Speaking of spring, Princeton kicked off the Ivy League-mandaded 12 sessions of spring practice yesterday with an abundance of optimism coming off an 8-2 season. Jay Greenberg, who does a terrific covering the team, began his spring preview on the Princeton Football site (LINK) this way:
Between a larger than usual number of graduating seniors from the undefeated 2018 season, injuries, and players taking a gap year, Princeton in 2019 played more underclassmen than any point since the early years of the Bob Surace era. The Tigers went 8-2 and stayed in the title hunt until the final week regardless, confirming the talent from recent highly-ranked recruiting classes.
Now, the bonus: An infusion of upperclassmen returning from their year away. We would suggest the coaches begin 12 spring practices Saturday with more good players than they know what to do with, except that they know exactly what to do with them: Make them compete for playing time against the players who saved last season and then, sleep well with the comfort of an outlier level of depth and experience.Green Alert Take: If there's a fly in the ointment, it is at quarterback where the Tigers will have a new starter this fall. That said, they have done a pretty good job of filling the position in recent years and have promising young talent including Brevin White, the onetime Alabama target who will be a junior in the fall.
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Penn began practice on Thursday and, like Princeton, will wrap up with its spring game on April 11. Towson, which Dartmouth will visit on Sept. 26, starts its 15-day spring slate Tuesday.
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Dartmouth spring practice is slated to start its Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday practice schedule on April 7 with the spring game on May 2 (followed by several more practices).
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A couple of former Ivy League players are on the move . . . again.Onetime Penn quarterback Michael Collins, who played the past two seasons at TCU, is transferring to Rice. (LINK) And linebacker Brendan Pyne, who graduated this winter after a solid career at Brown, won't be playing at Colorado as originally planned. Per an NBC Sports report he re-entered the transfer portal after the coaching change at Colorado. (LINK)
On the subject of the transfer portal, if you can believe it there are no fewer than 97 FBS quarterbacks who declared for the portal and 89 running backs.
