Penn Football Preview: Quakers Host Ivy League Favorite Yale

The University of Pennsylvania Football team will return to action at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, hosting the Yale Bulldogs in a bid to pick up their first Ivy League win. The Quakers (2-3, 0-2 Ivy League) dropped a razor-thin decision to Columbia last week after sideline miscommunication heading into a last-second field goal try; their road won’t get any easier against Yale (3-2, 1-1 Ivy League), especially if uncertainty remains at quarterback.

Karson Siqueiros-Lasky took snaps for Penn last week with freshman starter Miles Teodecki out due to a knee injury. Siqueiros-Lasky opened a new dimension to the Quakers’ passing game but also threw four back-breaking interceptions; Teodecki was listed as a game-time decision last week, indicating he’s close to returning to game speed, but head coach Rick Santos said after the win that he wants to protect the young quarterback rather than rushing him back into the line of fire.

Penn enters play as a +4.5 underdog, their money line odds of +140 giving a roughly 40 percent chance of winning in this home matchup on ESPNU.

Scouting the Bulldogs

Junior quarterback Dante Reno is the son of former Yale head coach Tony Reno, who died on Oct. 2 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The Renos led the Bulldogs to an Ivy League championship in 2025 and entered the season as the favorites to go back-to-back; Dante Reno has maintained his high level of play, leading the Bulldogs in passing with 1,182 yards, 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions on 95-of-157 passing. Despite coming close to matching the Quakers’ total passing output, Reno has played just four games this season after dealing with an elbow injury early on.

His top targets are Jaxon Santiago (38 catches for 584 yards and eight touchdowns) and Lucius Anderson (34 catches for 417 yards and two scores); the Bulldogs also have a prolific rushing offense behind sophomore running back Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni, who is averaging 183 yards on the ground over his past three games, a testament to how dangerous Yale is with Reno under center.

Yale’s defense boasts 32 tackles for loss — a bad sign for Penn’s shaky running game — but struggles to get home to the quarterback, averaging just 1.2 sacks per game. They’ve forced four turnovers through five games, so the Quakers have a chance to get back to playing clean football after a number of brutal throws against Columbia.

Scouting Penn

The Quakers’ starting quarterback could have a major impact on how their offense looks against Yale. Siqueiros-Lasky has completed 42 of 70 passes for 600 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions through seven quarters of play, holding the potential for a boom or a bust on every single play. Penn’s anemic rushing offense hasn’t made things any easier for their quarterbacks through this point in the season: both Donte West (48 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown) and Tommy Lafayette (35 carries for 114 yards and two scores) haven’t managed to get much going on the ground.

Just as Siqueiros-Lasky opened up a new dimension to the passing game, finding immediate chemistry with players like Ronan Johannson (14 catches for 222 yards), Teodecki’s ability to run with the football (212 positive yards and a rushing touchdown) helps him supplement an air attack (69-of-123 for 607 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions) that just isn’t there yet: Siqueiros-Lasky has almost matched Teodecki’s passing production in half the playing time.  Freshman receiver Mason Page leads the team with 24 catches for 301 yards and two touchdowns, while red zone targets like Dante Barone (six catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns) also bear watching.

Penn’s defense is their strongest unit by far: linemen Joey Holliday and Duncan McPherson lead a unit with 11 sacks and 28 tackles for loss; McPherson created a pair of turnovers against the Lions, while the back end of the Quakers’ defense boasts 30 pass breakups.