College Football Saturday

You want to know how much college football was on TV Saturday? 

The answer is: A lot.

TigerBlog watched a bunch of it. He started at noon with Wisconsin-Rutgers and Washington-Iowa; both times the team he was rooting for lost. He ended well into the evening with Ohio State-Oregon and Penn State-USC.

By the way, it's hard to remember all the teams that make up the geographical craziness that is the Big Ten these days. It's pretty wild to realize that all four of those games were in the B1G.

TB is pretty sure that he heard one of the announcers on one of the games mention the stat about teams in the league who have traveled more than two time zones, in either direction. Those teams are something like 2-11 now. 

There was more to the Saturday menu than just the Big Ten, of course. TB watched at least a little of a bunch of other games, including Vanderbilt-Kentucky, Missouri-UMass, South Carolina-Alabama and a bunch of others. 

Not all of the games he saw were Power 4 conference games. He checked in on Sacred Heart-Howard (the Bison won), for instance.

Of course, he kept an eye on the early Ivy League games. He saw Yale get out to a huge lead on Dartmouth and then went back later to see the final score, only to find that it was 37-37 and headed to overtime. 

Dartmouth would come all the way back and win it, 44-43. If you're a Princeton fan, you couldn't help but think of the 2012 Princeton-Harvard game, when the Tigers zoomed back from 34-10 down with 12 minutes to go to win 39-34 in regulation on a Quinn Epperly TD pass to Roman Wilson from 38 yards out with 13 seconds to go.

Here's what TB wrote after that one:

Really, it was something like from a sports movie, where the underdogs need the late touchdown and the ball seems to hang in the air forever - and nobody can really believe what happened. 

The main event for TB Saturday was Princeton's game at Mercer. One thing TB noticed about all the different games he saw was that there is a distinctive character and atmosphere at each stadium, and Mercer's Five Star Stadium seemed to fit right into that thinking. 

It did look like a great place for a game on a beautiful day in Georgia. There seemed like all kinds of different vantage points for fans to watch, from a grassy area to the stands to what appeared to be a guest box. 

The ESPN+ announcers were good and fair. They were prepared, and they didn't get unreasonably excited for moments that didn't warrant it. What more can you ask? 

As for the game, Mercer is the No. 7 team in the FCS. Princeton was coming off a loss to Columbia in its Ivy opener and was looking for some answers prior to the stretch of six league games in six weeks. Plus, the game was in Macon.

The final was Mercer 34, Princeton 7, and yet there were quite a few bright spots for the Tigers. If you watched the game, then you had to be impressed with:

* the Princeton defense, who held Mercer to only two field goals in the first three quarters; the Bears did score TDs on a punt return and a fumble return, but the Princeton D was tough all day. 

* freshman linebacker AJ Pigford, who had four tackles, three for loss, and a fumble recovery. This was after he had two tackles for the first three games. Pigford was fast and decisive, and he did all this less than an hour from his hometown of Snellville, Ga.

* Another AJ, this time AJ Barber, had three catches for 51 yards, including a 41-yard reception. He continues to be a threat on every play.

* Chase Christopher had 11 tackles and was all over the field. 

More than anyone else, though, there was sophomore running back Ethan Clark, who came into the game with 12 career carries for 37 yards, with a long of seven, for his career. Mercer, for its part, was the No. 1 rushing defense team in the FCS, allowing just 29.2 yards per game.

Clark then carried 21 times for 117 yards and his first career TD. These yards were not easy at all, considering who the opponent was. 

With the non-league portion of the season over, Princeton will host Brown Friday night at 7. After that will be Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Yale and Penn. 

There is a very long way to go in this season. Princeton has plenty of time to play itself into contention next month. 

The trip to Mercer didn't produce a win. It did produce a great college football experience, though.

If you want to devote an entire Saturday to watching, you can see the country is filled with them.