No Love For Ozzie, Orr To The Hall And More

Welcome to another Thursday ...

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Ozzie Nicholas was named an FCS All-American by Pro Football Focus. The senior linebacker certainly deserved it after a season in which he finished with 104 tackles, the most by a Princeton defender in nearly 20 years.

TigerBlog still isn't quite sure why Nicholas, the only unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection on defense, wasn't a Bushnell Cup finalist, but hey, TB 1) is biased and 2) didn't have a vote. 

TB will say that in his opinion, Nicholas was the dominant defensive player in the league. He was the only player to reach triple figures in tackles, and he was in fact 11 tackles ahead of the second place finisher. 

Here's one fairly interesting number to consider: Nicholas had more than twice as many tackles as the Defensive Bushnell winner, Penn's Joey Slackman, who had 50. Yes, there are schemes and differences between being a linebacker and defensive lineman, which Slackman is, and those can definitely account for some of the differences in tackles. Linebackers usually make more tackles than defensive linemen. 

Still, that's a big disparity. Also, Nicholas had more sacks than Slackman (4.5-4). None of this is meant to take away from Slackman, who is obviously a great player. Still ...  no love for Nicholas? 

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While the subject is football, it's hard not to jump on the Tommy DeVito bandwagon. The Giants' undrafted free agent rookie third-string quarterback (and how many others have succeeded with all that in front of their names) is now 3-1 as a starter with three straight wins after rallying his team past the Packers Monday night. 

And forget all the "Tommy Cutlets" stuff and how he lives at home still. What's best about DeVito for TB is 1) the sheer joy he plays with and 2) that he wasn't drafted. Who would you rather have right now? DeVito or Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick? 

Maybe DeVito can't keep this ride going, but he certainly seems like he has some ability to go along with the energy. 

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Wait, Johnny Orr wasn't already in the EIWA Hall of Fame? 

The legendary Princeton wrestler was an EIWA champ in 1984 and NCAA runner-up in 1984 and 1985. TB assumed he was already in the Hall. This is from the goprincetontigers.com story:

Johnny Orr excelled as a wrestler in the 142-pound weight class at Princeton. With an impressive overall record of 89-9, he was a two-time EIWA place winner and secured the EIWA Championship in 1984, also receiving the Outstanding Wrestler Award that year. As a 2-time NCAA finalist in 1984 and 1985, Orr achieved the status of a 2-time All-American, 4-time First-Team All-Ivy, and 2-time Ivy Outstanding Wrestler. As a senior, he played a pivotal role in leading the Tigers to Ivy League team champions in 1985.

Orr is one of the Princeton athletes whom TB has never met but whose accomplishments are well-know to him. Congrats on the overdue honor.

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The rest of the athletics calendar for December is pretty light as first semester exams are here. The Class of 2024 has the distinction, if TB's math is correct, of being the first Princeton class to have all of its exams before the New Year, as opposed to afterwards.

For decades and decades, exams came after the New Year, which led to a massive nearly three-week break in athletic events in January. 

Now, with exams about to get underway, the only event on the calendar for the next eight days isn't even a team event and features only two Princeton athletes, Mary McKenna and Hayley Clark, who will swim in Miami Sunday in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America Open Water championships. 

The race is a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. Follow the math: the race lasts 16,368 feet, or 5,456 yards, which equates to 109 laps in a 50-yard pool or 218 in a 25-yard pool. And this is in open water.

The top five finishers in the race will advance to the USA Swimming Open Water championship.

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Speaking of open water swimming, TigerBlog watched the Diana Nyad movie on Netflix a few weeks ago. It doesn't exactly paint a flowery picture of Nyad, whose attempts to swim from Cuba to Key West were legendary.

It does, though, include the guy who played Spike in "Notting Hill," so there's that.

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Guess what's on sale? Men's lacrosse season tickets. There are five home games this season, against Manhattan, Cornell, Lehigh, Dartmouth and Penn. Total for season tickets is only $30 (gametimes by the way are subject to change).

That would make for a great gift, no? 

You can find tickets for men's lacrosse and men's and women's basketball and hockey on the main ticket page HERE.

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