Several weeks ago, it looked as if Penn's season-opening football contest against Lafayette could face a slight problem - the lack of a suitable stadium.
Lafayette had undertaken an extensive, two-part renovation of Fisher Field - with a $23 million price tag - that would make even the highest-profile coaches smile.
But with the countdown to kickoff winding down, hope that the project would be completed on time also seemed to wane.
As the Leopards' home opener against Penn approached, the stadium remained far from playable condition.
Lafayette's student newspaper quoted one source involved in the renovations as saying, "I don't know how this [project] is going to be done in two weeks."
Athletic Director Bruce McCutcheon said the project workers were "scrambling" to ready the stadium ahead of the Sept. 16 opener against the Quakers.
Now, several tense days later, nearly all systems are go, even if they may not look as spotless as McCutcheon or Lafayette coach Frank Tavani might have once hoped.
"We fully expected to play our home opener against [Penn] at Fisher Stadium on Saturday, and because of the aggressive timeline that we took, we've accomplished that," McCutcheon wrote yesterday in an e-mail.
Fortunately for the Leopards, their early-season contests were on the road. This allowed more time for such improvements as new artificial turf, a new press box and chairback spectator seating for the die-hards. (Lafayette went on the road and demolished Sacred Heart and Bucknell by a combined score of 56-14 in the season's first two weeks.)
And though the new press seating is still not quite finished - "at the '90 percent' phase," wrote McCutcheon - the thousands of fans who will flock to Easton, Pa., on Saturday will probably overlook that fact given the 665-square-foot video board they will now be treated to.
The players on the field are another matter. The Leopards have only had the opportunity to practice on their own field for roughly a week now, so the turf will be about as new to them as it will be to the visiting Quakers.
According to McCutcheon, visiting teams can expect even more in the coming years.
"The second phase, which was originally targeted for 2007, is still on schedule and includes the construction of a two-story football varsity house in the west end zone," he said.
