Lights On

TigerBlog was walking into Jadwin yesterday when he saw a job he could never do.

There was a guy on a very high lift who was either checking or changing the lights on the Finney-Campbell practice field. Those are the practice fields next to Princeton Stadium.

TB isn't exactly sure how high the top of the light poles get, though he'd guess that, using what he remembers from Mrs. Mancuso's geometry class, they're really, really high. TB isn't a huge fan of heights, something that he's really only overcome once, and that was to zipline from Spain into Portugal two years ago.

Speaking of Mrs. Mancuso, it's been 40 years since he took her geometry class. Geometry was easy for TB, and he remembers his teacher as being pretty nice, pretty fair and pretty challenging.

What's interesting to him is that he still refers to her as "Mrs. Mancuso." He can't imagine that any of the teachers who were there when he was a high school student are still there, but maybe somebody has lasted all this time.

If he were to see any of his high school teachers, would he refer to them as "Mr." and "Mrs.," like he did back then? It would be odd, even now, to refer to them by their first names.

Of course, every teacher he had in high school could come walk in his office door right now and he probably wouldn't recognize any of them.

Meanwhile, back on top of the light poles, TB wouldn't be able to go up to the top of the ladder, let alone fix the lights themselves. He certainly wouldn't have been able to look down while he climbed up, though looking up would be no thrill either.

It was pretty warm to be up on the top of the lift yesterday for whoever was brave enough to do it. TigerBlog will remember that when he walks out of Jadwin one night in a few months, when it's chilly and raining and the football team is out there practicing anyway.

There are 12 NFL preseason games tonight, including TigerBlog's favorite team at New England. The other team he's considering rooting for hosts Atlanta tomorrow night.

While Princeton is still not quite starting practice yet, its season too is just on the horizon. Opening day is Sept. 15 in Indianapolis against Butler, with the home opener one week later against Monmouth.

Princeton has never played either before, so that makes those games more interesting. Monmouth reached the FCS playoffs last year.

There are some fascinating storylines for Princeton football in 2018.

First, there's the defense, which was essentially wiped out by injuries a year ago. TigerBlog cannot remember another team here that has ever been besieged by bad luck the way Princeton's defense was last year, and a repeat of that isn't possible.

Princeton returns players like Kurt Holuba, Mike Wagner and Mark Fossati, who were among the hurt last year, along with the ones who stayed healthy, including four now-sophomore defensive backs and first-team All-Ivy linebacker Tom Johnson.

There's also the matter of the top-ranked recruiting class, not just in the Ivy League but also in all of the FCS. You've heard about incoming quarterback Brevin White, but he is not a one-man class. How many of the others will play right away?

Still, for everything Princeton football has going on heading into the new year, the main story is still the quarterback position. To recap:

* John Lovett was the Ivy League's Bushnell Cup winner as the offensive player of the year in 2016 and a first-team All-America but then missed all of 2017 due to injury
* Chad Kanoff was the 2017 Bushnell Cup winner after he had as good a season as any Ivy quarterback ever has; Kanoff is now with the Arizona Cardinals
 * White turned down basically everyone, most notably Alabama, to come to Princeton

As you know, Princeton loves to use multiple quarterbacks on the field at one time, something it was unable to do last year as much without Lovett. Two years ago, Lovett put up numbers that are extraordinary, including a program-record 20 rushing touchdowns, to go with 10 passing TDs and a receiving TD.

His numbers were ridiculous, but it's not just the touchdowns that mattered during the Tigers' Ivy title run. It's the way he could turn 3rd-and-1 into another set of downs or, even better, on fourth down, when Princeton was an astonishing 15 for 23 in 2016. Plus, just having him on the field with Kanoff together messed with the collective psyche of the defense, which never knew what was coming next.

The question for 2018 is what role will Lovett have? If you want him to do what he did two years ago, then you need another quarterback who can do what Kanoff did. Who is that QB? And is it putting too much pressure on White to expect him to step right into college and perform at a high level?

Anyway, those are some of the issues facing Princeton football in 2018.

The answers will be available soon enough.