Football: Team prepares to rebuild in spring game

The foundation to the season has already been established, with the Tigers’ 12-session spring season concluding with a rainy affair on Saturday, where the public got its first glimpse of the new football team. Like last year, Princeton did not play a traditional game, instead running a series of drills, which included full-team drills and seven-on-seven drills.

“We want to have a chip on our shoulder; there’s no question you want to have a chip on your shoulder,” head coach Bob Surace ’90 said. “But the next game is the next game. You prepare for the next game. We got to get ready for Lehigh [Princeton’s first game at home on Sept. 17]. Everything you did in the past — it’s a new team. It’s more energy; they know where they’re going.”

The Tigers welcomed back several players from injuries, including junior quarterback and tri-captain Tommy Wornham. Wornham made his first completion on Saturday since suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against Brown last season. It is especially important for Princeton to have Wornham back, because their signal-caller is the only returning offensive skill player.

“It feels great to be back out, especially [with my] second year in the system,” Wornham said. “I was getting so antsy on the sideline, so antsy all offseason, [wondering] how I was going to respond and come back. Really watching a lot of film, being back out here, really understanding what defenses are doing, what the goal of our offense is — it’s been really fun.”

Wornham got into a rhythm with several of his new targets, including junior wideout Isaac Serwanga, freshman quarterback Connor Kelley (who caught passes in the spring game, signaling a possible shift in position) and sophomore wideout Tom Moak.

“They’re all coming along. I don’t think we’re going to see much change in the passing offense at all,” Wornham said. “All these guys are working really hard, and we’ve got a good amount of guys that we can just spread the ball around. It’s not like I’m picking out one individual guy; I’m just making my reads. Whatever wideout that’s there, I’m throwing it to him because I can count on all of them.”

“It was nice to see how well the young skill guys are making progress on offense,” Surace said. “It’s good to see the young players getting a lot more opportunity than they had last year and playing well.”

The Tigers’ ground game impressed when sophomore running back Akil Sharp found the corner on the left sideline and crossed the goal line for the first touchdown of the game. Freshman running back Brian Mills and sophomore running back Kevin Navetta were also impressive, which bodes well for offensive coordinator James Perry’s fast and physical offense.

The Tigers’ experience at offensive line will be key for Princeton’s success on the ground, as Wornham is familiar with his protection, led by junior offensive lineman Matt Allen.

The defense was similarly looking to bounce back from the injuries that ravaged the team last season. All-Ivy linebacker and tri-captain senior Steven Cody is not yet back from his season-ending broken leg in the opener against Lehigh last season, but junior defensive lineman Mike Catapano led his unit onto the field for the spring game. While the offense took the first series with Sharp’s touchdown, the defense bounced back on the next, nearly forcing a fourth-down turnover and later stopping the offense, forcing junior kicker Patrick Jacob into a long field goal.

As with the offense, the Tigers look to integrate their younger players into their defensive schemes.

“Defensively, we did some really good things,” Surace said. “It was nice to see some of those young guys — [sophomore linebacker Andrew] Starks made some huge plays, [junior defensive back] Jaiye Falusi made some huge plays at the end. It was nice to see them play with such confidence. [Freshman defensive lineman] Greg Sotereanos was an animal at the end.”

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“There’s always stuff to work on, but we brought a lot of energy today,” Catapano said. “We just got to keep hitting and get used to the changes that we make. We’re a very versatile defense. We’re changing a lot of things always. We just got to come together more as a unit and keep playing with an energy and keep hitting people.”

Princeton will use the spring game as a springboard for a successful and productive summer in preparation for its first game of the 2011 season against Lehigh on Sept. 17.

“Now we got to get back and hit the weight room, attack that and the conditioning and have a great summer and lead that into camp,” Surace said.