Alek Torgersen has something to prove. This year it’s not about proving he’s capable of locking down the top spot at quarterback.

Penn football’s first game may come a full two weeks after most teams begin their seasons, but a high level of competition has been brewing for weeks in Quakers' practices at Penn Park. As the Red and Blue approach their opener against Lehigh, position battles have been on the minds of many coaches and players.

When Penn women’s soccer assistant coach Emily Oliver stepped on the soccer field four years ago on December 4th, her objective was clear. It was the finals of 2011 College Cup, the NCAA women’s soccer national championship, and her team, the Stanford Cardinal, was facing Duke.

It's hard for any foray into the topic of "veteran leadership" to hit on something new, but Penn volleyball coach Kerry Carr finds herself with a truly unprecedented embarrassment of riches. Carr, the winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history, has rarely appointed more than two captains during her 18 years at the helm, and never more than three.

Last year, Penn women’s cross country finished last in the Ivy League. This is an indisputable fact. In their year-end Heptagonal meet, the de facto Ivy championship competition, the Red and Blue only managed to finish eighth in the Ancient Eight. And while any single meet result should be taken with a grain of salt, this sort of result would be the elephant in the room.

The fall season may still be quite young for Penn Athletics, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any surprises. So now, with most Red and Blue teams having gotten their seasons under way, we take the opportunity to talk about the squads that have made us reconsider our preseason expectations.

The 139th edition of Penn football has 77 days together. From the first day of preseason camp until the final snap against Cornell in November, the Quakers remain one cohesive unit.

The old saying goes, two’s company, three’s a crowd, four’s too many. But for coach Fuller and the Quakers, four might be the magical number. Penn has four great options for the goalkeeping position, according to the team, but only time will tell if four is truly too many or a blessing. “I could probably say without hesitation, I’ve been at Penn 18 years and this is probably the deepest goalkeeping crop that I’ve had in my time at Penn,” Fuller said.

With every season comes a set of new faces eager to translate their athletic achievements in high school to the collegiate level.

It wasn’t the ending anyone had hoped for. Three games into the Ivy League season last year, everything was looking up for Penn men’s soccer.

Penn men’s soccer is entering unique territory in the program’s history.  Two years removed from an Ivy League title, gone now are graduated mainstays like Duke Lacroix and Kamar Saint-Louis.

While Penn volleyball will certainly be hoping for this season to play out differently than last, some things are best left unchanged.

A breakdown of Penn Athletics' early season

Starting off as a college athlete presents a unique set of challenges. While all new students deal with classic struggles such as meeting new friends and figuring out which classes can knock out the most requirements at once, varsity athletes have to balance their academics and social lives with early morning practices and long weekend road trips.

For many of Penn’s fall sports teams, there exists the recurring theme that youth plays a key role.

In a year marked by attrition and adversity, the Quakers fought hard for their 8-9 record in 2014. And this leaves the Red and Blue in a situation both exciting and precarious looking towards 2015, a year which could reasonably be marked by either further struggles or breakthrough.

For just about everyone, college is about new experiences. A new city perhaps, new friends, new teachers. And for athletes, a whole new team filled with unfamiliar faces.