This is kind of the calm before the storm with spring practice just under three weeks away from starting but I do have some news to deliver.

Yale did get a commitment from John Dunion, an offensive lineman from Dos Pueblos High in Santa Barbara, Calif. Dunion is 6-foot-4, 260 pounds who was named to the CIF Southern Section's All-Western Division first team. Here is a link to a page with two videos taken of Dunion. He is the seventh offensive lineman to commit to Yale.

It sounds like that will be the last commitment for a while and although there are some other candidates for Yale's incoming freshman class, there's a chance Yale could finish with the current 28 committed players.

I am hearing that Arizona is making a push for former Duke defensive lineman Tevin Hood. Hood, who walked on at Duke and appeared in four games as a freshman, has visited Yale and met with the coaching staff. However, at the current time it seems like Hood is giving serious consideration to accepting a scholarship to Arizona.

Spring practice opens on April 4 at Yale with the spring game on April 24. Former starting defensive lineman Pat Moran is back enrolled at school and will be taking part in drills. The biggest position switch is John Oppenheimer moving from defensive line to offensive line. Oppenheimer has some experience playing center in high school and the rising sophomore could contend for a starting spot since Yale wants to keep starting guard Gabe Fernandez where he is and Jeff Fell is expected to be in the running for a starting offensive tackle position.

Yale's pro day is March 24 with scouts coming to see fullback/h-back Shane Bannon, tight end Chris Blohm, defensive end Tom McCarthy, defensive back Adam Money and linebacker Sean Williams. Word of McCarthy's impressive workout at Fordham's pro day is beginning to spread as Yale football coach Tom Williams has heard from three NFL general managers. It's too early to tell if he will follow the path of Eric Johnson who went from sleeper to late round draft pick after strong workouts but if McCarthy improves on some of his numbers from the Fordham pro day, it's not out of the question that a team takes a flyer on McCarthy late in the draft.

For those who have Sirius Radio, Saturday's Yale/Dartmouth game will be aired on channel 130 with the Dartmouth crew of Bob Lipman and Wayne Young handling the duties. WELI-960, as always, will be broadcasting the game as well with Rob Vaccaro and former Yale coach Carm Cozza on the call.

There wasn't much more off Thursday's practice worth reporting. Yale coach Tom Williams said he had yet to name a starting kicker but was impressed by the efforts of starter Alex Barnes and Philippe Panico. Williams reopened the competition following last week's fiasco when a field goal, punt and extra point were all blocked.

The one position where there will be a change is at center because a knee injury is sidelining starter Jake Koury. Jeff Fell will start in his place and is the focus on my advance to the game. Defensive end Matt Battaglia is also expected to miss the game with a knee injury but team captain Tom McCarthy will be back after missing the last two games with a calf strain.

Starting quarterback Patrick Witt injured his throwing hand in Saturday's loss to Albany but he threw the ball pretty well at the portion of practice I was at on Thursday. If he is limited at all, Yale has a pretty nice Plan B as reserve quarterback Brook Hart threw for 390 yards against Dartmouth last season.

Yale senior defensive end Tom McCarthy (Achilles, calf strains) and sophomore running back Mordecai Cargill (hip flexor) are back at practice and should be good to go for Saturday's game at Dartmouth.

McCarthy hasn't played since the first quarter of the season opener against Georgetown and with a knee injury expected to keep the other starting defensive end Matt Battaglia out of Saturday's game, the timing of McCarthy's return could not be more ideal.

"Having your captain back for his first Ivy League game, we are hoping it will give us a boost," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "I know he is excited to play. I know the guys are excited that he is back. We hope all of those things will equate to a chance to win a game on Saturday."

Center Jake Koury will also be out against Dartmouth after suffering a knee injury. Jeff Fell will replace Koury in the starting lineup. Fell is also being pushed by Kyle Wittenauer for the starting long snapper role while Williams said he has reopened the kicking competition since Yale is 0 for 4 on field goals this season with three of the FGs being blocked. Alex Barnes is the incumbent while Philippe Panico is being given a 50-50 chance to earn the kicking job.

Another item I brought up at the weekly press conference at Mory's was reaction to the arrest of former Yale football player Jordan Jefferson during a New Haven police department raid on the Elevate Lounge on Crown Street. The raid, in which some of those on site have accused the police of brutality, came two weeks after there was a shooting on Crown Street.

"We already talked about it as a team, (the importance of) making good decisions," Williams said. "We always talk about that but the one thing we said in light of
what happened downtown with the gunfire is that everybody is on edge. We can’t add fuel to the fire so if you are in the situation when an officer is talking to you about doing something, you’d better do it, you’d better do it right away.

"We had this conversation long before this happened with Jordan. Unfortunately he is not on our team right now so he missed that conversation. When you are under the circumstance that our police are under, you are edge so we don’t need to do
anything to add to that. We need to help diffuse those situations."

Jefferson was a freshman tight end on Yale's 2009 squad. He appeared in two varsity games and although he did not have a reception, he did make a tackle on special teams. He has a medical condition which kept him from being cleared to return to the football field.

While it is possible that Jefferson could play for the Bulldogs again, Williams said "I don’t know what the odds are so there is a chance, you never say never but based on the last conversation I had, it was slim."