Harvard Crimson host Penn Quakers
Live on CN8 (& www.cn8.tv)
Harvard Stadium (Cambridge, Mass.), 12:30 pm

The Game Penn and Harvard are meeting for the 74th time with the Crimson holding a 41-30-2 series advantage ... The last two matchups have come with both teams 5-0 in League play ... In 2001 in Cambridge, Harvard QB Neil Rose completed 18-of-26 passes for 270 yards while two-time Ivy Player of the Year Carl Morris caught nine for 155 yards ... That included 'The Catch,' a 62-yarder to give the Crimson its first lead at 21-14 in the 28-21 victory ... The pass looked to be overthrown, but Morris never gave up on the ball and hauled it in for the score ... A year ago, Penn got its revenge ... In a cold, steady rain at Franklin Field, the Quakers defeated Harvard, 44-9, with the ESPN College GameDay Show coming live from inside the stadium ... After Harvard's Brian Garcia (Lutz, Fla.) sacked Mike Mitchell (Orlando, Fla.) in the end zone in the first quarter to make it 3-2 in favor of Penn, the Quakers reeled on 41 straight points before a rowdy home crowd ... That crowd celebrated Penn's 11th Ivy title since 1982 by trying (and failing) to bring down the goalpost ... Mitchell was sensational, throwing 30 times, completing 21 for 317 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers ... Penn won the Ivy title in 1959 and then came up empty through the 1960s... and 1970s ... Then came 1982 ... The Quakers were 4-1 in Ivy play heading into the Harvard game at Franklin Field and a win would secure at least a share of Penn's first League title since that 1959 crown ... It came down to a Dave Shulman field goal in the waning moments ... Starting with that title, Penn has won 11 in a 21-season span ... This game will be shown on CN8 throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic ... Those outside the CN8 viewing area can watch the broadcast on the internet at cn8.tv ... The radio broadcasts can be heard in Philadelphia on WVCH (740 AM) with Matt Leon and Hench Murray and in Boston on WCRN (830 AM) with Bernie Corbett and Mike Giardi.

The Coaches Penn Coach Al Bagnoli (Central Connecticut State '75) grabbed his sixth Ivy Championship when Columbia downed Harvard last week ... Only two men -- both Hall of Famers -- have won more League crowns ... Yale's Carm Cozza won 10 in 32 years while Dartmouth's Bob Blackman, who also coached at Cornell, won seven in 21 seasons ... Bagnoli is in his 12th campaign with the Quakers ... Harvard Coach Tim Murphy (Springfield '78) had the Crimson on a stretch of 22-3 before falling to Dartmouth and Columbia in successive weeks ... Now, in his 17th season as a college head coach (10 at Harvard, five at Cincinnati; two at Maine), Murphy's career record is completely even at 87-87-1 ... He is 55-42 at Harvard.

The Incidentals Last year, the Penn Quakers were dominating, never once threatened in Ivy play ... This year Penn has simply found a way to win, sneaking past Lehigh, Bucknell, Yale and Brown ... But at this point, the Quakers are 8-0 overall, 5-0 in the Ivy League, ranked ninth nationally and already a League champion ... This is only the third that an Ivy team has captured at least a share of the title with two League games left to play ... Dartmouth was the first back in 1962, followed by Penn in 1994 ... Both went unbeaten those years (both 9-0 and 7-0) ... Penn was impressive in its eighth win -- a 37-7 defeat of Princeton before 21,060 at Franklin Field ... The Red and Blue is riding a 14-game winning streak and has won 30 of its last 32 ... The Quakers have also won 23 of their last 24 Ivy League contests ... Running back Sam Mathews (Pittsburgh, Pa.) is threatening Ed Marinaro's Ivy sophomore rushing record ... Marinaro is the only sophomore to rush for 1,000 yards in the seven-game League schedule, finishing with 1,002 for Cornell in 1969, but Mathews has already racked up 757 yards in five games and need to average 124 yards to erase Marinaro's record ... Current New York Giant Jim Finn was the last player to rush for 1,000 in the Ivy season, doing so for Penn in 1998 ... He is the lone Quaker to do so as well ... Mathews, a transfer from the Naval Academy, became the seventh player in program history to record 1,000 rushing yards in season ... He has been particularly hard-working in the last five games, averaging 32 carries for 159 yards and more than a touchdown ... If Mathews carries the ball 67 times in the next two games, he will become the fourth Ivy Leaguer to rush 300 times in a season ... The first four all played in the NFL (Marinaro, Finn, Judd Garrett and Keith Elias) ... Senior quarterback Mike Mitchell (Orlando, Fla.) completed 25-of-37 passes for 306 yards, his second 300-yard passing performance of the season and sixth of his career ... Mitchell needs just 95 yards to become the 11th player in Ivy history to record 5,000 passing yards in a career ... Two of Mitchell's targets continue to make news ... Senior wideout Joe Phillips (Medford Lakes, N.J.) became the 13th player in program history to record 1,000 receiving yards in a career ... Phillips, now 11th all-time with 1,089, recorded career highs for receptions (nine) and yards (117) against Princeton ... Junior wide receiver Dan Castles (Toms River, N.J.) jumped over Rick Owens and Rich Syrek into eighth-place all-time in Penn history with 1,180 receiving yards and took over fourth-place with his 14th career TD catch ... Castles (84) and Phillips (83) are seventh and eighth all-time in receptions at Penn ... Harvard lost for the second straight Saturday, this time by a 16-13 count at Columbia ... The Crimson will try to avoid its first three-game losing streak of the 21st century when Penn visits Harvard Stadium this weekend ... Harvard, which entered the game as the only Division I-AA team averaging 500 yards of total offense, was held under 100 yards in the second half as Columbia stayed alive ... Freshman running back Clifton Dawson (Scarborough, Ont.) broke the 150-yard barrier for the fourth consecutive game with 157 yards and a TD on 32 carries against the Lions ... In the game, he broke the Ivy League freshman rushing record of 823 set by Brown's Marquis Jessie in 1993 ... Dawson enters the Penn game with 895 rushing yards in his march to 1,000 ... In last four games have seen him average more than 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns ... His latest touchdown was Dawson's 10th rushing score of the year, putting him within striking range of Harvard's single-season record of 13, set by Mike Giardi '94 in 1991 and equalled by Chris Menick '00 in 1997 ... Dawson is not eligible for League Rookie of the Week honors because he spent a redshirt year at Northwestern before transferring to Harvard ... Senior cornerback Benny Butler (Louisville, Ky.) registered his fifth interception in seven games this season ... The Crimson offense, which entered the game ranked first in Division I-AA, managed just 262 yards against the Columbia defense and fell to third nationally behind San Diego and Yale ... Harvard's defensive unit, meanwhile, registered six sacks and had three interceptions against the Lions ... Senior punter Adam Kingston (Omaha, Neb.) had an up-and-down day against Columbia ... He had two punts partially blocked, but also dropped one 56-yard punt inside the Lion 1-yard line and had another downed at the Lion 10 ... Harvard still has an outside chance at sharing the Ivy League championship ... The Crimson would have to win its final two games (against Penn and Yale) and see Cornell upset Penn in two weeks ... Harvard scored at least four touchdowns in each of its first six games this season, but has managed only four total TDs in the last two games ... Harvard ranks last in the Ivy League in pass defense (281.0 yards allowed per game), yet ranks first in the league in pass efficiency defense (112.97).