Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Countdown To Friday Night

Penn's notes for Friday night (sans depth charts, stats, etc.) have been posted and they set the stage quite nicely:
This week just feels different. Maybe it's those Friday Night Lights. Maybe its the national television audience on NBC Sports Network. Most likely it's the fact that a pair of undefeated teams are set to open their Ivy League slates in front of a national television audience. The two teams tied for the most Ivy League titles in Ancient Eight history are set to do battle once again, each looking for a positive first step on the road to a 19th Ivy crown.
Piggybacking on yesterday's look at how the so-called experts see games involving Ivy League teams turning out this week, here's how Sagarin's ratings system sees them going. Sagarin has the same winners with exception of the Brown-Rhode Island game where he has Brown winning. The numbers in parentheses are (early Wise Guys spread for favored team/Massey predicted score).

Penn is favored over Dartmouth at Franklin Field by 11 points. (7/28-20)
Princeton is a 17-point favorite at home against Columbia. (15/30-14)
Brown is a 1-point favorite at home against Rhode Island. (URI 10/URI 28-20)
Cornell is a 9-point underdog at home against Colgate. (10.5/31-21)
Harvard is an 18.5-point favorite at Georgetown. (14.5/21-3)
Yale is a 7-point favorite at Fordham. (6.5/35-33)
Penn-Lehigh highlights from the Penn perspective:

The local Valley News had a terrific piece on the dramatic change in the weight of Dartmouth linemen over the years, how it comes about and how (hopefully) the weight comes off. (LINK) From the story:
Dartmouth has 12 players who weigh at least 300 pounds. Offensive linemen Matt Yohe, Matt Kaskey and Tanner Aiono are 325 pounds. Defensive tackle Jordan McGriff is 345, and position mate Davaron Stockman is 320.
The story notes that as recently as 1988 the heaviest player on the team was 275 pounds.
You can watch last year's entire Dartmouth-Penn game here: