When ESPN's College GameDay came to Franklin Field for the Penn-Harvard game in 2002, analyst Kirk Herbstreit described Ivy League offenses as being similar to the pass-happy systems in the Western Athletic Conference of years gone by.
Herbstreit had plenty of proof for his argument. Quarterbacks such as Penn's Mike Mitchell and Harvard's Neil Rose lit up the Ancient Eight from the pocket, while Penn's Rob Milanese, Harvard's Carl Morris and Brown's Chas Gessner strode to the end zone ball in hand.
Three years later, though, the Ivy League's offensive stars are lined up in the backfield instead of near the sidelines.
It is the year of the running back in the Ivy League, with three -- Brown's Nick Hartigan, Harvard's Clifton Dawson and Cornell's Luke Siwula -- averaging more than 110 rushing yards per game.
Eight -- Hartigan, Dawson, Siwula, Cornell's Ryan Kuhn, Penn's Sam Mathews and Joe Sandberg and Princeton's Rob Toresco and Cleo Kirkland -- are averaging more than four yards per carry.
By contrast, only Yale's Ashley Wright is averaging six receptions per game, and no receiver is averaging 100 receiving yards per game.
Another Elis player, Jeff Mroz, is the only quarterback who has completed more than 60 percent of his pass attempts this season, and he is also the only quarterback averaging more than 200 passing yards per game.
"I think there's been a resurgence in the running game," Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. "It makes those teams [that run] more difficult to defend and more dangerous."
Murphy added that a strong running game benefits a team on both sides of the football.
"People have recognized the value of the running game and what it can do for your defense," he said.
Speaking of Penn's defense, -- which had been allowing the fewest rushing yards per game in Division I until Hartigan torched the Quakers for 167 yards two weeks ago -- coach Al Bagnoli said that his team gave up that much ground because it fell behind early.
"You look at it and say if we can hold him to a four-point average [yards per carry], his overall average is five-something, and his longest gain was 12 yards," he said. "You look at that and say we did a reasonably good job on him, but the problem is, we're playing from behind -- you don't want that kid to have the ball 40 times."
Bagnoli added that the same thing happened against Princeton last week.
"All of a sudden, they're winning late in the game, they're able to run the ball a lot more than you'd want them to run the ball," he said. "They're able to hand the ball off now now 40 or 50 times a game."
Tomorrow afternoon, Dawson -- perhaps the most legitimate NFL prospect in the Ivy League -- awaits the Quakers on the banks of the Charles River.
The Scarborough, Ontario, native is second in the Ancient Eight in rushing, averaging 113.2 yards per game and 4.4 yards per carry.
Yet with Brown's surge to the top of the Ivy League standings, Hartigan and his teammates have stolen some of the spotlight that shone on Dawson at the start of the season.
"I think some of it has to do with the overall success of the team. Right now, Brown's in the driver's seat, Princeton's in the driver's seat, Harvard's like us," Bagnoli said. "I think they're both terrific players but the team that's doing the best, that team gets the most publicity and obviously a marquee player on that team gets more."
At least for this weekend, Dawson has Penn's undivided attention.
