Tonelli leads with emotion

It was just a routine trap block up the middle. The running back, Terrance Stokes, took the handoff and ran right up the gut of the defense. Matt Tonelli, just a sophomore at the time, playing in his first varsity game, delivered a devastating block out of the tight end position. And although Stokes only gained about two yards on the play, it would be impossible to tell that from Tonelli's reaction. "Matt absolutely flattened the kid," Penn tight ends coach Brian Bowers recalls. "Matt had no concept of what was gained. He just got up, raised his arms in the air -- so proud of his block. When we watched the film, we all saw it and laughed because it was just a two-yard gain and you have this kid on the field going crazy." That is how Tonelli plays. His coaches may have thought at the time he was just an overexcitable kid playing in his first game. His teammates may have not understood what was going on. But Tonelli was just being himself, playing with the emotion of a child on a shopping spree at Toys 'R' Us. "He's always the most emotional guy on the field," fellow tight end Warren Rosborough says. "Whenever Miles Macik scores a touchdown, he is always the first to hug him and go crazy." But even with such displays of enthusiasm on the field, some how, some way, this charismatic leader seems to get lost in the shuffle behind all the great Penn football players. At the end of practice, his name does not even get announced in front of all of his teammates. "It gets kind of upsetting," Tonelli says of the lack of attention. "I mean, they just kind of forget about you. But all that matters is that the quarterback doesn't forget you." And although Tonelli relishes the spotlight and making the big catch, his fundamental responsibility as the starting tight end is blocking. In an offensive alignment that rarely utilizes a fullback, the Quakers rely heavily on the tight ends to trigger the ground attack. "His primary responsibility is the running game," Bowers says. "We tell them, 'You have to be able to block or you're not going to be able to play tight end.' In our program, our running game is based on our tight ends, so you better be able to block or you're not going to see the field." Ironically, it was Tonelli's desire to catch the ball that attracted him to Penn. To hear him describe it, "There's nothing better than getting the ball and hearing the crowd go wild." But as a high schooler from Gilberts, Ill., raised primarilly on basketball, he had heard very little about the Quakers. Once he visited the campus and met Al Bagnoli's staff, he was sold. "I saw there were a lot of possibilities," Tonelli says of his decision to attend Pennsylvania. "They made me feel at home, and I knew they used the tight end a lot." But Tonelli's relationship with the Penn coaching staff has not always gone the way he originally expected it. On the road trip against Dartmouth earlier this season, after arriving late in the evening, his roommate, Brian Higgins, still vividly recalls how Tonelli earned the pair extra running after practice. Since they both were thirsty, they headed to the vending machine down the hall. However, when they found it was broken, they headed downstairs to the hotel lobby in order to find something to drink. Naturally, upon seeing the hotel bar, they headed in and ordered their Cokes? "We looked up and saw ESPN SportsCenter, so we decided to sit down and watch it," Higgins recalls in a humorous light. "Matt said, 'Let's sit down and watch this.' I told him I wasn't sure about it, but he said it would be alright. A few minutes later, all the coaches walked in. Coach Bagnoli came right over. We got nailed drinking Cokes on a Thursday night on the road." Although the coaches may have gotten on Tonelli's case that September night in Hanover, they have rarely had reason to criticize his play on the field. "I think he has the ability to do it all," Bowers gloats. "He's definitely athletic enough for this league, by far. I think we have a good one."

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