Welcoming Howard

Wait, was that Terrance Stokes in the Princeton football video? 

The Terrance Stokes? Yes it was. 

It's the same Terrance Stokes who still to this day, 31 years later, holds the Penn football record for rushing yards in a game, with 272 against Princeton in 1993. Somewhat amazingly, he had 136 yards in the first half and 136 yards in the second half.

TigerBlog was at Franklin Field that day, which is one of the rougher days in Princeton football history. It was a matchup of two unbeaten teams in November, but on that day, it was all Quakers, who rolled 30-14. 

TB remembered Stokes from his days as a running back at Trenton High School. And now, all this time later, there he is, in a video produced about Princeton football's time working with the kids of Trenton at a youth clinic.

At the time of that Penn-Princeton game in 1993, by the way, TigerBlog lived in the city of Trenton. 

Among his many other civic-minded ventures in his home city, Stokes is now the founder and president of  Trenton Youth Football. In the video, he speaks about the importance of seeing Princeton football players, especially the Black players, who spent time with the kids in Trenton, which is primarily Black.

"To see people who look like them, at an institution such as Princeton, playing football, that kind of opened their mind to what is possible," Stokes says in the video.

The entire 2:45 of the video is worth watching. You can see for yourself:

In Service of Humanity.@Evanhaynie__, @GeerJalen and others helped give back to the Trenton Community with a football clinic earlier this summer. #JUICE 🍊🥤 pic.twitter.com/s5VDU4te0f

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) September 26, 2024

Tomorrow will be a special day on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, and not only because it's the Tigers' home opener. The opponent will be Howard, marking the second time Princeton has played an HBCU at home, after hosting Hampton in 2007.

It will be a day of celebrations and pageantry — and also an important football game against a good team. 

Howard is 2-2 on the season, with an opening week loss to Rutgers and a loss last week to Hampton, as well as wins in between over Mercyhurst and Morehouse. The Bison are the defending MEAC champs and were the HBCU runners-up a year ago.

Princeton is 0-1 after dropping its opener last week at Lehigh 35-20. This will be Princeton's only home game in its first four weeks, since next up will be trips to near (at Columbia) and far (at Mercer, in Macon, Ga.).

Howard is a very balanced team, with an average of 191 passing yards and 180 rushing yards per game so far. Its opponents are balanced as well, having rushed for 174 yards per game and thrown for 176 yards per game.

Princeton struggled on the ground last week against Lehigh. This will be a good opportunity to improve in that area, as opponents average five yards per rush against the Bison.

TB once again will say that he would love to see college football treat sacks like the NFL does — as negative team passing yards. Instead, they become negative rushing yards for the quarterback (and by extension the team). 

Against Lehigh, Princeton quarterback Blaine Hippa was sacked six times for minus-48 yards. That number put the Tigers below zero for the day on the ground.

Of course, that was Game 1. The difference between Game 1 and Game 2 is often huge, so trying to draw sweeping conclusions about a team after one game is usually impossible. 

The game at Lehigh was Hippa's first start, and he threw for 219 yards and two touchdowns despite the six sacks. He certainly has the look of someone who can lead a team. 

Howard's biggest offensive threat is quarterback Ja'Shawn Scroggins, but he is out injured indefinitely. In his place the last two weeks has been Jaylon Tolbert, who is 41 for 67 for 468 yards, four TDs and two interceptions.

Defensively, Howard is led by Kenny Gallop Jr., who has more solo tackles (26) than any other player on the team has total tackles (25). In all Gallop — the 2023 MEAC Defensive Player of the Year — averages 9.8 tackles per game, which is 18th in the FCS. 

Oh, and according to his bio, the 6-foot, 215-pound Gallop lists what as his favorite food? Salad.

Princeton has lost its opener eight times in the last 20 seasons. It has won its second game six of those eight times.

What does the game tomorrow have in store? Kickoff is at 3, with the game also on ESPN+.