Meanwhile, In The Present

Way back when TigerBlog first started doing this in the summer, he figured he'd never be able to fill five days a week with something new when school wasn't in session and there were no events.

At one point, he thought about a "Best of TigerBlog" type series. You know, take some of the best ones and just copy and paste them.

As it's turned out, he hasn't had to do that yet. Today, though, he wants to.

Not because he can't think of anything to say. Far from it. He knows exactly what he wants to say.

It's just that he's said it before.

In fairness, if he copied and pasted the first two-thirds of the entry from Aug. 7, 2013, who would ever know? It's not like someone would remember it.

Or maybe someone would. After all, it can't be that much different than when someone is watching a movie on TV and then realizes "hey, I've already seen this one."

Nah. Nobody would ever remember that this was a two-year-old blog.

Oh well. Just read it HERE.

Finished?

Hey, those were the days. Of the more than a quarter-century that TigerBlog has been around Princeton Athletics, there haven't been too many that were more fun than the old days of Ivy League sports information meetings and football media day.

TigerBlog has said this a bunch of times, but it's a completely different world these days. It's an electronic one, and while that has so many great benefits, one of the down sides is the loss of interpersonal contact.

There are no Ivy SID meetings anymore. There is no more Ivy football media day, at least not in person.

And as a result, there is no Ivy League sports information dinner on the night between the two. And no golf after media day.

TigerBlog isn't a very good golfer, but he always played at Ivy media day, as much for the camaraderie as anything else. Most years, that was the only time he'd ever played.

Ah, but what's the point of living in the past, right? Even back to all those years when Dartmouth's legendary SID Kathy Slattery always started and ended the meetings with a reminder that no matter what was said, everyone should remember that it was all "for the good of the clan."

Fast forwarding to the present, Ivy League football media day isn't a media day at all. Instead it's a conference call, one that took place yesterday.

TigerBlog tuned in just before Princeton head coach Bob Surace was supposed to speak, but the call was running behind, so instead he heard the last minute or so of Dartmouth's Buddy Teevins. Then it was Harvard's Tim Murphy - who interestingly is not in favor of having the Ivy champ go to the FCS playoffs - and then Penn's first-year head coach Ray Priore before Surace.
Princeton was picked to finish fourth in the league this year. Princeton's last two Ivy titles came after the Tigers were picked to finish sixth and fifth, so fourth isn't too bad. On the other hand, Princeton was the preseason No. 1 last year and then finished fourth.

Harvard is this year's preseason No. 1. Consensus - in August, at least - is that it'll be between Harvard and Dartmouth, with Yale and Princeton the next two best teams. That's just fine with anyone associated with Princeton football at this point, since none of it matters once the teams start to play.

When it was his turn, Surace talked about the balance of the league and how there are no gimmies. He mentioned that graduation took some players who "rewrote the record book," particularly quarterback Quinn Epperly and co-quarterback Connor Michelsen. And Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Mike Zeuli.

Then again, Princeton does have a healthy Chad Kanoff and Kedric Bostic leading the quarterback charge this year, where there will again be many times with both - and more - quarterbacks on the field.

Who is playing quarterback, Surace was asked? Who? Or how many? That was his answer.

He also said he doesn't like having his best athletes standing next to him on the sidelines.

Beyond that, he said all the usual football coach stuff, except with one major exception, one that TigerBlog loves about Surace. He never used the actual word "football." That's makes him unique in his profession.

TigerBlog's least favorite hip colloquialism is actually from basketball, as in "score the basketball." What does that even mean?

Maybe, though, he can get Surace to bring "score the football" into the lexicon?

Anyway, TigerBlog used to think of Ivy football media day as a sign that summer was winding down, though it still had a long way to go until all of these coaches would be seeing each other again, under much more formal circumstances.

And that it wouldn't be long until TB and his Ivy SID buddies would again be seeing each other each weekend.

Yesterday's conference call was a distant cousin to those days. You know, days that are long gone and show no sign of coming back.

They were great days.