No more nail-biters: Ivy League football preview

The cool fall breeze is in full effect in still-sunny Philadelphia as Penn football gears up for the start of its 148th season. Coming off of a year marked by a sixth place finish within the Ivy conference and a measly 3-4 conference record, the Red and Blue look to reignite the flame for what can be for a promising, reloaded Quakers squad. 

The 3-4 conference record tells a misleading tale of this team. Over the course of Penn's four losses, the average margin of victory of the winning team was merely four points. The largest of those losses was in the team's final matchup against rivals Princeton in a 31-24 defeat on the Red and Blue's home turf. While the record may tell you one thing, the true box score relays a different race — Penn is still fully in this to win it all. 

In August of this year, the Ivy League released its annual media polling to predict the standings of the Ivy conference come November. While garnering two first place votes, Penn managed to poll third overall for the conference predictions. With Yale coming in first with six first place votes, and Harvard in second with seven first place votes, the Quakers round out the big three as the only team that did not win a share of last season's conference title — the third having been Dartmouth. 

The Red and Blue are shepherded by this season's newly-anointed captains: senior defensive lineman Paul Jennings, senior quarterback Aidan Sayin, and senior defensive back Shiloh Means. Jennings and Sayin, both All-Ivy honorable mentions in 2023, and Means, an All-Ivy first-team selection, look to lead their squad to glory as they hunt to close the gap in those consistent near-miss contests. 

"Really tough losses," Sayin said of the team's tight defeats last season. "You can't dwell on them, but you can definitely use them as motivation … There's a lot of positives to look at, and that's how we go through the offseason." 

While the new era of leadership may be exciting, it will take a lot more than the three man effort of these tenured captains to carve out a path to success. The difference maker for a team that has all the tools, having led the league in yards per game last season with roughly 401, is the endurance to close out games consistently. 

The 2024 Ivy League football season kicks off again for the 68th time this Saturday, September 21. 

Sports Editor Walker Carnathan contributed reporting to this story.