Al Bagnoli is trying to answer a difficult question: What could stop his second-ranked Quakers from reclaiming the Ivy League football title?
He got some of the answers Friday during a scrimmage against Division III Widener, which visited Franklin Field for the third straight year for a preseason game. It was the first and only time that Penn will face off against another program before the opener at Lafayette on Sept. 16.
"To me, we looked a little bit slow," Bagnoli said. "We didn't really have a lot of bounce in our step . so we're just starting to get our sea legs under us a little bit now."
These next few weeks may prove critical to the Quakers' chances of starting the season off on the right foot.
But, on the positive side, Bagnoli didn't see any sloppiness among his players. "We didn't have too many crazy penalties, there [weren't] too many turnovers, botched exchanges, offsides penalties - so from that perspective it was pretty good," Bagnoli said.
For his part, Widener coach David Wood saw the same Quakers squad that has made a habit of winning Ivy titles, not the one that dropped four straight games to end their last season. "I was impressed with them," Wood said. "I always am."
Also, despite a persistent rain that lasted almost the entire contest, the Franklin Field faithful got their share of excitement - and perhaps a glimpse of things to come - when sophomore Sam Shepherd took a kickoff back over 80 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the game. The last time Penn returned a kick for a touchdown in a regular season game was over 20 years ago.
Two-headed beast
The game also showed the different strategies that first-year offensive coordinator Shawn Halloran might employ depending on who is taking the snaps.
With junior Bryan Walker undercenter, the team ran a wider variety of plays and allowed him to use his mobility on option plays. Walker is also the only player on the roster who has taken a snap in a collegiate game and started against Harvard in 2004 and Brown in 2005, both of whom won the Ivy League title in their respective years. But when sophomore Robert Irvin stepped in, the 6-foot-5 quarterback was almost exclusively a drop-back passer, and the offense focused on what Bagnoli called "a vertical game."
A familiar foe
For both Wood and Bagnoli, the game was as much a friendly meeting as a diagnostic for each of their teams. Wood - who is also the Pioneers' defensive coordinator - often participates in Bagnoli's high school football camps and runs virtually the same system that Quakers defensive coordinator Ray Priore does.
"We spent some time [together] in the offseason" exchanging ideas, Wood said. "They've been great to us."
The Widener coach has played Penn in each of his three seasons.
This means, however, that Bagnoli's Quakers don't see an entirely new defense in the preseason.
"They run our whole defense, so it was like practicing all over again," Bagnoli said. "It was like practices 18 and 19."
