Another Bagnoli makes a name for himself on the field

Freshman jeff Bagnoli, Al's son, has carved out a niche on the sprint football team. Is it in the genes, or is he a product of his environment? Is freshman Jeff Bagnoli the Penn sprint football team's all-purpose back of the future because he was raised in a football-minded home, or because it's in his bloodlines? Perhaps it's a little bit of each. Jeff is the son of Penn football coach Al Bagnoli, and he has been around the sport since before he can remember. "Yeah, I was at my first game when I was probably one-year old," the younger Bagnoli said. "I've just always been around football." So when he began playing organized sports, it was only natural for him to pick up the old pigskin and run with it. And run he did. Bagnoli was a three-year letter winner and a two-year starter for the Indians at Lenape High School in his hometown of Mt. Laurel, N.J. He was an ironman for the Indians, playing both wideout and tailback on the offensive side of the ball and cornerback on defense. Furthermore, he ran back punts and kickoffs. Bagnoli racked up the accolades as an upperclassman, earning first-team All-Olympic Conference, All-Burlington County and All-Group IV after both his junior and senior years. He feels that a lifetime of exposure to the game has helped him with the "little things." "I could pick up on a lot of things," he said. "Things like making slight adjustments on the field to put [myself] in a better position to make a play, or knowing when to break a pattern off and find an open spot in the zone for the quarterback to throw to." Penn sprint football coach Bill Wagner is quick to talk about the freshman's intelligence on the gridiron. ""He's very, very knowledgeable of the game," Wagner said. "He's obviously had that background and been exposed to it all his life, coming from a football family." With just one season under his belt, Bagnoli has already worn many offensive hats for the Quakers. "He became almost a utility player for us as a freshman," Wagner said. Indeed, Bagnoli saw time at wide receiver, played behind CSFL MVP Tim Ortman at running back and returned all kicks for the Quakers during the 1999 season. On top of all that, he had to learn a completely new position -- quarterback. "Over the summer, coach Wagner said, 'Don't be surprised if we try you at quarterback,'" Bagnoli said. "Then the season started and we didn't have a backup, so I had to learn to play quarterback." "He didn't come to Penn to be a quarterback," Wagner said. "His love is to be on the field as running back or wide receiver. But, if something happened with [starting quarterback] John [Kernan], Jeff could move right in there." The majority of Bagnoli's time backing up Kernan was spent doing mop-up work at the end of Quakers' blowouts. "It's a tough position to play even if you've played it before," Bagnoli said. "So it was tough, at the beginning, to start from scratch." Ironically enough, Bagnoli threw a 45-yard touchdown pass against Cornell -- from the wide receiver position. Kernan threw behind the line of scrimmage to Bagnoli on the sideline, and the freshman heaved the ball to junior wideout Robert Reeves near the goal line. That game, a 35-0 trouncing of the Big Red at Franklin Field, was probably the best game of Bagnoli's collegiate career. In addition to that toss, he ran 20 yards for the game's final touchdown. It was also probably one of the games that secured Bagnoli an honorable-mention spot on the All-CSFL team. So does the freshman harbor any secret desires to parlay future sprint success into a spot under his dad on the varsity team? "Not yet. I don't weigh enough," he said, half-joking. "I'm not sure. I like playing, I don't like to sit the bench." If Bagnoli keeps up this pace, however, there won't be a lot of sitting in his future.