Practice pays off for PU football
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Dre Nelson and the Princeton University football team took a different attitude into last week’s practice after losing at San Diego.
”Practice was the same as far as what we do,” said Nelson, the junior running back and kick returner. “It’s just we lost last week. The coaches and everybody, everybody was angry about the loss. We had to pick it up in terms of our effort, and how intense we were from the top down. From the top down, we practiced harder.”
A reaffirmed commitment paid off Saturday against visiting Davidson University from the opening kickoff, which Nelson returned 89 yards for a galvanizing touchdown, to the end of a 56-17 romp.
”It’s a great win,” said Nelson, who also added a 23-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. “It’s the first win of the season. It feels good to get a win under your belt. We started to get our rhythm and get some big plays going. It’s good to get a win and nice to have a big win like today.”
On top of 129 yards on two kick returns from Nelson — he nearly took the second kickoff back as well — the Tigers rolled up 478 yards of total offense with 233 of it on the ground and 245 through the air.
”We needed to go back to doing what we do best – that’s run the football, play physical,” said PU head coach Bob Surace after improving to 1-1. “That (San Diego loss) was on me — trying to do some things that aren’t our strengths.
”We can run the ball, we can finish our runs, execute the pass plays that we ask, and they looked sharp. We converted first downs.”
Princeton was 6-for-6 on red-zone scoring chances and polished off five of those drives with touchdowns. The Tigers scored as many points in the first 16 minutes of Saturday’s game as they did last week in the entire season opener. It all stemmed from the changes at practice.
”Our effort,” said PU quarterback Quinn Epperly, who completed 15 of 18 passes for 176 yards and ran 16 times for 118 yards and four touchdowns. “Our drive throughout the game, we had a lot more energy throughout the week in practice and it definitely carried over to the game. That’s something we’ve always tried to pride ourselves on, especially last year and something we didn’t do a good enough job of at San Diego. You could kind of see we were way too flat.”
Nobody was flat after Nelson took back the opening kickoff. Princeton would never trail after it.
”Coach (Andrew) Aurich, he talks to us every day in special teams meetings about getting the game started right,” Nelson said. “Every time he talks about the kickoff, he tells me he wants me to house the first one. As long as I run hard, guys get on their blocks like they did — they did a great job. Everybody was around someone. They were blocking hard. Everybody did their job and we got a touchdown.”
The Tigers defense held Davidson to a 22-yard field goal on their ensuing drive, and Princeton’s offense got to show its stuff. Epperly scored on a pair of short runs before the first quarter ended with the first followed by a 2-point conversion from punter and kick holder Tyler Roth to Scott Carpenter, then Epperly added a 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter as the lead ballooned.
”We were in a lot of good situations, as far as second down and short, third and short,” Epperly said. “I think that comes with the guys up front working hard. They came out ready to go this week. They came out ready to go for the game, and it translated with a big running game. By controlling the line, we were controlling the game. Hats off to our guys up front.”
Princeton answered Davidson’s first touchdown of the game with a 23-yard touchdown run by Nelson and a 31-yard field goal by Nolan Bieck to take a 39-10 lead. Tigers linebacker Mike Zeuli’s sack closed the half for Princeton defensively. Princeton finished with 296 yards of total offense in the first half.
”I thought we looked really fast,” Surace said. “I watched film last week and we looked not fast. We looked fast and explosive and finished. I saw linemen downfield finishing their blocks and picking the runner up. There was so much more energy coming from those guys, it was fun to see.”
The Tigers defense held Davidson to 17 rushing yards in the first quarter and forced a fumble, their first turnover forced of the season. Of concern to the Tigers, however, was a 23-play, 11-minute drive that Davidson started the second half with for a touchdown and how they reacted to it.
”To have that 20-play drive with all those fourth-down conversions, that’s frustrating,” Surace said. “We got back on offense and had an error out of frustration. We can’t do that. Our offense has to pick up the defense and not have frustration errors and personal fouls.”
Princeton’s defense still limited Davidson to almost 13 points fewer than it averaged through its first four games. Rohan Hylton led Princeton with 11 tackles, 1.5 of them for loss. Anthony Gaffney had eight tackles.
Princeton spread the wealth on offense. DiAndre Atwater averaged 6.8 yards per carry on his six rushes, AJ lass averaged 6.5 yards per rush, and Will Powers closed the scoring with a rushing touchdown. Connor Kelley led a receiving core that was without last week’s top receiver, Seth DeValve, due to injury. Kelley had six catches for 72 yards. Matt Costello had three catches for 48 yards. Dre Nelson also caught three passes. Tight end Scott Carpenter hauled in a 49-yard pass.
”If you’re hitting hard, running the ball hard, if you’re doing everything fast and as hard as you can,” Epperly said, “good things will happen with how fast tempo our offense is, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Princeton still used some finesse at times. It opened its first offensive series with its top three quarterbacks — Epperly, Connor Michelsen and Kedric Bostic — all on the field at once. It’s another wrinkle that the Tigers like.
”It presents a lot of problems for the defense,” Epperly said. “We have three guys that can throw it. We’ve had all three guys throw it. A lot of times, we put me and Kedric Bostic at the running back and fullback spots for that role in our base offense. It’s a different way to get some athletes on the field and it presents some problems.”
Princeton is hopeful that it continues to grow this week. The Tigers play at Columbia 12:30 p.m. Saturday in their Ivy League opener, and they want to continue to use the lessons learned in the San Diego loss as they build on their first win.
”That was a big point on all three sides of the ball — this doesn’t look like a championship team, a special team, it looks like an average team,” Surace said. “I thought it was really great to see us respond. To their credit, there’s a lot of pride in that room. To see the seniors and upperclassmen do things that way, you felt that energy. The crowd was awesome. That’s big for us.”
It was a different look out of Princeton in the week leading up to its home opener, and a far different outcome, something the Tigers want to duplicate week after week.
”We’re going to carry that into next week,” Epperly said. “There’s not going to be any let-up in anything. We realize that practicing hard just gets us to this point. We’re going to face more adversity in the season. We have to keep that mindset up and keep that going and never let that taste out of our mouth.”