Lehigh Football Nation

When Princeton head coach Bob Surace took over as the Tigers' head man in 2010, it was all puppy dogs and ice cream as to how he was going to turn around the program from Roger Hughes . There was talk of a "tougher, smarter, better conditioned" defense.  There was talk about a new, cutting-edge "fast-break offense" - "85 plays a game", Surace mentioned - and a new attitude that would propel Princeton to consistently be in the running against Harvard and Yale. It didn't quite work out that way. Two wins and eighteen losses later, Surace goes into 2012 with much more modest expectations.  Part of that is due to the struggles of the past two years, but part of that also is due to something totally unexpected - and tragic.

Like me, you could be on "summer vacation" right now.  You could be spending your time visiting Burma, attending a wedding, or traveling with your family to see the Grand Canyon.  Or you could simply be watching the Dave Matthews band in concert, or finally trying to beat that high score in Frogger. But tomorrow, "summer vacation" ends for nearly a hundred student-athletes attending a certain Patriot League university situated at a bend of the Monocacy Creek, and a new football season will begin. "Summer vacation" to many collegiate athletes, too, belongs in quotes.