Happy Halloween.
TigerBlog used to love Halloween. His job was always to answer the door and give out the candy. It would be one for each kid who came by and two for him.
Now? His kids are grown, he's given up sugar and carbs and he's more excited about his honey crisp apples than he is about mini-Kit Kats.
Well, at least he's trying to convince himself of that.
TB did the first of his weekly podcasts with Princeton women's basketball coach Carla Berube, who has three children six and younger. Today is a big day for them.
Of course, the first question was about costumes. You'll have to listen to hear what they're going as.
Berube's first game as Princeton head coach is Tuesday night, when Princeton hosts Rider at Jadwin. Tip off is at 7.
This is the senior year for Bella Alarie, which all by itself means that any chance to see the Tigers is one not to let get away.
Next up after Rider will be a road trip to Geroge Washington, whose head coach, Jen Rizzotti, was a college teammate of Berube's at UConn.
Princeton is the preseason co-No. 1 choice in the Ivy League, tied with Penn in the preseason poll. The Tigers and Quakers open their conference schedules against each other, though that game - on Jan. 11 at the Palestra - is more than two months away.
You have to go through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's before you get to that game.
In the meantime, much more immediately, the first Ivy League championships of the 2019-20 academic year will definitely be crowned tomorrow. By the end of the weekend, there could be Ivy champs in three sports.
The Ivy League Heptagonal men's and women's cross country championships will be held at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City tomorrow. The women's race is at 11, followed by the men at noon.
TigerBlog almost never misses Heps, but he's going to have to to this time. Princeton football is at Cornell tomorrow night (6, ESPNU), and he's not confident that he could go from Heps to Ithaca in enough time.
The Princeton men have won two straight Heps titles and nine of the last 13. The Tigers have built on that cross country win the last two years to win back-to-back Heps "Triple Crowns" after taking the indoor and outdoor track and field titles as well, and the current streak of overall Heps events Princeton has won is at eight, including indoor and outdoor track and field two years ago.
The current Tiger are ranked 25th nationally (Northern Arizona is a unanimous No. 1 in the poll). No other Ivy team is ranked, though Harvard is receiving votes.
As for the women, Princeton is receiving votes, while Columbia and Penn are both ranked. In both cases, rankings won't matter much once the racing starts tomorrow.
The other potential Ivy League championship that can be won this weekend is in field hockey.
Princeton won its big showdown with Harvard last weekend 3-2, rallying for two second-half goals to pull it out. The win improved Princeton to 5-0 in the league while Harvard is now 4-1.
Behind Harvard are the two teams Princeton still has to play, Cornell and Penn, both at 3-2, as is Columbia, whom Harvard still has to play.
Should the Tigers win one of their last two, then they'll clinch at least a share of the league championship and would also clinch the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. The first chance is this Sunday, at home against Cornell, at noon.
This weekend is also a nice "crossover season" weekend. There's a soccer doubleheader against Cornell (women at 1, men at 4) Saturday at home, and it's also opening weekend for women's swimming, wrestling and men's hockey.
The men's hockey team opens its season at St. Cloud with two games against the No. 16 team in the country. The women, who opened their ECAC season by defeating Quinnipiac Tuesday night and are already 3-0, are at Colgate and Cornell.
And, of course, there's the football game at Cornell and the women's volleyball match at Cornell, also tomorrow. Princeton and Cornell are in a three-way tie with Yale for first with three weekends left.
So yes, this is a pretty busy weekend coming up.
But first, it's Halloween.
You can have TigerBlog's candy. Much as it pains him to say that.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
And With That Touchdown, The Score Is Now 1-0
Back when Live Stats first came into being, TigerBlog was definitely in the anti camp.
Why? Because there weren't smartphones yet, and so really the only way to utilize them was to sit around the desktop computer constantly refreshing your dial-up internet service. TB felt almost guilty for his role in it.
He could just picture someone inside on a nice day, waiting for the next stat to be entered, hoping the internet connection wouldn't fail. How could he be responsible for that?
These days, Live Stats are great on so many levels - mostly because you can be anywhere and follow them. No longer are TigerBlog and the others in his profession responsible when people refuse to leave their homes for fear of missing out on how the game ended.
In case you never used them before, Live Stats are the running statistical totals for a game that are being produced by the official stats people and entered onto the official stats computer. They add flavor if you're a fan watching the game in the venue or on TV or your computer, and they're perfect if you're broadcasting a game.
Of course, all of this requires remembering to bring the official stats computer to the game, something TB realized he didn't have with him as he walked into the Princeton Stadium press box Saturday morning before the Harvard football ame.
Once he had that problem solved, there was another little problem that came up. Perhaps, if you were following along, you noticed it.
Princeton scored the first touchdown of the game, on a pass from Kevin Davidson to Dylan Classi. Then Tavish Rice kicked the extra point.
At that point, the Live Stats proudly proclaimed the score for anyone who was following along:
Princeton 1, Harvard 0.
That, clearly, was not right.
At this point, there had been 13 entries into the stat program. All of them were 100 percent correct.
So why did it say 1-0? TB looked at the scoreboard in the stadium to make sure the scoring rules hadn't changed from the previous week, and they clearly hadn't.
Then his phone rang. It was the person at ESPN whose job it is to keep track of all the scores of games, something that used to be done with student workers (mostly women's basketball players) who would call in after each score and the end of each quarter.
TigerBlog can't write that and not follow with this, from a blog of two years ago:
In addition to being great basketball players, Maggie Langlas and Kate Thirolf were both student workers in the Office of Athletic Communications. Back then, at football games, someone needed to be assigned to sit by the phone and answer it when wire services called looking for the score of the game, as well as call several outlets at the end of each quarter or after a score. Maggie, then a freshman, jumped right in, during the last season at Palmer Stadium. TigerBlog can still hear her as she said:
"It's 7-0 Princeton."
Pause.
"What kind of touchdown?"
Pause.
"It was a very nice touchdown." That's Maggie in a nutshell. It's likely that you have never met anyone nicer than Maggie Langlas.
Anyway, this time around, it was ESPN on the phone, and a kid on the other end who said "hey, did you know your Live Stats are saying it's 1-0?"
It didn't make any sense at all. The players were entered correctly. The touchdown. The extra point. It should have said 7-0.
Since there were only 13 plays entered by that point, the smartest thing to do was to simply write them down by hand, delete that file and start a new game.
The person doing the stat crew entry was a sophomore named Sophia Goldberg, who along with Richard Qiu and Andrew Kim have been amazing additions to the Office of Athletic Communications family. They are stat crew entry naturals, and finding students who can do that 1) is not easy and 2) is incredibly valuable.
Sophia didn't panic at all. She just deleted and started reentering the plays while the two spotters - Doug Gildenburg and Norm Yacko - wrote down the ongoing plays on a separate piece of paper. It didn't take long to catch all the way up.
TB still isn't sure why the Live Stats ever said 1-0.
Maybe it's a 150th anniversary thing? Maybe the computer was set for 1869 rules, where a goal was one point?
Why? Because there weren't smartphones yet, and so really the only way to utilize them was to sit around the desktop computer constantly refreshing your dial-up internet service. TB felt almost guilty for his role in it.
He could just picture someone inside on a nice day, waiting for the next stat to be entered, hoping the internet connection wouldn't fail. How could he be responsible for that?
These days, Live Stats are great on so many levels - mostly because you can be anywhere and follow them. No longer are TigerBlog and the others in his profession responsible when people refuse to leave their homes for fear of missing out on how the game ended.
In case you never used them before, Live Stats are the running statistical totals for a game that are being produced by the official stats people and entered onto the official stats computer. They add flavor if you're a fan watching the game in the venue or on TV or your computer, and they're perfect if you're broadcasting a game.
Of course, all of this requires remembering to bring the official stats computer to the game, something TB realized he didn't have with him as he walked into the Princeton Stadium press box Saturday morning before the Harvard football ame.
Once he had that problem solved, there was another little problem that came up. Perhaps, if you were following along, you noticed it.
Princeton scored the first touchdown of the game, on a pass from Kevin Davidson to Dylan Classi. Then Tavish Rice kicked the extra point.
At that point, the Live Stats proudly proclaimed the score for anyone who was following along:
Princeton 1, Harvard 0.
That, clearly, was not right.
At this point, there had been 13 entries into the stat program. All of them were 100 percent correct.
So why did it say 1-0? TB looked at the scoreboard in the stadium to make sure the scoring rules hadn't changed from the previous week, and they clearly hadn't.
Then his phone rang. It was the person at ESPN whose job it is to keep track of all the scores of games, something that used to be done with student workers (mostly women's basketball players) who would call in after each score and the end of each quarter.
TigerBlog can't write that and not follow with this, from a blog of two years ago:
In addition to being great basketball players, Maggie Langlas and Kate Thirolf were both student workers in the Office of Athletic Communications. Back then, at football games, someone needed to be assigned to sit by the phone and answer it when wire services called looking for the score of the game, as well as call several outlets at the end of each quarter or after a score. Maggie, then a freshman, jumped right in, during the last season at Palmer Stadium. TigerBlog can still hear her as she said:
"It's 7-0 Princeton."
Pause.
"What kind of touchdown?"
Pause.
"It was a very nice touchdown." That's Maggie in a nutshell. It's likely that you have never met anyone nicer than Maggie Langlas.
Anyway, this time around, it was ESPN on the phone, and a kid on the other end who said "hey, did you know your Live Stats are saying it's 1-0?"
It didn't make any sense at all. The players were entered correctly. The touchdown. The extra point. It should have said 7-0.
Since there were only 13 plays entered by that point, the smartest thing to do was to simply write them down by hand, delete that file and start a new game.
The person doing the stat crew entry was a sophomore named Sophia Goldberg, who along with Richard Qiu and Andrew Kim have been amazing additions to the Office of Athletic Communications family. They are stat crew entry naturals, and finding students who can do that 1) is not easy and 2) is incredibly valuable.
Sophia didn't panic at all. She just deleted and started reentering the plays while the two spotters - Doug Gildenburg and Norm Yacko - wrote down the ongoing plays on a separate piece of paper. It didn't take long to catch all the way up.
TB still isn't sure why the Live Stats ever said 1-0.
Maybe it's a 150th anniversary thing? Maybe the computer was set for 1869 rules, where a goal was one point?
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Defensive Players Of The Week
Matthew Winston intercepted a pass with a little less than five minutes to go and his team ahead of Harvard by two points Saturday afternoon.
A touchdown there would probably have sealed a 16th straight win for Princeton. Winston at first looked like he might be able to go the distance, only to have Harvard close him off.
So what did he do? Something very, very smart.
He cradled the ball with two hands as he went down, so he couldn't give it back to Harvard. After the 28 yard return, Princeton had the ball at the Harvard 18. Three plays later, Kevin Davidson found Dylan Classi for the touchdown that did in fact seal it.
Final - Princeton 30, Harvard 24.
That was the 16th straight win for Princeton. It was also the third straight over Harvard. Since the formation of the Ivy League, Princeton has had three winning streaks against Harvard of at least three games, and none more than four.
The Tigers could equal that four straight next year in Cambridge. That, of course, is the last thing on anyone's mind right now.
The last thing about the Harvard game is that Jeremiah Tyler was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week. TigerBlog was so certain that Tyler would win that he wrote the story before he ever got the email from the Ivy League office announcing this week's selections.
Tyler had 13 tackles in the game, six unassisted and two for loss. He also had an interception.
Tyler plays with an obvious joy that is impossible to miss when you see him play each week. It's part of what makes him stand out.
The other part is that he's a dominant player. His numbers against Harvard might have been better than his average, but he makes that kind of impact on every game.
And with that, the page is completely turned, ahead to the next challenge, which comes up Friday night in Ithaca, when Princeton takes on Cornell. The Big Red are coming off a 37-35 win over Brown, a game won on a last minute field goal from Nickolas Null, the same Cornell player whose last minute field goal beat Princeton two years ago.
The football win wasn't the only big win by a Princeton team over Harvard Saturday.
The field hockey team had possibly a bigger one, since the winner of the game was going to have the inside track to a lot of big prizes. Also, Princeton and Harvard have some pretty good recent history.
Harvard has won the Ivy League title in two of the last three years - only to have Princeton, and not Harvard, reach the NCAA Final Four in those years, including last year.
In fact, Princeton lost its Ivy League game to Harvard last year and saw the Crimson go 7-0 in the league, only to have Princeton take down Harvard in the NCAA quarterfinals.
This year, both teams were unbeaten in the Ivy League, nationally ranked and looking to get the inside track on the NCAA tournament bid. They met Saturday at Harvard, and Princeton rallied with two goals a little more than six minutes apart, one in the third quarter and then the winner in the fourth, to take a dramatic 3-2 win.
Princeton is now 5-0 in the league, with games against Cornell and Penn, both of whom are 3-2 in the league. One win in those two games gives Princeton at least a share of the Ivy League championship, and with that would come the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
As was the case in football, the field hockey team also had the winner of the league's Defensive Player of the Week award. In this case, it went to MaryKate Neff, who was part of a defensive effort that held Harvard to just three shots on goal in the game.
Also, like Tyler with his interception that led to a field goal, Neff turned defense into offense. In fact, she scored the game-winner, tipping in a drive from Sammy Popper off a very well-designed penalty corner.
It was the second goal of the year for Neff, a junior from Villanova.
The first chance to clinch the Ivy title share and win the automatic bid is the game this Sunday against Cornell on Bedford Field, at noon.
A touchdown there would probably have sealed a 16th straight win for Princeton. Winston at first looked like he might be able to go the distance, only to have Harvard close him off.
So what did he do? Something very, very smart.
He cradled the ball with two hands as he went down, so he couldn't give it back to Harvard. After the 28 yard return, Princeton had the ball at the Harvard 18. Three plays later, Kevin Davidson found Dylan Classi for the touchdown that did in fact seal it.
Final - Princeton 30, Harvard 24.
That was the 16th straight win for Princeton. It was also the third straight over Harvard. Since the formation of the Ivy League, Princeton has had three winning streaks against Harvard of at least three games, and none more than four.
The Tigers could equal that four straight next year in Cambridge. That, of course, is the last thing on anyone's mind right now.
The last thing about the Harvard game is that Jeremiah Tyler was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week. TigerBlog was so certain that Tyler would win that he wrote the story before he ever got the email from the Ivy League office announcing this week's selections.
Tyler had 13 tackles in the game, six unassisted and two for loss. He also had an interception.
Tyler plays with an obvious joy that is impossible to miss when you see him play each week. It's part of what makes him stand out.
The other part is that he's a dominant player. His numbers against Harvard might have been better than his average, but he makes that kind of impact on every game.
And with that, the page is completely turned, ahead to the next challenge, which comes up Friday night in Ithaca, when Princeton takes on Cornell. The Big Red are coming off a 37-35 win over Brown, a game won on a last minute field goal from Nickolas Null, the same Cornell player whose last minute field goal beat Princeton two years ago.
The football win wasn't the only big win by a Princeton team over Harvard Saturday.
The field hockey team had possibly a bigger one, since the winner of the game was going to have the inside track to a lot of big prizes. Also, Princeton and Harvard have some pretty good recent history.
Harvard has won the Ivy League title in two of the last three years - only to have Princeton, and not Harvard, reach the NCAA Final Four in those years, including last year.
In fact, Princeton lost its Ivy League game to Harvard last year and saw the Crimson go 7-0 in the league, only to have Princeton take down Harvard in the NCAA quarterfinals.
This year, both teams were unbeaten in the Ivy League, nationally ranked and looking to get the inside track on the NCAA tournament bid. They met Saturday at Harvard, and Princeton rallied with two goals a little more than six minutes apart, one in the third quarter and then the winner in the fourth, to take a dramatic 3-2 win.
Princeton is now 5-0 in the league, with games against Cornell and Penn, both of whom are 3-2 in the league. One win in those two games gives Princeton at least a share of the Ivy League championship, and with that would come the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
As was the case in football, the field hockey team also had the winner of the league's Defensive Player of the Week award. In this case, it went to MaryKate Neff, who was part of a defensive effort that held Harvard to just three shots on goal in the game.
Also, like Tyler with his interception that led to a field goal, Neff turned defense into offense. In fact, she scored the game-winner, tipping in a drive from Sammy Popper off a very well-designed penalty corner.
It was the second goal of the year for Neff, a junior from Villanova.
The first chance to clinch the Ivy title share and win the automatic bid is the game this Sunday against Cornell on Bedford Field, at noon.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Picking Off A Big Win
Do you want to see a picture that tells a lot of the story of Princeton's 30-24 win over Harvard Saturday afternoon?
Of course you do. Here it is:
It's a picture of Matthew Winston, the junior defensive back, after his fourth-quarter interception. How does this tell the story of the game?
If you look close, you'll see the Harvard logo on the football. The big story of the game Saturday was the fact that Princeton turned three interceptions into 17 points, and that was a huge part of why the Tigers won the game.
Winston's interception was the third and final one, and it came at a big moment in the game. Princeton was up 23-21 with five minutes to go, and the door was clearly open to a Harvard drive for the go-ahead points.
Instead, Winston picked off a pass and returned it 28 yards to the Harvard 18. Kevin Davidson then found Dylan Classi in the end zone, and the lead was 30-21. Harvard kicked a field goal on a third down with 30 seconds left, but Andrei Iosivas ended things when he recovered the onsides kick.
The biggest of the interceptions was the one turned in by Daniel Beard, a sophomore linebacker, in the third quarter. This was the game-changing one, the play that turned things from "uh oh" to "that's more like it" on a dime.
Princeton led 10-0 early after a perfect opening drive (Davidson to Classi for that touchdown too) and then a field goal after a Jeremiah Tyler interception and return.
Harvard, though, is very good and very tough, and the Crimson threw a blanket over the Tigers for more than 30 minutes after that - it would be 32:22 to be precise between Tiger scores.
In the meantime, Harvard came back to make it 10-7 and then take the lead 14-10 on a last minute, 73-yard touchdown pass that seemed to completely change the momentum. If that didn't do it, then the fact that Harvard got not one but two fourth-down stops in its own territory on Princeton's first two second half drives.
The second of those stops came with 7:21 left in the third quarter, after a 12-play, 60-yard drive that ended at the Crimson 24. It looked all the world like Princeton was going to finish that drive with points, and then it looked all the world like Harvard was about to go the other way and maybe open up some distance between itself and the Tigers.
So what happened next? The entire game changed in two plays.
The first was Beard's interception, where he tipped the ball to himself and corralled it before it had a chance to touch the field. That was the first play after Harvard's stop.
Suddenly, Princeton had the ball right back, on the Harvard 31. And what did the Tigers do with it?
Teams are never more vulnerable than the play right after a turnover, and Princeton needed only that one play to get to the end zone, as Davidson found running back Collin Eaddy down the middle for a TD. Just like that, Princeton was on top, this time for good.
Recappng, it was a three-play stretch that went like this:
* Harvard gets a fourth-down stop and is now brimming with momentum
* Beard makes an outstanding play to intercept the ball, stemming that momentum but bring back out a defense that had shut Princeton out for more than 32 minutes at that point
* Davidson and Eaddy made it hurt
For a team that was shut out for that 32-plus minute stretch, by the way, Princeton had some tremendous offensive numbers. Eaddy ran for 110 yards and another touchdown, and Davidson was 20 for 35 for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Also importantly, he had no interceptions.
In fact, Princeton had no turnovers and only 23 yards in penalties. The Tigers might not have been scoring in the middle of the game, but they weren't hurting themselves either.
It was Princeton's third straight win over Harvard, and the winning streak is now at 16. Of those 16 games, this was the second-closest, one point behind Princeton's 14-9 win over Dartmouth last year.
While many of those 16 games have been easy wins, this one was more decidedly not. Harvard forced Princeton to play with a lot of what Tiger head coach Bob Surace would call "grit," and that grittiness is why Princeton won.
Princeton and Dartmouth are both unbeaten, and they play the following week at Yankee Stadium as part of the 150th celebration of college football. That game, though, might as well be another 150 years away for as much as any coach or player on either team is focused on that right now.
First up are two important tests this coming weekend. The Tigers will now be rooting hard for Harvard when the Crimson host Dartmouth Saturday. Princeton, meanwhile, is at Cornell Friday night on ESPNU.
It's hard to believe that the football season is 60 percent over already. That's six games, all wins, for the Tigers, including the most recent one, a hard-fought installment against a huge rival, a game that Princeton was ultimately able to pick off.
Of course you do. Here it is:
If you look close, you'll see the Harvard logo on the football. The big story of the game Saturday was the fact that Princeton turned three interceptions into 17 points, and that was a huge part of why the Tigers won the game.
Winston's interception was the third and final one, and it came at a big moment in the game. Princeton was up 23-21 with five minutes to go, and the door was clearly open to a Harvard drive for the go-ahead points.
Instead, Winston picked off a pass and returned it 28 yards to the Harvard 18. Kevin Davidson then found Dylan Classi in the end zone, and the lead was 30-21. Harvard kicked a field goal on a third down with 30 seconds left, but Andrei Iosivas ended things when he recovered the onsides kick.
The biggest of the interceptions was the one turned in by Daniel Beard, a sophomore linebacker, in the third quarter. This was the game-changing one, the play that turned things from "uh oh" to "that's more like it" on a dime.
Princeton led 10-0 early after a perfect opening drive (Davidson to Classi for that touchdown too) and then a field goal after a Jeremiah Tyler interception and return.
Harvard, though, is very good and very tough, and the Crimson threw a blanket over the Tigers for more than 30 minutes after that - it would be 32:22 to be precise between Tiger scores.
In the meantime, Harvard came back to make it 10-7 and then take the lead 14-10 on a last minute, 73-yard touchdown pass that seemed to completely change the momentum. If that didn't do it, then the fact that Harvard got not one but two fourth-down stops in its own territory on Princeton's first two second half drives.
The second of those stops came with 7:21 left in the third quarter, after a 12-play, 60-yard drive that ended at the Crimson 24. It looked all the world like Princeton was going to finish that drive with points, and then it looked all the world like Harvard was about to go the other way and maybe open up some distance between itself and the Tigers.
So what happened next? The entire game changed in two plays.
The first was Beard's interception, where he tipped the ball to himself and corralled it before it had a chance to touch the field. That was the first play after Harvard's stop.
Suddenly, Princeton had the ball right back, on the Harvard 31. And what did the Tigers do with it?
Teams are never more vulnerable than the play right after a turnover, and Princeton needed only that one play to get to the end zone, as Davidson found running back Collin Eaddy down the middle for a TD. Just like that, Princeton was on top, this time for good.
Recappng, it was a three-play stretch that went like this:
* Harvard gets a fourth-down stop and is now brimming with momentum
* Beard makes an outstanding play to intercept the ball, stemming that momentum but bring back out a defense that had shut Princeton out for more than 32 minutes at that point
* Davidson and Eaddy made it hurt
For a team that was shut out for that 32-plus minute stretch, by the way, Princeton had some tremendous offensive numbers. Eaddy ran for 110 yards and another touchdown, and Davidson was 20 for 35 for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Also importantly, he had no interceptions.
In fact, Princeton had no turnovers and only 23 yards in penalties. The Tigers might not have been scoring in the middle of the game, but they weren't hurting themselves either.
It was Princeton's third straight win over Harvard, and the winning streak is now at 16. Of those 16 games, this was the second-closest, one point behind Princeton's 14-9 win over Dartmouth last year.
While many of those 16 games have been easy wins, this one was more decidedly not. Harvard forced Princeton to play with a lot of what Tiger head coach Bob Surace would call "grit," and that grittiness is why Princeton won.
Princeton and Dartmouth are both unbeaten, and they play the following week at Yankee Stadium as part of the 150th celebration of college football. That game, though, might as well be another 150 years away for as much as any coach or player on either team is focused on that right now.
First up are two important tests this coming weekend. The Tigers will now be rooting hard for Harvard when the Crimson host Dartmouth Saturday. Princeton, meanwhile, is at Cornell Friday night on ESPNU.
It's hard to believe that the football season is 60 percent over already. That's six games, all wins, for the Tigers, including the most recent one, a hard-fought installment against a huge rival, a game that Princeton was ultimately able to pick off.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Passing Efficiently
TigerBlog spoke to Dave Chandler, Class of 1980, earlier this week.
Dave is a former Princeton football player. His father, George, was a legendary Princeton football player in the Class of 1951.
In fact, George was the captain of the 1950 Tigers, a team that went 9-0 a year before the 1951 team also went 9-0 and had Dick Kazmaier win the Heisman Trophy.
The Chandler Lounge in Jadwin Gym is named for George Chandler.
Dave was calling to talk about a teammate of his, Russ Moyer, who sadly has passed away. Russ is being inducted into his high school Hall of Fame, and Dave was looking for some information.
As it turns out, Russ was the leading tackler on the 1979 Tigers, with 80. Dave Chandler was second, with 79 - though Dave did lead the team in solo tackles with 40.
TigerBlog goes back with Princeton football to the late 1980s. He knows a lot of the names from the 1970s, but he hasn't met too many of them through the years. It was good to talk to someone who is a big part of Princeton football history like that.
Speaking of Princeton football history, the school record for touchdown passes in a season is 29, set all the way back in 2017, by Chad Kanoff.
Through five games this season, Tiger quarterback Kevin Davidson has thrown 15. Should he match that through the final five games, he'd obviously have one more than Kanoff.
Davidson is halfway through what could be a record-setting season. Actually it already has been for the senior from California, who made one career start prior to this year and who has been extraordinary from the first snap this season.
Davidson has already set the Ivy League - not just Princeton - record for touchdown passes in a game with seven, which he did against Bucknell. When he threw five more against Brown last week, he became the first Princeton player ever to have two different games with at least five TD passes.
Even if he doesn't throw another TD pass this year, his 15 have him tied fore the eighth best single season total - with Kazmaier of all people. Only three times has a Princeton quarterback thrown for at least 20 in a season - Kanoff again has the record at 29, followed by Doug Butler and Quinn Epperly with 25 each.
He is currently leading the FCS in three major statistical categories: completion percentage, passing efficiency rating and average yards per attempt. His completion percent right now is 73.7; Kanoff also has that single-season record, from two years ago, at 73.2.
Anyway, that's the kind of year that Davidson is having. He's 6-5, 225 pounds, and he has as good an arm as any Princeton quarterback that TB has ever seen, with the possible exception of Jason Garrett, who played for more than a decade in the NFL and is now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Next up for Davidson is his team's biggest test so far this year, as 4-1 Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium to take on the 5-0 Tigers. Kickoff is at 1.
There are currently three 2-0 teams in the Ivy League, the two who play tomorrow at Princeton and Dartmouth, who plays Columbia tonight. Harvard hosts Dartmouth next week, and then it's Princeton and Dartmouth at Yankee Stadium the following week, after a trip to Cornell for the Tigers a week from tonight.
One other note from the football game - Harvard has blocked five punts this season; Princeton has gone 154 straight punts without one blocked.
Shifting to another Princeton-Harvard game tomorrow, there are two unbeaten teams in the Ivy League in field hockey, 4-0 Princeton and 4-0 Harvard. They meet tomorrow at Harvard, with a noon start time. That's the same time the men's soccer team plays at Harvard tomorrow as well, followed by the women's soccer game at 3.
Back at field hockey, Harvard has defeated Princeton twice in the last three years to win the Ivy League, but both times Princeton rebounded to reach the NCAA Final Four.
No other Ivy team has better than a 2-2 record, so the team that gets to 5-0 certainly will have a huge leg up on a league title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton, with its very challenging non-league schedule and two wins over RPI top 10 teams, figures to be right there for an at-large bid, but then again, Princeton and Harvard are both just outside the top 10 in this weeks' RPI.
And there you have it, a weekend with big Princeton-Harvard games, here and there.
Those games are always fun.
Dave is a former Princeton football player. His father, George, was a legendary Princeton football player in the Class of 1951.
In fact, George was the captain of the 1950 Tigers, a team that went 9-0 a year before the 1951 team also went 9-0 and had Dick Kazmaier win the Heisman Trophy.
The Chandler Lounge in Jadwin Gym is named for George Chandler.
Dave was calling to talk about a teammate of his, Russ Moyer, who sadly has passed away. Russ is being inducted into his high school Hall of Fame, and Dave was looking for some information.
As it turns out, Russ was the leading tackler on the 1979 Tigers, with 80. Dave Chandler was second, with 79 - though Dave did lead the team in solo tackles with 40.
TigerBlog goes back with Princeton football to the late 1980s. He knows a lot of the names from the 1970s, but he hasn't met too many of them through the years. It was good to talk to someone who is a big part of Princeton football history like that.
Speaking of Princeton football history, the school record for touchdown passes in a season is 29, set all the way back in 2017, by Chad Kanoff.
Through five games this season, Tiger quarterback Kevin Davidson has thrown 15. Should he match that through the final five games, he'd obviously have one more than Kanoff.
Davidson is halfway through what could be a record-setting season. Actually it already has been for the senior from California, who made one career start prior to this year and who has been extraordinary from the first snap this season.
Davidson has already set the Ivy League - not just Princeton - record for touchdown passes in a game with seven, which he did against Bucknell. When he threw five more against Brown last week, he became the first Princeton player ever to have two different games with at least five TD passes.
Even if he doesn't throw another TD pass this year, his 15 have him tied fore the eighth best single season total - with Kazmaier of all people. Only three times has a Princeton quarterback thrown for at least 20 in a season - Kanoff again has the record at 29, followed by Doug Butler and Quinn Epperly with 25 each.
He is currently leading the FCS in three major statistical categories: completion percentage, passing efficiency rating and average yards per attempt. His completion percent right now is 73.7; Kanoff also has that single-season record, from two years ago, at 73.2.
Anyway, that's the kind of year that Davidson is having. He's 6-5, 225 pounds, and he has as good an arm as any Princeton quarterback that TB has ever seen, with the possible exception of Jason Garrett, who played for more than a decade in the NFL and is now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Next up for Davidson is his team's biggest test so far this year, as 4-1 Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium to take on the 5-0 Tigers. Kickoff is at 1.
There are currently three 2-0 teams in the Ivy League, the two who play tomorrow at Princeton and Dartmouth, who plays Columbia tonight. Harvard hosts Dartmouth next week, and then it's Princeton and Dartmouth at Yankee Stadium the following week, after a trip to Cornell for the Tigers a week from tonight.
One other note from the football game - Harvard has blocked five punts this season; Princeton has gone 154 straight punts without one blocked.
Shifting to another Princeton-Harvard game tomorrow, there are two unbeaten teams in the Ivy League in field hockey, 4-0 Princeton and 4-0 Harvard. They meet tomorrow at Harvard, with a noon start time. That's the same time the men's soccer team plays at Harvard tomorrow as well, followed by the women's soccer game at 3.
Back at field hockey, Harvard has defeated Princeton twice in the last three years to win the Ivy League, but both times Princeton rebounded to reach the NCAA Final Four.
No other Ivy team has better than a 2-2 record, so the team that gets to 5-0 certainly will have a huge leg up on a league title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton, with its very challenging non-league schedule and two wins over RPI top 10 teams, figures to be right there for an at-large bid, but then again, Princeton and Harvard are both just outside the top 10 in this weeks' RPI.
And there you have it, a weekend with big Princeton-Harvard games, here and there.
Those games are always fun.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Guest TigerBlog - Goodbye Kristy
The opening face-off of the women's hockey season is tomorrow night at Hobey Baker Rink.
The Tigers play two games this weekend against Syracuse, with face-off tomorrow at 6 and Saturday at noon, followed by another home game Tuesday against Quinnipiac in the ECAC opener. Princeton, who reached the NCAA tournament a year ago, begins the season as the sixth-ranked team in the country.
The men's hockey season begins in another week, with two games at St. Cloud State. The home opener for the men's team is Nov. 15/16 against RPI and Union, after the ECAC-opening road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth.
One staple of Princeton hockey will be missing as the 2019-20 season begins, though. Kristy McNeil, who has been the Office of Athletic Communications contact for both teams for the last nine years, not to mention all of the other teams she's worked with in her 11 years here, has left to take a job at the University of Michigan.
Actually, let's mention them: men's soccer, men's and women's track and field and cross country and women's lacrosse. When you add all that together, she worked with thousands of Princeton student athletes.
And now she's off to the Big Ten, where she will begin her new role as the men's hockey and men's tennis contact for the Wolverines.
As she leaves, TigerBlog turned to another former colleague, Craig Sachson, to write a few words about the woman who has been so much a part of the fabric of the Office of Athletic Communications and the Department of Athletics for so long and who has done so much to keep the OAC current and vibrant, not to mention fun.
The Tigers play two games this weekend against Syracuse, with face-off tomorrow at 6 and Saturday at noon, followed by another home game Tuesday against Quinnipiac in the ECAC opener. Princeton, who reached the NCAA tournament a year ago, begins the season as the sixth-ranked team in the country.
The men's hockey season begins in another week, with two games at St. Cloud State. The home opener for the men's team is Nov. 15/16 against RPI and Union, after the ECAC-opening road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth.
One staple of Princeton hockey will be missing as the 2019-20 season begins, though. Kristy McNeil, who has been the Office of Athletic Communications contact for both teams for the last nine years, not to mention all of the other teams she's worked with in her 11 years here, has left to take a job at the University of Michigan.
Actually, let's mention them: men's soccer, men's and women's track and field and cross country and women's lacrosse. When you add all that together, she worked with thousands of Princeton student athletes.
And now she's off to the Big Ten, where she will begin her new role as the men's hockey and men's tennis contact for the Wolverines.
As she leaves, TigerBlog turned to another former colleague, Craig Sachson, to write a few words about the woman who has been so much a part of the fabric of the Office of Athletic Communications and the Department of Athletics for so long and who has done so much to keep the OAC current and vibrant, not to mention fun.
When my daughter was born in the summer of 2008, Princeton
hired a woman from Colgate to fill an opening in the Office of Athletic
Communications. She was experienced and smart, but her ability to produce
high-quality media guides set her ahead of the field.
When my daughter turned two, media guides were a thing of
the past at Princeton.
And Kristy McNeil was about to lead us into the future.
Kristy ended an 11-year run at Princeton recently to accept
a new challenge at the University of Michigan, but her impact on this athletic
department will be felt for many years to come. She led us to a stronger
presence in social media, graphics, and just about anything else that matters
in this new era of digital communications.
She was a passionate advocate for the teams she worked with,
often going far beyond what was expected from a standard sport contact. Most
women’s lacrosse SIDs have a basic understanding of the statistical rulebook;
Kristy helped write it (that’s not hyperbole — I listened to enough rulebook
conference calls to know she ACTUALLY helped write it). She live-tweeted
championship track meets the way others would the Super Bowl. She traveled
internationally with the men’s soccer team, and she helped create a fresh new
look inside her beloved Baker Rink, home of the Princeton ice hockey teams.
That all matters.
If you care about Princeton — and if
you’re reading this, I’ll assume you do — then you’ve undoubtedly seen
something that Kristy either created or collaborated on. She understood the big
picture, which isn’t always easy when you manage as many as 7-8 sports at a
time (and double-digits over the span of a year).
But for everybody who interacted with her — staff, coaches
or players — those tangibles are secondary to what was truly special about
Kristy, and what Princeton will miss most. She has a spirit that energizes any
room, a fierce loyalty that engenders absolute trust, and a sense of humor that
could lighten the toughest of days.
I spent at least seven or eight years working within 20 feet of Kristy,
either sharing an office or working in an adjacent one. I saw how hard she
worked for her teams, how much energy and passion she put into telling the
story of a track athlete one day, a hockey player the next. I admired that, but
I enjoyed the fun moments in between even more.
We played puzzle games online,
analyzed episodes of Survivor, laughed together on the good days and vented to
each other on the tough ones.
The Princeton athletic department has been the best in the
Ivy League for decades (assuming you use metrics like wins or titles), and
championship coaches always talk about staff and culture. Our office may not
have had competitions on a schedule, but we were a team, and we were
competitive. Being the best department in the league mattered to us.
Having a teammate like Kristy made it possible — made it
likely — to be successful.
Like the winged helmet, she’ll have a great second
run at Michigan. She’ll do innovative things with their hockey team, which
hopefully helps her reach her dream of a career in the NHL, and she’ll bring
both progressive thought and a positive energy to their department.
But it will be hard to match these last 11 years, when she
positively impacted the collegiate experience of thousands of Princetonians,
and she made lasting relationships with coaches and staff that we all know will
last far beyond her days on E Level of Jadwin.
Thanks for everything Kristy. Go kill it at Michigan.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
The Women's Volleyball Race
TigerBlog was 6.2 miles into his bike ride early yesterday morning when he had the kind of thought that only someone who works in athletic communications would have.
How long had he been riding? And, since 6.2 miles would be 10,000 meters, how would that time have done at the Ivy League Heptagonal championships?
He checked his odometer, which shows elapsed time, distance, total distance traveled since he put the odometer on (he's at 1,100 miles since July 1) and time of day. He saw that he'd gone 10,000 meters in 27 minutes.
When he got off his bike, he looked it up. The Ivy League men's 10,000 meter champion finished the race in 32:06.67. That was Brian Zabilski of Columbia.
Princeton's Conor Lundy was second, in 32:06.93, which was .26 behind Zabilski. The time difference between first and second in the 100 meter dash was .13, or half of that.
In the 400, it was more than a full second (1.08 to be exact).
That was one close 10,000 meter run - and TB beat them both by five full minutes. Forget the fact that he was on a bike.
There are times when TB has to stop and remember that as fast as he thinks he's going when he rides, there are people who can run equally as fast, or faster. He has averaged under a four-minute mile for a ride of 11.5 miles. One of these days he'll see how long it takes him to do 26.2 miles.
Speaking of distance running, the Ivy League Heptagonal cross country championships are a week from Friday, at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City. It is one of TB's favorite annual events on the Ivy League calendar.
His question this year is if he can get from that event, in the late morning/early afternoon, to Ithaca, in time for kickoff for Princeton-Cornell football that night (kickoff at 6).
That game was originally a 7 pm kickoff, but it was moved up an hour for TV (it's on ESPNU). That's good, considering the ride home postgame.
In terms of getting to Heps and then to Ithaca? TB isn't sure on that one.
The Heps cross country event usually crowns the first Ivy League champions of the year, and this year will be no different.
The events of the coming weekend will have a huge impact on the direction of some of the other Ivy races, the ones that go on all fall, not the ones at Van Cortlandt.
For today, TB will focus on one of those races, the one in women's volleyball. This one certainly looks like a three-team race at the midway point of the season.
Princeton, Yale and Cornell are all 6-1, unbeaten against the rest of the league and 1-1 against each other. The fourth place team is Columbia, at 3-4.
Each team has one match this weekend, against its travel partner (Princeton is at Penn Friday at 7), and then three straight weekends of Friday/Saturday before the regular season ends. The head-to-head matchups are:
Princeton at Cornell - Nov. 1 (7, one hour after the football game starts about 100 yards away)
Yale at Cornell - Nov. 8
Princeton at Yale, - Nov. 16 (last day of the regular season)
Those matches will obviously be huge. So will every other one, because any losses along the way will be crucial.
The Ivy League went to a double round-robin format in the 2001 season. Before then, in the single round-robin days, there were two three-way ties, but at 5-2, not at 6-1.
Since 2001, there have been no three-way ties, though in 2004 there was a four-way tie.
What all that means is that in the history of Ivy League women's volleyball, there's never been a year where three teams split with each other and were perfect against everyone else.
At the halfway point this year, that's the case.
What will the second half bring?
How long had he been riding? And, since 6.2 miles would be 10,000 meters, how would that time have done at the Ivy League Heptagonal championships?
He checked his odometer, which shows elapsed time, distance, total distance traveled since he put the odometer on (he's at 1,100 miles since July 1) and time of day. He saw that he'd gone 10,000 meters in 27 minutes.
When he got off his bike, he looked it up. The Ivy League men's 10,000 meter champion finished the race in 32:06.67. That was Brian Zabilski of Columbia.
Princeton's Conor Lundy was second, in 32:06.93, which was .26 behind Zabilski. The time difference between first and second in the 100 meter dash was .13, or half of that.
In the 400, it was more than a full second (1.08 to be exact).
That was one close 10,000 meter run - and TB beat them both by five full minutes. Forget the fact that he was on a bike.
There are times when TB has to stop and remember that as fast as he thinks he's going when he rides, there are people who can run equally as fast, or faster. He has averaged under a four-minute mile for a ride of 11.5 miles. One of these days he'll see how long it takes him to do 26.2 miles.
Speaking of distance running, the Ivy League Heptagonal cross country championships are a week from Friday, at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City. It is one of TB's favorite annual events on the Ivy League calendar.
His question this year is if he can get from that event, in the late morning/early afternoon, to Ithaca, in time for kickoff for Princeton-Cornell football that night (kickoff at 6).
That game was originally a 7 pm kickoff, but it was moved up an hour for TV (it's on ESPNU). That's good, considering the ride home postgame.
In terms of getting to Heps and then to Ithaca? TB isn't sure on that one.
The Heps cross country event usually crowns the first Ivy League champions of the year, and this year will be no different.
The events of the coming weekend will have a huge impact on the direction of some of the other Ivy races, the ones that go on all fall, not the ones at Van Cortlandt.
For today, TB will focus on one of those races, the one in women's volleyball. This one certainly looks like a three-team race at the midway point of the season.
Princeton, Yale and Cornell are all 6-1, unbeaten against the rest of the league and 1-1 against each other. The fourth place team is Columbia, at 3-4.
Each team has one match this weekend, against its travel partner (Princeton is at Penn Friday at 7), and then three straight weekends of Friday/Saturday before the regular season ends. The head-to-head matchups are:
Princeton at Cornell - Nov. 1 (7, one hour after the football game starts about 100 yards away)
Yale at Cornell - Nov. 8
Princeton at Yale, - Nov. 16 (last day of the regular season)
Those matches will obviously be huge. So will every other one, because any losses along the way will be crucial.
The Ivy League went to a double round-robin format in the 2001 season. Before then, in the single round-robin days, there were two three-way ties, but at 5-2, not at 6-1.
Since 2001, there have been no three-way ties, though in 2004 there was a four-way tie.
What all that means is that in the history of Ivy League women's volleyball, there's never been a year where three teams split with each other and were perfect against everyone else.
At the halfway point this year, that's the case.
What will the second half bring?
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Hall Pass
Remember Friday when TigerBlog told you that his counterpart at Brown, Chris Humm, was a really good guy?
Well, yesterday TB received an email from the Hummer with a picture of Princeton wide receiver Zach Kelly's first career touchdown reception. That was really nice of him to send it along, especially since it's a great picture, as you can see (photo by Louis Walker):
Also Friday, TB mentioned how high up it is to get to the press box at Brown Stadium. It's 114 steps, as the Hummer said.
TB went up and down three times. That's not a bad workout actually. He has no idea how many times the Hummer did it, but every time TB looked up, it seemed like he was either walking up the stairs or down the stairs.
For TigerBlog, it was a weekend spent in the car. He drove up Saturday morning to Providence, leaving at 6:30 for the 12:30 kickoff and getting back around 9:30. Then it was out again early Sunday, to head to Baltimore for the women's lacrosse scrimmages at Loyola - in the pouring rain.
It made for a busy weekend, but it was also a lot of fun.
One of the first people TigerBlog saw in the rain at Loyola was Patty Kennedy, a one-time assistant coach with the women's lacrosse team and the wife of Princeton men's soccer coach Jim Barlow. PK, as she is known to everyone, is one of the absolute nicest people TB knows, and he can't think of anyone who knows her who disagrees. In fact, she and her husband have to be the most universally liked couples you'll ever meet.
Behind PK, TB saw Theresa Sherry, the former women's soccer and women's lacrosse player and another one on the list of nicest people TB knows. Sherry also is on the list of Princeton lacrosse players who have won NCAA championship games with overtime goals, along with men's players Andy Moe, Kevin Lowe, Jesse Hubbard and B.J. Prager.
PK and Theresa were in town for the US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame induction ceremony the night before, there to support Rachael Becker DeCecco, who was joined by Princeton alums Matt Striebel and Ryan Boyle in being enshrined among the greatest in the sport's history.
Rachael, who does color commentary for Princeton women's lacrosse games, was also at the scrimmages.
Here's another picture that was sent to TB yesterday:
Those are Princeton's three newest Hall of Famers.
Here's a picture of the entire group that was inducted:
It is not shocking that in this picture, Striebel has the biggest smile and Boyle has the wryest smile.
Again, congratulations to the three new Hall of Famers. Also, he'd think Theresa Sherry has a chance to get there too; she's already in the the Northern California chapter of the Hall of Fame, which is the first step.
There was something completely fitting about having Boyle and Striebel go into the Hall of Fame together. Their lacrosse trajectories have been linked since 2001, the first year they were teammates, on Princeton's sixth NCAA championship team.
By now, the story is familiar. Striebel played attack for his first three years at Princeton, but Boyle took his spot when he arrived for Striebel's senior year. This moved Striebel to midfield, and it got Princeton an NCAA title - and Striebel called the best midfielder in the world by Inside Lacrosse several years later.
They went on to win three Major League Lacrosse championships and two World Championships, giving them six major championships together. TB hasn't looked up how many other combinations in lacrosse history have won six championships together, with at least one NCAA title, one professional title and one world title, but that list can't be long.
In TB's experience with Princeton men's lacrosse, which is considerable, there are two combinations that stand out above all others. One was the attack unit of Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey. The other is Striebel and Boyle.
As for Rachael Becker DeCecco, she is cut from the same personality mold as PK and Sherry. She also was, obviously, a force when she played.
In fact, her claim to lacrosse history didn't start with the Hall of Fame. It went back to 2003, when she won the Tewaaraton Award as the top player in women's college lacrosse that year.
To this day, she is the only player, male or female, to win the sport's highest collegiate award while playing on defense. That's an incredible accomplishment.
She is also the first Princeton women's player to reach the Hall of Fame, joining her coach, and the current coach of the Tigers, Chris Sailer, in the Hall. Together they won 35 of 39 games in 2002 and 2003, winning the NCAA title both times.
And now she's a Hall of Famer. So are Striebel and Boyle.
It was a great night for Princeton lacrosse.
Well, yesterday TB received an email from the Hummer with a picture of Princeton wide receiver Zach Kelly's first career touchdown reception. That was really nice of him to send it along, especially since it's a great picture, as you can see (photo by Louis Walker):
TB went up and down three times. That's not a bad workout actually. He has no idea how many times the Hummer did it, but every time TB looked up, it seemed like he was either walking up the stairs or down the stairs.
For TigerBlog, it was a weekend spent in the car. He drove up Saturday morning to Providence, leaving at 6:30 for the 12:30 kickoff and getting back around 9:30. Then it was out again early Sunday, to head to Baltimore for the women's lacrosse scrimmages at Loyola - in the pouring rain.
It made for a busy weekend, but it was also a lot of fun.
One of the first people TigerBlog saw in the rain at Loyola was Patty Kennedy, a one-time assistant coach with the women's lacrosse team and the wife of Princeton men's soccer coach Jim Barlow. PK, as she is known to everyone, is one of the absolute nicest people TB knows, and he can't think of anyone who knows her who disagrees. In fact, she and her husband have to be the most universally liked couples you'll ever meet.
Behind PK, TB saw Theresa Sherry, the former women's soccer and women's lacrosse player and another one on the list of nicest people TB knows. Sherry also is on the list of Princeton lacrosse players who have won NCAA championship games with overtime goals, along with men's players Andy Moe, Kevin Lowe, Jesse Hubbard and B.J. Prager.
PK and Theresa were in town for the US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame induction ceremony the night before, there to support Rachael Becker DeCecco, who was joined by Princeton alums Matt Striebel and Ryan Boyle in being enshrined among the greatest in the sport's history.
Rachael, who does color commentary for Princeton women's lacrosse games, was also at the scrimmages.
Here's another picture that was sent to TB yesterday:
Here's a picture of the entire group that was inducted:
Again, congratulations to the three new Hall of Famers. Also, he'd think Theresa Sherry has a chance to get there too; she's already in the the Northern California chapter of the Hall of Fame, which is the first step.
There was something completely fitting about having Boyle and Striebel go into the Hall of Fame together. Their lacrosse trajectories have been linked since 2001, the first year they were teammates, on Princeton's sixth NCAA championship team.
By now, the story is familiar. Striebel played attack for his first three years at Princeton, but Boyle took his spot when he arrived for Striebel's senior year. This moved Striebel to midfield, and it got Princeton an NCAA title - and Striebel called the best midfielder in the world by Inside Lacrosse several years later.
They went on to win three Major League Lacrosse championships and two World Championships, giving them six major championships together. TB hasn't looked up how many other combinations in lacrosse history have won six championships together, with at least one NCAA title, one professional title and one world title, but that list can't be long.
In TB's experience with Princeton men's lacrosse, which is considerable, there are two combinations that stand out above all others. One was the attack unit of Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey. The other is Striebel and Boyle.
As for Rachael Becker DeCecco, she is cut from the same personality mold as PK and Sherry. She also was, obviously, a force when she played.
In fact, her claim to lacrosse history didn't start with the Hall of Fame. It went back to 2003, when she won the Tewaaraton Award as the top player in women's college lacrosse that year.
To this day, she is the only player, male or female, to win the sport's highest collegiate award while playing on defense. That's an incredible accomplishment.
She is also the first Princeton women's player to reach the Hall of Fame, joining her coach, and the current coach of the Tigers, Chris Sailer, in the Hall. Together they won 35 of 39 games in 2002 and 2003, winning the NCAA title both times.
And now she's a Hall of Famer. So are Striebel and Boyle.
It was a great night for Princeton lacrosse.
Monday, October 21, 2019
A Nearly Perfect First Half
The visiting team locker room at Brown Stadium sits under the main grandstand, and it has a grassy area in front of it that serves as a rallying point for team members, coaches and support staff.
TigerBlog was standing in that area shortly after Princeton's 65-22 win over Brown Saturday afternoon, on an absolutely perfect day for football in Providence. He was talking to Christian Brown, a defensive back who had four tackles and an interception, and Jacob Birmelin, a wide receiver who had a lot of catches and a lot of yards, before they were interviewed by Jay Greenberg for the Princeton football blog.
TB had one question for Birmelin. Did he know how many receptions he had in the first half?
The junior from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., said he didn't. Then he thought about it and said "seven?"
Nope. Not even close.
Birmelin had 11 catches in the first half. Eleven - by halftime. For 179 yards and two touchdowns. He'd catch one more on the first play of the second half, for another 10 yards, and that was pretty much the end of his day.
He came into the game as Princeton's leading receiver with 19 receptions. He left it as the Ivy League's leader with 31, which is eight more than any other player in the league.
Birmelin had seven career receptions for 44 yards for his career prior to this season. He has been great all year, part of a rebuilt receiver corps that began the year as a major question mark and now has become a major strength.
As for the game itself, TB stood on that same grassy area just before the kickoff as well, and it was quite telling.
First he was talking with offensive coordinator Andrew Aurich, who seemed very calm, like it was a Tuesday or something, not a few minutes before an Ivy League.
From inside the locker room TB could hear Bob Surace, the head coach. He couldn't hear what Surace was saying, just the tone with which he was saying. Surace wasn't yelling or anything like that. He was just talking.
Then, after the national anthem, the team began to file out. There was no screaming, no jumping on each other.
What was there? Focus.
There was lots of that. TB could see it and sense it.
Then the game started, and it proved TB was right.
Princeton would win the game 65-22 after a first half that featured a season's worth of highlights. It was an extraordinary first 30 minutes, which ended with the Tigers ahead 51-19. That's 51 points in the first half.
Was that a record? TB has no way to look it up. He can say it's the most a Surace-coached Princeton team has ever scored in the first half.
Princeton's first half drive chart was this:
Field goal
Touchdown
Touchdown
Interception
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
The person who had the most wild first half was Jacob Birmelin, who would finish the game with 12 receptions for 186 yards and two touchdowns. His first half alone? He had 11 catches for 176 yards and both touchdowns, and 61 yards on three punt returns.
Kevin Davidson threw for 271 first half yards and finished the day 27 for 35 for 379 yards and five touchdowns.
If you recall a year ago, Davidson made his first career start in the game against Brown when John Lovett was injured and threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns. In his two starts against Brown in his career, Davidson went 53 for 75 for 678 yards and nine touchdowns.
How good was Davidson? He even dropped a pooch punt inside the 5.
Princeton finished the first half with 21 first downs and 429 yards of offense.
The second half was played at a much slower tempo, and every player who traveled got into the game.
In addition to the dominant performances that Princeton got from Davidson and Birmelin, it was also a great afternoon for three Tiger seniors.
Tyler Campbell came into the game with 86 career rushing yards. Against Brown he carried 12 times for 91 yards, including an awesome 37-yard run that came on a fourth-and-one in the first half, when Princeton went for it on its own 35. That was 1) a gutsy call and 2) a lot of faith in Campbell.
The other two seniors were Sam Johnson and Zach Kelly, who each had his first career touchdown reception.
The win improved Princeton to 5-0, with 15 straight victories. Up next is Homecoming, Saturday at 1, as Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.
Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard are all 2-0 in the Ivy League.
That's really all you need to know to figure out that Saturday's game is big.
TigerBlog was standing in that area shortly after Princeton's 65-22 win over Brown Saturday afternoon, on an absolutely perfect day for football in Providence. He was talking to Christian Brown, a defensive back who had four tackles and an interception, and Jacob Birmelin, a wide receiver who had a lot of catches and a lot of yards, before they were interviewed by Jay Greenberg for the Princeton football blog.
TB had one question for Birmelin. Did he know how many receptions he had in the first half?
The junior from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., said he didn't. Then he thought about it and said "seven?"
Nope. Not even close.
Birmelin had 11 catches in the first half. Eleven - by halftime. For 179 yards and two touchdowns. He'd catch one more on the first play of the second half, for another 10 yards, and that was pretty much the end of his day.
He came into the game as Princeton's leading receiver with 19 receptions. He left it as the Ivy League's leader with 31, which is eight more than any other player in the league.
Birmelin had seven career receptions for 44 yards for his career prior to this season. He has been great all year, part of a rebuilt receiver corps that began the year as a major question mark and now has become a major strength.
As for the game itself, TB stood on that same grassy area just before the kickoff as well, and it was quite telling.
First he was talking with offensive coordinator Andrew Aurich, who seemed very calm, like it was a Tuesday or something, not a few minutes before an Ivy League.
From inside the locker room TB could hear Bob Surace, the head coach. He couldn't hear what Surace was saying, just the tone with which he was saying. Surace wasn't yelling or anything like that. He was just talking.
Then, after the national anthem, the team began to file out. There was no screaming, no jumping on each other.
What was there? Focus.
There was lots of that. TB could see it and sense it.
Then the game started, and it proved TB was right.
Princeton would win the game 65-22 after a first half that featured a season's worth of highlights. It was an extraordinary first 30 minutes, which ended with the Tigers ahead 51-19. That's 51 points in the first half.
Was that a record? TB has no way to look it up. He can say it's the most a Surace-coached Princeton team has ever scored in the first half.
Princeton's first half drive chart was this:
Field goal
Touchdown
Touchdown
Interception
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
The person who had the most wild first half was Jacob Birmelin, who would finish the game with 12 receptions for 186 yards and two touchdowns. His first half alone? He had 11 catches for 176 yards and both touchdowns, and 61 yards on three punt returns.
Kevin Davidson threw for 271 first half yards and finished the day 27 for 35 for 379 yards and five touchdowns.
If you recall a year ago, Davidson made his first career start in the game against Brown when John Lovett was injured and threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns. In his two starts against Brown in his career, Davidson went 53 for 75 for 678 yards and nine touchdowns.
How good was Davidson? He even dropped a pooch punt inside the 5.
Princeton finished the first half with 21 first downs and 429 yards of offense.
The second half was played at a much slower tempo, and every player who traveled got into the game.
In addition to the dominant performances that Princeton got from Davidson and Birmelin, it was also a great afternoon for three Tiger seniors.
Tyler Campbell came into the game with 86 career rushing yards. Against Brown he carried 12 times for 91 yards, including an awesome 37-yard run that came on a fourth-and-one in the first half, when Princeton went for it on its own 35. That was 1) a gutsy call and 2) a lot of faith in Campbell.
The other two seniors were Sam Johnson and Zach Kelly, who each had his first career touchdown reception.
The win improved Princeton to 5-0, with 15 straight victories. Up next is Homecoming, Saturday at 1, as Harvard comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.
Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard are all 2-0 in the Ivy League.
That's really all you need to know to figure out that Saturday's game is big.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Two Places At Once
TigerBlog is still holding out hope that sometime in the next 24 hours, human cloning becomes very mainstream.
That way, he can be in Providence and Baltimore tomorrow.
Why those two places?
The Princeton football team plays at Brown tomorrow, with kickoff at 12:30. The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame induction ceremony begins in Baltimore at 6, and three of TigerBlog's all-time favorite lacrosse players - Princeton alums Rachael Becker DeCecco, Ryan Boyle and Matt Striebel - are being inducted.
He looked at flights from Providence to Baltimore. There's one at 4, but he'd never make that with a 12:30 kickoff. Then there's another at 5:50, but that gets into Baltimore at 7:20. And that's at the airport.
Plus, if he drove to Providence, what would he do with his car? He'd have to fly back and get it.
He will be at Brown Stadium for the football game tomorrow, and his best wishes and congratulations to Rachael, Ryan and Matt will have to do.
TigerBlog's counterpart at Brown is Chris Humm, who has been there even longer than TB has been here, which goes back a ways. How far back does he go? TigerBlog met Bernie Buonanno, the father of freshman women's lacrosse player Kari Buonanno, and Bernie said that he was a lacrosse player at Brown who graduated in 1986 - and Chris Humm was already there.
Anyway, ou can ask anyone who has ever covered a football game at Brown what stands out the most, and they'll mention either the 114 steps up from the field to the press box or, more likely, the thing that the facility has always featured:
The best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever eat.
Humm - the Hummer to everyone who knows him - emailed TigerBlog during the week to remind him about the 114 steps and the cookies.
TB and the Hummer go way, way back, all the way to TB's days in the newspaper business. There are few people TB has met in this business that he likes more than the Hummer, who is the only grandfather that TB knows who works in athletic communications.
He and the Hummer go further back than Princeton head football coach Bob Surace and Brown head football coach James Perry do. TB isn't sure where Surace and Perry first crossed paths, but he knows that Perry was one of the first people Surace brought with him to Princeton when he became head coach in 2010.
Perry, in fact, was the offensive coordinator at Princeton for seven seasons, including the Ivy League championship seasons of 2013 and 2016. Then he left for Bryant to become head coach, where he was 12-10 in two years, before taking over Brown this year.
If you listened to the "First in Football" podcast, you heard Surace talk about how close he and Perry are, how close their families have been and how he likes "to look at the scores and see that his friends have won," except of course when he plays against them. That was the case last week, when Surace and Princeton defeated his former teammate and very close friend John Garrett, the head coach of Lafayette, 28-3.
That win was the 14th straight for the Tigers. It also was the final non-league game of the year. All that's left are six straight Ivy games, as Surace chases a fourth Ivy title in seven years.
The first of those six tests is the one at Brown.
The Perry who poses the most immediate issue is E.J. Perry, the nephew of the head coach. He is the Ivy League leader in total offense, by a wide margin (56 yards per game) over Princeton's Kevin Davidson second-best Ivy League total, and Perry ranks fifth in the FCS as well. In addition to being a threat throwing the ball, Perry also is the Bears' leading rusher.
Perry, by the way, is a junior transfer from Boston College. Davidson started against the Bears last year in the only start of his career prior to this year. Perry started against the Tigers last year too - the Clemson Tigers, the ones who won the national championship.
Perry will be the biggest test for the Princeton defense to date. The Tigers so far have been incredible on defense, with balance, depth, play-makers, aggression, focus and pretty much everything else that goes into making a cohesive unit.
Plus they look like they're having fun while they're doing it.
So it'll be Princeton at Brown. TB is looking forward to it.
And again, congratulations to the three Hall of Famers. TB won't be able to be at their induction, but he did get to see them play a lot while they were here.
They've deserved every honor they've gotten.
That way, he can be in Providence and Baltimore tomorrow.
Why those two places?
The Princeton football team plays at Brown tomorrow, with kickoff at 12:30. The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame induction ceremony begins in Baltimore at 6, and three of TigerBlog's all-time favorite lacrosse players - Princeton alums Rachael Becker DeCecco, Ryan Boyle and Matt Striebel - are being inducted.
He looked at flights from Providence to Baltimore. There's one at 4, but he'd never make that with a 12:30 kickoff. Then there's another at 5:50, but that gets into Baltimore at 7:20. And that's at the airport.
Plus, if he drove to Providence, what would he do with his car? He'd have to fly back and get it.
He will be at Brown Stadium for the football game tomorrow, and his best wishes and congratulations to Rachael, Ryan and Matt will have to do.
TigerBlog's counterpart at Brown is Chris Humm, who has been there even longer than TB has been here, which goes back a ways. How far back does he go? TigerBlog met Bernie Buonanno, the father of freshman women's lacrosse player Kari Buonanno, and Bernie said that he was a lacrosse player at Brown who graduated in 1986 - and Chris Humm was already there.
Anyway, ou can ask anyone who has ever covered a football game at Brown what stands out the most, and they'll mention either the 114 steps up from the field to the press box or, more likely, the thing that the facility has always featured:
The best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever eat.
Humm - the Hummer to everyone who knows him - emailed TigerBlog during the week to remind him about the 114 steps and the cookies.
TB and the Hummer go way, way back, all the way to TB's days in the newspaper business. There are few people TB has met in this business that he likes more than the Hummer, who is the only grandfather that TB knows who works in athletic communications.
He and the Hummer go further back than Princeton head football coach Bob Surace and Brown head football coach James Perry do. TB isn't sure where Surace and Perry first crossed paths, but he knows that Perry was one of the first people Surace brought with him to Princeton when he became head coach in 2010.
Perry, in fact, was the offensive coordinator at Princeton for seven seasons, including the Ivy League championship seasons of 2013 and 2016. Then he left for Bryant to become head coach, where he was 12-10 in two years, before taking over Brown this year.
If you listened to the "First in Football" podcast, you heard Surace talk about how close he and Perry are, how close their families have been and how he likes "to look at the scores and see that his friends have won," except of course when he plays against them. That was the case last week, when Surace and Princeton defeated his former teammate and very close friend John Garrett, the head coach of Lafayette, 28-3.
That win was the 14th straight for the Tigers. It also was the final non-league game of the year. All that's left are six straight Ivy games, as Surace chases a fourth Ivy title in seven years.
The first of those six tests is the one at Brown.
The Perry who poses the most immediate issue is E.J. Perry, the nephew of the head coach. He is the Ivy League leader in total offense, by a wide margin (56 yards per game) over Princeton's Kevin Davidson second-best Ivy League total, and Perry ranks fifth in the FCS as well. In addition to being a threat throwing the ball, Perry also is the Bears' leading rusher.
Perry, by the way, is a junior transfer from Boston College. Davidson started against the Bears last year in the only start of his career prior to this year. Perry started against the Tigers last year too - the Clemson Tigers, the ones who won the national championship.
Perry will be the biggest test for the Princeton defense to date. The Tigers so far have been incredible on defense, with balance, depth, play-makers, aggression, focus and pretty much everything else that goes into making a cohesive unit.
Plus they look like they're having fun while they're doing it.
So it'll be Princeton at Brown. TB is looking forward to it.
And again, congratulations to the three Hall of Famers. TB won't be able to be at their induction, but he did get to see them play a lot while they were here.
They've deserved every honor they've gotten.
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