In a matter of days, Penn football will take to the gridiron, launching a new season and with it, another shot to claim the Ivy League championship crown and qualify for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
Last season, the Quakers put up a 6-4 overall record, going 4-3 in conference play to place fourth in the Ancient Eight. This season will be coach Rick Santos’ first with the Quakers and the first time since 1992 with a new coach who came from outside the program.
With familiar and new opponents alike, here’s everything you need to know about the Quakers’ 10 matchups this season.
The Red and Blue, led by freshman starting quarterback and top-1,000 recruit Miles Teodecki, kick off their season on Sept. 19 against Bucknell. The last rodeo between the Quakers and Bucknell was an eventful one. The 31-21 victory for the Quakers marked the 50th career game for former coach Ray Priore. For their first game this season, the Quakers look to continue their 10-game winning streak against the Bison dating back to 2003.
Just one week after facing Bucknell, the Quakers return to Franklin Field to take on Lehigh (3-0), which currently sits at the top of the Patriot League standings. Last season, despite then-starting quarterback Liam O’Brien putting up his best performance at the time with a 75.7% pass completion rate, Penn ultimately fell, 44-30, against the Mountain Hawks.
A vengeful battle against the Mountain Hawks precedes the start of Ivy League matchups, where the Quakers will go head-to-head against Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., on Oct. 3. Penn also kicked off Ivy play last season against 2024 Ivy co-champion Dartmouth, ending in triumph with a 36-24 home victory. Dartmouth has proven to be a formidable opponent for the Quakers, with Penn having only won three of their last 10 matchups. For their last game on the road in 2024, the Quakers fell short with a 20-17 loss. This season, this pivotal matchup also serves as the Homecoming game for the Big Green.
One week later, on Oct. 10, the Quakers will face off against the Howard Bison during Family Weekend. This marks the first time in the program’s 150-year history that the two schools will compete. Last season, Howard ranked fourth out of six teams in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference with a 2-3 conference record and a 5-7 overall record. The matchup against Howard serves as the final non-conference opponent in the Quakers’ season.
From here, the Red and Blue continue Ivy play with a string of six conference opponents — starting at Franklin Field on Oct. 16 against Columbia. The last matchup against the Lions, who were the Ivy League co-champions in 2024, ended with the Quakers dashing the Lions’ Homecoming hopes with a 35-21 victory. That result was the opposite from 2024, when the Quakers suffered a 23-17 loss at Franklin Field — their first home loss to the Lions in nearly 30 years.
Next, the Quakers will square up for another evening game at home against 2025 Ivy co-champion Yale on Oct. 23. The Quakers have won four of their last 10 matchups against the Bulldogs, with the last two matchups ending in losses.
In 2024, a Friday night lights game on Penn’s Family Weekend ended with then-starting quarterback Aidan Sayin being sidelined for the rest of the season due to an elbow injury — and Penn would finish the night with a 31-10 loss. Last season was another blowout for the Quakers, where 110 yards lost through penalties culminated in a 35-13 loss.
The Quakers then continue with two games on the road, with a Halloween matchup in Providence, R.I., against Brown, and a matchup against Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., on Nov. 7. Penn has won eight of their last 10 games against Brown. Last season, a 28-21 victory against the Bears also saw the Quakers put up a season-high 364 passing yards.
In 2024, the bout against Cornell ended in a 67-49 victory for the Quakers in a game dubbed “Liamsanity” — which still remains the highest-scoring football game in Ivy League history. But just one year later, Cornell flipped the script against the Quakers with a 39-17 blowout on Penn Homecoming, marking the Quakers’ second consecutive Homecoming loss.
On Nov. 14, the Quakers return to Franklin Field in time for Homecoming for a pivotal matchup against reigning Ivy co-champion Harvard. The last two matchups against Harvard have ended in heartbreak. In 2024, a 31-28 Homecoming loss for the Quakers came by way of a walk-off field goal in the final two minutes. The narrative repeated last season in Boston, where the Quakers came home with a 45-43 loss from a last-second field goal.
The Quakers close out their season on Nov. 21 with an away game against Ivy rival Princeton. This will mark the 117th matchup against Princeton, with four of their last 10 games ending in a win for the Red and Blue. Last season, the Quakers took down the Tigers, 17-6, for their first win since 2022 in what would also be Priore’s last game as coach. Just days later, Priore stepped down after 11 years at the helm and a 52-38 overall record.
