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Football: A new head coach moves in

On Nov. 23, Princeton football players woke up without a head coach for the first time in 10 years. It was an odd feeling, not having anyone in charge. The assistant coaches were still around, but without one man to look to as the program’s figurehead, the players were experiencing an unfamiliar dynamic.

Then, on Dec. 23, the uncomfortable wait ended when news of a new coach interrupted team members’ winter breaks. Former All-Ivy center and current Cincinnati Bengals assistant offensive line coach Bob Surace ’90 would take over as head coach when the Bengals’ season ended, the players learned. They would no longer have to worry about the team’s future.

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Since Surace has yet to take over full-time, a number of details about the team’s operations remain unclear, such as whether the previous coach’s assistants will still have jobs on the Tiger sideline. Questions like this will likely be answered in the near future (see “Staff Comes Together,” page 7), but the month without a coach and the subsequent transition time after Surace’s hiring have been difficult for a squad looking to improve upon three straight losing seasons.

Recruiting

The day that former head coach Roger Hughes was fired in late November, Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67 told The Daily Princetonian that a replacement would be found no later than mid-January. Surace was hired just over one month after Hughes’ firing, a decision that came significantly sooner than many expected.

The early announcement must have come as a relief to outsiders and players worried about recruiting — an area where a team without a head coach often takes a hit. The assistant coaches who worked for Hughes were on the recruiting path, trying to convince high school seniors to come to Princeton, but they did not know if they would have a job with the football program next year.

Sophomore kicker Patrick Jacob noted that recruiting could have suffered a blow, but that this drawback would be more pronounced at other schools under similar situations. “I’m sure it’s kind of awkward [for the assistant coaches who were recruiting after Hughes was fired], it has to be,” he explained. “There’s no way it wouldn’t be, because there’s so much uncertainty.” But you have to take into consideration that guys who are getting recruited by Princeton aren’t coming to school because of the coaches — they’re coming because it’s Princeton.”

Mike Higgins ’01, a middle linebacker and captain for the last Tiger squad to go through a coaching change, voiced a similar sentiment, explaining that while coaching is important, it is not the final factor for most recruits. “Princeton is a very special place, and a very special institution,” he said. “I think that kids are attracted to Princeton for a variety of reasons — football being one of them — but not the only one.”

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Still, while other Ivy schools were able to provide definite information about their football programs to recruits, the Tiger coaches could only speculate. Only Cornell — who Princeton beat last season — suffered a similar situation. Their head coach, Jim Knowles, recently left the Big Red to take a job as a defensive coordinator at Duke.

Though Princeton may not suffer from the same recruiting problems as other schools, the team still needs a strong recruiting class. The Tigers were hobbled by injuries last year, finishing the season with 27 players on the injured list. 

While some of these players should return healthy next season, a few integral team members will have graduated. The holes in the linebacking corps — which will lose seven players to graduation — and the offensive line are especially glaring. Of the 18 offensive linemen on the roster this season, eight were upperclassmen, and four of the five starters will graduate this spring.

The recruiting process is long and complicated and involves several weekends where prospective players can visit campus and stay with current players. Some of these weekends were held while the head coaching position was vacant, leaving the current players in the potentially awkward position of describing the team.

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Junior wide receiver Trey Peacock said the recruits seemed to be understanding of the situation, adding that some of them noted that the assistant coaches they spoke with were very honest about the then-uncertain future of the program.

One man who knows a lot about what Surace is currently going through is Yale head coach Tom Williams, who took over the Bulldog job last year and led the team to a 4-6 overall record in his first season.

Williams noted in an interview that new coaches worry about recruiting, since players can lose interest between coaching regimes. “Any time you’re going through a transition this time of year, there’s some anxiety with recruiting, because for some of the guys who are being recruited by Princeton, there is some lag time where communication is not as frequent as it had been,” he explained. “So what you do as a head coach is hit the ground running.”

Now that Surace has taken over, he has already personally contacted some recruits. “I’ve obviously reached out to the kids to share my experiences,” he said. “The kids have been overwhelmingly receptive to this university.”

Part of the Tigers’ appeal could also be Surace’s unique pitch. No other Ivy League coach, except Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens, graduated from the school where he currently coaches. Surace’s status as an alumnus could come in handy in recruiting. “[He can share] real stories about his experiences at Princeton, which I think will be invaluable,” Jacob explained.

Strength and Conditioning

During the time between Thanksgiving and winter break, the team often attends optional workouts. These workouts have not changed significantly since Hughes’ firing, since they are still designed and led by Director of Strength and Conditioning Jason Gallucci.

Junior inside linebacker Steve Cody, who finished this season fifth in the nation and first in the Ivy League in tackles per game, noted that the workouts had not deviated from what the team was used to. “We’re going back to basics with our lifts,” he explained in December.

Gallucci noted that even if Hughes had remained the head coach, the training regimen would have stayed the same. 

“This time of year is slow from a training standpoint, and the coaching staff is typically on the road recruiting,” he said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian in late December. “So the head coach wouldn’t have much of a physical presence during the early part of December into winter recess.”

Peacock confirmed that nothing remarkable had changed with the team’s training. “Coach Gallucci has had the reigns of the strength-and-conditioning aspect for a long time,” he explained.

Surace echoed the team’s confidence in the program. “I don’t think the [team] missed a beat, to be honest with you,” he said. “I talked with a bunch of the players, [and] if you ask them, they have not missed a beat.”

This is the first article in a two-part series about the football team’s transition to a new coaching staff.

Correction appended

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that no other Ivy League coach besides Surace graduated from the school where he currently coaches. In fact, Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens is an alumnus of Dartmouth.