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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Princeton Football Aims to Shine Under Lights As It Hosts Lafayette for Opening Night Clash
By Bill Alden
Last fall, the Princeton University football team showed a distressing penchant for shooting itself in the foot at crunch time.
In going 2-8 last season, the program's worst record since 1986, the Tigers lost games to Columbia, Harvard, and Yale on the last play of the contest. In other games, earlier miscues at critical junctures doomed Princeton to defeat.
As Princeton head coach Roger Hughes looks forward to his club's season opener this Saturday night against visiting Lafayette, he maintains that the program has left no stone unturned to ensure the bounces will go its way in 2004.
"The kids' attitude has been phenomenal," asserted Hughes earlier this month at the team's annual media day.
"It all started in the offseason workouts in February. We made everything a competition. We divided them up into teams and every lift, every run, everything we did accumulated points. We've done the same thing in practice this fall. We are putting them in a lot of competitive situations."
A key to the Tigers being competitive in the Ivy League race will be the play of senior quarterback Matt Verbit, who made great strides last year as he completed 174-of-327 passes for 2,499 yards and 13 touchdowns.
"Matt has developed into the quarterback we thought he would be," said Hughes, who brings a 14-25 record into his fifth season at the helm of the Princeton football program. "He has a tremendous understanding of our passing game. We've always expected him to be good but I think that he's exceeded where we thought he'd be."
While the 6'2, 215-pound Verbit has always had the physical tools to succeed, it is his work ethic that has made the difference.
"The fun thing about it is that he worked very hard this summer, not only on his throwing but on his footwork, his ball faking," said Hughes, whose club was picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League this year in the annual preseason media poll.
"He has really put in the time and effort to make sure he does everything right. He's become a team leader. He may not have the "C" (for captain) on his chest but he's one of the guys the whole teams looks for."
Verbit will be able to look for some valuable assistance in the backfield in veteran running backs Jon Veach and Branden Benson. Veach, a senior co-captain, ran for 642 yards last year at an average of 4.6 yards per carry while junior Benson rushed for 467 yards.
Princeton offensive coordinator Dave Rackovan is chomping at the bit to deploy the Tigers' one-two punch. "Ideally, we'd like to use them both," said Rackovan, who noted that the two could be on the field at the same time this fall depending on the game situation.
"They both have the potential to be very good players in this league. Jon has had an unbelievable offseason. Branden is gifted with his talent but every year so far he's had an injury of some sort and he hasn't reached his potential. If we have both guys on the field at the same time, we'll be excited."
A major question for Princeton's offense will be who is going to provide excitement at receiver in the absence of the graduated Blair Morrison and B.J. Szymanski, who passed up his senior season at Princeton to play professional baseball in the Cincinnati Reds organization.
Currently, the Tigers are looking at a largely untested group that includes Clinton Wu, Derek Davis, Eric Walz, Monte McNair, and Brian Brigham.
A secret weapon in the Princeton passing game could be tight end Jon Dekker, who showed flashes of brilliance last fall when he caught 19 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown.
"Jon is up to 257 pounds and he is really moving well," said Hughes. "Like Matt, he has really concentrated on his footwork. He's much more balanced and much more explosive."
Hughes believes he will have much more balance and depth along the rest of the offensive line. "I think we have seven or eight kids who can play and some of those guys can play many different positions," said Hughes, whose line should feature such perfomers as Jeremy Moore, Andrew Wilson, Trey Greene, Dave Szelingowski, Andrew Aurich, Ben Billmaier, and Mike Babyak.
"We're a little deeper there from the standpoint of the drop-off when we have to substitute."
The Tigers have no such luxury on the defensive line where they will miss graduated first-team All-Ivy performers Tim Kirby and Joe Weiss. who formed the top defensive end tandem in the league last season.
"It's going to be tough to replace Joe and Tim," said Princeton defensive coordinator Steve Verbit.
"We'll replace them with numbers. Peter Kelly started every game for us last year and played very well in the spring and is playing well in the preseason. Chris Browne has played over the last three years. James Williams has seen some spot duty for us and he had a terrific summer. Chris Lebeis rotated in the final three games of last season and he should be at inside tackle. Those are the four guys that have stepped up the most."
At linebacker, Princeton should have no problem finding players to step up as that unit boasts several key performers including junior co-captain Justin Stull, a first-team All-Ivy performer in 2003 when he led the league in tackles, and Zak Keasey, a first-team All-Ivy pick in 2002 who is returning to school after being academically ineligible last year.
"They're both pretty tough kids," said Verbit with his face breaking into a grin when pondering the partnership of Stull and Keasey in the middle of the Tiger defense.
"Justin is a tremendous leader, he gained the respect of his teammates to be elected as a captain as an underclassmen. Keasey came back in tremendous shape after being out of school for a year. I can't think of anyone else around town I'd rather have leading my defense than those two. Having those two guys next to each other is going to cause a lot of pile-ups inside."
Others who should see action at linebacker include Alan Borelli, Abi Fadeyi, and Luke Steckel.
The defensive backfield will be bolstered by the return of Brandon Mueller and Jay McCareins, who were both away from school last year due to academic reasons.
Hughes is particularly excited about the potential of McCareins, a superb athlete whose brother Justin is a starting receiver on the New York Jets. "Clearly Jay is one of the best athletes we have," said Hughes, who will also be using J. J. Artis, Tim Strickland, and Nick Brown in the defensive backfield.
"We have him at a couple of different positions, we've experimented a bit with him. He's a defensive specialist and he will return some kicks for us. I think it benefits us to put the ball in the hands of our best athletes."
The Tigers' top athletes will have to be at their best this Saturday when they welcome Lafayette into Princeton Stadium. The Leopards bring a 2-0 record into the clash, having opened their season with a 48-7 thrashing of Marist and following that up with a 17-6 win over Georgetown last Saturday.
In facing the challenge presented by Lafayette, which whipped Princeton 28-13 last season, the Tigers will get a chance to prove that they can come through under fire.
"We've been trying to change the team's culture to the point where they are accountable to each other and not just the coaching staff," explained Hughes. "I think we're on the edge of being over that. They are really taking it upon themselves to make sure everybody is playing hard."
