PHILADELPHIA — Attempting to close the 2024 season out on a high note, the University of Pennsylvania football team heads to the Garden State Saturday against Princeton at 1 p.m.
 
The Quakers (4-5, 2-4 Ivy League) are looking to finish the campaign with a .500 overall record while the Tigers (2-7, 1-5 Ivy League) are hoping to snap their four-game losing streak.
 
GAME 10 – PENN at PRINCETON
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 | 1 p.m.
Princeton Stadium | Princeton, N.J.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($)  |  Listen Live (QAN)  | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF)  | Princeton Game Notes (PDF)
 

The Princeton Series
These last three weeks of the season are considered by many to be Penn's "Rivalry games," starting two weeks ago against Cornell—which is historically the Quakers' Week 10 matchup—moving on to Harvard in Week 9 and then closing out the campaign with a regional battle against Princeton.
 
The Quakers and Tigers have been putting on tremendous showdowns over the years, the last two meetings being one-score games.
 
Saturday marks the 115th meeting between the two programs, with Princeton leading the all-time series 70-43-1 including seven of the last 10. During this stretch, Penn won games in 2015 (26-23 in OT at Franklin Field), 2017 (38-35 at Franklin Field), and in 2022 (20-19 at Princeton Stadium).
 
Historically, the Quakers are 9-4 at Princeton Stadium since it opened ahead of the 1997 campaign.
 
Last Meeting With Princeton
Penn was done in by seven turnovers as Princeton took full advantage in its 31-24 win at Franklin Field in the 2023 season finale.
 
The Tigers scored 24 of their 31 points off Quaker turnovers, despite Penn's offense totaling exactly 500 yards.
 
The Quakers scored first and nearly came from behind in the final minute of play—following a quick TD from Aidan Sayin to Jared Richardson and a recovered onside kick—but a final interception sealed their fate.
 
Sayin had a career day throwing the ball with a career-high 385 yards and three touchdowns, while Richardson was the beneficiary of all three TDs on six catches for 138 yards. Bisi Owens added 11 catches for 123 yards and Malachi Hosley recorded his third consecutive 100+ rushing yard game with 21 carries for 119 yards.
 
On defense, senior Isaiah Jordan showed out with a team-high 10 total tackles and 1.5 TFLs. With the defeat, the Quakers finished in a tie with Brown for fifth place in the Ancient Eight.
 
Penn's Last Time Out
Penn saw its 21-7 third-quarter lead evaporate as No. 22/20 Harvard battled back and drove down the field to set up a 21-yard game-winning field goal to beat the Quakers, 31-28, Saturday at Franklin Field on Homecoming.
 
The Crimson clinched a share of the Ivy League title with the win and Dartmouth's loss to Cornell.
 
As predicted, the game turned out to be a heavyweight offensive showdown late, especially when Liam O'Brien totaled his fourth touchdown to take a 28-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.
 
Tied at 28, Sam Smith missed a 46-yard field goal that would have given Penn the lead with under two minutes to go, but the Crimson couldn't be stopped on a 68-yard final drive to get the victory.
 
O'Brien passed for three TDs and added another on the ground while Owens had three catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Hosley recorded his sixth 100-or-more yard game of the season and became the 10th Quaker all-time to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards in a season.
 
Defensively, Jack Fairman totaled 2.5 TFLs, while Albert Jang booted a 71-yard punt in the first quarter, Penn's longest since 2015.
 
The Conan Liam O'Brien Show (Again)
Well, we've got ourselves quite the story over these last three weeks, as O'Brien once again put on an offensive clinic under center in Penn's 31-28 loss to Harvard on Saturday.
 
Against the Crimson, O'Brien threw for 171 yards and three touchdowns, which gives him 11 over his last three games. He added another on the ground for a team-best 15 total TDs on the year. He was tabbed to the Ivy League's weekly honor roll for the third time this season.
 
Last Monday, O'Brien was named both Stats Perform FCS National Offensive Player of the Week and Ivy League co-Offensive Player of the Week for his historic performance against Cornell.
 
O'Brien tossed six touchdowns—setting the Quakers' single-game program record—before adding another rushing TD to total seven, another Penn single-game record, both set over two decades ago.
 
Back In The History Books
With 143 rushing yards Saturday against Harvard, Hosley put himself in rare air once again. Not only did he register his third straight 100-rushing yard game—and sixth this year—but he also eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the season. Hosley is just the 10th Penn player in program history to rush for 1,000 yards and first since Karekin Brooks in 2019.
 
He's putting together quite the campaign to be one of the Ivy League's three nominees for the Asa S. Bushnell Cup for Offensive Player of the Year, pacing all Ivy running backs in attempts (173), yards (1,070), and touchdowns (9). He's also averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 118.9 yards per game.
 
Buzzin' For Bisi
It took a little while, but the offense is starting to revolve around Owens a little more, putting together his signature performance Saturday against Harvard.
 
In the close defeat to the Crimson, Owens caught three passes for 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His 66-yard reception is the Quakers' longest scoring play of the year so far.
 
Owens has been factoring into Penn's passing game a lot more as of late, catching six passes for 89 yards at Brown, four receptions for 95 yards and a TD at Cornell, and then his three-catch, 107-yard with two TDs effort against Harvard. On the year, the junior has caught 31 passes for 499 yards and four touchdowns.
 
That's J-Rich!
Richardson struggled to get much of anything going Saturday against Harvard, but he's still putting together another first-team All-Ivy-level season in 2024.
 
In Saturday's loss, Richardson only managed three catches for 35 yards, but the week before against Cornell, he reeled in nine passes for 141 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first player in program history with two three-TD games.
That also marked Richardson's sixth 100-or-more receiving yard game of his career after tallying four such games in 2023.
 
On the season, Richardson has 42 grabs for 631 yards and seven touchdowns to lead the Quakers.
 
Picks For Everyone
It took the Quakers awfully long to register just two interceptions on the season—six games, in fact—when Josh Narcisse picked off Yale's Grant Jordan in Oct. 25.
 
In the 67-49 win over Cornell, Penn defenders racked up three interceptions, the team's most in a game since Nov. 19, 2016 at Cornell (3).
 
Julian Talley and Shiloh Means both recorded their first picks of the year while Narcisse became the first defensive back to get two on the campaign.
 
Scouting The Tigers
Surprisingly, Princeton is having one of its most disappointing seasons in recent memory, entering Saturday with a 2-7 record, 1-5 in Ivy League play.
 
The Tigers will finish with their first losing record since 2011 (1-9) after winning four Ivy League titles since then. Princeton has lost four games in a row and are coming off a 42-28 defeat at Yale on Saturday.
 
Quarterback Blaine Hipa has completed 129 of his 234 pass attempts for 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, passing for 1,496 yards through the air. Receivers AJ Barber and Luke Colella have been the main beneficiaries of Hipa's throws this season with Barber's team-high 37 catches for 423 yards and two touchdowns, and Colella's 36 grabs for 480 yards and five TDs.
 
On the ground, John Volker has rushed 74 times for 384 yards and five touchdowns, while Ethan Clark has found the end zone three times on 64 carries and 320 yards.
 
Defensively, Chase Christopher has a team-high 66 total tackles, while Marco Scarano has totaled 11.0 TFLs and AJ Pigford has 3.5 sacks. Torian Roberts leads Princeton's secondary with three interceptions.
 
Penn in National Rankings
The Quakers continue to be one of the nation's leading teams in a variety of categories as we enter the final week on the calendar.
 
Penn leads the nation in punt return defense (-0.25), is fourth in fumbles lost (2), fifth in turnovers lost (8), eighth in blocked punts (2), ninth in fourth-down conversion percentage (.688), 12th in net punting (41.00), 14th in red-zone offense (.889), 14th in third-down conversion percentage (.473), 15th in TFLs allowed (4.22), and 16th in kickoff return yards per attempt (23.83), 19th in fewest penalties (51), and 25th in fewest passes intercepted (6).
 
Individually, O'Brien is ranked 25th in points responsible for per game (12.9), Hosley is fourth in rushing yards per game (118.9), 13th in all-purpose yards per game (127.78), 14th in rushing yards (1,070), and 16th in rushing yards per carry (6.18).  Julien Stokes is currently 13th in kickoff return yards per attempt (26.4) and 25th in kickoff return yards (514). Lista ranks seventh in solo tackles per game (5.5).
 
Follow The Action
Saturday's matchup will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Cody Chrusciel (play-by-play) and Dave Giancola (analyst) on the broadcast call. For the final time this season, Matt Leon (play-by-play) and Hench Murray (analyst) will provide the radio call on the Quaker Audio Network (QAN).
 
For the latest on Penn football, follow @PennFB on X (formerly Twitter), @PennFootball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.