A new season kicks off

Pop quiz: What former NBA player replaced Magic Johnson in the Los Angeles Lakers' starting lineup after the Hall of Fame point guard was diagnosed with HIV prior to the 1991-92 season?

If you know the answer, chances are you're going to be in Bethlehem, Pa., tomorrow afternoon for the football team's season opener against Lehigh.

On the field. As the starting quarterback for the enemy Mountain Hawks.

Sedale Threatt, the eponymous son of the answer to the trivia question above, knows football at least as well as he does his father's career.

Threatt threw 12 touchdowns for Lehigh (1-1) last season next to just four interceptions while checking in as the team's third-leading rusher. He is the reigning Offensive Player of the Week in the Patriot League after throwing for 223 yards and rushing for 85 more in the Mountain Hawks' 31-28 victory over Villanova last Saturday. The Tigers will have to be creative in their efforts to contain him.

But, in many other ways, Princeton's opponent will itself be trivial as the Tigers look to discover where they stand coming off a wonderfully surprising 2005. For the second straight year, Princeton has been picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League media preseason poll, despite last year's impressive second-place finish.

Lending credence to that bleak forecast is the graduation of 2005 standouts like cornerback Jay McCareins, tight end Jon Dekker, linebacker Justin Stull and offensive lineman Ben Brielmaier. Two of last year's strongest units — the linebacking corps and the offensive line — have gone from being composed of almost exclusively seniors to being marked by inexperience.

What makes the prediction puzzling, though, is the return of a dependable nucleus of playmakers who have not forgotten what it took for Princeton to win seven games last season.

Senior quarterback Jeff Terrell, junior fullback Rob Toresco and senior tailback Cleo Kirkland started every game in 2005 and teamed up for 88 percent of the Tigers' total offense. Senior defensive backs Tim Strickland and J.J. Artis accounted for six of the eight interceptions by Princeton players not named McCareins last season, and neither missed a start.

The season opener will be a test of whether or not such stars can carry the Tigers as their greener teammates adjust to being starters on the fly.

"I think we've got some talented kids," head coach Roger Hughes said, "but I just think that when you've played games, the speed of the game gets slower and the subtleties of the position, as you get more experienced, become more easily executed."

First-time first-stringers will be looking for their comfort zones on both sides of the ball, including three new starters at linebacker and at all five spots on the offensive line. Princeton's depth chart lists freshman Mark Paski as the starting right tackle for tomorrow's game, which would make him the first Tiger offensive lineman in history to start his first game as a freshman.

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The most scrutinized debut, though, may well be that of sophomore placekicker Conner Louden, whose unenviable task it is to replace Derek Javarone '06, the all-time Ivy leader in field goals.

As far as a replacement for Dekker — last year's leading receiver and a current member of the Pittsburgh Steelers' practice squad — a trio of promising wide receivers must develop into goto options in the passing attack. Seniors Brian Brigham and Brian Shields made cameos in the starting lineup last season, as did junior Brendan Circle.

"Individually, we want kids to make plays," Hughes said. "As a younger player, maybe you tend to wait for someone else to do that. We clearly need our young guys — some of them aren't young, some of them are just inexperienced — to have the mindset to say, 'Hey, it's on me now, I have to make the play, I can't wait around for someone else to do it.' "

Tomorrow, Hughes might have to depend on a few more newbies than he can normally expect to — especially on defense. A rash of injuries during the off-season and preseason could severely compromise senior leadership on the defensive line, in the secondary and in the linebacking corps.

In Princeton's scrimmage against Yale on Aug. 31, Artis, Strickland, linebacker Brig Walker, defensive end Tom Methvin and nose guard Jake Marshall — all seniors and projected starters — were sidelined by injury.

While the majority of those Tigers will play through the pain Saturday, Princeton will need to be at full strength to contend with a talented Lehigh squad.

The Mountain Hawks are perennial contenders in the Patriot League, coming off an 8-3 season. Their new head coach, Andy Coen, will give them a special advantage against the Tigers, having spent the past six seasons as the offensive coordinator for arch-rival Penn.

"[Lehigh] is always a team that you circle on your calendar because you know they're going to be one of the better teams you play that year," said Princeton co-captain and senior linebacker Luke Steckel. "I know they have a really athletic quarterback."

Sounds like someone's been studying up on his trivia.