PU football hosts Davidson on Saturday
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The cross-country flight following the Princeton University football team’s season-opening 39-29 loss at San Diego on Saturday gave Seth DeValve plenty of time to ponder what had happened.
”I thought about a lot of things,” said the Tigers senior receiver. “I would have liked to have been thinking about how great we played. It’s a lot longer trip home when you lose. It was a tough loss. I was thinking about if there was anything more that I could have done to help our team win, everyone does that. I thought we played hard.”
Princeton hopes it has learned from the loss, and is ready to move on as it hosts 1-3 Davidson 6 p.m. Saturday at Princeton Stadium in its home opener. The game is being held on Community and Staff Day and post-game fireworks will follow the contest.
”We don’t want the fireworks to come from them throwing the ball like San Diego did against us,” quipped PU head coach Bob Surace. “We have to do a great job with our eyes and being in the right spots on defense or there’s a chance the fireworks will erupt a little early.”
Davidson runs a similar up-tempo offense as the Tigers do, and there is a chance for fireworks regardless of who has the ball on offense. Princeton wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be despite trying to duplicate game conditions in practice.
”I think we got what we had coming to us,” DeValve said. “That needs to get fixed. It’s going to get fixed because the guys on the team won’t allow that week after week. We would have loved to do it better that game. It’s in the past. We have to learn from what we did right and did wrong. We’re obviously very disappointed. I’m confident in the guys on this team that we’re going to make it work.”
The offensive numbers were actually fairly balanced with San Diego holding a 107-100 rushing advantage and a 296-270 passing edge, but Tigers quarterback Quinn Epperly was intercepted twice. San Diego scored off both of them.
”There’s kind of an old saying, the greatest growth in a football team happens between Week 1 and Week 2,” DeValve said. “I think that will hold true for us.
”Practice is designed to simulate the intensity of a game. It does a pretty good job of it, but actually strapping up and going out is a different thing. We have things we have to fix. We’re fixing them now and we’re confident they’re going to stay fixed.”
DeValve is one player that the Tigers would like to be able to continue to count on this year. He led Princeton with nine catches for 123 yards and scored their final touchdown when he hauled in a 22-yard strike from Epperly, who finished 25-for-53 for 237 yards.
”I think we threw the ball intermediately pretty well,” DeValve said. “We need to keep that up. It can be one of our strengths. We need to keep on our deep balls better. Intermediate passing was solid. That might have been one of the bright spots.”
DeValve’s development into a steady threat for the Tigers is another bright spot. His receiving numbers have gone up each year since he arrived from Manchester, Conn. DeValve was a quarterback at DeValve, and a good one with more than 4,500 yards passing to go with more than 2,000 yards rushing, but Princeton made it clear they had other plans for him.
”Princeton recruits a lot of quarterbacks,” DeValve said. “They see them as good athletes. A lot of other teams do too. Probably 90 percent get switched to another position. I particularly came here knowing I was going to play wide receiver.
”I had never played it before. When I was at camp here, I thought I’d be playing quarterback at camp. I played maybe 10 minutes, and a coach said, get over here. I worked out at every position except offensive and defensive line that camp. I didn’t actually play wide receiver. They just threw me a couple balls to see if I could catch.”
Now DeValve is a senior with the size at 6-foot-4 to play on Sundays. He just has to keep improving.
”I’ve been playing the position three and a half years,” he said. “I was a high school quarterback. There’s a lot I need to do to refine my skills at receiver. I’m constantly working on running more defined routes, also working on releasing during press coverage, different technical things that increase your efficiency on the field. I have a lot of work to do to refine my skill. I’m sure a lot of (professional interest) is the size.”
DeValve is part of an offense that had expected more of itself against San Diego. Princeton brought back nearly all of its pieces from last year’s record-setting offense, and they figured to pick up where they left off. They didn’t.
”We didn’t execute too well,” Surace said. “We had way too much error, error being we didn’t finish blocks, our drop-back pass game really got into a rut in the second half. We struggled on all levels — route running, protection, throwing. We’ve done well with that in camp.
”We seem to do well on first down, gaining four or five yards, then we’d lose two or three. We tried to do too much and that forced us to play in some tough, tough situations.”
The Tigers are working on ensuring that all their plays are for positive yards this Saturday.
”We’re a very balanced offense,” DeValve said. “Sometimes it looks like we pass the ball a lot. We run a lot of plays. We run more plays than the average team. You’re seeing a balanced attack, passing and running. It’ll play a huge part as it always does.”
Davidson will counter with a similar approach. J.P. Douglas threw for 317 yards againt VMI and 282 yards against Morehead State. David Rogers already has a pair of 100-yard rushing games. Davidson is averaging almost 30 points per game.
”They’ve been very explosive,” Surace said. “Even on the incompletions, it’s inches off. You have guys open. Maybe the quarterback is getting hit, but the ball is inches off. They’re not indicative of their record. They’ve had some special teams issues that have hurt them in their losses. They seem like correctable losses. You can’t count on having blocked punts or anything else, but that’s what hurt them.
”They’re a tempo team as well. They’re a no-huddle team, so they practice against that. We have to do a great job of decision making. When they come with pressure, we have to utilize their sideway movement to create vertical movement.”
Davidson has a blitz-happy defense, and they will try to be opportunistic. Princeton is hoping that its own defense can do something that it didn’t against San Diego and create a turnover Saturday.
”I thought our run defense held up pretty well,” Surace said. “We missed a few tackles early. They had an elusive runner, a transfer form Cal-Berkeley. We contained him well other than one run. Special teams, we did well. We had one lapse on a long return.”
Overall, Princeton did not play the way it expected against San Diego. The Tigers are intent on getting it right this week.
”We have guys on this team, a lot of them that were on last year’s team, that got it done,” DeValve said. “I’m confident that many of the same guys that are here will find a way to get it done this year too. You could point to a number of different things. I’m most confident because I know my teammates and I know the work they’ll put in to get it done.”
Princeton is looking for improved consistency and execution on both sides of the ball against Davidson. The Tigers have shown a far better version of themselves in the preseason than what they showed at San Diego, and they are looking to play up to expectations in their first game at home.
”We love playing at our field,” DeValve said. “We have the best stadium in the Ivy League. We have a lot of good fans, especially recently. Night games are fun. There are fireworks after the game, so we’re expecting a crowd. It’ll be a lot of fun.”