Ivy League Football Preview 2022

Tim Murphy is on a mission

OVERVIEW

From the late 1990s all the way to the mid-2000's, Harvard and Penn dominated Ivy football. Those two programs simply reloaded year after year, and there were only occasional party crashers in the Ivy title circle. 

Since 2014 or so, a new duo of teams have started to look a lot like that Harvard-Penn duopoly: Dartmouth and Princeton. 

But are they there yet? Can we just assume that either the Big Green or the Tigers will be the champs or co-champs and let the rest of the league try to edge into the mix?

We're close, but that's not where we are. 

Make no mistake, Princeton and Dartmouth will be good teams this season. But the graduation losses for each team are just too steep to predict a championship for either squad. Both still COULD win the title, it's just a bad move to pencil them in at this point.

This says good things about the Ivies overall; it's a league with its talent spread out better than almost any other conference in the BCS or FBS. 

That's why I believe any one of the top 5 teams in my preseason predicted finish could win the championship this season. 

If that sounds like only a slight prognosticating improvement over last year's post-COVID layoff mystery season, it is. But again, that's a good thing. A league with five legit contenders before the season starts is an exciting story in the making. And this time, the crowded list of contenders is based on what we DO know, and not what we don't... like it was last year.

The funny thing is I'm predicting the same two coaches, Tim Murphy and Al Bagnoli, to be back atop the league this year just like they were for all those years with Harvard and Penn. 

It's just that now Bagnoli is with Columbia and this would be the Lions crashing the party. 

Looking back on last year, my preseason prediction for 2021 was 

1. Princeton

2. Yale

3. Dartmouth

4. Columbia

5. Brown

6. Harvard

7. Cornell

8. Penn

So, I nailed the Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, and Penn parts of the equation, but undervalued Dartmouth and Harvard.

Also for the record, my week-to-week game predictions ended with a 51-17 W-L (.750 percentage) and a 43-23-2 against the spread record (.651 percentage). 

My predicted order of finish for THIS YEAR:

Thor Griffith is A Crimson red meat eater

1) HARVARD

Strengths: Exceptional star at RB. Veteran O-line. Great players on all three lines of the defense. HUGE chip on their shoulders.

Weaknesses: QB play is better than the black hole it was, but still not a real strength. How can this still be an issue for five years running at the school with the biggest recruiting advantage in the Ivies?

Jake's Take: Harvard was so very close to winning at least a share of the title last year, and it has key stars returning for 2022. This feels like a no-brainer to pick the Crimson to win it. My only concerns are Head Coach Tim Murphy seems to have lost a step or two, and this team may focus too much on revenge against Princeton and forget the bigger picture. 

2) Columbia

Strengths: Wide receivers, QB, offensive line.

Weaknesses: Graduation losses on all three lines of the defense. 

Jake's Take: Columbia knows it wasn't far from the top of the league last season. Stepped up play by some younger players on defense could bring the Lions a title. (my full analysis on Columbia is upcoming)

Nolan Grooms developed into a star in 2021

3) Yale

Strengths: Possibly the best QB in the Ivies. Exceptional defensive line.

Weaknesses: Not as much depth at RB and WR as you see on most championship teams. Linebackers are a question mark. 

Jake's Take: Yale in 2021 may have been one of the programs that was most adversely affected by the COVID layoff. Otherwise, QB Nolan Grooms may have been more ready and more apparent as the best choice for that position. With normalcy back in place, no one should be surprised if the Elis win it all this year. 

Princeton WR Andrei Iosivis is an NFL prospect

4) Princeton 

Strengths: Great starting WR and RB returning. Winning tradition firmly in place.

Weaknesses: Tigers will have to break in yet another new starting QB, and the best overall defensive player in the Ivies has graduated. Brutal schedule as far as home and away games go. 

Jake's Take: Princeton looks like it will continue its recent trend of winning (or co-winning) titles one year, and then coming up just short the next. 

Nick Howard is a lethal weapon

5) Dartmouth

Strengths: Great running QB with decent passing skills. (Think Billy Ragone, but with even better running abilities). RB’s good too. Winning tradition firmly in place.

Weaknesses: Heavy graduation losses, especially on defense. 

Jake's Take: Will definitely be in the mix. But having to play Yale, Princeton, and Columbia on the road won't help. 

Micah Morris leads the Penn defense

6) Penn

Strengths: Veteran offensive line and secondary. 

Weaknesses: QB play still questionable. Key receivers gone to graduation. Best defender has graduated as well. 

Jake's Take: Penn is now on to its 5th straight season as a non-contender in the Ivies. Things could turn around eventually at some point for this proud program, but this doesn't look like the year for that at all. Head Coach Ray Priore may be into his swan song. 

Jameson Wang can be hard to catch

7) Cornell 

Strengths: Elusive starting QB. One great receiver and one great LB.

Weaknesses: Secondary, RB's, D-line. Now a perennially losing program. 

Jake's Take: Other than Brown and Penn, which Ivy team will Cornell defeat this year? Probably none. And the out-of-conference schedule is no picnic either. This feels like the last year for Head Coach David Archer. 

Wes Rockett has the best name for a WR ever

8) Brown

Strengths: Wide receivers, offensive line, special teams.

Weaknesses: Defense, running backs.

Jake's Take: Brown couldn't win WITH EJ Perry at QB, so how can the Bears make a serious move higher without him? They may eventually do that, but not this year.