Happy Halloween

 

You don't need TigerBlog to tell you that tomorrow is Halloween. 

It's the Princeton holiday. Orange and Black everywhere. Even Oreo joins in the fun, with their Princeton Athletics Double Stuffs. 

If you're wondering, TigerBlog's favorite actual Halloween candies would be: mini-M&Ms, Hershey's miniatures and Three Musketeers bars. If he knocks on your door, now you have no excuse not to know. 

TB has always talked about how Halloween is the start of a sprint that goes to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's in a seeming blink. Maybe it's because of the Princeton schedule, which dives right into winter long before fall ends. 

There will be trick-or-treating on the concourse at Princeton Stadium tomorrow before Princeton's game against Cornell, which kicks off at noon. Before that, of course, there are also three kinds of Princeton hockey today: field at Columbia at 6, women's at Hobey Baker Rink against Brown at 6 and men's against Stonehill in Boston at the Warrior Arena at 7. 

And then shortly after the football game, okay, two days later, there will be a basketball doubleheader on Carril Court at Jadwin Gym. The men will start it off against Carnegie Mellon at 4, followed by Lauren Gosselin's debut as Tiger head coach, against Belmont. 

Hockey? Basketball? There's also swimming and diving, rugby and water polo, along with everything TB mentioned yesterday. 

The football game will give Princeton a chance to bounce back from last weekend's 35-7 loss to Harvard, which resulted in the Tigers' first Ivy League loss. The standings now are: 

Harvard 3-0
Princeton/Dartmouth 2-1
Columbia/Brown/Cornell/Yale/Penn 1-2

TB can't remember a time when he's seen the standings like that. 

If you're a Tiger fan, you start your football weekend tonight at 7 rooting for Dartmouth, and not just because TB's' former colleague Elliot Carr is the team's contact in athletic communications. For Princeton to get back in the mix for an Ivy title, someone has to beat Harvard. Why not Dartmouth? 

Whatever happens tonight in Hanover, Princeton needs to get back to winning to stay in the race. By weekend's end, there could be a three-way tie for first — or the Tigers could be two games back.

TB also reminds you that Princeton head coach Bob Surace needs one more win to tie Bill Roper's 96-year-old record for wins. Roper has 89, one more than Surace's 88. 

As for the game, TigerBlog stole this from Cornell's well-named "Pre-Snap Read" story:

Cornell leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (31.3 ppg, No. 34 in FCS), rushing offense (169.2 ypg, No. 39), red zone offense (.885, No. 22), sacks (3.00 per game, No. 6) and sacks allowed (0.67 per game, No. 3). The Big Red has scored on 23 of 26 red zone trips, with 19 touchdowns.

The Big Red have scored at least 29 points in five straight games. The biggest W on its schedule came against then-No. 4 Lehigh, a 48-38 statement two weeks ago. Cornell also put up 38 in a 13-point win against Yale but also has Ivy losses to Harvard (41-29) and Brown (38-31 in overtime last weekend). 

Princeton was leading all of college football on every level in scoring defense at 10.2 per game before Harvard scored 35. Even after that, the Tigers are still third in the FCS, at 14.3. Princeton is also third nationally in net punting, while punter Brady Clark leads the league with a 46.1 average. 

Kai Honda is second in the league in rushing touchdowns with eight, one behind Cornell's Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, who actually is the Big Red quarterback. He actually has more rushing TDs than passing TDs (seven), and he leads all Ivy quarterbacks in rushing yards as well. 

This is also a matchup of the No. 1 rushing offense and the No. 1 rushing defense in the league. Princeton allows 113.7 yards per game. 

There have been all kinds of crazy games played between the Tigers and the Big Red. Maybe it's because it's always so close to Halloween? 

Remember — kickoff is at noon. And you can trick or treat before the game. 

And also a reminder — it'll be basketball season Monday. It'll be men's hockey season tonight. Women's hockey is in Week 3. Ivy tournaments for the fall are just ahead. 

Go Tigers.