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Kern: Penn focused on Harvard, and share of Ivy title

PENN DIDN'T just get beat last week at Princeton. It got harpooned, 28-0. "We were looking to be outright (Ivy League) champions," said fifth-year senior wide receiver Cameron Countryman, who was on one of those in 2012 and part of a shared-title team last season. "That was our goal, and we were in perfect positi

PENN DIDN'T just get beat last week at Princeton. It got harpooned, 28-0.

"We were looking to be outright (Ivy League) champions," said fifth-year senior wide receiver Cameron Countryman, who was on one of those in 2012 and part of a shared-title team last season. "That was our goal, and we were in perfect position. Then we got punched in the gut. When you take one like that, it hurts so bad. I had to stop watching the film at one point. Not that it would have felt better if we'd lost a close one . . .

"You have to have a short memory. We still have life. We're still fighting for something. How many times do you get a second chance?"

Penn plays Harvard, which is ranked 24th in FCS, on Friday night at Franklin Field. The Crimson (7-1, 5-0) is alone in first place and already has a road win over Princeton (in overtime). The Quakers (5-3, 4-1) can create a three-way tie if they can beat Harvard in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2009-10, which was also the last time they got back-to-back rings. Penn, which closes at Cornell (3-5, 1-4), won at Harvard 12 months ago (35-25) to create a tie that also included Brown. In the Ivies there are no tiebreakers.

Got all that?

"We control our destiny," said second-year coach Ray Priore. "There's a lot of different things for our kids to be excited about and play for.

"When I first got the job I brought a Navy SEAL in to speak. He said when they go out on a mission, or 'op,' the first thing they do when they get back is get debriefed. What did you accomplish, what did you fail in? Meet it head-on. The only way to really fix it is to be honest with yourself. These kids are pretty smart. When we met on Sunday, they got it. Sometimes, when you win 10 straight league games, you miss out on what made you good. There's reasons why things happen.

"If we can beat Harvard we'll forget about Princeton, how it was and what it was. They have a chance to be part of something special. It'll feel just the same. The sweetness will be no different."

Harvard, which lost at Holy Cross (4-6) by 10 on Oct. 15, beat Columbia (2-6, 1-4) by seven last week at home. The week before that it won at Dartmouth (4-4, 1-4) by two.

But it's still Harvard. And unlike last week, when the Quakers didn't necessarily have to win, now there's obvious urgency. Because this is it. There are no third chances waiting out there for them.

"(Princeton) put into perspective what a team can do when they are uncontrollably motivated to accomplish something," said Countryman, who has caught two touchdowns this year to double his career total. "Saturday night we were all kind of in our apartments trying to figure out exactly what happened. Princeton had to win. We didn't. In the back of our minds maybe we knew we still had Harvard. Nobody's feeling sorry for us. Harvard's not. The way we beat Princeton last year (in OT), they probably couldn't wait to see Penn on the schedule again. Now it's us having that motivation. Harvard may be upset about what happened last year. We're upset about what happened last week. Ours is more recent . . .

"Ten years from now, nobody's going to ask if we won it by ourselves. This is the one thing we play for. And for us to be able to say that we have a piece of it means the world to us. You're going to get slapped sometimes. How do you respond? If we'd won there would have been a little bit more on the line. But it doesn't take away from anything we're playing for now."

So it's come down to Penn-Harvard for everything. It's a scenario we've seen before in the past decade-plus, many times. So only the details have been changed.

"You can't live in the past," Countryman insisted. "You have no time to really dwell on it. So let's go get this."

Pretty much like they had it planned. Or at least almost.

@mikekerndn