California cool and collected

In the first quarter of the football team’s season-opening game against The Citadel, sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham and the Princeton offense faced a first-and-15 after a false-start penalty. Forced into a long passing situation for the first time in the game, Wornham kept his cool, took the snap and fired a 14-yard strike to bring the Tigers within one yard of a first down.

Three plays later, Wornham zinged a five-yard shot out to the right side of the field that got tipped off the hands of junior tight end Andrew Kerr before coming to rest in the arms of junior wide receiver Jeb Heavenrich. The catch marked the first touchdown pass of Wornham’s career and his fifth completion in five pass attempts so far in the game. This was — as Wornham’s fast start attested — no ordinary college debut.

By the end of the game, though, Wornham would come back to earth and finish with an unremarkable 198 yards passing, a 59 percent completion percentage, one touchdown and two interceptions. Though his numbers didn’t jump off the page, Wornham’s grasp of the offense and confidence in commanding his teammates’ attention were bright spots in an otherwise glum season-opener.

“Tommy impressed me by being pretty comfortable from the start of the game,” said junior wide receiver Trey Peacock, who was on the receiving end of seven passes from Wornham. “I thought that it would take him a series or two on offense for him to acclimate himself to the speed of the game, but he was confident from the first snap,” he explained. “I think it really helped the offense to see that he wasn’t shaken up at all and allowed us to move the ball efficiently.”

Throughout the game, Wornham displayed a nice mix of poise in the pocket and wherewithal to step outside and scramble for some extra yards when necessary. Wornham’s task was made all the more difficult by the fact that The Citadel geared up to stop the run and force Wornham to prove he could lead the team.

“They took [senior running back] Jordan [Culbreath] out of the game and were going to make Tommy win the game for us,” head coach Roger Hughes said. “I thought Tommy responded pretty well given the situation,” he added. “Clearly, that’s what we’re going to face until we can prove that you need to get off us a little bit. Until we showed them that we could move the ball through the air, they were really gearing up to stop Jordan.”

Wornham was at his best when stepping up in the pocket to fire throws down the middle of the field in between the linebackers and the secondary. Numerous times, Wornham was able to adeptly exploit this coverage to keep Princeton moving down the field. And as Wornham and his offense marched on down, the rushing game began to open up for Culbreath.

“I don’t think there was anything I didn’t expect. The coaches prepared me pretty well,” Wornham said. “The thing that was easier than I expected was that I had seen all the looks The Citadel gave us on defense because of all the situations we had practiced in the prior weeks. I guess my biggest surprise was that I wasn’t surprised by anything they showed me.”

In addition to his poise in the pocket, Wornham displays a surprising amount of agility for a quarterback his size. Wornham often appeared most comfortable making throws on the run and showed an ability to improvise whenever a play broke down.

As impressive as any play Wornham made during the game was the control he demonstrated over the Tiger offense. More often than not, an underclassman quarterback will struggle to command the attention of a veteran offense. Yet on Saturday, this was far from the case. A quick glance to the sideline showed the entire offense circled around Wornham, listening intently to the young quarterback’s instructions.

“During the summer, I had many conversations with Tommy about the prospects of [him] starting [at quarterback],” Peacock said. “The intensity with which he spoke about being successful this season and taking command at quarterback — not just being a game manager but a leader — really strengthened my confidence about him as our starting quarterback.”

For much of the game, Wornham’s confidence in running the Princeton offense was readily apparent. He didn’t throw an interception until less than six minutes were remaining in the fourth quarter, after all. And though Wornham would add one more interception on the ensuing Princeton drive, the two picks put an unfair damper on an otherwise stellar debut.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Our quarterbacks coach [Dave Rackovan] keeps stressing to take care of the ball and not throw any interceptions,” Wornham said. “[Friday] night, he told me to go out and have fun. He said, ‘It’s a game. We’re not going to make you think too much; just go out there and see how it goes.’ And that relaxed me a lot.”

While Wornham may still be getting used to the college game, the San Diego native is a proven winner. As a prep quarterback, Wornham was a three-year starter at The Bishop’s School, where he threw for 4,734 yards and 65 touchdowns in his time at the helm. Wornham’s team improved each year he was the starting quarterback, and as a senior, he led his team to a 12-0 record and a sectional championship.

“Tommy has all the skills that are necessary — he just needs the reps,” Rackovan said. “We decided as a staff that we were going to give him those reps to make the job. We decided a little earlier that, right now, he is going to be the one.”

Wornham also benefited from a fierce, albeit good-natured, competition with fellow sophomore Harrison Daniels for the starting quarterback job.

“I felt the competition with Harrison for the quarterback position definitely helped in my development,” Wornham expained. “It forced me to learn the offense quicker because I had to be perfect in every rep in practice in order to maintain my position in the depth chart,” he added. “Harrison and I are also really good friends, so we helped each other go through reads and watch film, and his understanding of the offense definitely helped me see things from a different perspective.”

With the first week in the books, Wornham will now have time to look at game film and make some adjustments before he tries to lead a turnaround from the Tigers’ 38-7 loss to The Citadel.

Though the final score of the home-opener left much to be desired, Wornham is confident the team will turn its performance around in this Saturday’s game against Lehigh.

“Fortunately I have a lot of weapons around me on the offensive side of the ball and a great offensive line, which takes a lot of pressure off me because all I have to do is get the ball out to the other guys, and they will make plays,” Wornham said.

If his play against The Citadel was any indication, it’s more than likely Wornham will be giving his teammates ample opportunity to make big plays in the future.