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Watson was invited to compete in the 93rd East-West Shrine Game, an annual all-star game featuring top college players from schools in the Eastern US and the Western US.
Finishing with four consecutive victories, Penn football was rolling at the end of the 2017 season. And now, the time to look ahead to 2018 is officially here.
While multiple former Quakers have been bouncing around preseason and practice squads for the past few years, the past year represented the program’s best chance in decades to land skill players in high-profile spots.
With various teams engaging in some instant classic battles, the Quakers have given fans a wild range of emotions throughout the calendar year, with the lone constant being thorough entertainment across the board.
Instead, the offensive award went to senior Princeton quarterback Chad Kanoff, while Yale’s senior linebacker Matthew Oplinger won Defensive Player of the Year.
Every game that Penn football won against NCAA Division I opponents this season had something in common: they all featured at least one crucial stop in the red zone.
On Tuesday, the Ivy League announced the finalists for its Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Senior wide receiver Justin Watson was named a finalist for the offensive award and junior linebacker Nick Miller was nominated for the defensive honor.
Penn football’s epic late-season surge ultimately couldn’t secure its third straight season of Ivy League title glory, but the Red and Blue had no such shortcomings with individual hardware. The Ivy League released its 2017 All-Ivy selections Tuesday afternoon, and the Quakers were thoroughly represented with 14 total picks.
Watson, for the second year in a row, was just named one of 25 finalists for the prestigious Walter Payton Award, presented each year to the Most Outstanding Player in FCS Football.
Watson torched Cornell’s defense to lift the Quakers to a thrilling 29-22 victory and earned one last DP Sports' Player of the Week award in the process.
Penn football may very well win more games in 2018. One thing, however, is guaranteed: the Red and Blue will not have a more entertaining season than they did this year.
With the way things played out during Penn football's 23-6 win over Harvard this past weekend, it's no surprise that some hardware is headed the Quakers' way. And it's even less surprising that Penn's two award winners did their work on defense and special teams.
Dominating an outmatched Harvard defensive front all afternoon long, senior running back Tre Solomon put up a career-high 181 rushing yards on only 15 carries against Harvard, propelling Penn to a 23-6 win and comfortably earning honors as the DP Sports Player of the Week.
Though Yale, which now sits atop the Ivy rankings with a 5-1 conference record, may have something to say about this, there is no doubt that the Quakers are one of the hottest teams in the conference, having won three straight, completely turning around a season that was labeled by many as a failure just three weeks ago.
On the first play from scrimmage, senior running back Tre Solomon took a jet sweep all the way to the house, a 77-yard touchdown that gave the Quakers an early 7-0 lead.
Today is pretty much all about our wonderful Penn Basketball preview, but we barely squeezed in Swamis. And I mean barely. William left it off the story list.