Top 15 Wins of the Bob Surace Era: Part 3

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Bob Surace '90 returned to his alma mater with a mandate — from the administration, from alumni, and from himself — to restore Princeton football to the top tier of the Ivy League.
The first two seasons left Tiger fans wondering if that hope was nothing more than an impossible dream.

The 12 years since? They've delivered a run unlike anything Princeton had experienced in generations.

Now in his 15th season as head coach, Surace is tied with Hall of Famer Dick Colman for the most Ivy League titles in program history (four). His 84 victories leave him just five shy of the program record held by Hall of Famer Bill Roper.

Throughout this season, we'll celebrate this era by revisiting the 15 most impactful wins from Surace's tenure. Every two weeks, three games will be highlighted until we count down to the top three, revealed in the final week of the season. Wins from this season aren't included — at least not yet — so, hopefully, the list will require a little reshuffling along the way.

First Series: Games 13-15
Second Series: Games 10-12

#9 Princeton 28, Penn 0 • Nov. 5, 2016

The Setting: Princeton entered November of 2016 exactly where it was a projected to be, thanks to a heartbreaking overtime loss to Harvard two weeks earlier. The Tigers were picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League that season, and they entered the final month with wins over the teams picked sixth, seventh, and eighth. They were every bit the match for the preseason favorite Crimson, but now their backs were fully against the wall. Up first was Penn, which joined Harvard as an Ivy League unbeaten at that point. If the Quakers and Crimson both won on this day, they'd play for an Ivy title the following Friday night on national TV, and Princeton would be eliminated. The Tigers had other plans.

The Story: In the last 15 years, no defense allowed fewer points in Ivy League play than the 2016 Princeton Tigers (10.6 per game). Only one team, the 2015 Dartmouth Big Green, came within two points of that mark over the Surace Era. This was truly the best day for the Ivy League's best defense, and it catapulted the Tigers right back into the Ivy League race. Playing a bend-but-don't-break defense and rising in the biggest moments, Princeton shut out the reigning Ivy champion Quakers for a 28-0 win (Penn came into the game with the Ivy's second-best scoring offense). Eight Princeton players had between 5-8 tackles, including James Gales, who added an interception. Jeremiah Tyler, a future Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, made his mark on special teams, returning a blocked punt by Jesper Horsted for a 14-yard score. John Lovett rushed for a touchdown and threw for another, which was probably noteworthy most weeks, but he was just coming off a seven-touchdown performance one week earlier in Ithaca.

The Significance: After the game, Bob Surace called this arguably its most complete team performance during his time at Princeton, and that was three years after the Tigers had won an Ivy League title. There was buzz around this Princeton team; the quarterback rotation of Chad Kanoff and John Lovett powered an offense that led the Ivies with more than 35 points per game at that point. The defense was led by four eventual first-team All-Ivy League honorees, including Bushnell Cup finalist Kurt Holuba. Prior to this game, people considered Princeton a threat to the contenders. Afterwards, they were considered a threat to the championship. It was a bit similar to the 2012 Brown game — also a home shutout win — in that it proved that a new Tiger roster was making its first claim as being a true title contender.

It wasn't just intangibles though. Harvard won that day, leaving the Crimson as the lone unbeaten in the Ivy League. Had Princeton lost, the Tigers would have been eliminated. Instead, they watched Penn beat Harvard six days later, and all of the sudden they were back atop the Ivy standings.

#8 Princeton 34, Penn 14 • Nov. 20, 2021

The Setting: The 2021 season was like no other in generations. Since the end of World War II, there had never been a Princeton or Ivy League season that had been cancelled, but that was the case in the fall of 2020 due to COVID. Princeton was coming off a remarkable four-year run when it won 31 of 40 games and claimed two Ivy League titles. On the outside, few knew what to expect. Internally, Princeton believed its program culture and creative ways to stay connected would keep that run going through the pandemic. A remarkable 2021 season, which includes one extended game still to come in this series, concluded in Philadelphia, where Princeton played for a fourth Ivy League title in eight years.

The Story: Penn had the spoiler role in mind when Princeton took Franklin Field, and an early Quakers touchdown had the sparse Franklin Field crowd excited. The Tigers, who had already scored over 30 points six times that season, put those upset hopes to rest in a dizzying second quarter that featured four Princeton touchdowns scored by four different players. Momentum fully shifted over the span of 1:09 early in the quarter. Junior quarterback Blake Stenstrom scored on a five-yard carry to open a 10-7 Tiger lead; on Penn's ensuing drive, Tiger cornerback Matthew Winston made a spectacular leaping grab to pick off a Penn pass and returned it 34 yards for another Princeton score. The shock took some time to wear off on the Penn sidelines, but there were more surprises to come. Wide receiver Dylan Classi took a reverse later in the quarter, stopped and threw a corner ball to John Volker in the end zone to open a 24-7 lead. That would be more than enough for the stellar Princeton defense, which got an interception from Christian Brown three sacks from Samuel Wright and at least five tackles from four different players, including eventual Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Jeremiah Tyler.

The Significance: Winning on the road is hard in the Ivy League. Winning Ivy League titles is hard, period. Princeton has won 13 Ivy League championships, and, currently, this is the most recent one. It capped a run of four titles in eight years, and it ensured continuity between the pre- and post-pandemic eras of Princeton football. But for this group, especially a large collection of seniors who had to decide whether they would put their futures on hold to come back after the pandemic to play one more season, it was as meaningful as it could be. We all know now that sports returned in due time after COVID, but in the moment, nobody knew anything. Players on this team found their own ways to train, to stay connected, and to move forward on blind faith. Football did return to Princeton, and so did the Ivy League championship.

#7 Princeton 59, Yale 43 • Nov. 10, 2018

The Setting: Princeton was coming off a victory over Dartmouth (we'll underplay that, as you just might read about that game later in this series) to move its record to 8-0, and it was eyeing two big prizes: a 12th Ivy League title, and the program's first undefeated season since 1964. The Tigers could assure at least a share of the Ivy League title in the 141st meeting against Yale in New Haven, but they knew they would need more offensive pop than they had the week prior against Dartmouth. Collin Eaddy had a plan to add that pop.

The Story: This game had two legitimate "What is happening?" moments, and the first one came less than a minute into the game. Eaddy, making his first career start, sprinted untouched up the middle for a 75-yard score on his first touch to give Princeton a 7-0 lead 10 seconds into the game. Jeremiah Tyler (the same one who helped lead the 2021 Tigers to an Ivy League title), picked off Yale quarterback Griffin O'Connor's first pass of the game, and Eaddy scored on a 17-yard rush moments later to open a 14-0 lead only 54 seconds into the game. It was stunning, and by the time Ryan Quigley scored on a 37-yard run minutes later to open a 21-0 lead, the game seemed finished.

The fireworks had really just started. The two teams would combine to score 81 more points in the game, including another touchdown by Eaddy and a 52-yard scoring pass to All-American Jesper Horsted from fellow All-American and Ivy League Player of the Year John Lovett. But O'Connor threw for a program-record 465 yards on the day, and a 27-yard touchdown pass with 8:42 remaining in the fourth quarter got Yale within two scores after Princeton had led by 31 earlier in the quarter. Princeton fans couldn't believe what was happening, and a few may have been playing out the nightmare scenario in their minds, but a late interception by co-captain Mark Fossati and a final grind-it-out offensive drive would close the upset bid and keep the dreams of perfection alive.

The Significance: This game may not have matched the drama of the Dartmouth victory from the previous week, but it was just as wild in its own way, and it did secure an Ivy League title. Eaddy rushed for 266 yards, the fifth-most in Princeton history, while Lovett rushed for 126 yards, threw for 145 yards, and had three combined touchdowns (two rushing). It was a game with ALL of the letdown potential, and Princeton responded by blowing out Yale in the first five minutes, and then again when the Bulldogs mounted their late comeback. It was a performance of the highest maturity, and an effort befitting a team trying to do something that no other Princeton team could do in more than 50 years. One week later, Princeton had a rather mundane but highly celebratory 42-14 home win over Penn to complete its greatest season in the last 60 years.

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