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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Monday Notes: "Special" Honor For Bieck, Highlights, 100 Years At The Bowl
November 10, 2014 | Football
WEEK 8 HIGHLIGHTS
It had been 579 quarters of Princeton football — plus a few scattered overtimes — since a Tiger kicker had converted a field goal longer than the 46-yarder Nolan Bieck drilled in the first quarter of Saturday's 22-17 victory over Penn. Bieck, who also made kicks of 20 and 21 yards in the win, was named the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time in his career.
Bieck's 46-yard kick, which opened a 3-0 lead for Princeton, was the longest in the program since the first quarter of the 2000 Lehigh game (Week 2), when Taylor Northrop booted a 50-yarder for one of his four made field goals that day. Bieck remais the only starting placekicker in the league without a miss (11-11 FG, 26-26 PAT), and his 46-yard kick is the second longest by any kicker in the league this season.
"Nolan has been consistent all year long," head coach Bob Surace said. "We have a lot of confidence in that unit as a whole, and it is great to see how Nolan has progressed each year."
Bieck's kick was one of the longest this century, but it was eight yards short of the Princeton record; Charlie Gogolak, who is on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame, made a 54-yard kick Oct. 9, 1965 against Cornell.
Gogolak, like multiple generations of Princeton kickers both before and after him, has kicked at the Yale Bowl, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary this weekend when the Tigers come to town for a critical 12:30 pm showdown Nov. 15. Several of the best Yale players to ever compete against Princeton at the Bowl will be invited back for the game; 67 former players were selected to one of the Yale Bowl's all-era teams as part of the 100th anniversary celebration.
This game will also mark the most important Princeton-Yale game in New Haven, Conn., since 2006, when a one-loss Princeton team rallied back from three 14-point deficits to stun Ivy-unbeaten Yale 34-31 en route to an Ivy League championship. This time, both teams have one Ivy League loss; while the winner is assured to be in the championship mix on the final day of the season, the loser could be eliminated by the end of the day.