Pure Genius

Every now and then, it's good to take a quote completely out of context.

For today, TigerBlog offers this, from a story that he read yesterday that included words from Princeton head football coach Bob Surace.

"We’re not this group of geniuses," Surace says.

TigerBlog won't even bother explaining. You can read it for yourself HERE.

Pete Carril once poo-pooed the concept of a coach as a genius with this quote: "When I think of a genius, I think of a guy like Einstein." What always fascinated TigerBlog about that was the way he threw in "a guy like," as opposed to simply "Einstein," as if there are a whole bunch of Einsteins running around out there.

Carril also said things like "I'll take that up with God when I get there" and "God is indifferent to the plight of man" and "A hundred years from now I'll be dead and two guys will walk past my grave and one will say 'that guy never won a national championship' and I won't hear a word they say."

There's genius to that, no?

It's better, of course, to have others think you're a genius than to think it yourself, right Wile E. Coyote?

Surace had his annual pre-preseason picnic Tuesday night. TigerBlog couldn't make it, but he had to chuckle when he saw that it was a rainy, stormy night. It always seems to be that way for Surace's event each year.

Genius or no, Surace is a unique football coach. For starters he doesn't seem to need to use the word "football" in every sentence. He's also very easy to talk to, and he laughs easily. He's also not wound too tightly at all times, and he seems to recognize that football is a game, not a metaphor for life.

Most importantly, Surace is, as TB has said before, the perfect coach for Princeton football. He's smart and innovative, and in that story that TB linked to before, there's a reference to the need to get your best athletes on the field, regardless of traditional roles for players.

Also, Surace buys into Princeton. He's an alum, and a loyal one at that. He understands the place. He understands that the football coach is never going to be the one who drives the whole school, and he's fine with that.

The combination of those things are why he's been so successful here.

This will be Surace's ninth season as Princeton's head coach. His record is 38-42, which is extraordinary considering he was 2-20 to start out.

That leaves him at 36-22 for his last 58 games. He started out with a .091 winning percentage and has gone to a .621 winning percentage since.

Remind you of anyone? Say, a women's basketball coach, perhaps. Courtney Banghart started out 16-37 and has gone 216-56 since.

Or, maybe, a men's lacrosse coach from awhile ago? Bill Tierney went 8-21 his first two years and then 230-65 for his next 20 years at Princeton.

Banghart, by the way, has taken on another challenging schedule for the 2018-19 season. The schedule was announced yesterday, and you can see it HERE.

By the way, the opener is Nov. 6? That's like in a little more than two months.

Courtney tweeted this yesterday:

Iron sharpens iron. 🐯💍 chasers are all about scheduling the best. Go hard or stay home. This season brings Penn State, Depaul, Syracuse, Kansas State, George Washington, Quinnipiac, Seton Hall, Villanova, Marist- and so many more. https://t.co/6angFU23NG

— Courtney Banghart (@CoachBanghart) August 15, 2018

Anyway, back at Surace, he has 38 career wins in nine years. For the last seven, he's averaged six wins a year.

Actually, as TB just looked, in each of those six seasons, Princeton has won either five or eight games. Never anything else. In fact, in his first eight years, Surace's teams have won either one, five or eight games.

That's odd.

Only four coaches in Princeton's long history have ever won more games that Surace already has. Those four are:
Bill Roper 89
Steve Tosches 78
Dick Colman 75
Charlie Caldwell 70

That's it. Surace is next.

Roper was Princeton's coach from 1906-08, 1910-11 and 1919-30. Can Surace make a run at 89?

He's 51 away from it as he enters 2018. If he averages five wins a year for 10 years, that 1) certainly is doable and 2) puts him right there.

The question is how long will he want to be doing this and doing it here. As TB said, he's the perfect head football coach for Princeton.

Five wins a year for 10 years. If he gets six a year, he can do it less than nine.

On the other hand, that's like nine or 10 more pre-preseason picnics at his house in the rain.