Week 1

The Princeton football record book runs 17 players deep on its list of career receptions.

The 17th player is Blair Morrison, who had 104. This leaves TigerBlog uncertain of how many players had either 100, 101, 102 or 103 — in other words, how many Princeton receivers have had at least 100 career receptions. 

One player who is not on the list is Michael Lerch, who apparently had 99 for his career. Maybe he should get credit for his sack against Penn on the final play of Princeton's 20-14 win over the Quakers at Palmer Stadium en route to the 1992 Ivy title.

TigerBlog was covering that game all those years ago. He remembers seeing Lerch, who was maybe 170 pounds, come in and line up and defensive end and then explode into the backfield to sack the Penn QB. 

Here's what Joel Samuels wrote about in the Daily Princetonian:

On third-and-10 from the Princeton 23-yard line, with just 15 seconds left, Lerch replaced sophomore Scott Matchett at right defensive end and shot into the Quaker backfield like a bolt of lightning to sack quarterback Jim McGeehan and end the game. On the play, Lerch flew past Penn offensive tackle Chris Fragakis so quickly that the 6-5, 250-pound senior was still in his three-point stance by the time Lerch had blindsided McGeehan. 

It wasn't the first time that year Lerch had done something like that. In fact, he had 3.5 sacks in 1992. 

Lerch is one of the absolute best players that TigerBlog has seen in all his time watching Princeton football. Even without reaching 100 career receptions, Lerch still ranks eighth all-time in program history in receiving yards, a testament to his 17.3 yards per catch career average. 

He also had the single most amazing individual performance TB can remember by a Princeton football player. If you are a longtime fan, you already know these numbers by heart, though TB will repeat them anyway: nine catches, 370 yards, four touchdown receptions in a 59-37 shellacking of Brown in 1991. 

Why bring up Lerch today? Well, Lerch wore No. 1 for the Tigers. The current No. 1 for the Tigers is another dynamic receiver who, while not exactly being Michael Lerch, brings the potential for excitement to any moment the ball is coming his way. 

Luke Colella was No. 83 the last three years, but he is now No. 1 for his senior year. At 5-10, 190 pounds, he like Lerch is also not a giant. Against Lehigh on Saturday in the season opener, Colella caught five passes for 86 yards and a touchdown in a 35-20 loss to the Mountain Hawks. 

Should Colella catch exactly five passes in every remaining game then he would join Princeton's 100-reception club, something TB hopes to have researched by then. Colella came into this season with 50 career receptions, 47 of which came a year ago when he earned All-Ivy honors. 

His five catches against Lehigh included a diving stab in the end zone that popped off him before he recorralled it while horizontal and another where he perfectly tiptoed the sideline to set up another Tiger TD. 

Colella's personal highlight reel was impressive enough. The touchdown he set up on that drive was even more spectacular, as a fourth-down pass from Blaine Hippa smacked off intended receiver Tamatoa Falatea and changed direction, where Tyler Picinic caught it just before he came down out of bounds. 

As opening games go, you always hope for a win but what you're really looking for is seeing how the pieces start to fit together, how players gel in new roles and what the areas of improvement are. Princeton certainly got to see all of that Saturday. 

Lehigh is a much-improved team over the last few years. Just as importantly, Lehigh was playing its fourth game of the year. Do you think its the same team it was on opening day, when it lost 42-7 to an Army team also playing its first game? 

Lehigh has won three straight since. Princeton would love to be able to look up in three weeks and be able to say the same thing.

Princeton will have plenty of chances to learn from the game Saturday, which was Hippa's first start and the first game without its graduated leaders on defense, linebackers Ozzie Nicholas and Liam Johnson. 

Next up for Princeton will be the home opener against Howard, who is 2-2 with losses to Rutgers and Hampton sandwiched around wins over Mercyhurst and Morehouse.

It'll also be a somewhat different Princeton team. The Tigers were much improved from the first half to the second half Saturday. They'll be looking to make another jump between Week 1 and Week 2, the jump that almost every team makes. 

It'll be a great Saturday at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, with kickoff at 3.