Passing Efficiently

TigerBlog spoke to Dave Chandler, Class of 1980, earlier this week.

Dave is a former Princeton football player. His father, George, was a legendary Princeton football player in the Class of 1951.

In fact, George was the captain of the 1950 Tigers, a team that went 9-0 a year before the 1951 team also went 9-0 and had Dick Kazmaier win the Heisman Trophy.

The Chandler Lounge in Jadwin Gym is named for George Chandler.

Dave was calling to talk about a teammate of his, Russ Moyer, who sadly has passed away. Russ is being inducted into his high school Hall of Fame, and Dave was looking for some information.

As it turns out, Russ was the leading tackler on the 1979 Tigers, with 80. Dave Chandler was second, with 79 - though Dave did lead the team in solo tackles with 40.

TigerBlog goes back with Princeton football to the late 1980s. He knows a lot of the names from the 1970s, but he hasn't met too many of them through the years. It was good to talk to someone who is a big part of Princeton football history like that.

Speaking of Princeton football history, the school record for touchdown passes in a season is 29, set all the way back in 2017, by Chad Kanoff.

Through five games this season, Tiger quarterback Kevin Davidson has thrown 15. Should he match that through the final five games, he'd obviously have one more than Kanoff.

Davidson is halfway through what could be a record-setting season. Actually it already has been for the senior from California, who made one career start prior to this year and who has been extraordinary from the first snap this season.

Davidson has already set the Ivy League - not just Princeton - record for touchdown passes in a game with seven, which he did against Bucknell. When he threw five more against Brown last week, he became the first Princeton player ever to have two different games with at least five TD passes.

Even if he doesn't throw another TD pass this year, his 15 have him tied fore the eighth best single season total - with Kazmaier of all people. Only three times has a Princeton quarterback thrown for at least 20 in a season - Kanoff again has the record at 29, followed by Doug Butler and Quinn Epperly with 25 each.

He is currently leading the FCS in three major statistical categories: completion percentage, passing efficiency rating and average yards per attempt. His completion percent right now is 73.7; Kanoff also has that single-season record, from two years ago, at 73.2.

Anyway, that's the kind of year that Davidson is having. He's 6-5, 225 pounds, and he has as good an arm as any Princeton quarterback that TB has ever seen, with the possible exception of Jason Garrett, who played for more than a decade in the NFL and is now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Next up for Davidson is his team's biggest test so far this year, as 4-1 Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium to take on the 5-0 Tigers. Kickoff is at 1.

There are currently three 2-0 teams in the Ivy League, the two who play tomorrow at Princeton and Dartmouth, who plays Columbia tonight. Harvard hosts Dartmouth next week, and then it's Princeton and Dartmouth at Yankee Stadium the following week, after a trip to Cornell for the Tigers a week from tonight.

One other note from the football game - Harvard has blocked five punts this season; Princeton has gone 154 straight punts without one blocked. 

Shifting to another Princeton-Harvard game tomorrow, there are two unbeaten teams in the Ivy League in field hockey, 4-0 Princeton and 4-0 Harvard. They meet tomorrow at Harvard, with a noon start time. That's the same time the men's soccer team plays at Harvard tomorrow as well, followed by the women's soccer game at 3.

Back at field hockey, Harvard has defeated Princeton twice in the last three years to win the Ivy League, but both times Princeton rebounded to reach the NCAA Final Four.

No other Ivy team has better than a 2-2 record, so the team that gets to 5-0 certainly will have a huge leg up on a league title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton, with its very challenging non-league schedule and two wins over RPI top 10 teams, figures to be right there for an at-large bid, but then again, Princeton and Harvard are both just outside the top 10 in this weeks' RPI.

And there you have it, a weekend with big Princeton-Harvard games, here and there.

Those games are always fun.