Endings And Beginnings

PRINCETON FOOTBALL TICKET INFORMATION 

TigerBlog texted his friend Corey, a Rutgers grad and longtime season ticket holder for Scarlet Knights football, to wish him luck against Southern Cal. 

Like any Rutgers fan, Corey was skeptical that his team could hang in against USC after losses to UMass and Boston College. For some reason, TigerBlog thought the team would, as Pete Carril always said, "give a good account of itself." At the very least, Rutgers would keep Corey and company there until the end of the game. 

And that's what happened. In the end, it was USC 42, Rutgers 35 in a game that was, if nothing else, very entertaining. Hopefully Rutgers can right its ship and build on that performance.  

Elsewhere, on any other Saturday, the end of the Toledo-Temple football game would have been the undisputed "what a comeback" champion for the day. 

This past Saturday? It was second. A very, very, very distant second. 

First, Temple led 42-28 late in the fourth quarter — and stopped Toledo on downs with 4:40 left. In the bag right? Nope. Somehow the Rockets took off, tying it 42-42 and then winning 49-48 in overtime. Kudos to Temple for going for two in the OT to win the game. 

Crazy stuff, right? Ah, but did you happen to notice the end of the North Carolina State-Vanderbilt game? If you didn't, here it is: 

THIS PLAY ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/WQOzTIBwq9

— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) September 19, 2026

What the? Are you serious with that? No wonder ABC's halftime highlight show at halftime of the LSU-Ole Miss game led with this: "Stay turned for the craziest ending to a football game ever."

Two thoughts: 1) the Stanford-Cal band ending in 1982 was right there with a different kind of lunacy (TigerBlog watched that on TV as it happened) and 2) whatever the opposite of "America's' Team" is, then that's what Lane Kiffin has made LSU. 

Meanwhile, back at Vandy, the logic there is flawless. The execution wasn't great. What TB really takes away from it is that the message that should have gotten through to the NC State quarterback — "at the first hint of trouble throw the ball out the back of the end zone" — didn't. Why is that? What was the communication from the coaches? That's what TB would want to know. 

While those endings were insane, Saturday was also a beginning, this one for the eight Ivy League football teams. As a reminder, the league will open a week earlier next season, and all eight of the teams will play a league game. 

For Princeton, that means next year opener will be against Harvard. This year, it was at Bryant, where the Tigers dropped a 21-14 decision. 

TigerBlog didn't see any of the game other than a few highlights, and he did follow the Live Stats. Like every other Princeton fan, his primary focus was the quarterback position; namely, who would start and how he'd do. 

As it turns out, the starter was freshman Wyatt Becker. When you start a freshman QB on opening day against a team playing in Week 4, you're testing him right off the bat. 

How did Becker do? His numbers were good: 15 for 29 for 202 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He also had four carries for 26 yards. 

From that alone it doesn't look like he was in over his head at all. Hey, he's 6-2, 200 pounds. He is certainly someone who is worth watching. Seeing his progress in the next few weeks will be fun. 

Becker found seven different receivers. His TD pass went to Josh Smith, a sophomore who was playing in his first varsity game. In all Smith caught three passes for 86 yards; Aidan Besselman caught six passes. 

The Tigers also ran for 116 yards, led by 69 yards and a touchdown for Ethan Clark. Christopher Chase led the defense with 11 tackles. 

It's Week 1. You can never draw conclusions from what you see there, good or bad. There's such a long way to go.

Next up will be the home opener Saturday against Albany, with kickoff at 3. Albany will bring a 2-2 record to Princeton, with a win over New Hampshire followed by a loss to Buffalo, a win over LIU and most recently a loss to Monmouth.