Roundtable: What will be Penn football's biggest problem next season?
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SHAREPenn football lost its last four games to finish out 2013. Now the Quakers also lose two fifth-year senior quarterbacks as well as a bevy of experienced team standouts in the secondary and along the offensive line.
So what will be the single-greatest area of roster upheaval facing the Quakers as they look ahead to the 2014 campaign, and how will they transition in that area?
Associate Sports Editor Jimmy Lengyel: I think the answer is obvious: the secondary.
I think it was one of the most overlooked areas of the team considering the front seven played beyond their expectations.
Penn has some formidable talent along the defensive line and great leadership in the line backer corps as exemplified by All-Ivy first teamer Dan Davis who has really come into his own as a leader and a force to be reckoned with on the defensive side of the ball.
The Quakers are losing veteran leadership all throughout including safety Evan Jackson and defensive backs Dan Wilk and Sebastian Jaskowski. Despite the strong play by these three defensive backs, the secondary surrendered 7.3 yards per pass play and were quite the liability in games against hot handed quarterbacks like Quinn Epperly and Cornell's Jeff Mathews.
The secondary is going to be young and unheralded heading into next season and will lean on Mike Laning, Dylan Muscat, and special teams standout Ian Dobbins heading into next season. It's a tough hurdle to battle through especially since Penn will see another round against Epperly next season and the strong quarterbacks that are making their names known in the Ivy League.
Not to mention, if any position is based on the subtleties and nuances of technique it's the corner back and safety positions. For these players to develop its all about reps and with young players throughout their will be growing pains next season. Hopefully, Bagnoli and his scouts can rake in a strong secondary in the next year or two to help build this area of their team because losing the instinct, leadership, and experience throughout the defensive backfield puts pressure on the offense, an offense that will have a host of its own growing pains heading into 2014.
Sports Editor-elect Riley Steele:
I think the ole Jimster raises a good point when he brings up Penn's secondary. The Quakers truly are losing pillars of consistency and past success with the graduation of Jackson, Wilk and Jaskowski. Though Wilk has been the quarterback of Penn's defensive backfield for awhile now, I think the Red and Blue are going to suffer the most with the departure of their actual quarterbacks on the other side of the ball. The departure of Billy Ragone (and his beard), as well as reliable backup Ryan Becker will spell trouble for the Quakers next season. It's not every day that a team is led by a veteran with three championship rings, but that's the situation Penn found itself in entering this season. While 2013 didn't go as planned for the Quakers, it's impossible to say that Penn would have been in a position with a quarterback not named Billy Ragone under center.
Ragone's resume speaks for itself. Three Ivy titles in four seasons, veteran leadership and the ability to make key plays through the air and on the ground are a package that don't come around too often. With Ragone missing a large portion of the season due to injury, Becker stepped into the fold and also did a solid job. While there were hiccups with both at time this year, it's impossible to measure the value of their veteran leadership. Regardless of who Al Bagnoli chooses to have leading the offense next season, no option will have as much experience or knowledge of the offense as Ragone and Becker did.
It's tough to forecast who will start at quarterback for Penn next September. We saw Adam Strouss play sparingly this season, primarily assuming backup duties when Becker started several games. But Strouss did most of his damage on the ground, and we've yet to see him demonstrate his play-making ability through the air. Alek Torgersen did a phenomenal job in Penn's comeback attempt against Cornell, but it's unclear what Bagnoli's plan is heading into 2014. It'll be a rude awakening for a young offense next season, and without Ragone or Becker, I wouldn't be shocked to see some inconsistency under center at the start of next year.
The offensive line. It has to be the o-line.
First off, Penn's line struggled in a lot of areas this year. It truly did. Though Penn's quarterbacks only got sacked 19 times on the season, a decent number, there were far too many instances where Ragone or Becker would be forced to rush throws and it would result in an ugly incompletion, or worse, a pick. Sometimes, it appeared as if the Red and Blue couldn't get a push up the middle, and as a result, it looked like Bagnoli would be forced to go to the same off-tackle plays over and over again until opposing defenses knew what was coming.
Sports Editor Ian Wenik:
The situation's not going to get better next year, either. Chris Bush, who was first team All-Ivy this year, is gone, and so are left tackle and guard Jake Schwertner and Steve Szostak and right guard Sean McGinn. In one fell swoop, Penn's lost the signal-caller of its line and its primary pass protector and pulling guards. I don't care who lines up under center, that's a recipe for disaster.
So who needs to step up next year? It needs to be right tackle Sean McGinn, who will be the only returning starter next year. He needs to instill veteran leadership on whomever lines up alongside him. And most importantly, it also needs to be the junior backups that have been listed as number two on the depth chart all year: left tackle Jack Alvarez, left guard David Strauser, and center Trent Rivera. They've had three solid years to study and learn Bagnoli's offensive scheme. It's time to put them to the test.
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