Answering The Call: Blake Stenstrom

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Blake Stenstrom has had his back to the wall twice this Ivy League season, and twice he refused to panic. Both times, he answered the call in thrilling fashion, willing Princeton to stay in the Ivy League race in a season where nothing has come easy.

Over the last decade, Princeton has been all substance, but quite a bit of style too. The Tigers have won four Ivy League titles, and they have often done so in dazzling fashion. Sometimes it has looked easy. Often, it has looked fun.

Nothing about 2023 has been easy, and yet Princeton enters the final four weeks of the Ivy season in a tie atop the league standings. Carrying one of the nation's top defenses is certainly a major reason, but championship teams also need a leader who is unflappable, who understands the moment and how to handle it.

Stenstrom has spent two decades developing into that person.

• • •

Before Andrew Luck became a Pro Bowler for the Indianapolis Colts, he was an all-everything quarterback at Stanford who was labeled the "Best NFL Prospect Ever" in a 2011 Bleacher Report story. Luck still has the second- and third-best single-season passing totals, as well as the second-best career passing totals, in the history of Stanford football.

Steve Stenstrom has Luck beat in both categories. The all-time passing king at Stanford, Steve isn't even the most decorated Cardinal in his own house. Wife Lori, also a Stanford graduate, was a multiple NCAA champion, American record holder and was a member of the U.S. National Team.

Though never pressured to be athletes, each of the four Stenstrom children have followed in their parents' footsteps (or swim strokes). While sisters Brooke, Lindsay and Ashley are all high-level swimmers, Blake found the gridiron — and the quarterback position — his home away from home. It turns out he had an incredible coach from Day 1.

"My dad taught me how to throw," Blake said. "You work with a lot of people on your mechanics over the years, but every offseason I'll throw with him. The mentality and intangible parts of the games is what I learned most, like work ethic and how you lead a team."

That development doesn't just happen in backyard throwing sessions. It comes through conversations — sometimes simple, sometimes complex — while watching football together. Blake didn't need a tutorial on the basics of football. He wanted to hear why something worked, what the quarterback might not have seen, and how teams overcome the challenges ahead of them.

He listened, and now he is executing all that he learned.

• • •

The path to Princeton wasn't a straight line. While Stenstrom considered Old Nassau following an all-state career at Valor Christian, he stayed home and accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Colorado. He saw time as a freshman, but he also realized that Colorado wasn't the right place for him.

He entered the transfer portal, and gave Princeton a second look. Attending the top-ranked university in the country was a massive draw, but the football itself needed to be quality as well. Stenstrom was impressed with the level of play, the number of professionals coming out of Princeton — and the Ivy League itself — and felt confident that he would excel there as a complete student-athlete.

He hoped to make immediate connections to the team, but the COVID pandemic made that a challenge. While he started to build some relationships virtually, he did make a far more important connection that year — he married his high school sweetheart, Hannah, during the spring of 2021.

After backing up Cole Smith during the 2021 Ivy championship season, Stenstrom earned the starting role in 2022 and led the Tigers to an 8-2 record. He was named second-team All-Ivy after throwing for an Ivy-best 2,742 passing yards, and he posted a 69.4 completion percentage, second best in Princeton history. He became the first Princeton quarterback to start in back-to-back seasons since Chad Kanoff (2016-17), and he used the offseason to fine-tune several key aspects of his game.

He didn't get to show off many of those skills in the first month of the season, mainly because Princeton seemed to play in the most miserable weather conditions possible for most of the first month. Still, he did face his first of two major tests in a nationally televised showdown with Columbia in the Ivy League opener. Princeton trailed 7-3 in the fourth quarter of a wet and windy home game, and Stenstrom went back to every lesson he learned early on.

"What I've always been taught, and what I always find useful, is that when you get into high-pressure situations, going back to the basics of what you've been taught is important," said Stenstrom, who engineered a 20-play, 81-yard drive that took 10:07 off the clock and sent Princeton to victory. "That drive was a very special drive. I never got a feeling from the guys on the team or from myself that we can't do this. Every play on that drive, we got closer and closer. After the drive, it was a crazy, emotional feeling. I loved it, and that's why we play this game we love."

Stenstrom's second — and far bigger — test came last week, when Princeton was dealing with back-to-back losses and in real danger of falling out of the Ivy League race. The Tigers welcomed undefeated Harvard, who had jumped into the FCS Top 20 and threatened to take a two-game lead on Princeton with only four to play. The offense hadn't looked as sharp as it had in past seasons, but Stenstrom never lost faith.

"I have a lot of confidence in our guys to get the job done," Stenstrom said two days before Princeton's 21-14 win over Harvard. "The guys work hard every day, and as you get more games under your belt, offenses tend to get better. I think our team is on track for that. I don't have any doubt in the guys' ability to make plays."

Stenstrom completed 21 of 36 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns in Princeton's fifth straight win over Harvard, including the game winner to Connor Hulstein with 1:28 remaining on the clock. It was the second time this season that he led a game-winning drive in the final minutes, a testament to his focus, competitiveness and leadership on the field.

"Blake has been incredible in his time here," said head coach Bob Surace. "He processes as well as any quarterback I've been around, including the NFL. His maturity, leadership and work ethic are off the charts. He has tremendous accuracy and his athleticism has become a strong part of his game. And for such a nice person, he has been an exceptional competitor once he hits the field."

Stenstrom knows that there are many more challenges to come this season, starting with a Saturday afternoon showdown at one of the other first-place teams, Cornell. But he has a foundation to build on, and teammates who believe in him.

That might be more than enough.

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