Duke transfer Rader spites Bagnoli, joins Lightweight squad

Imagine lightweight football coach Bill Wagner's surprise and utter joy when Duke transfer Matt Rader strolled into his office on Monday to declare that he had left the Penn football team in hopes of playing for Wagner's Quakers next fall. "I don't even recruit, so I never even heard of the guy, but I'd say he's bigger than any Daily Pennsylvanian reporter that I've ever asked to play," Wagner said. Rader transferred to Penn in time to start the second semester, and more importantly, in time to use his final two years of eligibility for lightweight football. He started seven games for the Blue Devils, 0-11 in 1996, completed five touchdowns and nearly 57 percent of his passes. Rader also punted three times for Duke this past season, and he was an All-State linebacker in Pennsylvania at nearby Pennsbury. Whispers that he was going to be moved to defense, however, drove him from Duke to Penn. He came to the Quakers expecting to battle junior Tom MacLeod and freshman Brian Russell for the starting quarterback position. But barely a week into spring workouts for the "big team," as Wagner calls them, Rader decided he didn't like what he saw, or what he heard. "Coach [Al] Bagnoli kept saying 'what's a big kid like you doing at quarterback?' and just generally giving me the same crap about switching to defense that I got from Duke coaches," Rader said. He has been spending a lot of time at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house, where six lightweight football players live. "These guys have been telling me how great the past year [Penn's first Eastern Lightweight Football League championship in 55 years] was and convinced me how much more fun I could be having playing lightweight," Rader said. "They only play six games compared to the heavy team's ten. Plus, [the lightweight football team] is on their way up, and I didn't get that impression from some of the heavy players," he added. The lightweight team loses just six players, including quarterback Matt Veneri, from their championship team. The only player not excited by Rader's announcement is bound to be freshman Zach Shinar, who looked like he'd be Veneri's replacement. "We'll continue to use Zach in blowouts, and when we play Princeton," said Wagner. "He can learn a lot from watching Matt in the next couple years. Then, in Zach's senior year, he'll be more than ready -- unless, of course, we get another guy like this." The only possible problem seems to be how to chisel Rader's body down from its current weight, near 230 pounds, to the ELFL maximum of 165 pounds. "We've had guys who have sweated off 15 pounds in two days, but that's not really an option," Wagner said. "We discussed implanting a tapeworm. There are still no league rules against it, and it's completely harmless. "[ELFL MVP] Clint Schmidt came to Penn to wrestle as a heavyweight, and it worked for him. I think he weighed about 140 pounds this past season." Rader, who added that he "may take a series or two on defense just to spite Bagnoli," said he is willing to do anything to make weight. "It doesn't matter. He's a putz as far as I'm concerned. Eric Bunn [a freshman defensive back], broken foot and all, is probably a better quarterback," Bagnoli said.