NOTEBOOK: Football takes on Millersville in preseason

Each year, Penn scrimmages Millersville a few weeks before the start of the season. In front of a couple hundred fans at Franklin Field on Saturday, Penn held a modified exhibition game against the Division II school. · After opening with a set of 7-on-7 drills, the teams held a more formal scrimmage. The scrimmage consisted of two 15-minute periods, followed by a third 15-minute period in which the two squads worked on two-minute drills. After a scoreless first quarter of play, the Quakers and Marauders exchanged touchdowns in the second quarter. Millersville added a field goal to cap a two-minute drill in the third quarter. While Millersville did outscore Penn, 10-7, no official score was kept. · The scrimmage provided Penn sophomore Gavin Hoffman, a transfer who started all 12 games at quarterback and threw for 2,199 yards for Northwestern last season, an opportunity to take some snaps while in uniform for the Quakers. "He's a pretty polished kid and I think you'd expect a pretty polished kid from a kid who started in the Big 10," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. Wearing an alternate-color jersey to signify his status as an untouchable quarterback, Hoffman connected on 13-of-21 passes for 163 yards against Millersville. On a third-and-one play 11 seconds into the second quarter, Hoffman lofted a 36-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Brandon Carson. He also threw an interception before giving way to Reed Werner. · Werner, a junior who averaged 34.1 yards on 23 punts last season but saw no action at quarterback, was 3-of-8 passing for 28 yards in the scrimmage. Sophomore Ed Mebs threw one incomplete pass. Mebs, Werner and sophomore Tom DiMenna will most likely be competing for the backup spot behind Hoffman. · Perhaps the biggest loss for the Quakers this season will be that of 1998 Bushnell Cup winner Jim Finn and his school-record 1,450 rushing yards. With no clear successor to Finn as the feature back, Penn coach Al Bagnoli plans to use a tailback-by-committee approach. "Our hope is that between four of them, when the smoke clears, we'll have comparable rushing statistics to what we had with just one person last year," Bagnoli said. On Saturday, junior Mike Verille -- a transfer from Duke -- picked up the most rushing yards for Penn, carrying eight times for 29 yards. Sophomores Kris Ryan and Matt Thomas carried five times for 15 yards and four times for 13 yards, respectively. Senior fullback Brian Cosmello, a second team All-Ivy selection last season, also expects to see some carries this fall. In addition, freshman Todd Okolovitch picked up seven yards on two carries against Millersville.