Defensive line looks for a 'bionic' effort

'5-2' setup intended to confuse opponents We can build it bigger, faster, stronger. Well it worked for Lee Majors, but the Penn football coaching staff didn't have six million to spend, and wouldn't have been allowed to spend it even if it was available. So instead, they'll have to make the best of an underweight defensive line. This is not to say that coach Al Bagnoli is ready to throw in the towel. "[The defensive line is] a little bit bigger," Bagnoli said. "It's still not huge – still not in the 6-4 to 6-5 category which we will eventually get to – but it's definitely stronger, still pretty athletic and relatively experienced." The experience Bagnoli is referring to will come from junior nose tackle Chris Johnson, senior lineman Kelly Tolton, and senior Dave Betten and junior Michael "Pup" Turner at the ends. The game experience these four gained last year will help to shore up the defense in Bagnoli's '5-2' scheme. The plan is designed to keep the quarterback guessing. The five-man line is set up with a weak side defensive end and a strong side end. The intention is that one end will rush the quarterback while the other drops back into coverage. Once one of the ends drops off into coverage, the defense takes on the look of the more conventional '4-3' sets that are often used in the pros. The tricky part of the '5-2' is that the side that drops back into coverage is not determined until the offense is established. Bagnoli divulged further reasoning for using the '5-2' defensive plan. "We think you have to put someone over the center, that's the weakness of any offensive scheme," he said. "And if you have a good enough middle guard that should take a constant double team and that should free up some other kids. Essentially, the defense is designed to free up the two inside linebackers." Johnson, of course, will be the man in the center of the line and defensive coordinator Michael Toop echoed Bagnoli's sentiments as he expressed his confidence in the junior. "[Johnson] is still small but he's extremely strong, and he moves very, very well," Toop said. "He's got to dominate inside on the nose if we expect to be successful." As for the other three linemen, Toop noted Tolton's 6-5, 255-pound size and quickness, claiming, "He's more of the prototype body that we're looking for – he's got a little more size." "And both of our defensive ends are back," Toop added, "Dave Betten and Mike Turner have to play at the next level. They've got to dominate for us to be successful on defense this year." Bagnoli, a former defensive coordinator at Union (before he received the head coaching job there), and Toop realize that against considerably larger teams, such as Dartmouth, they must manipulate the defensive line to some extent, in order to keep it competitive. "We'll move our frontage quite a bit," Bagnoli explained. "So to a certain extent we're trying to negate that. But basically what you don't want to do is get into too many physical mismatches where all the sudden you're asking a 6-foot 235-pound tackle to play straight up against a 6-5, 295-pound tackle that's not going to work too often. "So built within the scheme of what we're doing with having some athletic kids on [the line], we're trying to move them and slant them and not make them stationery targets, so when they're playing against someone that size they're not just getting leaned on and physically getting worn out." "We like to try to dictate the tempo of the game," Toop said. "We don't like to be reactionary, we like to dictate to the offense what they've got to do to try to beat us. We like to move our down kids so they're not sitting – we try to mix them up so we're not too predictable, but at the same time we want to give them opportunities to make plays." As you can probably imagine, the constant movement can take its toll on a lineman. With starters Sean Boyle and Dave Vernon along with backup Matt Ulizio lost to graduation, the Quaker coaching staff was forced to look elsewhere to find a supporting cast. Thus Penn fans can expect to see seniors Wayne Droesser and Tom Dolan, juniors J.C.Lee and Woody Paik, and sophomore Tom McGarrity called upon often throughout the season. Toop was impressed with the possibilities for McGarrity, who spent last year with the freshmen squad, receiving the 1992 Football Club Freshman Award for defense. "We expect McGarrity to do the same things at defensive end that Mike Turner did for us last year," Toop said. "Physically and athletically there's no question he can give us those things...he's just got to go out their and prove it." With the solid back-up core and four experienced linemen the Penn football team will look for their slightly bigger, marginally faster, probably stronger defensive line to make a 'bionic' impact on what was the sixth-best defense in the nation last year.