The Top 15 Wins of the Bob Surace Era: Part 4

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
Third Series: Games 7-9

#6 Princeton 39, Harvard 34 • Oct. 20, 2012

The Setting: Harvard entered Week 6 of the 2012 season having won 14 straight games by double-digits. Princeton entered the week having won fewer than 14 games since the start of the 2008 season. Harvard was the reigning Ivy League champion and a dominant choice to repeat. Princeton had won three Ivy League games since 2010 and was picked to finish last. Ho-hum, right?

The Story: Through 48 minutes, this game was exactly what most had expected. Harvard led 34-10 and seemed well on its way to a sixth straight win over Princeton. From there, it was pure madness.

Princeton scored touchdowns and added two-point conversions on consecutive drives to cut the deficit to eight points, and Greg Sotereanos blocked a short field goal attempt to give Princeton an unlikely chance to tie the game. Quarterback Connor Michelsen, on his way to Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors, hit future NFL Draft selection Seth DeValve to get within two points, but the conversion would fail. Mike Zeuli saved the game with a tackle just short of the first down marker, which allowed Princeton one more chance. Michelsen got knocked out of the game on the final drive, but Quinn Epperly came in for his first of two historic touchdowns against Harvard. He lofted a 37-yard pass down the right sideline to Roman Wilson, who fought off tight coverage and pulled in the winning touchdown to the delight (and shock) of a packed Princeton Stadium.

The Significance: Realistically, this is the craziest win of the century. Harvard, winners of 14 straight and leading by 24 points with 12 minutes remaining, wins this game 999 times out of 1,000. On pure excitement alone, it could easily be #1. If Princeton goes on to win the Ivy League that season, this game probably would be #1. A heartbreaking loss to Penn two weeks later dashed those hopes, and Princeton would still enter the 2013 season looking to prove it belonged among the Ivy's top tier. So, while the fourth quarter was fun and memorable, what was the real significance here? A couple things:

• A new ceiling for Princeton football. You could argue the comeback was a little fluky, but nothing about those 12 minutes felt that way in the moment. Princeton needed drives and stops. It got both, every time.

• Toughness and self-belief on full display. That confidence might have existed in the locker room, but it hadn't had a chance to shine on a big stage. You don't erase a 24-point deficit unless you truly believe you can.

• An aura shattered. Nobody on that roster had beaten Harvard. The head coach hadn't beaten Harvard. Heck, nobody in college football had beaten Harvard for a long time. A feeling of invincibility disappeared, and that would matter one year later. Of course, there was one other part of that game that felt eerily similar 12 months later. We'll get to that in time.

#5 Princeton 29, Harvard 21 • Oct. 20, 2018

The Setting: A scheduling change in the Ivy League meant Princeton would have to make back-to-back trips to Harvard Stadium over two seasons (2017-2018). The first of those games was a 52-17 Princeton win on national TV. The second provided Harvard an opportunity to avenge that result and end the Tigers perfect start to the 2018 season. Princeton took the field as a Top-20 team for the first time since 2013, and it had the second-ranked scoring defense in the nation. The Tigers had won their first five games by a combined score of 260-43, and they were one of only four undefeated teams in the FCS. It was fair to wonder how they would react in a close game late, because they hadn't experienced anything close to that in 2018. As it turned out, they reacted well.

The Story: Harvard tailback Aaron Shampklin scored late in the first half to cut the Crimson deficit to 10-7, and the score would remain that way entering the fourth quarter. It was a far cry from any of the first five Princeton games that season, all of which were decided before the end of the third quarter. The Tigers responded with class, starting an in-breaking 20-yard touchdown pass from John Lovett to Jesper Horsted to open a 16-7 lead. That score came after the Princeton defense kept Harvard from taking the lead on three straight drives. Jeremiah Tyler ended one fourth-quarter drive with a 4th-and-1 stop, ad TJ Floyd picked off a pass in the end zone before forcing a fumble. Charlie Volker extended the lead twice in the fourth, but Harvard continued battling back. The Crimson eventually got within one possession and saw an onsides kick squirt loose temporarily before two Tigers jumped on it to secure the win.

The Significance: You could argue 3-4 other Princeton wins over Harvard being more exciting than this one. This certainly wasn't the most memorable game of the 2018 season, nor was it the one that earned the title, nor was it the one that clinched the perfect record. So why is it ranked so highly? From the time Shampklin scored before halftime to the moment Horsted scored in the fourth quarter, the tension for Princeton fans was suffocating. (Example: I was color commentator on the radio that day, along with play-by-play man Cody Chrusciel, and I remember the nerves for that stretch. Cody does too, because when Horsted caught his fourth-quarter touchdown pass, I turned around and hit him in the shoulder much, MUCH harder than I intended. He still brings it up eight years later. Sorry, Cody.)

This Princeton team had been magical for five weeks, but now it was human, and it was being challenged. Harvard kept battling back with two long touchdown passes in the fourth, reigniting that tension and energizing its home crowd. Princeton answered, first with a touchdown from Volker, and second when it recovered an onsides kick that was free for what seemed like a torturously long time. It handled a moment that no member of this roster ever did; the last time Princeton won a one-possession game with Ivy League championship implications was in 2013. The Tigers crushed most of their 2016 and 2018 opponents until this game. This one had drama, and it had resolve, and it set them up for a pretty big game two weeks later.

#4 Princeton 59, Yale 23 • Nov. 16, 2013

The Setting: Princeton entered its most historic rivalry with everything to gain, and everything to lose. The Tigers had won seven straight games overall and its first five in league play, and a sixth Ivy victory would secure the program's first Ivy League title since 2006. It would be Bob Surace's first Ivy title as head coach and complete a remarkable turnaround from a program that had its second straight 1-9 season just two years earlier. There was a bonfire on the line. It was all right in front of Princeton … just like it had been eight years earlier, when a celebratory afternoon turned into a home nightmare against Yale.

The Story: The biggest play of the game wasn't made by any of the All-Ivy standouts. It wasn't a special play designed by the coaches. In fact, it came out of nowhere, and it all but clinched the Ivy title. Yale had just cut an early deficit to one point and clearly felt like it needed to play as aggressive as possible, so it called an onsides kick in the first quarter. Princeton's Jakobi Johnson, positioned on the front line of the kickoff team, grabbed the ball off the bounce and instead of going down, sprinted forward as Yale players ran the other way. That 46-yard return started a 38-3 run for Princeton, which dominated the second half and could spend the final minutes celebrating its 10th Ivy League title. Seven different players scored touchdowns for Princeton, including a pair of rushing touchdowns by Dré Nelson, while quarterback Quinn Epperly accounted for four on his own (3 pass, 1 rush). Senior Phillip Bhaya made his home finale a memorable one, recording nine tackles and returning an interception 34 yards for a touchdown.

The Significance: The first title is special, and this one clinched the first title. It may have been seven years since Princeton won an Ivy League title, but it had also been seven years since Princeton had posted a winning season. Since 2013, Ivy League fans have grown accustomed to seeing the Tigers among the championship contenders in November, but that simply wasn't the case at this point in the Surace Era. It's hard to put into context just how wild this program turnaround was in the moment; Princeton went 2-20 between Game 1 of the 2010 season and Game 2 of the 2012 season. Seventeen games later, the Tigers were Ivy League champions.

This game didn't have a particularly memorable ending, or even a competitive second half. It's easily the least dramatic of the top six games in the series, but there was something satisfying about that too. Young teams don't always know how to put opponents away when the stakes are that high. This Princeton team put Yale down early and never let it get up. It broke the Ivy League scoring record with 43.7 points per game, a total that remains as the second-best total of all-time, behind only the 2018 Princeton offense.

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