If the Penn football team somehow makes it out of the weekend with a share of the Ivy league title, it wouldn't be the most bizarre happening of the past few seasons.
As the Quakers face Cornell on the road tomorrow, their only chance at the Ivy crown comes in the form of a four-way tie, which would be a League first.
That would require a Penn victory, then 2-7 Columbia taking out 6-3 Brown in Providence, R.I., and 6-3 Yale winning at 8-1 Harvard.
But put that next to Penn's three consecutive overtime losses in 2006, repeated kicking woes, an intentional safety and two straight seasons of quarterback injuries, and it doesn't seem like anything would faze Penn Football.
"I'd say it was sort of the tale of the season where there wasn't one powerhouse this year," senior defensive back Britton Ertman said.
At Schoellkopf Field, where the Quakers (5-4, 4-2 Ivy) have a 9-22 record, it will be the clash of the Ivy League's best offense and best defense. The Big Red (5-4, 2-4) gain just over 400 yards per game and Penn holds teams to about 250.
Most of Cornell's yards come off the arm of quarterback Nathan Ford. The senior averages nearly 300 per game through the air and recently moved into the top 10 in Ivy League all-time passing yards.
"It seems like he's been around forever and he's been a productive kid," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "He's got to be one of the highest-rated quarterbacks of all time."
But last week, he fell prone to interceptions, throwing four in the Big Red's 17-7 loss at Columbia last weekend.
"Sometimes he'll just chuck the ball up there and we hope that we can come down with it," Ertman said.
His favorite targets have been senior Jesse Baker and junior Bryan Walters, who will go up against a Penn secondary that has 12 interceptions on the season.
The Quakers counter with Keiffer Garton, the sophomore signal caller who has carried Penn on his legs since taking the starting job against Princeton two weeks ago.
"We prepare for the runner," Cornell coach Jim Knowles said. "He has certainly been very effective for them and I think almost single-handily brought them back against Harvard."
Down 24-21 and with time ticking down, Garton converted on third down and twice on fourth down to get in the Harvard red zone before throwing a disastrous pick.
In just three games, Garton has become the Quakers' second leading rusher with 312 yards on the season and should have little problem adding to those numbers against one of the most porous defenses in the Ivy League.
Bagnoli also said he would try to give senior quarterback Robert Irvin, known more for his aerial attack, a few snaps to keep Cornell off balance.
A win would guarantee Penn at least a third-place finish in the league and its highest win total since 2004.
"It's definitely in the back of our heads," senior tight end Josh Koontz said a four-way tie. "We aren't ruling it out, but we're trying to take care of what we can do."
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