Football needs league victory for first over .500 record since 1997

"Five-dash-two."

On October 15, 1995, then-Tampa Bay Buccaneer coach Sam Wyche pronounced each word with relish in front of the gathered media.

After three tough years as coach of the worst franchise in pro sports, Wyche's team had finally reached first place in the NFC Central.

From that point, the Bucs went 2-7, costing the man once called an "offensive genius" his job.

The Princeton football team also started its season five-dash-two (and 4-1). The Tigers looked like they would make a run at the Ivy League title, but losses to Harvard and Penn doomed them to fighting for third place.

Now Princeton needs a win in Saturday's 1 p.m. season-ending game against Dartmouth at Princeton Stadium to secure a winning record overall and in the Ivy League.

The Tigers (5-4 overall, 3-3 Ivy) have lost two straight — 44-13 at home to Penn and 7-3 to Yale in New Haven, Conn., and are in danger of posting their third straight 3-4 record in the conference under head coach Roger Hughes.

Gritty early-season wins over Colgate and Brown have been all but forgotten, and the only memories — meltdown against the Quakers, offensive ineptitude at Yale — leave a bad taste in the mouth.

The team thought it had exorcised the demon of the fourth-quarter letdown which plagued Princeton in 2001. Sure, the Tigers collapsed in the 2002 opener against Lehigh, but then they owned the fourth quarter — especially on defense — until last week.

That's when the Elis pounded a tired Princeton defense into submission on a long fourth-quarter drive. The Tiger defenders had stuffed Yale's running attack and given the offense great field position all game long. But when it mattered most, Yale just had more left.

The loss to the Elis made Princeton last in the Big Three for the first time since 1999, as Hughes had beaten Yale his first two years at Old Nassau.

The alumni won't be happy about Princeton's lack of success in the H-Y-P series — the Tigers' last bonfire was in 1994 — but they will be even angrier if Princeton cannot beat Dartmouth.

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Hughes is familiar with the Big Green. He was offensive coordinator for Dartmouth from 1992 until he was hired as the 21st coach in Princeton football history.

The Tigers routed the Big Green 35-14 on a cold afternoon last season during Hughes' return to Hanover, N.H.

Many thought that win — combined with a 34-14 drubbing of Yale the previous week — would give Princeton a leaping start into this season. And, for a while, it seemed to.

But things are no longer rosy, and the Tigers need this game to salvage the season. Also, things probably won't be better next year. Saturday is the last game for wide receiver Chisom Opara, running back Cameron Atkinson, linebacker Drew Babinecz and safety Kevin Kongslie, among others.

So this game means a lot. Junior quarterback David Splithoff, who suffered an injury against Harvard, will probably not return for this week's game. That means sophomore Matt Verbit will line up under center for the fourth straight week.

Verbit is more than an adequate quarterback. He has a stronger arm than Splithoff and led the Tigers to a comeback victory over Cornell in snowy Ithaca, N.Y.

But during the last two weeks, especially, the coaching staff has been unwilling to modify the game plan to fit Verbit's strengths. Splithoff is a more mobile quarterback, and he excels running the option, even though it means he takes more than his share of nasty hits.

Verbit has run the option a few times, and he clearly does not have the same ability on the play as Splithoff. Verbit is a good pocket quarterback, not an option quarterback. He has also been struggling with the swing pass, but that play was inexplicably called many times against Penn and Yale.

To beat Dartmouth and finish with a winning record, the coaching staff must let Verbit do what he does well. Editor's Note: This is the last in a series of columns tracking the football team this season.