The Luck of the Quakers

Two years after walking on to the Notre Dame football team, safety John Bishop left the Fighting Irish for a chance to start in the Penn defensive backfield. It is the summer before John Bishop transfered from Notre Dame to Penn, and Quakers secondary coach Rick Flanders has been spending all day trying to reach his new recruit to "verify a few things." Finally at 10 p.m., Flanders manages to locate Bishop. Apparently, the safety from Barryville, Ark., is still working on his farm bailing hay. At first, Flanders is surprised to hear that Bishop was laboring in the fields just two hours before midnight. Now, after having coached Bishop the past two seasons, Flanders would not expect anything less. Ever since Bishop arrived at Penn, he has impressed his teammates and coaches with his abounding energy and intense work ethic. According to Flanders, there has never been an athlete he has coached that competes or practices as hard as Bishop. Whether it is game time or just the "stupidest little drill," Bishop only plays at one gear -- full speed ahead. Unlike other players who need to be pushed, Flanders needs no such motivating tactics with Bishop. "His notch is just about as tapped out as it is going to be," Flanders said. Sometimes the team will just be trying to react to a possible coverage situation, and Bishop will be running at full tilt as though it was "the Super Bowl," according to Flanders. Speaking of big games, Bishop led his high-school led his team to the conference championship all three years that he played varsity and was named all-state as a senior. However, only a few schools came knocking at the door of Barryville High School's captain and two-way starter (at quarterback and free safety), primarily because Arkansas and Missouri are not considered hotbeds of football talent. But that didn't matter to Bishop, who had made up his mind that he wanted to attend Notre Dame. A few weeks after sending his films up to South Bend, Ind., Bishop was invited to football camp to be one of 90 freshman walk-ons. Bishop was one of only three to actually make the team. Choosing Notre Dame was "a no brainer," for Bishop. He described his two years with the Fighting Irish as "unbelievable? a great experience." But when push came to shove, Bishop wanted to have an opportunity to start. Following his sophomore year, he made all the arrangements to transfer. An honor roll student at Notre Dame, Bishop was accepted by Harvard and Penn. What clinched his decision to relocate to West Philly was a combination of coach Al Bagnoli, the Quakers staff and the Wharton School. "I immediately felt comfortable with the coaching staff and knew this was the kind of defense I wanted to play for," Bishop said. Starting would have been nice in his first season at Penn, but last fall the Quakers had three all-Ivy players in their secondary. With Nick Morris, Kevin Allen and Dana Lyons getting the bulk of the playing time, Bishop was relegated to the nickelback position and special teams. However, Bishop, ever the optimist, looked at last season as a great year for him. "Whether it was on special teams or at nickelback, I learned a lot from my teammates," Bishop said. "I mean if you can't learn anything from Nick Morris, you're not paying attention. I looked up to their intensity and leadership." Taking a page out of Morris's book, Bishop has used his starting spot at free safety as a pulpit to lead the backfield. The coaching staff looks to Bishop to call out the plays to the rest of the secondary. And through eight games, Bishop has yet to let the coaches or his teammates down. Bishop tops the team with 59 total tackles and five interceptions. Although Joe Piela's 184 yards of post-interception return yardage far outdistance Bishop's 19 yards, it is Bishop's name atop the Ivy League leaderboard for picks. "It's icing on the cake," Bishop said. "The interceptions are great, and it is fun to get them, but ultimately it is a right place at the right time kind of thing and not something you can prepare for. "When it comes down to it, you have to be a little lucky and just make the play when it comes to you." It would be entirely to easy to describe Bishop's success this year as a fluke or a stroke of luck. In week four, Bishop had a career high of 13 total tackles against Columbia. Three weeks later against Yale, he lead Penn with six total tackles and grabbed his fourth interception. Against Princeton last weekend, Bishop made a game-clinching interception late in the fourth quarter that enabled Penn to hang on to a 10-6 victory. What has also become clear in the fall of '96 is that Bishop is much more than a stat machine. He has taken over as a leader. A telling story about Bishop unfolded in the Lehigh game when he hurt his shoulder and was temporarily moved to cornerback. Without Bishop calling the shots at safety, the secondary allowed 248 passing yards in the 28-24 loss. "I think everyone feels more comfortable when John is standing in the middle," Flanders said. "Heck, I know I feel a lot more at ease when he is in the middle." Flanders isn't at all surprised by Bishop's success. In that same eventful summer in which Bishop made the switch to the Ivy League, Flanders was still searching for what kind of player his Notre Dame transfer was. To find out some background information on him, Flanders called an old friend of his who had coached at South Bend right around the same time Bishop was there. The story goes as follows: At first, Flanders was not to sure if the Notre Dame coach would be able to help him out. "I called him up," Flanders said, "and asked him, 'I don't even know if you remember a kid named John Bishop.' He says, 'Oh, John Bishop! I wish I had a daughter 19 years old, and I would marry her off right now to him. "That is the kind of kid he is. I don't know if he will ever play a down for you, Coach, but I will tell you one thing, he is going is to be a positive addition to your program." And 18 games after switching from Notre Dame blue and gold to the red and blue of Penn, Flanders would agree that this couldn't be a more accurate assessment of No. 22.