When Dartmouth College takes the field for its first offensive series of the 2024 football season, senior quarterback Jackson Proctor will be the undisputed starter under center.

After deploying a dual-quarterback system in recent seasons — with one used primarily as a passer and the other shouldering the load in the run game — the Big Green have settled on a single-quarterback attack featuring Proctor, who threw for a team-high 716 yards, completed 74.5% of his passes and added 168 rushing yards last season.

For coach Sammy McCorkle and offensive coordinator Kevin Daft, the decision arose from a personnel evaluation of the quarterback room.

“I’m always open to adjusting and improving,” Daft said earlier this month after the team’s first preseason scrimmage. “Our quarterbacks we have now, they’re mobile guys, they’re dual-threat guys. We don’t have to really add to or subtract stuff from the system. It’s more just gearing toward one (quarterback).”

McCorkle reiterated Daft’s appraisal of Proctor’s dual-threat capabilities.

McCorkle also acknowledged that neither Proctor nor sophomores Grayson Saunier and Woods Ray are the type of bruising runners former quarterback Nick Howard was.

Howard, who was a graduate transfer to Butler University in Indianapolis in the offseason, set the Dartmouth program’s all-time rushing touchdown record with 34. (So far through three games this season, Howard leads the Bulldogs with 226 rushing yards, and the team is undefeated.)

Last season, Proctor shared passing duties with departed senior signal caller Dylan Cadwallader.

Make no mistake, however, Dartmouth will be a run-oriented team, McCorkle said.

But the Big Green’s run game will look different this year, relying on a stable of running back that has “a little bit more fire to them now,” according to the second-year head coach.

The team’s top returning rusher is senior Q Jones, who was second to Howard last year with 572 yards on the ground.

“That’s a good running back room,” McCorkle said. “We’ve got guys who are power runners; we’ve got guys who can get around the corner quick. … We want to get the ball in their hands as much as we possibly can.”

Proctor, who is the lone upperclassman among the five quarterbacks on the roster, characterized this fourth season in Hanover as “different.”

Tactically, the dissolution of the dual-quarterback system and a rushing game focused on the running backs is an adjustment for the Kent, Wash., native. And he also finds himself as the elder statesman in his position group.

“I always had two or three older guys than me, so it’s definitely a different dynamic,” Proctor said.

Saunier, who has been competing with Ray in the preseason to be Proctor’s primary backup, said the hierarchy in the room was established early by Daft. Even with Proctor being “the guy,” Saunier said that he and Ray have done their best to compete with and push the senior signal caller.

Proctor will test his mettle as QB1 in the season-opener against Fordham at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Memorial Field.

It’s also the first test for the adjustment offensively, which was prompted by constant commitment to evolving and not attempting to “just dust off what you did the year before,” according to Daft.

“I think this does allow Jackson (Proctor) to know, ‘Hey, I’m the guy. I’m going out there, I don’t have to force things, I don’t have to create things. I can go out there and take what the defense gives me, make good decisions, and know that it’s my team, my offense,’ ” McCorkle said.

Ivy League title defense begins: Dartmouth has earned a share of the Ivy League title in three of the last four seasons. The goal, as always, is on capturing another Ancient Eight crown, but the Big Green are angling to stand alone atop the conference come season’s end.

In the Ivy League preseason media poll, Dartmouth was slotted in a fourth-place tie with Princeton, each program receiving 80 points. The Tigers, however, were one of four teams, along with Yale, Harvard and Penn, to receive a first-place vote. Dartmouth did not.

“We don’t want to go two years in a row sharing a title,” junior defensive back Sean Williams said following the first day of practice on Aug. 24.

Fordham could be without starting quarterback, key linebacker: According to a post from Craig Haley, a senior college football editor for The Analyst, on X, the Rams (0-3) will likely play the 2024 season without senior linebacker James Conway, the active tackles leader in FCS.

Conway, an All-Patriot League selection in each of his first three seasons, had yet to appear in Fordham’s opening three contests. He had previously never missed a game in his time in Rose Hill, N.Y.

The Rams were hit with another devastating blow last Saturday when senior quarterback CJ Montes exited their game against Stony Brook, a 27-21 loss, with an injury in the third quarter.

Montes was a Walter Payton Award finalist, the honor bestowed annually to the best offensive player in the FCS. He began the season slowly relative to his performance last fall. After throwing for 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns — against one interception — on a 64% completion rate in 2023, Montes has completed just 51.5% of his passes for 333 total yards in almost three full games this year.

If Montes is unable to play Saturday, his backup, junior Jack Capaldi, will start under center for Fordham. Capaldi had thrown only three passes in his collegiate career before being called into action against Stony Brook. He completed six of 18 passes and was intercepted twice in the loss.

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.