Even if Penn runs north-south tomorrow against Princeton, the hits will definitely be coming from the east - the Far East.
Senior Doori Song, the first in his South Korean family to be born in the United States, is one of Princeton's best run-stoppers at inside linebacker. A soft-spoken leader on the defensive side, Song has become a fixture for the Tigers since winning the starting job his junior year.
"He's been a young man that is very explosive from a hitting standpoint," linebackers coach Don Dobes said. "He's one of those guys that when he hits you, you know it."
A life of football and Ivy League schools must have seemed a far-off prospect when Song's parents moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s.
"My parents were completely clueless about the sport of football," Song wrote in an e-mail.
But until his family's move to small-town Coshocton, Ohio, in 1996, the future linebacker was just as clueless. That quickly changed, as Song picked up a ball and went on to star as both a linebacker and a tailback. It was only a matter of time before the finalist for Ohio's "Mr. Football" award generated some big-time college interest.
Unfortunately for Song, a devastating injury in the final game of his junior year - in which he tore both his anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament - limited his marketability.
But though it may have held him out of a big-name program, Song credits the ordeal with straightening his priorities and ushering him to an Ivy League education.
"My injury was a blessing in disguise, since it allowed me to realize how easily football could be taken away from you," Song said.
And now, after backing up first-team All-Ivy Justin Stull for his first two college seasons, Song has become an anchor of the Tigers defense.
"I think he comes from a very humble upbringing, so he kind of brings that same type of mentality to practice and to the games," Dobes said. "He never blows his own horn. He's one of those guys who does a nice job of being a leader in a silent way."
The significance of Song's Asian-American heritage, and of his role as a minority player in the game of football, is lost on neither Dobes nor the senior linebacker.
"He probably wouldn't say this, but I would," Dobes said. "There's no question he's a role model for Asian-Americans, both as a student and with the character that he brings to the table. . You try not to say too many superlatives because they kind of get watered down when you start doing that, but this is the type of young man that anybody would like to have as a role model."
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