The Princeton Story

Bob Surace

When Princeton Head Coach Bob Surace took over the Tiger program in 2010, he really seemed out of his depth. 

His public speaking efforts were awkward, on top of the fact that Princeton was 1-9 in his first two seasons. 

Boy have things changed.

Since the 2012 breakout season for PU, Surace has pretty much led a championship contending team every year. 

I think Surace and his staff's best work has actually come over the last three years or so, as the Tigers have remained a top team despite the graduation of generational talent QB John Lovett after the 2018 season and the loss of offensive coordinator James Perry, now the head coach at Brown. 

Since those first two 1-9 seasons, Surace's W-L record at Princeton is 65-35 with four Ivy championships (with one solo title from the 10-0 undefeated 2018 season).

Surace has helped Princeton remain a lethal team on offense, but the defense has stepped up considerably. 

Columbia's last two meetings and losses to the Tigers have certainly been due to that defense, with the Lions mustering only 10 points in 2019 and just seven points in the game last year. 

In addition to the good recruiting and development that crafted those good defenses, the Princeton coaching staff made some smart play calling decisions that impacted the wins over CU.

Last year, the strategy that was most interesting was having then-starting QB Cole Smith run the ball an eye-opening 20 times when he hadn't really run with the ball at all in the first two games of the season. Columbia adjusted pretty well to Smith's runs after a while, but the damage in the early part of the game was done by the surprise move. 

The Lions haven't beaten Princeton since the dramatic 28-24 win in 2017, which was the most exciting win of a Columbia season filled with exciting victories en route to an 8-2 finish. That game was at Princeton, as were the last two meetings with the Tigers because of the 2020 COVID season cancellation. CU hasn't played the Tigers at Wien Stadium since 2018 and hasn't beaten Princeton at home since 2010. 

It's hard to get a read on how good Princeton is after two games against weak opponents, (same story as Columbia in many ways), but the Tigers were not as impressive in weeks one and two as they were last year. But that's not saying much, as Princeton outscored its first two 2021 opponents by a combined score of 95-0! 

We do know that the Tigers are once again featuring a brand new starting QB in a program that has seamlessly inserted new starting QBs for three seasons in a row now. The latest example is current starter Blake Stenstrom, who has thrown for an average 273 yards per game, holds a 71% completion percentage, and has three TD passes vs. two INTs. 

PU has arguably the best WR in the Ivies in Andrei Iosivas, who already has 13 catches, 199 yards receiving, and three TDs. I say "arguably" because he should continue to get a run for his money for that "top WR" title from CU's Bryson Canty, who only trails Iosivas by 14 receiving yards so far. 

But Princeton has two other receivers who have already broken the 100 yards receiving mark in Dylan Classi and Jo Jo Hawkins. Interestingly, only Iosivas has any TD grabs in 2022. 

The top rushers are doing okay despite limited carries. Freshman Ryan Butler from Bergen Catholic has 96 yards on 17 total carries and sophomore John Volker has 61 yards on 17 carries.  

The stats still seem to yield some questions about Princeton's offensive line. The Tigers are averaging just 3.2 yards a carry and they've allowed seven sacks so far this year. Unlike Cole Smith last year, Stenstrom has been running a lot in the first two games of this season. He has 17 net yards on 23 carries, the low yardage being the result of all those sacks. 

The big question is will the Tiger defense be up to 2019 and 2021 standards? So far, it looks darn good. 

Opponents are rushing for just 1.4 yards per carry. Overall they've managed just 25 1st downs against the PU defense as well. But passing has been easier against Princeton, with opponents completing about 64% of their passes, for 211 yards per game and a hefty 6.9 yards per attempt. 

The Tiger kicking game remains at the top of the league, with PK Jeffrey Sexton a perfect four for four on field goals (with a long of 46 yards) and an almost perfect six for seven on PATs.  Punter Will Powers is the best in the Ivies, averaging 45.3 yards a boot.

AND ONE MORE THING...

Not everyone in the Surace family is wearing Princeton orange this year. Bob's daughter Alison Surace is a freshmen on the Columbia Lacrosse team!