Scouting Princeton

The Tigers celebrate last week's win over Lehigh (CREDIT: Princeton Athletics)

Over the last 10 years, you'd be hard pressed to find an Ivy football team harder to read than the Princeton Tigers. Under Head Coach Roger Hughes the Tigers at first surprised pundits with subpar performances, then started to surprise with strong seasons, before falling back below expectations last season.

I've generally been impressed by Hughes' overall improvement on the job. He seemed like one of the weakest coaches in the Ancient Eight from 2000-2004, then turned it around in '05. He's had some stars like Jay McCareins who were stars from day one, and then produced some sleepers who snuck up on you like Jeff Terrell, who nobody truly appreciated until his Bushnell Cup winning senior season in 2006.

Princeton currently has three players on offense and a defensive player who could become the next dark horses from Old Nassau to suddenly turn into big stars. On offense, the trio of QB Brian Anderson, tailback Jordan Culbreath, and wide receiver Will Thanheiser are starting to gel together. Each of them runs the ball well, and that adds a facet to the offense that wasn't there last season. As a pure receiver, Thanheiser is stepping into the role the now-graduated Brendan Circle filled as the big play guy in the clutch.

Anderson is starting to look strong at QB. I think reports of him being the next Terrell are premature... but he could turn out to be better than Terrell too because he is very good runner. We still don't have a huge amount of information, but as a passer, Anderson seems to like to dump off short passes in abundance. I don't see why he won't do that against Columbia as well. This will be another game where the linebackers and safeties are challenged from the get go.

Culbreath has done a good job putting up respectable numbers against good defenses. He could have a huge day if Columbia is not careful.

The defensive dark horse is defensive lineman and co-captain Matt Koch. He seemed like just a role player going into last season, but he had a strong 2007 and now he's a team leader on and off the field.

Princeton's overall front seven on defense seems to be as good as advertised in the preseason. But star lineman Tom Methvin is still out and will remain out this weekend. Columbia may still have to loosen things up with some long passes early.

Overall, the Tigers defense seems better than the offense. But with one game against the Citadel and the other in a rain-soaked Princeton Stadium against the already offensively-challenged Lehigh, I'm not so sure. The nice clear weather predicted for this Saturday could mean a high-scoring game.

The elephant in the room with these Tigers is depth. At QB and RB, there is a thin bench and saying "thin" is being generous. Anderson's backup at QB also happens to be the starting cornerback, Dan Kopolovich. Culbreath is about it at tailback or fullback. Much-ballyhoed freshman fullback/linebacker Jonathan Meyers is out for the season with a broken foot. If either Anderson or Culbreath go down in this game or anytime this season for that matter, Princeton is in trouble.

Special teams are a strong suit. Conor Louden is a very accurate kicker who has never missed any of his 53 PAT attempts in his collegiate career. He doesn't really do the long-distance field goal try very often, but that's not what Princeton expects him to do. Kick returner Peter Ploszek will test the Lions' questionable return coverage for sure.

With Harvard and Yale already 0-1 in the league, Princeton will be looking to make a statement Saturday, not so much against Columbia but against all the Ivies. The Lions can't let that happen.