Al Bagnoli is about to begin his 15th season as Penn's head football coach. In his first 14 years, the Quakers have gone no more than three seasons in a row without winning an Ivy League title. And Penn's last championship came in 2003, so another year without a title would match his longest drought.
In the last two years, the Quakers have gone a combined 9-5 in league games but lost their last four. However, that mark is actually tied with Brown for second best over that time.
So while it seems like it's been a while, and by Bagnoli's standards it has, the Quakers may not have fallen as far as it might seem they have -- as evidenced by fact that they were still picked to finish second in the preseason media poll.
But there still are some serious questions that Penn needs to answer before it can have any thoughts of reclaiming the Ivy crown.
Most important, the Quakers have to prove that they have overcome the four-game snowball that derailed what began as a promising 2005 season, where they got outscored 109-43.
The coach referred to the suicide of then-senior running back Kyle Ambrogi last October. And while Penn won its first two games after Ambrogi's death, the Quakers essentially collapsed, starting at eventual Ivy champion Brown.
"I don't know what to make of last year," Bagnoli said. "We're just trying to [get back] the excitement and the joy, and trying to bring out the competitiveness of it."
If the Quakers can put the on-and off-the field trauma of last season behind them, they may be on their way to success.
The offense
After scoring nearly 38 points per game en route to a 5-1 start in 2005, Penn's offense stalled in the losing streak, scoring only 43 total points in the last four. One of the causes was a struggling rushing game. The runners struggled in large part because of injury to the backs and the offensive line. New offensive coordinator Shawn Halloran and new offensive line coach Jon McLaughlin hope to change that.
While Halloran has not made too many changes, one of the biggest modifications has been with the run game.
Bagnoli explained that under former offensive coordinator Andy Coen, the team strongly emphasized passing, sacrificing run production for the gaudy numbers put up by quarterbacks like Mike Mitchell and Pat McDermott.
But when McDermott went down with a shoulder injury last year against Yale -- not coincidentally the last game the Quakers won -- Penn's passing game came to a screeching halt, crippling what was at the time the focal point of the offense.
"We're trying to get back to a little bit more balance and a little bit more emphasis on running it," Bagnoli said.
Halloran also stressed balance, but added that he's also working on an attitude change almost as important as Xs and Os.
"Our emphasis has been on executing," Halloran said.
Bagnoli also hopes to run more because of the talented corps in the backfield, led by senior Joe Sandberg.
"He's certainly the leader of the backfield," Bagnoli said of last year's second-string back, who rushed for 399 yards and three touchdowns on only 76 carries -- 5.2 yards per attempt..
"You've got to lead by example," Sandberg said of his new role this season.
He will be backed up by speedy sophomore Sam Shepherd and bruising sophomore Kelms Amoo-Achampong, who because of all the injuries only appeared in six games last year.
The defense
On defense, this year's outlook is the reverse of what it was going into last season. The secondary was all experienced, while the front seven was almost all new. But the front seven excelled last year at stopping the run, and six starters return this year, while the secondary is almost entirely composed of first-time players.
This year, only senior Scotty Williams, one of the two team captains along with Sean Estrada, returns to the defensive backfield. But he is not discouraged by the youth surrounding him.
"We're going to work hard, and know our assignments, and play the best that we can," Williams said. "We have a lot of young guys that may not have college experience, game experience, but they're good players, and we have a lot of confidence in them."
With returning starters across the front seven like J.J. Stanton, Brian Fairbanks and Jim Malizia, the Quakers should be in good shape there, after allowing only 108 rush yards per game last year, which was 10th best in Division I-AA.
"Our strength on defense is going to be the front seven," Bagnoli said.
However, just like the rest of the team, the defensive front and linebackers struggled at the end of last year as well, giving up 196.3 yards per game to Brown, Princeton, Harvard and Cornell.
In the end, it all goes back to the losing streak at the end of last year. The Quakers are confident they can put it in the past, and if they can, they can end the "title drought" that has afflicted them.
