By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Injuries took a toll on the Princeton University football team last season. After opening with four straight wins, the Tigers finished 5-5 as the injuries mounted.
But the silver lining to last year’s misfortune is that Princeton brings back plenty of experience to a team that will open the season when it hosts Lafayette on Saturday at 5 p.m.
On offense, Princeton returns both of its quarterbacks — Chad Kanoff and John Lovett. The duo is reminiscent of just a few years back when the Tigers were led by a pair of quarterbacks.
“Experience is the key word,” Princeton coach Bob Surace said. “Quinn (Epperly) and Connor Michelson looked sophomore year a lot like Chad and John last year. They worked hard and were terrific, but now they know what they’re doing and their leaders. The rest of the team is responding. With Quinn and Connor Michelson, we did a drill and it was always sharp. That’s how it looks now.
“That’s probably the biggest difference between last camp and this camp is those guys make sure every day — because the quarterback does set the tone — that we look sharp.”
Having experience at quarterback is important, but so is the depth the Tigers have built up on both sides of the ball. They are deeper in some areas than others, but there is plenty of talent on the field.
“In certain positions like our front seven, it’s the deepest it’s been since I’ve been here,” said Surace, who is set to begin his seventh season as Princeton’s head coach. “There’s some offensive skill positions, the competition at the wide receiver spots has been incredible. That’s been really good. Obviously quarterback, running back is one. The offensive line is one we’re still building. We play a lot of offensive linemen in a game, and we’re still building that and the secondary we’re still building that. So those spots, that’ll be really interesting to see. Some young guys are really competing now and getting a little more reps and doing a good job.”
The Tigers will lean on both of their quarterbacks, who we can expect to see on the field together at times this season.
“They’re both starters,” Surace said. “They’re going to be on the field together, they’re going to be on the field separate. They’re football players. We’ll utilize them to their strengths in any given week. John Lovett is amazing. He was long-snapping after practice today. There’s different ways on the field we’ll continue to utilize him because he’s a unique player.”
On defense there is plenty of depth along the line, which should be a strength for the Tigers.
“The one thing we can do that we haven’t done since I’ve been here is roll more guys in,” Surace said. “We always do that on offense. We’ve been able to do that on offense with all that depth on offense the last four years. Last year I thought we had it (on defense) and there was some attrition when you lose the Kurt Holuba’s and that, there’s some attrition.
“Right now, our second defensive line is a starting defensive line in this league, even you get to some of the threes that way. We rotate our Sam (strong-side) backers. One day Tom Johnson is a 3, one day it’s Quincy Wolff, one day is RJ Paige. They’re starting players, really good players in this league. That should help our special teams as well. I’m excited about that.”
The Tigers finished 2-5 in the Ivy League last year and will look to get back to the level they were at in 2013, when they shared an Ivy League title.
“It’s really hard to predict Ivy League football,” Surace said. “In some leagues I think it’s a little easier in terms of what you’re doing. Teams typically don’t have great depth, we’re trying to build that. I think you take last year’s standings and it looks just like that. I told the team in the spring we practiced really well and I said, understand we’re going to be ranked fifth or sixth. It’s going Columbia and Cornell at the end, Harvard and Penn at the top, and somewhere in the middle will be Dartmouth and Yale and it’s going to be us and Brown.
“That’s the way it’s going to be picked based on where we finished last year and use that as motivation, use that as a chip on your shoulder. All we can focus on is us.”
The Tigers open the Ivy League season at Columbia on Oct. 1. Winning a league title figures to be as tough as ever in a very good league.
“We set goals,” Surace said. “Can we? Yes, we’re all 0-0. I told them the first day, guess what Penn’s goal was at media day — win the Ivy League outright, guess what Harvard is saying — win the Ivy League outright. Guess what Cornell is saying? There are eight teams who expect it. You work too hard in football. It’s not an intramural sport. It’s a demanding, 24-hour a day, 365 days a year — these guys are here all summer, and I guarantee they’re doing that at Yale and Harvard and Penn and Dartmouth, so for us to do that we have to focus on now every day.”
