Around the League

We're beginning to get a better handle on who the strong teams really are in the Ivy League.

But, while it seems impossible, we still may be more in the dark than we were in the offseason when it comes to one team: Penn.

The Quakers held off Dartmouth in a very rainy Hanover by a 30-24 score. I was predicting a close and exciting game, but a close win for Penn. Yet this game really was filled with surprises.

Coming into this season, I thought the Quakers had the most complete team in the Ivies. But I did note that they were one or two injuries to being in serious trouble.

Well, those one or two injuries are now more like five or six injuries for Penn and they are serious injuries to key players.

Let's start with the QB's. Starter Keiffer Garton is suffering from an arm injury that kept him in street clothes for the game against Dartmouth Saturday and he will likely sit out against Bucknell this weekend. Coach Bagnoli has said Garton will probably be back for the game against Columbia on October 17th, but will he really be 100% by then?

Backup QB Kyle Olson was banged up enough to need to sit out parts of the game in Hanover and he was replaced by frosh QB Billy Ragone, (a player who chose Penn over Columbia as a recruit), who promptly injured himself and now he is out for the year. If Penn has to rely on Olson this year, the Quaker offense looks a lot weaker than it did with the hard running and strong-armed Garton at the helm.


We were told the Quaker running back corps was really deep and talented this year and it's a good thing for Penn it is. Star rusher Michael DiMaggio continues to fight the injury bugs that have dogged his entire career, and top backup Michael Hamscher has been out. But juniors Bradford Blackmon has been healthy while freshman Lyle Marsh was a big star in the win over Dartmouth. At least in this area, the Quakers seem like they'll do just fine.


But wait, there's more! All-America safety candidate Chris Wynn sat out the Dartmouth game and the Penn secondary is a bit suspect without him.

Injury news is dicey in college football, and really murky in the Ivies. So for all I know, each and every one of these Penn players will be back at full strength in time for the Homecoming showdown at Wien Stadium on the 17th.

As for Dartmouth, the Big Green have finally found an answer at running back in Nick Schwieger. I watched Saturday's game on my DVR and Schwieger has great cutting ability and looks very good. Alex Jenny is still not a top notch QB, but he is very experienced and he won't lose too many games on his own. I think the biggest issue for the Big Green is stopping the run, which they're still not doing, but there's some growing talent on the defensive line.

Here's a prediction, and you heard it here first: Dartmouth will end its 15-game losing streak with a win at Yale this Saturday.


That's right, Yale looks very weak to me after three games and especially after the Elis 31-14 loss to Lafayette.

Much heralded Nebraska transfer Patrick Witt was not cutting it at QB on Saturday and he was replaced by last year's starter Brook Hart who did better but it was too late.

Even more disturbing for Yale fans has to be the play of the defense, which had been dominant in the first two weeks against weaker teams, but got steamrolled by the Leopards more balanced offense.

The real culprit in New Haven may be the offensive line, which we knew coming into the season was inexperienced.


Harvard is looking like a much more complete team after its 28-14 win over Lehigh in Bethlehem. That's because tailback Cheng Ho finally seems fully recovered from last year's injuries as he racked up 132 yards and two TD's on 21 carries.

Simply put, the Crimson still look like the team to beat.


Breaking into the win column finally was 2008 co-champion Brown with a 28-20 victory over URI. The big star of the game was WR Buddy Farnham Farnham, who caught touchdown passes of 32 and 42 yards, made five receptions for 100 yards, returned four punts 97 yards, including a 67-yard return, and brought back three kickoffs 77 yards, with a long return of 31 yards. (Yes, I copied that last sentence from the Brown release, but I wanted to be accurate).

It was a nice win for sure, but we'll learn more about how good this Bears team is this coming weekend against Holy Cross. I think the defense is still a bit suspect, but legally-troubled David Howard did play in the URI game and I suppose he's back in the lineup for good.


Cornell got smacked by Colgate 45-23. It's hard to get too down on the Big Red for losing to a powerhouse team on the road, but Cornell needs to do something about its running game because they don't really have one right now.

Coming up a little later, I'll have the highlights from the weekly coaches teleconference. I wonder if the journalists will ask Coach Wilson more questions about why the Lions seem so strong, or if they'll focus on Princeton and make the story that the Tigers are so bad.