Painful memories for Smith

Sophomore receiver Chris Smith, who leads Yale with a team-high 23 catches, remembers last year's 9-0 loss at Penn for all the wrong reasons.

Smith had just caught a 19-yard pass - his team-best fifth catch of the game - late in the fourth quarter only to suffer a hip injury which would bring an end to his freshman season.

"I was running a post route and it was towards the end of the game," Smith said. "I think we were in a two-minute, hurry up offense to try to put a quick score on the board. I ran across the middle. Pat threw me a good ball. I dove, I caught it. The guy was a little behind me and his helmet kind of came in and caught me on the hip. I held onto the ball but I remember getting up and I couldn’t really put any weight on the leg. I was trying to get back to the line of scrimmage and that wasn’t working."

Although he knew he was injured, Smith's plan was to keep playing until the Yale coaches and medical staff had other ideas.

"When Chris got hurt, the thing I remember most about that injury and he tried to get up and get back in the huddle, go and run the next play with a broken hip," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "He was mad that we wouldn’t let him do it. At that point, I said this freshman guy is pretty tough and I am glad he is on our football team."

Shortly after boarding the team bus for the trip home, Smith got the bad news that the injury was a season-ending one.

"After the game I actually got x-rayed at Penn and showed a break in my hip," Smith said. "On that bus ride home, I remember I didn’t talk to many people on the bus. I was collecting my thoughts, it was definitely tough. I thought I was having a good year and I thought we were coming together as an offense and as a team."

The Yale/Penn game will begin a couple minutes after noon and will the second of three straight games aired live on YES. I will provide some updates on my blog, as I usually attempt to do, as well as on twitter @nhrjimfuller