Princeton hosts Penn in 100th meeting tonight
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Princeton University football team has a lot to be excited about as it prepares to face Penn 7 p.m. tonight at Princeton Stadium.
For one, it’s Penn. And just facing the Quakers is reason enough to get excited, especially when it is the 100th meeting in the series. It’s also a Friday night game, the third straight year in a row the Tigers have played a Friday night game. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU. And let’s not forget a win for the Tigers just might get them back in the Ivy League title hunt.
”Our kids are always excited to play on Friday night,” said Princeton coach Roger Hughes, whose team is 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League. “It’s a chance, not only with the rivalry between Princeton and Penn and the connotations of 100th meeting, but it is also great to get our league and Princeton in particular some national exposure.
”We are one of the few conferences that truly does recruit nationwide. If you look at our roster compared to other programs, I would challenge anyone to find more states represented in their program than ours.”
The Tigers are riding high after an exciting 31-26 win at Cornell last weekend. Meanwhile, Penn suffered its first Ivy loss of the season against Brown. Tonight, the two teams get together under the lights and on national television, both hoping to keep their Ivy title hopes alive.
”It’s a great venue for us to showcase the Ivy League talent,” Hughes said. “And it is an eye-opening experience for people around the country, especially recruits, to get a good sense of just how good Ivy League football is. And, oh, by the way when your football career is over you have a much better opportunity going forward in whatever career you choose.
”I think our team is very excited. We feel like in the last two weeks we have improved and we want to continue that excitement.”
A win gets the Tigers back to .500 overall and over .500 in the league. So this has all the makings of a real special night in Princeton.
”I think it will be fun playing on a Friday night,” Princeton quarterback Brian Anderson said. “It kind of takes you back to your high school days playing under the lights. And second of all, we recruit nationally so it will be great. We have kids from California and Hawaii and their parents don’t get to come out to games as often and our friends are not in the area. So it will be great for the exposure of our University and to let them know what Princeton football is all about. And our friends and family will be able to watch.”
Anderson, who many expected to miss last week’s game at Cornell with a shoulder injury, looked fine last week. He connected with receiver Will Thanheiser seven times last week, the fourth time Thanheiser has gone over 100 yards receiving this year.
”When you look at Will the last couple years, I think a lot of the coaches were thinking, ‘Why hasn’t he done it yet?’ This summer and last summer with him has been amazing going out and throwing balls to him every day,” Anderson said. “You knew it was just a matter of time for him. I try to get him the ball as much as I can.”
He’ll be doing that tonight as well, as the Tigers look to get back in the Ivy race under the lights on national television.

