The Amazing Quinn Epperly

If you consider the Princeton quarterback depth chart to go Connor Michelsen first, Quinn Epperly second and Kedric Bostic third, then this is how Princeton's opening possession of its 42-26 win over Lafayette Saturday went:

Play No. 1 - reverse to the third-string quarterback
Play No. 2 - completion from the second string quarterback to the first-string quarterback

It took TigerBlog back to the 1992 Princeton-Penn football game, held at Palmer Stadium. Back then, TB had to do a bit of a double take to make sure that it really was No. 1 who came off the edge to sack Penn quarterback Jim McGeehan and preserve the 2014 win.

No. 1 was Michael Lerch, who was about 5-9, 170 pounds and really fast. He was a great player at Princeton, and if you ask anyone who saw him play as much as TB did, they will remember two games.

First was the one at Brown in 1991.

During the week before the game, at what was then a weekly football luncheon, Brown coach Mickey Kwiatkowski rather colorfully talked about how the game plan would be to stop Keith Elias, Princeton's All-America running back.

When he was asked how he played to do that, for instance, Kwiatkowski replied, basically, "with a shotgun."

Elias still had a big day in the game, which Princeton won 59-37. Lerch had a ridiculous day.

Lerch caught nine passes for 370 yards - yes, 370 yards - with touchdowns of 64, 79, 90 and 45 yards. He also rushed once for 15 yards and returned six kickoffs for 78 yards, giving him 463 all-purpose yards.

The receiving and all-purpose yards totals are still Ivy single-game records. They were both Division I-AA records at the time, though both have been broken since - the all-purpose yards record by four yards in 1995 and the receiving record by six yards in 2000.

TB has never heard of either guy who broke the records. One was from Western Kentucky. The other was from Cal-Poly.

Anyway, the Brown game is the first game TB thinks about when he thinks about Lerch.

The second was the Penn game.

Princeton led 20-14 late, very, very late, and Penn was driving to the winning touchdown. Or least trying to. The Quakers were at about the Princeton 20, as TB remembers it, driving towards the open end of Palmer's horseshoe.

On the final play, here came Lerch to line up as a defensive end. And there he went, sprinting past the offensive line to nail McGeehan and end it.

The lesson from that to TB has always been this: In Ivy League football, get your best athletes on the field, even in unconventional ways.

And that's what made TB think back to Michael Lerch as Princeton ran its first two plays.

It's a common football expression that the backup quarterback is the most popular player on the team.

At Princeton, the backup quarterback might also be the best player on the team.

Epperly does everything offensively. He can throw, catch, run, block. He's big and physical. There is an excitement factor every time he touches the ball.

More than anything, he has a knack for creating touchdowns.

Through four games, he has thrown for nine touchdowns and rushed for eight. That's insane.

Prorated over 10 games, that would be 22 passing touchdowns and 20 rushing touchdowns.

Philip King holds the Princeton record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 29. Of course, that was set back in 1889. Elias is second with 19, set in 1993, one year after he had 18, the third-best total.

The record for passing touchdowns in a season is 25, set by Doug Butler in 1993. Jeff Terrell had 17 in 2006 for the second-best total.

TB doubts that Epperly will maintain this pace, but who knows? And if he does, could he actually have a 20/20 season, with 20 rushing and 20 passing TDs?

Forget that. How about a 10/10 season? Only one player in Princeton history ever has done so. Want to guess who it was? Hint - it wasn't even Dick Kazmaier.

Epperly is one TD pass and two rushing touchdowns away from equaling that achievement. Answer coming shortly.

What makes Epperly's numbers even more amazing are that he's rushed the ball 29 times and thrown it 59 times. That's 88 attempts, which have resulted in 17 touchdowns.

After all, he's the backup QB, right?

Oh, and he's had at least three touchdowns wiped out by penalties, including, as TB recalls, one receiving.

The only 10/10 season in Princeton football history, by the way, belongs to Ron Landeck, who had 10 rushing and 13 passing touchdowns in 1965.

Princeton has now reached at least 40 points for the third straight week, something last accomplished when the Nineteen-Oh-Seven team did so for the first five game. 1907? That's 106 years ago.

Of course, the last three games might as well be 106 years ago for as much as they will matter the next two weekends, when the tone for the 2013 season will be set.

Princeton is at Brown this Saturday and Harvard next Saturday. Both games can be seen on Fox College Sports.

Princeton has shown itself to be ridiculously exciting through the first four games of the season.

Will it be an Ivy League contender to boot?

Coming soon to Fox College Sports.