Firing of coach shocks Princeton players

More details arose yesterday from The Daily Princetonian regarding the firing of Roger Hughes as the head football coach at Princeton.

Hughes was “relieved of duties” Sunday after 10 seasons at the helm of the Tigers. He finished with a 47-52 record — the sixth-worst of Princeton’s 21 all-time coaches ­— including three consecutive 4-6 seasons. He compiled three winning seasons and a share of the Ivy title in 2006.

Princeton Athletic Director Gary Walters delivered the news to the team at its annual season-ending meeting, and Hughes subsequently addressed his former players.

Walters told The Princetonian that he expects to hire a new coach by mid-January after a nationwide search.

“I was hoping that, at this point, we would see more progress,” he said, “but it just didn’t come about in the way we would have hoped.”

Despite Hughes’ struggles and rumblings about his job security, some players were shocked by the news.

“It was surprising how early [the announcement] was, but it’s nice because if you’re going to do it, do it early,” sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham said.

“It was a shock,” said senior offensive lineman and co-captain Mark Paski, who started all 40 games of his career under Hughes. “We’ve had three tough seasons for the past three years, and perhaps it wasn’t something that had never crossed our minds, but the actual finality of it hit us.”

No rush to punt. A lot of attention has been given to Yale coach Tom Williams’ decision to gamble on a fake punt on 4th-and-22 from his own 25-yard line. Various blogs and even Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King called out Williams for the bone-headed move.

But the story of The Game was really the two sides’ running backs.

Harvard junior running back Gino Gordon set up the fake punt situation when, faced with a 4th-and-4 in Crimson territory, he spun out of a tackle and turned the corner for a 19-yard gain. Two plays later quarterback Collier Winters hooked up with Matt Luft for a 41-yard touchdown to make it a three-point game.

For the Bulldogs, who entered the contest with the League’s worst rushing attack at 93.8 yards per game, sophomore Alex Thomas racked up 124 on the Crimson, becoming the first Yale runner to break the century mark all season. And he did so against a Harvard run defense that had been second in the Ivies, giving up just 82.7 yards per game on the ground.

Taking a knee. Out of respect for his senior quarterback, Columbia coach Norries Wilson subbed the injured M.A. Olawale into the game to replace freshman starter Sean Bracket after the Lions had sealed an upset win over Brown.

“We tried to get as many seniors an opportunity to play in their last game as possible,” he said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.