A FRONT ROW VIEW: Give football the spotlight

Ex-Penn captain Barry Pierce was invited to the NBA draft tryout camp in Chicago in June. Jerome Allen spent part of the summer in Russia, and later faked Phoenix star Kevin Johnson out of his jockstrap. Matt Maloney starred as he toured the world on the Foot Locker all-star team. The whole team will play at least one real game in the Palestra before the end of the football season. Unfortunately, as Penn has moved into the basketball mainstream, the sport has become a year-round affair. Why unfortunately? Well, for one, there is the Ivy champion, undefeated football team. A team in serious danger of being lost in the shuffle as Penn hoops takes over more and more of this University's athletic consciousness. At a time when our anticipation should be focused on September 17, when the football team begins its season hosting Lafayette, more of it is focused on November 16 and December 13 and -- I think there has been more talk about this day than any other -- January 14. On November 16, Canisius invades the Palestra for the preseason National Invitation Tournament. The Quakers and ESPN travel to Ann Arbor December 13 to take on what's left of the Fab Five. And on January 14, Penn will attempt to avenge its defeat in the NCAA tournament two years ago, against UMass, in Amherst, also on ESPN. Meanwhile, the football team's game against weak Richmond became a game against a sorry Hofstra team and then a game against unregarded St. Mary's (Calif.) and then a week off to prepare for even less-regarded Holy Cross. It's understandable in light of these facts why everyone wants to talk about basketball. It isn't, however, right. The football team has, at the least, earned the right to be a topic of sporting conversation. It isn't like the Quakers went 2-8, after all. And it isn't like they don't have two of the top offensive players in I-AA. Penn is in its own right a very interesting team, with questions abounding. Who will replace Penn's all-time leading passer? Will it be the sophomore third baseman, the sophomore who was part of the Ivy League's first all-freshman scoring play, or the junior behind those two last season? That's just the beginning. There are big holes to fill on special teams (kicker) and defense (defensive end, safety and linebacker). Of course, the QB question isn't really all that important. All a Penn QB has to do is hand off to Terrance Stokes and throw to Miles Macik. But even these guys have some questions to answer. If Stokes rushes for a few more yards than last year's 1,211 he has a chance to surpass Brian Keys' Penn career record of 3,137. Stokes needs 1,313; Keys' single-season record is 1,302. Possible, but doubtful. Macik needs 49 catches to pass Don Clune, who has 121. That shouldn't be a problem considering he has two years to do it. Macik had 72 last year. He's got some work to do, though, if he wants to break other Penn career records. Clune's record of 2,419 receiving yards is attainable. Macik had 840 yards on 72 catches last year. If Macik matches his 13-touchdown pace for the next two years, he will set the all-time TD record, too. Both of those are going to be pretty tough. People should be talking, though. These are big, long-standing records being threatened. And if there's only a nine-game season this year, you can forget about it. People should be talking about that too. But they're not. It's early, and there's still almost two weeks until the season actually starts. As the season moves along, it's likely people will climb on the bandwagon and pour into Franklin Field like last year. Until then, though, does anybody know the number for the UMass or Michigan ticket offices? Luke DeCock is a College junior from Evanston, Ill., and a sports writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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