Friday, September 15, 2023

Opening Kickoff

Remember when TigerBlog told you that his friend Corey, with whom he goes back nearly 50 years, was going to get off the plane from his two-week vacation with his wife Cindy in Croatia and go straight to the Rutgers-Temple football game? 

Well, he ended up doing just that. This is the picture he sent before the game:

That's impressive dedication. TB doesn't think he's missed too many Rutgers home games (and quite a few away games) since he graduated from there in 1985. 

At his graduation, every name was called, which took nearly two hours. Beforehand, the crowd was, as usual, urged to hold their applause to the end. His name happened to be the last one, and after getting his diploma, he walked to the front of the stage and bowed as the crowd applauded. 

Rutgers won that game, and its game the previous week, its Big 10 opener against Northwestern. Up next for the Scarlet Knights will be tomorrow's game at home against Virginia Tech. TB assumes Corey will be more well-rested and ready for tailgating.

As TB mentioned yesterday and as you're probably aware, Princeton opens its season at San Diego tomorrow, with kickoff at 4 Eastern time. San Diego, like Rutgers, has already played twice, with losses to Cal Poly 21-10 and then to Colorado Mesa 28-21 in overtime. 

TigerBlog wanted  to see what kind of program Colorado Mesa had, so he went to the school's website, where he was greeted by a picture of eight people in Cowboy hats and a headline that said "Rodeo to compete at Southern Utah."

Colorado Mesa is a Division II school in the very tough Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. San Diego is a Division I school in the Pioneer Conference, which has teams all over the country. 

The Tigers are looking to get off on the right foot for the season, with this game and next week's home game against Bryant before the Ivy League opener at home against Columbia on Sept. 29, a Friday night. 

Princeton returns the Ivy League's Bushnell Cup for Defensive Player of the Year from a year ago, as Liam Johnson is back for his senior year. If you don't remember, he's the youngest of four brothers, the oldest of whom went to Amherst and the other two who were first-team All-Ivy League linebackers at Princeton (Tom, James). 

The video of the brothers as little kids is tremendous. Going back to the 2018 10-0 season, by the way, nearly one in eight tackles made by the Princeton defense was made by one the Johnson brothers.

On the other side of the ball, Princeton returns Blake Stenstrom as quarterback. Who was the last quarterback to start the Princeton opener two years in a row? That would be Chad Kanoff, in 2016 and 2017. 

Johnson and Stenstrom are two of Princeton's four captains this year. The other two are offensive lineman Jalen Travis, who is probably the top NFL prospect in the Ivy League this year, and Ozzie Nicholas, whom you met in the video about the Johnson brothers.

Princeton is 35-5 in the last four years, with two Ivy League titles and two near-misses. If you read the season previews on goprincetontigers.com, you read the quote from head coach Bob Surace that said this: 

We're a new team," Surace said. "We've graduated over 80 seniors over the last two years."

That's a big number. As such, there will be new names in new spots and lots of them. It'll take some time for it all to gel, but that's the fun part of any season. 

As is the case every year in the Ivy League, pretty much everyone from the high school to NFL level has started to play already. Now it's the Ivy League's turn.

Getting to game week is different. Getting on a plane and flying cross-country is a great experience. 

Then it'll be time for the 10-week sprint that is the Ivy League. It'll be gone in a blink. It always is.

There are big moments ahead. With the program that Surace has built, that's always going to be the case. 

Now it's time for the opening kickoff. The Tigers will be ready.

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