These New Tigers Will Give the Holdovers a Run

BY JAY GREENBERG

Most recruiting rating services gave Chad Kanoff three stars as a pro-style quarterback and ESPN.com went to four.  Out of the quarterbacks Bob Surace watched, Kanoff was THE star.

“He was the best thrower we saw on film,” said the Princeton coach about the highest profile recruit by the Tigers in the I-AA (now FCS) era.  “He has an accurate arm that is strong enough to get the ball downfield and great height (6-4) to see over the defense.

“Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, California) ran a sophisticated, college-level, dropback passing game and Chad’s timing and ability to make decisions quickly were mature. The ball comes out of his hand effortlessly.

“He is what I would call a sneaky good athlete, too.  I don’t think they designed runs for him but when he does run, he covers a lot of ground quickly.  Usually the taller guys are not flexible but he has really good short-area quickness, more than you would think.

“James (Offensive Coordinator Perry) and I went to see him play basketball in a big game against one of the better teams in the state of California and Chad competed his tail off.  He wasn’t a go-to scorer, but he threw down a dunk during the game, played defense and rebounded and did all the gritty things that a coach loves.”

Basketball often serves as Surace’s cross-checker for athleticism and competitiveness, commodities he has found in large supply in Princeton’s football class of 2017, in addition to superior Ivy League level speed. 

“I don’t know if we have anybody as fast as John Hill last year, but we have a lot of explosive guys in this class at different levels,” said the coach.

Despite the depth brought to Princeton in the previous two recruiting classes -- five sophomores and two freshmen started the 2012 finale against Dartmouth -- Surace still believes there are incoming players at the speed and kicking positions who will compete to get on the field as freshmen.

RUNNING BACKS

“A.J. Glass (Lake Oswego, Oregon) has good balance, vision, quick feet and size [6-0, 200] to handle a lot of carries and initiate contact,” said Surace.  “He started off his senior year with [962 yards] in four games, then broke his collarbone, which may have been a blessing for us because some schools stopped recruiting him and we stayed on top of him.  He came back after missing five games and finished off the year with 198 yards in the state semifinal game.”

“Joey Rhattigan (Naperville, Illinois) is six feet and 200 pounds with really good feet, a physical runner with vision and balance who flashed explosive speed and is really powerful in the finish of his runs.  He would carry 30 times and get stronger as the game went on.  He ran for [2149] yards on the season and [346] yards in a quarterfinal playoff game.”

WIDE RECEIVERS

“Last year we took three, then moved (Anthony) Gaffney and (Matt) Arends to defensive back.” said Surace.  “This time we have some receiver-DBs that we have decided to look at first on defense, but still have four we will start at receiver.

“Lawrence Wilson (Portland, Oregon) is in the mold of receivers like Seth DeValve and Matt Costello, players who can create matchup problems with their size and speed.  Lawrence ( 6-2, 205), runs well enough to be a deep threat, but is really crisp in his routes and will be a big target in the red zone.”

“[Receivers coach) Dennis Goldman loved the film of James Frusciante (Westport, Connecticut) so much, he called me over and said, ‘You gotta see this, it’s like watching Matt Costello.’  The route-running, body control and hands were eerily similar.  Like Matt, he is a multiple sport athlete who can return punts, too.”

“Trevor Osborne (Peoria, Arizona) also reminds me so much of the successful receivers we have had here. He catches the ball naturally and his body control and adjustments are terrific for a guy who is 6-2, 195.  We thought right away that this is a guy who has the maturity to be a good player in this league.”

“Evan Perkins (Menlo Park, California) is two inches taller than Roman Wilson and has separation ability to be able to so some inside slot things like Roman does.  We really like the way he makes plays.“

TIGHT ENDS

“When I saw all the film of juniors, Scott Carpenter (Vienna, Virginia) was the tight end that stood out the most,” said Surace.  “At camp, he showed so many of the characteristics we saw with Harry Flaherty (’11). He is explosive, strong (at 6-3, 210), has really good hands, sticks his nose in as a blocker and is tough, playing last season with a high ankle sprain and not missing a play.  I have never seen a guy taped that much, he must have used up the whole Gonzaga (College High School) tape budget.“

“Nick Peabody (West Yarmouth, Massachusetts) was one of the top players in the state last year, leading Barnstable (of Hyannis), not an historically strong team, to the state championship game as a quarterback. There were three or four wins where he led them down the field at the end of the game. He is either going to be in that Quinn Epperly-Kedric Bostic mold of being an athletic quarterback that throws the ball well enough or will be in the Seth DeValve-Connor Kelley mold as a receiver. And at 6-3, 225, he is even bigger than those guys.”

DEFENSIVE BACKS

“James Gales (Brooklyn, New York) probably was the fastest guy (4.55) at our camp,” said Surace.  “He was a running back-DB at Brooklyn Tech who is going to play corner for us because it’s just so hard to find cornerbacks. His cover skills are good because he is so smooth in and out of his cuts and breaks, in the mold of  Jakobi Johnson for size, strength, speed and physicality.  James might be able to help in the return game as well.”

“I didn’t know until the end of the recruiting process that the father of Markus Phox grew up in Princeton and once worked at the University.  That’s a pretty strong tie to Princeton coming out of Wichita, Kansas.  Markus played quarterback last year but his junior year he played DB and was a good tackler with one of those body types (6-0, 185) where you can see him getting big and stronger. We could wind up with a longer corner like Gaffney.”

“Durelle Napier (West Islip, New York) already has that kind of body (6-0, 195) and, like Anthony, he spent a year at (Loomis-Chafee) prep school, where he really came into his own as a post-grad playing against older guys.  He is a long, physical corner with good body control who will be a good matchup for the big wide receivers in this league.”

“Teddy Graves (Chappaqua, New York) ran a 4.6 at our camp.  He is a multiple skill position player who (at 6-0, 190) could play anything from running back to wide receiver to corner but based on what he did at our camp, I think he is a safety.  He has very good ball skills, instincts and vision and is explosive, like his Dad (Butch) who is Yale’s all-time leading basketball scorer and third all-time in the Ivy League.”

“Sam Huffman (Lima, Ohio) is a wide receiver-DB who is going to play at safety, at least initially.    He is really athletic, has good length (6-1, 180), plays the ball and runs well, with good hands, and really good length (6-1, 180).  We’ll get him stronger with more time in the weight room as he finishes up his other sports.

“Dorian Williams (Streetsboro, Ohio) rushed for over 2000 yards as a running back.  We may play him at both – he scored a lot of touchdowns -- but I am leaning towards safety because he’s really explosive and physical.”

“Tyler Roth (Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania) didn’t play corner until his senior year but at camp we loved his quick feet and he played the ball well.  That was before he became a first-team all-state punter, practically every one of his punts at 40-41 yards with hang time.  In his senior year, I don’t think he had one for fewer than 37-38.  He’ll compete (with Brendan Sofen) for the punting job right away and for a corner job eventually.”

LONG SNAPPER

“Patrick Hall (Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania) played other positions in high school but specialty-rating services had him as one of the top five or six in the country as a long snapper.  He fills an immediate hole (created by Jason Tiemeier’s graduation.)  We had him at camp and he is extremely accurate, with velocity.  He has a great chance of taking charge immediately.”

Coming:  The linemen and linebackers.

jaygreenbergsports@gmail.com

2013 Alumni Football Game

 

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Tiger Class of 2017 is Deep in Talent and Purpose

BY JAY GREENBERG

It is a high compliment to the progress of Tiger football that it found itself on Chad Kanoff ‘s radar.  But he chose Princeton in part because it has been on the map since 1746.

“An opportunity to go to the No. 1 ranked school in the country was meaningful to Chad,” said Coach Bob Surace.  “And the more we built a relationship, I think he saw that we had a lot of good football players, too. 

“We’re not going to be on national television on Saturday night on ABC in front of 100,000 fans. But we’re going to play really good football. We have a good track record of developing players and I think he will work to be the best player he can be.”

Kanoff, ranked ninth in the nation among recruited quarterbacks by ESPN, is the most anticipated Princeton catch since Keith Elias in 1990 and perhaps the highest-profile Princeton recruit of the I-AA era. Nevertheless Kanoff, from Harvard-Westlake High School in North Hollywood, CA, is going to have to beat out Connor Michelsen and Quinn Epperly, who combined for 2114 yards, 12 touchdowns, and a 60 per cent completion percentage in 2012, their sophomore seasons. This is a reflection of how two outstanding recruiting classes under Surace has helped bring a third one.

“There is not a guy we got who wasn’t really high up on our board,” said Surace. “It wasn’t like we said, ‘we have three spots left so let’s take these three kids and see how it works out.’

“Every one of these guys is somebody we felt strongly about in the last summer and into early fall. 

“You don’t get everybody. There are guys at certain points who leave for other reasons because they wanted something else.  But we have a well-rounded class by positions, with a lot of explosive players.  Our pass rushers, linebackers, tight ends, and offensive linemen are really athletic.  Our receivers remind us of Matt Costello and Seth DeValve, heckuva football players who have had encouraging starts to their careers.

“We wanted to emphasize certain things like speed at linebacker and we found guys who can run and make plays.”

Recognizable names and backgrounds include offensive tackle Mason Darrow of Lake Barrington, IL, the brother of Princeton basketball player Mack Darrow ’13.  Defensive back Teddy Graves is the son of Butch Graves, Yale’s all-time leading basketball scorer.  

Linebacker Scott Northcutt comes from Saint Thomas Aquinas School in Fort Lauderdale, FL, which a year ago sent to the Tigers Nolan Bieck and Max Lescano.  Defensive lineman Henry Schlossberg joins Kanoff from Harvard-Westlake in a 30-member class that includes 23 players who attended Princeton’s summer football camp between their junior and senior years.

“We try to build a relationship,” said Surace.  “We try to avoid seeing a guy’s highlight tape in December and making a decision without having done much homework on him.

“The guy is a good player but doesn’t understand everything from an academic and community standpoint and about fitting into the team and our expectations.

I say it all the time: Very few people pick their spouses off speed dating. We are recruiting the most talented kids in the country in many ways, kids who have tremendous football and academic ability and want to be at a place that meets their needs.  They need to know our expectations, on and off the field.

“Harvard-Westlake is an unbelievable school, one of the best in the country academically.  Chad had a 40-minute commute every day to attend and we had two of three other guys in this class doing similar things. Kids like that values education and the opportunities Princeton will provide during and after college.”

Kanoff also understood that there are three quarterbacks, Kedric Bostic ’16 included, who will make a prize recruit earn his way onto the field. Yet the program isn’t any more loaded at quarterback than many other positions.

“We took our top four receivers (James Frusciante, Trevor Osborne, Evan Perkins and Lawrence Wilson) and feel really good about that, but you don’t want to pass on a guy that is a better player,” said Surace. “So at the end of the day I leave some spots for the best athlete available. 

“We only took three offensive linemen, not five or six, because we have so many returning.  Depth gives you that luxury.

“At running back AJ Glass and Joe Rhattigan stood out in the DiAndre (Atwater) and Chuck (Dibilio) mold of good sized guys with explosive ability. Because of that depth we have the luxury to play a Dorian Williams, who was terrific on both sides of the field, on defense.  There is likelihood we can find a way to get him on the field early. Some of these guys have niches that can get them playing time while they grow in strength and maturity.

“Patrick Hall, our long snapper, is ranked as one of the top five or six guys in the country by services that rank players in specialties. Because we have an immediate hole (4-year starter Jason Tiemeier is graduating), Patrick probably is the first freshman since I have been here who will be at the top of depth chart entering training camp..

“Everybody else starts at the bottom and has to work his way up.”



Coming: Two more stories on the Class of 2017, one on the recruits at the speed positions, followed by a report on the linemen and linebackers.

jaygreenbergsports@gmail.com

Princeton Football NYC Reception

Tigers Lift to Lighten the Load of the Afflicted

BY JAY GREENBERG

Max Coale '14

It is conceded that Greg Sotereanos, who has totaled 1470 pounds in a Tiger weight room sequence including the hang clean, squat and bench, is strong enough to lift all of humanity by himself.  But where is the challenge anymore in that?



“Greg is the world's strongest man,” said Max Coale, Princeton’s chapter chairman of Uplifting Athletes, which at 8.a.m. Friday on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, will put a new format to the annual Lift for Life on behalf of persons stricken with Aplastic Anemia.  “But, like all the seniors, this year he’s going to have to draft some guys for some events that require speed and agility.

“We are going to be doing sled pushes, squat jumps, tire flips, sled sprints, a 100-pound farmer’s carry, buddy fireman carry, a medicine ball carry and an agility relay.  We wanted to do a truck pull, but we couldn’t get a truck.

“At the end, the two best teams will have a playoff.”

We’re still betting on Team Sotereanos.  But, you can pledge on behalf of the Tiger of your choice HERE or make a general contribution in the name of Princeton Football HERE. The goal is to raise $15,000, which would beat last year’s total by $4,000 and elevate awareness that even worse than getting a terrible disease, is contracting a rare one.   

Research funds naturally go to places where they can do the most good, leaving 30 million persons in the U.S. who suffer from 7,000 rare (classified as under 200,000 cases) afflictions often out of luck.



College football players with hard bodies and soft hearts are coming to the rescue. There are Uplifting Athletes chapters at 17 NCAA schools trying to do something to rid the earth of scourges such as Acoustic Neuroma, Cystic Fibrosis and Nieman-Pick Disease. 

Princeton’s chapter was founded three years ago, after Jordan Culbreath ’11, who had been diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia in 2009, came back to play in 2010, scoring the winning touchdown in overtime against Lafayette, the Tiger’s only win that season.

 

“During freshman camp, I didn’t even know what he had gone through,” said Coale.  “But once I learned how debilitating Aplastic Anemia could be, I was shocked at how miraculous his comeback was.

“I never would have believed that someone could have overcome what he did to come back to the gridiron at such a high level.  To be such a good player and an even better leader after such a trial was amazing to witness.”

Andrew Starks '13

Aplastic anemia, which afflicts six in one million persons, is an auto-immune condition that results in low production of new blood cells.  When his sister was not a match for a bone marrow transplant, Culbreath faced even longer odds of beating the disease with immune suppressant therapy.  But today he is healthy, lucky, working on Wall Street and grateful to have played with these seniors who honor him by taking up a common cause for a rare condition.

“It’s a fun way to cap off our off-season workouts and show our hard work can be put to a good cause,” said Coale.

STARKS GETS A CHANCE WITH THE BEARS

Linebacker Andrew Starks '13 has accepted an invitation to a rookie minicamp of the Chicago Bears, May 10-12, to try to earn a free-agent contract.  The native of Plainview, IL led the Tigers in tackles last season with 96.

"Andrew's effort, leadership and intelligence have been outstanding professional traits since he stepped on the filed at Princeton," said coach Bob Surace.  "He made tremendous strides making impact plays last fall and has an excellent opportunity with his hometown team.

"Judging how well he tested at his pro day, he will not be out of place athletically at that level."

 jaygreenbergsports@gmail.com



Catapano to Chiefs in Seventh Round

BY JAY GREENBERG

Bottom line, whether Mike Catapano was taken near the bottom of the NFL draft or not at all, too many NFL teams worked out the defensive lineman for him not to have received multiple invitations to training camps. However he arrived at one of them, there never figured to be a more planted foot in any team’s door.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be hard to cut him,” said Princeton coach Bob Surace.  So never mind Catapano lasted almost to the end of the third day before the Kansas City Chiefs took the Bayville, N.Y. native with the first pick of the seventh and final round. None of the 206 players selected ahead of Catapano will be any better prepared or more driven to succeed.

Mike Catapano '13 

“Every team has this kind of guy at least at back of the roster and some have him in the front of the roster,” said Surace, who was an assistant coach the Cincinnati Bengals for six seasons. “He’s tough, he plays hard, and he’s smart.

“There is not going to be a steep learning curve that supposedly the players from the smaller schools have.”

Andy Reid, the new Chiefs coach, said they plan to use the 275-pound Catapano at linebacker, where most of the interested teams that deploy a 3-4 defense anticipated as the best spot for him. "Anything that adds to my value," he said.  "I want to be a starter in the NFL

The Chiefs were among the 12 clubs that watched Catapano work out in his Pro Day at Princeton on March 20, where he commanded attention by running a 4.75 40-yard dash and recording a 37.5 vertical leap.  That jump would have been the second best recorded among defensive linemen invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Plus, Catapano's score in the cone agility drill (sixth among DL invitees and standing broad jump (13th) amped his signal on NFL radar following his impressive week at the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Fla.

His Pro Day numbers earned him second workouts at the facilities of his beloved Jets, the Giants, Saints,  Packers, Bengals and Viking But he never heard a word from the Chiefs until they said "Mike Catapano, defensive lineman, Princeton.

"I counted every defensive lineman taken," he said Sunday.  "The whole day made me nervous. 

"You can't help but feel the emotion. I have been anticipating taking that call from the general manger for a lot of my life and it turned out to be better than what I thought it was going to be.

"Today is even better because it has started to sink in. “

After last summer attending the pass rushing camp of former All Pro defensive end Chuck Smith, Catapano recorded 12 sacks, 15.5 tackles for a loss and 41 tackles in 10 games in 2012,  winning the Asa Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

Since the end of the season, he has been eating, sleeping and doing practically nothing else but working out under the direction of Rick Sadiv, the Slavedriver to the Stars, in Fairlawn, New Jersey, so that Catapano could become the first Princeton player drafted since Dennis Norman, also in the seventh round, by Buffalo in 2001.  

"It's been such a long road and to be taken by such an historic franchise like Kansas City, I am on cloud nine," said Catapano.

Had he not been selected, Catapano would have had his choice of teams with which to take his shot. The Chiefs, who have a new coaching staff and a desire to shake things up, took another linebacker, Alabama's Nico Johnson, in the fourth round,  but they have an investment in Catapano now, so it appears Cat landed on four paws. And the $275,000 minimum NFL salary and estimated $40,000 signing bonus obtained by seventh rounders dwarfs what Catapano's cut would have been out of the $70,000 pool for each team for all their undrafted signees.

Besides, as he said in December, "Everybody wants their name called."

He earned his wish.

jaygreenbergsports@gmail.com

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Bhaya, Reid Named Captains.

BY JAY GREENBERG

For the second straight year, Princeton has its two captains on the defensive side of the ball, and yet no anxieties about its leadership on offense.

Phil Bhaya '14

“Doesn’t bother me at all,” said Coach Bob Surace after naming seniors Caraun Reid and Phil Bhaya following the conclusion of spring practice Saturday.  “We had something like seven guys with 20 or more votes and five of them were very close to each other, which really shows we have a strong group of leaders in a lot of ways.”

Bhaya, the starting free safety, was elected by his peers, as was Andrew Starks in 2012.  Reid, the All-Ivy defensive lineman and the face of the 2013 defense, was appointed by Surace, as was Mike Catapano a year ago, “because of Caraun’s performance over three seasons.” 

Your best player usually does his best leading by example and Reid fits that profile classically.  The son of a preacher can be quiet as a church mouse, but he says it's always is in the timing. 

“I tend to not speak that much,” Reid said.  “I speak whenever I feel it is absolutely necessary.

“I want to be the hardest worker on this field and behind me have guys who see that.  I think Phil and I are sort of alike.  We do everything right and don’t try to speak more than we need to.  We have many vocal leaders on this defense -- from Alex Polofsky to Elijah Mitchell to Jason Ray – and I have very good relationships with all the offensive players. 

“Connor Michelsen is my locker-mate because he is No. 12. (Reid wears 11).  With the offensive linemen, it’s love-hate on the practice field, but there is a good relationship there.  It’s not going to be much of an issue because guys on both sides of the ball respect us.”

Such was obvious in the case of Bhaya, the people’s choice.

“We have so many leaders who have stepped up this past off-season that to be picked by those guys is humbling, a great honor,” he said.  “These are guys whom I respect and rely on day-in and day-out, so this is really awesome.”

Caraun Reid '14

SPRING SHOWCASE:  Princeton battled Princeton Saturday on Powers Field with the scoreboard turned off.  But it was clear from the talent on the field that the winner was Princeton.  

You wouldn’t have known it when Surace, enraged by four penalties that kept interrupting a goal-line sequence, ordered gassers, then demonstratively recounted to his players games that got away last year because of ill-timed fouls.  But the coach really was pleased with the spring-concluding scrimmage.

“I told [the officials] to throw the flag if it was even remotely close,” he said.  “Wheter the penalties were egregious or not, they threw it four times.” 

“We were the least penalized team in the league last year but when we had our penalties was really critical.  The point I wanted to make was that we had key penalties in four of our losses.  In a way I hoped to be able to make it today and get it out of our system.

“We did so many things great.  I think our spring was terrific, I really do.  Today our pitching, catching, run blocking, running and tackling was in the good spot we need it to be. 

“(Quinn) Epperly throws an interception when Jason Ray makes a heckuva play (to run it in for a touchdown), then Quinn bounces back and leads the offense to a touchdown (on a pass to Matt Costello) the next series.

“All the quarterbacks made good decisions the majority of the day.  And our receivers and DBs competed.  It is so much fun to watch Connor Kelley vs. John Hill, (Seth) DeValve against Anthony Gaffney.   Hill had a real nice breakup and a play (Matt) Arends made coming in the ally and keeping Dre to a one-yard gain was tremendous, a Division I play.

“Brian Mills finished a run that was great and Dre had two typical highlight runs.  Zach (Smith) ran well until his fumble, which cannot happen and that’s a teaching moment for him.

“Elijah (Mitchell’s) pass rush was terrific.  Mike Zeuli had a couple of big time hits and Garrit (Leicht) had a nice break up.  We had a bad snap and a bad hold, we can’t have that, have to get those cleaned up.  But we are working from a good spot, competed really well this spring and stayed relatively healthy.”

jaygreenbergsports@gmail.com