OFF AND RUNNING: Princeton University football running back John Volker heads upfield in a 2023 game. Last Saturday, senior Volker scored on a three-yard touchdown run in a losing cause as Princeton fell 35-20 to Lehigh in its season opener. The Tigers will look to get on the winning track as they host Howard (2-2) on September 28 in its home opener. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Opening its 2024 season last Saturday by facing a rugged Lehigh squad that already had three games under its belt, the Princeton University football team got off to a rough start.

Princeton trailed 21-7 at halftime, getting outscored 14-0 in the second quarter as it struggled on both sides of the ball.

As Princeton headed into intermission, Tiger head coach Bob Surace acknowledged that his squad was plagued by some opening day glitches.

“They got us on some deep routes, we had to be more consistent,” said Surace. “We had opportunities. We had a really long punt return. We had a fourth and short and didn’t get the first down. We went back and forth. We had some issues in the punt game, some crazy things that sometimes happen in the first game. We haven’t had a bad long snap all camp and we had back to back issues with that. We were out of the gap on one play. We took a bad angle on another and they hit us for two big plays.”

Princeton responded by starting the third quarter with a big 11-play, 79-yard scoring march to narrow the gap to 21-14 on a diving 36-yard touchdown reception by senior star Luke Colella. After Lehigh extended its lead to 28-14, the Tigers drew within 28-20 as Tyler Picinic alertly gathered in a pass that ricocheted off of Tamatoa Falatea for a three-yard TD grab with 9:53 left in the fourth quarter. But that was as close as Princeton got as Lehigh answered with a 34-yard scoring jaunt by Jaden Green to go up 35-20 to end the scoring on the day before a crowd of 6,217 at Goodman Stadium in Bethlehem, Pa.

For Surace, the setback proved to be an unfortunate case of déjà vu from a previous loss to the Mountain Hawks.

“The game had a weird flow, 2016 was almost the exact same scenario; we lost by two scores, it ended up being 42-28,” said Surace. “There were a lot of explosive plays on both sides. We just weren’t efficient that day on offense, we made some mistakes. We gave up some big plays on defense.”

Standout receiver Colella made some big plays, ending up with five catches for 86 yards and his highlight TD, which was later chosen as the top play of the day on ESPN’s College Football Final.

“Literally two plays before that, he broke free on a deep route and we missed him by a foot, the pressure rushed the throw,” said Surace. “We ran another play and then came back with another deep one. On this one, he had maybe a stride but the ball had to be perfect, the catch was one-handed. The other one he was open by five yards and he could have walked in. He had another catch on the sidelines that was toe-tapped.”

Surace saw progress from his squad as it went from the first half to the second.

“The two things about Lehigh this season — one, they did not give up big plays and we had a bunch of big plays and a couple of others that we just missed,” said Surace. “We are going to hit those as they year goes on. Seven times we were in the clear on deep throws and we were 3-for-7 on those. The average is you are usually 5 1/2 to 6 on that so we will get better on that. The other thing is they have protected their quarterbacks really well and when we got them in third downs, we had three sacks. I think they had given up two sacks before our game. There were some real encouraging things.”

Junior quarterback Blaine Hipa produced some encouraging moments in his first start, connecting on 16 of 38 passes for 219 yards and two TDs.

“He made some outstanding plays but we didn’t give him enough time,” said Surace of Hipa, who had three interceptions and got sacked six times. “We missed a blitz pick up. We didn’t put him in manageable situations. We have to manage that better, both our decision-making and his decision-making. The number of big plays, the ones that we hit and the opportunities we had against that defense was very encouraging. It is the play-to-play efficiency that we have to fix.”

The Tiger running game sputtered as senior John Volker gained 28 yards on 10 carries with one touchdown while junior Dareion Murphy had 24 yards in seven carries.

“We have got to do a little better job getting them going,” said Surace, whose team was outgained 153 yards to -7 in net yards rushing on Saturday. “We just were a little bit off, off enough that we played uphill. I think we threw it about 50 times when you count the sacks. Ideally there is more balance.”

At the defensive end, Princeton was also a little off.

“If were on the field for 65 plays, 35 of then we played terrific defense, 15 of them were solid, and the other 15, they hit us for big plays or could have,” said Surace. “It was different people every time. We have to settle that group down. It was sloppy and we have to be better on that.”

Hosting a talented Howard (2-2) team this Saturday, the Tigers can’t afford to be sloppy as they look to get into the win column.

“They have had two quarterbacks that are complete opposites,” said Surace. “The quarterback (Ja’Shawn Scroggins) that played against Rutgers is dynamic as a runner, he still throws it well. The quarterback (Jaylon Tolbert) that played against Morehouse is dynamic as a thrower, he can still run it. They hit you with two different game plans, they haven’t played them together. It puts an onus on preparation. Defensively, they are stout. They have two guys in the secondary (Kenny Gallop Jr., Carson Hinton) that are either going to be drafted or signed, they will be in the NFL. They have a lot of good defensive players but those two guys are NFL level players. They won their conference last year, they were a top 25 team and they return the majority of their players.”

In order to overcome the Bison, Princeton will need to clean things up from the opener.

“On both sides we have to be more efficient and cut out the gray,” said Surace. “There was a little bit too much looking like a team in its first game offensively with error. Defensively we can’t give up that many big plays, we can’t be boom or bust. You want to have 45 really good plays. We need to cut the 15 ones that were lousy to five and the other 10 to ‘OK, they check it down and get four yards.’ You do that and you are taking two or three scores off a team.”

Surace will be hoping for additional déjà vu from that 2016 loss to Lehigh as the Tigers bounced back that fall to go 8-2 and tie Penn for the Ivy League title.