Terrell's time to shine

The man who went from his first varsity snap at quarterback last September to leading his team to its best season in years — and nearly a championship — has a secret, or at least an open one. Turns out he hasn't always been such a fluid quarterback.

"I just sucked," senior quarterback Jeff Terrell says of his first weeks freshman year with Princeton's football team.

Though Tiger football fans would never know it now, Terrell, like many other college freshmen, went through some rough times in his first days at Princeton. The added stress of football practice didn't make it any easier for him or his classmates.

"The guys in my class look back at that time [and] we laugh about it now, but it was a real tough time," Terrell said.

One imagines, though, that the adversity has helped sharpen his football acumen — and perhaps his character, too. For as long as football has been a part of his life, it has greatly shaped Terrell.

He started playing while in the fourth grade, playing quarterback and some outside linebacker and defense. The next year, they made it to state championships, a memory that would stay with him.

"[We] played in a foot of snow, and half of the stadium's lights were out," Terrell said. "We got killed, but it was a great memory."

Terrell's father, a football player during his years at Dartmouth, soon pulled him out of public school to go to the University School, a private school in his hometown of Cleveland.

One of his favorite memories from there is of an English teacher who was a Princeton football player — an eerie foreshadowing of Terrell's future.

"[His class] was incredible, incredible," Terrell said. "We'd sit there for an entire 50-minute period and talk about three lines and get everything we could out of it."

His beloved University School provided him with football memories to match. Terrell made the varsity squad sophomore year, and was starting by halfway through the season. He remembers the pressure of suddenly having to step up and be a leader while "just trying to play my best for these guys that I looked up to and perform right away."

Terrell helped lead his team to the state playoffs his senior year for the first time in school history.

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"It's not a big deal for a lot of people, but for our school it was huge. The whole entire community came out to our first playoff game," which they won, 20-3.

Understandably, the shift to college was difficult after experiencing so much success in high school. Terrell recalls breaking up with a girlfriend and being homesick in his first weeks here, and football didn't make things any easier.

"The first two weeks, I remember just not having my head on straight — the transition was rough," he said. "I remember being under center freshman year and not knowing what in the world I was doing."

Fortunately, he did a have a good mentor in David Splithoff '04. When head coach Roger Hughes was giving Terrell what he describes as the "tough love, trial-under-fire" treatment, Splithoff was there for Terrell. "Splitty," as he was known, would stay after practices with Terrell, helping with reads and other intricacies of the Princeton offensive scheme.

"I can remember when I was a nothing — getting yelled at, throwing interceptions — so it humbles you to remember [where you were at]," Terrell recalled.

Indeed, the end product of early adversity has been a mature and poised man, a quarterback and a leader for his teammates both on and off the field.

Even though his teammates give Terrell and his fellow quarterbacks a hard time for often having a less physically demanding practice, they respect him every bit as much off the field.

"Jeff was the man last year," junior running back Rob Toresco said.

Terrell will be a student director with Athletes in Action this year, which provides him opportunities to interact with his teammates in a different setting. Terrell, a religion major who is preparing a thesis on martyrdom in Christianity and Islam, also runs a Bible study with several of his teammates.

For a man so invested in the Tiger football program, Princeton has reason to be proud of one of its more visible sons. And even his open secret — that he did once struggle to make plays, that he has been through difficult times — is only more reason to have confidence in him as another season begins.