After sorry stint, time for Hughes to hit the showers

Head football coach Roger Hughes must be replaced. He has one game remaining in his fifth season as head coach, and his record at Princeton is 18-30 overall, 14-20 in the Ivy League. He has had one winning season, which came in 2002 (6-4, 4-3).

No outside circumstances that may have contributed to these losses are sufficient to save Hughes' job. It is a visible position whose overwhelmingly primary goal is winning football games.

Hughes is a good person and has never been anything but professional to me and to anyone associated with or covering Princeton football. But that does not merit him maintaning his position as head football coach. He does not win games, and much of that is within his control.

Hughes' play-calling has been consistently questioned throughout his tenure. One could easily point to the horrendous outside-toss call against Penn this year. It put Princeton out of reliable field-goal range in the last minute, down one point. But I avoid basing my argument on the play-calling argument because examples and counterexamples abound, and there are enough other reasons to question his coaching ability.

Close games are the domain of coaches. The outcome is a direct correlation to the ability of the head coach. They come down to prudent high-pressure play-calling, and training and motivation of players preparing them to deal with late-game tensions. Hughes' record in games decided by seven points or fewer is 8-15 overall, 6-11 in the Ivy League. 2002 was the only winning season in this category as well (4-3, 3-2).

Hughes has repeatedly spoken of his team finding ways to win games that it would have lost in previous years. He has also lost plenty of games that he should have won.

Contrary to what Hughes has preached year after year, the Ivy League has little parity. Harvard and Penn always finish at the top, Cornell and Columbia at the bottom. At the beginning of the year, one can usually guess the outcome of virtually every Ivy game. Princeton has held form by never beating a team that it "should" not beat, but it has found ways to lose to teams that it "should" beat. It continutes in 2004. The Tigers lost to Cornell this year, Columbia the previous year and a mediocre Yale team in 2002.

Hughes has excused his poor records in the past by claiming that he had players who were recruited by the previous coach, Steve Tosches. This is Hughes' fifth season, and not a single player on the roster was recruited by people who were not his staff. Hughes' best season (2002) was led by Tosches recruits.

Hughes was brought to Princeton from his job as offensive coordinator at Dartmouth. It seems appropriate that the offense would quickly become the best unit on the team. However, the defense has consistently been Princeton's best unit. The defensive coordinator is Steve Verbit, whom Hughes did not bring with him from Dartmouth.

The 2004 football team seemed like it could break through after impressive early-season performances, but it broke down in the fourth quarter of its loss to Colgate and — after beating a one-dimensional Brown team — has been unable to recover that early form.

This year's team welcomed three players back from academic ineligibility. Their absence was Hughes' main source of absolution for last year's disastrous 2-8 season (2-5 Ivy League). Their return has clearly helped the team, but Princeton is still going to finish in the bottom half of the league.

Princeton plays 10 football games a year (nine were played in 2001 because of terrorist attacks), but the seven played within the Ivy League are the only ones that really matter here. I have heard basketball and volleyball coaches refer to non-league games as the "preseason" because they don't matter. All that matters is the Ivy League title. This is even more pertinent for football, which is the only sport at Princeton ineligible for postseason play. The only title they can gain is the Ivy League title. But Hughes' teams have never finished better than fourth in the league standings, and the 2004 Tigers will also finish no higher than that spot even with a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.

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Beating Harvard and Yale in football is the only desire I have heard from the general student body while at Princeton. Athletic apathy disappears when students envision a bonfire. Hughes is 0-5 against Harvard and 2-3 against Yale. The Yale wins came in his first two seasons when his teams were composed of players recruited by Tosches. Penn is a lesser rival but still one that Princeton cares about. Hughes is 0-5 versus the Quakers. Some of the these big losses to rivals, especially against Harvard and Yale, have been in very close games, but, again, that is where a good coach should excel.

Hughes is not a coach who can build a consistently strong program. At best, it will fluctuate with the graduation of good players, and at worst the current trend of losing close and important games will continue for years if Hughes remains head football coach. The Hughes era must end.