Hanover
“Good luck with that,” Teevens joked on his way past. “He doesn’t say much, you know.”
Then again, the sophomore’s actions thus far have practically shouted. The slender slinger has connected on 40 of 56 passes for a 71 percent completion percentage, 435 yards and four touchdowns. Kyler, buried on the depth chart last season, has had one pass intercepted, and he hasn’t been sacked.
Dartmouth hasn’t faced strong opposition this season during routs of Georgetown and Holy Cross, but Saturday’s Ivy League opener against always-ornery Pennsylvania (2-0) should tell much more about the Big Green and its signal caller. The Quakers lost three league games by a combined 11 points last fall, including one to Dartmouth on that contest’s final play.
Lingering perhaps even more in Dartmouth minds is the teams’ 2016 clash, when Penn came to Memorial Field and not only beat the hosts, but beat them up in the process.
“They kicked our (butts),” Teevens said grimly on Tuesday. “I just reminded our guys of that in a team meeting.”
The local thinking is that Dartmouth now has strength in the trenches and beyond to match Penn. However, that’s unlikely to be enough. Dartmouth needs Kyler to remain poised and accurate and to recognize when a completion isn’t in the works — just as he did during his first two collegiate starts.
“It can be hard for a young guy who wants to make every play, but Saturday, three or four times he just chucked the ball into the stands,” Teevens said. “That’s maturity, and for a young guy, that’s a great sign.”
Kyler is the oldest of three children of Greg, a carpenter, and Stephanie, a hospital human resources worker, from DeKalb, Ill. Both parents attended nearby Northern Illinois University, a school of about 17,000 students in a town of roughly 40,000. DeKalb is 65 miles west of Chicago and 30 miles southeast of Rockford.
Kyler started tackle football as a fourth-grade running back but switched to quarterback three years later. He started under center as a sophomore for the DeKalb High Barbs. That nickname is tied to Joseph Glidden, a Charlestown, N.H., native who called the Midwest city home when he became the modern inventor of barbed wire.
At only 5-foot-10 and 130 pounds, Kyler ran 43 yards for a touchdown on his first high school play from scrimmage and later led his team to the state semifinals for the first time since 1980. He and Dre Brown, now a junior running back at the University of Illinois, were part of a group credited with helping their program rebound from a 44-147 stretch that lasted from 1985 to 2010.
DeKalb coach Matt Weckler said big-school recruiters loved Kyler’s physical ability, calm demeanor and leadership. However, all were hung up on his size. Dartmouth lists him at 6 feet and 180 pounds, the same size as punter Davis Brief. It’s a hard fact of quarterback life that big prospects have to prove they can’t play, while smaller ones often have to prove they can.
“We just kept saying he’s a football player, he’ll know your system inside and out and he doesn’t turn the ball over,” Weckler said. “He would watch hours of film, and when we’d go into Monday meetings, he already had a great sense of what the next opponent would do and some plays that would work.
“By his senior year, there were times where we as coaches began to think he was smarter than us.”
Kyler skipped his sophomore and junior basketball seasons to concentrate on football but rejoined the hoops squad as a senior, accepting a lesser role. He was good enough at baseball that he also was recruited by colleges for that sport and he briefly gave thought to trying to play it at Dartmouth.
The Big Green football team recruited Kyler as what Teevens called a “quarterback-athlete,” meaning its coaches thought he could play for them somewhere, but that it might not be as a signal-caller.
That’s usually a precursor to a position switch early in one’s freshman fall, but the way Kyler chucked the ball around during 2017 preseason drills earned him a job piloting the scout team offense. That’s the group of reserves tasked with mimicking an upcoming opponent’s formations and plays for Dartmouth’s first- and second-string defense.
“He throws the ball harder than you would think to look at him,” Big Green offensive line coach and former offensive coordinator Keith Clark said. “And he’s unflappable.”
Teevens began his own Dartmouth quarterbacking career behind roughly a dozen other players but started as a junior in 1977. His tenacity, toughness and mobility helped him beat out bigger, flashier athletes.
He saw similar intangibles when watching Kyler on high school videotape and last fall with the scout team.
“He just makes plays,” said Teevens, adding that Kyler reminds him of 1970s Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kenny “The Snake” Stabler, so named for his long, winding scrambles. “He’s just elusive and sees things and has great poise, but he’s also a tremendous competitor.
“There’s a leadership skill there that’s not verbal, but he’s moved the team well.”
Jake Pallotta, a junior who last year backed up second-year starter Jack Heneghan, was Dartmouth’s starting quarterback entering spring practice, Kyler said. By the end of the 12 practices, the two had swapped spots. They’re not only competitors but friends, sharing a dorm room in a two-room triple with Wildcat formation quarterback Jared Gerbino.
Pallotta compared Kyler to NFL quarterbacks Drew Brees and Baker Mayfield in his ability to subtly shift in the pocket in order to find throwing lanes. It’s almost like a sixth sense, Pallotta said, adding that he and his roommates addressed their competition for the starting job early on in their friendship.
“We know odds are one of us was going to be playing and one or two of us were not, and we decided it wasn’t going to affect our relationship off the field,” Pallotta said. “We all love each other and we’re best friends and, no matter who’s starting, our main goal is to leave Dartmouth with an Ivy League championship ring.”
Kyler took a personal step toward that goal by choosing to stay in Hanover last summer. It allowed him not only to participate in unofficial passing drills on Memorial Field, but to bond with the program’s sophomores, who are required to take summer classes. He also shook off the arrival of Jake Allen, a transfer from the University of Florida, who’s now the scout team quarterback.
In another effort to maintain his starting standing, Kyler put in long hours using a virtual reality system that records and can play back every Dartmouth practice drill from the quarterback’s perspective.
“As soon as I catch the ball, I usually know what’s going on,” said Kyler, who credits second-year offensive coordinator Kevin Daft for much of his success. “I feel so much smarter than I did as a high school football player.
“Playing quarterback is at least 70 percent mental, and there are so many little details you would never think of until someone points it out.”
Notes: Teevens said Gerbino is ready to play after missing the first two games because of injury. … Dartmouth starts five senior offensive lineman, something Clark, the unit’s coach, couldn’t recall ever happening for a group he’s guided during his 32 years in the college game. … Kyler’s brother, Trent, is a sophomore quarterback at DeKalb whom the older sibling describes as a better player at that age than he was. … Some Dartmouth players were sent back to the locker room last week at Holy Cross because they warmed up without proper padding on their hips, knees and rear ends. … Junior tight end Connor Rempel, a first-year starter, caught six passes in high school, but four went for touchdowns. He’s caught seven passes as a collegian, and two of them have been for scores. Rempel likely wouldn’t be playing if previous starters Stephen Johnston and Cameron Skaff had taken the fifth-year medical hardship seasons they had coming to them this fall.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.