Ring The Bell

The Princeton football defense celebration after forcing a turnover? That rings a bell.

TigerBlog will get back to that in a moment. 

Around 3 or so this past Saturday afternoon, or an hour before Princeton finished off its season with a 31-24 win at Penn, TB sat in one of the last places the sun still reached at Franklin Field and watched the last 10 minutes of the game between Yale and Harvard.

Which team was he rooting for in that one? Dartmouth.

With Princeton eliminated from the Ivy League football race one week earlier, TigerBlog wanted to see Dartmouth win a championship. Never has an Ivy team deserved one more, after what the Big Green went through the entire off-season and into the season after the horrific injury and subsequent death of its beloved coach, Buddy Teevens.

For the Big Green to get that championship, it needed to beat Brown and Yale needed to beat Harvard. If those two things happened, then there would be a three-way tie for the title between the Green, Crimson and Bulldogs. If Harvard beat Yale, then Harvard would have the 2023 championship all to itself.

Princeton-Penn began at 1, an hour after Brown-Dartmouth and Harvard-Yale. The first time TB looked at the scores, it was 28-7 Dartmouth and 10-6 Yale. Okay, he thought. Dartmouth is rolling — and the Big Green would win 38-13.

That only left Yale and Harvard. It was certainly a great game. First Yale was up in the fourth quarter (17-12). Then Harvard (18-17). Then Yale had a chance to take the lead but turned it over. Then Harvard had a chance to put the game away but turned it over. Then Yale took the lead (23-18). Then Harvard drove down the field but turned it over on downs near the Bulldog goal line. Then Yale punted. Then Harvard threw an interception, and it was over. 

As cold as it became when the sun disappeared behind the hotel past the old stadium, TB got a warm feeling for Dartmouth.

It was the third two-loss championship in Ivy history, along with 1969 and 1982. How close did the two teams on Franklin Field get to being part of it, or even being the lone champ?

Consider this: Princeton and Penn played six OT games between them and went 1-5. Also, Princeton beat Harvard. Penn beat Yale. Princeton lost to Dartmouth on a late field goal. Penn lost to Dartmouth in overtime.

That's how close they came. 

There was still something to play for on Franklin Field, though. Princeton was looking to avoid a losing season, which would have been its first since 2011. And it was one of the 10 games on the schedule, which makes them all hugely important, regardless of championship aspirations. 

Penn dominated statistically, with big edges in yards, plays run, first downs and time of possession. Oh, and in turnovers.

There were lots of them. A total of seven from the Quakers, to be exact. That was seven times that Princeton's D took the ball away. That's seven times someone got to ring the bell.

Princeton did not turn the ball over at all. Has a team ever had a 7-0 edge in turnovers and lost a game? TB doesn't have a way to look that one up, but he's going to go out on a limb and say it's unlikely. 

He does know for sure that the seven turnovers Princeton forced are not the single-game record. The Tigers forced eight in a 44-14 win against Columbia in 1995, and there are probably others out there as well. 

Nasir Hill certainly had himself a day for the Tigers. The sophomore from South Jersey had a career-high three rings (that should be a stat), two on interceptions and one on a fumble recovery. His second INT ended Penn's chance at a miracle comeback that saw the Quakers score a touchdown with 44 seconds left and then get the ball back on the most perfectly executed onsides kick ever, only to have Hill swipe the last pass of the day on the Tiger 18.

No other Tiger had more than one ring. Tahj Owens had an interception at the goal line and a 29-yard return, not to mention 10 tackles. Collin Taylor, a defensive lineman, had an interception off a tipped pass from Jake DelGarbino. Ozzie Nicholas and Ryan Savage also had fumble recoveries.

Nicholas finished the year with 103 tackles, becoming the first Tiger since Jon Olafsson in 2010 to reach the 100-mark. Bob Surace won his 78th game at Princeton, tying Steve Tosches for second all-time for Tiger coaches, 11 away from Bill Roper's all-time record.

There were other individual accomplishments. There will be several All-Ivy League selections this coming week.

The one-word epitaph for the 2023 season will be "close," as in just how many close games Princeton played. The Tigers just played an entire season, 10 games, without either the Tigers or any opponent ever with more than a 14-point lead at any time. That's crazy.

And "close," as in just how close Princeton came to a championship again. 

And "close," pronounced differently, as in "It's always nice to close the season with a win."