Hanover -- It didn't take long for Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to bring the crowd to its feet Sunday night.

An unabashed supporter of Big Green athletics, Kim was on hand at the football team's season-ending banquet. When it was his turn to speak, Kim gave many in the room the news they wanted to hear, affirming that Buddy Teevens will continue as football coach.

“It was a telling moment,” said acting athletic director Bob Ceplikas, who spoke just before Kim. “You had to see the reaction of the players when the president announced that Buddy was staying on as coach.

“They were just so enthusiastic.”

The enthusiasm, in part, comes from the fact that Dartmouth was able to snap an historic 17-game losing streak earlier this year, rebounding from an 0-10 mark in 2008.

When the team started the season 0-5, Teevens' job seemed in jeopardy -- especially in light of his 7-33 mark heading into the year. But Ceplikas said that was not the case.

“When a program is struggling, there is going to be speculation about the coach's job security whether he has one year left or 10.

“But we tried not to get bogged down in that.”

Another thing Ceplikas wouldn't get bogged down in was particulars. He offered no information on terms of the deal -- whether Teevens had any time left on his original Dartmouth contract or how long this latest agreement was for -- considering those details, he said, to be a confidential matter.

What was there for everyone to see, however, was that playing a lineup dominated by underclassmen on both sides of the ball the latter portion of the season, the Big Green won two of its last five games, and only the loss to Harvard could be called one-sided.

Despite closing the year with a 23-11 defeat, players, coaches and administrators were positive that better days were coming for the football program.

“He is definitely our coach going forward,” said Ceplikas. “He is the guy who can get us where we want to be.

“It's clear we are not going to settle for anything less.”

That certainly was true at Princeton, where football coach Roger Hughes was fired on Monday following a 4-6 season, including that 23-11 win over Dartmouth in the season finale.

Hughes went 47-52 in his 10 years at Princeton, winning the 2006 Ivy League title and posting three winning seasons overall.

Princeton AD Gary Walters said Hughes' tenure had been disappointing recently.

“I was hoping that, at this point, we would see more progress,” Walters told the school newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. “But it just didn't come about in the way we would have hoped.”

Ceplikas would not comment on the Princeton decision, nor would he draw any comparisons or distinctions in relation to Dartmouth's decision to bring Teevens back.

“I'm not going to try and speculate about the factors that led Princeton to their decision,” he said. “We feel that in light of the number of obstacles that were in place that we've made tremendous progress.

“When you look at the on-the-field performance of the freshman and sophomores you can see we are headed in the right direction in terms of talent.

“We feel as though all signs are pointing toward going in the right direction.”

In the major awards handed out at the banquet, senior free safety Pete Pidermann was selected for the Bob Blackman Trophy as the Big Green's most valuable player. Pidermann recorded 55 tackles (fourth most on the team), intercepted a pass at the goal line and broke up three others, plus blocked two kicks.

Earning the Kenneth T. Young Award was sophomore Shawn Abuhoff as the underclassman who made the most significant contribution to the team. Abuhoff led the Ivy League in passes defended with 14, three of which were interceptions to lead the team. On special teams, Abuhoff was second in the league in kick return average.

Sophomore Nick Schwieger was given the Jake Crouthamel Award as the underclassman who contributed the most to the success of the team on offense.

He led the Ivy League in rushing average per game at 78.3 yards, with two games over 100 yards, including a team-record 242-yards against Columbia. He finished with 626 yards rushing on 139 carries with two touchdowns.

Don Mahler can be reached at dmahler@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.

The second of the two games was a 242-yard effort to set a school record in the 28-6 victory over Columbia as he earned player of the week honors from the Ivy League and nationally from The Sports Network, plus was the recipient of the Gold Helmet Award as the region's top player that week. He finished the season with 626 yards rushing on 139 carries with two touchdowns.

Don Mahler can be reached at dmahler@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.