Penn football ready for Florida trip

The countdown is coming to an end: Penn football is nearing a field near you ... or your Florida relative.

There is just a week and a half until the Red and Blue head to the Sunshine State to take on Jacksonville, a Pioneer League squad.

Penn’s trip to Jacksonville will be its first time playing outside of the Northeast since a matchup at San Diego in 2004. The Quakers don’t have many players from the Jacksonville area specifically — sophomore defensive lineman Tyrone Quarterman and freshman offensive lineman Gerhard Williams IV are from nearby cities — but many from Florida.

“We were looking for what I would consider to be attractive games,” Bagnoli said. “We had San Diego back in the mid-2000s. That was attractive because we were playing the right team. It was in the right setting and we have a ton of California alums.

“We were trying to give our Florida recruits, our Florida players, our Florida alums somewhat of a home game.”

Yet even the players who aren’t from Florida are excited about the upcoming trip.

“The team is pretty pumped for the start of the season,” senior tight end Mitch King said. “Many of the guys haven’t gotten on a plane — I know I haven’t — to travel for something at Penn. We’re two weeks away but we feel like we’re a couple days away. Everyone wants to get this thing going.”

Bagnoli did not have an update on the punter situation as two freshmen — Hunter Kelley and Brock Elmore — were still firmly entrenched in a battle for the spot.

“We’ll probably make a decision early next week,” Bagnoli said. “We’ve tried to put as much stress as we could [on them]. We had two intersquad scrimmages with officials and we did an in-depth kicking segment in both. They’ve both acquitted themselves pretty well.

“And even once we decide for the first week, the situation will be pretty fluid and could change in week two, week three, week four — they’re that close together.”

Punter won’t be the only position filled by a freshman, as the Quakers will feature some young blood at a few other positions as well. Bagnoli said that Tre Solomon, a running back from Brooklyn, N.Y., will factor into kick returns, while Justin Watson will be a part of the first group of receivers Penn sends out on the field.

On the defensive end, Louis Vecchio — one of Penn’s many recruits from California — will play a role on the defensive line early in the year. Fellow California native Zach O’Leary will handle long snapping duties in his freshman season.

With O’Leary taking snapping duties, senior wide receiver Spencer Kulcsar will be freed up for other jobs on the field after snapping the last couple years. Bagnoli said that Kulcsar could get the chance to return kicks with the lightened load.

And with just 10 days to go, the team won’t have long to wait before seeing what Kulcsar and others can do.

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