AIRING IT OUT: Princeton University quarterback Kai Colon fires a pass in recent action. Last Saturday, Colon passed for a career-high 239 yards and two touchdowns in a losing cause as Princeton fell 35-14 to No. 14 and undefeated Harvard. The Tigers, now 3-3 overall and 2-1 Ivy League, play at Cornell on November 1. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
Princeton University quarterback Kai Colon produced a breakout game when he passed for 221 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-21 win over Brown earlier this month.
Last Saturday as Princeton hosted No. 14 Harvard for Homecoming, senior Colon picked up where he left off against the Bears.
Colon passed for 168 yards and two touchdowns to help the Tigers jump out to a 14-10 second quarter lead over the undefeated Crimson.
“It was a great crowd, super electric, a lot of people showed out and it was a lot of fun to play in front of,” said Colon of the matchup which drew a crowd of 9,137 to Princeton Stadium. “We all fed off that energy. I just got into a rhythm, spreading the ball around. A lot of the guys made great plays. The O-line did a great job. We did a great job in the first half.”
The Tigers made some great plays on Colon’s two TD passes as Aidan Besselman snagged a 17-yard scoring swirl in the first quarter and Ethan Clark took a short pass in the flat and raced down the sideline for a 51-yard touchdown.
“It was a great catch by Aidan on that touchdown, it was a little behind him,” said Colon. “Ethan makes my job easy. I just had to get it to him and he did the rest. It was pretty cool. That was a big play and he did a great job on that.”
With the Tigers clinging to a 14-13 lead late in the half, Colon misfired as he threw an interception with 44 seconds left in the second quarter.
“That is on me, I have got be smarter with the ball,” said Colon. “Everyone did what they were supposed to do. I rolled out and made a bad play.”
Harvard poured it on from there, converting the interception into a touchdown to take a 21-14 halftime lead and then scoring 14 unanswered points in the second half to pull away to a 35-14 win as they improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 Ivy League while the Tigers dropped to 3-3 overall and 2-1 Ivy.
“They did a great job but a lot of it was self-inflicted,” said Colon, reflecting on the second half. “We are going to clean these mistakes up. I think we are as good as any team out there.”
Princeton head coach Bob Surace was hoping Princeton would regain momentum early in the second half when Colon hit Paul Kuhner with a 51-yard pass in its second possession of the third quarter. The drive stalled, however, and Esteban Nunez Perez missed a 46-yard field goal attempt.
“We come out in the second half and have every opportunity,” said Surace. “We hit the pass to Kuhner, we have the ball at about the 20-yard line down seven; that was a tough one.”
Princeton did pile up 340 yards of total offense on the day but faltered whenever it got deep in Crimson territory.
“We moved it, I think we had two or three drives in the red zone and they stopped us in the red zone,” said Surace. “Wednesday is our red zone day. On Tuesday, we said this is going to be critical. They were much better than us in the red zone and we are going to have to look at what we are doing.”
While Harvard played better than Princeton on Saturday, Surace believes that the Tigers could have been right there with the Crimson if they had been a little sharper in their execution.
“We just left a lot of meat on the bone, they are a good team, so credit them,” said Surace. “The 4th and 1 stop, the penalties, we just couldn’t get out of our way at times. We are really young, we were playing three freshmen on the D-line for a lot of the fourth quarter. They got worn out a little. There are physical mistakes that happen, I am not mad at anybody. To beat that team, we just need to be a little bit cleaner as coaches and players.”
The Tiger got some good play from Colon, who ended up connecting on 19-of-31 passes for a new career-high of 239 yards and two TDs.
“He has done a really good job for the most part,” said Surace.
“There are certain situations he takes, when we are backed up or in 2-minute.”
Colon, who got into just one game in his first three years with the program, has been having a good time being in the middle of the action this fall.
“It has been a lot of fun just playing football again,” said Colon, a 6’2, 210-pound native of Middletown, N.Y. “This is what I worked for. It was just been a blast going out there with the guys. Those are my brothers out there. We have just been having fun and enjoying it all.”
While Colon has taken most of the snaps the last two weeks, he has been in a QB rotation this fall with fellow senior and co-captain Blaine Hipa.
“It has been good, it is definitely something new that I have had to go through,” said Colon. “It is a challenge. We have handled it really well. We just go out there and do the best with the opportunities that we have.”
Being one of the team’s four captains along with Nasir Hill, Marco Scarano and Hipa has been a very good experience for Colon.
“It is the greatest honor I have ever had,” said Colon. “It is a special group of guys and for them to elect me as captain is truly special. I really appreciate all of them for selecting me for that.”
Despite the loss to the Crimson, Colon believes the Tigers can still have a special fall.
“We did a lot of great things today and we will see that on film but we also have some stuff to correct and we will see that on film tomorrow,” said Colon. “We will go into film and correct all of the mistakes and move forward.”
In Surace’s view, if Princeton cleans up things it can stay in the Ivy title race.
“We have to take care of our business, I circled about 10 things that I am unhappy about,” said Surace. “Some of it is strategy. They get 17 yards on a 2nd and 26 on a play action, we have veteran guys and we have to play the situation better and coach it better. If we do those things, then we are going to give ourselves a better opportunity.”
Playing at Cornell (2-4 overall, 1-2 Ivy) this Saturday, the Tigers have a good opportunity to get back on the winning track.
“We have to eat this one and learn from it and grow from it,” said Surace. “And after we finish tomorrow’s meetings, we need to be just as refreshed as we were after other wins and losses and be ready for another fight.”
Colon is confident that the Tigers will be ready for battle down the stretch of the season.
“It is just clean up the mistakes and do what we do well and I think we will be OK,” said Colon. “It was a tough one in the second half today but we did a lot of really good things. As long as we just continue to do those, we will be OK going into the rest of the year.”