O ne game into Penn football’s Ivy League schedule and the 2014 season is not off to a good start.
Sunday’s 31-13 blowout at the hands of Dartmouth was just the latest disappointment for the 0-3 Quakers, who were unable to slow down the Big Green’s rapid-fire, dual-threat offense. Dartmouth’s quarterback, junior Dalyn Williams led the attack, scoring three rushing touchdowns against a shaky Penn defense.
Things will not get any easier for the Quakers next week when they travel to New York to take on 5-1 Fordham. The Rams have scored 42 or more points in five of their six games and have amassed at least 500 yards of total offense in three of those contests.
With Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard all dominating their opposition in the early going, the Quakers’ chances of winning the Ancient Eight are hazy at best. With the current state of the defense, Penn would be lucky to finish in the top half of the Ivy League. Thus, the focus of the 2014 season should shift to rebuilding for the future.
Dating back to last season, the Red and Blue have dropped seven straight contests, surrendering an average of 36 points per game. For a program that has historically prided itself on stout defense, the 2014 season has been highly uncharacteristic. Senior linebacker Dan Davis was supposed to anchor the unit, but injuries have limited his impact thus far, and the Quakers’ defense has looked lost without his typical production.
If Penn is to return to form in 2015, the defense will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. Davis will not be back next year, but he could provide a powerful voice of leadership in the locker room as the program looks to regain its footing. Though coach Al Bagnoli’s final season will likely not be the triumphant sendoff he had hoped for, he can put the team in a position to succeed in 2015 and beyond.
To do that, Bagnoli must focus on developing young talent. The defense certainly has some bright spots, led by sophomore defensive lineman Corey Power, who had a team-high 11 tackles against Dartmouth. Freshman defensive end Louis Vecchio has chipped in with six tackles on the season — including one and a half tackles for loss — and sophomore linebacker Donald Panciello has added eight tackles of his own.
Perhaps Bagnoli said it best after the loss in Hanover: “We’re still a work in progress. We have a lot of young kids and some kids with some upside, but they’re still learning and still growing.”
The young stars are even brighter on the offensive side of the ball. Sophomore quarterback Alek Torgerson has been very solid in his first year as starter, completing a school-record 40 passes in the loss in Hanover. Torgerson will be the anchor of the offense going forward, a unit that will also return freshman running back Tre Solomon and freshman wide receiver Justin Watson.
Despite the tough loss against Dartmouth, senior wideout Spencer Kulcsar was effusive about the team’s overall talent.
“I think we’re the most talented team in the league,” he said. “I’m not going to stop saying that.”
However, exceptional performances by the offense will be meaningless unless the defense keeps the team in games, something the Quakers’ “D” has been unable to do this season. Though it’s a tough pill to swallow in Al Bagnoli’s final season, the defense in its current state cannot carry the team to an Ivy League title.
The sooner the focus switches to 2015, the better.
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