HANOVER — Lost in the special teams mishaps, ball-security issues and other odd occurrences from the Dartmouth College football team’s win over Columbia last week, there’s this: The Big Green have a viable running game again.
The running backs room was supposed to be Dartmouth’s biggest strength. With Zack Bair returning for a fifth year, senior Noah Roper poised for improvement and sophomore Q Jones leading a plethora of young backs — not to mention senior quarterback Nick Howard’s success as a runner — it was hard to see how even the Ivy League’s best defenses would stop the Big Green on the ground. Dartmouth’s 5.3 yards per carry in 2021 was more than a full yard better than the league’s next-best team.
“It is a nice, varied set of backs, ones who can do different things,” running backs coach Danny O’Dea said. “Some can do better than the others, and there’s (some things) that everybody does really well. It’s a good situation.”
Through two games, the ground attack exceeded even the most optimistic fans’ expectations. Led by Bair’s career day, the Big Green ran for 308 yards in a season-opening win against Valparaiso, with Bair racking up 169 yards on 16 carries.
Roper missed the following game at Sacred Heart with an injury, perhaps a harbinger of things to come, but that opened up more playing time for Jones, and he responded by rushing for 158 yards on just 12 carries, including an early 68-yard touchdown. His 13.2 yards per carry was the second-best single-game average in program history (minimum 10 attempts) behind Howard’s performance last year against Cornell.
Dartmouth’s 393 rush yards in the overtime loss were the Big Green’s most since 1991.
“It was good to go out and have that kind of game, not just personally, but the whole offense,” Bair said. “Q and Noah do a great job, and obviously Nick Howard. Everybody (was) getting their share and making things happen when the ball was in their hands. It was a good start to the season, trying to establish that running game with a new offensive line.”
Howard, who rushed for 186 yards against the Pioneers, and the running backs did all that despite the lone returning starter on the offensive line, right tackle Griff Lehman, being injured for the first two games and limited since then. But the ground game slowed in the Ivy League-opening loss to Penn as Howard continued to take the lion’s share of the carries, and Howard and Bair were both out the next week at Yale.
Bair sprained a ligament in his toe against the Quakers, and with the threat of the quarterback run all but eradicated thanks to Howard’s injury, Dartmouth ran the ball just 11 times for 36 yards against the Bulldogs, not counting sacks and kneeldowns. Even the Big Green’s longest run of the day, a 14-yard carry by Jones, was vaporized when he fumbled the ball just shy of the goal line.
Dartmouth’s fourth straight loss, against New Hampshire, was a similar story. Roper had 36 rush yards and Jones 32, with Jones again losing a fumble in plus territory.
“Any running back, ball security is No. 1,” O’Dea said. “He’s dealt with a couple of ball-security issues, and we talk about it and rep it in pre-practice every day and continue to stress it. It’s something you have to make sure he understands, and they all do.”
Bair’s return and Howard being closer to full strength allowed the Big Green to run the ball more against the Lions, even against a defense that entered with a Football Championship Subdivision-low 1.74 yards allowed per carry. Jones rushed for 80 yards on 15 attempts and took a screen pass for a key first down to help set up senior Ryan Bloch’s game-winning field goal. Bair was also used as a receiver, sprinting out of the backfield to haul in a deep ball for 32 yards in the fourth quarter.
Some of the less-experienced backs, including juniors Tevita Moimoi and Joey Richmond and freshman D.J. Crowther, are beginning to work their way into the rotation as well — in part out of necessity thanks to all the injuries. True freshmen are allowed to play in up to four games while maintaining their redshirt year, so with four games left, coach Buddy Teevens said this week that some new faces may see the field soon.
Those new faces will have their work cut out for them. Dartmouth will face two more FCS top-10 run defenses the next two weeks in Harvard and Princeton, with the undefeated Tigers ranking No. 2.
“We’re really deep in that room,” Howard said after the Columbia game. “Even guys who haven’t seen a lot of playing time, Tevita Moimoi had a (blocked punt) touchdown, Joey Richmond got a couple plays in. They’re just hungry and really talented.
“It’s great to have Zack back; hopefully we’ll get Noah Roper back next week. If we can hit this final stretch pretty healthy on the offensive side, we’re going to be a problem.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.