Good morning!

The dog days of August lead to the pigskin days of autumn, and the West Virginia Mountaineers think their 23-year-old quarterback Will Grier has the goods to win the Heisman Trophy.

In Chestnut Hill 100 miles from here, Boston College has high hopes that sophomore running back A.J. Dillon will be the the school’s first and only Heisman winner since Doug Flutie in 1984.

Both Grier and Dillon were named preseason conference players of the year in the Big 12 and ACC, respectively.

Grier was born in Charlotte and played for his father Chad Grier at nearby Davidson Day School. The West Virgina media guide reports that his junior year at Davidson, Grier threw for 837 yards and 10 touchdowns in a playoff game against Harrells Christian.

Grier enrolled at Florida in 2014 and was redshirted. The following season, he started for coach Will McElwain and the Gators were 6-0 and ranked eighth nationally. Then, he tested positive for a banned supplement, was suspended for six games and the Gators were done.

Grier told Bleacher Report he bought the substance at a Total Nutrition store in Gainesville. “It’s nobody’s fault but mine,” he said.

He never played another down and the Gators finished 10-4 and were blown out of the Citrus Bowl by Michigan.

After McElwain (who was fired in 2017) told Grier, “I’m not giving you any guarantees,” he transferred to WVU, sat out a season, and last year threw 34 touchdown passes to get the previously unranked Mountaineers to 22nd in the AP Top 25. They were 7-3 when he broke his middle finger on his throwing hand against Texas and missed the last three games — all losses.

The Eagles no longer play WVU, but when Mark Chmura played at Boston College, he said the toughest place to play was Morgantown. “Fifty-thousand hillbillies, just like they came down out of Conway.”

Almost 30 years later, I dare use that quote.

Unlike Grier, the 20-year-old Dillon’s rise was meteoric, but off the radar. He was born in New London, Conn., and attended Lawrence Academy at Groton off I-495 near Lowell. During his senior season, he was rated as the best high school player in Massachusetts by rivals.com with 12 touchdowns in four games, but a leg injury knocked him out the rest of the season.

He had originally committed to Michigan, but didn’t like the game plan in Ann Arbor and left for home. A true freshman, injuries helped him move up the depth chart until he broke out in the seventh game of the season against Louisville. Dillon ran for 252 yards and four touchdowns to help BC pull off a 45-42 upset as 22-point underdogs.

Eagles coach Steve Addazio said on ESPNU that the 6-foot, 240-pound Dillon is a wrecking machine. “If he stays healthy, he’s gonna be a Heisman Trophy guy.” 

By my count, 40 running backs and 33 quarterbacks have won the Heisman Trophy. Iowa’s Niles Kinnick and Ohio State’s Les Horvath are listed at both positions.

UMass fans got a look at Flutie in 1982 when he quarterbacked BC to a 34-21 win at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, and they’ll see Dillon when UMass visits the Heights at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1.

It’s the game that may put him on the road to the Heisman.

The Country Club of Greenfield will host the Gary Stacy Memorial Scholarship Tournament on August 23.

Stacy worked for the town of Amherst and was involved in a plethora of athletic activities. He was an MIAA sectional softball tournament director, officiated college and high school hoops, oversaw A-10 women’s basketball officiating, and umpired college and high school games.

If that wasn’t enough, he went on golf junkets with his buddies and was known to play a hand or two in Las Vegas.

He was 60 when he died a year ago in May.

The Four Person Scramble tees off two weeks from Thursday at 12:30 p.m., and a $100 deposit is required by Aug. 11.

For more information call Scott Stacy at 413-834-0968 or John Stacy at 413-522-1521.

“Is this new helmet rule gonna ruin the season for everybody?” Ed McCaffrey asked Sirius-XM’s Bob Papa the other day. “Either they’re going to ignore it and call it the way they’ve always called it, or we’re going to see flags and laundry all over the field.”

At Fenway Park one summer night in 1978, reporters were lined up outside the Boston locker room like anxious passengers waiting to board a plane. A Red Sox official opened the door, yelled something, and shut it.

“What’d he say?” I asked the guy next to me.

He ignored me, but a voice from behind me whispered. “Team meeting, another few minutes.”

It was Clark Booth, the extraordinary commentator and reporter who worked at Channel 5 in Boston. We never spoke again, but I’ve always remembered his courtesy. 

Booth died at his home in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., this week. He was 79-years-old and the Quincy Patriot Ledger reported he’d done his own obituary. “It was a full life, and it went by fast,” he wrote.

Vintage Booth, honest and to the point.

Mark Dennehy made the best of coaching at Merrimack, but it wasn’t easy convincing recruits to play in a rink the size of Greenfield’s. After the Warriors were swept out of the quarterfinals by Boston College last March, athletic director Jeremy Gibson fired him. Dennehy was a popular assistant coach at UMass under Don “Toot” Cahoon, and at Merrimack his career took a trajectory much like what Cahoon’s path did in Amherst. 

Dennehy took over a hapless program, got it to its first NCAA tournament, and went down with the ship. He lasted 13 years in North Andover, to Cahoon’s dozen in Amherst, and both coaches had losing records their last five seasons.

In May, the 50-year-old Dennehy was named coach of the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, but this week he left for the AHL to be the new coach of the Binghamton Devils. “I’m sorry my time in Wheeling was so short,” he said in a Wheelers release.

Yeah right, who’d want to leave Wheeling?

SQUIBBERS: Bob Baffert burned out Justify in less than a year. Was winning the Triple Crown really worth it? Reminds me of why they call the Iditerod the Ihurtadog. … Hanley Ramirez is chilling with family in the Dominican Republic, according a report on the MLB Network. … You can set your clock to the Tampa Bay Bucs schedule, as 15 of 16 games kick off at 1 p.m. …. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mario Lemieux is selling his chateau on the shores of Lake Tremblant in Quebec for $22 million. … The Journal also reported that parents are hiring coaches to help their children play Fortnite. “Winning bestows the kind of bragging rights that used to be reserved for the local Little League champ,” wrote Sarah Needleman. … Apologies to Dennis Cleary for failing to include him in last week’s roster of Lunt Silver hockey players. The 6-foot-5 Cleary was a defensive force who carried a mean stick on the blue line. …  Notre Dame has 15 returning starters for its season opener against Michigan on Sept. 1. … It took three minutes for NESN’s Guerin Austin to say, “This place will be like a playoff atmosphere tonight.” No it wouldn’t. It’d look like a rainy atmosphere. … Lookalikes: pitcher CC Sabathia and actor Forest Whitaker. …  On steamy summer days, Red Barber would say, “It’s a hot one, lots of fans in the stands.” … Set up the DVR for Better Call Saul. The fourth season starts Monday and the reviews have been great. … After Thursday’s 15-7 blowout loss to the Red Sox, two morning’s headlines were “AS BAD AS IT YANKS” and “Red Sox Pummel Yankees, Leaving no Mistake Unpunished.” One was a New York Post headline, the other the New York Times. Geeze, bet you couldn’t guess which was which.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached by email at sports@recorder.com.