Sports and Math Guy: Tommy Matheson '25

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Tommy Matheson considers himself a "sports & math" guy, so a fall offering of a sports analytics class on campus piqued his interest. Sitting in the classroom minutes before an early-semester session, Matheson was surprised by a text from his girlfriend informing him that one of his coaches was sitting in her economics class.

A few minutes later, that coach caught on that something wasn't right. Bob Surace (yes, that coach was the guy with four Ivy League titles) made his way to the proper spot within Jadwin Hall and found himself near his starting offensive guard right before class started.

The chances of Surace and Matheson taking a class together during football season isn't likely to come up this semester. Truth be told, it wasn't all that long ago when Matheson thought his football career probably would not extend beyond his days at Warren Township High School.

But the sports and math guy just happened to be good enough in both to make something special happen.

• • •

Name a sport, and young Tommy Matheson probably played it.

Football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball … they were all part of Matheson's busy childhood in Gurnee, Ill. He even dipped his toes in the cross country pool, though that brief run came at his mom's request.

He had to start cutting sports as he excelled at his top two, football and lacrosse. He was an all-state and all-conference honoree in both, and he led each team to its respective state finals as an upperclassman.

He didn't just excel on the playing fields. A fantastic student, Matheson was advised to take the ACT earlier than usual because of his math proficiency. He scored well enough on the test to become a serious option for the best academic colleges in the nation, which let him cast a wide net early in the recruiting process.

There was some lacrosse interest out there — MIT offered a chance to play both sports — but Matheson became focused on playing Division I football at the best school possible. Following a golf trip with his father, Matheson took a tour of Princeton in the late winter of his junior year and fell in love with the possibility of becoming part of something special.

"Princeton was always my top choice," Matheson said. "Once I started getting offers, it was the one I was working towards the hardest. I took an early morning visit, the sun was just rising on a Sunday morning, and it was like a private tour of campus. We could really see the history of the place. Obviously, Princeton is so steeped in history, and it really came across."

It would be a long time before he saw campus again, but that was because of a different form of history on campus. The COVID pandemic turned the rest of Matheson's recruiting process into Zoom calls, videos of him pushing his dad's jeep up a hill or finding a way into his high school gym to film workouts.

The work paid off, as Matheson was welcomed into the Class of 2025. Being welcomed into the Princeton gameday rotation took a while longer.

• • •

Niko Ivanisevic was a fellow offensive lineman from Illinois, and he took the mentor's role for Matheson during the fall of 2021. They were closer in that relationship than they were in the rotation. Ivanisevic started nine games that season, while Matheson called himself "the eighth-string center."

Matheson put in the work to climb that depth chart mountain, and he figured he might have been around the fourth-string guy before the season opener at Stetson. One of his teammates pointed out that he was actually listed as the backup center, and that he would definitely be traveling to the opener.

His debut was, to be kind, inauspicious.

"My first two snaps of varsity football were in the rain at Stetson, and I rolled them both back to [Blake] Stenstrom's feet," Matheson laughs. "I got yanked immediately. I figured I was never going to play ever again."

He did play a series the next week, but his career took off in the 2022 Ivy League opener against Columbia. During another rainy afternoon, center Blake Feigenspan went down with an injury and the former "eighth-stringer" was now the go-to option.

"My heart was pounding, and it was raining again, but as soon as I got that first snap back, I was good," he remembers of a 24-6 win in New York City. "I figured it out and we got rolling. I had experienced teammates that year, which really helped."

Matheson ended up playing every game for an offense that ranked atop the Ivy League in passing and finished second in scoring. Though he had built a foundation of gameday experience to set up his offseason, he needed to spend significant time developing skills to fit his new position, guard.

"It's all about quickness," Matheson said of the new position. "I like to be super quick off the ball. Let's say it's a stretch play to the right. You have to scoop a defensive lineman who is playing really tight off the center. You have to be quick, but you also need to have great footwork."

His footwork had been developed in high school, though not necessarily on the gridiron.

"I think lacrosse really helped," he said. "Shuffling on defense in lacrosse transfers over well. I tell the guys at my high school that they have to play lacrosse because they'll get so much quicker. And you get to hit guys with sticks. That's fun too."

• • •

Matheson has had plenty of fun hitting guys at Princeton, where he has played in every game since the start of his sophomore season. He started every game at guard last season, and he returned to that spot last weekend for the 2024 opener at Lehigh. His growth at the position has been clear to at least one of his sports analytics classmates.

"I love the growth Tommy has made every year," said Surace, a former All-Ivy League offensive lineman. "His combination of strength, athleticism and intelligence certainly makes him one of the best interior linemen in my time at Princeton. He is an outstanding leader and terrific worker."

Leadership has been a focus this year. One of the few senior linemen on campus during the spring, Matheson took that role serious and tried to mentor his younger teammates the way Ivanisevic once did for him. His efforts were noticed by his teammates, who voted him one of the captains for the 2024 team.

Matheson knows that leadership must now show on Saturdays. After two seasons with Stenstrom as the Princeton starter, there is a new face behind center. Blaine Hipa made his first start last weekend, and Matheson knows it's the responsibility of a veteran offensive line to make his life easier while he builds his own foundation of experience.

"We are excited to block for whoever is back there," Matheson said during the preseason. "We have dynamic guys back there, people who can make things happen. I hope whoever plays the position will be confident in us, and I think he should be."

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