Lance Stier: A familiar Ivy football team

Just a year apart, but oh-so familiar.

They're the reigning Ivy champions and have been picked as the favorites to repeat. Their offense is a sure-fire bet to produce an abundance of points with the conference's top quarterback throwing to a game-breaking -- and school-record holding -- wide receiver. And their defense, while somewhat overlooked, figures to be a stalwart bunch in its own right.

Sound familiar, Penn fans? With the notable exception of a certain Bible-thumping running back, the formula should be one which Quakers' fans recall all too well.

Penn Quakers 2001, meet your successors -- Harvard Crimson 2002.

The Crimson offense -- much like Penn's last season -- is capable of shredding any Ivy defense.

Penn learned the potency of Harvard's offense all too well last Nov. 10 in a 28-21 loss that ended the Quakers' undefeated season and bid for an Ivy title.

Yet, the strength of this Harvard offense is not in its diversity. It doesn't have a 1-2-3 combo that rivals Penn's Hoffman/Ryan/Milanese trio of yesteryear. Rather, Harvard's is rather simple. It's just about two players -- quarterback Neil Rose and wide receiver Carl Morris -- playing a dramatic game of catch.

A game of catch, which these two All-Ivy performers do a pretty darn good job of playing.

Start with senior quarterback Rose. A first-team All-Ivy selection last season -- and Harvard's captain in 2002 -- Rose is unquestionably Harvard's offensive leader.

He is also the man who shredded the Penn defense last season for 270 yards in Harvard's victory over Penn.

Still don't confuse Rose with a game-breaking quarterback. He's not. But he sure as hell doesn't have to be.

He's got Carl Morris on his team.

The reigning Ivy League player of the year, Carl Morris (71 catches and 12 TDs) is -- by virtue of the award and by virtue of his preeminence at the wide receiver position -- the league's top offensive player.

But it's not only accolades that set him apart. It's his sheer ability.

In last year's win over Penn, Morris made a 62-yard third-quarter touchdown catch that would force Penn fans to applaud. With Harvard at its own 38, Rose dropped back and threw a pass that looked to be about 10 yards overthrown.

And for most Ivy League receivers, it likely would have been. But Morris is an exceptional talent, a talent who -- with an extra burst of speed -- caught up to the pass and after cradling it, had enough wherewithal to avoid Penn defender, Stephen Faulk, on his way to the endzone.

"He turned on the afterburners and juked the last defender," Rose said of Morris' catch last Nov. 10. "That play right there epitomizes his ability. He's a great receiver."

This great receiver is back again to hook up with Morris, and Ivy League defensive coordinators are seeing Rose-to-Morris in their sleep.

Factor in a serviceable defense -- led by LB Dante Balestracci, so revered on campus that he has a section of the endzone called "Dante's Inferno" -- and you've got the near mirror image of Penn 2001.

As for Penn 2002, well, that's another story.

Contrast Harvard's established duo with the QB/ WR combo gracing the fields of Franklin Field these days. While Rob Milanese, back for his fifth-year is no doubt as good a wideout as Penn has ever had, it just isn't the same without Gavin Hoffman taking the snaps.

Instead, Penn has Mike Mitchell, who -- in his first run through as a starter -- threw two interceptions against Division-III Widener.

And while it would be unfair to bury Mitchell after just a three-quarter scrimmage -- he may very well develop into a one-year wunderkind -- things just seem a little shaky without Hoffman at the reigns.

Losses of Kris Ryan -- whose successor will be not one, but three average running backs --and pancake factory tackle Jeff Hatch don't exactly help either.

The preseason media poll picked Harvard as the league champion by a near 30-point margin. But as we saw last season with the Quakers, sometimes the team which looks invincible on paper isn't all that invincible on the field.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.