ON THE SIDELINES: Rotating QBs has varied results

It did not take long for the rumblings to start up again. Penn fans had been told over and over again how Quakers quarterback Mark DeRosa would rewrite the Penn record books. But after two roller-coaster years at the helm, the only record DeRosa owns is most interceptions thrown in a game -- five against William and Mary. Forgetting DeRosa's stellar rookie season from a year ago, Penn fans have not been too forgiving. With inexperience no longer a legitimate excuse, poor decision making and tunnel vision had resulted in 15 interceptions in eight games this season. And on just the Quakers' second play from scrimmage Saturday against Harvard, DeRosa tossed up No. 16. As Crimson linebacker Brian Borg pulled in the DeRosa misfire, a couple thousand Penn fans simultaneously covered their wind-burned faces in disgust. "If I had answers I would try to prevent it," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I was concerned early because we had the situation where we wanted to toss. We had the wind. And it seems like we had the ball for two plays before we had the turnover." Three drives later, with the Quakers still searching for their first points of the afternoon, Bagnoli made the switch fans have been calling for for weeks. As DeRosa removed his helmet, No. 12, Steve Teodecki, took shop under center. And as many fans had predicted, Teodecki marched the Quakers 66 yards downfield for a touchdown. True, 50 of those yards came on one Aman Abye scamper. But Teodecki showed the poise Penn fans have been expecting from DeRosa all season. "We had plans for probably the last four weeks of playing Steve," Bagnoli said. "We got into these bad weather games, and we never thought that was the optimum time to actually put him into the game. We probably did Steve a disservice." Eighteen seconds later, after Quakers safety Mike Ferguson picked off a grossly underthrown Vin Ferrara pass, Teodecki trotted back onto the field. As DeRosa watched from the sideline, Teodecki capped off a 72-yard drive, bowling over Harvard linebacker Justin Frantz at the goal line on an option keeper. Teodecki 14, DeRosa 0. Yet on the next Penn series, Bagnoli sent in DeRosa again, which resulted in a three-and-out. And the rumblings started again. With 2 minutes, 37 seconds left in the half, DeRosa got another chance -- had he not produced, it may have been his last chance. But DeRosa made that point moot, working a near-flawless two-minute drill. With 23 seconds remaining in the half, DeRosa found Mark Fabish streaking down the middle of the field for a 20-yard touchdown hookup. With that one well-constructed 80-yard drive and that one great goal-line read when primary receiver Miles Macik was jammed on the line of scrimmage and taken out of his fade rout, the crowd jumped back on the DeRosa bandwagon. That bandwagon had been lonely since DeRosa's three key turnovers against Columbia sealed Penn's first loss in two-and-a-half years. After a number of weekends without even one capable quarterback, the Quakers had the luxury of two. On the other sideline, Crimson coach Tim Murphy was alternating Ferrara and Jay Snowden at quarterback much the same way Princeton did last week in its 22-9 win over the Quakers. Tigers coach Steve Tosches apparently captured the imagination of coaches throughout the Ivy League with his two-quarterback rotation. On Princeton's third play from scrimmage last Saturday, Brock Harvey, the more mobile of the Tigers quarterbacks, scrambled around the right end. By the time Penn linebacker Tim Gage pulled him down, Harvey had eaten up 50 yards. Two plays later, Harvey connected with running back Marc Washington on a 15-yard touchdown pass. Saturday against Yale, Harvey scored on a 92-yard TD run on the game's first play. On the next series, Harry Nakielny, the more conventional drop-back passer, went deep to receiver Kevin Duffy for a 37-yard touchdown. Two drives. Two quarterbacks. Two touchdowns. Murphy took notice, employing his own rotation. In Ferrara, Murphy felt like he had a Nakielny-like passer and, with Snowden, Murphy hoped he had a Harvey-type option quarterback. Instead Murphy had four interceptions and just nine completions between his two signal-callers. While the DeRosa-Teodecki tandem racked up 207 yards through the air and led an offense that gained 511 total yards, the Harvard attack was reduced to a series of handoffs to Eion Hu. Ferrara and Snowden ended up with just 89 passing yards combined. Unlike Princeton, which ran more of an option with Harvey and a more conventional offense with Nakielny, the Crimson ran the same schemes no matter who was taking the snaps. "Snowden runs the ball a little bit better, so they're trying to get him outside more," Bagnoli said. "Ferrara throws the ball better, so you can do that. But basically they're running the same offense. You just put an emphasis on what plays they're running within that offense." But none of the plays were working. And now the rumblings can be heard in Cambridge, where neither quarterback has led the Crimson to an Ivy League victory in 1995.