It’s been a while since Harvard could add to the row of Ivy League championship banners at the top of one end of Harvard Stadium.

With two more victories, the Crimson could add a ‘2023’ banner, the first since 2015.

Ranked 19th in the country and sitting in first place at 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the league, Tim Murphy’s team holds its own destiny in its hands. A win against Penn this weekend would mean a victory in The Game next Saturday against Yale crowns the Crimson as champs. Before Harvard can even think a single thought about Yale and getting revenge for the Bulldogs’ victory in Cambridge last year that gave them the championship, Harvard needs to deal with a good Penn team first.

The Quakers are 6-2 and sit just one game behind at 3-2 in Ivy League play, along with Dartmouth, Yale and Princeton. A win for Penn would shake things up dramatically heading into the final Saturday of the season. Earlier this week, Murphy spoke about the challenge facing his team on the ‘Inside Harvard Football Podcast, particularly the challenge that freshman running back Malachi Horsley after he ran for 261 yards last weekend.

“They obviously recruited an outstanding young player that’s certainly helped to balance them,” he said. “They had been a very pass-happy offense. Their ability to balance that has made it much more challenging in terms of preparing for this offense. I don’t think there’s any question this is the best offense we will see all year. No question about it.

“They’re relatively young, which is surprising for how exceptional they’ve been throwing the football too. It’s a relatively young receiving core. Their three top guys are all sophomores who are all very good. But, I’d rather they be sophomores than three seniors, so hopefully we can control those guys and do it without allowing too much in the run game.”

On the other side of the ball, the Quakers will make life difficult for new quarterback Jaden Craig and the rest of the Crimson offense.

“There’s no question this is the best defense we’ve faced this year,” said Murphy. “It all starts with the guys up front. Their defensive line is tremendous, especially their two inside guys. Two 300-pound(ish) guys that have been there for three years and yeah, you’ve got to be able to find a way to run the football against that really impressive front four. They’ve moved up to the top of the league in terms of their balanced defense. If you can’t keep them honest throwing the football, they’re going to really be able to hone in on the running game and stop the running game./

“We’ve got to be able to do what we did last week and mix it up and we’ve got to be able to make them – up front – defend every gap. We’ve got to be able to run the ball on the perimeter. We’ve got to be able to run the ball right at them. We’ve got to be able to run the ball off RPO’s. We certainly have to be able to do the play action pass piece. Big week for the offensive line. Big week for the offense and a big week for our young quarterback.”

The Ivy League is arguably the hardest conference to win in all of FCS because it’s all the players have. For idiotic and downright inexcusable reasons, the Ivy League presidents refuse to let football teams compete in the FCS postseason despite every other athletic program having that ability. So, the Ivy League football title is basically a national championship for these guys. It’s supposed to be hard and Murphy knows Penn is sitting in second place for a reason.

“There’s a reason they’re here. There’s a reason they’re No. 2 and there’s a reason they’re in the Ivy League hunt,” he added. “This will be a very challenging game for both teams. I know we’ll be prepared. We’ve talked about it as a staff and as a team that we control our own destiny. How do you control your own destiny? You just focus on the task at hand. If it’s Wednesday or Thursday, our goal is just to have a great practice and we go from there.”

Harvard Stadium has been electric all year and the Crimson are 5-0 in Cambridge. Senior day and one final chance to watch this Top 20 team continue its pursuit of history should make for another incredible atmosphere.

“We’ve had a tremendous following this year and I think a lot of people are responsible for that,” Murphy said. “We’ve got a great organization in terms of Harvard athletics making sure it’s a really good game day environment, in terms of creating festive opportunities around the campus and around the stadium…Whether we’ve got 8,000 or 28,000, I know our kids are going to play really hard and I know the fans there are certainly going to get their money’s worth.”