NOTEBOOK: Football looks for answers

Young wide receivers have been one bright spot in Penn's up-and-down season thus far. Young wide receivers have been one bright spot in Penn's up-and-down season thus far.by Andrew McLaughlinYoung wide receivers have been one bright spot in Penn's up-and-down season thus far.by Andrew McLaughlinThe Daily Pennsylvanian With Brown (5-1, 3-1 Ivy League) handing Penn its first conference loss, 44-37, and with Dartmouth upsetting Cornell (4-2, 3-1), 20-17, the playing field in the Ivies has been sent essentially back to square one with four weeks remaining in the season. Both Brown and Cornell stand in at 3-1 in the Ivies and have non-league games on tap for this Saturday. Meanwhile, Harvard (4-2, 2-1), Penn (3-3, 2-1) and Yale (5-1, 2-1) are all hanging around with only one Ivy loss in 1999. This leaves the race for the Ivy championship more open than usual, but at this point in the 1999 campaign, the Quakers are more concerned with Yale on Saturday than the bigger league picture. "We'll make a mistake if we look at the end product before we take care of this week," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I'm not worried where we are in three or four weeks, I'm worried about this week. We continue to make a lot of mistakes. We continue to be erratic and inconsistent. And I think we'd be doing a major disservice to ourselves if we worry about long term instead of worrying about just playing the best we can against Yale." · One bright star for Penn's offensive unit has been wide receiver Rob Milanese. With 15 catches for 288 yards over the past two weeks, the sophomore has established himself as one of the team's go-to receivers. Milanese, however, prefers to see himself as just one in an arsenal of weapons in Penn's passing game -- a weapon who has been fortunate enough to catch a greater number of passes in recent weeks. "I think it's just a matter of chance, how many balls get thrown your way," the Wycoff, N.J., native said. "I don't think I necessarily played better this game than the first couple. The reads just went my way. "The plays have been the same, but it's just a matter of getting lucky -- the defense has been giving up those routes, and those have been the ones I've been running." One aspect of Milanese's game that is particularly strong is his speed. The sophomore outraced the secondary to the promised land in a 77-yard touchdown reception at Columbia and a 43-yard score versus Brown. "It was a quick post actually," said Milanese of his touchdown versus Brown. "Gavin [Hoffman] threw a great ball and hit it right through the safeties. I just hit the seam and took it right to the end zone. "Our receivers coach, Rick Ulrich, has been preaching the run after the catch, to try to get some big plays that way." As Penn's last two Ivy opponents can attest, Milanese has indeed been getting some big plays "that way." · Another standout for the Quakers in recent weeks has been junior John Holahan. The wide receiver caught a 10-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds remaining against Brown and has six catches for 84 yards over the past two weeks. "Those two kids are very talented players," Bagnoli said of Milanese and Holahan. "They're just young, and as they get better and better, Gavin Hoffman's going to get better and better. "We just have to get them as much playing time as possible. At that point, once they get enough playing time, they're going to be very good players in this league." · After amassing 742 passing yards on the last two Saturdays, Hoffman will face a much stiffer challenge at Yale this Halloween weekend. The Elis defensive unit is the stingiest in the Ancient Eight, allowing only 270 yards per game. Compare this with the league's second-best defense statistically -- which actually belongs to Penn, at 342 yards allowed per game -- and you really get a feel for the problems the Elis will pose. "Actually, I was watching a little film on them today," Milanese said yesterday. "Yale has an athletic defense -- I think they're ranked No. 1 [in the Ivies], so we've got our hands full. "But we've got a good game plan going in, so if we keep to it, we should be good." With second team All-Ivy selection Todd Tomich and honorable mention All-Ivy pick Ben Blake returning to Yale's secondary, it is no wonder that the Elis allow opponents just 192 yards per game through the air. · On the other side of the field, the passing game is just as much a pressing issue for Penn's secondary. Several days after getting burned by James Perry to the tune of 440 yards and five touchdowns, the Quakers coaching staff is analyzing the play of Penn's defense to figure out what went wrong. "Brown had 38 first downs last year [against Penn], but they had only eight third-down conversions, so that means that on first and second downs, they were making the big plays," Quakers secondary coach Mark Chmielinski said. "So going in we knew we had to do something on first and second downs, and we were able to get them to third-down situations. "But then they had 18 third-down conversions Saturday, as opposed to eight last year. So we did our job on first and second downs -- but we did not show up to play on third down. We kicked the hell out of them on first down and we kicked the hell out of them on second down, but we don't know what happened on third down." Can blame be placed on any one area of the defense? "Whose fault is that? That's the definition of 'team.' It's just as much my fault as it is [Bagnoli's] fault as it is everybody on that defense." This weekend's upcoming game will definitely be a test of whether Penn can regain its confidence and stop the opposing quarterback. Quarterback Joe Walland and the Elis have a respectable passing game, with a 229 yards-per-game average. Walland's mobility and Yale's average of almost 15 yards per completion, though, are causing worries for the Quakers "D." "We need to play good team defense, with a focus on No. 7 [Walland]," Chmielinski said. "No question about it. If we contain him, we should come out of there with a victory." · Penn fullback Brian Cosmello, who sat out Saturday's loss to Brown with a concussion, is questionable for the clash at the Yale Bowl. "He's probable," Bagnoli said. "He worked out today -- he lifted and ran, but did not go in equipment. Hopefully tomorrow he will. The senior is the second member of the Quakers offensive backfield to suffer a concussion this fall -- Hoffman missed several series in the loss to Villanova with a lower-grade concussion. The absence of Cosmello, an outstanding blocker, may have been a determining factor in Penn's inability to run the ball as easily against Brown as it had earlier this fall. Quakers sophomore running back Kris Ryan averaged only 4.4 yards per game against the Bears after gaining 6.6 yards a carry in the first five games. · Without Cosmello, Ryan fell to his lowest rushing total this fall on Saturday, with only 84 yards. But don't feel bad for him yet -- an average of 84 yards per game extended over a 10-game season would have given the sophomore the third highest rushing total in the league in 1998, behind Penn's Jim Finn (1,450 yards) and Yale's Rashaad Bartholomew (936). Ryan has now rushed for 844 yards in six games for an average of 140.7 yards per game -- the eighth best average in Division I-AA, and his emergence has quelled any and all questions about Penn's inexperienced running attack.