From sideline to frontline: Penn's corps of young receivers has risen to the occasion

With three games remaining in the 1999 season, the two leading wide receivers for the Penn football team are? sophomores Rob Milanese and Colin Smith. Huh? Rob Milanese and Colin Smith? Didn't Penn end its '98 campaign with its top five wide receivers -- all soon-to-be juniors and seniors -- primed and ready to return for this fall's Ivy title defense? Well, times have certainly changed on the gridiron for the Quakers, as have almost all of the team's receivers. With 26 catches for 450 yards and two touchdowns, Milanese is the rising star of Penn's aerial assault. Throw in 21 snares for 202 yards by Smith and you have a talented sophomore duo -- both of whom have yet to reach the age of 21. If you factor in unheralded receivers John Holahan (seven catches for 88 yards and one touchdown), and Erik Bolinder (five receptions for 98 yards and one touchdown), the Quakers receivers can pull down the football with the best in the Ivies. Oh, by the way, this quartet caught all of two passes last fall. Fat chance that Penn receivers coach Rick Ulrich could have predicted this just two months ago. "I think the receivers were aware that they'd have an opportunity to play just because of our numbers and the situation given us with losing a couple of guys that we were counting on to be on the field," Ulrich said. "They knew they were going to have a chance, and they've responded very well. They've come a long way." Well, the Quakers certainly needed them to come a long way. The loss of three of Penn's leading receivers -- All-Ivy selection Doug O'Neill to a knee injury, David Rodgers to a Mormon mission and David O'Neill to academic probation -- was one heck of blow for the Red and Blue to absorb this off-season. Throw in the recent injury to junior Jason Battung (seven catches in '99), and the Quakers lineup is without the personnel who caught 93 of the team's 123 passes at the receiver position in '98. Ulrich's corps of receivers could have been crippled by these losses. But considering that last fall, half of the Quakers new quartet of pass-catchers was crippled -- literally -- this team knows where to start. Heading into September, Milanese and Holahan were happy just to be practicing, never mind on the playing field. Milanese, it seems, wrenched his back his senior year in high school -- not from catching a pass rifled by teammate Chris Simms, son of former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms -- but in the weight room. As a result, Milanese's freshman year of football at Penn consisted of standing on the sideline wearing an huge back brace. "Last November Rob was really hurt and had been in a back brace for such a long time -- it used to hurt me just to look at him walking around," Ulrich said. But Milanese needn't have worried about going stir-crazy on the sidelines. He had company in Holahan. After appendicitis caused the junior to sit out much of his freshman year, Holahan's sophomore campaign was derailed before it started. The culprit? A torn left ACL in spring practice that same fateful first year. "We hung out on the sidelines last year," said Holahan of injured reserve compadre Milanese. "So now we get excited when we see each other out there on the field." But the duo's excitement will be tempered come this weekend. It seems that Holahan -- who broke through with two multi-catch games and a touchdown in recent weeks -- will be sidelined once more. However, he should be back by the Harvard game. "It's just bad luck," Holahan said. "Now I separated a shoulder at Yale and probably won't play Saturday. I landed right on my shoulder with [a defender] on my back, and it really just threw it off. It was kind of weird -- the collarbone popped up. "It wasn't the funnest. The biggest thing for me is to stay healthy, and the rest just happens naturally I guess." Momentum-wise this couldn't have come at a less-desirable time for Holahan. The Norwood, N.J., native seemed to have found his groove in Battung's absence. But fear not -- this is Penn football. Adversity is the squad's middle name. Surely there's another underclassman ready to take on a few more passes a game, right? That player could very well be Smith. But truth be told, it could just as well be returning honorable mention All-Ivy selection Brandon Carson. The senior has hauled in a respectable 19 passes, and as the Quakers' lone healthy returning receiver, is Penn's true leader at the position. Spreading the play-calling around, though, is just the nature of Penn's passing game, where everyone is taking advantage of their shots. Not worrying has evolved into the Quakers' theme on offense, thanks especially to 652 receiving yards and 86 punt return yards from Smith and Milanese. Still, week in and week out, the opposition has no idea to whom Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman will throw. But Ulrich does, and he has every confidence in the world in his fledgling stars. One such receiver is Smith -- whom Ulrich recruited and has since developed into a punt-returning, pass-catching star. "Colin Smith is a guy I recruited. He was already verbally committed to Nevada-Reno, but just taking the trip to Penn and checking out Philadelphia and seeing what the Ivy League education may do helped sway his decision," Ulrich said. "Maybe it was because I was in his corner and had the opportunity to coach him, but I knew he had some talent and some skill." Under the guidance of the fifth-year Quakers receivers coach, Milanese, Smith, Holahan and Bolinder have improved upon their naturally quick feet, steady hands, and smart play to stand out on the gridiron. "Those guys are all catching the balls, and that's been the key," Ulrich said. "That was the frustration three years ago, that we weren't catching a lot of balls. Now you see guys making great catches -- going up for the ball and coming down with it. "That's a testament to those guys. They have good concentration and they're very coachable -- you only tell them one time." Not that his pupils at wideout would mind added instruction from their teacher. "Before Doug went down, Coach Ulrich always looked at us as being kind of like the leaders," Smith said. "I guess there was pressure, but Rick helped us through that and made the transition pretty easy." As the season has unfolded and Penn's coaching staff has seen what the wideouts can do, opportunities for the passing game in general have shot up. Witness the fact that two of the program's top three games ever -- 399 yards at Columbia and 343 versus Brown -- came in October. Milanese's 450 receiving yards puts him fifth in the Ivies, which is astounding considering that three weeks ago the Wyckoff, N.J., native had amassed only 81 yards. First there was an eight-catch, 184 yard performance at Columbia; then a seven-catch, 114 yard game against Brown; and most recently a low-key three-catch, 71 yard day at Yale. Not a bad month's work. His favorite catch of them all? "My best play might have been the 79-yard touchdown at Columbia," the sophomore said. "It felt good to run after the catch." But Ulrich was not overly surprised to see Milanese -- one of the team's speedier players -- motoring toward the end zone. "I don't pay that much attention to the speed, because I know that when the game goes and the whistle blows, some guys have a tendency to run just a little faster -- to run as fast as they need to run," Ulrich said. "Rob is one of those types of players where he can go as far as we let him go." If Milanese can keep up this frenetic pace, he's sure to go many places; for now, he's just psyched for Princeton. "My sister's boyfriend is a defensive end for Princeton, so I was talking to him over the summer and letting him hear it a little that we were going to beat up on him," Milanese said. "So I'm excited to play against him. "And I'm excited for this game -- it should be a big crowd with Homecoming, and Princeton's always a good rivalry, so it'll be fun." Of the members of Penn's new receiving crew, Smith was the only one to face off against Princeton in '98. In fact, he was the only one with game experience prior to September. Even so, his two career catches for 33 yards weren't that much to write home about? so the junior did something about it. Smith worked himself into a starting role in the Quakers' passing sets, while still finding time to return the odd punt or seven. With receptions in every game, highlighted by five against Fordham and four at Yale, Smith is Penn's most dependable wideout. "The one thing that they both have done -- with Rob on the field for the first time this year, and Colin maybe playing 10 snaps a game toward the end of last year -- is that those guys have really matured," said Ulrich of his players' steep learning curve. "They've had a real good go at learning quickly." Strangely, Smith doesn't seem to fit the mold of a Penn receiver. No debilitating injury. Playing time his freshman year. And a name even the public address announcer can pronounce right. Well, the last one might not be true. Note to the press box: it's COL-IN, not COL-ON. So, to what do these guys attribute their success in their fledgling season involved in Penn's offense? The confidence of the coaches in their play must help. So must the zip on Hoffman's passes. And more downfield play-calling can't hurt a receiver's confidence. But could it be the hair? "Me and Gavin and Carson were trying to get [Milanese and Smith] to dye their hair blonde," said Holahan, who displayed his bleached locks. "Colin, I think, would do it, but Rob's a little more on the conservative side -- but we're working on him." Shyness in the face of peroxide may be the only time that you will see Penn's receivers favor the conservative side. On the field, the opportunity to get 10, 20 or even more snaps per game has turned unknowns into forces to be reckoned with for the Quakers. "I think we've been more comfortable as the season's gone on," Milanese said. "Experience is a big part of that. I'm learning how to get open more, and I'm learning how to run better routes. Rick does a very good job teaching that, and I'm catching on." Are they unassuming? Yes. Are they unheralded? Well, have you ever heard of them? But this suits the younger Penn receivers just fine -- they're just happy to have been given the opportunity to play. So watch out for Nos. 5, 17, 23 and 84 the rest of November, and at least next fall too. It's an up-and-coming show that you don't want to miss. "Right now, you could say we're 3-4, but we're not forgetting about this season at all," Holahan said. "We're going to win the rest of the games. "But it is really exciting to see that we have everyone coming back, and it looks for a very bright future for the passing game."

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