More from Media Day: 2011 outlook

Not surprisingly, each of the eight Ivy League football coaches who spoke during Tuesday's Media Day teleconference spoke positively of their season's outlook. Optimism is always at an all-time high before players actually step on the field for meaningful games in September. Ironically, Penn coach Al Bagnoli might have been the most understated, saying he is "cautiously optimistic" about his team attempting to become the first in Ivy League history to go undefeated in the league for three straight seasons. The Quakers were picked to finish first by 12 of 19 voters in the media poll released today.

Most optimistic among them was Tim Murphy, coach of back-to-back runner-up Harvard, who said there are "so many teams" capable of winning the Ivy championship this season. Murphy's statement was the boldest of a morning filled with talk of the league's "parity," even though Penn has won 15 straight Ivy games and eight of the past 19 titles under Al Bagnoli.

While I agree with Murphy that teams outside of Philadelphia have a shot at the title should the breaks go their way, this is almost certainly a four-team race (at most) between Penn, Harvard, Brown and Yale. The parity they spoke of more reflects the fact that Columbia, Dartmouth and Princeton all appear headed in the right direction. However, that does not mean their rebuilding process is over or that they're ready to contend now.

Some more highlights after the jump:

- Murphy all but put to rest the theory that the reason the Ivies don't participate in the FCS playoffs is because league officials want to ensure that the Harvard-Yale game remains the biggest of the season. While he said the game cannot be topped in terms of competition and atmosphere, he added, "I will go on record as saying if we were to vote for [a playoff], I would vote for it in a heartbeat." He reiterated that a playoff system would be best for the league as a whole.

- Again, Bagnoli said the playoff issue, talk of which has been exhausted at this point, is out of the coaches' control. As we discussed last November, it is a matter controlled solely by the Ivy presidents, who have refused to budge.

- The two biggest question marks for this year's team according to Bagnoli? Offensive line and kicker -- yes, kicker. The O-line graduated four of five starters, but Bagnoli said he was confident that a new wave of linemen would step up. He made the search for a kicker to replace all-time leading scorer Andrew Samson seem much more difficult. Senior Dan Lipschutz, a Germantown Academy graduate, and freshmen Connor Loftus and Michael Rasmussen are the only kickers currently listed on the roster. (Interesting note: Rasmussen's brother, Jason, is a senior linebacker for the Quakers.)

- Seniors Matt Hamscher and Jason Schumaker will start at safety, and juniors Dave Twamley and Justyn Williams will start at cornerback, according to Bagnoli. Hamscher impressed after his transition from running back last season, and Twamley and Williams both showed flashes of greatness during their breakout 2010 seasons.

- Bagnoli had some insightful comments on his approach to chasing his first-ever three-peat: "You’ve got to be careful how you prepare. You don’t want to make it seem like it’s a burden that is just on your back every play. It’s a different cast; we approach it differently. I think we want to make the emphasis of knowing we’re gonna take everybody’s best shot and being prepared to do that and we’ll see what happens. We don’t want to be paralyzed because we won back to back and, 'oh my god, how hard is it to win the third in a row?'"

This will be Bagnoli's third crack at a three-peat. In both 1995 and 2004, Penn finished in second place after back-to-back titles.

- As questionable as Murphy's statement about the league's parity was, a statement from Bagnoli may have taken the cake. When asked which team could challenge the Quakers, he said, "They all scare me." Really, coach, the Princeton and Cornell teams you throttled 52-10 and 31-7 scare you? If this were a video conference, I'd imagine Bagnoli grinning or letting out an evil laugh after that quote.

Runner-up for ridiculous statement of the day (RSOTD): "I think every week is gonna be a toss-up." Yes, he actually said that.