GEORGETOWN AT PRINCETON
This one is a clash of royalty. A college with “prince” in its title takes on another with King George II as its speculated namesake. Here’s where I would make some kind of Game of Thrones reference, but apparently I am the last person on planet Earth who hasn’t watched the series yet.
I have a suggestion for the Hoyas: stop scheduling Ivy League opponents. Just stop it. I’m not saying by any means that the Ancient Eight is some sort of bastion of elite football, but for whatever reason Georgetown struggles mightily against Ivy opponents. This year, the Hoyas have already lost to Columbia, and Harvard strolled into RFK Stadium to deliver a 41-2 trouncing.
Georgetown has one more Ivy League team left on its schedule—like the other games, this one does not look promising. Princeton senior quarterback Chad Kanoff has a completion percentage over 70, and he has thrown for 920 yards in three games. Kanoff also has a multitude of receiving options to target. Last week, we saw the Hoyas struggle to defend Harvard’s passing attack, and the Crimson’s quarterback situation is not as established as the Tigers’.
However, Georgetown is still counting its blessings that it escaped RFK Stadium last week without the building suffering a massive structural failure. I’m sure a loss won’t weigh too heavily on the Hoyas’ minds.
Pick: Princeton 48, Georgetown 7
HARVARD AT CORNELL
Cornell, Cornell, Cornell.
When preparing to write this column, I thought: could Harvard Club Flag Football beat the Big Red? It sounds ludicrous, but people ponder whether Alabama could beat the NFL’s worst team all the time. All the flag football team would need is a few uniforms and sets of pads, and it would be good to go.
Speaking of uniforms, in my opinion Harvard’s evoke a sense of tradition and pride—the multitude of combinations of crimson, black, white, and gold blend perfectly to form the epitome of a quality football uniform. Cornell’s, on the other hand, fall flat. In the words of Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, Cornell is the “tomato can” of the Ivy League, and the garish Big Red jerseys only serve to strengthen this metaphor.
The Big Red is a punching bag this year for a variety of reasons. The scoring has not worked out. Cornell is averaging 15 points per game, and its top rusher has posted just 39 yards a contest. The defense has not worked out either. The Big Red has only forced three turnovers in three weeks.
It’s bad enough that Cornell is facing another letdown of a season. It’s even worse that the Big Red has to swallow this letdown in desolate Ithaca. I feel like the only pastime there would be walking around the woods in search of wild Cornell students.
For example, it’s really telling that that tripadvisor places the Cornell Lab of Ornithology fourth on its “Things to do in Ithaca” list. On the bright side, Big Red fans have an opportunity to put their bird knowledge to good use: they can identify birds around Schoellkopf Field instead of having to watch the Crimson run up the score on Saturday.
Pick: Harvard 44, Cornell 13