Irvin shouldn't have lost starting job yet

When it comes to deciding which quarterback to start for Penn, there can definitely be arguments made for each guy, both senior Bryan Walker and junior Robert Irvin.

While Ilario made his argument for Walker on Monday, here my abridged one for Irvin.

A good place to compare the two is in the Dartmouth games. Last year against the Big Green, Irvin completed 15 of 25 passes for 227 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Last weekend Walker went 30 for 60, 266 yards, one touchdown and no picks. These stats are fairly close, but I'd take the sophomore's efficiency as the major plus.

Walker's yards per attempt were embarrassingly low, at 4.43. That's less than half Irvin's total a year prior against Dartmouth (9.08), and much less than what Irvin had as a sophomore starter (6.82), when he earned honorable mention All-Ivy honors.

Also, with a defense a bend-but-not-break mentality is often thought of as a positive, they make something out of nothing. But last week Walker's offense made nothing out of something -- they started six drives in Dartmouth territory, an average starting field position of their own 44 yard line, and scored all of 13 points.

Irvin has played two bad games, and yes they were very bad, but that's no reason to permanently bench him, especially because he will be starting next year.

Here are a few interesting stats from Saturday's game:

Other than Bryan Walker scrambles (though I wasn't at the game and they may have designed one or two of those for him), the Quakers, down by only 15 points, called their last final running play of the game with over 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

WR Braden Lepisto went from 11 catches for 123 yards and a TD against Villanova to two for 26 yards and a TD against Dartmouth.

Kicker Andrew Samson hit Penn's first two field goals of the year, connecting from 23 and 45 yards.

Penn scored its first points of the year that didn't come in the first quarter.

Penn started nine drives at their own 35-yard line or better. Dartmouth had none.