Milanese is a sure thing for Football

The first offensive play of Penn's scrimmage against Princeton on Tuesday was a pass to Rob Milanese out of a three-wide receiver set.

The second offensive play -- a fly pass to Milanese in single coverage.

Coincidence or a preview of what's to come?

We'll just have to see.

Milanese was, by far, Penn's leading wideout a year ago, catching a school-record 76 passes for a school-record 936 yards and six touchdowns. And his top-receiving teammates from a year ago, Doug O'Neill (52 catches for 678 yards), Ben Zagorski (40 for 484) and Jason Battung (25 for 337) all graduated.

In fact, other than senior Colin Smith (32 for 450), no other returning Penn player even had 10 catches in the Quakers' 2000 campaign.

So does that mean Milanese's role will increase? Does that mean we'll see astronomical totals for Milanese this year, similar to the numbers that Brown's Stephen Campbell put up last year (120 for 1,332)?

"I don't know if he'll be more a part of our offense," Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman said. "But he's definitely a focal point of our offense."

That much was evident on Tuesday. Five passes (one complete) were thrown Milanese's way in less than a quarter, although the senior wideout doesn't give much credence to that.

"I don't think I'll have any bigger role here," Milanese said. "We've got a lot of other competent receivers that have stepped up."

Among those receivers are senior John Holahan (9 for 94), and sophomores Jonathan Robinson (6 for 57) and Joe Phillips (4 for 52) -- along with a handful of other untested youngsters.

They'll all get playing time, for sure, but make no mistake about it, Milanese is The Man at wide receiver.

"He caught [76 passes] last year," Bagnoli said. "Obviously he's a big part of our offense."

And this year, the 5'10", 175-pound flanker could end up becoming a big part of Penn's record book, as well.

Milanese, who already owns the Penn single-game record with 13 catches, is 83 shy of Miles Macik's career mark of 200.

Milanese is also 727 yards short of Macik's record for career receiving yardage (2,365).

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Placekicking duties on Tuesday belonged to freshman Bryan Arguello and sophomore Peter Veldman, and neither had a particularly impressive performance.

Prior to the scrimmage, Arguello had two glaring miscues -- an extra-point attempt that bounced off the left crossbar and a 30-yard field goal try that came off his foot as a wide-left line drive.

Veldman, meanwhile, had a low, line drive of a field goal attempt blocked and returned for a touchdown in the scrimmage. The score was called back, however, due to an illegal block in the back by Princeton.

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Freshman Jack Phillips was the second quarterback to get into the game for Penn. All four of his pass attempts were incomplete.... Junior Roman Galas handled kickoff duties.... Princeton running back Cameron Atkinson was leveled on the first carry of the scrimmage.... Princeton's starting quarterback at this time last year, Tommy Crenshaw, left the team recently to concentrate on baseball. Sophomore David Splithoff was behind center with Princeton's first-team offense.... Each of Hoffman's six completions was to a different receiver.... Penn and Princeton will meet again during the regular season during Homecoming on November 3 at 12:30 p.m. at Franklin Field.

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