Senior quarterback Liam O’Brien and return specialist Julien Stokes from the University of Pennsylvania football team have been recognized with Ivy League weekly awards. The announcement was made by the conference office on Monday.
O’Brien was named Ivy Offensive Player of the Week after leading Penn to a victory over two-time defending champion Dartmouth at Franklin Field. He contributed all four of Penn’s touchdowns in the game, throwing for two and rushing for two more. O’Brien completed 16 out of 21 passes for 147 yards and added 99 rushing yards, narrowly missing a 100-yard rushing performance as a quarterback—a feat not achieved at Penn since 2010. This marks his second career Ivy Offensive Player of the Week honor.
Julien Stokes earned Special Teams Player of the Week honors, becoming only the second player in program history to win an Ivy weekly award in three consecutive weeks, and the first to do so in the opening three weeks of a season. Stokes returned a punt for 65 yards during the fourth quarter, setting up a key scoring opportunity for Penn. He also had three kick returns totaling 76 yards, including one for 34 yards that led to additional points. In total, Stokes finished with 141 return yards and has surpassed 100 total return yards in each of his last three games.
Stokes currently leads both FCS and FBS players nationwide in all-purpose yards per game, averaging 195.0. He has accumulated nine kick returns for 269 yards and five punt returns for 147 yards with one touchdown this season, totaling 416 all-purpose yards so far. Entering Week 4, he is just shy of moving into second place on Penn’s all-time career kick return yardage list and is within reach of breaking the school record.
Additionally, linebacker John Lista and defensive back Ezra Fearon were named to the Ivy League’s weekly honor roll for their performances.
Penn holds a 2-1 overall record heading into its final non-conference game against Marist at Franklin Field on Friday evening. The matchup will be part of Community Night/Cancer Awareness Game presented by Penn Medicine, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
