As the Penn football team prepares for what could be the most important game of the season this weekend at Brown, it received good news about several significant injuries incurred over the last two weeks.
Quarterback Pat McDermott, who injured his shoulder during the second drive of the Quakers' victory over Yale last weekend, will throw for the first time tomorrow. X-rays on his non-throwing shoulder were negative, which meant that it was just a bruise.
"If he feels good, then he's going to be fine for Saturday," Coach Al Bagnoli said. "He'll probably practice a little bit tomorrow, but certainly Thursday, and we'll see."
But the Penn coach knows that sophomore Bryan Walker, who earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors for his two-touchdown performance against Yale, is more than capable of filling in if McDermott is unable to play.
"He already has two [career] starts under his belt," Bagnoli said of Walker. "Last year, he's a true freshman, it's Week 9, and we're saying, 'OK, we're playing for the Ivy League championship, go get 'em,'"
Junior defensive back Scottie Williams and senior offensive lineman Greg Williams will also be returning to practice tomorrow after suffering injuries last weekend.
The numbers lie
Two weeks ago, running back Sam Mathews recorded his first 100-yard rushing game of the season when he tallied 155 yards on 21 carries against Columbia. His performance pushed him into fifth place all-time for career rushing yards at Penn.
However, last week against Yale, Mathews split the carries with running backs Joe Sandberg and Kelms Amoo-Achampong. Although he scored three touchdowns, his final stats -- 68 yards on 19 carries -- were nothing spectacular.
Mathews currently sits fifth in the Ivy League in yards per game (74.6), but three players are averaging well over 100 yards per game -- Brown's Nick Hartigan, Harvard's Clifton Dawson and Cornell's Luke Siwula.
The Pittsburgh native is more than happy to sacrifice his personal stats for offensive balance and success as a team.
"Our offense was very productive last week, but stats-wise we didn't pack up a lot of stats," Mathews said. "You look at our defense, when our average field position was the 50-yard line, that helps us out tremendously."
"I think rings are better than stats, when it all comes down to it," Mathews added.
Looking at the Penn offense across the board, no single player ranks in the top three in the Ivy League of the major statistical categories. Yet the Quakers still possess the best scoring offense in the conference, averaging 37.7 points per game.
Walker emphasized how Mathews' capabilities draw in opposing defenses, even if he doesn't end up with such an impressive stat line.
"If we can have a ground game like we do week-to-week, it opens up a lot of holes, because the defense will try and stack the line," Walker said. They'll put a lot of men in the box, open the ball up for our receivers."
Leader in the middle
After playing for the 2002 and 2003 Ivy championship teams, senior linebacker Ric San Doval is in charge of a relatively young linebacking corps that is still making progress and learning coach Bagnoli's system.
Despite the corps' youth and inexperience, they are part of a Penn rush defense that ranks No. 1 in the nation.
And with junior Kory Gedin and sophomore Andrew Allen the next highest in terms of experience, all of the players are looking to San Doval as the sole leader of the linebackers.
"I think I have to be," San Doval said about his role as a leader. "A lot of players don't get to play fully until their junior year. But Andrew Allen and Kory were fortunate enough to play as freshmen. Between me getting injured, they both got a valuable experience."
San Doval also anchors a unit that is blistering the other Ivy League teams in scoring defense, giving up a mere 15.8 points per game.
"As much as you want to critique them as hard as you would, as an older player, they both, even though they are [younger], play the position really well," San Doval said.
