Five weeks after being picked over Penn as the Ivy preseason favorite, Harvard will finally get its chance to show whether it has the skill to win this season’s Ivy title.
But Saturday night’s matchup against Holy Cross won’t be nearly as easy as topping the media poll.
Especially given that the Crusaders (1-1) are coming off a Patriot League championship season, were ranked in the preseason Top 25 and already have two games under their belts.
Add to that two preseason All-Americans — including wide receiver Bill Edger, who averaged 68.2 yards per game last season — and the odds that Holy Cross wins its third match over the Crimson in four years look pretty good.
Still, Harvard has a formidable roster, even if the squad has no 2010 game experience yet.
Team Captain and defensive back Collin Zych, a preseason All-American, led the Ivy League last year in pass breakups and passes defended and ranked third in solo tackles with 53.
Will the Buck stop here? Dartmouth has won its last three meetings with Bucknell, though the statistic carries little weight, as the teams’ last matchup was in 1993. For what it’s worth, Dartmouth won 31-13 back when Clinton was in office.
While the Big Green and the rest of the Ivies begin their seasons Saturday, the Bison already have two games under their belts, both losses.
Bucknell will be working out the kinks of starting freshman Brandon Wesley, who made his first and only start earlier this season against Marist. They also have a new coach, Joe Susan.
Dartmouth will start the more seasoned Connor Kempe behind center. A junior, Kempe started half of the Big Green’s games last year.
The Quakers should pay special attention to both teams as they square off this weekend, as Penn faces Dartmouth then Bucknell in successive weekends starting Saturday Oct. 2.
Hoyas axed-a. In another Patriot-Ivy League matchup, Georgetown travels to the Yale Bowl to face a team it has never defeated.
The Elis have outscored the Hoyas 106-31 in three previous bouts. But the Hoyas are off to a 2-0 start, their first in 11 seasons, defeating Davidson to start their season and then erasing a 10-point deficit to beat Lafayette, who travels to Franklin field this week.
After the comeback win, Hoyas’ quarterback Scott Darby was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week, going 18-for-30. To complement him, junior defensive end Andrew Schaetzke was named Defensive Player of the Week in the league. He forced a late fumble to stop Lafayette from scoring.
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