Davidson To Griffin

Princeton had the ball, third-and-10, late first quarter at the Bucknell 44 Saturday afternoon.

The Bison, 0-3 on the year coming in, were ahead 7-0 and playing with confidence. Princeton quarterback Kevin Davidson took the snap, rolled right and looked like he had room to run. Instead, he threw for Jacob Birmelin in the end zone, incomplete.

Even had the pass been complete, it wouldn't have counted, because Davidson was clearly beyond the line of scrimmage when he let it go. Penalty. Loss of down.

From his spot in the radio booth, TigerBlog thought to himself - "This is good. It's a chance to see how Davidson will respond when things hadn't been going easily."

Want to know how he responded?

His next pass went to Andrei Iosivas for 29 yards and a touchdown after the defense got him the ball back. For the rest of the first half, he went 13 for 15 for 166 yards, with three more touchdowns mixed in.

He even had a 10-yard run on a third-and-seven to keep a touchdown drive alive in the second quarter.

By the time his day was over, Davidson had put away the pesky Bison with a 29 for 37, 381-yard performance. Oh, and he finished with seven passing touchdowns.

Those seven touchdowns weren't just a new Princeton record. They were an Ivy League record.

They also got Davidson a game ball on ESPN on its college football wrap up show.

So, yeah, he seemed to respond well. And in doing so, he showed you a lot about himself.

Davidson turned a close game on the road into a 56-23 Princeton win. Davidson didn't play in the final 11 minutes of the game, and all 62 Princeton players who traveled got in the game.

And, to all the people who reached out to TigerBlog yesterday to find out how participation works, the in-game stat program records starters and anyone who gets a statistic in the game. Any player who doesn't get a stat in the game needs to added to the participation list, but for an away game, where TB is on the radio and doing social media in-game, he waits until it's over to confirm with the coaches as to who played and who didn't. When he got the list from the coaches yesterday, he added those players to the stats for the game.

So just to repeat, the correct answer is that all 62 Princeton players in uniform got in the game. Who knew the subject of participation could be so interesting to so many people?

Meanwhile, Davidson wasn't the only Princeton player who had a record-setting day.

Senior wide receiver Andrew Griffin caught four of Davidson's touchdown passes, tying the Princeton and Ivy records for TD receptions in a game. If you go back as far as TB with Princeton football, you remember Michael Lerch's four TD game at Brown in 1991, a game in which he also had 370 receiving yards.

Griffin didn't quite get to 370, but he did catch nine passes for 200 yards to go with the four touchdowns. His TD receptions were from 57, 27, 59 and 14 yards, and he became the sixth player in program history to reach 200 receiving yards in a game.

In his three career starts, Davidson's numbers are otherworldly: 91 for 118 for 1,362 yards and 13 touchdowns with no interceptions.

Through two games, he leads the FCS in passing efficiency rating and completion percentage. Passing efficiency rating is a complex formula, but Davidson has a rating of 236.8. The next-best total is 194.9, of Trey Lance of North Dakota State. That's a 41.9 point lead over the second-place quarterback.

If you go 41.9 points down from 194.9, you have 153.0. That would put you in 21st place.

In other words, the distance from first to second is also the distance from second to 21st. That's a big gap.

It's even larger in completion percentage. Davidson has completed 81 percent of his throws; the distance from first to second is the same as the distance from second to 26th.

Does that make sense? You get the point.

As for Griffin, he's gone from three receptions for 31 yards and no touchdowns in his career (and playing on special teams), to 11 catches for 251 yards and five touchdowns in two games. He is averaging 22.8 yards per catch.

Against Bucknell, he was unstoppable. He'd get open, Davidson would find him and he wouldn't quit until he reached the end zone.

It's been a great two weeks for them. It's even greater when you consider that they walked into the two positions where Princeton had its greatest question marks after graduation last year.

Now it gets a bit more serious.

Princeton, winner of 12 straight, opens its Ivy League season Saturday at home at 1 against Columbia. The Lions are looking to be a major factor in the Ivy race this year, just like Princeton.

TigerBlog has a lot of respect for all different kinds of Princeton athletes, but among those who earn his biggest respect are seniors who have not had a great deal of playing time in their first three years but remain loyal parts of the program and end up making the most of their one year to be a starter.

Davidson (one career start prior to this year) and Griffin (no career starts before this year) personify that group.