Lopsided Contests on Slate for Ivies

Every week, our Around the Ivies team comes up with some witty way to present the state of Ancient Eight football. So as I sat in Logan Airport yesterday morning, I thought of all the comparisons I could make between my experience in the Southwest terminal and Ivy League sports.

Perhaps I could talk about the fact that, just like my sister and I were waiting for our delayed flight, pretty much every Ivy football team is biding its time this week. With the exception of the Dartmouth-Yale matchup, every game should either be a lopsided result, a meaningless non-conference tilt, or both. By this time next week, we’ll probably have no better idea of how the title race will play out.

Or maybe I could talk about how some of the conference’s best teams get to take a little bit of a vacation this weekend. After Bucknell and Cornell battled it out in a suckfest last weekend, they’re now playing last year’s Ivy champion and runner-up, respectively. Penn and Harvard should be able to really enjoy this three-day weekend.

But who am I kidding? I’m not that funny. And I’m writing this column on an airplane. Let’s just get to the picks.

BROWN (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) at HOLY CROSS (2-3, 0-1 Patriot)

This matchup between the Crimson’s Week 1 and Week 2 opponents should be a whole lot more interesting than one may have thought two weeks ago. Holy Cross got back on track last weekend with a win over Fordham, a team that’s already beaten both Columbia and URI, the team Brown lost to in overtime last weekend.

Two of the Bears’ games have already gone past regulation, and the only time they’ve looked really good was in their win over Harvard. But in that game, they looked really, really good. Kyle Newhall-Caballero, who threw for 325 yards last week in his first start after breaking his throwing hand, is just a much better quarterback than Crusader signal-caller Ryan Taggart, and he’s only going to get better as he gets used to his new receivers.

Prediction: Brown 21, Holy Cross 10.

PRINCETON (1-2, 0-1) at COLGATE (2-2, 1-0 Patriot)

Colgate boasts the best running back in the Patriot League in Nate Eachus, who is averaging a gaudy 160 yards per game—nearly 90 yards per game more than the second-best back—and scored four touchdowns last week. But that’s all the Raiders have got on offense. Meanwhile, Princeton standout tailback Jordan Culbreath—the best running back in the Ivy League in 2008, his last full season—is only averaging 55 yards per game with a single touchdown, but that TD was a double-overtime game-winner.

The Tigers have the advantage of a balanced attack, with quarterback Tommy Wornham averaging 286 yards per game. But neither Colgate nor Princeton has lost at home this season, and neither has won on the road. I’m betting Eachus will run over the Tiger defense on his way to securing another home win for the Raiders.

Prediction: Colgate 24, Princeton 17.

BUCKNELL (0-4, 0-0 Patriot) at PENN (2-1, 1-0 Ivy)

Penn fans probably got a little anxious when former Ivy doormat Dartmouth pushed the Quakers to overtime at Franklin Field last weekend. Well, not to worry, Pennsylvania faithful—current Patriot League doormat Bucknell is on the docket this weekend. The Bison lost to Cornell last weekend (Cornell!). I’m pretty sure the Quakers wouldn’t be overmatched if they put their JV squad out there. But they won’t, so I’m going to be so bold as to call this one a shutout.

Prediction: Penn 27, Bucknell 0.

LAFAYETTE (0-4, 0-1 Patriot) at COLUMBIA (2-1, 1-0)

As Lafayette coach Frank Tavani said after the Leopards’ loss to Harvard last week, “It doesn’t get any easier, because Columbia is absolutely blowing Princeton off the field right now.”

Lafayette heads to New York to take on a Lions team that—on the strength of five Sean Brackett touchdowns—did in fact annihilate the Tigers last Saturday. Yes, that same Princeton team that beat the Leopards in double overtime two weeks ago. Columbia > Princeton > Lafayette. Easy math.

Prediction: Columbia 28, Lafayette 17.

YALE (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) at DARTMOUTH (2-1, 0-1 Ivy)

Last year, we mercilessly mocked Dartmouth for its seeming inability to play a decent game of football. When the Big Green started the season 2-0, it won over some believers (including me, who boldly picked the squad to finish fourth in the conference in our preseason supplement). But after taking the Quakers to overtime last week, the message should be pretty clear: Dartmouth is officially on the rise.

The Big Green matches up pretty well with Yale. Both teams feature a balanced offense spearheaded by a pair of juniors. Dartmouth has the slight edge on the ground with junior tailback Nick Schwieger (tops in the Ivy League at 144 yards per game), while Bulldog quarterback Patrick Witt has the advantage in the air (averaging 290 yards per game).

This one could be close, but the Big Green is a second-half team—it’s outscored its opponents, 62-14, after halftime this season—and Yale’s only two wins came against teams that went a combined 2-19 in 2009. Look for Dartmouth to cement its place as a team to watch in the Ancient Eight.

Prediction: Dartmouth 27, Yale 21.

CORNELL (1-2, 0-1 Ivy) at HARVARD (2-1, 0-1 Ivy)

Cornell is this year’s Dartmouth—a football team that most Texas high school squads could probably take down. A meeting with the hapless Big Red is exactly what Harvard needs to even its Ivy record. In Ithaca last year, senior Gino Gordon and sophomore Treavor Scales ran right through the Cornell defense, spearheading a 251-yard, four-touchdown Crimson rushing performance.

With Gordon coming off a monster 170-yard, two-TD game at Lafayette last week, all signs point to Harvard demolishing the Big Red once again. The most interesting question at this point is whether or not the senior can top that 74-yard run to the endzone.

Prediction: Harvard 31, Cornell 7.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.