Football looks to offensive weapons to fill Northrop void

With the football team losing senior place kicker and punter Taylor Northrop to graduation, the team's kicking game is, as head coach Roger Hughes puts it, "one piece of the puzzle that we don't have the answer to." Northrop led the team in scoring last year with 55 points, making up one-quarter of the total points scored by the entire team (200).

However, a piece of the puzzle that Princeton does have the answer to is the offense. From last year's scoring tally, the next six leaders are all returning. Junior running back Cameron Atkinson returns having punched in 54 points on the season, followed by sophomore quarterback Dave Splithoff with 18 points.

Atkinson and Splithoff headline a backfield that has been through a trial-by-fire over the last two seasons. Last season was the first time that both of them had started almost every single game. The year before that, both had seen limited playing time, with Atkinson taking hand-offs behind Kyle Brandt '01 and Splithoff going from the fourth spot in the rotation to breaking records as a starter for two games, and then to the injured list with a broken jaw.

Atkinson took most of the carries last season, rushing for 660 yards on the season (an average of 82.5 yards per game). This spring he did not practice with the squad because of his commitments to the track team, but coach Hughes sees that as a plus.

"It was good in the standpoint that it let the freshmen Jon Veach and Brandon Benson play a lot," Hughes said. "The other person who had a great spring was Joel Mancl, another freshman fullback, who is not afraid to smack your face."

Along with sophomore fullback Kyle Wenski, the running backs show a lot of strength, but according to Hughes "it's just a matter of whether they can grow up quickly enough to give us a punch."

Splithoff started every game last season, throwing all but nine passes for the team. He threw for nine touchdowns and 1680 yards. On top of that, he rushed for 326 total yards, second on the team. The fiery quarterback who became the first freshman starter in Princeton history has survived and thrived in his first full season as the Tigers' starter.

"I do feel good about the quarterback position as long as," Hughes said as he knocked on wood, "we stay healthy."

The only other spot where Princeton lost a senior to graduation was the offensive line. Even there, it only lost one player, with the rest of the offensive line gaining much-needed experience.

"Experience-wise, we're able to expand more of what we can do," Hughes said. "We can help on a block here while looking backside being ready to hand the guy off and make the adjustments that a lot of the guys at the upper levels do."

For spring practice, Hughes and his staff tried to form the offensive line into a single unit in order to protect the quarterback, keeping him injury-free, as well as opening up holes in the defense for running backs to slam through. But most of all, he promises that the offensive line will be more physical— much more so than they were last year.

"We're definitely going to be more physical, that was certainly our goal this spring," Hughes said. "We want that to be our trademark — we want to be one of the most physical teams on the field."

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With an offensive line that has gained more confidence, Splithoff should have more time in the pocket in order to hit his receivers, one of the most explosive weapons on this team.

The receiving corps is headed by recently-elected co-captain junior Chisom Opara. He led the team last year in nearly every receiving category, with 581 total receiving yards on 36 catches. But the only category where he does not lead the returners is average yards per catch. That is led by the Tigers' second option receiver, freshman B.J. Symanski, with 26.6 yards per catch. Also returning is sophomore Blair Morrison, who gained 175 yards on 15 catches.

"We improved at that level," Hughes said. "We were able to throw the ball down the field better, and certainly athletically, we are able to stretch the defense a little bit more."

As long as all these offensive weapons stay healthy, Princeton should be able to pick up the slack the kicking will certainly leave without Northrop.