DURHAM, N.C. — Throwing them right into the fire. It’s an interesting strategy. It’s also been a hallmark of Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin’s tenure.

Tonight, the most important — and divisive — election of our lives is finally coming to close. Politics has dominated conversation and the news for months, and yet, sports have never been a more important part of my life.

Penn football’s loss to Princeton on Saturday was, for lack of a better, less-ironic word, sobering.

Wednesday was the one of the worst days of my life. I got up early, made the six-hour drive from Philly to Cleveland, took the train downtown with some friends and went to a baseball game. A lifelong Indians fan, the chance to go to game seven of a World Series was absolutely surreal.

I didn’t think there were many more ways Penn could work to stifle any hope of creating a sports culture at this University.

I set out to write this column about nutrition. As you’ll soon read, that’s not what happened. The idea came to me last Monday after morning practice when coach Mike Schnur gathered the men’s and women’s swim teams for a meeting.

I have never won anything in my entire life. Let’s back up a second. First, some background: This loser is a back up quarterback for Penn sprint football.

It's easy to feel like Penn football is an obvious favorite to beat Princeton this Saturday and (eventually) win another Ivy League title. It's hard to argue with ten straight Ivy wins (which I'm about to do).

All that matters is going one game at a time. Interview a coach or player from any sports team and you’ll hear words like these. Who’s going to admit that his team can completely overlook the team it’s about to face? That the next game isn’t as emotionally significant as matchups later on might be?

The farewell tour. The victory lap. The last hurrah. Whatever you call it, there’s no avoiding the inevitability of retirement in athletics.

In their first Ivy League game of the year, Penn football took on Dartmouth, a team that shared the conference title with the Quakers in 2015.

The most interesting thing about this weekend’s Penn-Columbia football game is going to be the memories.

David Pottruck is often described as legendary. While an undergraduate in the Wharton school in the late 1960's, Pottruck played football and wrestled, earning MVP honors in both sports during his senior seasons and being named captain of the wrestling team in 1970.

Penn football looks good right now. After the Quakers started off 0-2, the Dartmouth game was over before halftime, and Central Connecticut State proved to be the non-conference softie we suspected they might be. There are just six Ivy games left in the season, and it’s hard to imagine feeling as though the Quakers could realistically be in a much better spot than they current are.

When you see the word “leader”, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is a historical figure, maybe it is an innovator in the tech industry.

I have an admission of guilt. I’ve now lived in Philadelphia for three and a half years, and I have never seen Rocky. Let me be more specific about my Rocky ignorance.

The preseason hype surrounding Penn football was unreal – 13 returning starters from a championship team will do that.