Graduation hurts lightweights

Nothing hurts a college football team worse than graduation. After a season or two in the spotlight, the players leave the coach to worry about next year's team. The Penn lightweight football team is no different. When coach Bill Wagner's squad takes the field tonight at Princeton, it will do so without 28 letterwinners, including 11 All-Eastern Lightweight Football League performers, from last year's squad (2-4, 1-3 ELFL). The coaches now must simply find able replacements. And Wagner has done that. Playing alongside the returnees will be a number of freshmen, walk-ons and players "dropping down" from the heavyweight team. "They were all great players," senior defensive back Steve Barry said of the players lost from last season. "But we have a lot of walk-ons and a couple drop-downs from the heavys. They've done a great job of coming in and taking the place of those guys." The Quaker defense in particular will look different. But even though four walk-ons will be starting, the unit has already gotten use to the newcomers, Wagner said. The one area to watch on the defensive side of the ball is the secondary, where three of the four last year's starters are gone. Only Barry is back. One of the newcomers, Dallo Crenshaw, has already earned a reputation as a ferocious hitter after "popping people" at last week's alumni game. The other difference in the Penn defense from last year is increased team speed, which is even more important in lightweight football, where most players are about the same size. "We're a lot faster than last year," Barry said. "We had more size last year, but this year we're going to have some big hits and cause a lot of fumbles." If that happens, the offense must take advantage and score. But they will have to do it without running back Tom Morrin, who graduated. Morrin, second on the all-time Quaker rushing list, was the ELFL Player of the Year. Junior tailback Rich Miller, a drop-down from the heavyweight team, will be trying to replace Morrin. "I saw [Morrin] on film, and he was incredible," Miller said. "But I don't want to think about trying to follow in someone's footsteps, because we are different players." The quarterback position will be shared by senior Carmine Greco and sophomore Greg Small. Both QBs will get significant playing time, and instead of being worried about finding one starter, Wagner seems satisfied to have two solid quarterbacks. But the entire offense will depend on how the offensive line, with two starters lost from last year, holds up. Senior co-captain Sharif Aboelnaga should provide leadership to the rest of the young line. "With our QBs back, we ought to be able to throw the ball," Wagner said. "It's the young offensive line that's got me worried. Our offense would have done better [in the alumni game] if it hadn't been for six or seven penalties we had from our line. Hopefully that game helped us work that out."