The effects of the Penn football team's underachieving season last year may now be starting to show.
Division I-AA's 2006 preseason All-America list includes no players currently on the Quakers' roster for the second year in a row.
Four Ivy Leaguers made the list of preseason All-Americans -- Harvard running back Clifton Dawson and defensive tackle Mike Berg, Yale offensive tackle Ed McCarthy, and Brown linebacker Zac DeOssie. Both McCarthy and Dawson, a three time All-Ivy first teamer who has rushed for 3,618 career yards and 40 touchdowns, made the first team list, which was comprised of 14 offensive and 13 defensive players.
Appalachian State led the way with five All-American selections.
Also, Penn will not have a game aired on the YES Network this season. The football team has seen itself on the Yankees Entertainment and Sports network six times in the last four years.
The station's 2006 lineup currently has three Ivy games -- Harvard at Princeton on October 21, Columbia at Yale on October 28, and Yale at Brown on November 4.
Dartmouth QB ineligible
Dartmouth's bid to stay out of the basement of the Ivy League took a hit last week when it was disclosed that sophomore starting quarterback Josh Cohen will not play next year due to academic issues.
Cohen will not attend Dartmouth for the fall and winter semesters. He intends to return to school and the football team in the spring, but will not play in the 2006 season.
This is a major setback to a team that last year only managed to beat Columbia -- who went 0-7 in conference play and subsequently fired its coach last year. Cohen started six games for the 1-6 Big Green, coming in relief of Charlie Rittgers in a 26-9 loss to Penn last year.
Cohen threw for eight of Dartmouth's 10 touchdown passes last year, but also accounted for 12 interceptions.
Those stats are far from impressive, but Cohen was the only quarterback on the 2006 team who has attempted a pass.
Rise and shine
For the majority of the home games last season, Penn students could sleep late Saturday mornings and head down to 33rd street for a late afternoon football game.
Unfortunately for the hardcore Friday night partyers, every game but one for the 2006 season has a 1 p.m. or earlier kickoff. Only the 7 p.m. home opener against local rival Villanova will start in the mid-afternoon or later.
Last season Penn hosted Duquesne, Bucknell and Yale at 3:30 p.m. starts, and only the November games against Princeton and Cornell began at noon. Penn also played Villanova at the same 7 p.m. time as Penn lost 28-24 in front of 23,257 fans -- nearly half of the total attendance at Franklin Field in five games last year.
