Yao | I just witnessed Penn football history

Where were you for “Liamsanity”?

I was sitting in Cornell’s press box, shivering every time someone left the door open a little too long. The views were great, but the temperature was definitely on the lower side. After staying up until 6:30 a.m. the day before the game, I almost hadn't made it to Ithaca, N.Y. to watch the game. But three energy drinks was more than enough for me to rally, and boy am I glad I was able to make the drive up. 

When I talked to coach Ray Priore earlier this week, he told me that the only goal for junior quarterback Liam O’Brien ahead of his second ever career collegiate start was to play like he did against Brown. 

“Well, I'm not sure what … other than do what they did against Brown,” Priore had said leading up to the matchup. 

In his second collegiate start against a Big Red team that had a genuine chance to make a push for the Ivy League title, O’Brien didn’t do just enough to get the win — he completely dominated the competition. 

The moment I started to suspect that I was in for the game of my life was on Cornell’s third drive. After the Penn defense finally stiffened up and seemingly forced the three-and-out, the Big Red ran a fake punt. Not only was Cornell able to convert, it was able to take the ball all the way to the house for seven points. With three minutes still to play in the first quarter, the score was already 21-7. 

When Penn came back and responded to what could have been a spirit-breaking drive with a 15-play, 74-yard scoring drive of its own that ended with junior wide receiver Jared Richardson hauling in the ball on a third and long to score, I knew with certainty that I was about to witness a shootout. The ease at which the teams were marching down the field was absurd, and the halftime score of 28-26 could have easily passed as the full-time score for any other college football game. 

But while the Penn defense found its footing after the halftime break, the Big Red just couldn’t find any solution for O’Brien. The junior signal caller has different strengths than senior quarterback Aidan Sayin, who is out with an elbow injury. While Sayin is a pocket passer and gunslinger, O’Brien is much more comfortable throwing while rolling out and has no issue with tucking the ball to grind out yardage on the ground. 

O’Brien’s success on the ground was only accentuated by the potency of sophomore running back Malachi Hosley, who punished Cornell just like he did a year ago when he broke out for over 200 yards on the ground. The Big Red defense struggled to defend the trio of O’Brien, Hosley, and Richardson, and it showed as O’Brien absolutely dissected the defense to lead scoring drive after scoring drive.

After O’Brien’s fifth touchdown pass of the day, all eyes were on the clock. The score was now 53-35, O’Brien had just tied up the program record for passing touchdowns and total touchdowns with most of the fourth quarter still to play. The whispers of whether or not the decade-old records would fall started spreading in the press box. 

We didn’t have to wait long. Sophomore defensive back Josh Narcisse nabbed an interception on Cornell’s first offensive snap to put the ball back into O’Brien’s hands. Three plays later, a 23-yard strike from O’Brien to junior wide receiver Bisi Owens secured O’Brien’s name at the top of Penn football’s record books. 

The craziest part of it all was that O’Brien didn’t even seem to know how huge his performance was in the game. In the post-game scrum, we got the chance to tell him all the records he had broken. O’Brien seemed almost as stunned as we were by the records he had topped — his focus had only been on winning the game in front of him. 

“I did not know,” O’Brien said when we asked him. “It feels good, but this was a team effort. When we came out, this one was personal … we came out firing, with a lot of energy, and we were able to execute our game plan really well. And that showed on the scoreboard.”

The 67-49 drubbing of Cornell is the highest number of aggregate points — at 116 — scored for any game that Penn has ever played in, with the 67 points Penn scored being the most the Quakers have put up since the start of Ivy League play in 1956. The 627 total yards of offense was also the second-most of any Penn team — just one yard behind the program record of 628. 

I just witnessed history. It’s a performance that I don’t see Penn football replicating any time soon — and to think that I almost didn’t get to witness it in person because I had stayed up too late the night before. As the Red and Blue faithful know, Penn football has had its share of heartbreaking moments in the past. 

But I’m drinking the “Liamsanity” cool-aid. O’Brien doesn’t even need to do this week in and week out. If he plays even half as well as he did on Saturday, I can almost see Penn football rising victorious on top of the Ivy League for the first time since 2016 — maybe not this year, but next.