Since Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens was struck by a pickup truck on March 16 while riding a bicycle in Florida, few details have been released about his specific condition.

Teevens was extraordinarily fit, and his friends, players and well-wishers have clung to that fact as they hope and pray for him to heal. Some have seized upon the lack of specific information surrounding his medical circumstances as a reason for optimism.

However, the coach was once a mainstay of Dartmouth football’s social media output and no images or video of him have been released since the crash. Teevens had been described as “communicating,” but in what form is unclear.

“It’s terrible what happened, but if anyone can come back it’s Coach T.,” Hank Knez, a fifth-year defensive lineman, said early last week. “He’s such a fighter that I wouldn’t be
surprised if you saw him here on the sidelines in a couple of ...”

Knez paused and his tone moved from direct to uncertain.

“Um, a couple of years, or whenever he’s all good,” he finished.

Knez said Dartmouth’s players only know what the public knows and that they respect the Teevens family’s privacy.

The public received some insight into Teevens’ condition on Thursday. His wife, Kirsten, who has overseen the release of information about her husband, announced that he will not return to his job this season, which opens on Saturday at the University of New Hampshire. Kirsten Teevens also disclosed during the summer that the 66-year-old suffered a spinal cord injury because of the crash.

Knez said there’s a chip on the Big Green’s collective shoulder, not only because of last season’s 3-7 record, but because winning is the only real gift they can give their coach.

“We’ve been in a terrible state of worry and sadness and now we want to win the league for him,” Knez said. “He would want us to play the best football we can and not to worry about him, because he a fighter.”

Communication was paramount for Teevens, whose second stint as the Big Green’s boss began in 2005 and eventually returned the rock-bottom program to championship glory. Since the crash, there’s been a national outpouring of support for the coach, who’s widely known in football circles for his engaging personality and a high-profile crusade to make football safer.

For the Big Green, Teevens’ arrival in a prospective player’s living room often sealed a deal to bring the youngster to “The Woods,” the coach’s nickname for his home campus, and one that’s now widely used by the college.

Athletic director Mike Harrity, who occasionally visits Teevens’ empty office late at night, said he won’t discuss the football program’s future until after the season ends. In the meantime, revelations about Teevens’ condition create a thicket of questions regarding the program’s short- and long-term future.

How does the team’s performance this season factor into interim head coach Sammy McCorkle retaining the tag he assumed during spring practice? How does Teevens’ absence affect recruiting and fundraising? McCorkle said he discusses Teevens with prospects and their guardians only if they ask.

“I just tell them he’s recovering and he’s doing a great job every day getting better and better,” McCorkle said. “But a high school kid in California might not even know who Buddy Teevens is.”

Dartmouth’s football staff is deep in experience and talent, but its members naturally wonder if they’ll be looking for jobs in another few months. The head coach and most assistants of seven Big Green teams have resigned or been fired since Harrity arrived last year.

McCorkle, who oversaw Dartmouth’s defensive backs and special teams, was long assumed to be Teevens’ likely successor.

“Buddy has included Sammy in everything for years, so he’d be ready for the opportunity to be a head coach, whether it was here or someplace else,” Harrity said. “If we didn’t have so much of an heir apparent, this situation would be harder.”

McCorkle said he’s worked to keep the team’s structure and organizational practices intact while injecting new life into a team that lost twice in overtime and three times by fewer than four points last season.

“It’s going to take a village to keep this thing going and successful,” the 50-year old McCorkle said. “We’re going to continue with what Coach Teevens developed here.”

Dartmouth was winless during the 2008 season, and Teevens saved his job by agreeing to revamp the program. He hired experienced offensive and defensive coordinators and increased delegation. He assumed the type of CEO role common to head coaches in most Division I programs. No longer did he oversee the quarterbacks or call the plays, and his presence during practice was mostly quiet strolls between position groups.

McCorkle has turned that approach on its ear. He’s seemingly everywhere at once, shouting, blowing his whistle and waving rolled papers in his hand. Dartmouth practices at a faster pace and at unannounced junctures, suddenly shifts into frenzied, two-minute drills upon the sound of a gong.

The approach is designed to stamp out the complacency that Knez said caused last year’s team to suffer its first losing record since 2016.

“Every aspect of the (preseason) has been detail-oriented and had a sense of urgency,” Knez said. “We call it organized chaos and it’s there so we thrive in games no matter what’s thrown at us.

“Last year we were a little sloppy and lazy and Coach T. noticed and cracked down at the end of the season. Coach McCorkle has carried that on.”

Harrity said the volume and emotions expressed in emails pouring in to express sorrow and support for the Teevens family has been overwhelming.

“Everyone from former governors of the state to someone who was a ticket taker back when Buddy was a player here have written to say how wonderfully he affected them,” Harrity said. ”

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.