The Match-Up: Lafayette makes its second trip to Philadelphia in three weeks, venturing to historic, cavernous Franklin Field to take on Penn on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Leopards last faced Penn in week four of the 2021 season (a 24-14 win) and have been playing the Quakers intermittently since 1882. 

The Week That Was: No. 15/17 William and Mary Lafayette dealt Lafayette its first home loss of the season on Saturday. The Tribe wore down the Leopards in the second half, pulling away for a 34-7 final. Bronson Yoder ran for three scores, two in the second half, to finish the day with 134 of the Tribe's 289 rushing yards.
    Leopard freshman QB Ryan Schuster continued to perform well, completing 14-of-23 for 151 yards in his third career start. Schuster scored his second rushing touchdown of 2022, a one-yard sneak in the first quarter.
     Defensively for the Leopards, senior LB Marco Olivas racked up a game-high 10 tackles while Gabe DuBois added eight along with his first career interception and a 26-yard return on the INT.

The Weeks to Come: Lafayette opens Patriot League play on Oct. 1 at Bucknell. The Leopards' final non-league game comes a week later when Lafayette hosts Princeton on First Responders Day when Lafayette will also raise awareness for Breast Cancer.  

3-for-3: Freshman QB Ryan Schuster has been named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week each of the first three weeks of the season. In week three against No. 15/17 William and Mary, he completed 14-of-23 for 151 yards and ran in a one-yard touchdown. In week two at Temple, Schuster connected on 10-of-15 passes and threw for two touchdowns. In the season opener vs. two-time NEC champ Sacred Heart, the mechanical engineering major scored the game-winning touchdown, finishing with 34 rushing yards, 18 of which came on a touchdown run in the third quarter for the only points of the game.  

Baptism By Fire: Ryan Schuster has faced intense defensive pressure, being sacked 13 times in three games, including eight sacks at Temple.  Lafayette's already inexperienced offensive line has been beset by injuries in the early going. 
     
Fresh Faces: Three rookies have cracked the starting lineup for the Leopards' offense. Brian Baucia (right guard) and Ryan Schuster (QB) have started all three games. RB Jamar Curtis has started the last two games at running back and has been integral in the return game. 

Year One In The Troxell Era: John Troxell is in his first season as head coach of the Lafayette Leopards. The '94 Lafayette alum returns to College Hill after a 16-year head coaching stint at Franklin & Marshall College. When Troxell first arrived at F&M, the Diplomats hadn't managed a winning season in 13 years. Four years later, after a full recruiting cycle, the Diplomats finished with a 9-2 record and continued to climb, subsequently reaching the postseason on nine occasions.
    Leopards fans are hoping for similar results on College Hill as the Maroon and White search for their first Patriot League title since 2013.
    Troxell has been a key ingredient in program rebuilds at each of his stops, and his time on College Hill as an assistant coach on Frank Tavani's staff was no exception. He served various roles as the running backs coach, recruiting coordinator and special teams coach from 2001-05. His selection as the recruiting coordinator in 2003 helped kick off a stretch of three straight titles for the Leopards in 2004, 2005 and 2006 that coincided with the program's first three NCAA FCS Playoff appearances.
    Prior to Lafayette, Troxell was part of a dramatic reversal at Muhlenberg College from 1997-2000 under head coach Mike Donnelly. He served multiple roles, working as the special teams coordinator (1997-99), quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach (1997-2000) and offensive coordinator (2000). Muhlenberg progressed from a 1-9 season in 1997 to the Eastern College Athletic Conference title with a record of 9-2 in 2000. In 2000, under Troxell's tutelage, the offense ranked 22nd in the nation and led the Centennial Conference in total offense (427.8 ypg) while averaging 31.0 points per game.
    Troxell joined the Muhlenberg staff after serving as an assistant coach for three seasons (1994-96) at Columbia University under head coach Ray Tellier, beginning his career path of coaching at elite academic institutions. In 1996, Troxell oversaw a secondary that recorded the third-best passing defense in the country. The turnaround tendency first showed itself at Columbia in 1994 when the Ivy League school recorded its first winning season in 23 seasons. An 8-2 mark and the program's best finish in 15 years followed in 1996.
    His first extended stint on College Hill came as a student-athlete from 1990-94, when he earned his bachelor's degree in government and law. Troxell was the starting free safety on the Leopards' 1992 Patriot League Championship team and received the Unsung Hero Award as a senior. He completed his master's degree in sociology and education in 1997 while on staff at Columbia.

The Opponent: Penn comes into Saturday's game at 1-0, having beaten Colgate, 25-14, on Sept. 17 after the Quakers outscoring the Raiders 22-0 in the second half.
    Penn is looking to bounce back from a 3-7 campaign in 2021 that included wins over Bucknell, Lehigh and Brown.
    The Quakers return four players who earned preseason All-Ivy League honors. Seniors Ben Hoitink and Trevor Radosevich were both first-team selections on the offensive line while senior defensive back Jaden Key was a first-team selection and senior linebacker Jake Heimlicher earned second-team honors.
    Offensively in the opener, soph. quarterback Aidan Sayin completed 31-of-44 for 289 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Senior RB Trey Flowers ran for 68 yards and a touchdown.
    On the defensive side of things, Key is the team's top returning tackler, making 59 stops in 2021 while recording six in the 2022 season opener vs. Colgate. 
    Penn is coached by Ray Priore is in his seventh season as the head coach and 35th on the Penn coaching staff. He has been part of 12 Ivy League titles — two as head coach.

Reaching a Milestone: Malik Hamm recorded 1.5 sacks in the season-opening victory over Sacred Heart to become the program's all-time leader in the statistical category. With 25 career sacks, he is tied with Harrison Bailey '95 for 11th in career sacks in Patriot League history. Hamm already ranked ninth and 10th in single-season sacks at Lafayette with 8.0 in 2018, and 8.5 in 2019, respectively. 

Last Meeting: Lafayette beat Penn, 24-14, on Sept. 25, 2021. The Leopard offense used a pair of touchdowns from WR Joe Gillette to provide the bulk of the scoring, and the Maroon and White defense provided some cushion when senior LB Billy Shaeffer ran back an interception 41 yards for a score.
    Gillette scored two different ways, running in a 29-yard score on a jet sweep while also reeling in a 70-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Ah-Shaun Davis, who was making his second straight start. Gillette ended the day with five catches for 91 yards and four runs for 49 yards.
    The defense picked off Penn quarterback John Quinnelly for three interceptions, two by Shaeffer, and limited Penn to just 11 yards on the ground for the night. Shaeffer finished with a team-high eight tackles, one more than fellow linebacker Marco Olivas, who contributed 2.5 tackles for loss.