Local product is one of Ivy’s best punters

Coyle steady on special teams for PU football

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   The Princeton University football team returned just one first-team All-Ivy League player this year.
   Ironically, the Tigers would be thrilled to see Ryan Coyle never get back on the field.
   The senior is Princeton’s punter. In his second season as a starter, he remains on high alert every third down outside of field goal range. He participates in games only when a Princeton drive stalls.
   ”Obviously, it’s my job to be ready,” said Coyle, who has punted 14 times this year for a 36.1 yard average. “I’m never ever going to wish the team goes three-and-out. I want to win just as badly as everyone else.”
   Coyle and the Tigers will be looking for their third straight win when they play at Colgate 1 p.m. Saturday. Princeton is 2-1 overall after topping Columbia last week. The Raiders’ game against Georgetown was postponed last week, which gave them an extra week to heal up and prepare for Princeton’s offensive attack in particular. Colgate is 3-2, and head coach Dick Biddle is 29-8 all-time against Ivy League teams.
   ”He’s had good teams,” explained Princeton head coach Roger Hughes, whose team won a 27-26 overtime thriller in Hamilton, N.Y. in 2006. “He’s done a great job. They’re not extravagant, but they do the fundamentals very well. They rarely beat themselves. They’ve always had a very strong, physical, intimidating type approach to the game.”
   Colgate has the country’s top running back, Jordan Scott, who averages 203.5 yards per game on the ground. He already has nine rushing touchdowns.
   ”I don’t know how you stop them,” Hughes said. “You’ve obviously got to keep people around the ball. We’re going to have to rely on our secondary to be able to play some man-to-man and take some chances to slow them down.”
   Coyle can help too by keeping Colgate pinned deep in its territory. His 50-yard punt last week was downed at the Columbia 1.
   ”That’s what you’re aiming for,” Coyle said. “All the credit for that one has to go to Meko (McCray), one of the coverage guys. Those guys have gotten so much better since last year.”
   The Tigers’ offense behind quarterback Brian Anderson, the Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Week, can help by sustaining drives to keep Scott and company off the field. If they can’t, they will be seeing a lot of Coyle. And nobody in Orange and Black wants that.
   ”Kickers and punters, they’re kind of off to the side,” Coyle said. “Kickers have a chance to score points. Punters, they’re a lot less well known. That was the job I came down with. I’m going to do as well as I can.”
   Coyle didn’t come far to join the Tigers. He lives in Princeton and came to PU games as a middle school student at Princeton Day School before he started his kicking career at The Lawrenceville School. Coyle wasn’t envisioning punting for the Tigers when he came as a PDS student. He wasn’t even sure he’d be punting for them when he came to Princeton.
   ”I didn’t come here as a recruited kicker,” Coyle said. “But I knew I wanted to play.”
   Coyle only started kicking when Lawrenceville needed a kicker in his freshman year. It wasn’t until his junior year with the Big Red that he took over the punt chores. Similarly, he had to wait two years to make his collegiate debut as a sophomore when Colin McDonough was injured.
   ”When I came in,” Coyle said, “there was an All-Ivy kicker and All-Ivy punter in front of me. There was another kicker in my class, Connor Louden, who’s done a great job. I just concentrated on punting. I think that’s worked out for me.”
   Coyle stepped in as a starter last Season. He wound up sixth in the country with a 43.1 punt average.
   ”Experience definitely helps in punting because it is such a mental thing,” Coyle said. “It’s not as physically challenging as some jobs on the field, but you really have to be mentally ready.”
   Good thing that Coyle has proven to be mentally sharp on and off the field. He was named a semifinalist for the 2008 Draddy Trophy, given to a player who combines academic success with strong football performance. He is one of six semifinalists from the Ivy League.
   ”It’s a challenge to balance your academics and your athletics at Princeton, as it is at any school when you’re playing Division I football,” Coyle said. “That’s an acquired skill that you learn. Freshman year, it was pretty hard to pick it up and get all my classwork done and get to practice every day.”
   He also had to pick up all the nuances of being a top-flight collegiate punter. Coyle has a better understanding now of how to prepare for game days and what to expect, but each game gives its own strains in terms of knowing when he will play. Against Lehigh, for instance, he didn’t punt until the fourth quarter.
   ”It’s good for the team, but it’s a little challenging,” he said. “It’s mainly because every third down I’m ready to go in. Outside the 40, I’m ready. The constant preparing myself and then sitting down, it’s taxing mentally. But it’s also a little taxing on your leg muscles. As silly as it sounds, you can also get leg cramps from the constant blood flow and relaxation.”
   Nobody from Princeton wants to see Ryan Coyle go through that discomfort. Better off keeping him on the sidelines, even if it costs him All-Ivy honors.