A recruit who slipped through Penn's fingers has now come back to haunt the Penn football team in a big way.
Junior linebacker Justin Stull is currently the No. 2 tackler in the Ivy League with 78 stops, five for a loss, and three sacks so far this season.
The Lititz, Pa., native puts up these numbers for the Princeton Tigers -- not the team for which Penn coach Al Bagnoli hoped Stull would play.
"We tried like heck to recruit him," he said. "We thought we had him and right at the last second he went to Princeton.
"We always knew he was a great player."
Princeton coach Roger Hughes described Stull's recruitment as a "fierce battle" with Penn, but one that has paid off great dividends for the Tigers -- Stull is the first junior captain for Princeton since 1943.
What is even scarier is that Stull lines up every week next to senior linebacker Zak Keasey, whose 89 tackles make him the top tackler in the Ivy League.
That kind of defensive tandem keeps opposing coaches up at night.
Keasey, though not the subject of the same recruitment battle, has still taken no one at Princeton by surprise.
"He was an explosive kid," Hughes said. "He was a little raw but had great opportunity for development simply because of where he was at physically."
Keasey, who Hughes says is the stronger of his two linebacking phenoms, led the team in tackles his sophomore year with 88.
Princeton looked forward to seeing Keasey and Stull start together in 2003, but Keasey was declared academically ineligible before the season began.
In Keasey's absence, Stull did not just shine brightly -- he tore the roof off any expectations, leading the Ivy League with 114 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss and a team-high four sacks.
Now Keasey is back, dreadlocks and all.
The duo takes the field together one year later than anticipated, but Hughes does not mind. With the two best tacklers in the league lining up for him every week, he has gotten great efforts by his defense, which has held opponents to two touchdowns or less five times this season.
Both Keasey and Stull are on pace to eclipse their previous season-highs in tackles this year because of an offseason shift in defensive schemes. The new setup now places just three men on the defensive line instead of four, opening up the spot for a fourth linebacker to run rampant behind the line.
"In this league, it's hard to get great big defensive linemen who can run because a lot of those guys are offered scholarships," Hughes said. "With the five linebackers we have in our program, the [scheme] switch got our best athletes out on the field, and so far it's been working out OK."
"The coaching staff did a really smart thing in getting away from the four-man line," Bagnoli said. "Now they have four fast athletic kids running around, spearheaded by those two inside kids [Keasey and Stull], who are having very good years."
The Quakers still have reason to be optimistic going into Princeton this weekend -- the Red and Blue ripped the Tigers defense to shreds each of the past two years, winning by scores of 37-7 and 44-13.
Penn running back Sam Mathews had an easy time with Stull last year, rushing for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
"You always have to elevate your game if you're going against good players," Mathews said. "The key this year is to run our offense and really try to maximize the efficiency of our plays."
Both coaches have made the running game the focal point of tomorrow's showdown.
"We have to have a threat for a run," Bagnoli said. "We're a good football team when Sam has the ball in his hands."
"We have to make every team we play one-dimensional," Hughes said. "We have to make sure we're disciplined when we're blitzing, because
Mathews "will cut from sideline to sideline and find the open hole. So we have to be in our gaps all the time," the Princeton coach added.
Princeton's two defensive weapons will give Penn quarterback Pat McDermott the run for his money tomorrow.
McDermott has been erratic recently, throwing three interceptions against Brown last week and only leading his offense to two touchdowns in each of the last two games.
The Quakers will need more pass production against what is easily the best linebacking duo in the Ivy League -- Keasey already has two interceptions this year.
"We can't turn the ball over four times like we did last week and expect to beat teams on any type of consistent basis," Bagnoli said. "It's not going to happen and we understand that."
The blitzing is where Penn players feel Keasey and Stull will be the most active.
"There will be times when I will have to get the ball out of my hand a little quicker," McDermott said. "They're fast and aggressive."
"They play with a passion, and there's an energy level with those guys that's pretty evident on film," Bagnoli said. "Our number one objective is to protect the football, and we didn't do a very good job of it last week."
