Marrow may be ready to play against Red Raiders

Penn defensive lineman missed much of the second half against Dartmouth with a pulled hamstring The Penn football team thought it originally had lost more than just a game on Saturday to Dartmouth. Mitch Marrow, the Quakers' most dangerous pass rusher, was forced to leave the game midway through the third quarter with a hamstring pull. Penn coach Al Bagnoli, who had been relying on Marrow to help fill the void created by the graduation of 1995 sack leader Tom McGarrity, faced the prospect of finding a replacement for Marrow for the next few games. But the hamstring was not pulled as seriously as originally feared. Bagnoli is cautiously optimistic about Marrow's chances of playing in Saturday night's game versus Colgate. "Right now, he is day to day," Bagnoli said. "At first, we thought he wouldn't have any opportunity to play, but he's progressed much faster than expected." The fact the Quakers will be playing a non-league opponent will have absolutely no weight in the decision to play Marrow. Bagnoli will only consider the long-term risk of sending Marrow back on the field before the injury has completely healed. "We are just weighing the short term versus long term right now," Bagnoli said. "We can't force the issue, or he could end up with a complete muscle pull." The final decision will probably come later in the week after Bagnoli consults with the trainers. One person who will have a limited role in determining whether or not he will play is Marrow himself. "You can't ask the kids, because they'll lie," Bagnoli said. "Everyone wants to play." · On the offensive side of the ball, the team was left trying to figure out what went wrong in the 24-22 loss to the Big Green. The Quakers put together a solid opening drive, but what followed was a succession of short drives. Penn's longest drive was actually one play -- Jasen Scott's 84-yard touchdown scamper. Poor execution, penalties and, most importantly, a stingy Dartmouth defense contributed to Penn's offensive woes. The false starts were the least of offensive coordinator Chuck Priore's concerns. He attributes the penalties to first-game jitters and believes the illegal procedures will not be a recurring theme this season. Priore is also not worried about the disappearance of the Quakers running attack in the second half of the game. Penn managed a grand total of zero yards on 20 second-half carries. Priore prefers to look at Penn's totals for the entire game, specifically the first half when Scott ran all over the Big Green defense for 165 first-half yards. "If you had told me we would rush for [nearly] 200 yards, I would have given you a free pass to Disney World," Priore said. What did concern him was Penn's lack of production on first down. The Quakers faced second-and-long situations throughout the game, not an enviable position when your quarterback is making his first start ever and your ground game is going in reverse. "We were very inconsistent on first down," Priore said. "We did not execute play in and play out." Priore, though, does not foresee many changes in Penn's offensive strategy. The Quakers' continued reliance on the run, even while it was faltering, had nothing to do with quarterback Steve Teodecki's lack of experience. While Teodecki threw the ball only 18 times, the Quakers will not open up the aerial attack in future games. "We had only 18 offensive plays, so he threw about one third of the time," Priore said. "If we had the usual number of 75 plays, he would have thrown the ball about 25 times." Scott's first-half performance also will not change Priore's use of his running backs. Penn, which split the carries fairly evenly between Scott and Aman Abye last season, will continue to give both backs the chance to prove they deserve the carries. "The committee thing was mainly made up by the press," Priore said. "We play the hot players. We don't go into the game saying everyone will get a certain number of carries." One loss is not causing a panic in the Penn camp, but a poor performance against Colgate's porous defense will raise questions.