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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
At Front In The Back
October 11, 2007 | Football
Columbia quarterback Craig Hormann had just completed another pass to 2006 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Austin Knowlin. It hadn't been the prettiest game for the Princeton defense, and its back was against the wall again.
It was just one week ago that Princeton held a tenuous 35-32 lead in its league opener. The defending Ivy champion was on the ropes against an up-and-coming Columbia squad. The Tigers had been in this position before, and All-Ivy names like Jay McCareins, J.J. Artis and Tim Strickland had often bailed them out.
Those names are now printed on diplomas.
Hormann dropped back again, this time in Princeton territory. There were fewer than five minutes remaining, and he was looking to burn the Tigers on another deep crossing pattern. Maybe his receiver would have caught it. Maybe he would have scored. Nobody will ever know, because the ball never made it.
Senior Kevin Kelleher has been the ?other guy' in some impressive defensive backfields. When he stepped in front of the pass to record his second interception of the game ? ultimately a 42-32 win for Princeton ? he did it as one of the leaders on a team with its sights set on another Ivy League championship. He knows that titles aren't won in September, but he's also plenty aware of just how damaging a bad start can be.
How is he so familiar with that?
Everybody in his hometown figured it out five weeks ago.
His hometown is Ann Arbor, Mich.
“It's pretty much a one-show town,” Kelleher said of Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan and site of the shocking Sept. 1 victory by FCS power Appalachian State over the Wolverines. “My brother Mike was at the game. He said people just sat in the stands. They didn't know what to do.”
Kelleher, a Wolverine fan growing up, was just as stunned when he found out. It was during one of Princeton's first practices of the season when an injured teammate told everybody of the score. Appalachian State may be an unknown to fans of the big conferences, but the Tiger senior was plenty aware of who this team was.
“I think it's great a great thing for college football,” he said. “They said that kind of upset can't happen. They think March Madness can't happen in college football. I think it shows how legitimate teams are in the FCS.”
Two of the legitimate teams, both of which are 2006 conference champions, will do battle today. Hampton is the three-time defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion, while Princeton stunned the Ivy League faithful in 2006 with its first title since 1995. Kelleher grew up seeing the likes of Charles Woodson and Tyrone Wheatley, two of his early favorites, and stadiums filled to the masses. Perhaps there was a time when he wouldn't have considered the likes of Princeton and Hampton as big-time college football. But his big brother helped change that view.
Kevin Kelleher was a top-notch athlete throughout his earlier years, but his first sport was soccer. He traveled nationally with the prestigious Olympic Development Program, but when his time came to choose a fall sport at Huron High School, he chose football. He was an eventual team MVP and captain who excelled at quarterback and never played a snap on defense.
While he was in high school, his brother Mike was in the midst of a college football career. He transferred from St. Mary's College to Lehigh and played on some of the strong Mountain Hawk squads in the early part of this decade. Kevin came out to watch a couple of his brother's games, and while none of them featured 90,000 screaming fans, he was plenty impressed.
“When I started to get recruited, I did hold on the dream of playing at one of those big programs,” said Kelleher, who went to the Colorado camp and briefly considered an offer to come in as a walk-on. “But I knew how good I-AA football could be. When I decided to come to Princeton, I remember hoping I could play here instead of worrying if I made the right decision.”
Kelleher could play here. Just not immediately.
As a freshman, Kelleher ? who was moved immediately into the defensive backfield ? played behind All-Ivy safety Brandon Mueller, who would ultimately be invited to an Indianapolis Colts mini-camp. While being used on special teams, his main responsibility was to get stronger and smarter.
“It helped watching Brandon play that year,” Kelleher said. “When Tim got hurt and I played the whole spring camp, the learning curve really took off.”
It wasn't just the opportunity to practice that helped him pick up the position. He worked hard in the film room, and he still does. He plays with great energy, but he also prepares himself to play with that same energy.
“He is a high-energy, high-efficiency player,” defensive backs coach Eric Jackson said. “In workouts, he finishes drills first, and he's the first to get in line. He wants to always be right, and he makes sure to put himself in the right place.”
That work on and off the field prepared him for the opportunity to play as a sophomore. He first turned heads in a 2005 home game against Colgate, when Raiders quarterback Mike Saraceno appeared to hook up for a long touchdown pass to Eric Burke down the visiting sideline. Kelleher was nowhere near the pass, but his speed and determination was on display in a dead sprint that cut Burke off at the 8-yard-line. The Raiders still scored on the drive, still won the game, but the play showed a lot of what Princeton would get out of Kelleher over the next two-and-a-half seasons.
It was also one of the few times he would take the field and not win.
When people remember the magic of the 2006 season, they tend to remember November first. There was the magical overtime touchdown against Penn, the league championship-clinching win against Dartmouth and, of course, the 34-31 comeback win at the Yale Bowl.
What they tend to forget was the October afternoon when undefeated Princeton and undefeated Harvard battled for the top spot in the Ivy League. Without a win that day, there would be no November to Remember.
And there might not have been a win without a performance from Kelleher to Remember.
A touchdown catch by Brendan Circle gave Princeton a 31-28 lead with 4:37 remaining on the clock. Harvard took the field with enough time to get into field goal range, and quarterback Liam O'Hagan looked to convert a 3rd-and-short with a quick slant pattern. Kelleher didn't need to make a highlight-reel catch. He didn't even need to make a terribly impressive one. The ball went right to him, because he was in the right spot.
The Crimson got one more chance with just over a minute remaining. This time, a deeper attempt was tipped at the line of scrimmage and went straight into the air. At least two players from each team were in the general vicinity of the ball, but nobody outleaped Kelleher for the pick. They were two interceptions of two different varieties, one because he was positioned correctly and one because he simply wanted it most.
And those two interceptions clinched the first Tiger win over Harvard in Princeton Stadium history.
“As a defender, I just remember having fun that day,” he said. “I enjoy being in the pressure situation. That game meant a lot. I started expecting myself to get picks.”
He would get two more during the season, including one in the double-overtime victory against Penn. He would also be part of the memorable second-half comeback at Yale, when a defense that simply could not afford to allow a second-half touchdown pitched a near-
perfect final 30 minutes.
“I credit the character of the defense and our ability to play as a team,” he said of the 34-31 win at the Yale Bowl. “We didn't need to make big plays. We had to do our job.”
That job gave Princeton a win in the second-longest active rivalry in college football. The longest active rivalry is Lehigh-Lafayette. Both Kelleher brothers know the feeling of winning such a game. Neither will ever garner the attention of Michigan-Ohio State, but it couldn't be any more memorable to either of the brothers.
When the likes of Justin Stull and Abi Fadeyi graduated, the linebackers were seen as the clear weakness of the 2006 team. They knew it and used it as season-long motivation. Nine wins later, they weren't viewed as a weakness any longer.
That label was handed to the defensive backfield this season, following the graduations of Strickland and Artis.
“Everybody saw losing those linebackers two seasons ago as a problem, but we knew how good the guys coming up were,” Kelleher said. “It's the same thing this season. We have a lot of solid players back there, and we have to do things by committee.”
The committee includes, among others, sophomores Dan Kopolovich, Cart Kelly and Wilson Cates, junior Tom Hurley and seniors Joe Cerreta and Blake Williams. But that committee has a leader.
“When somebody needed to get in a teammate's face, Tim was good at that,” Kelleher said. “I have had to assume that role somewhat, and I try to make sure everybody is in the right position before the play.”
His intense study has not only aided his own understanding of the position, but it also keeps the defense active in the quick-paced world of college football. When a play comes in, it's Kelleher's job to make sure the coverage is correct and any necessary checks are called. It seems to come somewhat naturally to an already-vocal player, but it also mandates quick decisions and an absolute knowledge of the defense.
Coming from a player who only began to learn the position when he got to Princeton, it's all the more impressive.
His athletic pedigree is unquestioned, and he probably could have been a solid player without the significant work he puts in off the field. But leadership and excellence demand more.
Kelleher wants one more championship desperately, and he knows that Princeton has the talent to get it done. He also knows what needs to be done to get there. If he was in the wrong place last weekend, maybe that pass gets by him. Maybe his team loses.
Don't believe anything is possible in college football?
Go visit him hometown sometime. They'll tell you.