When Yale turned the ball over on downs, allowing San Diego to run out the clock, it ruined what was nearly a perfect day for the Ivy League.
The Elis' 17-14 loss was the only blemish for the Ancient Eight, which opened non-league play by going 7-1 -- all against opponents who had played before this weekend.
With the loss, Yale became the first-ever Ivy League team to lose to a Pioneer League team, and San Diego improved to 1-6 against Ivy opponents. Last season, the Toreros were crushed by the Quakers on the West Coast, 61-18.
Saturday marked the first day since 1994 on which seven Ivy League teams won. The last was Oct. 1 of that season, when Penn did not play and the other seven teams were victorious.
Had the Elis been able to hold on to their 14-0 lead, it would have been the first day since Sept. 26, 1970 that all eight Ivy League teams won.
Irvin out, O'Hagan in
The Richard Irvin era at Harvard may have lasted all of eight throws.
Irvin, the Tulane transfer, went 5-for-8 with an interception, while backup Liam O'Hagan entered to go 15-for-24 with two touchdowns and an interception in the Crimson's 31-21 win at Holy Cross.
The victory extended Harvard's winning streak to 12 games, which is the best active streak among Division I-AA teams.
Next week, O'Hagan will face his first major test as a starter -- a game that has major implications on the Ivy title race, as Brown travels to Boston for the conference opener.
Harvard and Brown were chosen No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the Ivy League preseason media poll, and the Bears will come in off a 34-3 thumping of Georgetown in Washington.
With the win, the Crimson improved to 15th in The Sports Network's I-AA poll.
Hey old Buddy
Maybe all Dartmouth needed was a new coach.
An old coach, that is.
Buddy Teevens -- who returned to his alma mater after a stint as the head coach at Stanford --was victorious in the first game of his second go-around at Dartmouth.
The Big Green matched its season win total from the 1-9 team in 2004 by beating Colgate, 26-21, in Hanover, N.H., on Saturday.
Teevens, a 1979 graduate of Dartmouth, coached the Big Green to back-to-back Ivy League titles in 1990 and 1991 -- the final two seasons of his five-year first tenure.
Next week, the Big Green goes on the road to play No. 2 New Hampshire. The Wildcats beat Towson 62-21 last week and are 2-0 on the year.
Century club
The Ivy League was home to three players who rushed for more than 100 yards on Saturday, including one quarterback.
Cornell senior quarterback Ryan Kuhn carried the ball 19 times for 151 yards and two touchdowns during the Big Red's 24-7 victory over Bucknell in Ithaca, N.Y.
Last season, in five games, Kuhn only totaled 90 yards on the ground on 54 rushes.
Not since Gary Wood in 1963 had a Cornell quarterback amassed 150 rushing yards in a game.
Kuhn earned Ivy League Player of the Week for his performance, despite only completing six passes in eight attempts for an underwhelming 49 yards.
Moving from the unexpected to the totally expected, Harvard standout running back Clifton Dawson scampered for 153 yards and a touchdown in the Crimson's win.
The junior from Scarborough, Ont., also moved into sole possession of first place on Harvard's all-time list with 30 rushing touchdowns.
Across the country in San Diego, Yale freshman Michael McLeod had quite the debut for the Elis.
McLeod became the first Yale rookie ever to eclipse the century mark in his first game, running for 102 yards on 18 carries -- albeit in a losing effort.
A look ahead
Brown-Harvard is not the only conference game to be played on Week 2.
Cornell, fresh off the win over Bucknell, travels to New Haven, Conn., to take on the only 0-1 team, Yale.
In nonleague action, Duquesne and San Diego take on Ivy League teams for the second straight week, as the Dukes head to New York to play Columbia, and the Toreros travel across the country to visit Princeton.
The Lions and Tigers both went on the road last week to record their wins, with Columbia taking out Fordham and the Tigers defeating Lafayette in Easton, Pa.
