson, and another from Miami, Jim Eden, are the newcomers who have interesting speed; the leading frosh rusher in 1975, Greg Jenkins, will work behind Oberg. The Y-back-flanker- slotback (depending on the terminology you prefer) will be either Roland Griggs or Jimmie Solomon, a senior and junior respectively, who are focal points in the air game.

What seems unusual about this Dartmouth team — and Case is a good illustration — is that there isn't an identifiable superstar. It seems that in almost every season, Dartmouth has arrived with a couple of established "name" players — Beard, Ryzewicz, Bowden, Chasey, Short, Klupchak, Williams. There is no one to make this year's array a choice for the Ivy League championship, at least not in the eyes of the alleged experts. "We know what we can do," says Sullivan. "We're not playing for second, third, or fourth place, which is where a lot of people think we'll be." For the first time in nearly a decade, there isn't a player returning to Dartmouth who has played on an Ivy League championship team. It's a point that Crouthamel, entering his sixth season, makes as he lays words like concentration, discipline, poise, and pride on his players.

There may be no superstars for the moment, but there are certainly some capable players: Gregg Robinson (at close to 250 pounds, he makes Casper look like a manager instead of the other defensive tackle), Sullivan, and center Jim Lucas up front, linebacker Kevin Young (the defensive captain), safety Dave Van Vliet and defensive end Marty Milligan (" ... the most underrated player on this team and maybe in the Ivy League," according to Young). And don't overlook the lefty quarterback or the lifeguard at Union Village Dam.

Another consideration is the schedule. Two years ago, when the revised Ivy football round-robin format was announced, Crouthamel wasn't excited about opening the season against a league opponent. He still isn't thrilled, but he can see some potential assets: Dartmouth opens at home against Pennsylvania and, at least this year, the Philadelphia team is rated as a second-division production. Then come the non-league games with New Hampshire (9-3 in 1975, unbeaten in the Yankee Conference) and Holy Cross before the Ivy agenda resumes. Here's where it gets interesting: Dartmouth travels to Yale, then comes home against Harvard (October 16). It's a reversal of the sequence in which these teams have appeared on Dartmouth's schedule for the past 29 years.

"There's never a problem getting a Dartmouth team psyched for Harvard," says Crouthamel. "We've taken teams against Harvard that have usually been at an emotional peak. Then we've had to go against Yale while trying to keep that mental edge. It's tough." This fall, Dartmouth will visit the Yale Bowl, where the Green was beaten in 1974 and 1975 by a total of seven points. "I don't think we'll have a problem psyching our players for Yale," says Crouthamel, "and it shouldn't be hard to keep the edge on for Harvard a week later."

The Harvard game is the fifth of the season, a long way from the affair with Penn. The Ivy League championship is Dartmouth's annual objective, so the heat is on from the outset. Are you ready, Kevin?

"Now, let's see, it's Flank Right I Flex K...

The brash generation: co-captains Kevin Young (60) and Pat Sullivan on the Inn porch.