A football phenom coming from Canada sounds about as unlikely as a liberal coming from Alabama.
But the Penn football team knows that when it plays Harvard on Saturday, it will not be able to win unless it contains the lone Ontario native on the field -- Harvard sophomore running back Clifton Dawson.
The Ivy League is stacked with prolific running backs, but Dawson is at the front of the pack, leading the Crimson to the best offensive numbers in the league this season.
International borders did not stop Dawson from being heavily recruited out of Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. After leading his team to a Toronto city championship and being named an All-Canada football star his senior season, Dawson saw interest from Division I-A squads like Duke, Stanford and Syracuse.
The tailback chose to attend Northwestern, but did not play his freshman year. He decided to transfer.
The following offseason, Penn found itself in the hunt for Dawson, a talent the Quakers knew could really impact the Ancient Eight.
As it goes with many players of his caliber, Penn thought Dawson was going to wear Red and Blue, until he chose the darker shade of Crimson.
"He was in our radar. We thought he was coming to Penn, but we lost him right at the end," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We knew he was a really good player, and unfortunately we have proven to be accurate."
Dawson had a breakout first year for Harvard, rushing for 1,187 yards, becoming the first freshman to break 1,000 yards rushing in Ivy League history. He also ranked 10th in Division I-AA rushing and was the first offensive player to get first-team All-Ivy honors in his first year.
This year, Dawson has improved on his already stellar numbers. In just his second year in crimson, Dawson is leading the league with 1,022 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns so far this season, three more than he had at the end of last season.
His 15 scores are the most accumulated in one season in Harvard history.
He still has two games left to play, and the first one comes against Penn, which has struggled against some talented running backs during its Ivy League schedule.
After successfully containing the run-happy offenses of Bucknell and Columbia, the Quakers have struggled the past three weeks, giving up 199 rushing yards to Brown, 196 to Princeton and 164 to Yale. All three of these teams have veritable rushing threats, but Dawson has eclipsed them all this season.
Through last weekend, Penn had the best run defense in the Ivies statistically, but Cornell has since taken over the Quakers' spot at the top of that category.
"We just haven't done a very good job of executing our game plan," tri-captain and defensive back Kevin Stefanski said. Dawson "will beat us only if we botch an execution."
Stefanski also commented on Dawson's combination of speed and size.
"He is listed at 190, but I think he is bigger than that," he said. "When you tackle him, you are not taking down a little guy."
"He's a big guy and he really runs well between the tackles," Penn senior defensive end Bobby Fallon said. "Most fast guys go outside, but he is the slashing type."
Penn also cannot count on any turnovers from Dawson Saturday -- he enters the game with a streak of 387 carries without a fumble.
Unfortunately for Penn, the Crimson also boasts an NFL prospect under center in quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, forcing the Quakers to defend more than just the run.
"We are facing a multi-dimensional offense that just doesn't allow you to put seven or eight guys in the box," Bagnoli said. [Dawson] "obviously becomes a focal point, but it's not just the run we have to defend against."
And with the shakiness of the offense recently, the Quakers' defensive unit has been spending a lot of time on the field.
"There's going to be some pressure on the offense to hold onto the ball a little bit more and score some points," Bagnoli said. "We're going to have to do a good job all around."
