Battle of the Unbeatens II

"They took the championship from us," senior linebacker Travis Belden said.

One year later, the Penn football team has a chance to take the Ivy League title back.

Harvard (6-2, 5-0 Ivy League) invades Franklin Field to take on the No. 17 Quakers (7-1, 5-0) in the Battle of the Unbeatens II.

This is the most highly anticipated Ivy showdown in recent memory, with ESPN's College GameDay show at Franklin Field adding to the already charged atmosphere.

"It's great that Lee Corso and, what's his name, Kirk Herbstreit [two of the show's hosts] are here," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "But we still need to play Harvard."

Penn hopes the result this time around is better than last year's heartbreaking 28-21 loss in Boston.

In 2001, the Crimson went 9-0 and captured the Ancient Eight title, while the Quakers went 8-1... and did not.

"After the season, it felt like we didn't win a game the entire season," Belden said. "It's just been eating away at us."

The teams are coming into the game from a different perspective this year as opposed to a year ago.

This season, Harvard returned a stacked team, was the consensus preseason Ivy League pick and was the defending champs.

Last season, all of these were true of the Quakers, but they lost.

Harvard returns the two players most responsible for last year's result -- quarterback Neil Rose and sensational wide receiver Carl Morris.

Last season Morris burned the Quakers' Ivy League leading defense on nine catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

This year, with scouts from the NFL watching, Morris has put up absurd numbers -- 83 catches for 1,166 yards. He is a finalist for the Walter Payton award given to the best player in Division I-AA.

"Basically the standard of any game plan is to stop the run first and we're pretty sure we can stop that," Belden said. "But once you stop the run you've got Carl Morris back there, and he's fabulous."

Rose, due to injuries, is splitting time this year with the dynamic Ryan Fitzpatrick. Both quarterbacks have a passing efficiency of over 140 behind the Ivy's second most productive offense.

"Neil Rose runs that offense to perfection," Belden said. "He's a great passer and he's got good quickness. [Fitzpatrick] probably doesn't run the offense at well but he's more of a playmaker."

Much like Harvard, the Quakers are led by their own talented receiver-quarterback combo.

Penn senior receiver Rob Milanese has 61 catches for 801 yards. Quakers' quarterback Mike Mitchell has been a revelation as a first time starter, throwing for over 275 yards a game.

However, Harvard might be the best defense the senior QB has faced.

"Their defense has always been good," Bagnoli said. "They've got big physical down lineman. They return [linebacker Dante] Balestracci who is just a terrific player. And they've got some kids in the secondary who can run and cover. They might be some new faces but they're pretty close statistically."

"I really don't see them having any weaknesses," Mitchell said. "And I've been watching a lot of tape."

Balestracci is a finalist for the Buchanan award given to the top I-AA defensive player.

However, while Harvard again enters with the more established star, Penn has the superior statistical defense, allowing only 15.7 points per game to Harvard's 21.6.

However, this game is about more than statistics, more than a nationally televised pregame show and even more than the marquee matchups on both sides of the ball.

It's about the two best teams in the Ivy League over the last two years getting one more chance at each other -- Harvard's star power v. Penn's overall prowess.

"We're a pretty clutch team," Milanese said. "Hopefully we'll come up big."

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