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Penn picked third in Ivy League preseason football poll

The Quakers tied for the Ivy title each of the last two years.

Coach Ray Priore and the Penn Quakers have won a share of the last two Ivy League championships.
Coach Ray Priore and the Penn Quakers have won a share of the last two Ivy League championships.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Penn, which has claimed a share of the Ivy League football title in each of longtime assistant Ray Priore's first two seasons as head coach, has been picked in the preseason poll to finish third.

Princeton and Harvard tied for first with 120 points, although Princeton (six) received one more first-place vote. The Quakers, who like Harvard got five first-place nods, had 110 points.

The Quakers return 19 starters, including senior wide receiver Justin Watson, a preseason all-American. They also have the Ivies' leading returning rusher in Tre Solomon (907 yards), but they do have to find a new quarterback to succeed Alek Torgersen.

Two years ago, Penn tied with Harvard and Dartmouth. Last season, the Quakers tied with Princeton. Princeton won the head-to-head meeting at home, but in the Ivies, there is no tiebreaker.

Yale was fourth in the poll, with 71 points, followed by Dartmouth (60); Brown (57); Columbia (38) and third-year coach Al Bagnoli, Priore's former boss; and Cornell (36).

Penn will host Princeton on Nov. 4 and go to Harvard the next week. The Quakers have beaten Harvard each of the last two years.