With an extra week to stew over a narrow loss, the Penn sprint football team is more than ready to take on Princeton tomorrow at Franklin Field after its bye.
Having lost to Navy, 10-6, two weeks ago, the Quakers (0-1) are looking to the upcoming game as an opportunity to see the progress they've made in practice during the past two weeks.
"It's better to have Navy early in the season rather than later, so we know what to work on," junior offensive lineman Brian Baldwin said.
Right now the Quakers' main focus is to play together as a unit.
"We need to keep gelling as a team. We looked good as a team at certain points of the Navy game, and then there were times when everybody was doing their own thing," senior quarterback James Donapel said. "Hopefully this week we'll be able to bring it all together."
The Quakers seem to be doing that with two weeks of intense practice now behind them.
"The defense looks terrific with a lot of speed. Senior [defensive end] Brian Raphael is leading the way with a nice mixture of experience and youth," defensive backs coach Nate Scott said. "I think with seven turnovers at Navy, we're only looking for bigger and better things."
Despite forcing those seven turnovers, however, the Quakers still lost at Navy. They realize to beat a Princeton team looking to avenge a 36-15 win from a year ago, the defense needs to repeat that effort.
"We really have to take it to them from the beginning of the game and be able to shut them down because they are going to play as hard as you can imagine," Scott said.
The Tigers (0-1) will bring legitimate playmakers to Franklin Field in an effort to reverse last season's result.
Tigers junior Matt Worley -- a two-way player at linebacker and tailback -- is one of Princeton's main offensive weapons. He rushed for 118 yards on 21 carries in the Tigers' 48-16 season-opening loss to Cornell. Junior quarterback Dennis Bakke will look to recover from his 5-for-15 passing performance in the defeat.
Wagner understands that a win this weekend would be more important than most games.
There would be "nothing better than [for Princeton] than to beat Penn at Penn," he said.
Wagner also realizes that there's more to this game than just the rivalry.
"If our defense plays what they showed at the [Naval] Academy, we should be able to handle whatever Princeton gives us," he said. "Our offense needs to get some points."
There are not many injuries that will hinder the Quakers as tomorrow's game approaches.
"Just a couple bumps and bruises but nothing major" junior running back Greg Bagnoli said. "Right now we don't have a win yet, so we're hungry for that victory and just looking for any win we can take right now. We're all pretty confident about this game."
Tomorrow's game will not count toward the Collegiate Sprint Football League standings, as the Quakers will face Princeton in their season finale.
But it is still Princeton.
