Tigers tangle with Toreros

One of the first signs of greatness in a sports team is the ability to beat the best. Then, once a team is itself recognized as the best, it achieves true greatness when it proves it can keep winning against opponents eager to spoil the cream of the crop.

Tomorrow afternoon against San Diego (3-0 overall), the football team (1-0) will get a taste of the second phase of this process before it has even had a chance to complete step one.

Though the Tigers were picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League preseason media poll and have yet to prove they can hang with the Penns and Harvards of the world, the Toreros will arrive at Princeton Stadium prepared to do battle with what they, at least, consider the most worthy of hosts.

"I feel like this is the best team we'll see the entire season," San Diego head coach Jim Harbaugh said of Princeton. "They are a well-coached team, very athletic. We're wondering how we're going to move the ball against them."

Harbaugh's praise sheds light on just how impressive the Tigers looked in their season-opening 23-21 win over Lafayette. Then again, his modesty with regard to his own undefeated squad may be excessive.

Coming into this season, San Diego had never won a game against an Ivy League school. For that matter, neither had any of the teams that, along with the Toreros, comprise the Pioneer Football League.

But on Sept. 25 of last season, San Diego proved that it could at least engage Princeton in a competitive game. Facing a 21-point second-quarter deficit, the Toreros fought their way back into the game before eventually succumbing, 24-17.

Then, just six days ago, the Toreros broke out of their Ivy-induced doldrums, pulling off a comeback over Yale at home and winning 17-14. The victory was San Diego's eighth straight, and the team improved to 10-4 under second-year coach Harbaugh.

A Pro-Bowl quarterback during his 15-year NFL career, Harbaugh has overseen the rapid development of Josh Johnson, the Toreros' sophomore signal-caller. Johnson picked the Yale defense apart in the second half last week, completing 18-of-23 passes for 159 yards and a touchdown.

As a result of the fits he gave the Bulldogs, Johnson has spent the past week haunting the mind of Princeton head coach Roger Hughes.

"[Johnson] is a playmaker," Hughes said. "When he breaks the pocket, he's looking to throw first. When you come up out of coverage to tackle him, he'll dump it over your head to hit [a receiver]. He creates things when there seems to be nothing there. We have our work cut out for us trying to contain him."

If the Tigers have too much trouble keeping tabs on Johnson and the San Diego offense — which also features versatile running back J.T. Rogan and a solid wide receiver corps — they may be in for a long day.

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On offense, Princeton will have its hands full finding ways to put points on the board against a defense that has grown stingier as games have worn on. Not only have the Toreros held opponents to an average of less than seven points per game, they have been downright untouchable in the second half, during which they have yet to allow a point.

"Defensively, they run around, they hit," Hughes said. "They play relentlessly, they play hard."

The unit is led by linebacker Kyson Hawkins, who leads the team with 26 tackles, six of them for a loss of yardage, and safety Chase McBride, a transfer from Southern California who has already broken up five passes and returned an interception 31 yards this season.

So, with the Toreros making no secret of seeing tomorrow's game as their season's most important test — and at the same time playing at a level that suggests they have never been more prepared to be tested — it will serve the Tigers well to adopt the respect Hughes already has for his opponent.

"We've got to hook it up and be ready for a fistfight this week," Hughes said, knowing full well the dangers that can accompany a team's winning reputation.