Lost And Found

TigerBlog is not a great golfer.

He's not even a good golfer. Apparently, he's also an absent-minded golfer.

TB's golf game would be better if he played more than once a year, he assumes. On the other hand, that one day is today, when TB makes his annual appearance at the Friends of Princeton Lacrosse golf outing.

It's a great day, really. It's a chance to see a lot of people he doesn't get to see that often. There is food and fun and looking ahead to the coming fall season, with the 2024 lacrosse seasons looming beyond.

And there is the matter of playing 18 holes. TB can hit an iron. He can make a putt every now and then. Beyond that? He can't hit a wood, and his short game is awful.

Of course, to improve, he'd actually have to own golf clubs, something he does not do. For his yearly appearance at Springdale, he borrows clubs from his friend Todd's son Matthew, who also doesn't play that often. 

Meanwhile, TigerBlog had this blue light pullover top that said "NCAA Lacrosse" on it. Other than his Princeton stuff, this was his favorite. And then one day it vanished.

He looked everywhere in his house. He thought it might be in his Jadwin office. Nope. Maybe in a suitcase in a closet. Nothing. It was just gone. In his mind, he wondered if Mrs. Blog had gotten rid of it in an act of trimming TB's wardrobe. She denied it, but maybe? ...

Yesterday morning, TigerBlog called up Todd to remind him that he needed the clubs for the golf outing. This was an actual conversation:

"Hey, by the way. Matthew played last week for the first time in a long time, and you know what he found in one of the pockets of the bag?"
"What?"
"A blue NCAA lacrosse pullover."

Oh yeah. That's where it was.

And so the blue pullover is back in the sea of orange and black that is TB's closet. He'll let you know tomorrow how he does as a golfer. 

Speaking of orange and black closets, TB presumes that nobody has more of it than Andrei Iosivas, who went from playing football and running track and field at Princeton to being a sixth-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Will he be keeping his Bengals' gear after Tuesday, when NFL teams are required to cut down from a training camp-max of 90 players to 53 in advance of Week1? After the training camp and preseason that Iosivas had, he has a zero percent change of being released. Well, make that pretty much zero, but it would still be shocking to see his name on the waiver wire.

TigerBlog read a bunch of roster projections, and they all have Iosivas as one of the either six or seven wide receivers Cincinnati will keep. 

Here are two samples: 

"Something had to give when the Bengals drafted Charlie Jones and Andre Iosivas. The latter has looked way, way ahead of schedule."
"Both wide receivers Cincinnati drafted should easily make the roster. Iosivas has shown the ability to make contested catches and will give the Bengals extra depth at outside receiver."

Iosivas was one of five NFL wide receivers to have at least 12 preseason receptions, and he finished the three games with 12 catches for 129 yards and a TD, which came in the preseason finale against Washington Saturday night. He was millimeters away from another TD in Week 1, when one of his feet microscopically caught the sideline after a diving end zone grab.

For Iosivas, the question isn't whether he'll make the team; it's what his role on gamedays will be.

Princeton's other two receivers in NFL camps both made their cases to make the final cuts — which aren't necessarily final, by the way, since a ton of roster changes are made leading up to the opener once teams see who are available. 

Jesper Horsted, who has battled injuries in the preseason, was targeted three times and made receptions on all three, for 28 yards, in the Las Vegas Raiders' 31-16 loss to Dallas. Stephen Carlson had three catches of his own for 41 yards as the Chicago Bears lost to Buffalo 24-21.

Horsted looks like he'll be the team's third tight end. Carlson is the fourth tight end on a team that would probably keep three, but he's a veteran with an established record of being valuable on special teams. 

The fourth Princeton grad in an NFL camp has been offensive lineman Henry Byrd with the Broncos, who seems to be a lock to be cut and then signed to the practice squad.