.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Luke Colella
Being Patient: Luke Colella '25
November 06, 2024 | Football
By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com
Luke Colella was never a big fish in a small pond. Western Pennsylvania football trends closer to one of the Great Lakes than a small pond, and it took Colella one start to assert his presence as a big-time player.
Though his honor-laden career at North Allegheny High School would mostly feature his offensive prowess, Colella made a diving, game-saving interception in the final minutes of his first game to clinch a win over nearby powerhouse Central Catholic. In his senior year, he accounted for more than 900 rushing or receiving yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
You can understand why Colella thought he could make an immediate impact when he traveled east to begin his career as a Princeton Tiger. He embraced the competition, just as he had while playing baseball and basketball throughout his youth. He expected to be challenged.
He didn't necessarily expect to join a wide receiver room containing a trio that can stand with the best wideout classmates in Princeton history. It was a short-term obstacle to the playing field, but as he reflects back, it also provided a path to becoming the best version of himself.
Â
• • •
 Young Luke Colella was probably like most boys his age preparing for their first football practice. Football is king in Western Pennsylvania, and he likely dreamed of having one his touchdowns featured on ESPN (more on that later).
That dream took an early hit when his coaches put him at left tackle for the first practice. In fairness, they were meeting everybody for the first time, so it was all a guessing game. The coaches stopped guessing following a conditioning drill at the end of the session. Colella beat his teammates by a "substantial" amount, and the left tackle experiment concluded.
The future WPIAL 6A all-conference honoree and PSFCA East/West All-Star Game selection was quickly moved to the skill positions—running back at first, then quarterback, and then wide receiver, where he did the majority of his damage. He was a key starter for a strong North Allegheny program and earned the attention of FCS programs around the country.
His uncle Mark had played baseball at Cornell, and former teammates Ethan Manza and Niko Mermigas both played at Dartmouth, so the Ivy League was always on Colella's radar. Princeton was the right fit, and he planned to make an immediate impact for the Orange and Black.
Then came COVID and a trio of offensive powerhouses ready to dominate the Ivy League.
Â
• • •Â
Â
To this day, Colella remains close to Andrei Iosivas, Dylan Classi and Jacob Birmelin, three upperclassman wideouts who would dominate the Ivy League during the 2021 and 2022 seasons (Colella arrived at Princeton in 2020, but there was no season due to the pandemic). Those three players rank in the Princeton Top 15 in career receptions, and Iosivas and Classi rank in the Top 6 in career receiving yards.
Classi was a regular on the offense all four years of his Princeton career. Birmelin ranks as one of the most productive slot receivers of this century for Princeton, and Iosivas is now catching touchdown passes from Joe Burrow on NFL Sundays. There was no way Bob Surace could take those guys off the field.
That was a tough reality for Colella.
"Most kids that get to this level were the guy back home and the team revolved around them," Colella said. "You have a heightened sense of self, and when you get here, you still have that feeling. Then you look at the older guys, and you realize they have it figured out. Learning from them may have been something I took for granted in the moment, but when I look back on it, I realize how vital that was to my development."
When Classi and Iosivas graduated after the 2022 season, Colella took all the lessons he learned over his first two years and put them to use in the offseason. After all, it had now been three years since he was a regular member of the offense, and he didn't have any time to waste.
"In the offseason, it's important to make strides on the field with your skill, but I also think the mental part of your game becomes a much bigger factor," he said. "A lot of what goes unnoticed is what you do mentally to prepare yourself. How do I transfer what I've done in practice to the field?"
Whatever he did, it worked.
Â
• • •Â
Â
When an upperclassman finally finds his way to the field as a starter, it typically takes time to shake off the rust and acclimate to the gameday offense. Colella remembered the feeling of making an immediate impact at North Allegheny, so he figured that was the route to take at Princeton.
He caught a touchdown in his first start. He matched his season high with seven catches in his first Ivy League start. He had 98 receiving yards in a win over nationally ranked Harvard, and he had back-to-back performances with at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown against Dartmouth and Yale, both of whom would go on to share the Ivy League title last year.
His performance against Yale was especially indicative of Colella's role in the offense. He caught seven passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns, including one that forced overtime in the final seconds of regulation.
When the offense desperately needed a play, it knew where to look.
"Luke has been one of the most productive wide receivers in the Ivy League the past two years," head coach Bob Surace said. "His speed, physicality and explosiveness bring a dynamic element to our offense."
Colella admitted there was something special about scoring against rivals like Yale or Harvard, but he also has a soft spot for his first touchdown this season, since it was the one that fulfilled the childhood dream of seeing your own highlight on ESPN. In this case, it was a diving, one-handed grab in the season opener at Lehigh that earned top-play status on ESPN's College Football Final.
That play was one of Colella's 10 receiving touchdowns at Princeton, which ties him at ninth on the all-time list, one short of his good friend Classi and six behind Iosivas. Though he wishes more came in victories, especially this season, Colella's mental training has kept him in the right frame of mind each week.
"You have to keep your head down and working through the tough times with the mindset that the goal of the team comes first," Colella said. "When you do that, everything else falls into place. Individual accolades come from doing the right thing for the team. We don't change our mindset to stop playing hard. You don't always come out on top, but we are going to keep doing things the right way. These guys bought into that, and for some of us as seniors, these are our final games. We're going to go out there and play the right way."
PrincetonTigersFootball.com
Luke Colella was never a big fish in a small pond. Western Pennsylvania football trends closer to one of the Great Lakes than a small pond, and it took Colella one start to assert his presence as a big-time player.
Though his honor-laden career at North Allegheny High School would mostly feature his offensive prowess, Colella made a diving, game-saving interception in the final minutes of his first game to clinch a win over nearby powerhouse Central Catholic. In his senior year, he accounted for more than 900 rushing or receiving yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
You can understand why Colella thought he could make an immediate impact when he traveled east to begin his career as a Princeton Tiger. He embraced the competition, just as he had while playing baseball and basketball throughout his youth. He expected to be challenged.
He didn't necessarily expect to join a wide receiver room containing a trio that can stand with the best wideout classmates in Princeton history. It was a short-term obstacle to the playing field, but as he reflects back, it also provided a path to becoming the best version of himself.
Â
• • •
 Young Luke Colella was probably like most boys his age preparing for their first football practice. Football is king in Western Pennsylvania, and he likely dreamed of having one his touchdowns featured on ESPN (more on that later).
That dream took an early hit when his coaches put him at left tackle for the first practice. In fairness, they were meeting everybody for the first time, so it was all a guessing game. The coaches stopped guessing following a conditioning drill at the end of the session. Colella beat his teammates by a "substantial" amount, and the left tackle experiment concluded.
The future WPIAL 6A all-conference honoree and PSFCA East/West All-Star Game selection was quickly moved to the skill positions—running back at first, then quarterback, and then wide receiver, where he did the majority of his damage. He was a key starter for a strong North Allegheny program and earned the attention of FCS programs around the country.
His uncle Mark had played baseball at Cornell, and former teammates Ethan Manza and Niko Mermigas both played at Dartmouth, so the Ivy League was always on Colella's radar. Princeton was the right fit, and he planned to make an immediate impact for the Orange and Black.
Then came COVID and a trio of offensive powerhouses ready to dominate the Ivy League.
Â
• • •Â
Â
To this day, Colella remains close to Andrei Iosivas, Dylan Classi and Jacob Birmelin, three upperclassman wideouts who would dominate the Ivy League during the 2021 and 2022 seasons (Colella arrived at Princeton in 2020, but there was no season due to the pandemic). Those three players rank in the Princeton Top 15 in career receptions, and Iosivas and Classi rank in the Top 6 in career receiving yards.
Classi was a regular on the offense all four years of his Princeton career. Birmelin ranks as one of the most productive slot receivers of this century for Princeton, and Iosivas is now catching touchdown passes from Joe Burrow on NFL Sundays. There was no way Bob Surace could take those guys off the field.
That was a tough reality for Colella.
"Most kids that get to this level were the guy back home and the team revolved around them," Colella said. "You have a heightened sense of self, and when you get here, you still have that feeling. Then you look at the older guys, and you realize they have it figured out. Learning from them may have been something I took for granted in the moment, but when I look back on it, I realize how vital that was to my development."
When Classi and Iosivas graduated after the 2022 season, Colella took all the lessons he learned over his first two years and put them to use in the offseason. After all, it had now been three years since he was a regular member of the offense, and he didn't have any time to waste.
"In the offseason, it's important to make strides on the field with your skill, but I also think the mental part of your game becomes a much bigger factor," he said. "A lot of what goes unnoticed is what you do mentally to prepare yourself. How do I transfer what I've done in practice to the field?"
Whatever he did, it worked.
Â
• • •Â
Â
When an upperclassman finally finds his way to the field as a starter, it typically takes time to shake off the rust and acclimate to the gameday offense. Colella remembered the feeling of making an immediate impact at North Allegheny, so he figured that was the route to take at Princeton.
He caught a touchdown in his first start. He matched his season high with seven catches in his first Ivy League start. He had 98 receiving yards in a win over nationally ranked Harvard, and he had back-to-back performances with at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown against Dartmouth and Yale, both of whom would go on to share the Ivy League title last year.
His performance against Yale was especially indicative of Colella's role in the offense. He caught seven passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns, including one that forced overtime in the final seconds of regulation.
When the offense desperately needed a play, it knew where to look.
"Luke has been one of the most productive wide receivers in the Ivy League the past two years," head coach Bob Surace said. "His speed, physicality and explosiveness bring a dynamic element to our offense."
Colella admitted there was something special about scoring against rivals like Yale or Harvard, but he also has a soft spot for his first touchdown this season, since it was the one that fulfilled the childhood dream of seeing your own highlight on ESPN. In this case, it was a diving, one-handed grab in the season opener at Lehigh that earned top-play status on ESPN's College Football Final.
That play was one of Colella's 10 receiving touchdowns at Princeton, which ties him at ninth on the all-time list, one short of his good friend Classi and six behind Iosivas. Though he wishes more came in victories, especially this season, Colella's mental training has kept him in the right frame of mind each week.
"You have to keep your head down and working through the tough times with the mindset that the goal of the team comes first," Colella said. "When you do that, everything else falls into place. Individual accolades come from doing the right thing for the team. We don't change our mindset to stop playing hard. You don't always come out on top, but we are going to keep doing things the right way. These guys bought into that, and for some of us as seniors, these are our final games. We're going to go out there and play the right way."
Players Mentioned
WR
/ FootballTrench Talk - Episode 4: London Robinson
Tuesday, October 28
Trench Talk - Episode 3: Joe Harris
Thursday, October 16
Sights and Sounds: Football vs. Columbia (10/3/25)
Tuesday, October 07
First in Football Podcast: Jackson Green
Wednesday, October 01