Penn’s biggest advantage to stopping Jeff Mathews and the Cornell passing attack on Saturday lies with getting to him with the linebacking corps.

Andrew Holland will make his first career start when the Quakers head north to Ithaca, N.Y., on Saturday to take on Cornell in a bid for the outright Ivy League title.

Saturday, with the season on the line, the Quakers in the trenches were the imposers and the Harvard Crimson the imposed upon. The result was another Ivy League title and victory cigars all around.

Van Roten, who graduated from Penn in the spring of 2012, is now more than halfway through his rookie NFL season with the Green Bay Packers and serving as a backup center.

Starting kicker Connor Loftus and starting punter and holder Scott Lopano like to have fun while they are waiting for their turn on the gridiron. But when they’ve gotten on the field this season, they have done a near-flawless job.

Leading up to the de facto Ivy championship tilt against Harvard, I still didn’t give the post-Yale Quakers much of a chance. But boy, did they prove me wrong.

It happened on the final play of the third quarter. Penn, up 21-14 at the time, faced a crucial third down with three yards to go on the Harvard 36. Ragone, as he had already done 15 times that afternoon, tucked the football away and took off running. He scrambled seven yards — easily enough for the first — before he was brought down violently around the neck by the Crimson’s Nnamdi Obukwelu.

On Saturday, the Penn football team showed what it could do and then some, clinching at least a share of the Ancient Eight crown with a victory over a favored Crimson squad.

Harvard won the opening coin toss, but not much more would go right for the Crimson at Franklin Field after that, as the Quakers scored on their opening drive and never trailed in a 30-21 victory.

Saturday at noon, No. 25 Harvard comes to Franklin Field in what is a de facto Ivy League title game. With a win, Penn would clinch at least a share of the Ancient Eight crown.

After a rocky start to the season, the Quakers’ pass coverage has turned around its performance behind leadership from senior cornerback Dave Twamley.

Young receivers have had to step up and Penn has had to adjust its offensive strategy. Instead of having one new receiver emerge, the Quakers have filled in the holes with several new targets.

Like the presidency, the head coaching position in football is left open to much scrutiny, but Al Bagnoli should not be doubted in light of his record as the Quakers’ coach.

For better or worse, every single game Penn has played this season has been hard-fought from start to finish, and fourth-quarter scoring drives have become quarterback Billy Ragone’s specialty.

Following another fourth quarter comeback for the cardiac Quakers, the Ivy League title will have to go through Franklin Field next weekend after Penn beat Princeton, 28-21, on Saturday.

The Quakers are locked in a three-way tie for first place in the league with Princeton and Harvard, and the outcome of Saturday’s game will determine how the final stretch of the season plays out.

The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with coach Al Bagnoli to run through some topics and events that affect the matchup and the team itself.