Sub Stockman: Midterm grades for football

Right at halftime of the Penn football team's 21-3 drubbing of Yale, the Quakers reached the midway point of their season -- four and a half games down, four and a half to go.

We're going to round up to five, and hand out the Penn football team's mid-season grades.

But first, two caveats: One -- These grades will run pretty high. After all, the Quakers' (5-0, 3-0 Ivy League) record is impeccable, they're ranked 19th in the latest ESPN/USA Today Division I-AA poll and they're exactly where they should be at this point in the season.Two -- These grades are, by definition, incomplete. The Quakers have yet to take what figure to be their toughest tests of the season, road games at Brown and Harvard.

That said, we begin with the defense.

Defense (rushing): A+

It's hard to give anything but the top grade to a squad leading the nation in rushing defense by allowing just 37 yards per game. Second place in this category, North Carolina A&T;, is allowing 55 rushing yards per game.

If that's not enough to convince you, consider that the Quakers held Yale to -19 yards on the ground Saturday. Yes, that's negative rushing yardage.

Defense (passing): A-

OK, so the Quakers aren't number one in the country here, they're 54th. But they're the only team in the pass-happy Ivy League that's holding opponents to under 200 passing yards a game, with 191.60.

Furthermore, consider expectations. The Quakers secondary was probably the hardest hit by graduation, losing both cornerback Joey Alofaituli and safety Hasani White. Their replacements -- cornerback Fred Plaza and safety D.L. Bouldrick -- have more than made up for the loss.

Overall defense: A

Penn has allowed only 37 points on the season, which works out to just over seven points a game. In only one contest -- the Quakers' 21-20 win over Dartmouth in the season's second game -- have the Quakers allowed an opponent to score more than once.

Offense (rushing): A

Averaging 136 yards per game, senior running back Kris Ryan is once again leading the Ivy League in rushing, as he did in 1999. While Ryan on Saturday was held to under 100 yards for the first time in five games, he scored his eighth and ninth touchdowns on the year, putting him just seven shy of Bryan Keys' Penn record 34.

In addition, backup Jake Perskie has emerged as a quick, change-of-pace back. He's averaging just under 50 yards a game, and broke out at Columbia with 83 yards and a touchdown.

Offense (passing): B

Through no real fault of his own, quarterback Gavin Hoffman -- last season's Ivy League Player of the Year -- has seen a sizable drop in his stats. This is due almost entirely to the return of Ryan, whose absence for most of last year forced Penn to throw the ball, and enabled Hoffman to put up his stellar numbers, including a 300-yards-per-game average. This year, Hoffman is averaging 216 yards, one touchdown and well under one interception per game. He also has the league's best completion percentage.

Overall offense: B

By Penn coach Al Bagnoli's own admission, the Quakers are having some red zone trouble, thanks in large part to a number of penalties inside the 20. The offense, when it hums, is scary good. The Quakers just need to work the rest of the kinks out.

Kicking game/Spcl. teams: I

Quakers kickers have, indeed, made all their extra points. However, they have yet to be tested with the game on the line.

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