Football visits Penn to battle for first place

When the football team steps onto the Franklin Field turf in Philadelphia on Saturday at noon, the Tigers will do so with the confidence of a team sitting atop the Ivy League standings.

So will their opponents.

A full half of the Ancient Eight teams will begin Saturday in first place, in fact, each boasting a 3-1 record in league play. But by Saturday night — after Princeton has visited Penn and Brown has visited Yale — only two of those squads will still be in first.

Which is all just to say that nearly anything can still happen in the Ivy title race — and that this weekend will go a long way toward determining what that anything turns out to be.

While the Quakers (5-2 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) are used to being in the Ivy title hunt — they've won three of the past five championships — the Tigers (5-2, 3-1) have rarely gone into November controlling their own destiny in recent years.

One reason why the Orange and Black finds itself in such a position is its success in close games this season. In four of their five victories, Princeton has either come from behind or held off a hard-charging opponent in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Roger Hughes attributed that late-game prowess to improved conditioning. During the Tigers' midweek press conference Wednesday, Hughes praised strength and conditioning coach Jason Gallucci for adjusting the in-season training program this season.

"We want them to stay strong mentally when they're fatiguing physically," Gallucci said, explaining that he puts the team through conditioning drills mid-practice to simulate gameday.

As important as late-game execution has been for Princeton, though, an even better litmus test for success has been the Tigers' first quarter performance: when they score first, they are 5-0; when they do not, they are 0-2.

Playing from behind is most certainly not the best way to beat the Quakers. Prior to last weekend, Penn completely overwhelmed its first three Ivy opponents. Behind senior quarterback Pat McDermott and senior running back Sam Matthews, the Quaker offense made a habit of knocking out opponents early in games and coasting home.

But last Saturday, with McDermott sidelined with a shoulder injury, the Quakers fell behind 24-0 on the road at Brown and lost, 34-20. Sophomore quarterback Bryan Walker was picked off twice, and the Bears defense was able to key on Matthews and hold him to 78 yards.

As of Wednesday, Penn head coach Al Bagnoli was uncertain whether McDermott would play Saturday. He practiced for the first time Tuesday and continues to make progress, but is not yet 100 percent.

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Both Bagnoli and Hughes minimized the impact his return — or lack there of — would have. Bagnoli said his two quarterbacks have "similar skills," so the game plan will remain the same regardless of who starts, while Hughes pointed to the experience Walker gained filling in for an injured McDermott against Harvard last season.

Even if the Quakers' offense sputters, Penn boats an extremely talented and physical defense that could cause problems for the Tigers.

"When you watch them on tape, you don't see lots of missed tackles, you don't see lots of yards after contact," Hughes said. "They want to intimidate you, want to pound you into the ground."

But while the Quakers' may have the edge strength-wise, Princeton believes it has the edge speed-wise. Hughes said he looked forward to playing on Penn's unique "Sprinturf" field surface, especially after his team struggled with muddy conditions in losses to Colgate and Brown.

"If we can get our footing, it certainly helps us the way we're built," Hughes said.

In the larger scheme of things, though, finding their footing likely won't be Tigers' largest concern. Most important will be finding — and maintaining — their focus, even as they tread into the relatively uncharted territory of a playing for an Ivy title.

Beating the Quakers would be a novel experience, too: Penn has won the last nine matchups between the two squads, with the Orange and Black last prevailing in 1995.

Then again, Princeton already ended one nine-year losing streak this fall, beating Harvard, 27-24, two weekends ago.

If the Tigers can snap a second streak this weekend, they may just end up snapping another nine-year streak — their Ivy League title drought — by season's end.

NOTES: After suffering a concussion on the opening kickoff and missing the rest of the game last Saturday, senior linebacker Nate Starrett will return to action against Penn. He has been held out of contact drills so far this week, but has been cleared to play Saturday, Hughes said ... Senior linebacker Justin Stull drew laughs Wednesday with a comment that the University's Fall Break has allowed the Tigers to focus on football without the "distraction" of school work. He later clarified that the break gives players a chance to be better rested than usual ... Saturday is Penn's homecoming.