The sprint football seniors, all eight of them, will take to Franklin Field this Saturday to lead a very young Penn team against undefeated Army.

Although the Red and Blue have won seven of the last 10 against the Lions, they lost last year on the road by a score of 5-1.

When Penn faces Dartmouth on Saturday in Hanover, N.H., the Quakers will look to start fast from the opening whistle against a Big Green squad that is on the rise in the Ivy League.

Freshmen Brendan Smith, Brandon Clark and Thomas Awad are leading a freshman charge for the Quakers. All three placed in the top 10 at the Paul Short Invitational last month and are making the future of Penn cross country look a little brighter.

Indeed, Penn’s defensive group is young, and throughout the first 11 games of the season, coach Rudy Fuller has had to tinker with which combination of four guys works best in the back.

Through nine games this year, she has two goals and two assists. What’s more impressive, however, is that she has mostly been employed as a change-of-pace, substitute player.

Let’s just say this up front: The first four games of the Penn football schedule were rough.But here’s the good news: Columbia and Yale are up next.

After losing several key seniors following last season, defensive coordinator Ray Priore knew that some of his underclassmen would need to step in to fill their shoes. And just when duty called, Dan Wilk and Dan Davis emerged as stars of the Quakers’ young defense.

Freshmen Cameron Countryman and Dylan Muscat were fierce adversaries before they were teammates, playing on opposite sides of a heated rivalry between two public high schools in California. Muscat, a defensive back, often found himself matched up against Countryman, a receiver.

A huge part of a week’s preparation, and a part opaque to many a casual fan, is film study. Both with coaches and individually, players watch recorded games featuring their opponent to glean whatever they can heading into the weekend’s matchup.

The University is currently renovating the nearly century-old Hutchinson Gym, long-time home of practice facilities for the gymnastics, fencing, rowing and wrestling teams.

First-year Penn coach Steve Dolan manages his team with a soft-spoken, health-oriented approach. He tries to explain to runners the purpose of each training session and patiently works with them so they may get the most out of each day’s efforts.

Before Alan Schwarz exposed the severity of concussions among football players of all ages as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter for the New York Times or hosted ESPN’s Baseball Today, he helped save the toast toss at Penn.

In the midst of his 43rd season as head coach of the Penn sprint football team, Bill Wagner has his squad performing as strong as ever.

The 2010 Penn alumna was chosen as the wild card to participate in the 2012 U.S. Open Squash Championships, joining the top-12 squash players in the world.

Christian Barreiro, the former two-time All-Ivy striker/midfielder for Penn soccer, just finished the season with his new team, the Puerto Rico Islanders.

What the Penn football team needs is to start a game strong, finish a game strong and keep up the momentum in between.