Great show for those who stayed

Before the toast even hit the Franklin Field track on Saturday afternoon, the exodus was underway. As usual, fans streamed out of a Penn football game merely three quarters of the way through. The Quakers trailed 28-20, and seemed as if they themselves had left the stadium at halftime. Penn amassed a mere 40 yards of total offense in the third quarter to Brown's 176. Fans continued to stream out when Brown's Sean Jensen hit a 22-yard field goal with 7:28 to play that put the Bears up 38-20 and seemed to be the final nail in the Quakers' coffin. Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman, who was 20-for-25 with 230 yards passing at the half, had stalled out. With less than half of the fourth quarter remaining, his stats had hardly changed. He was now 29-for-37 for 293 yards. Penn's Ivy title hopes seemed to be crumbling as the Bears took control of the action. Eager to continue Parents' Weekend activities, more of the 13,208 in attendance filed out. So it was in front of only the die-hards that Hoffman authored one of the biggest comebacks in Penn football history and put on the greatest show by a quarterback wearing the Red and Blue in the last 50 years. Over the last seven-plus minutes of play, Hoffman guided his team from certain defeat to unbelievable victory. "This league right now seems to have everything," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "It seems to have drama, big plays, comebacks.... It's a spectator's delight and a coach's nightmare." Hoffman embodied the current spirit of the Ivy League in the game's final seven-and-a-half minutes. He completed nine of his 15 pass attempts for 183 yards and two touchdowns. He threw one pass for 48 yards and another for 49. And he once again torched the Penn record book. He became the first in Penn history to throw for 400 yards in a game. He became the first to throw for 425. Ditto for 450 and 475. Hoffman held the previous record for passing yards, with 399 last year at Columbia. By throwing for 476, he bettered that mark by an astounding 19 percent. He also scored once on a quarterback sneak, one of his six rushing yards on the day, for a total of 482 yards of offense. Only one man in Penn history has ever done better:ÿReds Bagnell threw for 276 yards and ran for 214 for a total of 490 in 1950 against Dartmouth. With men who played under Bagnell's legendary coach, George Munger, in attendance on Saturday, Hoffman led a completely different style of offense from Bagnell's single-wing attack. O'Neill, Colin Smith and Rob Milanese caught seven, eight and nine passes respectively. They became the first trio of receivers in Penn history to each compile 100 yards receiving in a game. Sixteen times in Penn history a quarterback has thrown for 300 or more yards. Hoffman has been that quarterback eight of the 16 times, this in just 17 games in a Penn uniform. The numbers on Saturday shattered records that Hoffman already owned. Thirty-eight completions. Four hundred and seventy-six yards. But for the man who did it, they barely even stood as numerical indicators of an amazing performance. "Actually, the record means nothing, just winning the game," Hoffman said. "I've never been a part of a game that means so much and was so exciting at the end." Hoffman's final completion was indeed one of the day's most exciting. He hit Milanese on a swing pass, and the junior wideout fought through seven yards of attempted tackles to hit the end zone in a moment that capped a day that those who were still around at the end will never forget.

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