Quick Quakers

Lyle Marsh has a lot on his shoulders


Penn has released the names of its incoming freshmen on the Quaker roster.

Historically, Penn and Columbia have had the most overlap going after the same potential recruits so the Quaker class is always worth looking at closely.

There are some other interesting quick observations to note about this group:

-Perfect synergy: 12 incoming frosh offensive players, 12 incoming frosh defensive players.


-If you include 2009 recruit Josh Scott, Penn has just two incoming running backs this year. I see that as a big vote of confidence in rising sophomore Lyle Marsh and his future as the backfield leader for the Quakers.


-Like what we have seen from reports about the incoming Columbia class, speed seems to have trumped size in this year's Penn recruits. The heaviest new Quaker is Jake Schwertner at 275 pounds and a big number of incoming frosh have good posted speed records.


-Think Penn will get back to their traditional pro set with heavier passing in 2010? Think again. Despite the graduation of 2009 leading receiver Kyle Derham, the Quakers are bringing in just three new WR's. By contrast, my still incomplete records show the Lions are bringing in at least four players who played WR fulltime in high school and another four who split time at the position. I see this as a continued shift towards more running at Franklin Field this season.




New Tiger Head Coach Bob Surace


Princeton came out with its football class of 2014 late last week.

The big thing that jumped right out at me was that it includes just two QB's when the Tigers have been so light at that position the last two seasons.

I think this is a result of a new head coach coming into the picture and skewing the recruiting pipeline.

Also, there are reports that one QB recruit for Princeton bolted to walk on at Stanford.

This QB crisis in Princeton is yet another example of how the school's no transfer rule is hurting football. It's also another example of why all the other schools that DO accept transfers should do it and do it often to at least play up the advantage against Princeton!

Oh, and did I mention the Tigers lose all their starting offensive linemen to graduation?

Consider these reasons #125 and #126 for why I think Bob Surace is going to have a rough couple of years to start his tenure at Old Nassau. Princeton and Surace may have similar returning talent as fellow newbie Kent Austin at Cornell. But Tigers fans have higher expectations than Big Red backers and Surace's honeymoon period may be a lot shorter. Also, Austin's previous head coaching experience in the CFL is a major asset Surace isn't even close to matching.