Penn leg men have seen it all

The placekicker and punter return for their third starting seasons. What do the 1997 Penn football team and Quakers basketball guard Garett Kreitz have in common? Both are going to be hitting a lot of three-pointers this year. Start practicing counting by threes because if the inexperienced offensive backfield is slow to find its rhythm, a lot of pressure will be placed on the Quakers kicking game to put points on the scoreboard. Fortunately for them, Penn's special teams, led by senior placekicker Jeremiah Greathouse, is one of the more talented and experienced pieces of the 1997 squad. Greathouse, an honorable mention All-Ivy player a year ago and a two-year starter, will return to add to his school-record 120 points scored by a kicker. Greathouse has made a near-perfect 95 percent of his point after attempts and has hit field goals from 48 and 50 yards. In practice this fall he has reportedly been firing balls through the uprights from 60 yards. "We are going to have to be the part that tips the game in our favor," Greathouse said. "Especially early on in the season when our offense is going to have early glitches before they get into a groove." Greathouse's leg combined with a potentially sluggish offense may cause fans to groan if Penn coach Al Bagnoli doesn't let Greathouse fire up some long-range attempts, but Bagnoli laughed off the prospect of letting Greathouse launch away at will. "We'll be ready to take some of those chances, but if you don't make them, you give the other team decent field position," Bagnoli said. "You never listen to players because I've never had a player who didn't say, 'Coach, I can do it.' That is what I get paid for -- to manage the game. I know what he is capable of doing." Greathouse agreed that long field goals are risky and said that Bagnoli will have a good idea of his range on any given day and that he'll respect his coach's decisions on going for long field goal attempts. Long attempts are something that Penn hopes senior punter Jeff Salvino, already a two-year starter, sends up every time he runs on the field. Salvino leads a Penn punting squad which got plenty of exercise a year ago. Salvino booted 69 punts in '96 -- an astounding seven punts per game -- averaging a solid, albeit unspectacular, 35.3 yards per kick. Penn is confident in its defensive unit, but opponents will be tough to stop if Salvino can't pin the opposition deep in its own territory. The return game is the uncertain area of Penn's special teams. Last year's returner, Mark Fabish, has graduated, leaving only limited experience behind. Wide receiver Brian Bonanno will be the first one to get a chance to earn the starting role, but various defensive backs will probably also line up underneath the ball from time to time. Bagnoli hedged on how much patience he will have with his starting returners. "We are overall cautiously optimistic from a kicking perspective, but from a return perspective we lost Fabish. But there will still be kids who have done it in the past. Hopefully, they are going to perform well and we are not going to need to make changes, but we'll always have [other] kids ready." Penn didn't lose a game by more than six points a year ago on their way to a perfectly mediocre 5-5 season. Turning some of those close losses around will rest squarely on the legs of the most experienced players on the team--if Bagnoli is willing to take a few extra risks.

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