Honoring Jeremiah Tyler And Andrew Griffin

TigerBlog was at the corner of 41st Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan Monday afternoon when he saw something he'd never seen before.

A truck made a wide turn onto 41st but couldn't quite complete it without taking out the light pole, so the driver tried to back up and then finish the turn. The car behind the truck never budged, and the truck's rear hit the car's hood.

The driver of the car did nothing. The truck then tried to pull up and turn again, and when it did, the car behind it pulled up as well, as opposed to getting out of the truck's way. Again the truck had to back up, and again it struck the car.

If you don't believe TB, you can ask Princeton's multimedia director Cody Chrusciel, who was driving while TB was in the passenger seat. The person in the car next to theirs tried to yell at the driver of the car that was being struck to watch out, to no avail. Then in typical New York City fashion, he switched from offering concern to offering scorn of the four-letter variety, while laughing at the same time.

Cody finally was able to get across 10th Avenue and head towards the Lincoln Tunnel and then get in front of the car that was hit, and it's hood was pretty much caved in. And yet still the driver did nothing. The truck driver even motioned to TB and Cody, thinking it was their car that he'd hit, because he wanted to get out and exchange information.

Then the other car went into the tunnel and continued on its way. TB suggested Cody follow the driver to find out why she had never pulled over (he was only kidding on that one).

It was a lot of time in the car with Cody Monday, since it took three hours to get from Princeton to the Hilton on 54th Street and then two hours to get back.

It was worth it though, to be in New York for the Bushnell Cup presentation and to support Jeremiah Tyler, the Princeton junior linebacker who was one of two finalists for Ivy Defensive Player of the Year. Dartmouth's Jack Traynor was the winner after the senior's third first-team All-Ivy League selection, while Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings was the Offensive winner.

Being the runner-up takes nothing away from the extraordinary season that Tyler had. He led the Ivy League in tackles for loss and was second for Princeton in total tackles while earning unanimous first-team All-Ivy League honors.

The event in New York was a very nice one, with all eight league Directors of Athletics and head coaches in attendance. Princeton was also represented by a large group of Tyler's teammates, who also made the trek into the city to be there for Tyler.

Princeton has had the most Bushnell Cup winners (12) of any school in the league. That's an impressive number.

Rawlings, by the way, was Yale's 11th winner, which ties the Bulldogs with Harvard for second behind the Tigers.

The presentation of the Bushnell Cup came about an hour after the announcement of the CoSIDA Football Academic All-America team. Princeton was represented there as well, as senior wide receiver Andrew Griffin - a computer science major - was named to the first team.

This isn't an easy accomplishment to pull off.

As TB said, Princeton has had 12 Bushnell Cup winners. Princeton has also had 15 NFL draft choices and 44 overall professional football players, not to mention 72 first-team All-Americas.

How many national first-team Academic All-Americas has Princeton had?

Griffin is the fifth.

Here's the complete list:
Richard Sandler, 1968
Kevin Fox, 1976
Kevin Guthrie, 1982 and 1983
Alex Sierk, 1998
Andrew Griffin, 2019

For Griffin, it was the culmination of a remarkable career.

He spent his first three years as a backup wide receiver and special teams player, stuck behind Jesper Horsted and Stephen Carlson, the all-time Princeton greats who were playing his position then and who are playing (and doing well) in the NFL now.

When he finally got his chance, Griffin made the most of it. He started all 10 games and made 34 receptions for 490 yards, and he was fifth in the Ivy League in TD receptions with six, including four against Bucknell to tie the Ivy League single-game record. Griffin won Princeton football's Richard Colman Award for outstanding scholarship.

He was voted to the District II All-Academic team and then put on the national ballot. When the team was announced, there he was.

He's an extremely impressive young man. Princeton head coach Bob Surace has called him "the kind of person you get in coaching to coach," which is about the best praise you can get.

So congratulations to both Tyler and Griffin.

They're both exactly what you want to see out of the athletes who represent you.