“It’s not surprising to watch a kid like (former OSU tailback) Justice Hill do what he did at the combine. If you want to develop football players, there’s no better place in America than right here. I think these kids, and the quarterbacks in particular, are very locked in on their growth as players.”

“The kids we have here, I feel very much at home,” Gleeson said. “This is not a big difference as far as the way they respond in the meeting room, the types of kids I’m coaching. The thing, I guess, that is a little different is … this is a football environment. This is a world class development center for football players. There’s a few more distractions at Princeton, where they’ve got so much going on in other parts of their life.

“Sean is a young, up-and-coming, high-energy technician with great ideas that we can implement in our system,” Gundy said. “I just hope we can have it all ready by the first game. Yurcich needed a few months to adjust.” Plus, Gleeson will be using a new starting quarterback, either Dru Brown or Spencer Sanders, “so it’s a little challenging out there for Sean.”

Gleeson has been around talented quarterbacks at Princeton: Chad Kanoff, now with the Arizona Cardinals; John Lovett, now a tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs roster; and Quinn Epperly, who spent a little time with Canada’s Edmonton Eskimos. Princeton also had Daniel Jones committed before he reneged, went to Duke and became the New York Giants’ first-round draft pick in April.

“I don’t think that there’s too many hiccups to tell you the truth,” Gleeson said of his transition. “Everybody’s got their football nomenclature in the way they talk about plays and technique. Once you get past that over a two- to three-month period, we’ve been able to make some ground this summer talking about defenses. That’s been really, really good. But I always say they had a great foundation from all of the coaching they had in the past.”

Nomenclature? Uh-oh. That’s a word I’d never heard. Sounds like a Princeton word. But in a 40-minute interview a few weeks back, that’s the only word that stopped me. Gleeson’s quarterbacks are sharper than I am, so no reason why Harvard of the West can’t flourish.

“Princeton has been a lot better than Cornell recently; he has the upper hand,” Knowles joked about Gleeson. “I think it’s great (that) football at that level gains a little bit more respect when guys move on from that league to this top level. He knows what he’s doing. He’s very smart, very organized. I just make sure I support him as a new guy and say hey, keep doing what you believe in doing. Work it into the talent that’s here but remain true to yourself.”