There are a lot of things you can do in 2:39 — listen to Joe Cocker’s version of “You Are So Beautiful To Me,” run a really quick half mile, watch a Saturday Night Live skit — but making a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback is not one of them.

In the football team’s 23-6 loss to Penn on Saturday, the Red’s offense only touched the ball for 2:39 in the fourth quarter and 21:08 overall. Penn averages 33:24 of possession per game, but topped even that on Saturday behind a methodical running game — and not much else.

The Quakers ran the ball an astounding 67 times, gaining 282 yards, and held the ball for a total of 38:52. With only 12 pass attempts netting a paltry 22 yards, calling Penn’s offense one-dimensional might be an overstatement.

On a snowy Saturday afternoon in the final game of the 2008 season, it was strength versus strength as Cornell hosted Penn in the annual Trustees Cup. The Red boasted the Ivy League’s top-ranked offense while the Quakers entered with the Ancient Eight’s stingiest defense. The old mantra that a good defense trumps a good offense held true, as Penn’s 23-6 victory sent Cornell on the way to its first losing season since 2004.

What began as an exciting and promising season for the Red (4-6, 2-5 Ivy) — which won its first three games — came to a sputtering conclusion with Cornell losing six of its final seven contests. The Red’s two league victories tied Columbia for the sixth spot in the Ivy League.

After such a strong start to the football team’s season — winning its first three games and upsetting preseason Ivy-favorite Yale — it is easy to be disappointed with the squad’s 4-5 (2-4 Ivy) record going into its final contest.

“You are just trying to teach them to live in the present,” said head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “It can be a lesson that will last a lifetime. Things don’t always go the way you planned, but you still have opportunities in front of you.”

Tomorrow, the Red will have the opportunity to send its large class of 33 seniors off with a win at Schoellkopf Field — a place where this graduating class has posted a 15-5 record over its four years on the Hill.

Every year college football programs around the nation struggle to fill the void that is created when its senior class graduates. This is the norm, not the exception, as Cornell can attest.

With 33 seniors on the 2008 roster, Cornell will be hard pressed to develop a class of players as dedicated, intense and knowledgeable about the game of football as this year’s batch of seniors.

This group comprises the second largest graduating class in the Ivy League — by a slim margin, Yale’s class of 35 is the largest graduating group.

Compared to this year, Cornell only lost 15 players to graduation in 2007. However, this year’s senior class is also distinguished for being the first recruitment class of head coach Jim Knowles ’87.

Even with the Ivy League title out of sight, the football team still has a couple of games to look forward to, starting with Saturday’s afternoon matchup against Columbia. Cornell entered last weekend’s 37-14 win over Dartmouth with generous motivation stemming from a 51-39 defeat a year earlier. The team will have its own reasons to get pumped this weekend, as the team will travel to New York City for a contest that can be termed as a state championship.

Carry on: Senior Luke Siwula (center) runs through a tackle in the Red’s 37-14 win over Dartmouth last Saturday in Ithaca. Cornell will play on the road this weekend.

Cornell students who watch The Office were excited two weeks ago to find out that Dwight had his heart set on becoming a Cornellian. In keeping with their usual attention to detail, the show’s writers sprinkled the episode with details about Comstock Hall, the Ag School and students’ love of a cappella groups. But for fans of the Big Red, perhaps the greatest moment in the episode was when Dwight said to Andy, “So, uh, how do you think we’re gonna do against Penn this year? Nathan Ford’s arm looks pretty strong,” referring to the football team’s starting quarterback. Sun News Editor Jasmine Marcus asked Nathan Ford a few questions about the primetime shout-out.

Did you know ahead of time that they were going to say your name on the show?

On Saturday at Schoellkopf Field, Dartmouth football head coach Buddy Teevens had no desire to run the ball. When Teevens handed the reigns to freshman quarterback Conner Kempe, he was giving him more than just his first collegiate start, Teevens was giving Kempe the opportunity to be Colt Brennan for a day.

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“They really threw out a total one-sided passing attack,” said Cornell head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “… What they were calling play-wise in the first half [surprised us]. That was different. We knew they had struggled running the ball, but we still thought that they would do it.”

If the Cornell football team thought it had trouble scoring in the red zone, on a gray and overcast Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field, Dartmouth’s woes in such situations put everything into perspective.

After junior running back Randy Barbour capped a 13-play, 76-yard opening drive for Cornell with his fifth touchdown of the season, Dartmouth marched the length the field to attempt a 26-yard field goal from inside the red zone. Senior linebacker Graham Rihn had other plans, however, deflecting the ensuing kick to sophomore cornerback Andy Wade, who returned the loose football 69 yards to pay dirt. The Red never looked back en route to a 37-14 cakewalk over the winless Green.

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After a disheartening loss to Princeton last week, the Red will look to move back to .500 with a win over Dartmouth at Schoellkopf Field tomorrow afternoon. In last week’s contest, the team had 555 yards of offense but still lost by five points. The loss was the Red’s third Ivy loss of the year, making it nearly impossible to win an Ivy League title. But that sentiment wasn’t obvious on the field yesterday evening as the team prepped for another Ivy League foe.

Evasive maneuvers: Cornell will have a run-first mentality against Dartmouth tomorrow, looking to put the ball in the hands of junior running back Randy Barbour (30).

Cornell football fans certainly remember Kevin Boothe ’06 dancing in the desert last February after the New York Giants shocked the world in Super Bowl XLII. While few outside of the Cornell football community and perhaps Boothe’s own family were aware of his contributions to the victory, Boothe was in on numerous special play opportunities and made the Red proud on those occasions.

Lucky Number Seven: Senior left tackle Steve Valenta (79) looks to follow in the footsteps of Kevin Boothe ’06 (77), who is now a Giants guard but played for the Red when Valenta was a freshman.