Football — Reaction to the Harvard No. 1 Ranking

The Ivy League media poll with Harvard as the preseason favorite came out a few weeks ago, but I had a chance to chat with coach Al Bagnoli and a few players about their thoughts on the poll at Penn Media day today. A few of their choice words:

Bagnoli:

It’s good. Obviously that’s a good thing. The Harvard thing I think will serve as good motivation when the time comes. We take it as a little bit of a slight, and Harvard had nothing to do with it… But when you’re the defending champ in and you beat them at their place, you’ve got 15 starters back, which is the most, and you’re still picked second, obviously there’s something wrong here. We’ll use it.

Senior QB Keiffer Garton:

That’s not up to us to decide, we just have to go out on the field and try to prove them otherwise.

Despite the "slight" as Bagnoli put it, the entire team seems very optimistic to get the season underway and go for a second consecutive championship.

"This is our last shot, and we all want to go out on top and that feeling we had last year is something we want to repeat," Garton said on the seniors' attitude.