Five Big Green football players were selected to college football blogger Phil Steele’s 2010 Preseason All-Ivy League team earlier this week. Dartmouth football had representatives in six different positions, with players on all sides of the ball — including two on offense, two on defense and two on special teams.
Dartmouth defensive back Shawn Abuhoff ’12 was selected twice, as a second team defensive back and the first team return specialist.
“It’s nice to be recognized,” Abuhoff said. “It’s all about confidence, but any preseason ranking means nothing to me. All that matters is what I’m doing on the field.” Abuhoff was also named as a preseason Honorable Mention All-American by the Consensus Draft Services website.
In the 2009 preseason, Abuhoff was named to the second team defense for the Preseason All-Ivy League team.
Big Green football players from the Class of 2012 had a strong showing amongst those honored, as Nick Schwieger ’12 headlined the first team offensive roster as one of two running backs.
Although he missed all but one play of the final three games of the 2009 season, Schwieger was Dartmouth’s only player to be recognized as first team All-Ivy in 2009. In the 2010 preseason selection, Schwieger stands alongside junior Gino Gordon of Harvard as one of the two best running backs in the Ivy League.
The rising junior had a breakout year in 2009, leading the Ivy League with a rushing average of 78.2 yards per game. Despite the injury-shortened campaign, he ended the season with 626 total rushing yards, a mere six short of the rushing title.
In the this year’s Homecoming game against Columbia, Schwieger helped the Big Green win its first game in more than one year as he ran 242 yards on 29 carries. In that game, Schwieger broke Dartmouth’s single- game rushing record and earned conference, regional and national player of the week honors.
As a first team wide receiver, Tanner Scott ’11 rounds out the Preseason All-Ivy League first team selections for Dartmouth players.
Scott, a former baseball recruit who walked onto the team his freshman Spring, had a memorable season last year and earned All-Ivy Honorable Mention and Academic All-Ivy accolades. He led the Big Green with 45 receptions and 510 receiving yards, and set a career high with 126 yards in one game against Holy Cross.
Also representing Dartmouth were second team place kicker Foley Schmidt ’12 and second team linebacker Garrett Wymore ’13, who as a freshman played in all 10 games and started the final seven.
Schmidt was among the seven Dartmouth players to receive All-Ivy honors last season.
“Being recognized is great,” Schmidt said, “But we must all continue to work even harder to make sure that this year is a successful one.”
In interviews with The Dartmouth, all selected members of the Class of 2012 were eager to divert their personal attention to a team focus.
“Team goals must always come before personal goals,” Schmidt said. “I would sacrifice a good performance in a loss for a poor performance in a win. Although I would not necessarily be happy with the way I performed, it is about the success of the team.”
Schmidt also cited the importance of continuous preparation.
“Improvement is not something that begins this fall,” he said. “We have been improving on last year’s performance since the day after our season final against Princeton last year.”
Abuhoff is spending his current sophomore Summer term training at his home near Miami, Fla.
“If I’m not putting forth maximum effort in training, I’m not going to live up to expectations,” he said.
After collecting three interceptions in 2009, Abuhoff has his eyes on the several prominent Ivy League football records, he said. He is a manageable eight picks away from becoming the Ancient Eight’s career record holder. If he were to get all eight interceptions during the 2010 season, he would hold both the single-season and career top marks.
“Those are my two biggest personal goals,” Abuhoff said. “Team-wise, we have to win the Ivy [League] title. We’re throwing everything on the line. We’re bringing back everybody. This is the year we’re going to be good. I trust my teammates. We’re going to come together and perform well.”
Echoing Abuhoff’s enthusiasm, Schmidt said that the development of the team as a whole will bring success in the forthcoming season.
“Improvement is not something that begins this fall,” Schmidt said. “We have been improving on last year’s performance since the [season finale]. We have become a smarter, stronger, faster, and a more mature and seasoned team since last year. We have solid guys in place to make this upcoming season a special one.”
Dartmouth’s total of five players named to the All-Ivy team puts the Big Green in the middle of the pack of the Ivy League, as they ranked ahead of Brown, Princeton, and Cornell.