On July 4, 2025, Penn football coach Ray Priore received a text from a program alumnus that ended with two words: “Beat Princeton.”
In this year’s battle between neighboring Ivy League schools, Penn football was able to honor its 26 graduating seniors — and its alumni — with a 17-6 win.
Both teams entered this week’s matchup facedown, knowing their seasons would end at the final whistle. After a promising start to the season, a two-game losing streak in conference play effectively eliminated Penn’s (6-4, 4-3 Ivy) chances of a playoff appearance. Princeton (3-7, 2-5) hadn’t fared much better, entering today with four straight losses to Ancient Eight opponents.
But in rivalry week, records go out the window.
“There is no love lost with beating Princeton,” Priore said. “Penn football, Penn basketball, Penn anything, versus Princeton … it’s a great rivalry.”
As the Princeton offense marched down the field with ease, the Penn defense struggled to get off the field. Fortunately for the Red and Blue faithful, a long run that would have put the Tigers on the doorstep of the Quaker end zone was called back for a defensive penalty, and the Tigers’ receiver dropped a third-down pass, sending out the field-goal unit.
The good luck continued for the Quakers. On a time-consuming drive that took 19 plays and nearly 10 minutes, two interception scares were deemed out of bounds, a lost fumble occurred right after a play was blown dead, and senior quarterback Liam O’Brien was able to fall on top of a mishandled snap to maintain possession. To cap off a tumultuous first drive, representative of the Red and Blue’s season at large, O’Brien found senior wide receiver David Ellis for his first career touchdown reception.
With two minutes to play in the half, Princeton was driving deep in the red zone. There, the Penn defense stiffened, and after a near interception on third-and-nine, the Tigers kicked their second field goal of the day to bring them within one of the Quakers. In Penn’s two-minute drill, O’Brien went to his No. 1 receiver, senior wideout Jared Richardson.
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Richardson’s first reception of the drive for nine yards moved him to third on Penn’s career receiving yards leaderboard, surpassing 2004 Wharton graduate Dan Castles’ 2,444 yards. Richardson finished the game with 95 yards, bringing his season total at 1,033 — the first time in his career he has eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark. Richardson concludes his career with the Red and Blue with 2,505 receiving yards.
“It’s just special knowing that Penn was the only division one school that offered me, so it was a blessing,” Richardson said.
On Penn’s first drive coming out of the halftime break, senior wide receiver Bisi Owens made two defenders miss following a strike from O’Brien to put the Quakers up by eight. Despite O’Brien churning out yardage on the ground and connecting well with Owens and Richardson, the Quakers led a one-score game heading into the final quarter of play.
A field goal midway through the fourth quarter put the Quakers up by 11, and two fourth-down stops by the defense, followed by an interception from sophomore defensive back Ty Cortes, helped Penn secure a season-ending victory.
“As a senior-heavy defense, we’re just playing together and having fun,” senior defensive lineman Carter Janki said. “I think that was really the message we wanted to do: just have fun out there, playing together.”
With the 2025 season now at a close, the program will be saying goodbye to a group of seniors that includes 10 starters on offense, eight starters on defense, a punter, and a kicker.
“That’s the beauty of the Ivy League, especially here,” O’Brien said. “We all came in freshmen year, we were all hungry. We all had the same desire of just loving football and wanting to be on the field. We all had our own journeys, unique in how we got there, but one thing that stayed consistent was we all knew how to work.”
The Penn football team has now gone nine seasons without a share of the Ivy League title. This upcoming offseason will be a crucial one for the team to potentially end the title drought in 2026.
But first, Priore is excited to eat some turkey.
“I want to take tomorrow with my family, grandkids … maybe eat a little bit of turkey,” Priore said. “But it never stops. Just ask the coaches. It never stops.”
