Tailgating a Princeton game, it is common to hear questions about how fellow Ivy League schools have started the season. In a league with as much parity as the Ancient Eight, every win and loss could be the difference between a championship season and mediocrity. With that in mind, the 'Prince' pauses to survey the status of Princeton's Ivy competition three weeks into the season.
Harvard
The reigning Ivy League champions have an unmistakable swagger, but this season may well be defined by the player who no longer wears the crimson Harvard jersey (2-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League): Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick, who last April became the first Ivy League player drafted since 1984, is currently a member of the St. Louis Rams. The Crimson won last year's title behind his stellar effort, and he left Harvard with the school career record for total offense.
In his place, sophomore Liam O'Hagan will try to lead the Crimson to back-to-back titles. He will be helped by junior tailback Clifton Dawson, a returning first-team All-America selection who rushed for over a 1,000 yards in each of his first two years. Dawson is well on pace to match those numbers this year, with two 100-yard rushing efforts three games into the season.
Even without Fitzpatrick, it seems, the Crimson is still dangerous — and, once again, the road to the Ivy League title will travel through Harvard Stadium. On Sept. 24, the Crimson recovered from a 16-0 first quarter deficit to beat a talented Brown squad, 38-35, in double overtime. Dawson ran for 189 yards and three touchdowns on the afternoon.
Penn
It's been confirmed: the sound echoing from Franklin Field two weeks ago was in fact the collective groan of Penn (2-1, 1-0) fans watching their team lose to Villanova.
For a team that has won 34 of its past 39 games en route to two of the last three Ivy League titles, any loss is a disappointment. The Quakers did open their Ivy season with a win, though, beating Dartmouth, 26-9, on the road last weekend.
While the young and talented defense has shown flashes of dominance (eight sacks last weekend), it is the veteran offensive attack centered around senior quarterback Pat McDermott and a duo of strong running backs — junior Joe Sandberg and senior Sam Matthews — that gives Penn hopes of returning to Ivy League prominence this year. Indeed, their Nov. 12 game against Harvard could be the crucial game for determining this year's eventual champion.
Brown
The end of senior running back Nick Hartigan's career at Brown (2-1, 0-1) could very well be bittersweet. Though it seems unlikely that Hartigan, the Ivy League's eighth leading rusher of all time, will enjoy the experience of winning an Ivy League title in his four years with the team, he may garner an important individual honor: the Walter Payton Award.
The award is presented to the best player in Division I-AA football, and there may be no more deserving player than Hartigan, who will almost certainly own the Brown school records for most career yards and career touchdowns by the end of the season.
In fact, he might have made his strongest case for the award last weekend in a 45-35 upset win over a highly-touted Rhode Island team. Hartigan rushed for a career-high 252 yards and scored four touchdowns to contribute to an explosive show that compiled 654 yards of total offense.
Yale
Senior quarterback Jeff Mroz of Yale (1-2, 1-0) must feel as if he's carrying the weight of the world — or at least New Haven — on his shoulders. It seems that as he goes, the Bulldogs go.
After losing a close game on the road to San Diego to open its season, Yale defeated Cornell (1-2, 0-1) on Sept. 24, 37-17, behind a titanic effort by Mroz, the team's captain. He earned the Ivy League co-Offensive Player of the Week award for his five-touchdown, 314-yard passing performance.
Unfortunately, Mroz was not as effective last week, throwing two interceptions in a close loss to Holy Cross.
For a Yale offense working to integrate Mike McLeod, a true freshman running back, Mroz must be a consistent source of production and leadership. The Bulldogs' season depends on him.
Cornell
Though Cornell (1-2, 0-1) dropped its first Ivy game of the season to Yale, in a league filled with big-name rushers, the Big Red might actually have the most formidable running game: the team has exceeded 200 rushing yards in every single game so far this season, with the major contributor being sophomore tailback Luke Siwula.
Siwula became only the second Cornell player to rush for more than 100 yards in his first three career starts, and he has already scored four touchdowns three games into the season.
Unfortunately, the strong running game has not always been complemented by an effective air attack. The team has failed to exceed 100 yards passing in two of its three games.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to see how good of an arm Siwula has.
Columbia
It says something about a team's previous season when the team exceeds that season's win total in the first two games of the new season. Columbia (2-1, 0-1) has managed this feat, already earning one more victory than the squad accumulated all of last year.
Last Saturday at Princeton Stadium, however, the Lions were brought back to earth by a 43-3 shellacking at the hands of the Tigers.
Columbia is replacing key players at several crucial positions on both offense and defense, with new starters at quarterback, running back, tight end, both defensive tackles and outside linebacker.
The team is led by a veteran defensive unit headed by senior cornerback Prosper Nwokocha, an honorable mention All-Ivy player for two consecutive seasons. Nowkocha is a standout cover corner who also contributes to special teams play. He returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown in the Lions' season-opening victory at Fordham.
Dartmouth
This entire season will feel like both a homecoming and a reunion for first-year head coach Buddy Teevens. As a player, Teevens led Dartmouth (1-2, 0-1) to the 1978 Ivy League championship, and he later added two more titles in 1990 and 1991 as head coach of the program.
Teevens is working to rebuild a program that he brought to prominence more than a decade ago. In his last two seasons as a player, the team went 7-2-1. However, Dartmouth football has declined since those times, finishing last year with a record of 1-9.
The Big Green hopes that the return of the prodigal son can bring a turn of fortune for the program, but so far this season, it looks as if even Teevens' presence might not be enough.
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