Orange And Black Day

Today is the 275th anniversary of Princeton University's Charter Day.

To celebrate, the University is encouraging all faculty, staff, students and alums to wear Orange and Black and post those pictures on social media. This will be a relatively easy task for TigerBlog, whose closet and every day wardrobe are dominated by those colors.

As TB said yesterday, it's Orange and Black day today and then Orange and Black versus Crimson day tomorrow. There are four Princeton-Harvard games on the schedule, three of them in Cambridge (women's soccer, men's soccer and field hockey) and one in Princeton (football).

All four of them are huge. TB went through the three games in Cambridge yesterday. Today, he'll focus on football.

Princeton is 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League. Harvard is 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League. For that matter, Dartmouth is also 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League. 

This week it's Princeton-Harvard. Next week it's Harvard-Dartmouth. The week after that it's Princeton-Dartmouth. Yes, there are other teams very much in the mix, including Columbia, who plays Dartmouth tonight, and Yale, who plays Penn tomorrow. 

The Lions and Bulldogs are both 1-1 in the league. The best-case scenario for them would be to have four 2-1 teams at the end of the weekend.

As for Princeton and Harvard, the winner of the game tomorrow does not win the league, but it is a big step in the right direction. It's a matchup of the top scoring offense (Princeton) and scoring defense (Harvard), not to mention teams that are ranked in pretty much every FCS Top 25 poll.

You know who would have loved this game? Yav. 

Who is Yav? If you have to ask that question, then you weren't around Princeton in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s or the early 2000s. Yav, who is actually Harvey Yavener, was a Trenton Times sportswriter then. He covered a ton of Princeton stuff, and he would have been all over this game. There would have been a very long feature story about one of the Tigers, about whom Yav would have said "great kid" after the 45-minute of so interview. When Yav interviewed you, well, he certainly got to know you. Also, the story would have had almost nothing to do with football.

There would have been previews. There would be a long postgame story. Ah, Yav would have loved it.

There's good news on the Yav front for those who remember him. Yav just celebrated his 92nd birthday the other day, and he told TB that he feels great and doesn't have one thing wrong with him.

Tigerlog has absolutely no doubt who Yav's favorite player on this Princeton team would be. It's Andrei Iosivas, the decathlete/wide receiver. Yav always loved the fooball/track kids, and his favorite track event was always the decathlon.

Iosivas is part of a remarkable Princeton wide receiver trio that also features Jacob Birmelin and Dylan Classi. Princeton has had some great wide receiver pairs before, with combos like Derek Graham and Kevin Guthrie in the 1980s and more recently future NFLers Stephen Carlson and Jesper Horsted.

A trio like this, though? Last weekend against Brown, all three went over 100 yards receiving, combining for 22 catches for 461 yard and three touchdowns. That's incredible stuff right there.

The challenge this weekend is a significant one. Harvard is the league's leader in passing efficiency defense, and its first five opponents have combined for just three TD passes while throwing seven interceptions. 

On the other side of the ball, Harvard leads the league in rushing yards per game with 213. Princeton is second in rushing defense, allowing 54.6, behind only the Crimson.

Maybe this game turns on the hidden yards, which is where Princeton punter Will Powers becomes such a weapon. Powers leads the league with 47.2 yards per punt, which would be second in the FCS were it not for the fact that Powers hasn't had to punt enough times to qualify. To be ranked, punters need to average 3.6 attempts per game. For five games, that would be 18. Powers has punted 13 times.

Of course, his one punt last week against Brown went 75 yards, and he is a weapon no matter how many times he's needed. So is freshman placekicker Jeffrey Sexton, who missed his first-ever extra point attempt at Lehigh on opening day and since then has gone 21 for 21 on PATs and eight for eight on field goals.

Kickoff on Powers Field tomorrow is at 1. It's well worth being there for this Homecoming Day game, with perfect fooball weather on the horizon for a high-stakes game.

It's Orange and Black Friday today. Will it be Orange and Black again tomorrow?