"A couple plays here and there, we're 9-1," football head coach Roger Hughes said. Princeton (6-4 overall, 4-3 Ivy) has come far since finishing 3-6 last year.
"Every game is like a playoff game," senior wide receiver and captain Chisom Opara said. In previous years, the captain of the football team would have been laughed out of town for a statement like that, but it is amazing how exciting a winning record can make a team.
Princeton ended its season on Saturday, defeating Dartmouth 38-30. It was easily the best season the team has had since Hughes has been at the helm.
Hughes' teams had a total of six wins in his first two seasons, in which they went 3-7 and 3-6.
"We expect to step on the field and win the game," head coach Roger Hughes said. "It's an expectation that, 'Hey, we should win this game.'"
Not only the Tigers but also the media expected the team to improve this season.
"We were picked second in the league," senior running back Cameron Atkinson said. "We said, 'That's crap! We should be picked first in the league.' We expected to win more football games."
Every game was not a win, but the Tigers only lost one game by more than a touchdown and had a chance to claim victory in every contest this year other than the game against Penn.
"As a coach, you sit there and you say would've, should've, could've. Three of our four losses were by a touchdown or less," Hughes said. "We wish we would've taken a bigger step, but we took a big step."
Princeton roared out of the gates against Lehigh, pulling ahead, 24-7, but let the game slip away in the fourth quarter, losing 31-24 on a last-minute Mountain Hawk touchdown.
Losing games in the fourth quarter was a trend the previous season, and it looked like it would continue into this season. The Tigers bucked the trend the following week, however, and went on to win four straight, all of which were in question in the last quarter.
"We found ways to win in the fourth quarter this year," Hughes said. "That's something we had trouble with before."
Princeton then cruised before falling to Harvard. From that point on, the team struggled with inconsistency on offense and special teams, changing punters more than midway through the year, and losing key offensive players.
The one constant for the Tigers was defense. The same eleven men started every game on the schedule, and they consistently shut down the opposing team. Princeton ended the year second in total defense in the Ivy League and first in pass defense.
The defense kept the Tigers in games that offense was unable to pull out. Only against Penn did the defense play poorly as a unit.
The offense, on the other hand, was inconsistent throughout the year.
Injury was the major reason for this. For the second time in his career, Harvard's defense ended junior quarterback David Splithoff's season with an injury.
When Splithoff went down, Hughes turned to sophomore quarterback Matt Verbit, who had seen limited action earlier in the season, but without success.
Since the quarterback switch, the Tigers lost three of their next four games including the contest against the Crimson.
Splithoff is a good option quarterback, with great mobility, and a good arm. Verbit's arm is better, but he is suited to more of pocket-passing offense, which Princeton does not run often.
Princeton's next opponent, Cornell, took advantage of the quarterback change, and left the option open, knowing that Verbit would be reluctant to run the play. When he finally did run it, the offense came together just in time to secure an exciting comeback win in the snow of Ithaca, NY.
As important as the quarterback position is to any offense, Princeton lived and died by the legs of Atkinson.
The presumed All-Ivy selection was a barometer for the team throughout the season. He had six games in which he ran for over 100 yards. Not coincidentally, Princeton won only those six games.
After reeling off 233 yards in the season finale against Dartmouth, Atkinson broke the 1,000-yard barrier for the season, and he reached third place on the all-time Princeton list for rushing yards and total offense.
"To get 1,000 yards in a season, for the coaches, for the offensive line, for the program — it's just unbelievable," Atkinson said.
There are no playoffs in Ivy League football, so a winning record in the Ivy League is only a couple plays here and there from a championship.
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