League Begins Tune-Up Weekend

In the last day of baseball’s spring training, teams finalize the starting rotation before opening day.

Before the Masters, golfers practice their short game at Augusta National’s famous par-three course.

Before a wedding, you have a rehearsal dinner—but that’s basically so you don’t forget the names of your in-laws.

That’s where we are in the Ivy League. Welcome to tune-up week.

Sure, every team in the Ancient Eight has played some meaningful games so far.

But those games have been interspersed with other matchups against non-league opponents.

This week, teams will have a chance to work out the last few kinks in their game plans and solve any lingering concerns on the roster. Because from here on out, it’s all Ivy.

Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Yale take on opponents from outside the Ancient Eight.

The other four teams in the league are already finished with their non-league games.

Well, you may ask, how are these other two games not important? Surely they mean something.

The two league games: Princeton versus Brown and Penn versus Columbia.

Princeton and Columbia are basically out of it already. And for the Bears and the Quakers?

Like I said, it’s tune-up week.

Though the four non-league games don’t have direct implications for the title hunt, they should still tell us a lot about how these teams will fare for the rest of the season.

After a heart-breaker against Penn, Dartmouth looked poised to make a dark-horse run at the crown.

Then it visited New Haven, where Yale proceeded to blow the Big Green out, 30-0.

But the biggest question of all is in Cambridge.

Junior Colton Chapple threw his way into the record book with a 414-yard game against the Big Red.

Even so, he still might not be the starter tomorrow. Senior Collier Winters, who hasn’t played since game one, might get the nod.

Harvard might be the mid-season Ivy League favorite, but we still don’t know who will be taking snaps down the stretch.

PRINCETON (1-3, 1-0 Ivy) at BROWN (3-1, 0-1)

Last week, Kyle Newhall-Caballero reasserted himself as an Ivy League threat, completing 25-of-39 passes and throwing for 229 yards and two touchdowns for Brown.

The ground game is a clear concern for the Bears, who ran for just 99 yards last week and have only 428 yards all season as a team.

Princeton actually put up solid numbers last week, rushing for 256 yards as a team, and the Tigers were within one point early in the fourth quarter. But Hampton isn’t the strongest team around, and Princeton couldn’t rally at the end.

That the Tigers have an Ivy League win already this season is nothing more than a fluke of scheduling that allows them to play Columbia in the first game of the year.

Brown shouldn’t have any problem taking this one.

Pick: Brown 31, Princeton 20

DARTMOUTH (1-3, 0-2 Ivy) at HOLY CROSS (2-3, 1-0 Patriot)

Oh, Dartmouth. You disappoint me. First, I picked you to beat Penn in my early Ivy-upset selection.

You couldn’t, but, hey, you made it close.

Then, I thought, you played so well against the Quakers that you should be able to take on Yale.

Nope. The 30-0 loss to the Bulldogs was never close.

And I’ve seen just how good a team Holy Cross can be. Even though the Crusaders lost to Brown last week, quarterback Ryan Taggart is a serious offensive threat and has the ability to change a game’s dynamic when he’s on.

Even in last week’s loss, he still completed 27 passes for 243 yards.

It probably goes without saying, but the Big Green was terrible last week. Nick Schwieger, the reigning Ivy League co-MVP, was limited to just 39 total yards.

Dartmouth just isn’t playing well enough right now. And if they win, I’ll know it’s just a conspiracy to prove my picks wrong.

Pick: Holy Cross 24, Dartmouth 17

CORNELL (2-2, 0-2 Ivy) at COLGATE (3-3, 1-1 Patriot)

Cornell isn’t the punching bag of the Ivy League anymore. Far from it, in fact.

Even though the Big Red already has two losses in league play so far, more or less taking the team out of serious title contention, it could still definitely be a player.

Sophomore quarterback Jeff Mathews, for one, is one of the most talented passers in the league, and he’s only getting better.

Colgate is on a two-game win streak, but its 3-3 record so far this season might be a little misleading. Its last two wins have come against Fordham and Monmouth, neither of whom is exactly a powerhouse kind of team.

In early September, the Raiders were blown out by Holy Cross, 37-7.

Cornell may not be making a title run—yet—but it hasn’t lost a non-league game this year. Too bad those don’t really mean much.

Pick: Cornell 28, Colgate 24

PENN (2-2, 1-0 Ivy) at COLUMBIA (0-4, 0-1)

Penn was the preseason Ivy League favorite. Columbia hasn’t won since last November.

Penn is on a two-game winning streak. Freshmen at Columbia have seen more hurricanes than Lions’ wins.

The Quakers definitely struggled early in the season.

But it looks like Penn has regained its composure. Really, this one shouldn’t be close.

Pick: Penn 38, Columbia 10

YALE (3-1, 2-0 Ivy) at LAFAYETTE (1-4, 0-1 Patriot)

Though we haven’t reached the heart of the Ivy League season yet, a few clear leaders have started emerging. And Yale is definitely one of them.

The Bulldogs have cruised in three of its four wins this season, scoring no fewer than 30 points in any of its victories.

Its only loss came on the road against Lehigh, a ranked FCS team.

Its win over Dartmouth last week was nothing short of dominant, scoring 13 points in the first quarter and never looking back en route to a shutout.

Lafayette hasn’t played since Harvard crushed the Leopards two weeks ago.

While the team is talented, it also committed a ton of mistakes that included defensive errors and a number of personal fouls.

At this point, I think that the Bulldogs are too talented, and unless Lafayette has really figured something out, this one is Yale’s to lose.

Pick: Yale 31, Lafayette 23

BUCKNELL (4-2, 1-1 Patriot) at HARVARD (3-1, 2-0 Ivy)

Harvard, in the last three weeks, has looked like a really good team, in large part to stellar play from Chapple.

And we still don’t know who will start tomorrow.

Winters hasn’t appeared since week one, so if he starts, who knows what we can expect. If he returns to mid-season form from 2010, the Crimson might be set.

If he plays like he did against Holy Cross week one, it could be a long day.

Either way, Bucknell is a tough football team, though its win-loss record might be deceptive.

One of the team’s losses came at Cornell, a 24-13 defeat. The Bisons led late in the third quarter but weren’t able to hold on.

It’s tough to make a pick when I don’t know who will be taking the snaps. But Bucknell’s loss against Cornell shows some vulnerability.

Then again, the commutative property doesn’t hold in the sporting world.

Pick: Harvard 35, Bucknell 27

RECORD LAST WEEK: 4-2 (To date: 8-4)

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.