Football: Injuries, inexperience cause struggles

Earlier that day, the Tigers made history when a 31-0 loss to Dartmouth capped the first season since 1973 that Princeton went without a single conference victory. It was a shocking finale for a year that began with the greatest of hopes as Surace — formerly an assistant offensive line coach for the Cincinnati Bengals — took control of a program for which he once played.

“The season didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to,” sophomore linebacker Andrew Starks said after the game. “We didn’t see it coming.”

First, there was the injury to senior co-captain and inside linebacker Steve Cody — a fractured leg that knocked the pre-season All-America out for the year after the very first game of the fall. Cody was the team’s defensive leader, the linchpin of a back line that was in desperate need of cohesion; though they made every effort to compensate for the loss, the Tigers never fully recovered from Cody’s absence.

The Tigers allowed 33.4 points per game, by far the most in the Ivy League, and only eight teams in the nation gave up more than their mark of 442 yards per game. Four different teams scored six touchdowns in games against Princeton.

As the months wore on, player after player joined Cody on the sidelines, thanks to a combination of bad luck and the bone-crunchingly physical nature of the sport. There was junior quarterback Tommy Wornham, out with a broken collarbone; sophomore defensive tackle Caraun Reid, a victim of a leg injury; and countless other starters and second-stringers, all forced to take their pads off for the better part of the season.

The result was a team sorely lacking in experience, forced to reach deep into its reserves simply to fill out its lineup. Time and again, second- and third-string players — many without a single collegiate start to their name — were asked to take the field at the opening whistle, and Princeton’s opponents consistently took advantage of the Tigers’ inexperience.

However, there were some bright spots during the season. An emotional 36-33 victory over Lafayette was capped by senior running back Jordan Culbreath’s touchdown in double overtime — just one year after Culbreath was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a sometimes life-threatening illness. Senior wide receiver Trey Peacock led the nation in receiving midway through the season and was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection.

But by the time the clock finally ran out on Princeton’s season, the Tigers were left with a 1-9 record — the worst in program history — and not a single win in the Ivy League. It was as frustrating and disappointing a year as could have been expected, and in that cramped room on that fall afternoon, Surace looked toward the future as he took responsibility for the season that never was.

“Everything is there,” he said. “You walk prospects around and there’s a lot to sell [at Princeton]. We’ve got a great group of young men, and I’ve got to do a better job of getting them to be better football players.”