Defending Quinn

TigerBlog admits it. He's addicted to the Ivy League Message Board.

He's written about this before. The message board is a great place to get information on what fans think about Ivy League sports, especially football. There's actually more to it than that. There's actually some really good analysis of teams, coaches, issues in Ivy athletics.

Some of it is really well-thought out, well-written and well-presented. Some of it is clearly wrong. Some is in the middle, with a mix of good ideas and good points that get lost in a completely misunderstanding of league rules or policies or realities.

It's also very entertaining.

It's not all good, of course. No online message board is.

Why? No accountability. People can write anything, and Rule No. 1 is always this: People believe almost everything they read.

Anyway, TigerBlog doesn't always agree with what he reads. Most of the time, though, it's entertaining.

And he gets that there are those out there who can't stand Princeton. It's just part of how it is. It's fine. It's how it works, right?

A year ago, when Princeton lost to Dartmouth in its football finale, Quinn Epperly said something along the lines that he would be disappointed if Princeton lost any games this year. As everyone knows, Princeton just finished a 5-5 season.

There is one poster on the message board, who goes by the moniker "Go Green," who clearly does not like Princeton. He has taken a great deal of glee at referring back to Epperly's quote all year and then mocking Epperly and what he said.

TB has a few issues with this.

First, it's clear that Epperly said that in the disappointment of a season-ending loss a year ago. Second, he didn't guarantee Princeton would win every game. His point was that Princeton had a chance to have another big year this year and that he would be disappointed if his team lost. What's wrong with that?

And no, Epperly isn't a high school kid or someone at the Little League World Series who said something. He's an adult, a college athlete, a Princeton student. And he did say it.

What bothers TB is the extent to which "Go Green" has harped on this all season and how much enjoyment it has given him. TB would respect "Go Green's" position a little bit more if he used his actual name and actually said this directly to Epperly, instead of hiding behind it anonymously.

Oh well. It's part of the way the world works these days.

It takes real courage to state an unpopular opinion in print and then walk into the locker room the next day. Don't think it doesn't. It's easy to do it without any accountability, and it's even easier to do without using a real name.

Epperly, by the way, finished his career second all-time at Princeton in rushing touchdowns and passing touchdowns. He did this despite sharing the quarterback position for almost the entire time he played at Princeton and playing his senior year as banged up as any football player at Princeton that TigerBlog can remember.

He graduates with an Ivy League championship, as an Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, as the engineer of the highest-scoring offense in Ivy history and with two bonfires that he was directly responsible for with his epic game-winning TD passes against Harvard in 2012 and 2013. He is one of the great players in Princeton history and a great warrior on the football field.

He has nothing to apologize for, and he especially has nothing to apologize for to someone who wants to take anonymous potshots online and who wants to get pleasure out of one small quote that Epperly once said.

Anyway, that's all TigerBlog wanted to say about that.

He also wants to talk about the Ivy League unofficial all-sports points standings after the fall. The standings are determined by giving eight points for a first place finish, seven for second place, and so on, splitting the points in the event of a tie.

Princeton had won 27 years in a row before Harvard won last year.

After the fall, Princeton is in first, with 46.5 points, followed by Harvard and Dartmouth, tied with 40.5. A year ago,at the end of the fall, Harvard had a 43.0-39.5 lead and then outscored Princeton 164-149.5 the rest of the way.

As for Ivy titles won, Princeton (men's soccer, men's cross country, field hockey) and Harvard (football, women's soccer, women's volleyball) have won three each. Dartmouth, who had a great fall, won two (women's cross country, men's soccer), while Yale won one (women's volleyball).

There are seven Ivy League fall sports. Princeton finished first in three, second in one, third in one and fourth in two. No Princeton team finished in the bottom half of the league standings.

All in all, that's not a bad start to the year.

Anyway, that about covers it for today.

Defend Quinn Epperly, even if he needs no defending? Check.

Ivy fall all-sports standings? Check.

Oh, and "Go Green," whoever you are. You made you point. Move on. Surely you have something better to do than continue to attack Quinn Epperly over nothing, right?